The Miscellany News

The Miscellany News September 10, 2009

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

Volume CXLIII | Issue 1

College works to restructure its Health Services

Vassar and peers have long financial recovery ahead Ruby Cramer

Chloe McConnell

Editor in Chief

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Eric Estes/The Miscellany News

Students hoping to study or use research services in the Thompson Memorial Library at night must now pack their bags and head for their respective rooms before midnight, rather than last year’s closing time of 1:30 a.m.

Change in Library hours assessed Emma Carmichael Features Editor

The Thompson Memorial Library has a variety of users. There are those who pass through once or twice throughout the day to check out a book or to print out an article, there are those who stay loyally until the bells chime for closing every night and there might even be one student who will only cross the entrance on the day she sprints naked as a senior in post-Primal-Scream glee.

But when Rachel Kitzinger, Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs, sent out an all-campus e-mail last Monday, Aug. 31, alerting students that the Library would change its closing hour to midnight instead of 1:30 a.m. in order to accommodate “an immediate and complex staffing issue,” there was a palpable, broadly-felt shock across the campus, in spite of the rumors that had already been spreading in the days preceding the e-mail.

ARTS

only close its circulation desk after midnight—the opening and closing hours would remain unchanged. But over the course of the afternoon, through conversation between Kitzinger’s office and the VSA, it became apparent that the Library would send students packing at midnight instead of at 1:30 a.m.

“The timing on this was such that we only resolved the staffing issue that led to this in the last week of the summer,” explained Kitzinger last week. “There was no time before the VSA leadership came back [for us] to communicate about this.”

Kitzinger said that her office had double-booked a meeting with the VSA that was intended to inform the Executive Board of the Library staffing issues, which she says can only be referred to as a “complex union negotiation over a particular staff member.” She explained that the only See LIBRARY on page six

mong the changes that students are encountering at Vassar this fall is the reduction in health service hours; on July 20, Dean of the College Chris Roellke, Dean of Students D.B. Brown and Director of Health Services Dr. Irena Balawajder announced that the previously 24-hour-run Baldwin Hall would now be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Throughout the past year, the Health Services Task Force— chaired by Brown—worked to reexaminine Vassar’s Health Services and think openly about engineering a new model for the College. “Part of it is financial, and part of it is because the system is out of line with our peers,” Brown explained. “It turns out that we were one of the few of our peers who had a health service open all night.”

Representatives from Security, Health Education, Counseling Services, Residential Life and the Vassar Student Association composed this decision-making Task Force, which researched the health service practices of over 12 other colleges.

They concluded that Vassar’s Health Services would benefit from a restructuring. Smith College’s Health Services, for example, is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Mount Holyoke College’s Health Center is operational from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.

“Our priorities were that student health and safety be number one,” Brown explained. “What we’ve come up with is a model that will make sure that emergencies are handled quickly and that there is advice for students about what’s an emergency and what’s not.”

In this new model, when a student falls extremely ill at night, or if they’ve consumed too much See HEALTH on page six

Controversial revisions made to Serenading Elizabeth Jordan

Assistant Online Editor

As the economic crisis has settled into the Vassar consciousness, the level of thought given to waste has increased across campus, and some changes that have long been considered are being put into action. Among these changes was an overhaul of Serenading.

This year, the day of the tradition was moved from a Friday to Saturday, and faculty were absent from the event. Most notably, though, the campus-wide food fight between seniors and freshmen that previously marked the beginning of the academic year was no longer a food fight—instead, a water-only Serenading took place last Saturday, Sept. 5.

At the past several years’ Serenading events, students threw foodstuffs such as ketchup, chocolate syrup, mustard and marshmallows at each other in front of each dorm before moving to Ballantine Field, where freshmen from each house serenaded the senior class. This year, the

Inside this issue

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“The e-mail caught me totally offguard,” said Grady Chambers ’10, who uses the Library regularly and often stays until closing throughout the week. “The Library hours were absurd to me even in the past. At most liberal arts schools and universities there’s at least some sort of arena in which you can stay up as late as you want and have access to all of those resources. I couldn’t believe they’d be cutting it down even more.”

Confusion surrounding the issue first arose in light of an incident at the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Fall Leadership Conference on Aug. 28.

Rumors about the Library hours had been drifting through the audience, and when a student stood to pointedly ask Dean of the College Christopher Roellke if the Library would close at midnight, he answered affirmatively, at which point VSA President Caitlin Ly ’10 rose and told the assembled student leaders that the Library would

Contributing Editor

Dancers undergo intense VRDT tryouts

food was replaced by water: dorms had stocks of water balloons ready to throw and hoses ready to spray at approaching seniors. On their trek around campus, seniors carried squirt guns and buckets, which they refilled at hoses and inflatable pools set up at various locations.

Class of 2010 President Selina Strasburger explained, “there are so many people who are struggling to put food on the table because of the economic crisis, and some of them may work here at Vassar, so to waste all that food—that’s not the message we want to send.”

The aftermath of Serenading has also caused concern in the past, especially with the Office of Residential Life, which handled any resulting dorm damage. After the food fights of previous Serenadings had ended, the bathrooms were host to hundreds of freshmen scrubbing off condiments.

Usually large amounts of food and trash were left both outside and inside of the residential houses for Buildings and Grounds workers to clean.

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Students, faculty consider drawing prerequisite

Eric Schuman/The Miscellany News

early one year has passed since the start of the economic crisis that so shook the world’s financial system—that lead to the sale of Merrill Lynch & Co., to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings, the near collapse of A.I.G., the failure of Washington Mutual and some of the most radical interventions into private business in the history of the United States.

In addition to the losses on Wall Street, colleges and universities across the country have suffered much since last fall—endowments have dropped, financial need has increased, cutbacks have been made and full-time employment has been reduced.

“Just like the rest of the world, Vassar was hit by the recession,” said Vassar Student Association (VSA) President Caitlin Ly ’10.

“The economy does shows signs of subsidizing, but Vassar has to continue to readjust its short-term and long-term planning to match the new financial realities. Every fact of the College must be examined.”

As Ly noted, the College has— like its peer institutions—been hit hard this past year by the downturn, and students, faculty, administrators and trustees have been working to continue what Dean of Finance and Administration Elizabeth Eismeier called “a very long recovery process.”

For Eismeier and the other senior officers, part of that process occurred this summer, when the College offered retirement incentives to administrators, staff and faculty based on a combination of age and years of service.

“I think that we were hoping for as many as we could possibly get,” explained Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger, “because our hope was to achieve the things we need through voluntary departures—so the more the better.” The College’s hope and goal—as expressed by President Catharine Bond Hill in her Sept.

2 all-campus e-mail­—is that the workforce be reduced by 10 to 15 percent, requiring “the College to employ approximately 60 fewer administrators and staff employees by July 2010,” wrote Hill.

“We sort of guessed what we thought we might get,” continued Kitzinger, “and we exceeded that. I do think that we should be pleased that given what we had to achieve, we were able to do it largely through voluntary departures that were generous rather than through anything else.”

Thus far, a total of 44 administrators and staff employees and five members of the faculty have indicated their intentions to retire.

In addition to the incentives, unexpected vacancies and absences also aid the College in achieving its decreased workforce through voluntary means.

“Not replacing vacant positions See ECONOMY on page five

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

A senior sprays underclassmen with a water gun at the first water-only Serenading last Saturday. The change came after much deliberation.

Strasburger used this argument as the central point in her explanation to the senior class. “It sends a negative message to the greater community to have a massive food fight on campus, and then, in addition, expect the cus-

20 SPORTS

todial staff to come and clean up our mess,” she wrote in a Sept. 1 e-mail to the class.

Strasburger commented that although most of her classmates were See SERENADING on page three

VSA Council adopts athletics proposal

The Miscellany News

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September 10, 2009

Editor in Chief Ruby Cramer Senior Editors Caitlin Halasz Molly Turpin

Contributing Editors Chloe McConnell Elizabeth Pacheco

Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

Photos of the Week: On Wenesday, Sept. 2, the Convocation Choir ended the biannual Convocation ceremony by leading a rendition of the traditional ‘Gaudeamus Igitur.’

Staff Editorial | Change in library hours an example of when administrative communication is key and student awareness is essential and merited

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he strong student responses to the administration’s announcement last week that it would curtail library hours due to staffing restrictions demonstrated above all that the Vassar Thompson Memorial Library is at the heart of this campus—there was a distinct sense among student voices that this was precious, even untouchable terrain.

Students can give up chocolate syrup at Serenading, they can live without Midnight Breakfast and they can cope with the Atrium’s closing, but to tamper with the Library and its availability is to place a burden on our academic pursuits, to encumbrance those with night-time athletic practices or drama rehearsals and to contradict the very mission of the College itself.

Despite contract negotiations throughout the summer months, the administration never made it known that cuts to the library were being considered, and Monday’s e-mail from Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger came admist speculation and misinformation. While we understand that such staffing decisions are changing on a day-to-day basis, the administration certainly could have dealt with its announcement to such an essential division of the school in a way that showed deeper consideration of and thought for the student body.

At the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Fall Leadership Conference on Friday, Aug. 28, when a student brought up the rumors that the Library would close at midnight instead of at 1:30

EDITOR’S NOTE Last week, the 2009-10 Miscellany News Editorial Board unanimously voted to continue the Sports section to the final page of the newspaper—as many national and college newspapers do—rather than continue the Backpage, which previously occupied the space. The Board also voted unanimously to dedicate the last page of the Opinions sections to humor and

a.m. this year, VSA President Caitlin Ly ’10 told the crowd that in fact only the circulation desk would be closed at midnight. As it became clear throughout the course of the afternoon that, in fact, students would have to pack up their laptops and check out their books an hour-and-ahalf earlier than expected, it was obvious that communication between the administration and the VSA on this matter had not been perfect.

A central component of attending a small liberal arts school like Vassar is learning how to live in a community in which all members are active, involved and, most importantly, aware.

In the case of the library hours, we have the opportunity for an enriching learning experience that can extend from the students on up to the highest levels of our administration.

For students, we must understand and ultimately embrace the unpleasant truth that our school—like all its peer institutions—is in no way immune to the unstable economy. Kitzinger and Sabrina Pape, Director of the Libraries, have said that they explored every possible option before making this unavoidable change, and are already working tirelessly to return the library to its normal closing hours. There is no sense and no advantage in assuming bad intentions in the Vassar administration without first seeking to understand their thought process and all of the elements that go into their decisions.

Indeed, the College will have to make cuts in order to survive. As future alumnae/i, it is crucial

for each of us to understand that our administrators make decisions not only with our graduating classes in mind, but also with the classes of 2015 and 2030 in mind. Even though the Library decision came down to a complex union negotiation that is unlikely to be replicated in other areas of the College, the student response sheds light on an assumption that Vassar students do not expect their quality of life to change— despite the economic climate. As a community that also extends far beyond the College gates, we must learn to deal with these setbacks and to adjust our lifestyles accordingly.

Of course, we must also maintain high expectations of our leaders. This includes the basic tenet that they will keep us informed not only of decisions, but also of the processes that lead to choices that seriously influence our daily lives.

For the month of September, as the College seeks out alternate options for library hours, we will learn to adjust our schedules and find new study spaces as needed. But we should not learn to accept surprise and misinformation. We will adapt because making sacrifices is a part of living in a cohesive community, but the administration and our student leaders must treat us as such.

Student response, whether it was heated discussion over dinner or the petition put together by a group of students, proves that we are a community that is involved and active and worthy of being made aware.

satire columns, as well as to a themed calendar and a regularly featured comic. This week, you can find these items on page 12 of the paper.

To expand on our decision, the editors feel that in the past the image and credibility of the newspaper has been tarnished due to continuously-printed material which some believed expressed racist, classist, sexist, homophobic or anti-Semitic views.

That said, we do not wish to eliminate humor from

the pages of the Miscellany. In fact, it is our firm belief that humor writing falls under the purview of the Opinions section, where multiple writers can submit their satirical works, which can, in turn, be attributed to the specific authors. For the duration of its history, the Backpage has only able to feature the comedic stylings of one to two writers per year.

The editors look forward to the prospect of featuring a varied and diverse group of writers contribut-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

News Matthew Brock Jillian Scharr Opinions Angela Aiuto Kelly Shortridge Features Emma Carmichael Arts Erik Lorenzsonn Sports Lillian Reuman Design Eric Estes Copy Lila Teeters Photography Kathleen Mehocic Managing Eliza Hartley

Assistant Arts Carrie Hojnicki Assistant Copy Katherine Cornish Sarah Marco Assistant Online Elizabeth Jordan Columnists Martin Bergman Photographers Julianna Halpert, Jared Saunders, Eric Schuman

LETTERS POLICY The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers. Letters to the Editor should not exceed 450 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue. Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu or submit it online at miscellanynews.com.

The Editorial Board holds weekly meetings every Sunday at 9 p.m. in the Rose Parlor.

All members of the Vassar community interested in joining the newspaper’s staff or joining in a critique of the current issue are welcome. The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented in the Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board.

The Miscellany News (USPS-657-120) is published weekly by the students of Vassar College. The Miscellany News office is located in College Center Room 303, Vassar College.

ing to this page and invite all members of the Vassar community to submit writing. We are also excited for the opportunity that this change affords the Sports section, which will now be able to highlight the color photography work of our photojournalists.

As we reflect on the 143-year history of our publication, we truly and unanimously believe that the change is in the long-term best interest of The Miscellany News.

September 10, 2009

NEWS

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First water-only Serenading successful despite debate

While this particular aspect of the tradition was phased out, in the past few years Serenading still contained a few elements that made faculty, staff and administrators more than a little uncomfortable, according to Quinn.

Specifically, Quinn cited the customary vulgar dance moves, raunchy song lyrics and barelyclothed students, covered in anything from

chocolate syrup to mustard, which led many members of the staff and faculty to remain absent from the event.

According to President of Noyes House Hannah Groch-Begley ’12, the Board of House Presidents began discussion of a shift to water before hearing from the administration that the changes were definitely occurring. The house presidents had been in contact with Strasburger about the changes during their training week prior to the arrival of the freshman class. The Board agreed to request the shift almost unanimously, after the house presidents had presented the arguments against food to their house teams, said GrochBegley. Roellke then presented the case against Serenading to the current Board of House Presidents and the Senior Class Council. Strasburger said that when Quinn explained the situation to the Class Council, “She made it sound like an option, but [we knew] it wasn’t.”

“To me it sounded like ‘change to water or it could be canceled altogether’— that was my sense,” said Groch-Begley after hearing from the administration. The discomfort on the part of the faculty was one of the factors that led to this year’s other major change, the move of Serenading from a Friday to a Saturday. According to Quinn, when Serenading was held on a Friday, faculty members were frustrated that many freshmen skipped class only one week into the semester. This year the event took place on a Saturday afternoon, which meant that students did not have to choose between an academic commitment and the school-wide tradition.

Holding the event on Saturday also meant that faculty’s traditional serenade to the freshmen on Ballantine Field could not occur on the day of Serenading. Instead, this year the faculty sang to the Class of 2013 after Fall Convocation.

Quinn said that this new faculty serenade was very successful.

While the change to a Saturday Serenading without faculty members met little student resistance or even comment, the change from throwing food to water was very controversial.

President of Main House Maureen Byrne ’11 noted that the freshmen didn’t react one way or the other to Serenading changes because they hadn’t experienced the event yet. She said that others on the House Team, however, were ini-

Julianna Halpert/The Miscellany News

SERENADING continued from page one disappointed to hear that food-based projectiles were not being allowed this year, once she explained the reasoning to them, “they agreed that this is the right thing to do.”

“We knew we couldn’t prevent everyone from using food, and expected that a few people would probably choose not to comply with our requests. In an effort to accommodate the new rule, as well as encourage seniors to use only water, the class council bought water guns and set up kiddie pools around campus that seniors could use as refilling stations,” wrote Strasburger in an e-mail to The Miscellany News.

The decision process that led to the most recent changes in Serenading began after last year’s event, when Dean of the College Christopher Roellke began questioning the tradition’s history and how it morphed into its current incarnation. Executive Director of Campus Activities Teresa Quinn submitted a report to Roellke outlining suggestions and sentiments towards the tradition after talking to many students from all classes. She said that many students felt that it was important to keep the benefits of Serenading, such as dorm bonding and class pride, but that there were some serious issues with the parts of the tradition that would deface the campus and upset the faculty.

“We recognized the importance of this tradition, as an opportunity to bond and create school spirit,” wrote Quinn in the report. “However, we felt strongly that there be changes implemented to address issues of harmful and dangerous behavior.”

At its inseption in the 19th century, Serenading involved the senior class welcoming the freshman class by singing to them, but over the years, it evolved into a sometimes dangerous food fight: Quinn recalls a time when bottles and alcohol were commonly thrown at the freshman class.

Students from Josselyn House spray each other and seniors with hoses, which replaced Serenading’s traditional ketchup bottles, marshmellows and choclate syrup this year. tially disappointed to hear of the changes. Strasburger also noted that she herself was initially resistant to the change, but she wrote in her email to the senior class that “after speaking to multiple students and administrators there is a very valid point in making the switch,” and she encouraged her classmates to follow the new rule and see the logic behind it.

Overall, reactions to the changes were mixed.

While many agreed on the rationale behind the changes, one of the biggest sources of frustration for some seniors was that this decision was made so quickly and without notice. Catherine Varnum ’10 said, “It’s not an issue of whether or not I agree why we’re doing this. I just wish we had been consulted; I think that would have created more goodwill between the seniors and the administration.”

No formal repercussions were laid out for the

senior class if individuals chose to ignore the new rule. Strasburger noted in her e-mail to the Class of 2010 that “I know I can’t stop you from throwing ketchup,” but she encouraged seniors to “respect the decision that has been made.” Although a few students—both seniors and underclassmen—broke the rule, using milk and dyed water in their squirt guns and water balloons, the switch to water went smoothly. At present, no charges have been levied to the senior class.

Though some students felt that the nature of the decisions was at times dictatorial, the event was still deemed a success. In the first Vassar Student Association Council meeting of the year on Sept. 6, Town Houses President Riley Greene ’10 commended Council members involved with the event for making it so successful.

College allocates over $60,000 from Hardship Fund Molly Turpin Senior Editor

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s the economy stabilized this summer, a number of the College’s employees faced some of the roughest results of the economic crisis. At the urging of students and staff members, the College established the Hardship Fund, the purpose of which was to help employees who faced reduced summertime hours cover basic living expenses until they resumed their regular schedules in the fall.

The College charged the newly-created Hardship Fund Committee, which was chaired by Assistant Director of Human Resources Tanhena Pacheco Dunn and whose members included Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Samuel Speers, Professor of History Rebecca Edwards, Royce Drake ’10 and Executive Director of the Dutchess County Community Action Partnership (CAP) Maureen Lashlee, with creating guidelines for applicants and with allocating the resources. “I think for all of us this was a very unique opportunity to bridge all these different areas of expertise and work together, and that, actually, was very rewarding,” said Dunn.

All funds were donated by members of the Vassar community including faculty, staff, administrators, students and alumnae/i. In order to be eligible to receive funds, applicants had to have an annual income of $42,500 or less from the College for the 2008-2009 year. Individual allocations did not exceed $2,500.

“Not everybody received the maximum, but not everybody asked for the maximum either,” said Dunn. “I think a lot of people were very reasonable in what they requested, understanding that this was geared for helping as many people as possible.” The committee reviewed each application to determine appropriate allocations.

In its meetings, the group considered the impact of reduced employment on employees’ families, though it did not consider the role of another employed individual in each household. Ac-

cording to Speers, “It did provide a window into the real human challenges that members of our community are facing right now, and it was often a painful thing to see the situations that people [are in].”

The Hardship Fund Committee allocated over $60,000 to 46 applicants over the course of the summer until the fund closed on July 31. These allocations covered basic needs, which included rent, mortgage payments, gas, electricity and some grocery and medical bills. While the committee tried to cover what it could for each applicant, some needs could not be deemed necessary, such as cell phone bills. In addition to providing information about their income, applicants outlined what needs they had that the Fund could cover and provided any documents, such as bills and receipts, that could help the Committee understand their needs.

The College’s original goal for the fund was to raise $100,000. Despite not meeting that mark, the committee made sure that all eligible applicants received some money. In fact, the College is still working to raise the amount of money that was spent. “I know that we were working at the last day to make sure that people with essential needs who were qualified were not turned away, and we made sure that everybody got some basic coverage,” said Edwards.

The College asked CAP to provide advice as to how to allocate the fund and later asked Lashlee to serve on the committee. Her membership provided the committee with guidance and expertise about resources available through CAP and in the greater Poughkeepsie community. For many of the committee members, the resources available through CAP were one of the experience’s biggest takeaways.

“We felt it was really great to work with them, and in an ongoing way we would like to encourage anybody who’s facing any kind of unemployment issues to go talk with them about everything from job retraining to basic emergency

needs because they really have the expertise,” said Edwards. “You know, I teach history, I’m not really an expert in this field, and so their assistance was incredibly helpful.”

CAP is able to provide some funding itself to people with reduced incomes in Dutchess County thanks, in part, to receiving some federal stimulus money. The agency also has a policy to refer those seeking assistance to other useful resources, such as food stamps and interim health insurance. “We certainly try to make everyone aware of all the resources available,” said Lashlee. According to Edwards, “There are a lot of resources out there, but there’s also a lot of red tape if you’re trying to get assistance.” CAP is, therefore, able to guide those in need to the places that will best be able to help them.

Lashlee, in turn, was “blown away” by the College’s commitment to creating the Hardship Fund. “I haven’t heard of anything that we have been involved in that have been comparable to this,” she said. According to Lashlee, the Hardship Fund demonstrated the College’s feeling of a responsibility for its employees. “What Vassar did was people helping people,” she said.

While Lashlee was impressed by the College’s dedication to its employees, Drake was skeptical of the effort after having participated in the Fund’s conception. “It wasn’t a solution, I don’t think, at all. It’s more of a Band-Aid and became sort of a PR type thing for the College,” he said.

