The Miscellany News | Nov. 5, 2009

The Miscellany News November 5, 2009

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CXLIII | Issue 7

Rowing to become club team in light of economy Ruby Cramer

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Kelly Stout/The Miscellany News

Jasmine Brown ’10 and Assistant Professor of Political Science Sarita Gregory drive to Arthur S. May Elementary School in Poughkeepsie, NY, on Nov. 3 to vote in the 2009 Dutchess County General Elections.

Vassar students’ right to vote in local elections challenged at polls Jillian Scharr News Editor

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location, Chairman of the Town of Poughkeepsie Republican Committee Thomas Martinelli, acting as a poll-watcher in that location, challenged the votes of all Vassar students based on residency issues.

When Vassar student Ian Heller ’12 went to cast his vote at Arthur S. May Elementary School at approximately 1 p.m., an election official challenged his eligibility. Self-described “election expert” and political strategist Ken Girardin challenged Heller’s eligibility on the grounds that he had registered to vote under an address that was no longer valid.

“Vassar misinformed its students,” said Girardin, referring to the following erroneous information posted on the Vassar News Infosite: “Where you vote depends upon the residence you lived in when you registered to vote, not necessarily where you live now.”

“You can’t use your freshman dorm [as your current address under which you register to vote] if you no See ELECTIONS on page 6

his morning an announcement was made to the men and women’s rowing teams—as well as to the Athletics Department—that Vassar’s rowing program will over the course of the next two years transition from a varsity to a club sport, saving Vassar money in its Athletics operating budget, which—like all areas of the College—will need to reduce its spending in the face of the global economic decline. The decision was made after a series of discussions the Office of the Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs and the Athletics Department.

“As was necessary,” explained Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger, “we looked at how we could make some savings in Athletics, because no area of the College can be exempted from the need to cut spending.”

Kitzinger—whose office oversees the Athletics Department—explained that the College wanted to change one varsity team to a club team rather than try to reduce spending all across the department, since such sweeping cutbacks would take too great a toll on the department. “In Athletics,

I think we felt that we didn’t want to undermine the way we do support all our teams,” said Kitzinger, “and we have for some years felt as if we have been trying to run too many varsity teams—we have 25 [varsity teams] and then we have the two rugby teams as well.”

Over the course of the fall semester, Kitzinger and the Athletics department discussed what criteria would be considered in making the decision and decided eventually on three central factors: the overall cost of the sport, the way that students are recruited to the sport and the retention of those students over the course of their Vassar careers, and lastly, explained Kitzinger, was the idea that “if we cut a team as a varsity team, we have a very equal and competitive experience that we can offer a student who is interested in that sport.”

Considering these three criteria, it was decided that the rowing team would be the most appropriate choice, given that the operating budget for the sport is approximately $75,000 per year, in addition to costs for maintaining and repairing crew shells, as well as the standard compensation expensSee ROWING on page 20

Courtesy of Sports Information

hen Vassar students went to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 3 at Arthur S. May Elementary School, many had their eligibility challenged because of discrepancies between the addresses under which students registered and the addresses where they currently live.

By mid-afternoon, Town of Poughkeepsie Republican Committee Chairman Thomas Martinelli filed an injunction to the New York Supreme Court required all voters challenged on the basis of residency to fill out ‘affidavit ballots,’ or paper ballots, by hand. A later appeal on the evening of Nov. 3 to an appellate court repealed this injunction, ensuring that all the affidavit ballots of Vassar students will be counted.

The Poughkeepsie Democratic Party appealed this injunction; it was lifted at 8 p.m. Had the appeal not succeeded affidavit votes would only have been counted in the event of a tight race. The votes, in other words,

would have been treated like absentee ballots.

Republican incumbent Angela Flesland defeated Democratic challenger Gretchen Lieb, a reference librarian at Vassar College, for the District 6 seat on the County Legislature by a margin of 162 votes.

In District 8, in which the Town Houses (THs) are included, Republican incumbent Rob Rolison defeated Democratic challenger Mike Salvia.

Since November 2008, there has been a marked increase in the number of Vassar students choosing to vote in Poughkeepsie instead of their home districts. According to an article by the Poughkeepsie Journal, 429 Vassar students are registered to vote in Dutchess County (“Some Vassar students must vote by affidavit, judge rules,” 11.2.09).

Challenging a Vote: According to New York State law, when students change dorms from year to year, they should re-register under their new addresses. So, at Arthur S. May Elementary School, the district voting

Editor in Chief

The men and women’s rowing team will transition next year from a varsity to a club team, functioning out of the local boathouse HRRA.

Officers gave to Annual Fund in lieu of pay cuts Emma Carmichael

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When compared across Vassar’s standardized group of Primary Reference Schools, Catharine Bond Hill’s total compensation—shown in blue above—comes in at 10th among the 21 peer Presidents.

Inside this issue

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NEWS

Fifteen intox EMS calls made on Halloween

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OPINIONS

Features Editor

t the demonstration organized by the Campus Solidarity Working Group (CSWG) on Wednesday, Oct. 14, students, staff and faculty members marched across campus with a rallying call directed at President Catharine Bond Hill: “Who needs a pay cut?” yelled a demonstrator, and the crowd responded in unison, “Cappy needs a pay cut!”

In the wake of its October 4 decision to eliminate 13 non-faculty positions at the College, Hill and the other senior officers have been pressured by the CSWG and other nonpartisan voices on campus to consider making their own financial sacrifices.

When the marchers came face to face with Hill at the October 14 rally, one worker said to her bluntly, “Miss Hill, you don’t know

President Catharine Hill writes Letter to the Editor

14 ARTS

what it’s like to get fired!”

In light of such frictions, the Miscellany explored what the College’s senior administrators have chosen to do in response to the financial climate, and how it compares to action taken by other private colleges and universities around the country. Additionally, and in view of the findings of the recent Faculty Policy and Conference Committee (FPCC) and Faculty Compensation Committee (FCC) faculty surveys, it is clear that the sacrifices employees are willing to take might not be aligned with what some community members currently ask of them. Indeed, 41 percent of the 237 faculty members who responded said they did “not at all prefer” a reduced growth in faculty salaries, even if such a decision was made in response to the market.

See SALARIES on page 6

Student filmmakers

reflect on film department

Page 2

The Miscellany News

November 5, 2009

Editor in Chief Ruby Cramer Senior Editor Molly Turpin

Contributing Editors Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

Photo of the Week: Forward Bryan English ’13 sprints aside an opponent on Oct. 31 on Gordon Field. The

Brewers fell that day 4-0 to the No. 7 RPI Engineers, conceding their stay in the Liberty League playoffs.

Staff Editorial | In face of changes to curriculum in coming week, students must utilize peer liaisons B

y now it’s no secret that the College has asked all academic departments to consider how they can save money within their program—whether through fewer team-taught courses or more cross listing—the curriculum, like all arenas of the institution, will have to make sacrifices in order to help the College reconfigure budget allocations and nurse losses to the endowment.

The College, however, will not be able to mitigate the academic budget with cross listing alone; the unfortunate reality, with which all schools are being faced, is that all faculty contracts will not be able to be renewed for the 2010-11 academic year.

The question on everyone’s mind then is, of course, “who is it going to be?” And, less obviously, “what will be the inevitable curricular repercussions of these cuts? What programs are in jeopardy? Which courses?”

One of the tricky things about decision-making processes like this one is that there is a debate and discussion over how to quantify or definitively determine what makes a faculty member or course valuable. It is thus difficult for students to know how value is measured.

What’s more, the levels of bureaucracy involved in faculty and curriculum decisions can seem bewildering, even to the most informed students and staff members.

The upshot of the occasional bureaucratic hurtle is that the decision-making processes of the College are in fact designed to take student voices into account—course enrollment and course evaluation questionnaires (CEQs) are two concrete examples. Thus, as a shrinking curriculum looms, and as students across campus grow concerned about their favorite professors and courses, there has never been a more crucial time to seek out additional venues through which students can constructively voice their opinions.