“The Hardship Fund was necessary right then because there couldn’t have been any real solutions that quickly, anyway, but I would have liked to see structurally ways the College could have changed without eliminating so many jobs for people.” Summer employment was reduced in the spring after several summer programs, conferences and events planned for the campus were canceled due to the economic crisis situation. These cancellations came in the early spring, and the College posted available jobs just after learning this news. Because the reduced

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

availability was only known late in the academic year, the staff members who had come to expect summer employment were given little time to prepare other options for the season.

This shock led to outrage in staff members belonging to the Service Employees International Union on the Vassar campus, which protested the reductions and what it saw as a general disregard for staff by the College. Many students joined in demonstrations, and a group of five students began a hunger strike when they felt that College was not engaging in conversations seriously or quickly enough. Though their discussions with senior officers did not lead to all of their demands being met, the negotiations contributed to the result of the Hardship Fund and the College’s new website focused on the economic transparency.

The Hardship Fund was an emergency measure taken to assist employees who had little time to find other employment options. At the moment, the College does not plan to continue the fund further or to create a new fund, and it hopes that such an action will not be necessary again. “It would be great if they could continue, but they probably won’t and it shouldn’t have to, I think, is the issue,” said Drake.

According to Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger, who led the fundraising efforts, the College is not planning to create a long-term fund for employees. “We hope that with more awareness of the consequences of the national economic crisis and of available support systems, like the Dutchess County Community Action Partnership, there will not be the need for an emergency fund,” she wrote in an e-mailed statement.

While the Hardship Fund provided a safety net for people who were left without employment on short notice, the College hopes that in the future everyone will be given ample time to prepare for any changes that come as a result of the economic crisis, including staffing cuts.

NEWS

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September 10, 2009

VSA Council outlines goals for a new academic year Jillian Scharr

“V

News Editor

assar faces significant financial constraints, but the VSA leadership sees the unique opportunity to act as innovators for change,” wrote Vassar Student Association (VSA) President Caitlin Ly ’10 in an e-mailed statement about the VSA’s 09-10 academic year goals.

The academic year’s first VSA meeting, held on Sunday, Sept. 6, saw the official introduction of The Guiding Principles and Priorities of the Student Body Leadership 2009-2010.

The list of goals, organized under the headings “Inclusion, New Technology, Navigate, Opportunity, Vassar Pride, Accountability, Transparency and Efficiency” (abbreviated as INNOVATE)— was passed by a unanimous vote of 22 to zero. “It is a tradition of the VSA Executive Board to present to Council a set of goals at the beginning of the academic year for their approval and support,” Ly explained.

The first point, “Inclusion,” pledges a commitment to retaining need-blind admissions, a priority of the VSA since the economic downturn began in Fall 2008. Upon her election last year, Ly told The Miscellany News that needblind admission is “a policy indispensable to the college’s Mission” (“Record number of students elect the 24th VSA Council,” 4.30.09).

The council also discussed the program for international student loans, originally a one-

year contract with the Trustees of the College set to expire this semester which allowed the college to award more financial aid to international students ineligible for government-sponsored loans. “It’s a tricky subject,” Ly said when asked about it at the VSA meeting. “Everyone’s financial aid is on the edge of being cut. We want to keep Vassar a diverse campus…[but] the Trustees only made this a one-year promise.” If the international student loan contract is not passed again, Ly foresaw “either only higher socio-economic [class] students, or a decline in international students.” After reiterating the VSA’s full support for the loan program’s renewal, Ly concluded, “we’re not sure how it’s going to play out.”

On a more positive note, the VSA also discussed the Vassar-Yale Formal (part of the “Vassar Pride” goal), an old intercollegiate tradition that has fallen by the wayside in recent decades.

Even before the proposed merger of Vassar College and Yale University in the 1960s, explained VSA Vice President for Operations Brian Farkas ’10, there was always a “sister-brother relationship” between the colleges, which both schools hope to reinvigorate through a formal dance for both current students and alumnae/i. “You’ll love it,” Farkas promised.

In accordance with their pledge to “navigate innovative solutions to cutting costs,” the VSA also discussed alternative study spaces in light of the Library’s newly abridged hours (see “Chang-

es to Library hours assessed” on page one). The most likely location for such a space is the Faculty Commons, a room often unused despite its location “at the heart of campus,” Ly observed.

The space’s other merits include existing wiring for VPrinting, a necessity which other considered locations such as the Students Building lack. Class of 2010 President Selina Strasburger expressed concern that the Faculty Commons “may not be big enough. I’ve spent time down there at night, and it feels very crowded.” The location chosen, said Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger, a special guest at Sunday’s meeting, “needs to be card-swipeaccessible, and it needs to be safe.”

Many members of the VSA Council expressed concern that students’ desires and opinions are not consulted when budget cuts are made, and that students themselves are usually unaware of the reductions until they pose an immediate problem. In response, the VSA called on majors’ committees to expand their roles in the decision-making process in light of increasing budget cuts.

“As student leaders,” the Goals document states, “it is our responsibility to hold the College to high standards.” The VSA urges majors’ committees to “inform students and keep them engaged in their major disciplines.”

Another priority of this year’s VSA Council is to amend and improve the current committee structure, a goal listed under the “Accountabil-

ity” and “Efficiency” titles. “Given the economic climate,” wrote Farkas in an e-mailed statement, “it seems particularly irresponsible to have such a muddled and redundant…[committee] structure.” Farkas and the VSA will work to “merge and clarify” various committees. “For many years, students, faculty and administrators alike have been frustrated by the number of unproductive committees on campus… Vassar will benefit immensely from an honest and thorough evaluation of its committee system.”

Other priorities that Ly mentioned include Tasty Tuesdays and other collaboration with local vendors, improving relations with the local community through expanding programming like Meet Me in Poughkeepsie, encouraging collaboration between students, Campus Patrol and Security, and reevaluating the meal plan.

At the VSA meeting, Ly reported that last year’s successful Meet Me in Poughkeepsie involved thirty trips and 800 Vassar participants; this year, she expects 40 events and over a thousand participants.

The presentation of a set of goals at the beginning of the academic year is a VSA tradition, explained Ly. The Executive Board began discussion last spring, and the goals document itself was drafted this fall.

“By working to accomplish the following set of goals,” wrote Ly, “we are confident that the College we love will emerge from this crisis stronger, leaner and bolder than ever before.”

Changes to meal plan address finances, sustainability Devin Griffin

Guest Reporter

A

fter last year’s dramatic changes to the structure of the campus meal plans, this semester the College has focused on more nuanced aspects of the campus dining options based on reactions to the plan last year and as necessitated by the economic crisis.

There are four categories of payment options to be used in different locations and dining situations on campus. These include meals, flex meals, dining bucks or balance, and VCash.

Meals are used in the All-Campus Dining Center (ACDC) with one meal taken from the total for every swipe. While meal plans previously included 10 guest meals, this semester they have been replaced with 25 flex meals. Flex meals can be used for oneself, guests or as donations to Vassar Student Association (VSA) Organizations for catering at events. This will be the last year that catering and donating meals will be allowed because, according to King, the purpose of the meal plan is to feed individual students, a stipulation that allows the meals to be tax-free.

Dining bucks, formerly known as “balance points,” are each the equivalent of one dollar and can be used for any purchases made at The

Retreat, Java City and Matthew’s Bean. VCash remains a method for students to pay for items with money deposited onto their VCards, and can be used to eat at the Retreat, ACDC and several local restaurants. Students may use VCash to pay for other things around campus, such as laundry.

One of the other, more visible changes this fall has been the new reusable take-out box program in ACDC. During the 2008-2009 academic year, Vassar went through nearly 100,000 takeout boxes, so this move has been cited as yet another environmentally friendly initiative undertaken by the College. This latest system works like the old one with only a couple of slight differences. A $5 deposit is charged to the student’s account of either VCash or dining bucks, to be refunded upon the return of the container.

Students simply return the rinsed box when they come back into ACDC for their next meal.

Students can also exchange their used containers for a clean one. Such a shift in policy seems rather small, but lends itself towards creating a greener campus.

A few other changes for College dining are its renewed commitment to incorporating as much local food as possible and, due to popular de-

mand, the return of the top-your-own-pizza option, according to King. Additionally, ACDC’s hours of operation are now Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Saturday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The later opening on Saturdays and Sundays, which was moved back from 8:30 a.m. was “due to low participation in the early morning on weekends,” according to an e-mail sent to the student body by Dean of the College Christopher Roellke.

One cut made as a result of the economy is the closing of the Atrium Juice Bar in Walker Field House this year. Senior Director of Campus Dining Maureen King remarked that the decision came from the College’s need to reduce the budget. “The VSA recognizes that the closing of the Atrium this fall was a disappointment to many Vassar community members. We are working with the Dean of the College, Chris Roellke, to consider multiple options [such as] opening on a different schedule with particular emphasis on game days and weekends,” wrote VSA president Caitlin Ly in an e-mailed statement.

According to King, the Atrium proved to be the least-used venue on campus, which led the administration to view it as the most logical location to close. The Atrium Juice Bar will be

closed for an indeterminate amount of time, the very least being the rest of the school year.

Most campus residents, new and old, will find time to take advantage of the new meal policy at Java City. For the first time, it will be possible for students and faculty to use one of their meals normally intended for ACDC at this location.

This change is a welcome alternative for many students who would prefer a break from the dining hall without having to use dining bucks or VCash. The system in place will involve choosing one item from three different categories, which will constitute as a meal, similar to the Atrium’s old system, in which students can mix and match items from several categories to make up a meal. Optimism for this move seems high at the moment, but student use of the location and the meal plan alterations will determine its effectiveness.

Unlike the controversy of last year’s implementations, most changes have been received positively or at least without much comment, according to King. King is hopeful that the year will go smoothly even with the campus’s fiscal adaptations. Dining services requests that students send concerns, questions or feedback on meals or meal plans to food@vassar.edu.

After some delay, composting to begin in the Retreat Rose Hendricks

V

Guest Reporter

assar begins its latest step towards a greener, carbon-neutral campus on Sept. 14 with the introduction of biodegradable items and a composting program at the Retreat.

The catalyst for the change came last semester on Feb. 19, when Vassar College participated in a waste audit set up by the Sustainability Committee in conjunction with members of the Vassar Student Association (VSA), dining workers and representatives from Greenway, the company that manufactures products from compost at its site on the Vassar Farm. From 8 a.m. until 11 p.m., Retreat patrons were asked to separate their waste into compostable, potentially compostable, recyclable and trash waste.

Potentially compostable products were any items that could be replaced by compostable versions, such as utensils.

At the end of the day, the waste in each category was weighed. The group discovered that if the College were to replace items such as cutlery with compostable substitutes, 90 percent of the waste from the Retreat could be composted.

Because of this, the group decided to invest in new compost bins for post-consumer food items and in compostable utensils. In the past, the only items that were composted were kitchen scraps.

Now, however, the only items at the Retreat that

cannot be composted are food packages, straws and toothpicks, which are left out because of the colorful plastic fringes attached to their ends.

However, according to VSA President Caitlin Ly, the administration is working to rectify this toothpick problem.

There have been many bumps along the path to making Vassar greener, yet the Sustainability Committee has been able to continue making progress. Procuring funding for the compost bins and the new utensils was a major obstacle.

The cost of these new utensils is almost double that of plastic utensils, which adds to the burden that dining services is already carrying given the current economic climate. The VSA contributed $10,000 to the project from its Great Works Fund, and the price of utensils has been built into the food costs at the Retreat, raising each item’s price by about five cents.

The program was also forced to delay its start because three out of the five bins were received in damaged condition, so they had to be sent back to the distribution company, Witt, said Collins Research Associate Emily Vale ’09.

A major concern about the new compost system is that people will incorrectly sort their garbage. If non-compostable items are mixed into the compost, the waste is very difficult to sort out. “Education about compost is going to be a major issue because when things that don’t

belong end up in the compost, contamination occurs,” said Professor of Earth Science Jeffrey Walker, the chair of the Sustainability Committee.

If the composting bins are too contaminated with non-compostable waste, Greenway, the compost company, must throw the material out. “If Greenway has to throw away compost because there is too much contamination, it’s a waste of time and effort,” said Karina Costa ’10, Vassar’s Recycling and Composting Intern.

To avoid these consequences, participants in this project are working very hard to promote education about what should be placed in the compost bins. Once the new bins arrive and are set up, there will be a station in the Retreat to teach people exactly how to sort their trash. “It’s fine if people don’t want to compost, but they just shouldn’t throw all their trash in the compost bins,” said Vale.

However, all involved promise that the benefits will far outweigh the costs of this project.

Once the compost is turned into soil, this can be used for local projects. For example, much of the soil used for the renovation of Raymond Avenue was taken from Greenway’s site on the Vassar Farm. In addition, composting drastically reduces the amount of food that is disposed of at an incinerator, thus saving the energy the incinerator would use to process the trash, as well as

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

reducing pollution.

“Last year, 57.5 tons of compost was collected, reducing our carbon footprint by 11 tons,” said Walker. Director of Dining Services Ken Oldehoff hopes that by teaching students how to compost and recycle and by teaching them about the benefit of these activities, students will take this knowledge with them when they leave Vassar, thus creating a ripple effect.

Over the past few years, Vassar has been taking enormous strides in the direction of sustainability. Local foods have been incorporated into the kitchen, much of the paper trash has been eliminated in ACDC, and the 750 cardboard togo containers that made their way to the trash each day have been reduced to zero with the new reusable containers.

As long as the Vassar community continues to be passionate about greening the campus, many future sustainability projects will be undertaken. For the continued success of sustainability at Vassar, says Walker, it is crucial that students and faculty take the time to become educated on what items are compostable and to sort their trash appropriately. Compostable items at the Retreat include cups, lids, plates, salad containers, to-go containers, utensils and napkins.

Those involved with the project hope that this stride forward in sustainability will be one more step in making Vassar a zero-waste campus.

September 10, 2009

FEATURES

Page 5

Economic recovery will take time, say administrators

As shown in the figure on the left, nearly two-thirds of the College’s operating budget is allocated to the compensation of employees, making difficult staff cuts inevitable in the face of the economic downturn. The figure on the right shows that Vassar has one of the highest percentages among its peer institutions of incoming students on grant-based financial aid.

ECONOMY continued from page one has been extremely helpful,” said Dean of the College Christopher Roellke. “We have had several examples of that in the Dean of the College Division.”

This year, Julie Silverstein left her position as Associate Director for Campus Life and LGBTQ Programs to become the Campus Activities Director at Bard College; Megan Habermann, former Assistant Director of Campus Activities, departed to become a student affairs administrator at Western Oregon University; and former Student Employment Coordinator Michele Frazier will be attending law school this fall.

“There are three examples of people who have departed very late in the game,” said Roellke, “and we have worked very creatively to share responsibilities.” With retirements and with these unexpected vacancies, certain offices and departments will be left with fewer employees and with gaps that may need to be filled. These areas may thus begin to collaborate more closely with one another to compensate for the loss of personnel, giving the College the opportunity to combine offices that they have wished to streamline for some time.

“With some of the departments in some areas, there is the potential for much closer coordination between people involved in similar activities in different areas of the College,” explained Kitzinger. “This invites a closer collaboration between areas that should have been collaborating in the first place. They are opening up great possibilities.”

In a 3.26.09 article in The Miscellany News (“College, Trustees consider restructuring of student services”), Roellke and Senior Associate Dean of the College Raymon Parker predicted that future collaborations would occur between the Campus Activities and Campus Life Offices, and between the career-realted offices—the Career Development Office (CDO), the Office of Student Employment, the Office of Field Work and the Office for Fellowships and Pre-Health Advising. Though Student Employment was always a subsidiary office of the CDO, it is now even more interconnected with the office; following the departure of Frazier, Mary Raymond became the Director of both the CDO and Student Employment.

Roellke explained that these collaborations require creative thinking and a willingness to reconsider long-instilled systems. “It’s a very uncertain period of time, and so it’s very easy to say ‘well, let’s just do it the way we did before.’

So the willingness to think outside the box—and think creatively about new ways to do things—is absolutely essential.”

While unexpected vacancies and retirements do alleviate the strain on the budget, the College will still have to make a considerable amount of involuntary reductions to its staff, since compensation represents more than two-thirds of annual operating expenses.

“The potentials for restructuring are so painful because our institution has the vast majority of its operating budget invested in people through compensation and financial aid,” explained Ly. “The prospect of making cuts has real, human implications.”

“We are committed to advanced warning of changes and to supporting people,” said Eismeier. “Although we’ve never had a set policy about this, we told administrators that if there were going to be involuntary layoffs, there

would be at least three months’ notice.”

In the past year and this fall, many students have argued that the administration has not included students in this decision-making process and that transparency is lacking from their processes. At the first VSA Council Meeting on Sept. 6, Raymond House President Samin Shehab ’11 asked Kitzinger and Eismeier—who were guests at the meeting—how exactly job cuts were being made and “what the complete procedure was.”

“I wanted to know more about what the process was. I didn’t know if decisions were guided by the senior officers only, or by a the departments involved,” said Shehab in a later interview with The Miscellany News. “Their answer was that there was no clear-cut procedure from person to person.”

“I would definitely want to know how decisions are being made and when, but I do respect the fact that these are their colleagues they are talking about,” continued Shehab.

Eismeier echoed Shehab’s sentiments, explaining that the privacy of the individuals being considered should be respected. “The question of transparency came up at [the Feb. 25 open forum in Sanders Classroom] about the students’ right to know about and be consulted on operational changes,” said Eismeier. “It seems to me that this desire to be consulted is trumped totally by the employees’ right to know and the

we’re dealing with a shifting picture all the time.”

“Transparency,” said Kitzinger, “if you define it as clarity, is dependent on having a set plan and being clear about that plan, but with this way of planning, you can’t do that.”

Though transparency can in one sense refer to clarity about the decision-making process, Shehab explained that it can also refer to honesty and openness after a decision is made.

“After a desicion is made, [and] especially if it is one that students have an objection with— like the English Department issue last year— they should tell us about that and give us an idea of how that decision was made,” said Shehab.

Kitzinger, though, explained that regardless of the stage, the process will have a sense of uncertainness and, as she put it, “messiness.”

“One of the things I like about Vassar is that there is a certain tolerance for messiness. This is a messy way of doing things—in terms of time, imagination and constant rethinking. It’s not quick, clean or neat,” she said.

This sense of continuous shifting is present also in the general financial health of the College, measured by its endowment; only six months ago, senior officers and President Hill predicted that the endowment would suffer a loss of 30 percent. Since the fiscal year’s end in June, however, the College has a figure of minus 18.1 percent investment return on the endow-

“Every day, we think we have a plan, and then something happens—and some new reconsideration occurs or some new piece of imformation comes. Planning which tries to be as humane as possible with making decisions means that you constantly have to change what you’re doing.” consideration for them. You can’t have speculation about a particular position—that’s just too stressful for the individual.”

“Decisions aren’t all being made at the top,” continued Eismeier. “There is a lot of engagement—but to be able to do it as if it is a town hall, when you’re talking about people’s livelihood—I mean, it just can’t happen that way.”

Kitzinger pointed out that the fluidity and ever-changing nature of the decision-making process also complicates the idea of transparency.

“Every day, we think we have a plan, and then something happens—and some reconsideration happens or some new piece of information comes that changes the plan—and so transparency defined as clarity is one thing once you have a plan,” said Kitzinger, “but planning which tries to be as humane as possible with making decisions means that you constantly have to change what you’re doing.”

Kitzinger went on to explain that this kind of decision-making has made it difficult to make public announcements, “I would not be able to change [those decisions] later,” she said, “which is why, when we are not doing it in a corporate way—when they are, say, cutting 10 percent across the board—

ment.

“The endowment is a pool of assets,” explained Eismeier. “We invest it very broadly in a variety of investment vehicles—this diversification is key to the idea of trying to spread the risk, so that we’re not solely dependent on, say, just the stock market, or just the bond market, or just real estate or any other particular form of investing.”

“The capital markets bounced back in April, May and June significantly,” continued Eismeier, “and we participated in that because we were broadly diversified.”

Eismeier explained that though there has been an improvement in the markets, the endowment is still nowhere near back to its original state. As an example, Eismeier explained that experiencing a loss of 50 percent of a high investment base will drop you down to a much lower base, so that even a subsequent gain of 50 percent does not return the figure to its original base.

“What’s happened is that we’ve sustained losses at a higher base and then there has been some bounce back, but unfortuantely,” she explained, “it is not symmetrical and we’re coming back from a lower base.”

“Currently,” added Ly, “Vassar’s endowment

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

has lost 18.1 percent of its original value. That translates to a loss of nearly $300 million.”

Ly worried that with one-third of the operating budget coming from the endowment, the College would pull from those resources at an unsustainable rate. “We cannot afford to continue drawing from the endowment at such a high rate without risking the long-term health and well being of the College,” said Ly. “We must find a way to balance the competing pressures of salaries and benefits, financial aid and the needs of the physical plant.”

Among the priorities listed by Ly, financial aid stands out as one of the most prominent in the eyes of both students and the senior officers.

Especially a concern to students is whether or not the College will be able to maintain its needblind policy. Last spring, the Priorities and Planning Committee voted to continue the policy for the incoming Class of 2014.

“We’ve built into the financial model a similar level of financial aid for this year and next year,” explained Kitzinger, “with some diminution of the percent of the class on aid thereafter in anticipation of an improving economy. And so we’re going to look at how those percentages on aid affect the overall financial picture and weigh that priority against others, to arrive at a sustainable plan.”

Kitzinger went on to explain that to gauge the success of the need-blind policy, the College also has to consider how much the percent of the class on aid is affected by the policy itself versus how much it is affected by the College’s level of outreach.

“Besides the actual need-blind policy,” said Kitzinger, “there’s a whole other thing we do, which includes outreach to students, and so we want to understand the relationship between our success due to the need-blind policy and our success due to outreach.”

“This is a really tricky area,” agreed Eismeier.

“It will be a key trade-off for the College. Our commitment is to make sure that what we offer at Vassar is high-quality, and one aspect of that—and this is an interesting fact about higher education—is that the quality of the college experience also depends on the people who are in the classrooms.”

Kitzinger listed this exploration into financial aid as a top priority this year, in addition to “continuing this kind of messy planning,” she said, “so that every position that opens up gets scrutiny in terms of possible reorganization and streamlining.” Senior officers will be the key players in this process, considering the vacancies in their divisions and then meeting as a group to discuss possibilities.