There are a few methods in particular that The Miscellany News hopes to draw attention: majors committees, department interns, heads of departments and representatives to the Committee on Curricular Policies are invaluable resources that ought not be overlooked. We suggest that students should work through departments since—although the Office of the Dean of Faculty and Studies make final curricular decisions—departments have considerable autonomy as to what courses they provide and, as contract renewals are debated, whom they would prefer to keep.

All interested students should become involved in or communicate with majors committees. Large departments usually have majors committees chaired by a senior in the department and often meetings are open to everyone from that major. These committees report to and work with the chairs of their departments, who then attend weekly faculty meetings.

Some departments or programs—such as Environmental Studies Program or the Media Studies Program—don’t have majors committees because of the size, age or nature of the curricula.

In these programs, the department intern often acts as a liaison and works in conjunction with the chair or chairs of the department. In these cases it’s especially important to find out who the interns are and communicate with them as decisions are made about faculty and courses. Contact information for department interns is available on nearly all department websites and in all department offices.

We also hope you’ll find out who your division representative is to the Committee on Curricular Policies—the group in charge of many of the curricular decisions that come before the Deans of Faculty and Studies. There are six students who sit on this committee, one from each of the five major disciplines at Vassar, and VSA Vice President for Academics, Stephanie Damon-Moore ’11—who has shown great effort in the past several weeks to reinvigorate majors committees across the curriculum—also sits on the committee.

The 19 members of The Miscellany News Editorial Board would like to commend students who have made their voices heard in the pages of this publication, who have held demonstrations, who have attended town hall meetings with administrators, and who have spoken out at the open forum hosted by the senior officers of the College on Sept. 30 in Rockefeller Hall.

At this moment, activism of all kinds is important to maintaining the academic values of the College. In addition, we hope to remind students of the importance of working within the structures already in place to communicate and work in collaboration with administrators and decision-makers on this campus. Voices of respect and thoughtfulness are always heard louder than those that are filled with hate—and using these institutional resources will be a further guarantee that your opinions will be considered.

Ultimately, all can agree that it’s more important than ever that students continue to speak out about what matters to us. As the College will be announcing and continuing to make major changes to the curriculum in the coming weeks, The Miscellany News urges students to seek out their representatives now, and to speak through them as loudly possible to help maintain the curriculum for which we all came to Vassar.

As the College will be making major changes to the curriculum in the coming weeks, the Miscellany urges students to seek out their representatives now, and to speak through them as loudly possible to help maintain the curriculum for which we all came to Vassar.

—The staff editorial reflects the opinion of at least two-thirds of the 19-member Editorial Board.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Caitlin Halasz Chloe McConnell Elizabeth Pacheco

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

Rose Hendricks Joshua Rosen Kara Voght Katharine Austin Katie Cornish Sarah Marco Assistant Photo Juliana Halpert Reporters Rachael Borné Esther Clowney Daniel Combs Mitchell Gilburne Wally Fisher Rose Hendricks Andy Marmer Christie Musket Columnists Martin Bergman Nik Trkulja Photographers Jared Saunders

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.

ADVERTISING POLICY The Miscellany News reserves the right to reject or edit any advertising copy at any time; will not accept advertisements that promote discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex or sexual orientation, nor will it accept advertisements of a political nature or advertisements that promote illegal items.

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 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 is published weekly by the students of Vassar College. The Miscellany News office is located in College Center Room 303, Vassar College.

November 5, 2009

NEWS

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Halloween shows slight increase in EMS calls: Admissions Council considers culture of the campus holiday pilots Skype

virtual tours

Rose Hendricks

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Assistant News Editor

his Halloween saw more calls to Vassar College Emergency Medical Services (EMS) than any other night in the history of EMS’s record keeping. There were 20 calls to EMS, four of which had to be passed straight to the Arlington Fire Department because EMS was too occupied to take them. Eleven students signed medical releases, and five students were sent to the hospital.

These numbers demonstrate an all-around increase of EMS calls from last Halloween, when 12 students called EMS. Of those 12, six signed medical releases, six were sent to Baldwin and none were sent to the hospital.

When EMT personnel Samuel Black ’12, who was on call on Halloween night, first presented these facts to the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council at their meeting on Nov. 1, many members were alarmed. However, EMS captain Michael Faba ’10 explained that EMS “always [has] trouble figuring out if the increase in calls corresponds to an increase in drinking,” so students should not be quick to “establish a causal correlation between the figures.”

Faba has analyzed the EMS statistics from the past eight years, which he said show that there are many variables in any given night or year that contribute to the number of calls, but cannot be accounted for. Therefore, the numbers do not always indicate what they seem to.

Faba explained that it is possible that the numbers reflect students’ increased trust in EMS rather than an increase in the number of students who drink or how much they drink on Halloween night. He advised the board to consider “the effect that increased awareness of EMS on campus has.”

Faba pointed out that many of the calls EMS received were not necessarily as serious as they have been in the past. He feels that because students know that they can trust EMS, they call more frequently with less serious issues, just to be safe.

However, Faba also noted that he actually expected a greater number of hospital visits than there were as a result of Baldwin Medical Center no longer being open at night. Most of the seri-

Caitlin Clevenger

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While the Halloween party showed an increase in EMS calls from last year’s event, the overall trend in intox-related calls illustrates great improvement since Fall 2007. ous calls that EMS did receive were for students who had forgotten to eat dinner before drinking, despite the amount of free food that the College tried to supply the students with.

At the VSA meeting, there were a number of theories as to why this Halloween EMS received more calls than ever. Many agreed that the cancellation of the bonfire due to the rain may have contributed. Noyes House President Hannah Groch-Begley ’12 explained that because of the cancellation, “people who would have maybe done two shots before the party spent an hour playing a drinking game.”

VSA Auditor Mathew Leonard ’11, acting as a proxy for Cushing House President Victoria Russo ’12, pointed out that although Vassar worked hard to remind students to be safe and responsible on Halloween, the many signs such

as “Don’t be a Puking Pumpkin” and “Don’t let the Disguise Change who you are” actually “instill in you that everyone gets really drunk on this holiday,” which may have caused students to drink more than they normally would.

Although the general consensus was that the alternative programming helped reduce the amount of drinking this Halloween, Class of 2010 President Selina Strasburger commented, “I had a mentality going into this that we weren’t going to be able to make a big difference…I don’t think alternative programming will be as successful as people hope it will be.”

Davison House President Louise Conner ’11 added, “I think drinking is going to happen… we just have to accept that as a fact.” VSA Vice President for Finance Scott Pascal ’10 agreed, re See HALLOWEEN on page 4

VSA Survey to focus on economy this year Aashim Usgaonkar Guest Reporter

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n Wednesday, Nov. 4, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Executive Board released its annual VSA Survey. The survey—meant to gauge student opinion on issues the Executive Board has been grappling with—has in the past garnered data that has helped precipitate “concrete policy changes,” said VSA Vice President for Operations Brian Farkas ’10.

The VSA Executive Board will use the survey results to help them decide what proposals to make and what issues to prioritize for the remainder of the academic year. Survey questions are focused on a variety of issues in the areas of student life, academics and the VSA itself. However, in light of the economic troubles currently facing the College, most questions in this year’s survey in some way touch on the economy.

“This year the survey is focused on economic trade-offs,” noted Farkas. “We felt that it’s more timely an issue.”

As Farkas explained, questions on the survey primarily ask students to assess potential compromises in light of budget cuts and push students to analyze their own priorities and consider issues that take precedence over others. “It is easier to pick an option when it’s in conversation with another,” said Farkas when explaining this format, in which students have to choose a given area that they would like to see receive funding over another area. “It’s very easy to just say ‘no’ to anything even slightly negative,” but when forced to think “if no, then what,” students usually have clear cut preferences, explained Farkas.