“A third piece of this is the planning we can do around our diminished capital projects budget,” added Kitzinger. “We will look at where we have to spend money, and where we can wait.

That is really important for us.”

These plans and projects are what remind us that, although the College has made a considerable effort to return and rally against the economic downfall, students, faculty and administrators still face a long and tumultuous path ahead. “I think one of the challeneges,” said Roellke, “is that—while, yes, we have made significant progress, and the community has come together around a serious set of challenges—we have to remember that there is still much work to be done.”

Page 6

FEATURES

September 10, 2009

Students react to reduction in late-night library hours

Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

LIBRARY continued from page one possible resolution at the time was to make an immediate cut. “The one meeting in which we briefly discussed this was in the context of a Priorities & Planning Committee update,” said Kitzinger. “I think what happened here was not miscommunication, but that there wasn’t time for adequate communication.”

Sabrina Pape, Director of the Libraries, said that there was no way to predict at the end of the 2008-2009 academic year that the Library would be forced to change its hours. She also felt too constrained by union obligations to speak freely about the staffing issue.

“I can’t really talk about the details,” said Pape, “but it took a long time to resolve. Obviously, we didn’t want to go to this resolution, and we waited until we had to. It was something that we looked at all summer and then put aside.

The midnight closing was our last effort to try and resolve it, not something we jumped to right away as an easy fix.”

VSA Vice President for Operations Brian Farkas ’10 said he and Ly did have a meeting with Kitzinger early in their first week back on campus and were told directly that the staffing issue would only affect the circulation desk.

“Dean Kitzinger indicated that the building itself would stay open full-time,” said Farkas. “We came out of that meeting with the sense that it would be resolved, and that was the last time we talked about it.”

Both Farkas and Kitzinger said that decisions on the union negotiations were made on a minute-by-minute basis, and that there was no significant lag between the final resolution and the students’ notification. Still, VSA Vice President for Academics Stephanie Damon-Moore ’11 said that the VSA was confused by the ostensible delay in the administration’s disclosure.

“In our next meeting we asked pointedly, ‘Why were students not informed of this before?’” said Damon-Moore. “We know it doesn’t look good if [the VSA is] starting the year by giving students mixed messages, and we don’t feel as confident if we’re receiving mixed messages from the administration this early in the year. From our perspective it should have been communicated instantly.” The unanticipated an-

Students with difficult and inflexible schedules hope that the VSA Executive Board and the administration will soon re-extend the Library hours or institute a 24-hour study space. nouncement has contributed to a mixed sense of trepidation amongst Vassar students, especially those whose schedules—with athletic practices, a cappella rehearsals and organization meetings—sometimes feel inflexible. Long social dinners at the All-Campus Dining Center lead into consecutive meetings or lectures or performances, and often students can’t get to the Library until after 11 p.m. There are also those who rely more heavily on the building’s technological resources than others.

Ana Popkowski ’10, a media studies major, is writing her senior thesis this year. She said she and her housemates were “shocked” by the email from Kitzinger. “I don’t know where they expect us to do our work after midnight,” said Popkowski. “I use the Library a lot—especially the Media Cloisters. There are certain programs installed on the computers there that you can’t find anywhere else on campus. I never really felt that balancing my class schedule and my workload was a serious issue because I was able to do my work at night and do it comfortably.”

But both administrators and VSA leaders were vocal that structural changes—though difficult to predict—should certainly be expected

in the years to come. “Every school is going through this,” said Kitzinger. “We can’t survive an economic situation like this without making changes that will affect student life. It’s always going to be a question of negotiation about what’s tolerable and what’s not.”

A quick survey of a handful of Vassar’s peer institutions shows that two colleges—Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges—close their library doors at midnight. Amherst, Middlebury and Trinity Colleges’ libraries are open until 1 a.m., and a host of other schools—including Oberlin, Connecticut and Hamilton Colleges— close their libraries at 2 a.m.

If no more union obstacles arise, Vassar will find itself back at its later closing hours in a reasonable amount of time. Both Kitzinger and Pape are working to return the Library to normal hours—while still shutting down the circulation desk at midnight—within the next four weeks.

Pape expressed hope that the Library would actually extend its usual late-night hours during finals week this year. Kitzinger is also working closely with the VSA Executive Board to establish a temporary 24-hour study space for student use—most likely in the Faculty Com-

mons in Main Building. Pape said that she hopes this round-the-clock space can eventually find a home within the Library walls.

“I feel strongly that [the Library] is the students’ building, and I see that the students feel tremendous ownership over the space,” said Pape. “I think that’s pretty unique to Vassar. It’s not all about the resources. It’s just really about this place and its inspirational feel.”

Because cutting library hours so clearly conflicted with Vassar’s academic standards, Kitzinger asserted that the decision was not an easy one. “It’s very important for the College to be clear that the changes made will conform to the mission statement that we have,” said Kitzinger.

“It was hardest for me to modify the Library hours because obviously the work that goes on there is central to our mission. Symbolically, it’s the hardest thing to do.”

Farkas hoped to dispel worries of tension between the administration and the student representatives. He said that the Library situation was a unique case in which the VSA could not be entirely involved. “It’s not a good guy-bad guy thing,” said Farkas.

“We have a great working relationship with the administration—we just need to work on improving those channels of communication so that decisions are reached collectively rather than having them make decisions and having us react to them.”

Chambers, who will write a political science thesis this year, expressed hope that both the VSA and the administration will keep the student body more informed as changes are made.

He said he felt alienated from meaningful dialogue about the library hours. “I’m not familiar with the whole process,” admitted Chambers, “but it seems to me that the correct way of going about all this would have been to address the problem with the students and try to work with the VSA and the broader student body to try to come up with some sort of alternative.”

“There is still going to be the need for students to adapt some of their behavior to these changed circumstances,” Kitzinger said when asked about future cuts. “When resources shrink, [we] have to be more constrained in the choices we make.”

College aims to streamline, improve Health Services HEALTH continued from page one alcohol or drugs, then they or a friend would immediately call Campus Response Center (CRC).

Security-accompanied Vassar College Emergency Medical Services’ (VCEMS) Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) would then be dispatched to help the student and assess the emergency. If the situation requires further medical attention, VCEMS will call an ambulance.

The resolution to alter hours, it seems, will most affect the students who work at Baldwin, ill students and members of VCEMS. “In terms of our restructured hours,” said Balawajder, “we’re hoping that students will come in earlier in the evening and then we can take care of them.” Medical staff are on the premises from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.—and a nurse is present until 10 p.m.

In the past, students’ visits to Baldwin outside of these daytime clinic hours have mostly been for emergencies. “One of the main reasons for this change is that we’ve seen fewer students in the middle of the night, and in the middle of the night, they are true emergencies—people who needed to go to the hospital,” Balawajder said.

The decision to close Health Services at night could be viewed as a method to bypass the liability of having dangerously-ill students on campus. Balawajder countered this argument, explaining that Baldwin’s small nighttime staff simply was not equipped to provide the proper care for life-threatening situations. “I think that it’s really less of a question of liability and more a question about speediness,” she said. Closing Baldwin at night, explained Balawajder, expedites emergency care.

Previously, one nurse and one student Night Guard ran Baldwin during the night, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Michelle Duong ’12, who is interested in pursuing a career in health care, lost her job as a Friday Baldwin Night Guard due to the minimized hours. While many student jobs were cut, Baldwin still has intern positions that work in health education. In addition to working at Baldwin, Duong also utilized the nighttime service.

“I was really grateful that Baldwin’s 24-hour service existed last year because I went through a series of surgeries first semester, and it was really great that I was attended to by the nurses and doctors day and night,” she explained.

While students will not have an around-theclock service on campus, the Task Force has established clear alternatives. To increase their communication with students, Health Services has redesigned their website to highlight health updates and procedures for possible scenarios.

For non-emergency medical care, students should call the Health Services phone number (x5800), which will redirect them to a nurse triage service. Once connected, students will leave a message describing their symptoms. A nurse practitioner will call the student back and provide expert clinical advice and phone consultation. “When the health service is closed, we recognize that there is sort of a border—a gray area,” Balawajder said. “This is why we’ve set up the nurse triage service.”

The College has contracted a nurse triage service called Night Nurse, which is based in Wayland, Mass. The service­—recommended by a peer institution—works regularly with colleges of Vassar’s size. Similar services are contracted at institutions such as Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges. “Triage means grading,” Balawajder said. “Explaining the condition to students, explaining what to look for, whether they should be seen immediately and what steps to take.”

According to the Night Nurse website, the average response time to patients is 4.36 minutes, and the average time that the nurse practitioners spend on each call is 9.36 minutes. When asked about the nurse triage service, VCEMS Captain Mike Faba ’10 was optimistic. “Being able to talk to a professional at night is reassuring to people,” he said. “It’s a good resource.”

To accommodate ill students who are not sick enough to go to the hospital, the Task Force— along with Residential Life—has assigned respite rooms in the dorms. These rooms will be available on a 24-hour basis for students who

require a calm and isolated space. The rooms, which usually stand empty throughout the year, will also likely be used as quarantine rooms if Vassar suffers an H1N1 breakout this fall.

In an emergency, students should still call the 24-hour CRC, at which point VCEMS will come to the student’s assistance.

While VCEMS has always responded first to emergencies on campus, their accountability this semester has increased—they now have to decide which students should be sent to the hospital and which students can be treated on campus. “It’s going to make our job a lot more difficult,” Faba said. “It gives us more responsibility, since we are the only medical aid on campus at night. Personally, this choice will put us in a harder position, but all our choices are predetermined in our protocol.”

VCEMS is composed of around 35 certified EMTs—three of whom work the night shift at a time. Baldwin representatives meet regularly with VCEMS to provide guidance and evaluate their protocols.

“I think that there is enough support for EMS, but part of the issue is that they are going to be deciding,” Brown said. “That can put some more pressure on them. But, it is also true that if they are unsure, they will have very clear guidelines as to what is hospital-worthy.”

During the weekend of Aug. 29, VCEMS received three calls, two of which were alcoholrelated and none of which resulted in hospital trips. “Without Baldwin as an intermediary between a medical release and a hospital visit, our EMTs increased the amount of time spent with each patient in order to ensure that a medical release was a safe and appropriate option,” Assistant VCEMS Captain Sam Black ’12 explained.

Over the weekend of September 4th, EMS responded to six emergency calls, five of which were alcohol-related and two of which resulted in hospital visits.

Balawajder has met with the emergency rooms of Vassar Brothers Medical Center and Saint Francis Hospital as well as representatives

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

from the Arlington Fire District to prepare for situations when Vassar students require emergency hospital care.

“One of our big concerns is making people resist the urge to be worried about going to the hospital,” Faba said. “We hope that they will keep on calling.” The Vassar Good Samaritan Policy—the policy in which students will not be penalized for seeking medical attention for an intoxicated friend—should decrease the risk of a reduction in calls, especially during the weekends when alcohol and drug related emergencies increase.

Some students have already struggled with adjusting to the change in services. Rachel Ritter ’12, a recent VCEMS member, fell ill during the night last week. Following the new guidelines, Ritter called CRC, and VCEMS arrived to assess her situation. The EMTs promptly called an ambulance, which took her to a Poughkeepsie emergency room.

“Basically, had my illness been something that Baldwin could have dealt with—and I think it may have been—the process would have been much easier,” Ritter explained. “I also would have gone for treatment much earlier when I started to get sick at around 10 p.m.”

By the time that Ritter was discharged and found a taxi to get home, it had been four hours since her initial call, and she had spent $58. “I was reluctant to go to the hospital, as I had no idea how expensive it might be or how busy the ER was on that particular evening,” Ritter said.

“I understand the financial realities the College is facing, but I do really wish that Baldwin could have been open.”

While the prospect of going directly to a hospital might make some students reluctant to call for help, members of the Task Force have expressed that this should not be a reason for concern. “I think that Vassar students are very responsible. If they see a friend who needed help, they would help,” Brown stated. “My faith in our students,” Balawajder said, “is that if they need medical help, they will call for medical help.”

FEATURES Page 7 Addresses from President Hill reflect changes to College September 10, 2009

Molly Turpin

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Senior Editor

Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

ven as the words of inspiration remain relatively constant in Convocation speeches that are meant to kick start a year, a summer or a life after Vassar, their content can also be read as a sign of the times. Most recently, President Catharine Bond Hill has taken advantage of one of her few opportunities to speak personally to a large portion of the campus community by speaking about the College’s responses to economic hardship in both her Spring and Fall 2009 Convocation addresses.

At a time in the College’s history when the usual optimism of an address seems incongruous with the reality of changes taking place at the institution, these addresses lend insight to the College’s perception of both the crisis and its effects on the school. The opening speeches of both the Spring and the Fall Convocations given by President Catharine Bond Hill spoke specifically to challenges that Vassar is facing.

At Spring Convocation, Hill’s speech reflected the thorough self-review that the College had undergone both as a result of the economic crisis and as was required by Middle States Commission on Higher Education for the reaccreditation of the institution.

In the fall, Hill emphasized that restructuring and cuts were not temporary responses and compared our need for sustainable finances to Thomas Friedman’s argument in the book Hot, Flat and Crowded, particularly that some losses become irreversible and as deterioration of the environment occurs incrementally, we may easily slip past a point of no return. Hill was not so dramatic in her relation of this argument to the financial viability of the College, but, while acknowledging Vassar’s commitment to ecological sustainability, she stressed the need for economic sustainability.

Hill’s speeches both articulated sentiments that have been repeated at administrative and other forums on the economy. For example, though many assessments were made as result of the financial meltdown, Chairman of the Board of Trustees William Plapinger ’74 noted at the Board’s open meeting in May, “The financial crisis has exposed many of the cracks in the College’s foundations in a way that was not fully evident before.” As the speeches both look ahead and were both written in the same

College President Catharine Bond Hill addresses students all Fall Convocation on Sept. 2. Hill’s speech this year articulated the strong effect that the national economic climate will have on the College in the coming years, a theme also addressed in her remarks last spring. context of economic hardship, they also mirror each other in many ways.

Because of the crisis, action had to be taken even as the College continued to assess the resulting damages. “The measures we have already taken this year have been painful, but unfortunately additional and even more painful measures will be required over the next two years,” said Hill at Spring Convocation. She continued this message in the fall, stating, “The reality is that because compensation makes up two-thirds of our operating budget, it must necessarily be one of our sources of savings as we take the steps to stabilize our finances.”

While both addresses provided a sobering update on the realities of the College’s position, her spring address focused on the College’s commitment to its mission statement as the root of decision-making, and her fall speech elaborated on just what it means for the College’s endowment to be reduced. As a pair, a thesis of the speeches might read: After a year of swift reactions and self-review, Vassar is more prepared to move towards fiscal sustainability.

“The reputed excellence of an institution is positively related to the size of its endowment per

student,” she said on Sept. 2. “However, with the decline of the endowment, that resource is not only not being renewed, it’s being consumed.”

This fact has also been echoed in a variety of forums. As Chair of the Investments Committee on the Board of Trustees Jeffrey Goldstein ’77 said at the open meeting, a sustainable draw on the endowment is around five percent, the College will draw close to nine percent for the 2009-2010 academic year.

This focus on the endowment and the College’s focus on the health of business has caused concern about campus culture. A few faculty members stated their anxiety about the College modeling itself on a corporation in questions posed to the Trustees, and students and staff protested the administration’s lack of consideration for the human side of cuts—an effort that led to the creation of the Hardship Fund and the new economy website.

In the spring, Hill used her speech as partly as a response to the unrest on campus over decision-making processes. “Moreover, of necessity, the decisions will profoundly affect the lives of individuals and so while we will make every effort to proceed in a consultative and transpar-

ent process about the principles for making decisions, that process cannot be completely conducted in a public forum,” she said. Through this remark she warned the community about its ability to be involved in decision-making processes.

“Everything that we are presently doing is important in some way and to some segment of our community, so no program or position is without those who see that work as fundamental,” she said in the spring. In statements such as this in both speeches, Hill has walked the fine line between stating fully the College’s intent to restructure, which amounts to preparing the community for some of the most difficult effects of the crisis ahead—saying goodbye to some members of the community—and bolstering hope for Vassar’s future.

Speeches that are traditionally positive and uplifting, or at least more abstract in their misgivings about the world, may not be the place to divulge all of the details of the College’s finances, which Hill has by no means done. Nonetheless, her frankness and the sheer amount of her addresses the topic of the economy took up speaks to its importance in campus dialogue.

Son of ‘Naps’ owner reopens restauraunt as Cozzy’s Daniel Combs Guest Reporter

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Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

sk a member of the Class of 2010 or 2011 about some of their most memorable nights at Vassar, and chances are you will probably hear a good deal about the famous-to-some— infamous-to-others—Napoli Sicilian Pizzeria.

“Naps,” as it was widely known, had been a staple of the Arlington area since 1972 until their heart-breaking closure in fall of 2008.

Their low prices and late hours found the perfect market in the Vassar College student body’s budget, appetite and heart. The relationship was never difficult to dissect; when you mix late night hunger, late-night weekends and the notso-flush wallet of the typical student, true love is inevitable.

Who else can you call in the middle of the night, knowing ahead of time that your desires will be satisfied? No questions asked—even if in the morning, when, stumbling out of your bed, you discover the empty box that was jettisoned with utter disregard, and recall that—in that moment last night—the only thing that really mattered was eating that piping hot slice.

You get rid of the evidence and maybe even think about how you regret your late-night snack, but deep down you know that you two will meet again—maybe not this weekend or the next—but with an undeniable timeliness, there will be another escapade, another late night phone call, another slice of Naps.

It comes as no surprise, then, that when Naps shut its doors last fall to expand its building and menu, returning sophomores and juniors pined for the dining equivalent of their collective significant other. There was suddenly a gap in the student body appetite that couldn’t be satiated by the All-Campus Dining Center, Kismat or Babycakes. That yearning was never unrequited. Costanzo “Cozzy” Debernardo, whose father

Tony “Mr. Nap” Debernardo owned and operated the original Napoli Pizza for close to 40 years, returned to Poughkeepsie last year after a period of culinary exploration to reboot the Napoli Empire with his own storefront at 256 Hooker Avenue—Cozzy’s Place. Debernardo is committed to creating a lasting, meaningful relationship with the Vassar student body that once made up approximately 80 percent of his father’s business. Cozzy’s Place now offers an extensive menu ranging from the exotic to the more time-honored dishes.

If you’re feeling up for a culinary adventure you can try a potato, bacon, cheddar and onion pizza baked on whole wheat crust—or possibly a pepper, egg and potato sandwich on homemade ciabatta bread.

If it’s the traditional tastes that truly whet your appetite, Cozzy’s also offers classics like margherita pizzas and Greek salads— made to perfection. “We want to be more than your average pizzeria—closer to that coffee shop feel,” said Debernardo.

The new building is certainly more than the standard pizza joint. Cozzy’s offers a wide variety of healthier choices that use local ingredients—a move inspired by Cozzy’s own experiences at the Culinary Institute of America and with cooking around the country. There is a coffee-smoothie bar and a beer and wine menu on the way, and there will be live music on Friday nights. The restaurant has certainly transformed since it was last open.

But fear not. That one-of-a-kind taste that characterized the original Naps will be carried on by the younger Debernardo. Cozzy grew up in the pizza business and learned his father’s original recipe for his special pizza sauce at a young age. Now that he’s grown up, he recognizes that this recipe is a boon. When pressed, he could only say that its ingredients are “a secret

Cozzy’s Place owner Costanzo Debernardo hopes to capture the heart of Vassar students with the opening of his own resteraunt, where he will serve pizza for a reasonable price. that unfortunately I cannot reveal.”

The one-of-a-kind Naps price remains unchanged as well. “We still offer cheap, good pizza for folks in this tough economy,” said Debernardo. A large cheese pie remains priced at $7.99, no different from a year and a half ago.

Debernardo seems well aware of what Vassar’s student body is after and is more than happy to supply it. “I remember delivering tons of pizzas to Vassar when I was young,” Cozzy reminisced. “This is where I belong—it’s going back to my roots.” Cozzy spoke with determina-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

tion about making sure his restaurant displays its unique relationship with the College, going so far as to say that he would love for black and white pictures of the campus to decorate his walls. “The buildings and campus all have a lot of meaning to me. It means a lot to be back in this neighborhood.”

Cozzy’s Place is open until 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and delivers until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. You can reach the restaurant at www.cozzysplace.com or at 845-45COZZY (845-452-6999).

OPINIONS

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September 10, 2009

Student passion, enthusiasm turns the wheels of the College Caitlin Ly

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Guest Columnist

few weeks ago, Vassar was uncomfortably silent. The air was still and the dorms empty; there were no long lines in the Retreat and no teams practicing on the fields. As I walked around campus thinking about the year ahead, I couldn’t help but notice how incredible peaceful our campus was.

But it didn’t take long for me to grow restless. Where were the Barefoot Monkeys running with flaming sticks through the Quad? Where were the faint sounds of an a cappella performance emanating from the Rose Parlor? Where were the Miscellany News stacks, the fiery political debates, the orchestra concerts? Where were the students?

As President of the Vassar Student Association (VSA), I take enormous pride in our students. Vassar students are an incredibly diverse bunch. By any possible measure, the Class of

2013 is the most diverse in the College’s history; more than 33 percent are students of color, and nearly 60 percent receive scholarship funding.

Our student body comes from 50 states and 50 countries. They speak dozens of languages and compete in twenty-seven varsity sports. But one word connects all 2450 of us—passion. Behind the eyes of every Vassar student is a special spark. For some, that spark means running a 3K at the farm or rowing a 5K on the Hudson every morning. For others, that spark means computer programming or composting. Passion lies in all of us. You might not have found it yet—it might not have found you yet. But I promise, it lies somewhere within you.

To an unusual degree, Vassar teaches its students to follow their passions. From Vassar do indeed come “the adventurers, the pioneers in curious fields, the radicals,” a characterization as true now as when it was first written in 1920.

That Vassar spirit has persisted over the ages,

despite political, social and technological shifts that have moved us into a new world. Since its founding, those Vassar traits of adventure, of curiosity, and of passionate action have defined the nature of our students.

Now more than ever, Vassar needs your energy and enthusiasm. The global economic crisis has deeply affected our College, and like all of our peer schools, we are in the process of a difficult adjustment. The challenges ahead will require patience, compromise and continued engagement from the Vassar community. Believe in the power of yourself and your peers.

Engage and take action. Now is the time to take risks, think boldly and come together to create something better.

Never underestimate the power that you have as a student. Vassar—without its students— is nothing more than a collection of beautiful buildings. Students have the power to shape the culture here. Last year, the VSA leadership made

successful strides to work with administrators to preserve a rich and diverse curriculum, to find innovative solutions to cutting costs and to help ensure that student voice was heard in the process of difficult decision-making. This year, we will rely on your support and your passions as a driving force behind our policy recommendations. You have the power to affect change.

To return to a point I made at Convocation last week—Vassar is entirely what you make of it. So go explore. Join organizations, participate in our elections and serve your College.

Walking now on Vassar’s campus, I am reassured. The Monkeys are out, the Miscellany is distributed and the Madrigals are signing their songs. We, the students, are back in force to ignite our passions. Let’s work together to ensure that this year is brighter than ever.

—Caitlin Ly ’10 is the Vassar Student Association President.

New Library hours inconsistent with Vassar student mission Jen Richards and DC Mungo

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Guest Columnists

o building on campus has a more direct effect on Vassar’s academic life than our library. On August 28th, at the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Leadership Conference, we were shocked to hear the words “the library will be closing at midnight Sunday through Thursday.” We had heard rumors and counter-rumors, but this time we heard it directly from the College’s administration. Outraged, the authors of this piece immediately resolved to demonstrate the extreme dismay we felt sure our fellow students shared. Within a mere two days, over 10 percent of the student body had signed a petition beginning, “We, the undersigned, call upon the Vassar administration to reinstate the standard library hours.” Much has happened since the night these words were written, but this incident brings up some important issues.

Thanks to the letter sent on Aug. 31 by Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs, Rachel Kitzinger, we now know that the shortened library hours relate to some vague yet “immediate and

complex staffing issue.” We now understand that the administration cannot easily reverse the hour-changes, nor can it simply allocate funds differently. We profoundly wish that the issues had been thoroughly explained to the entire campus, instead of reluctantly revealed in response to a question at the VSA Leadership Conference. We believe there should have been an all-campus e-mail sent as soon as the change was made to the hours. Instead, our petition served to inform the student body, a task that should have been carried out by the administration. Indeed, it is in the administration’s best interest to thoroughly inform the student body in order to avoid ill will and student outrage.

We do appreciate the work that is being done to find solutions, and we are grateful that Dean Kitzinger sent an explanation about the decision-making process. Nonetheless, we find her statistic misleading that “on average, about 190 students come and go during that hour-and-ahalf.” Of course, every student does not use the Library after midnight every single night, but that does not change the fact that many students

have used those hours and will need to do so.

Furthermore, we have no problem with the creation of a 24-hour working space in Main. However, it is simply not the Library, and it should not be treated as some kind of replacement. The Library is a space that holds countless resources, and for many of us it is an inspiring space that drives us to finish our work on time.

If Vassar wants to keep competing with the best liberal arts colleges in America such as Williams, Swarthmore or Bowdoin Colleges, then it must preserve elements that support our academics. Bowdoin’s library closes at 1:30 a.m.

Sunday through Wednesday, Swarthmore’s library closes at 2:00 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and Williams’ library closes at 2:30 a.m. Sunday through Thursday.

Out of the top 15 liberal arts colleges listed on U.S. News and World Report, almost every school’s library now has longer hours. Thus, it comes as no surprise that one of the most common responses to our petition was, “If anything, the library should be adding hours!” Vassar’s foremost goal ought always to be the continu-

ance of academic excellence. Presented with such a powerful reaction by so many students, we believe the number of signatories on our petition clearly proves that the Vassar student body feels that the library’s standard hours are an integral piece of that excellence. Our Library, often touted for being uniquely large for a school of our size, houses incomparable resources that we, as the students of the College, deserve as much access to as possible.

We understand that the administration has been put in a difficult position and that they are doing what they believe is best. However, we hope that our distress will be heard and that in the future, the administration will seek to inform the student body immediately after any and all changes that may affect our academics.

We hope they will provide ample explanation and expedite the process of finding a solution to this issue. We ask these things not out of an overblown sense of entitlement. We ask this because of what our petition states: “We want to live up to our full potentials and we petition you for these library hours!”

This year, Serenading was a watered-down dissapointment Lucien Garo

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Guest Columnist

abstained from Serenading my freshmen year. Why should I allow a group of complete strangers to douse me in ketchup? And afterwards I’m supposed to compliment them in song? Really? I found the ceremony to be barbaric, unsanitary and obviously a form of hazing.

My sophomore year, I was less than eager to fulfill my duty as a Jewett House Team member to get freshmen excited about Serenading. But I was enthusiastic for their benefit. After we won, Jewett House was raided by other members from other houses. Property was vandalized and stolen. While trying to protect the dorm, one House Team member was shoved down the stairs leading into the building, and I was lifted like a rag doll and tossed aside by other unruly students. When we approached a security guard requesting help, he simply shook his head and said, matter-of-factly, “That’s what happens to the winning dorm. That’s tradition.”

So, when the administration banned condiments this year, one may have expected that I would be pleased with the decision. Yet, I find myself conflicted. Despite the chaos of last year, I enjoyed myself. A lot of the seniors who showered me in syrup, whipped cream and ketchup were my friends. I looked like I had lost a fight with a hot fudge sundae. Was it gross? Absolutely. Disgusting? Definitely. But it was also one of the most memorable experiences from my college career thus far, and I am grateful that I had an opportunity to participate in Serenading the traditional way before it was re-vamped. I still find Serenading to be outlandish and a tad barbaric, but since when did Vassar’s reputation include an adherence to conventionality?

I am confused about the exact reasoning behind the administration’s decision to forbid food at Serenading this year. One popular justification I have heard from other students is that throwing food on the ground contradicts Vas-

sar’s support of sustainability and that wasting food portrays us as unsympathetic to all of those who cannot afford such a luxury. I find these claims dubious.

To the best of my knowledge, water is still a precious resource. And I also wonder about the sustainability of all of those plastic super soakers. If I make an effort to recycle and compost 364 days a year, I feel that I should be able to “waste” a $2.50 bottle of ketchup at least once in my four-year stint at Vassar without causing too much of an uproar. It’s not hypocritical—it’s just human.

I do agree that no one has the right to destroy someone else’s property or to trash someone else’s home. The damage resulting from Serenading in 2008 cannot be repeated, and I think the administration felt the best solution was to permit only water. But it seems to me the issue here is not the substance being used but a lack responsibility on the students’ part. We, as students, are more than capable of controlling ourselves and for managing the mess we happen to create. Last year, many of the residents on the vandalized floors in Jewett pooled all of their cleaning supplies and worked together to scrub down their bathrooms.

It was a compassionate gesture that should not have been necessary because all students should feel it is their duty to protect Vassar’s houses. I share the desire to reform Serenading, but I personally feel that changing the rules avoids addressing the root of the problem. Vassar students and administrators must foster a stronger sense of community and shared responsibility for the well-being of this campus and its residents. Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa put it succinctly in his all-campus e-mail the day before Serenading: “Simply be kind.”

If Vassar students can agree to respect each other’s property during Serenading, I am not even sure this new rule would be necessary. The damage to the insides of the houses could be

eliminated entirely, and I would imagine that the majority, if not all of the outdoor impact, would be washed away by a light rain. Using only water may work, too, but I personally think it is comparatively lame. I would also imagine that many of the seniors were frustrated that they were covered in condiments their freshmen year but were not able reciprocate as seniors.

Nevertheless, the Serenading changes were relatively successful in the sense that little was vandalized or splattered in condiments. But the new water-only policy propagated a mentality amongst students that since this was not “actually” Serenading, there was no point in exerting as much of an effort.

Perhaps the affair has simply become mundane for me the third time around, but this year’s Serenading felt decidedly less fun. The song quality declined noticeably from years past and many of the freshmen did not even care enough to stay.

To be fair, I feel that this drop in participation was largely due to the abrasiveness of the senior class. I felt that they were rude and dismissed most of the houses only a few seconds into their performances, showering them in obnoxious booing and ice water.

Raymond was treated especially poorly. The senior class leaders described their shirts as ugly and a few disorderly students attempted to tear down their flag. I feel that this type of verbal abuse approaches hazing much more than a few drops of ketchup. I believe that because the seniors felt robbed of their Serenading experience, they attempted to bridge the gap between water and chocolate with childish teasing. I understand their frustration, but their behavior was inappropriate.

In particular, I had qualms with the senior panel’s oversight of the voting process. In addition to their less-than-popular performance, they were also criticized for cheating during the final vote because they cheered for their own

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

house. In short, Serenading was watered-down this year and that trajectory needs to be reversed. The tradition has transformed substantially during its history at Vassar, but it has always preserved its spirit. Seniors express pride.

Freshmen express respect. I think it is possible to maintain the atmosphere which truly defines Serenading, perhaps even without foregoing condiments, if we consider why this past event was so successful.

Despite their meager water-based arsenal, Vassar students still had the capability of wreaking havoc on the campus. Yet, with encouragement primarily from the house teams, they made the choice to be more respectful. This shows how much influence student leaders have to impact our school’s culture.

In my opinion, instituting a water-only policy was well-inentioned of the administration, but not in line with Vassar’s principles of shared governance. Instead, students reformed Serenading themselves by not telling the freshmen to trash the winning house and by setting a very good example.

If we continue to perpetuate the concepts of personal accountability and shared responsibility, maybe we can earn back the privilege of using condiments. Vassar students demonstrated a raised sense of consciousness this year when they elected to return peacefully from Ballantine to their respective houses. Now that we have developed a more mature mentality and pinpointed our past mistakes, we can work towards restoring Serenading to its previous, chocolatecoated glory.

If we all cooperate we can develop creative and responsible solutions to logistical problems such as what to do with all those sticky freshman. Maybe the house teams can pool their resources and throw a giant sprinkler party on the quad. It’s fun and sanitary! Let’s bring back condiments and experience Serenading the traditional way—covered in ketchup.

September 10, 2009

OPINIONS

Page 9

Government-funded health care is not the cure-all solution “T

ANSTAAFL”: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Perhaps voters, when contemplating candidates’ and current political leaders’ stances on medical care, should remember that wise phrase. There are always other costs involved, even when something appears to be free. With something as necessary as medical care, why would anyone want it to be cheap?

Other necessities such as healthy food or clean water are significant sources of expenditures in a healthy person’s budget; likewise, medical care should be viewed in this light. Are we willing to sacrifice quality for a fictional reduction in costs? I would hope not.

Public medical care is not cheaper because costs are actually reduced; the government attains the resources necessary from its populace through taxation, so it is simply a matter of redirecting tax dollars—assuming that costs do not even increase, which they often do with government programs. These programs require increased bureaucracy and political establishments, which result in care that is not cheaper than when patients pay doctors directly.

In fact, public medical care really only consists of controlling the price of medical services, so while the out-of-pocket cost maybe be maintained or even reduced, there are other costs— societal costs—that are greatly increased.

However, politicians, ever clever and eloquent, conceal the costs of public medical care and related programs from their citizens. The result is a seeming acceptance or even excitement for government medical care—after all, anything “free” is certainly appealing. The problem, though, is that this overhaul is anything but free, and will not only add $1 trillion to the national debt, but also increase many other costs in medical aid.

Societal costs, while not easily tracked, are egregiously enormous under public medical care. When diseases and disabilities require waiting times to be treated, many patients are forced to not work, which hurts the economy as well as each patient’s way of life. Many of these people are in extreme pain, and have to wait months for relief, and this wait can sometimes be lethal. Doctors’ salaries are decreased,

as price controls result in less payment; considering the expertise as well as the investment in medical school it takes to be a doctor, do we really want them not to be paid well? Moreover, fewer people enter medical school when doctors’ salaries are decreased, which again hurts the supply of satisfactory treatment and allows more mistakes—intolerable mistakes—to be made.

I will be honest, our medical care system is not perfect, though it is still one of the best in the world. Private health insurance companies, originally designed to benefit workers, have become so poorly regulated that the entire system no longer treats patients or doctors in the way that they should. The only people who can truly understand the nature of a medical problem are the patient and his or her doctor, and a third party only can make poor decisions about the necessity and price of care that they know nothing about. Before health insurance, doctors oftentimes would accept favors or goods, such as legal services or eggs, in exchange for their medical services. While this barter-like system may not be practical today, it certainly is a better idea than having a removed third party, whether the government or an insurance company, make the decisions. Many doctors go into the business because they want to help people, and surely their desire to help those in need who cannot pay has not decreased in the half century since health insurance companies were founded. If doctors and patients had the power in their hands, the unnecessary expenditures involved in either private insurance or government bureaucracy would greatly decrease, and costs would inevitably go down.

Furthermore, this sense of duty among doctors still exists even today: a homeless person off the street will be treated in an emergency room, even if they cannot pay and even if they do not have insurance. If we remove the thirdparty decisions, we will put power back to the people—the average patient, the doctors, and those most in need—as well as increase incentives to perform only the procedures that are necessary, and at a much lower cost. Is it not far better for the most poverty-stricken individuals

to get the quality care they need when it counts than having mediocre—and dangerous—care for all?

It is inevitable that the quality of medical care will worsen with price controls, which not only constrain capacity to prevent the supply of aid to match its demand, but lessen incentives to maintain quality, leading to reduced production.

When a good or service is lower than the market equilibrium, people demand more of it than they would when they have to pay out of their own pockets; people under public medical care seek treatment and very costly medications for increasingly minor problems, causing the already enormous price tag of public medical care to further increase. The aforementioned reasons, combined with the inevitable influx of patients seeking care, leads to only one despicable solution: rationing of medical care. Furthermore, the fear of losing customers, which usually makes doctors, and workers and other professionals in hospitals maintain a higher standard, is no longer as potent of an incentive. Quality, as should be obvious, is absolutely critical in medical care—it can be a matter of life and death.

Countless real-life examples can be given to show how public medical care reduces quality.

For example, in the Soviet Union, which had government medical care, there was a shortage of care. Each patient was able to spend only seven-and-a-half minutes with a doctor, with twothirds of the time being devoted to necessary paperwork for the political bureaucracies. Doctors who worked there at the time felt that many of the repeat problems they saw could have been solved with one methodical examination, but because there were far too many patients to see, there simply was no time.

Moreover, in modern nations the differences in private and public medical care are readily apparent. In the United States, only five percent of patients undergoing elective surgery waited more than four months. The lowest percentage of patients that waited more than four months in a public-care industrialized country is 23 percent in Australia, and 38 percent of patients had to wait that long in Britain. Germany, the last country in Europe without public medical care,

has twice as many doctors per capita than Britain, the most heavily government-funded nation.

Some statistics further evidencing Britain’s deficiencies resulting from their government-run medical care system are frightening. Some staff members refuse to clean up bodily fluids, and many of their doctors went to medical schools in third-world countries, a serious risk when a lack of top-notch education could result in debilitation and even death.

Of course, politicians blame something other than themselves for these problems. The beauty of large numbers of specified-task groups and a tangled web of bureaucracy allows blame to be placed more easily; one group can easily claim another had not informed them of an issue and blame a serious problem or event on “lack of communication.” I find this unacceptable. Political advocates of public medical care also claim that total costs of care go down, while only the cost per visit goes down—total costs actually rise. It is very easy for government institutions to get more outrageously expensive funding, more unnecessarily specific “groups” and carefully selected statistics to support their cause, and with something as important as our health, do we want the founders of this radical change to be so deceptive?

With the complete mess the government recently made of the “Cash-for-Clunkers” program—some dealerships were told that they might not even be paid within a year—why would anyone want to risk the government handling their medical aid? So much of a person’s health involves their own personal choices, from smoking, drugs and obesity, to other serious health risks, that the government cannot possibly “improve” all citizens’ health. Americans need to think critically before acquiescing and allowing the government to control their medical care, lest we lose the first of our fundamental Constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

—Kelly Shortridge ’12 is writing a bi-weekly column this year which will bridge the gap between liberal and conservative thought. She is the Opinions Editor.

Lack of depth and thought in political debate stymies progress Michael Mestitz

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Guest Columnist

resident Obama gave a speech on Sept. 8 to the schoolchildren of the United States; it was broadcast on C-SPAN and available online, and classrooms could tune in to watch a presidential address that focused on the importance of education. It sounds to me like a wonderful opportunity for a generation of schoolkids to listen to the president of their country reinforce the idea that education is a cornerstone of our society, and to (perhaps) reassure then that they would in fact use algebra in their grown-up lives. Of course, I’m clearly a brainwashed victim of President Obama’s anti-capitalist agenda, because what it really is, according to conservative radio host Dana Loesch, is a “socialist indoctrination of America’s children.” Duh. The thing is that, as of this writing, the speech hasn’t even been given yet! In a spectacular case of putting the cart before the horse, all these attacks are coming before the speech is actually given. Perhaps I should say “putting the bandwagon before the horse,” given how quickly things spiraled out of control.

A little context: A White House spokesperson has said, “The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard, stay in school and dramatically reduce the dropout rate. This isn’t a policy speech. It’s a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school.” Of course, the White House also asserts, among other things, that Obama is a U.S. citizen and that the Earth is round, so why should we listen to them? Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, who started this hoopla in the first place, de-

cried the speech as part of “the activist tradition of government schools using students as junior lobbyists,” and condemned the “Democrats’ strategy of using kiddie human shields to advance their legislative agenda.” (Historical note, lest this sound as if I’m granting the Democrats moral high ground here: When former President George H. W. Bush broadcast a speech to schoolchildren in 1991, the congressional Democrats lambasted him for putting taxpayer dollars toward “paid political advertising.”)

This spectacular and baseless explosion of political theatre can’t help but remind me of an-

Democrats say that a reform to the health care system will lower costs, provide better service and prompt manna to rain from heaven. Republicans say that greater government involvement in health care will increase inefficiency, pass on enormous costs to the taxpayer and cause the government to convene “death panels” to do away with grandma when she stops being useful. The truth is that this is a complex issue, and that the core ideas of all these concerns (well, not the death panels or the manna) are very valid, but they do not have the real impact that they need in order to attract an actual audience. And

“And that’s the crux of this problem, in both health care and in this speech issue: with the frantic rate at which information hits us today, there’s no time for middle ground.” other recent debate that’s been hogging the legislative limelight; if this speech is the intense but just-opened one act play on the political stage, then the slogging, arduous King-Lear-meetsLes-Miserables of scripted political grandstanding is surely health care reform.

I’m going to make the presumption that everyone is familiar with the partisan monologuing that the prospect of a much-expanded government role in the American health care system has prompted. The SparkNotes version:

that’s the crux of the problem, in both health care and in this speech issue: With the frantic rate at which information hits us today, there’s no time for middle ground.

If an issue isn’t threatening the apocalypse, there’s a perception that it will get lost in the shuffle of things, so pundits and news organizations have to spin everything. For example, while I was researching for this article, there was a story I saw in the sidebar titled, “Are You Snoring Yourself To Death?” Oh, please.

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If the media isn’t doing it, the politicians themselves have to frame issues like this in order to get their own coverage: returning to health care, the catchy “death panel” line was originally Sarah Palin’s. Glenn Beck, Fox’s hysteria-inclined host of the show of the same name, has accumulated 2.5 million viewers since his program started in January. His MSNBC counterpart in outspoken partisan rhetoric, Keith Olbermann, has 2 million viewers on the opposite end of the political spectrum.

As long as there’s more of an interest in insubstantial but dramatic political theatre than in substantive dialogue, things are going to stagnate. If the perception continues that people can’t actually handle the important, nuanced issues that a large-scale policy debate entails, then the networks will keep favoring entertainment over information, and politicians will take extreme stances in order to get their share of airtime. In other words, a failure to deepen political debate in this country simply perpetuates a proliferation of extreme views chosen for their theatrical merits and not their ideological consistency.

If people continue to argue health care policy based on misinformation or pure fantasy (read: death panels), we will not have the focus and the unity to resolve the real problems like cost control, access, and efficiency. By being taken in by extremism and eliminating the ability of moderate opinions to be heard, we’re only hurting ourselves.

If we don’t raise the complexity of political discourse, and if the political theatre doesn’t calm down, it’s “curtains” for progress.

OPINIONS

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September 10, 2009

Changes to Serenading let us reevaluate the tradition Nick Dressler

Guest Columnist

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he Vassar College Encyclopedia provides the following description of Serenading: “The upperclassmen’s special welcome to the incoming class. Marching behind banners, the members of the upper classes serenade the new students in each house with their class songs.

The first-year students in each house respond with a song composed for the occasion. The event climaxes when all classes and each house sing their songs for a group of administrators, and the senior class officers select the winner.”

Doesn’t sound like Serenading as we know it, does it? No, a true definition of Serenading could go something like this: The seniors’ “special welcome” to the lowly freshmen. Charging at them with a ferocity reminiscent of the movie, 300, primal battle cries to boot, the upperclassmen shower the freshmen with an assortment of edible foodstuffs, while the newbies humbly sing and prostrate themselves before their obviously-superior classmates. The event culminates when the now sticky-and-sweet freshmen

make their way up to Ballantine Field with their housemates and once again present their songs to the senior class and College administration, who together decide on a winning house to receive a prize which will never materialize.

Or, as I see it, we could sum it up even more succinctly: hazing.

Now, I know a good number of you reading this just rolled your eyes. Serenading, you’ll argue, is a Vassar tradition, a defining moment of freshman year. This is definitely true. I still have my chocolate syrup and ketchup stained t-shirt from Serenading—it’s a keepsake that I treasure as a relic of my first year at Vassar.

Despite all the great memories I have of my Serenading experience, that same experience was not so great for a number of freshmen both in the classes of 2011 and 2012, and probably even in years before that. A sort of unofficial tradition of Serenading, at least in recent years, has been showering off the sticky, sweaty mess in dorms other than one’s own. Last year in particular, this resulted in conduct that could easily be characterized as sexual harassment. Many

freshmen also feel pressured to participate in Serenading, and this—coupled with the fact that hundreds of upperclassmen participate just to “get” the freshmen—validates the outsider’s viewpoint, no matter how much it is denied, that Serenading has been a hazing event. Furthermore, the dispersal of students covered in who knows what en masse resulted in a huge mess for maintenance, who didn’t get paid overtime for the hours they put in cleaning it up.