According to its mission statement, one purpose of the VSA is to “represent the opinions of the student body, serving as a communications conduit to the faculty, administration, Trustees, alumnae/i, the local community and beyond.”

Often, though, it is hard for members of the VSA Council to get the opinions of average students—only very vocal students and students with very strong opinions on particular issues take the initiative to contact their house or class presidents. The purpose of the VSA survey is to find out the opinions of the less-vocal students, explained Farkas. “Often students—the individuals who make use of the services—are in the best position to notice areas that could benefit from working with one another,” he said.

Academics is one important area of the College the survey will examine. VSA Vice President for Academics Stephanie Damon-Moore ’11 explained that the College’s current economic troubles will have a large impact on the curriculum. “Economy and academics are closely related and impact each other,” she said.

However, the VSA has yet to determine exactly how they will affect each other. Therefore, the VSA will use the survey to decide what curricular changes to recommend. For example, Farkas cited the possibility of eliminating classes with fewer than five enrolled students as one curricular cut the College is considering.

He explained that an instructor having to teach just three students is being paid as much as one teaching 32. On the other hand, at times there is a “strong curricular need” for such courses to exist, said Farkas. The survey can help measure which academic changes students support, and which still are needed.

The survey will also devote a great deal of attention to student life. One idea that the VSA is considering is integrated health care—that is, the consolidation of the services offered by Baldwin Health Center and Metcalf House into fewer offices.

“A student who has problems with drugs or alcohol may need access to counseling services as well as physical health services,” said Farkas.

He said that closer collaborations between Baldwin and Metcalf could improve student services while creating natural efficiencies. The VSA Executive Board is using the survey to gauge opinions on this matter; if the response is positive, they may introduce a resolution supporting integrated health care.

The survey will also seek out student responses to other money-saving ideas the VSA is considering, such as offering the Student Handbook only electronically. The trade-off of doing this, Farkas explained, is “not physically handing the handbook to the students,” which means that students may be less likely to read it.

However, the shift would save paper and thousands of dollars while making it easier to make alterations to the handbook.

Broader VSA goals are covered in the third section of the survey. This is the “how are we doing?” section, said Farkas. It asks students to rank the VSA on its performance this semester and to suggest what aspects it should emphasize in the months to come.

This section has proved useful in the past; Farkas cited suggestions to improve sustainability on campus that came out of last year’s survey.

In response to this, composting was introduced in the Retreat and motion-sensing lighting was installed in the bathrooms.

After all the survey data has been compiled, the VSA will pore over it, trying to find trends in the numbers. “There’s a lot to read, and things don’t just jump out at the very beginning,” said Farkas. These trends are then delineated in proposals that the VSA makes to the senior officers.

The point of the survey is for students to get their opinions across to the VSA, who can take concrete action in college governance. Class of 2013 President Eli Berns-Zieve said that the survey “allows the VSA to better represent the students and their interest.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Guest Reporter

hile campus was cold and lonely as students left for October Break, the College’s Office of Admissions staff visited the balmy climates of Central and South America without ever leaving Poughkeepsie.

Though Vassar has long brought students to campus through the virtual tour on the Admissions website, the Office of Admissions has worked this fall to develop a video conferencing system to bring the College to schools across the globe via Skype—a software application that allows users to talk for free over the Internet.

The Admissions staff’s international travel schedule rotates from year to year, and they would not travel this fall to Central or South America. When the American Nicaraguan School suggested video teleconferencing, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus began to explore what he calls a “pilot project” in addition to the continuation of his normal international travel.

Results of the first attempted video conferences, however, were unfavorable due to scheduling and technical issues—the American School of Guadalajara canceled because of last-minute problems with the software, and the Nido de Aguilas International School in Chile missed its Skype chat due to time zone confusion.

The one successful teleconference was with the American Nicaraguan School that had originally suggested it. The visit “worked terrifically,” said Borus. “There were about 15 students,” he continued, “and I could see their faces and answer their questions.”