This year, Serenading evolves and eliminates food completely in favor of what will ultimately amount to an epic musical water gun fight. When I first heard of this change, I was very indignant.

Yes, being covered in sticky condiments on a scorching 80-plus-degree day is not exactly the definition of having a good time, but the experience made me, at least, feel a part of Vassar and its culture. In a brief conversation with Executive Director of Campus Activies Teresa Quinn, I made my feelings about the change known, and she countered by saying, “Yes, but did you know at one point seniors were throwing raw meat at freshmen?” Obviously, lines must be drawn

somewhere. Though I felt that chocolate syrup and ketchup were essential parts of the Serenading experience, obviously that hasn’t been true for the majority of people who’ve attended Vassar: Serenading, much like any Vassar tradition, must change over time to give students old and new the most optimal experience possible.

Long gone are the days in which upperclassmen serenaded new students behind their class and house banners. Soon, the days of food throwing during Serenading will be but a distant memory, as well. What we must bear in mind is that Serenading has always been regarded as one of the last events of freshman orientation, sort of the final welcome to the College before the rest of the year officially begins. How do we want to be portrayed to new students? A college that has an entrenched class hierarchy? Or one that actively seeks to naturally integrate new students into an eclectic student body? I think you know what my choice is. What’s yours?

—Nick Dressler ’11 is a Student Activities Resource Center intern.

Essential to avoid thinking of people as mere numbers Royce Drake

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Guest Columnist

his past Friday, Sept. 4, I woke up and checked my e-mail. Nestled between junk from online retailers and The New York Times was an e-mail from Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa about Serenading. I normally don’t read mass e-mails, but the subject heading caught my eye: “Fun, Love and Respect.” The phrase “a deeply felt affinity and respect” was used to describe the feelings towards students, and the hope for how the students interact with the rest of the world. Even earlier this week I read a different mass e-mail—the one that came from the Office of the President Catharine Bond Hill. I was pleased to find out that there are more students of color in the Class of 2013 than there have been in any previous class. I was happy to read about continued commitment to financial aid. I’ve read the e-mail multiple times and have spent many hours on the economy website because I’m not very good with numbers.

One of the reasons I chose Vassar was because I knew I wouldn’t have to do math or science. So I, like many students, have to pay close attention when Hill or Vice President for

Finance and Administration Elizabeth Eismeier talk about finances. Not only are there numbers, but there is a lot of vocabulary specific to economic discourses. This makes it a challenge to ask the right questions.

Talking numbers abstracts the conversation.

These numbers have homes. These numbers need to pay bills and buy groceries and clothing.

These numbers are brothers, sisters, cousins, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, lovers and friends. These numbers are people. And people is something I know. Talking about people as numbers ignores issues that we should be trying to correct. Cutting professors means that those who aren’t tenured are more vulnerable.

That means the diversity we try to cultivate in the student body will not be reflected as much in the faculty that stands before them in a classroom. Fewer women and people of color are tenured, and so they are the ones at a greater risk for being let go. The cuts across the board will affect people of color, women and workingand lower-middle-class community members.

Recognizing these numbers as the human beings they represent allows us to act with “a deeply felt affinity and respect.” I hope that

the administration is able to also act with love and respect, and if they aren’t then we need to push them in that direction. The truth is that a lot of things that make this campus great had to come from pushing, from being active. If it wasn’t for active and caring people throughout the College’s history we would not have an Africana Studies Program, the ALANA Center, the LGBTQ Center or the Women’s Center.

It wasn’t just on our campus last spring that a hunger strike was happening—there were a number of campuses in the spring that had hunger strikes or occupations, the most famous of them being the occupations at the New School and New York University. This is because sometimes you have to push a little harder than just joining a committee or going to a meeting.

The Hardship Fund was great. It raised money and distributed it to people, but it isn’t a solution. It possibly cannot even be a permanent effort. It was as transient as a Band-Aid to cover up some blood. We can’t keep using Band-Aids and stop gaps. But we also can’t just amputate until we’ve exhausted every possible cure—I promise the medical metaphors are done.

Vassar likes to use a lot of metaphors for it-

self: bubble, community (okay, I guess that’s more metonymy), and—one I haven’t heard in awhile—family. I like the family metaphor. It reinforces the need for compassion, for the deep affinity that Inoa talks about, but I guess that family makes it harder to cut folks. After all, families are making it through this economic crisis without having to cut a child or a grandparent. They just have to buckle down and have fewer extravagances.

President Hill said in her remarks at the 144th Commencement: “...students were involved in the movement for women’s suffrage—despite barriers put up initially by the College’s administration. In the 1960s and ’70s, civil rights and anti-war activism played a significant and sometimes disruptive, but constructive, role on campus.” The administration doesn’t always know best, and activism has been a critical element of showing them that fact. History continues to prove that sometimes you’ve got to give a nudge to get them to see things differently and to act in a way that is fun, loving and respectful.

—Royce Drake ’10 was a student representative on the Harship Fund Committee.

Changes to Baldwin hours Serenading is a celebration are of little consequence of new students and seniors Marissa Guthier

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Guest Columnist

ith the economy in its current state, everyone has to cut down on spending. As students, we’re finding cheaper alternatives for getting textbooks. And as an institution, Vassar is making some cuts too. Some of them, in my opinion, are more radical than others, but considering the huge amount of changes that we have to get used to this semester, Baldwin Hall closing earlier is one that students shouldn’t worry about. Many colleges already have alternatives to full-time health services. It is an easy thing to cut without too many repercussions.

My mother used to work the late-night shift in the Health Office at Trinity College. She was allowed to sleep there in the office as long as she would be able to wake up to the sound of the buzzer if a student came. Probably 99 percent of the time, she would get a full night of sleep.

No one ever showed up, even on the weekends when she took most of her hours.

How often do we need to go to Health Services in the middle of the night? The most common reason, I suspect, is due to being intoxicated in one way or another. If you showed up at Baldwin in the type of condition that usually elicits medical attention, they would send you to the hospital. If you were just worried about a friend or yourself and you turned out to be fine, Baldwin would send you back to your room to get some sleep. What has changed now? Students are still going to call Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for most situations.

And if we are in danger of getting sicker and

being in real danger, we are still going to go to the hospital. Now we just have to be the judge ourselves. You can call the nurse triage service to help make your decision. If it is not an emergency, you will probably be fine to wait until the morning to see a doctor. And, really, if Baldwin were still open full-time, would you show up at 2 a.m. with a cold? And if your case is very severe, Baldwin would probably send you to the hospital, anyway.

One concern that I know is not solved so easily is the issue of staying in an infirmary. What if you are sick and it’s a weekend? There is a hall party going on and all you want is peace, quiet and a good night’s sleep. You used to be able to show up to Baldwin and get a bed for the night. Are these services still available now?

There are also the designated “get well rooms” in the dorms that are supposed to be used for quarantine, isolation or just having a quiet `space while you’re sick. The College should make the procedure for acquiring one of these rooms more clear.

With the flu season coming up and a lot of people concerned about the H1N1 strain, we need to be responsible for our own health. Be careful and get a flu shot. Washing your hands is the easiest way to stay healthy. If you’re in a horrible medical emergency, go to the hospital. If you feel sick, get some sleep and see a doctor in the morning. And if you think you have the flu, get an isolated room and try to get better. Baldwin closing earlier is nothing to be dramatic about. Only you can be the judge of your own health.

Matthew Harvey

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Guest Columnist

f I had to describe Serenading as succinctly as possible, I would say that it is the very best kind of hazing. It isn’t forced on anyone; there aren’t any significant consequences if a student opts out and chooses not to participate—but, for those who do get into it, who really commit themselves to the wild ridiculousness of the event, the reward is tremendous.

By making such complete and utter fools out of ourselves we, Vassar’s freshmen, earn the recognition and respect of the seniors by demonstrating our willingness to take risks. We are showing that we trust the community-at-large not to think us foolish, not to treat us badly.

While it might be said that, in fact, the seniors do treat us badly, I think that such a view of the situation is narrow-minded and entirely in the wrong spirit: being sprayed with hoses and squirt guns is a perfectly normal pursuit on a sunny day, and causes no one any harm. Even the chocolate sauce and the ketchup ultimately serve only to spice things up by adding variety and a note of total absurdity.

Serenading at its best is a celebration of the serendipity that put some three or four dozen freshmen in a dorm together and made them into a community, whether they wanted to be or not. This experience of community building is available, I think, to every student willing to proverbially stick their neck out for the sake of the entertainment of the group, and, more importantly, who is willing to go outside their comfort zone in order to discover something

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new about themselves. It is this aspect of Serenading, more than any other, that makes it so quintessentially Vassar-like. No other school, I think, could invent and maintain a tradition that is both so preposterous and so flexible—no one needs to sing or dance, no one is compelled to cheer or wear a house shirt, and it’s certainly possible to avoid the worst of the water and other projectile liquids if that should happen to be your desire.

The freshmen involved in Serenading, though, have much more to gain than they have to lose. The camaraderie, the pictures, and the memories will last for the rest of our time at Vassar—certainly many older students seem to regard it as one of the brightest spots in their time here, one of their most rewarding experiences—and one where they made lasting friendships. Of course, Serenading involves the senior class as well as the freshmen. The role of the seniors seems almost to be more to induct the freshman into the community than it is to have a good time. For all that the seniors are the ones holding the super-soakers, it is the new students who benefit the most and take the most away, because it is we who have the experience of shared suffering and tribulation.

Ultimately, the day is really for us—the seniors merely help things happen.

It is hard to imagine what could be more in the spirit of Vassar than a freshman bonding dancing day where the seniors are allowed to show their enthusiasm for the incoming students in the wildest, loudest way possible—and that, I think, is what Serenading really is.

September 10, 2009

OPINIONS

Page 11

President’s birthplace beside the point Emil Ostrovski Guest Columnist

Questions arose this summer over whether President Barack Obama’s presidency is in fact a legitimate one—questions centered on the possibility that our dear president was not born on American soil. After all, our Constitution does state that “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President…” Kindly note that our illustrious founders excluded themselves from this restriction. Now personally, I don’t know where Obama was born, and quite frankly, I don’t care. Instead of asking where President Obama was born, we ought to be asking, why should it matter?

Our revered Declaration of Independence posits that “all men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Being the cynic that I am, I do not believe that all are created equal. But I do believe that equality under law is an ideal toward which we should strive. And since the founding of our nation, we have, truly, made great strides in this capacity. Granted, great strides were needed to make up for great deficiencies, but as all our good politicians reminded us before, during and after the 2008 presidential elections, we are less far from this ideal than we have ever been before. And yet, for all this optimistic “only in America” talk, for all the progress we have supposedly

made, I have not heard a single person of political import use the controversy stirred up by the birther movement as an opportunity to point out that the entire birther case is built on an inequity writ into the constitution, an inequity which is, by its very nature, hostile to the democratic principles that we claim to value so highly. Principles, incidentally, which countless Americans have given their lives for, on street corners and in far-away trenches, in single decisive moments or as days turned to months turned to years.

I’d like to think their battles, waged with ink and blood and sweat were not in vain. I’d like to think they died for a better America.

And I’d like to think that they would be disappointed to know that 233 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we still have not lived up to the very truths that we claim to hold as self-evident. Some will attempt to diminish the significance of this injustice by saying, “well, foreign born citizens can do just about anything else. So it’s not really a big deal.” But it is a big deal because true legal equality has no qualifications.

It either exists, or it does not. And in America, it does not because our citizens are divided into two camps—those who can run for president, and those who can’t. Those who were born in America, and those who were not. As a result, each and every American citizen’s liberty and freedom to political expression is infringed upon. For not only can a foreignborn citizen not run for president, but neither can the American people choose to elect a for-

eign-born leader. I am not here to argue about whether or not we should have foreign-born presidents. I am here to argue that if a foreignborn citizen wants to run, he or she should be able to do so, and if the American people want to elect him or her, they should be able to do so. I am an advocate for the expansion of our political liberty.

After all, it is really quite ironic that the land of the free is one of the few countries that maintain this kind of archaic requirement.

Even Russia, a country which we have made a sort of hobby of criticizing for being undemocratic, has no restriction of this sort in place.

The only real counter to all I’ve said that I’ve heard is the xenophobic idea that foreignborn citizens cannot be trusted to hold our nation’s highest office. After all, we are rather unscrupulous creatures. Non-existent studies have shown that as a foreign born American citizen, I am 534 percent more likely to engage in genocide to expand our country, stick citizens who are from countries I’m currently at war with into internment camps, resign in disgrace after it is discovered that my administration has authorized all manner of illegal activities, and last but certainly not least, lie to the entire American public about the sexual relations I most certainly did not have with that beautiful intern of mine.

In seriousness, I feel this inequality needs to be addressed, and its galling longevity coupled with the reluctance of politicians to speak out and act should be insulting to anyone who believes in democracy.

As a freshman, What is your favorite thing about Vassar so far?

“The Lathrop bathrooms.”

Dante Varotsis ’13

“The groundhogs, which I hear they call ‘wump wumps.’”

Timothy Magidson ’13

Threats to community are intolerable Ben Reichman

Guest Columnists

The murder of Dr. George Tiller this past May may have struck some people as a surprising event. But anyone paying attention would recognize George Tiller as another entry in the ever-growing list of victims of anti-abortion violence. Dr. David Gunn was murdered in Pensacola, Fla. in 1993. Dr. John Britton, along with James Barrett, a clinic escort, were murdered in the same city in 1994. Also in 1994, two clinic receptionists— Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols—were killed in Brookline, Mass. Dr. Barnett Slepian was murdered in his home in Amherst, N.Y., in 1998.

In each of these cases, white men asserted their authority to rob children of their fathers and wives of their husbands. They apparently consider this authority as more legitimate than the authority exercised by a woman who chooses to have an abortion. The right to kill adult human beings, then, is here considered to be more fundamental than a woman’s right to decide the fate of her own body. Do not mistake the implications of these murders for the random and foreign acts of “crazed reli-

gious fanatics,” or any other fringe-sounding group easily declared blame-worthy. The true culprits—and the ones who always get off scot-free—are ourselves.

We assert the importance of our own comfort and luxury over the fundamental needs of others, and each time we do this, the less privileged members of our society have more of a right to do just that. When we, in Vassar College, do not feel the need to critique the sexism, racism and classism that pervade our society, then why should we be surprised to find doctors who fight against these elements of our society murdered in their churches, synagogues and homes? When we grudgingly tolerate the exoticizing of women of color and the isolation of our school from the community of Poughkeepsie, then why should we be shocked at the murder of these men and women, who strive to provide women of all classes and races with their rights? We should not allow ourselves the luxury of surprise until we learn to maintain the social vigilance commensurate to the privilege of outrage.

Vassar, like any large group of people, is like a body, and like any body, it has racism, sexism and classism in its blood. And again, like

any body, if you hit it hard enough, the blood starts to show. But just because we can’t see this blood all the time doesn’t mean it’s not there. Once in a while, we pick at a collective scab we just can’t seem to forget. And once in awhile, enough people pick at the scab that the blood oozes out to the surface and we see our prejudices and fears writ large for a brief moment. Such an incident occurred recently, when an ALANA Center sign was the victim of racist vandalism. The incident should not be discussed as one of exception, but of representation—every sign on Vassar campus has “white” and “rich” etched into it. Apparently, someone felt threatened enough to assert this fact by physically etching it. That moment means something. The blood of social evils flows through all of these veins, even when they’re so far beneath the skin we forget they exist. But no matter how far down they go, if you hit the skin hard enough, you still get to see a little red. And Dr. George Tiller, for all the good he surely did his patients, just became a new scab.

“Seeing people I know do something stupid at the Shiva Rave.”

Will Lefferts ’13

“I found a pack of swedish fish at the bottom of a vending machine.”

—Benjamin Reichman is Treasurer of The Vassar Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance.

Republicans confuse patriotism, greed Steve Keller

Guest Columnist

There is a growing clamor throughout the country, and if you watched Fox News at all last week, you’ll have seen what it’s about. The story was that the usual patriotic “on-hold” music for when you called Congress had been replaced with smooth jazz. “Don’t meddle with our patriotic music!” Sean Hannity said, outraged at the plan. The House Administrative Officer had decided to offer a choice between silence, patriotic music and smooth jazz, but under Republican pressure, they went back to the old system where there was no choice of music. Republicans are fighting a lot of freedom, and these days it involves the freedom to get health care when you’re sick.

President Obama has proposed that, like in every other industrialized country, the government will step in with some sort of option to provide for those who need health care. This will not only increase competition in a marketplace that desperately needs it, but will prevent the uninsured from using emergency rooms as primary care, thus sending the costs to us and clogging up emergency rooms for actual emergencies. You like your plan now? Keep it. The President is going to try to lower your costs and

get rid of bureaucratic devices like “pre-existing conditions”, which are excuses for the private insurance companies to deny you the coverage you’re paying for. But listen to the Republican lies and you’ll hear that Obama wants to nationalize health care. You’ll hear he’s going to deny coverage for the old. You’ll hear that the new system is going to be inefficient. You’ll hear that the system is going to turn us into Soviet Russia—and that socialism is on our doorstep, which is, of course, not patriotic. But this begs the question, what is patriotism? Listen to Republicans, and you would think that patriotism is slapping a bumper sticker on your car, invading other countries in search of oil, and keeping Mexicans from crossing the border.Thing is, that’s not patriotism.

Patriotism is about standing together as a country. Glenn Beck yammers about how we were unified as a country after Sept. 11, but when it comes down to actual patriotism, Beck and his cronies seem to exhibit very little national brotherhood. That’s because patriotism is not only defending our country from al-Qaida, but also caring for our neighbors. Any fundamentalist Christian will know the creed, “Love Thy Neighbor.” That saying transcends Christianity.

It’s part of human morality.

To a Republican, it’s more patriotic to hold onto your money and prevent sick people from getting the care they need. The free market will fix it, because it’s more efficient, right? Not exactly. Private insurance companies take 10 to 20 percent in overhead costs for profit, marketing and more. Government-run Medicare takes about two percent. Medicare has a higher rate of stisfaction. In fact, some of these opponents of reform have even been saying, “No government interference with my Medicare.”

If you examine the right-wing position on health care, it is mostly based on ignorance and lies. There’s ignorance of the plan, which has been the driving force behind recent town hall lunacy. They’ll raise your taxes! They’ll set up death panels! There will be bureaucrats between you and your doctor!

Republicans, your taxes are not going to be raised, unless you’re already rich. And if I’m not mistaken, there already are death panels.

They’re called insurance companies, and they operate for one purpose only, which is making a profit. With the view of health care as a commodity, they look for ways to increase their profits, and the best way to do that is to raise costs and deny coverage to those who need it. That won’t happen with the government, because

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Katie Sullivan ’13 — Angela Aiuto and Kelly Shortridge, Opinions Editors there is no profit involved. Government is not necessarily evil. Government can be corrupted, but its function is to work for its citizens, and as the preamble to the Constitution states, to provide for the “general welfare.” Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president, said it best: “Government is the coming together of people to do for one another collectively what they could not do as well or at all privately through the market system or philanthropy.” That may be why government-run Medicare is so highly respected, and why government-run veterans hospitals are, in neo-conservative William Kristol’s admission, “first-class.”

For right-wingers, there’s also ignorance of their own positions. They complain about government spending, but where were they when the Bush administration took billions to fund the Iraq War and unnecessary tax cuts for the rich? We can get a first-class health care system in this country. The only thing standing in the way is ignorance and greed. Maybe in their country, patriotism is about those values, but not in mine.

—Steve Keller ’11 is a member of the Moderate, Independent, Conservative Alliance (MICA) on campus.

OPINIONS

Page 12

September 10, 2009

Back to school characters remain untouched by economy Kelly Stout

A

Guest Columnist

nd we’re back. But don’t everyone get excited at once. As Cappy reminded us at Convocation—in her perennially jubilant optimism and matching oratory brilliance—we’re up a creek, not only without a paddle, but without an endowment with which to buy a new one as well. “Yes we can” is so last year. This year’s motto: “Ask not what Vassar can do for you—” because apparently it isn’t very much.

For those who weren’t there, Cappy’s address at Convocation last Wednesday can be glossed in the following way: “Welcome, freshmen.

We’re all glad you’re here, but just so you know, we’re screwed, and that includes you. Sorry you decided to come here.”

I suppose it’s time we all faced the music: Dark times lie ahead. Swine flu is impending, Michael Jackson is dead, and Library is closing at midnight this year. We live in a changed world, where fun is dead and doom reigns queen. Even the Atrium Café in the gym is closed. Rewarding myself with a thousand calorie smoothie after working out for 17 minutes was always a favorite pastime of mine. Now when I go to the gym, all I get to do is work out. It totally sucks. Like everyone does in times of great struggle, I find myself clinging to those things that remain unchanged year after year. There is no pillar of normalcy like back-to-school. Who doesn’t love new classes, new faces, and—in years when the college remains financial viable—a renewed sense of possibility? Let’s face it, we’re all suckers for the first weeks back, and everybody’s favorite activity during these precious days is judging our peers who we haven’t seen in a few months.

So instead of dwelling on the horrors to come this academic year, I’d like to take a moment to highlight some of the familiar and beloved backto-school characters and personalities we have all come to count on.

First, The Ex-Pat: No matter where you went or how much you learned on your junior year abroad, the Ex-Pat learned more. She will describe her JYA experience as “amazing” or “beautiful”—that is, if she can even talk about it yet. She has no reservations about making sweeping cultural generalizations about the country where she spent a semester because she knows it so well. She’s going back the second she has a chance because the “culture is so welcoming” and she “grew so much there.”

The Jet-Setter: He spent the summer in Tanzania climbing Kilimanjaro with his wealthy extended family before heading for stops in

“So instead of dwelling on the horrors to come, I’d like to highlight some of the beloved back-to-school characters we have all come to count on.”

Tangier and Brussels. His trips are as lavish as they are inaccessible to you, and that makes the Jet-Setter insufferable. If you have to look at another facebook album of him and his British-royalty cousins sipping tea with the Prince of Monaco, you think you might slap someone, probably him. The only thing that makes the JetSetter bearable is the possibility that he might invite you on his family’s next trip to Botswana.

For this reason alone, he might be worth keeping around.

The Overcompensator: The Overcompensator spent the summer working at a lame nonprofit in suburban Philly that no one’s ever heard of. She will absolutely insist it was the greatest learning experience of her life.

The Brooklynista: The great thing about the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn is that it’s no longer a dwelling place reserved solely for hipsters. Now normal people can live there too, and The Brooklynista is one who takes full advantage of this recent development. He probably lived in an overpriced sublet where there was never any toilet paper, and apprenticed for an artist or something. He speaks in vague terms about how he spent 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the summer, but if you spent the summer anywhere in the five boroughs, you probably went to one of his parties and hated it.

The Intern: This girl had a distant relative hook her up with an internship somewhere like the White House or ESPN. She will spend her entire semester hoping someone will ask her what she did over the summer so she can talk about what “a nice guy Rahm Emmanuel is when you get to know him.”

The Home Body: This guy spent the summer working at his local Stop and Shop and living at home with Mom, Dad, and his grandma who just had a hip replacement. The Home Body used his free time to cruise around the suburbs in his station wagon with a bunch of friends from high school, drink Busch Lite in abandoned parking lots, and drown in a pool of self-loathing and restlessness.

The Camp Counselor: The Camp Counselor doesn’t understand why anyone would ever want to do anything other than be waterfront director at Camp Smiley Pines for the summer. Despite being 20 years old, you’ll probably find her wearing a friendship bracelet or two, and her devotion to Smiley Pines sometimes approaches religious fanaticism. The Camp

Counselor claims to understand the film Wet Hot American Summer on “a whole different level” and will maintain this assertion all year.

You better believe she’ll be back at Smiley Pines next summer too.

The Well-Prepared—if Boring—Guy: He spent the entire two months of vacation preparing for the GREs. Nothing interesting happened to him this summer and his score only improved by three percent.

“The Lumberjack:” A few years back everyone learned what Brooklyn was (see above), and it stopped being cool. This put hipsters looking for summer housing in a bind. Since then, the American Midwest has become the final frontier of hipsterdom. The Lumberjack probably spent his summer shooting a film in Missoula and looking forward to wowing everybody in NoViCE upon his return to school. The breadbasket of America is the perfect location for hipsters because it’s, (a) ironic, but also kind of authentic, (b) full of plaid-clothed people, and (c) a great place to take overexposed black and white photographs of rusty trucks. The good thing about “the Lumberjack” is he’ll definitely not want to talk to you about his summer.

Of course, this remains an incomplete list.

I’ve left out such favorites as starred-in-herown-porn film, or, discovered-organic-farming, or, stayed-on-campus-and-ate-dry-cereal-outof-the-box-for-three-months. Allow me to apologize if I’ve left your unique summer experience out. Everyone deserves the chance to brag about his or her summer, and I’d like to encourage you to take time to casually mention the “awesome research” you did on Bosnia in poli-sci on Monday. Or go ahead, tell everyone about your July in Italy. Because believe me, everybody cares.

As world goes from bad to worse and our endowment evaporates, there are few things we can truly count on. One is back-to-school enthusiasm, and indeed, some things never change.

Lessons to live by for the Vassar College Class of 2013 Daniel Files

Guest Columnist

Dear class of 2013: Hello, Freshman! Or, as someone from your young and hip generation would say, “Hi!” Welcome to the wonderful, magical, exciting, wet and briny world of College! Vassar College to be specific. If you are from Bard, Wesleyan, Bryn Mawr or the University of Phoenix, please put this paper down immediately, go home, and think about what you’ve done.

Now, I know it’s terribly exciting and thrilling to be a newly minted child of academia, but sadly, there are several things I need to warn you about. First off, you should know that it’s not cool to introduce yourself to upperclassmen. You can tell an upperclassman by their gaunt, pallid, weather-beaten features and their ghostly eyes which stare without seeing. They have no soul, and feast on hearts, so, better not to speak to them. Blowjobs, however, are entirely acceptable.

Secondly, bring your ID cards with you everywhere you go! But freshman, I have a personal question. No, no, not that. Get your mind out

of the gutter. I want to know, why the lanyards?

Does it really help you keep track of your ID? Does it help you remember who you are? Do you like looking like unpaid interns at a corporate mid-level training conference and/or cattle?

Thirdly, at TH parties, please pee in the woods; never enter those large lego-like buildings all around you; they are houses, and yes, people live there! Unless, of course, they are all naked with the door open, then the ball(s) are in your court. Fourth, get crunk! Finally, you need to know that we are broke. No more are the days when we would install flat screen TVs on every uncovered surface of Vassar Campus and spend thousands of dollars on subcommittees to plan and organize their usage. No more are the days when we would finance obscure sports requiring complicated and expensive equipment, such as Animal-mounted Action Golf, or rugby. (But you can still play Quidditch!) No more are the days of fountains spurting chocolate. I know it’s hard to believe, but we once even had fully staffed cafeterias with “edible” food all across campus. We didn’t have to hunt deer, gather berries or even cannibalize the sick and the old!

If you don’t remember what a cafeteria is, it was like a forest full of tasty animals, where all the animals were already dead, chopped up and cooked! And wrapped in plastic, to protect us from swine flu. Those were the days!

Back then, some people didn’t even eat meat.

We could afford so many leaves that they could survive on plants alone! Even different kinds of leaves. Amazing.

The cafeteria was a big ugly warehouse where people laid heaps and heaps of food out in big metal bins, most of which would just rot, some of which was just for decoration. Imagine! You didn’t have to hunt or gather anything !

But there is no point in lamenting what is lost, and never again will be. Goodbye, Atrium, Goodbye, Creative Writing, Goodbye, Fountains of Chocolate! The present is even more troubling than the past. Despite the massive cutbacks, our college is still in financial chaos. You know what that means? Chaos!

Obviously, more proverbial, and perhaps a few more literal, heads will roll, before our budget is balanced. According to sources deep within the bowels of Cappy, these are possible changes the

administration is considering: Telling Medieval Studies majors to “get a real job.” Printing out an entire VPrint quota worth of counterfeit money. Cancelling Christmas.

Building stairways in empty fields and having students carry rocks up them. These cuts would be part of an ambitious two-tiered action plan to both cut costs and increase enrollment, and thus, revenue. Ideas for increasing enrollment include: Criteria-blind” Admissions. Subdividing the rooms in Main into even smaller rooms, accepting more small people to fill them. Draining the pool, turning it into a triple. According to calculations, that should give us about 20 new students, which means, of course, one million dollars! With that money we could fund ViCE for a whole month!

So despite these changes, life at Vassar will be fun, invigorating, full of challenges and opportunities, and hopefully not full of unwanted pregnancies. Okay, maybe a few. Just for fun!

Now I really should stop talking, because I know everyone is dying to get to the sports section, on the backpage.

This week at Vassar College Kelly Stout

Guest Columnist

THURSDAY, 9/10 3 p.m. Tea. The Backpage couldn’t really be gone. I refuse to believe it.

FRIDAY, 9/11 3 p.m. Tea. Instead of getting a job, I’m going to

belligerently and incoherently write about the death of the Backpage on my blog! This is the most important thing that’s happened in my life since graduation! Rose Parlor.

SATURDAY, 9/12 11:30 a.m. Lectures, Talks and Walks.

Lectures, Talks, and Walks. For those who want to fill their hung-over Saturday mornings with exercise and class. Don’t forget your Gatorade.

Various locations.

10 p.m. First Registered Paries of the Year.

Thanks to the party class we’re carding at

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the door, serving beer in 12 oz. Dixie cups, providing adequate snacks, and succumbing to authority. Town Houses.

SUNDAY, 9/13 Heritage Weekend Tour. A nostalgic stroll

through six centuries of New York watercolor and drawing led by our very own Lehman Loeb docents. Bring your favorite AARP member! .

MONDAY, 9/14 10 a.m. Potpourri. One-stop shopping for

both a betta fish and a vintage funeral veil to wear when it dies next week. College Center.

3 p.m. Tea. If we could just keep the calendar… Rose Parlor.

TUESDAY, 9/15 3 p.m. Tea. 3 p.m. Tea. Is the Misc even worth

reading now? I feel so disillusioned.

WEDNESDAY, 2/4 3 p.m. Tea. It’ll be okay. I’ll just use the new Sports page to line my hamster cage.

September 10, 2009

ARTS

Page 13

VRDT auditions are window to world of Vassar dance Erik Lorenzsonn

T

Arts Editor

Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

he front door is locked. The thought crosses my mind that my article is finished before it has even begun. Before I panic, I consider the possibility of there being a side door. I circle the building to investigate, and I find a door ajar but flanked with yellow caution tape. As I peek inside, the sudden honking of a horn from a F-150 startles me. A man with a crew cut in a T-shirt and khakis gets out and amiably shouts as he approaches, “Can’t go in that way! Room’s getting painted. What do you need to get in for?”

I phrase my response as a series of questions.

“I’m Erik Lorenzsonn, Arts Editor for The Miscellany News? I’m here to observe auditions for VRDT?” Crew-cut motions for me to follow. He leads me through a glass door next to the one I had been peeking through. We traverse a labyrinth of hallways and stairs until we arrive on a landing outside of a dance studio. The door is open, and within I see girls in leotards stretching out in yoga positions. A shout of, “Okay, downwardfacing dog everyone,” echoes from the room.

Two girls whisper to each other on the landing as crew-cut goes to inform the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) faculty of my presence.

The two tell me they’re waiting for an auditioning friend, which seems perfectly logical to me.

Little did we know that the women’s auditions would not end for another two and a half hours.

A man dressed in a sleeveless turquoise tee and striped jazz pants approaches me from the doorway. He communicates with a friendly handshake and a quizzical look.

“I’m Erik Lorenzsonn? I’m the Arts Editor for The Miscellany News? I’m here to observe the auditions…”

Before I finish my non-declarative statements the man is already shaking his head.

“We never received any word about the Misc being here. I’m sorry, but the auditions aren’t meant for public observation.”

Uh-oh. Yet again my article could be due for an untimely end. I reach for my cell phone to call some higher-ups to make my case for me.

Just in time, another professor pops his head through the door and grants me a boon.

“It’s okay, he can sit in just as long as he stays out of the way.”

I’m in! The man in jazz pants gives a shrug and leads me through the studio doors. He points to a corner of the room, indicating my place. I scoot over to the corner, plop down, whip out my notepad and observe.

Dance auditions are easily associated with celebrity panels a la So You Think You Can Dance, or Dancing With The Stars appearances by Emmitt Smith and Tom DeLay. I don’t know if my own personal expectations are skewed by the dance-themed reality game show craze, but they certainly didn’t correspond with the reality of the auditions. At the very least I had imagined a panel of professors auditioning applicants one by one in a secluded echo chamber. But instead I am looking at a large dance studio filled with 46 girls being led through a complex series of warm-ups by the Assistant Director of VRDT and Lecturer in Dance Kathy Wildberger.

“Up and curve, up and forward, side, reach, curve, suspend, and five and six and chest and

up and down…”

Her chant describes an endless stream of motions that the dancers behind her mimic almost effortlessly. Bare feet squeak on the skidmarkridden gray rubber floor as the dancers twist and gyrate in time with Wildberger. They are lit by the sunbeams filtering in through open windows around the studio, converging with the light from fluorescent bulbs on the ceiling.

The noise of the construction and birdcalls from outside can be heard in juxtaposition to the light Vaudeville-style piano accompaniment played in a corner of the room. The mirrored entrance-side wall is cluttered with backpacks and Nalgene bottles, and is also lined with a bench of five dance professors observing warmups intently. A latecomer jogs into the room, shares a quick word with one of the instructors and circles to the back of the throng to join in the warmups. “…and forward and back and forward and side and shift, shift, shift, shift, and okay…”

Wildberger seems to have finished. Now Visiting Dance Instructor Deirdre Lowry takes over, leading the girls through the motions of a funky electric bounce. The dancers go through the motions of the dance in nearly perfect unison. How can they so perfectly replicate what they have only just learned 30 seconds ago? It is mind-boggling.

In between walk-throughs of the routine, Lowry gives the dancers some advice. “The two dégagés, the two ‘up-ups’? You should be putting almost no weight on that okay? Very light. Yes or no?”

“Yes!” unanimously declare the dancers as they put the prescribed methodology to practice. I’m not quite as onboard as they are. Dégagés? What are dégagés? For that matter, what are glissades, pliés, sous-souses and felanges? Sitting in on these auditions have opened my mind up to a whole new lexicon of dance terminology.

“Okay, second combination! Jazz!” shouts a man in square-rimmed glasses and an urbane pink button-up shirt, none other than Director of VRDT and Professor of Dance John Meehan.

He efficiently organizes the massive group into eight sections of five and one of six. The smaller groups learn the next combination from Adjunct Instructor in Dance Abby Saxon, the VRDT Jazz Instructor. The combo is challenging, rife with quirky head rotations and hip swings that lead many of the participants to giggle uncomfortably and chatter amongst themselves throughout the routine. As the separate groups perform for the judges, those resting on the sidelines watch intently and practice the routine in time with them.

One of the VDRT faculty with a prominent gray beard, All-Star sneakers, khaki shorts and a black shirt wanders over to my corner. He hovers by me, cycling through different postures.

He stands for a minute, then leans against the banister on the wall, before sinking into a squatting position and eventually settling down into a kneeling position. But never once does he break his intense stare at the dancers as he absentmindedly chews on his pen cap and scribbles on his legal pad. If it’s possible for him to be more intimidating to the nervous VRDT-hopefuls, I wouldn’t want to know what he’d have up his sleeve.

At 2:15 p.m., the auditions have ended for

Female dancers wait for instructions during VRDT’s auditions on Sept. 5. The male dancers would take to the floor only after the women had finished several complicated routines. women, but the men’s auditions will begin in 15 minutes. Everyone gets their picture taken for the judges to remember them by, and then scrambles for water bottles and backpacks before rushing out the door. I manage to talk to some of them on their way out of Kenyon.

“Yeah, I guess I was nervous about getting in,” said one girl. “I don’t know if it matters, but I was in VRDT last year, so I’m not entirely sure how much they’ll take that into account when reaching their decision.”

“That last move, that sous-sous, it threw me off,” she added. “It was really new.”

More than a few questions are on my mind, but I need to get back to the studio. Fifteen minutes gone by when I get back, but only 14 guys are stretching on the dance floor. Are these really all the male dancers that will show up? There had been comparatively so many female applicants.

I boldly take a seat on the bench next to Photo Editor Kat Mehocic, who has been diligently snapping pictures for the article. No more outof-the-way corners for the likes of us.

Like déjà vu Kathy Wildberger is back in the midst of the dancers, working them through warm-ups.

“For eight counts, suspending on the eighth, and up and down and left, to the side…”

Her mantra familiarizes itself in my mind. I try to mentally keep pace with the soothing series of positions and stretches. Once the warmups are over, the question of time is briefly discussed by the instructors.

“You know what, take your time,” Meehan intones playfully. “It’s all very interesting to watch with so few people.” Interesting? I’m not entirely sure of what that means or what is so appealing with the smaller numbers.

He even then deigns some preemptive advice to the dancers before they go through the routines. “We don’t want to see you do this stuff perfectly. We just want to see you move. Not perfection. Just movement.”

The same contemporary, jazz and Irish dance routines are worked through for the fresh batch of hopeful males. But this time as my gaze

pans across the room, I take the time to notice a range of facial expressions. Most of the boys are perfectly deadpan, flaunting the most masterful poker faces. But some make subtle giveaways. A lip-lick here, a bitten lip there, a nervous glance at the adjacent dancer every so often. Some aren’t nervous at all and are throwing themselves into the arena with gusto. They laugh and smile at the funkiness of the combo they’re learning, and match their dance moves with heavily gesticulatory faces. One of the guys dancing directly in front of me even laughs out loud at one point.

The auditions end a little after 4:30. After photos are taken of the students, instructors and dancers briefly mingle and chat in the studio. Suddenly Meehan calls out “Any faculty who want to have a say in the decision needs to be downstairs.” The professors bustle out of the studio. I wonder how they feel about their immediate task of deciding the entrants’ fates.

Sixty people auditioned, but only thirty-five of them at most would make the cut.

The opportunity to accost lingering male dancers presents itself in the form of some friends conversing by the studio entrance. The subject of VRDT versus Flypeople was breached “VRDT and FlyPeople are definitely not rivals.

People seem to think that, but it’s just not true,” he said. “They’re just two very different groups stylistically. FlyPeople is hip-hop based; VRDT covers pretty much everything else. Neither tries to beat the other, and they both fill very necessary niches.”

I ask another dancer if he was nervous. He just stares at me for five seconds before replying “I wasn’t nervous. But I got pissed off real fast.” He saunters off. Someone was obviously not tickled pink with how their audtion went.

Final thoughts? “My calves are already remembering the Irish stepdance,” says one of the dancers as they prepare to leave.

“I have blisters on my feet already,” laughs another.

Ballantine the perfect venue for Clipse, Yes Giantess Wally Fisher

Guest Columnist

Boston synth-pop and southern hip-hop in the same concert? Please, you wouldn’t have more contrast if the New York Philharmonic opened for Metallica. But somehow stylistic differences were bypassed last Friday, when Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) presented an event that was all-inclusive and thus successful.

Yes Giantess’s electric beats created an atmosphere appropriate for manic flailing, illustrated best by the three band members present.

Although the concert was scheduled to start at 8 p.m.—satisfyingly standard for a Vassar event— very few people were actually on Ballantine Field to enjoy Yes Giantess’s tomfoolery by 8:15 p.m. It started out with maybe 10 to 20 people, with a noticable increase in numbers around halfway through the set. It was enough to feel like a small concert, but not quite like an

all-campus event. People trickled onto the field throughout the evening, some even arriving just at the concert’s end.

The hip-hop of Clipse proved easier for the masses to enjoy. Bob back and forth, make a few hand gestures, clap your hands to the rhythm.

Apparently the accessibility of the quasi-dance was still lost on a hefty chunk of the attendees, given that Clipse acknowledged scattered herds of students standing around with hands in their pockets by Walker Field House.

But therein lay the beauty of the event. If it was your perogative to be at the periphery of the brouhaha, you could do it. Maybe synth-pop gives you migraines and hip-hop makes you cry.

Whatever, you still could have just shown up and hung out with your friends. No one’s forcing you to push to the front of the crowd and mosh.

Ballantine ultimately accommodated a variety of perspectives that a venue like UpCDC

just cannot. People-watchers who just wanted to see Vassar’s version of a smoke machine chilled in the back and admired the puffs let out in the main crowd. Those who wanted the real concert feel could jam by the stage and be rewarded with a handshake from Clipse.

If you wanted to leave, you could just get out and go. Coming back was a breeze because there were no maximum occupancy limits, no ID checks and no lines.

While the greatness of Ballantine Field should be apparent, it can’t carry an event by itself. Yes Giantess and Clipse managed to do their parts quite well, too. Despite missing their drummer due to a “lung explosion,” the three remaining members of Yes Giantess put on a pretty stellar set through great energy. By kicking the balloon floating around and joking that Vassar is like Hogwarts, the trio exhibited a goofy charisma that complemented their oft-times sexual lyr-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ics.

Clipse’s personality also played a big part in their success. The hip-hop duo was joined by a DJ and a guest rapper. They displayed indifference to whether the concert-goers illegally downloaded their music or not, but instead showcased a deep appreciation by dedicating songs to fans who have followed the group since the beginning of their career.

And even for those without a love of rap music, it was hard not to enjoy the clever rhymes.

The catchiness of Clipse’s songs won over the crowd through songs like “Mr. Me Too” and “Wamp Wamp (What It Do).”

Clipse’s close was greeted by the sincerely adulatory masses. Whether true fans or not, it was hard to tell as everyone cheered. The concert had ended in time to allow late night plans to come to fruition, something that seemed to be appreciated as students left Ballantine Field.

ARTS

Page 14

September 10, 2009

Students and faculty debate studio art prerequisites Caitlin Halasz Senior Editor

V

assar is known for having fewer academic requirements and prerequisites than most of its peer institutions, but several departments set 100-level courses as prerequisites for their more advanced work: Economics 100 or 101 is required for almost all 200-level economics courses, for example, as are Biology 105 and Psychology 105 for their respective disciplines.

Art history students must take Art 105-106 to do more advanced work in the discipline, and visual arts students must take Art 102-103. The last of these prerequisites, however, has drawn far more criticism and even anger from students than any of the others.

Art 102-103, Basic Drawing, is a year-long course that meets for four hours a week and is required in order for students to take any 200-level studio art course, unless a student has been granted the instructor’s permission to forego the requirement, which Art Department faculty members say is a relatively rare occurrence.

One of the most common student criticisms of the Art 102-103 prerequisite centers on the fact that the introductory course focuses solely on drawing, a skill which is extremely helpful for painters and printmakers, but which many see as less applicable to other areas of the visual arts, such as photography and three-dimensional art.

“The drawing class helped me with my attention to light and things like that—light sources and how to play with light, things like that,” said Claire Casstevens ’12, who took Art 102-103 last year before deciding not to become an art major.

“But at the same time, I could have also learned that kind of thing in my art history course, or in just a photography course,” she said.

Faculty members in the Art Department, however, explained that the decision to have the course focus on drawing was well thought-out.

“It made sense to us because we feel that drawing has the immediacy that allows you to cover a lot of ground and cover a lot of conceptual range quickly,” said Associate Professor of Art Peter Charlap, who regularly teaches Basic Drawing, “whereas the courses on the 200 level—painting, sculpture, photography and printmaking— all have material demands that would slow down that process of understanding the visual language.”

The Chair of the Art Department, Professor

of Art Harry Roseman, also stressed the importance of Basic Drawing for equipping art students with the visual and verbal language needed to be successful in more advanced art courses at Vassar. He said that having the shared experience of taking Art 102-103 gives students in the higher-level art classes “the ability to communicate about something that’s not about words but is about a visual presence that needs to exist in some ways without words.” Roseman stressed that these communication skills give visual arts students the ability to see art not just as a fun, creative endeavor but as a serious academic pursuit. “This gives everyone a context in which to actually share ideas and analyze the things that are being talked about,” he said.