Ideally, Admissions Officers would use the teleconferencing technology available in the College Center, but if the school they are conferencing with lacks the compatible technology, they will use Skype.

“It generally only lets one person on each end communicate with one another at a given time, and therefore does not really accommodate the type of group information sessions we had hoped to conduct. Obviously, if a school or counselor requests a Skype meeting in the future, we will certainly accommodate them, but teleconferencing is a greatly superior medium where possible,” wrote Borus later in an e-mailed statement.

Representing Vassar at schools that Admissions representatives do not travel to may increase the international diversity on campus. According to Manasi Jiwrajka ’12, President of Vassar International Student Association and graduate of Mahindra United World College in India, visits from college representatives make a big impact on students’ decisions to apply to any given school. “There were more applicants from my school to those colleges [that visited] than to any other colleges, even if they were not well-known outside of the United States,” said Jiwrajka. Her concern, though, is that virtual visits exclude schools with poor Internet connection.

In addition to communication with international schools, teleconferencing could reduce the College’s carbon footprint.

“When and if the presence of this technology becomes more widespread among schools abroad in the future, we could use it in some years to replace a foreign recruiting trip, but this year’s pilot attempt demonstrates that we are quite a distance from reaching that point right now,” wrote Borus.

According to a May 7 report by Sightlines, an environmental consulting firm, air travel is a notable contributor to Vassar’s carbon footprint. By replacing air travel, Vassar would be able to reduce its emissions and also save money within the department.

Despite difficulties with technology, Borus hopes to expand on the project, possibly reaching out next to schools in Europe or Asia. Virtual visits, he emphasized, are “not to replace travel but to augment it. It behooves us to keep investigating.”

NEWS

Page 4

VSA assesses Frisbee fined and censured its alternative A programming Elizabeth Jordan Online Editor

HALLOWEEN continued from page 3 ferring to the drinking as “unavoidable.”

Town House President Riley Greene ’10 noted that it was “awesome that [the administration] gave us food.” However, she was told that they could not order enough for everyone who wanted it. “I realize it’s very generous, but it could be more generous,” she said.

Faba guessed that “it’s not the party itself” that causes the increased drinking on Halloween. However, he argued, “the fact that the event is going on does have an impact on student behavior.” Pascal agreed, pointing out that “the majority of the calls and the most intoxicated students were in their rooms. I don’t see how alternative programming can fix that.” He also stated that, “people feel like ‘I have to get this drunk to go to the party,’” so they stay in their rooms to pre-game.

Because Carn-evil may have encouraged some students to drink, VSA President Caitlin Ly ’10 stated that the administration was very worried about holding the party this year, and she fears that “moving into next year the administration will be pushing harder to not have the all-campus party.”

Ly also pointed out that “we send more students to the hospital on this one night than we do on Founder’s Day, which is just unrealistic.” Therefore, she stated that something must be done to change this trend in the future.

Despite the feelings that students will inevitably be drinking on Halloween, there were a number of ideas on how to avoid recurrences of this year’s problem. VSA Vice President for Activities Aaron Grober ’11 called for more attractive alternative programming, while Conner advocated for a greater emphasis on responsible drinking instead of encouraging students to abstain from drinking altogether.

Greene proposed that next year during the week before Halloween, the statistics about this year should be published to remind students that safety on campus is a real issue.

Greene also suggested a frank talk between seniors and freshman with no administration involved. This would be a good chance for the seniors to share stories and realistic information with freshman. She also suggested that senior housing would probably be the safest place for freshman to be on Halloween because they wouldn’t be able to get much alcohol.

Strasburger said that she initially suggested that a good idea might be for the administration to allow senior housing to register parties and explicitly invite freshman, so that they would be drinking beer instead of hard liquor. However, the administrators had shot the idea down.

This year, Lathrop House set up a studio space in the dorm’s basement to take pictures of people in their costumes. According to Lathrop House President Alessandra Schmidt ’12, this filled a lot of the time that was created by the cancellation of the bonfire. She reported that it didn’t seem like people had had a lot of time to drink, as this event got them out of their rooms.

VSA Vice President for Academics Stephanie Damon-Moore ’11 asked, “Is there something we can do to change the culture on campus?”—referring to the perceived Halloween culture that is filled with drinking.

Damon-Moore suggested that the drinking mentality that surrounds certain events is a greater issue that needs to be given thought.

She asked rhetorically, “Why is this day different than all others?”

To that effect, Strasburger commented that if the mentality surrounding Halloween is ever going to be changed, it will have to be done over time, so that eventually the freshman will not be told that Halloween is a crazy drinking holiday. Strasburger is hopeful that the upcoming classes will work hard to change the mentality associated with Halloween so that no future Halloweens will rival this one in terms of EMS calls and hospital visits.

t their Council meeting on Sunday, Nov. 1, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council fined the Ultimate Frisbee team $3,000 for an infraction that occurred before October Break.

The fine is in part an expression of the Council’s frustration at the recurrence of the team’s violations of VSA bylaws and College Regulations.

VSA Vice President for Activities Aaron Grober ’11 moved to fine the team. Despite its aggravation over Frisbee’s repeated offenses— which span across a number of years—the VSA Council, as dictated by its bylaws, is prevented from punishing an organization for infractions from previous academic years due to an assumed turnover in leadership. Grober, in conjunction with the Activities Committee, suggested this fine as a result of an Oct. 9 incident in which 20 members of the ultimate frisbee team were written up for having open containers of alcohol out during a practice. A coach, who was showing a prospective student-athlete around campus, saw the students and alerted Security to the team’s actions.

The fine will be deducted from the team’s 2009-2010 budget. According to Grober, the application for supplemental budgeting submitted by the frisbee team earlier in the semester stated that the $3,000 was needed to fund the team’s annual Spring Break trip to Savannah, Ga. where they participate in the Jekyll Island Tournament.

“We allocated them the $3,000 based on them demonstrating a responsible model of behavior,” said Grober of the original allocation made earlier this semester. “So if we move forward with this fine, Frisbee will need to work harder for fundraising, but it will not cut into their operating budget.”

There was some confusion during the meeting as to whether the fine would prevent the team from doing more than just attending the spring tournament. The captains of the team, Nate Mandel ’10, Marco Brydolf-Horwitz ’10, Marika Faytell ’10 and Jennie Harkness ’10, attended the meeting, and asserted that without the $3,000 dollars, the team would not be able to afford to attend local events or sponsor tournaments and other activities at home. This caused some council members to suggest that the VSA should not fine the team so much for fear that it would impede the mission of the organization.

Grober and others argued that, although it will take funds away from the team, it forces the team

to fundraise and work harder.

Members of the Executive Board, including VSA President Caitlin Ly ’10, questioned the credibility of the team members when they promised that no more such infractions would occur. Ly pointed out that even though similar promises have been made in the past by previous leaders of the frisbee team, there have continually been problems with the team regarding disciplinary action and inappropriate behavior. After the team’s trip to Savannah last spring, which resulted in a complaint from the neighbor’s of the team’s residence there, last year’s Council censured the team without imposing a fine.

Members of the Council and the Executive Board pointed out that this kind of behavior, on and off campus, negatively affects the reputation of the school. Though the ultimate frisbee team is not a varsity team, it is a VSA certified group.

President of the Class of 2010 Selina Strasburger ’10 pointed out that if any other VSA group had committed the same infractions, they would probably have already been decertified, but the team’s large presence and popularity on campus made that course of action unpalatable.

“We’re a very public group,” said Mandel.

“Our intent is not to step on anyone’s experience at Vassar. We provide a lot more good to campus than bad.”

Despite the team’s popularity, Ly warned the team, “I do recognize it’s a big part of campus.

That said, I can’t have the frisbee team being a liability year after year after year.”

The decision to fine the team came after careful consideration of a number of possible punishments that the