Many Vassar student artists, both inside and outside of the Art Department, agreed with Charlap and Roseman that a year of basic drawing can inform other arts and give students the background to take higher-level art courses seriously. Sierra Starr ’12, a prospective art major who took Art 102-103 last year and whose primary artistic interests are sculpture and ceramics, stressed the importance of drawing to all of the visual arts. “It certainly informs photography, printmaking, and painting because it has to do with composition and techniques,” she said.

“Even for sculpture you still need to be able to... relay your plans, and your sketches, so [drawing is] a technique that you need.”

Starr also emphasized the importance of Basic Drawing for teaching skills that apply to other arts. “Composition is composition is composition,” she said. “That extends between the 2-D and 3-D bounds.”

Even student artists who had never taken an art class at Vassar could see the merits of beginning the study of art as an academic discipline with a basic drawing course. “I can see how in some ways foundations of drawing and art are probably good for photography, in terms of composition and aesthetics and that sort of thing,” said Erica Hersh ’10, the co-President of Vassar’s student photography group, Phocus.

Nonetheless, Hersh also said that the art requirement was “detrimental to students who want to learn about photography,” and that very few Phocus executive board members in recent years have taken studio art classes. This roadblock in taking photography courses has divided the community of photographers on campus into those in the Art Department and those outside of it, said Hersh. “It’s just strange that

there’s this whole group of other people who are interested in what we’re interested in, but they’re just so separate,” she said.

Both Hersh and Starr said that the prerequisite would meet with less student resistance if it was merely a semester-long course, rather than a full year.

Charlap and Roseman noted that the Art Department faces frequent questions and complaints about the prerequisite, but they feel that a year of basic drawing gives students the tools and background necessary to embark on an academic study of art. “It’s not the only model, and it’s not the only way to make art, and it’s not the only way to become an artist,” said Roseman.

“But it’s one that seems to work pretty well in this context, so we use it.”

Roseman also stressed that he and the rest of the Department see studio art as a serious academic discipline. “Like every other category of a discipline within this school, everyone’s trying to up the thinking process, and the quality of making connections,” he said, “and we’re after the same thing in studio art.”

Because of this, both art professors said that they did not see the Art 102-103 prerequisite as fundamentally different from any other departmental prerequisite. Roseman said that the Basic Drawing prerequisite was “very comparable” to Art 105-106, Introduction to the History of Art, which is required as a prerequisite for most higher-level art history courses and is one of only a few other year-long prerequisites at Vassar.

Not all students characterized the two yearlong prerequisite courses as being so similar, however. Lindsey Payson ’11, an art history major who has not taken studio art courses at Vassar but who studied visual arts at an arts high school, said that the main difference between art history and studio art is the amount of experience students have in the discipline before taking the year-long course. “Some students come to Vassar already having had a lot of experience doing studio art. It’s not as likely that someone will have been taking art history from a young age,” she wrote in an e-mailed statement. “I had taken two art history survey classes before coming to Vassar, and I still felt like Intro Art History was really useful and necessary, but I don’t feel that way about studio art,” she continued.

Indeed, the student opinions on the two prerequisites are vastly different; Art 105-106 is praised almost as often as Basic Drawing is

complained about. Starr cited similar reasoning to Payson’s on the general student opinions on the two courses. However, she ultimately agreed with Roseman and Charlap on the similarity of the two prerequisites. “I honestly think that drawing and this Art 105-106 survey course are probably just as relevant for upper-level electives in both,” she said. “But that’s not really the widely accepted opinion, I guess.”

Roseman and Charlap both said that the few art majors in the past who have been allowed to forego the requirement have later told faculty members that they wished they had taken the course.

Starr said that a year of drawing as a prerequisite helps to ensure that students in higherlevel art courses are taking the discipline seriously rather than “writing them off as not a real class.” Roseman agreed with Starr’s assessment.

“We think of it as a very serious activity, and not play,” he said. “We think of it as a really thoughtful, serious analytical activity.”

Some students, though, believe that the yearlong prerequisite also keeps some students who are very serious about the visual arts—like Hersh and Payson—out of the higher-level studio art courses. Payson expressed frustration with the fact that, halfway through her college career, it is already too late for her to begin taking Vassar’s art classes. “I’m [abroad] first semester this year and by the time I get back I’d have to take basic drawing both semesters of my senior year, which is something I wouldn’t want to do,” she wrote.

The students and faculty in the Art Department, however, said that an extra year of drawing could only be positive for art majors and other students who wanted to intensively study art. “What we want, and I think we’re good at it, is getting students to feel, when they’ve been through this course, that...they have a very broad-based understanding of, especially in drawing, what you can do and what the possibilities are and the processes,” said Charlap, “and I think it’s far superior to have them feel that than to have them down the road feel, oh, I’m missing something.”

“The drawing course is never going to harm you. Taking drawing is only going to make your art better,” said Starr. “But I’ll admit that I was annoyed during parts of it,” she conceded, “because it seemed like stuff I had done before.”

Two music professors perform at department recital Carrie Hojnicki

Assistant Arts Editor

Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

Most students have only been back on campus for slightly over a week, so they might be surprised by the refinement and quantity of melodies already emanating from Skinner Hall of Music. A walk to the South Parking Lot will undoubtedly include the operatic practices of a voice student or even, with some luck, the talents of a music faculty member.

The Music Department’s treasury of professional musicians is perhaps one of its greatest assets. And every year, the Vassar Music Deparment gives them their share of limelight with faculty recitals in Skinner Hall. They provide an arena in which students can witness the incredible prowess of their instructors, all of who possess resumes and talents that would impress anyone, music student or not.

On Saturday, Sept. 12 at 8 p.m., Adjunct Artist in Music Louis Pappas will lead a double bass centered concert with the help of his fellow faculty members Ed Xiques, Peter Tomlinson and others. The following day at 3 p.m., pianist and Professor of Music Todd Crow will perform a more classical program, featuring the works of Schumann and Debussy.

Crow has performed in notable settings around the world including, but not limited to, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Despite the prestige associated with these concert locales, Crow maintains that he approaches every performance with an egalitarian, hard-working approach. “You try and make every performance be as good as you were in the last performance. It doesn’t really matter if it’s ten people or if it’s one thousand people, it’s always important to be as good as you can be,”

Music professor Todd Crow will perform a classical program, featuring the works of artists such as Schuman and Debussy.

Crow explained.

Pappas, formerly a bassist with the United States Military Academy Band in West Point, N.Y. and performer with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, Chappaqua Chamber Orchestra, Hudson Valley Philharmonic and Westchester Philharmonic, echoed Crow’s sentiments. Pappas emphasized the importance behind exposing music students to the work of professional musicians.

“Comparing this concert with my work at West Point is like comparing apples and oranges. My work at West Point was very ensemble based, whereas this concert, as its title ‘Lou Pappas and friends’ suggests, is a more intimate and fun program,” explained Pappas. “Having my students out there [in the audience] will be exciting. Hopefully this will show them what should be done. Also, this is a great chance to show them what I do.”

Peter Tomlinson, one of the friends in the moniker “Lou Pappas and friends” is an adjunct instructor in jazz piano and holds a resume of equal esteem to those of his colleagues. Tomlinson has recorded with numerous folk and rock artists, including Natalie Merchant. He hopes this concert will inspire jazz sentiments in all audience members, musicians or not.

“Playing for students, well hopefully listening to live jazz in general, will inspire the students to try their hand at jazz or get deeper into it. Some of my students are new to jazz, some are experienced. It’s about inspiring them, about showing some of the things that are possible. But for the audience in general, it’s about just trying to make some pretty music,” said Tomlinson.

Both the Saturday and Sunday concerts feature artfully crafted programs to move, entertain and educate the concertgoer. A two part program, Saturday’s “Lou Pappas and Friends”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

concert will start with a classical repertoire including music by Bach, Mozart and Schulhoff.

The second, jazz-based half will feature one of Pappas’s original jazz compositions.

“This will be the first time I perform my originals. There is some anxiety about being on stage alone, especially being a bass player. This happens very rarely,” explained Pappas.

Because of its rarity, the bass-centered concert is a challenge to the musicians who will be playing with Pappas. “Bass is usually in an accompaniment role, but it’s also a beautiful melody role. If you are playing an accompaniment to the bass, you have to be sensitive to the register and the volume that they’re playing at tends to be softer. It’s very nice to hear the bass player take the melody sometime, and Lou has written a gorgeous solo composition,” said Tomlinson.

“This is going to bring a slightly different bend to the concert.”

Crow’s Sunday concert is less genre-bending than Saturday’s. However, Crow’s musical choices are no less varied. Crow, playing the music of Schumann and Debussy, carefully chose pieces whose roots lie in literature and more specifically poetry. “The two composers are very different,” explained Crow. “Schumann, the archetype of romantic composers, has a lot of tonal harmony, while Debussy is more atonal and grounded in a certain key.”

As this musical jargon may mean nothing to the lay listener, Crow emphasizes that the most important part about listening to music is the feeling that it evokes. “You don’t have to know anything to listen to music; it just comes down to what you feel about it. You may be told Beethoven is the best composer of all time, but you might not necessarily agree. You don’t have to analyze it to like it.”

September 10, 2009

ARTS

Page 15

FLLAC Exhibit highlights historical art of New York Esther Clowney Guest Reporter

Henry Hudson and his merry crew set out 400 years ago upon what would one day be known as the Hudson River. If their expedition had set out in modern times, their rucksacks would have carried a handy GPS device, a digital camera or other modern amenities. Instead, the military men traversed strange new waters armed with pencils, compasses and sextants.

The former draftsmen and cartographers drew images that documented their physical surroundings and conveyed a sense of their own personal experiences.

The 400th anniversary of Hudson’s journey is now upon us, but unfortunately the prints he and his men drew were auctioned off in 1821 and have not been seen since. So when Roberta Olson, Curator of Drawings at the New-York Historical Society, was charged with the daunting task of selecting 81 of the N-YHS’s 9,000 pieces for a 400th anniversary art exhibition, she did not have anything of Hudson’s to use.

Olson instead took a different approach, and showcased art that is representative of New

York’s history but also of personal experience in the same vein as Hudson’s work. The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center’s (FLLAC) new exhibit, Drawn by New York: Six Centuries of Watercolors and Drawings at the New-York Historical Society, is the product of Olson’s labor of love.

“The exhibition doesn’t aim to represent all the kaleidoscopic types of arts, from folk art and works by amateurs and travelers as well as professional artists, but rather to give a taste of the riches in the [N-YHS] collection,” wrote Olson in an e-mailed statement.

The exhibition is organized thematically.

The first room holds drawings of New York City, the second contains landscapes, and the third features depictions of people.

The non-chronological order results in some striking juxtapositions. Two drawings of the Great Fire of New York (1835) hang between a triptych panorama of the half-completed Twin Towers (1970) and an artist’s rendering of an atomic bombing of New York City (1950). This particularly haunting piece, “Atom Bombing of New York City,” by Chesley Bonestell, is an

aerial view of New York drawn for a magazine.

Cast in an orange glow, the destructed city is littered with hellish imagery including blocks covered with fire and a collapsed Brooklyn Bridge. The evolution of the city is documented in full, with the forces of creation and destruction represented in equal measure.

By including a wide variety of preparatory sketches and architectural studies, Olson imbued the exhibit with a similar awareness of the evolution of a piece of art. These sketches include the design for a Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass window and two figure studies by portrait painter John Singer Sargent.

“One of the functions of drawings is that they often reveal the artist’s process and thoughts during the creative phase of the work of art’s evolution,” said Olson.

The exhibition also contains two preparatory studies of bats that John James Audubon drew for his book, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. These two Audubon sketches are accompanied by two bird sketches drawn by Pierre Vase. Audubon’s bats look so lifelike that from afar one can imagine they

are real animals, preserved behind glass much like a butterfly collection. The same is true of Vase’s “Male and Female Brambling,” multilayered watercolors that capture the textures of down and feather with incredible beauty.

“In one, you can trace Audubon’s conceptual process as he outlines in graphite and adds watercolor to some sections,” Olson said. “It is intimate, like a conversation with the artist himself.”

Roberta Olson will be at the FLLAC on Sept.

11 to give a 5:30 p.m. lecture on the artwork and its significance entitled, “Stops on the Grand Tour of America: Places and Faces in ‘Drawn

by New York.’” The exhibition, which was shown originally in an expanded form at the N-YHS’s venue in Manhattan, will be on display in the FLLAC until Nov. 1. From there, it travels to the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mask’s new book analyzes five African American actresses Gulfem Demiray Guest Reporter

Google Halle Berry’s name right now. No references to her acclaimed performances in Monster’s Ball or Introducing Dorothy Dandridge will top your list of hits. Nor will anything on her Golden Globe, Emmy or Academy Award pop up. The articles that will are instead on her rumored pregnancy and her Canadian supermodel boyfriend. Perez Hilton’s coverage of the famous African-American actress’s life is even worse: “Halle Berry is Sperminated!” and “Halle Berry has fun in the sun with baby & BF” are only two of the popular website’s screaming blurbs.

These examples say a lot about America’s perspective on celebrity. Mia Mask is an Associate Professor of Film at Vassar who laments the shallow and limited view society has on film stars and of Berry in particular.

“Halle Berry is somebody that is very controversial,” said Mask. “People think she’s not that talented, not that much of an actress, and that she’s just sort of a model-turned-filmstar.” Halle Berry is one of the five AfricanAmerican actresses Mask analyzes in her book

Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film, which reexamines the importance of different paradigm-shifting African-American actresses. The book, which was published late this summer by University of Illinois Press, argues that Berry’s success is directly linked to another one of the books subjects, Dorothy Dandridge.

“I’m not the first person to make the link between Dandridge and Halle Berry, especially because Halle Berry played a biopic directed

by Martha Coolidge called Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” said Mask. “It was around that time when her celebrity began to get an extra jolt.”The book redefines other celebrities’ legacies with new perspectives on how their careers affected cinema. Dandridge is presented as a pioneering sex symbol who complicated discourse of race and sexuality onscreen, Pam Grier’s convergence of blax-ploitation and sex-ploitation film is used as a watermark to guage feminism and race, and Oprah Winfrey’s career is compared to the philosiphies of 19th Century novelist Horation Alger.

Perhaps the most intriguing reevaluation to be found in the book is of Whoopi Goldberg.

Instead of grounding the prolific actress’s career in drama, her work is seen as a function of her comedic roots.

“Whoopi Goldberg is an interesting person, said Mask. “She’s been written about in ways that are very critical. People say, ‘Well, Whoopi Goldberg really embodies the coon stereotype so many of her roles are unflattering, uncomplicated, monolithic.’ And there is definitely legitimacy to that argument. Once again with all of them they all are sort of lingering with stereotypes, comedies, but I think Goldberg’s comedy also challenged the system by challenging the white patriarchal power structures .

Mask was inspired to work on this project because despite the abundance of literature in film studies on stardom and Hollywood, there is very little literature specifically about black women film stars, much less the ones mentioned in Divas on Screen. “I was inspired and I am inspired by them because each one represents somebody who is in some way a maverick or challenging the system,” Mask said.

For example, Dorothy Dandridge was struggling in the 1950s to gain access to roles for a

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

black woman in mainstream film. Mask said she wanted to explore this further in her essay on Dandridge, adding that there is much controversy about the extent to which the actress actually “succeeded” as an actress. “There’s a lot of literature that says she was limited to racial stereotypes, but how else might we able to talk about her and what she accomplished?”

Mask said.

Mask does not dramatically alter the ways that these five celebrities will be seen in the annals of history. But through shifts in perspective, she does show that their artistry can be viewed in new multi-dimensional ways that contrast shallow precepts stemmed from tabloids. “I think that we have to be careful when we are lodging criticisms of film stars and try to look at them in more complex ways, said Mask. “It’s very easy in this entertainmentindustry-saturated environment to be dismissive and also to want to tune out some of the din, the noise of the celebrity discourse which we’re constantly bombarded with. “I want to complicate that discourse, that kind of ‘entertainment tonight’, discourse. let’s look at a celebrity in some other ways.”

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September 10, 2009

Inglorious Basterds has its moments and in a bid to win her affections convinces pure cinema.

Inglourious Basterds Yes, Tarantino still has some directorial none other than Joseph Goebbels to screen Quentin Tarantino chops. So why the “worst movie” status?

[The Weinstein Company] his new movie at her theater.

A

scene at the crux of the World War II romp Inglourious Basterds eases up on an otherwise ever-present suspense. An allied serviceman in the guise of a German captain has avoided exposure at the hands of a bona fide Nazi. Now both fraud and fooled make like old acquaintances in a dank French tavern, and revelry abounds as they drink and joke together. Then without warning the kraut quite literally pulls a gun on our hero’s testicles. Fun’s over, boys.

Put that scene in the context of the here and now, and it’s sort of appropriate. Director Quentin Tarantino has attained a demigod status with the college-age demographic, joining the esteemed ranks of Wes Anderson, Chuck Palahniuk and Radiohead. At any given time on Vassar’s campus, it’s as sure as sugar that you’re within 30 yards of a room plastered with Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs movie posters. Yet even despite Tarantino’s cult following, here is a review with the gall to deem Tarantino’s latest outing a lukewarm affair. Truly the proverbial gun-tothe-balls.

Be consoled that this review could easily have lauded Up, (500) Days of Summer, District 9 or any other summer hit deserving of kudos. But there’s actually much more to be said about Inglorious Basterds in lieu of those other winners. The plot spins a most engaging yarn, for starters. Our tale begins with a Jewish girl named Shoshana (Mélanie Laurent) who, after the massacre of her family, flees to Paris where she starts a new life as the proprietor of a cinema. To her chagrin, a German war hero becomes smitten with her,

Shoshana is not really down with screening Nazi propaganda in her theater. But she sees an opportunity for revenge, and she sets to work turning the movie premiere into a devious deathtrap. Now hold the phones: A ragtag troupe of American soldiers made infamous for their Nazi-scalping vices have also caught wind of the premiere. Unbeknownst to Shoshana, the “basterds” also make a bid to destroy the theater led by the eccentric Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt).

What ensues is plot development as twisted as a pretzel, along with some major revision of World War II history.

Despite the intriguing narrative and memorable characters, the end product is Quentin Tarantino’s worst movie. Now take a step back and reconsider that sentence. Taking into account how mindblowingly good his other movies are, maybe that isn’t a heavilybarbed criticism. And rest assured that if you are a fan of the famous director, this flick is pure Tarantino. It oozes B-movie pastiche with the classic camp, dark humor, caricatures, ’70s throwback and sexy guitar ballads that make his movies instant classics.

These elements and others make Inglorious Basterds an experience you won’t easily forget. There are way too many phenomenal scenes to be found here. Take the exposition as an example: The standoff between the brilliant character of Colonel Hans Landa (Cristoph Waltz) and a French farmer hiding Shoshana’s family is beautiful, suspenseful and heartbreaking all at once. The parallels between it and the wedding scene from the Kill Bill movies are strong. Both overwhelm you as you realize that a monster has been created out of the embers of tragedy. Both are imbued with indescribably epic qualities and filled with tension to spare. Both are

Once you pull back and look at the sum of Inglorious Basterds’ parts, suddenly the coolness of it all becomes diminished. There are countless perfect moments, but in the end that’s all you’re left with: elements that stand alone as great, but don’t come together to form a cohesive masterpiece like other Tarantino films.

Maybe it’s because there used to be substance beneath the flair with Tarantino, something that is missing with Inglorious Basterds. Yes, there is some inversion of protagonism, as the Nazis become some of the most relatable characters onscreen. But there is not much to the subtext, and certainly no Samuel L. Jackson monologue to scratch beneath the surface of the vibrant mise-enscene. And although it’s true that Kill Bill was not much of a think piece, at least it had seamlessness to redeem itself. Its “chapters” complement each other to form an incredible kung fu epic with gorgeous choreography.

The same does not hold true for Basterds.

The sum of its chapters is a lot of dead Nazis and an experience that you’ll struggle in vain to come to terms with during the drive home from the theater.

If only movies were commendable based on the little moments alone, then Inglorious Basterds would be a fantastic work of art.

And for afficionados who thrive on the lunacy and dark humor of Tarantino, catch the Leprachaun bus to the Poughkeepsie Galleria right now to get a hit. Otherwise, play it safe.

Maybe you should go see something with a flying balloon-suspended house or Joseph Gordon-Levitt instead.

“I read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf”

Brendan Counihan ’13

“War and Peace.

It was a birthday gift, I’m not that pretentious.”

Gabby Gottlieb ’12

“I tried reading Taming of the Shrew but I didn’t get anywhere”

Kweku Attafuah-Wadee ’13

—Erik Lorenzsonn ’12 is writing a bi-weekly column on movies and their meanings. He is the Arts Editor.

“We’re reading, ‘In Giro,’ our Italian textbook!”

Jay Reatard’s details, melody memorable Watch Me Fall Jay Reatard [Matador]

I

t seems like anyone with a guitar, primitive recording equipment and an ear for noise can create an acclaimed indie-rock record these days. All across the country, young guys and girls are emerging from their bedrooms with fuzzy, spunky records and heaps of internet buzz. The formula is pretty simple: write a couple of simple, catchy punk rock songs, record them on a laptop with copious amounts of distortion and a few vocal gimmicks, and put them online with the hopes of going viral. Because the songs are catchy and quick, listeners will have a hard time turning down their charm. And because the songs are smothered in a cornucopia of screeches, drones and other indiscernible noises, cred-conscious hipsters can sleep assured, even though they’re listening to nothing more than a lo-fi Green Day record.

While all this is good news for throngs of 17-year-olds who’ve just received a guitar and/or Macbook for Christmas, Jay Reatard must be feeling a little peeved. The Memphis native, born Jimmy Lee Lindsey, has been making records like these for close to 15 years, and he’s only 29. At the start, it was just Jay making noise with a guitar, his voice and buckets for percussion. In recent years

he has refined his songwriting and recording craft to surprising levels of maturity. The only problem is that he’s decided to shed his four-track, punk rock past for more nuanced pop music, just in time for his former bread and butter to become the genre du jour. It seems like Jay picked the wrong time to grow up and attempt to make music that’s listenable and well produced, as he does on his new record, Watch Me Fall.

Fortunately, in making a record that forgoes the fuzz for arrangements and layered instruments, Jay has shown that all the noise is mostly hype, and that there really is a difference between a well written punk rock song and some kid goofing around in his bedroom. Jay’s songs haven’t changed much since his teenage years; they’re all very short, very catchy, and have deceptively simple lyrics. The difference here is that Jay’s actually focusing on his songwriting, and using more detailed production to bring out the simplistic beauty of his hooks. The result is a record that sounds like it was labored over and planned out, rather than thrown together in a few minutes.

Watch Me Fall clocks in at a short 32 minutes, and this brevity is part of its strength.

Like his pop forbearers, Jay finds something good and repeats it long enough to get it stuck in your head, but not long enough to wear out its welcome. Most Jay Reatard songs follow a simple formula: there’s a verse, a chorus and sometimes a bridge, all of which are separated by a drum fill. The lyr-

ics have a childlike simplicity, and are usually filled with angry, fatalistic one liners that bemoan the narrator’s inadequacies and the meddling hands of an unseen antagonist. But this time around, Jay’s taken the time to fill in the empty spaces on his record with a laundry list of instrumental flourishes including organs, mandolins, and strings. The real trick is adding these extras while maintaining the quaint, intimate sound of Jay’s previous recordings, something Watch Me Fall does well at every turn.

Opener “Aint Gonna Save Me” is a fine summation of the Jay Reatard playbook. The lyrics aren’t worth quoting (he rhymes “sit” with “shit”), but Jay’s sense of melody is impeccable; almost everything he says will get stuck in your head after a couple of listens.

After a pair of rapid-fire verses and choruses, the song dives into an unexpected bridge/ outro, and before you have a chance to notice the inventive percussion and vocal layering, it’s over. Such is the case with most of Watch Me Fall. For a set of songs that rarely break two and a half minutes, there are a lot of fine details that are easy to miss. But this is what separates Jay Reatard from the pack, and this is what will keep listeners coming back to him well after the next blog fad has come to pass.

—Martin Bergman ’12 is a prospective film and philosophy major living in Jewett House and writing a bi-weekly column on recently released albums.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Leksi Kolanko ’12 and Madeline Zappala ’12

“Tree of Smoke

by Dennis Johnson. I liked it because it took a different approach to the Vietnam War.”

Nikki Turner ’11

“I am reading random magazines that I find in the biology lounge in Olmstead Hall.”

Ali Jamil ’10 —Carrie Hojnicki, Assistant Arts Editor

SPORTS

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September 10, 2009

Fall Sports Preview | Season offers promise, excitement Soccer Men’s Head Coach: Andy Jennings Last Season’s Record: 8-8 Key Matches: Liberty League games and Stevens Institute of Technology, the Fall 2008 Division III National Championship runner-up Standout Players: Seniors Brian Bianchetti, Jake London and Alex Freund “will not only provide the basis of our talent on the team but will also provide the leadership and the commitment” Jennings said.

Goal for the Season: Make the Liberty League Championship Noteworthy: 12 strong freshmen on the roster will encourage the entire team to work harder for their starting positions

Women’s Head Coach: Richard Moller Last Season’s Record: 8-6-1 Key Matches: Haverford College, Stevens Institute of Technology, New York University and William Smith College Standout Players: Senior Captain Caitlin Bowman, junior Captains Allison McManis, Carolyn Demougeot and Rachel Shea, and senior Laura Smith Noteworthy: The team tied for fourth place to qualify for the Liberty League Championship last season, but lost in a tiebreaker to St. Lawrence University. Additionally, their defense is backed by two freshman goalies, Alexandra Higgins and Lexi Hutton.

Tennis Men’s Head Coach: Ki Kroll Last Season’s Record: 10-9 Key Matches: Middlebury Invitational, the ITA Northeast Regional Championships and the Wallach Inviational

Standout Players: Captain Mike Mattelson ’10, and juniors Max Willner, Josh Jasso and Greg Katz Goal for the Season: A win in the Liberty League Championships, which will be played at home this year Noteworthy: The team has had a very strong recruiting year with four solid freshmen who will actively contribute to the team.

Women’s Head Coach: Kathy Campbell Last Season: 18-5 Key Matches: Williams College, two-time defending Division III National Champions, New York University and the New York State Championship Standout Players: Two-time All-American Nicole Pontee ’10, who finished last year ranked No. 12 nationally and was named the Liberty League Player of the Year; last spring’s No. 2 player, Jennifer Beckerman ’12, who earned Liberty League Rookie of the Year honors; last spring’s No. 3 player, Joy Backer ’12, who earned three Liberty League Rookie of the Week honors Noteworthy: The team was ranked 21st nationally among 380 NCAA Division III women’s tennis teams and captured their seventh consecutive Liberty League Championship title last year.

Cross Country Men’s Head Coach: James McCowan Last Season’s Record: Team placed second out of 19 in the NCAA Regional Conference Key Races: ECACs and Regionals Standout Runners: Jon Erickson ’11, who was a 2008 & 2009 ECAC Track Qualifier in 800m; seniors Danny McBee and George Adams, and sophomores Matt Blair and Will Healy Noteworthy: The team lost three of last year’s top seven runners to graduation.

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Women’s Head Coach: James McCowan Last Season’s Record: Team placed second in the highly competitive Liberty League Key Races: ECACs and Regionals Standout Runners: Johanna Spangler ’12, Zoe Carpenter ’11 and Nina Huang ’10; Coach McCowan commented that Spangler’s “fitness and talent suggest she is poised for another great year.”

Goal: “The women have a possible national qualification in mind,” McCowan said.

Noteworthy: The team has now expanded to 23 women from last season’s 18 women

Field Hockey Head Coach: Cara Dunn Last Season’s Record: 5-12 Key Matches: Liberty League rivals Union College, Skidmore College and St. Lawrence University Standout Players: Senior Captains Rachel Lowenthal, Jordan Friedmann and Catherine Fuller Goal for the Season: Win at least 50 percent of scheduled games and improve upon last season’s record Noteworthy: New Head Coach Cara Dunn has led a very successful and effective preseason.

This will be a rebuilding season as the team lost seven seniors to graduation in May.

es to work harder from experienced incoming freshmen Ian Ruginski and Joe Karpman.

Women’s Head Coach: Tony Brown Last Season’s Record: 12-6 Key Matches: New England Division I competition with games against Providence College, University of Connecticut, Dartmouth College, Yale and Brown Universities, and Army Standout Players: Senior Captains Lorraine DeGraffenreidt and Nathalie duRivage Goal for the Season: “We know we have to work hard to continue the Vassar women’s winning tradition (14 straight winning seasons since 1995), and hopefully this young squad can learn and develop,” Brown commented.

Rowing Men’s Head Coach: Rod Mott Key Matches: The Quadricentennial Regatta, hosted by Marist College Standout Athletes: Nik Goldberg ’12 and Co-Captain Kyle Chea ’10 Goal: To compete well in the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston and Cambridge, Mass.

Noteworthy: The team only lost one senior to graduation and has two experienced rowers entering in the freshman class.

Women’s

Rugby Men’s Head Coach: Tony Brown Last Season’s Record: 10-6 Key Matches: Northeast Rugby Union Championship Standout Players: Senior Captain Stefan Schwartz, and juniors Iain Gordon, Garrett Montgomery and Connor O’Neill Noteworthy: The team will face strong challeng-

Head Coach: Rod Mott Key Matches: The Quadricentennial Regatta, hosted by Marist College Standout Athletes: Senior Captains Christina Peltier and Caroline Jolley Goal for the Season: The team hopes to once again get a bid to compete in the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston and Cambridge, Mass.

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September 10, 2009

SPORTS

Page 19

Baseball in New York: a tale of two Boroughs Adam Newman Guest Columnist

Last April, both of New York’s baseball franchises began their 2009 seasons with the opening of a brand new stadium. But the questions that fans of each team asked with such an event, and the answers this season would provide were markedly different. Members of the Yankees bandwagon, both fans and critics alike, wondered whether this new stadium could live up to the legacy of America’s most storied sports team. But for fans of their crosstown rivals, the Mets, the question was not whether the ballpark could live up to the team, but whether the team could play well enough to deserve such a prestigious-looking park.

While there are still a few weeks left of baseball, it is safe to say that this season has provided momentary answers to these questions.

The New York Yankees have fulfilled nearly all the promises inherent in their new stadium and have gone on to continue their legacy despite the historic move. Meanwhile, the New York Mets have filled their sterling new field with nothing but injuries, losses and woe. And though there has often been a disparity between the play of these two teams, this season, more so than the last few, baseball in New York has been a tale of two boroughs.

Entering the season, the Yankees made a publicity splash with their acquisitions of Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia.

But the Mets had not exactly been slouches either, signing Francisco Rodriguez and J.J. Putz in a desperate attempt to shore up their bullpen, which had been the Achilles heel of their 2008 season. And through the first days of June, it seemed as though both teams had done well with their key off-season acquisitions, helping to stifle any questions surrounding the

teams’ competitiveness in their new parks. But in the remainder of the summer, any similarities between these two teams other than that they were playing in new parks would end, as the Yankees began an ascent towards a playoff berth while the Mets began a descent into the cellar of their division.

Beginning in late May, a string of seemingly never-ending injuries struck key Mets players.

First, Carlos Delgado, a veteran first baseman, was benched due to a hip injury in early May, leaving a hole in their lineup that the Mets

“The Yankees have fulfilled nearly all the promises inherent in their new stadium and have gone on to continue the legacy.” couldn’t fill, short of a trade which they never made. Then, Jose Reyes, the sparkplug of the team, oft-heralded as the “most-exciting player in the game today” was sidelined with a leg injury that never seemed to heal. Before you even knew it, Oliver Perez, John Maine, J.J. Putz and Carlos Beltran succumbed to injuries as well.

Soon after that, backup players like Fernando Martinez, Alex Cora, Fernando Nieve and John Neise had fallen to injury, leaving the Mets without even their understudies to fill their

many holes. And yet the Mets continued playing with some purpose, but no luck, until finally Johan Santana, their ace pitcher, and David Wright, their media star, were felled by a bone chip and a fastball, respectively. It seemed that the Mets had thrown in the towel. By the dog days of August there was no hope in sight, and the Mets were seated firmly in the National League East basement.

But all the while that the Mets were struggling to field a team from the leftovers of their disabled list, across town in the Bronx, the Yankees were slowly but surely making good on the promises of their off-season and new ballpark. Mark Teixeira provided the dependable middle-of-the-lineup power the Yankees had been hoping for, and Derek Jeter returned to form as one of the premier shortstops in the game. In particular, Jeter’s clutch hitting and inspired leadership has shaped the lineup into a true force to reckon with this season. A modern day Murderer’s Row, the Yankees’ 2009 lineup already has seven hitters with at least 20 home runs in addition to Jeter, who will likely be the eighth before the season’s end.

And while their pitching has still not been of the top-flight variety necessarily needed to win tight playoff games, their lineup this season has managed to carry them through, producing 773 runs in just 145 games.

All this being said, there is still a month left of baseball to be played, which leaves many unplayed open to home runs and injuries. If baseball history has taught us anything, it is that in this particular month, anything can happen.

But then again, given the standings, it might be safe to say that CitiField is unlikely to see any games during this championship season, while the new Yankee Stadium should see at least a few.

Sept. 10 - 17 Friday, Sept. 11 Men’s soccer At Stevens institute of technology 7 p.m.

Saturday, sept. 12 men’s cross country at hamilton college 12 p.m.

saturday, sept. 12 Women’s volleyball at montcalir state 2 p.m

Field Hockey midfielder Lance key player Andy Marmer

A

Guest Reporter

Saturday, sept. 12 women’s rugby vs. purchase college 1 p.m.

vassarathletics.com

s many Vassar students moved into housing, began classes and otherwise got settled into Vassar life, there were a number of Brewers that were already here, preparing to face another set of challenges. Members of the field hockey team, led by new Head Coach Cara Dunn, have been practicing since Aug. 19 in order to get in prime physical and mental shape for their difficult season ahead. While the entire team has been working hard to face the brunt of another Liberty League season, perhaps no player has stood out as much thus far as Jessica Lance ’11. “Jessica Lance is one of the toughest competitors we have on the field hockey team,” said Dunn. “She’s a junior this year and definitely brings a lot of experience and…really brings the intensity up another level.”

Lance began playing field hockey in the seventh grade at John F. Kennedy Middle School the first time it was offered in her hometown of Enfield, Conn. For Lance, the decision to play field hockey was genetic. “My aunt played field hockey in high school and in college, so I always wanted to play,” Lance said. As she grew older, Lance continued to hone her skills, attending numerous field hockey camps.

Her hard work paid off in high school. Playing for Enfield High School, Lance earned numerous awards. She was named to the All-Conference team for the North Central Connecticut Conference her sophomore, junior and senior years. Additionally, Lance was named SecondTeam All-State her junior year and First-Team All-State her senior year. Additionally, she was an All-State Scholar-Athlete her senior year.

After accumulating numerous honors in high school, the midfielder chose Vassar College because “I knew if I came to Vassar I was going to be able to play, like actually get playing time, rather than at a bigger school where I might be on the team, but be on the bench and be bored.”

Lance didn’t have to worry about not playing at Vassar; her freshman season she started 13 of

tuesday, sept. 15 Field hockey at ramapo 4 p.m.

Junior Jessica Lance, one of the toughest competitors on the Field Hockey team this year, will be a curicial player and high-scorer in her position as midfielder for the Brewers.

16 games playing as a forward. She scored four goals, making her the No. 2 offensive scorer on the team. These included the game-winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Western Connecticut State, a feat she would go on to duplicate the following year in a 2-1 victory. Lance’s statistics as a freshman were quite impressive. She finished third on the team with eight points, while also leading the team in shots, and shots on goal. That year, Lance played as a forward, and her focus was more on scoring.

However, last year as a sophomore, Lance made the transition back to her high school position of midfield. “Cara and [former Head Coach Judy Finerghty] always wanted me to be up at the goal, but they also started realizing that I could distribute,” said Lance.

Lance embraced the move, finishing No. 2 on the team with nine points, including three goals and three assists. She led the team in shots, shots on goal and two game-winning goals her sophomore year. The junior forward

brings more to the table than just in-game skills. “Every practice she plays in, she’s playing in a game,” said Dunn.

“She wants to be better herself, and she wants to make everyone else better. Since she came in as a freshman, [she] has definitely raised the bar of expectations of herself and other players. She definitely contributes a lot especially by just bringing that same level of intensity every day.”

Like any other athlete, Lance has her reason for her intensity in practice. In addition to wanting to win more games, Lance and her teammates would like to knock off one team in particular. “When I’m sprinting, I just think of Skidmore [ranked No. 13 nationally],” Lance said. “That usually gets the extra push through.”

Lance will be a key player this upcoming weekend when the team will host the annual Betty Richey Tournament at the Prentiss Field Complex.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

sunday, sept. 13 men’s rugby at hofstra 1 p.m.

SPORTS

Page 20

September 10, 2009

Women’s tennis wins match against local rival Marist Ari Glantz

F

Guest Reporter

Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

or any spectator passing by the Josselyn tennis courts this past Saturday afternoon, the competition seemed quite alive given the fact that, despite their common love for tennis and their hometown of Poughkeepsie, the opponents had little in common. The athletes hailed from different conferences, different leagues and different NCAA Divisions.

Vassar competes in the Liberty League, a NCAA Division III league, whereas the Marist Red Foxes compete in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, an NCAA Division I league that which includes institutions such as Siena College, Iona College and Fairfield University.

Though the friendly play was labeled as a preseason scrimmage, the intense energy emitted from all athletes was tangible. For four hours straight, the Vassar and Marist women’s tennis teams went after the scrimmage with a fervor worthy of a Wimbledon final.

Okay, so maybe it was just a tune-up match for both squads, but there was definitely a great atmosphere of encouragment and internal motivation. Natalie Santiago ’13, a newcomer to the team, described the sensation as “great— fun, but competitive.”

Both sides were especially excited about this year’s match for a number of reasons. Marist senior Erin McCarthy recalled the stark difference in this year’s weather in comparison to that of past years.

Last year’s installment was sullied by rain and cold air, while the 2009 match was played under a gorgeous, cloudless sky with a balmy temperature in the low 80s.

The beautiful weather enabled enthusiastic game play and encouraged spectators to come out and fill the bleachers.

The competition, like the weather, was hot but pleasant, with Vassar’s batch of new players getting Division I exposure the first time they donned the maroon and pewter. Santiago was especially keen on the prospect of playing Division I opponents.

“I didn’t think I’d get to play against many Di-

Elizabeth Anderson ’11 gives a strong swing against her Marist opponnent in the women’s tennis match on Saturday, Sept. 5 at the Josselyn Tennis Courts. vision I teams, and now we get to do it in our first match. It’s great,” she said. However, there was not a noticeable difference between Vassar and Marist’s levels of play; the NCAA divisions

had little to no effect on the athletes’ prowess.

“The match is always good competition, and it shows that we can hit in a bigger league,” Vassar junior Elizabeth Anderson commented. She

added that this pre-season challenge helps the team prepare for upcoming league challenges and other tense competitors such as Williams, the defending NCAA Division III champions for the past two consecutive years.

The final score of last year’s match between the Williams Ephs and the Brewers was a poor representation of the Brewers’ play, and Anderson insisted that the Brewers could have come out with a win had the matches been played in their entirety. Anderson mentioned that competitive play against Marist was exceptional preparation for difficult regular season opponents.

Assistant Coach Mark Chase noted that both Marist and Vassar had “won their respective division titles” last year, thus providing an “added incentive.”

Entering the Fall 2009 season, the Vassar Women’s Tennis team has a No. 21 National Ranking and seven consecutive Liberty League titles under their belt.

Vassar’s tennis stars, like all Vassar student athletes, have also demonstrated their wellroundedness by earning the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team award for the past 14 seasons.

Vassar’s older, expreienced core, led by captains Nicole Pontee ’10 and Caroline DunnRankin ’11, was also motivated by the high level of the competition, saying there would be “no punches pulled” in this “hard-fought match.”

Despite the divisional divide, there is a relationship between these two teams that, according to McCarthy, is based on mutual respect.

The match was played with that attitude in mind, progress was made and a good time was had by all involved.

Vassar’s performance was highlighted by solid doubles play from both captains and an inspired singles comeback from Joy Backer ’12.

The match proved to be a solid learning experience for both teams.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, had official scores been kept at this year’s competition, the Brewers came out with a solid W over their cross-town, Division I foes.

VSA passes proposal that would grant athletes credit Elizabeth Pacheco

Contributing Editor

official statement from the Athletics Department, at the meeting Ly did say that “[Director of Athletics and Physical Education] Sharon Beverly has expressed her excitement about this” and that President Catharine Bond Hill has “fully endorsed this.”

While the proposal offers many benefits to athletes, Damon-Moore said that the main objective is really to say “that we respect the kind

of dedication and kind of learning you get from an athletic sport, the same way we respect what you’re learning about athletics and life in general from a physical education course.”

Having passed through the VSA, the proposal will now go to the Committee on Curricular Policy. If endorsed by the committee, the proposal will then move to the Faculty Floor where it will be voted on before becoming policy.

Jared Saunders/The Miscellany News

For Vassar athletes, the amount of time dedicated to their varsity sport is often compared with taking an academic course. A varsity athlete can spend upwards of 40 hours a week in the gym, on the field and even in the classroom, watching tapes and talking strategy. And while the lessons aren’t thought of as particularly academic, there is much to be gained in the areas of personal growth, teamwork and strategy.

Having recognized the dedication required and benefits attained from playing a varsity sport, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) has been working with the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) for the past two years to offer a proposal that would allow athletes to receive academic credit for participation on a varsity team. The proposal, which recommends giving athletes the option to receive a half-credit per season toward their graduation credits, was passed by the VSA at their first meeting on Sept.

6.

VSA President Caitlin Ly ’10, who herself is a former varsity tri-athlete, participating in volleyball, squash and crew, expressed strong support for the proposal, explaining that it is “not a major shift or cultural extension of something that’s already being offered to Physical Education students.”

As was discussed by those in attendance at the meeting, receiving the half-credit is similar to the option all Vassar students have to take up to two credits in Physical Education courses that count toward their graduation requirement.

This change occurred in the 1971-1972 academic year when the number of required graduation credits was increased from 32 to 34, thus accommodating those interested in earning credit for Physical Education courses.

Furthermore, “by adopting this change we would not be path-makers in the world of [Division III] athletics,” said SAAC President Laura Smith ’10, a member of the women’s soccer team. “A lot of our peer institutions do give physical education credit for playing varsity sports.” Such peer institutions include Liberty

League opponents Hamilton College, Middlebury College and Swarthmore College—all of which require participation in physical education courses of all students.

As curricular policy currently stands, students taking voice lessons or participating in Music Department ensembles, Drama Department shows or Vassar Repertory Dance Theater all may receive academic credit for their involvement. Like playing on a varsity sports team, all these activities require a significant time commitment and teach lessons that are different from but comparable to those learned in a classroom.

The proposal suggests giving a maximum total of two total credits to varsity athletes, and excludes non-varsity club teams such as rugby, ultimate frisbee and skiing.

The half-credit available to varsity athletes will be completely optional and can only be taken by students after their first season with a team. By doing this the policy will ensure that a student won’t join a team simply to receive the credit.

This also eliminates the worry of students pre-registering for the credit beforehand and not making the team.

A further benefit of the proposal is to aid varsity athletes in managing their academic schedules both in the short-term while in season and in the long-term. Whereas a student who is not getting credit for a sport may need to take five credits during the season, the additional half credit for the varsity sport will give student athletes the option to take fewer courses throughout their Vassar careers.

VSA Vice President for Academics Stephanie Damon-Moore ’11 spoke of these additional academic benefits, explaining that there is also hope that some pressure will be relieved from “course enrollment in a time when the curriculum is shrinking a bit.”

Although SAAC representatives spoke at the VSA meeting, they have declined to give further comments until after their official meeting this Sunday, Sept. 13 when team representatives will meet with the board. While there has been no

The VSA Executive Board discusses the athetlics proposal with VSA Council members on Sunday, Sept. 6, at the first VSA Council Meeting of the 2009-2010 academic year.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE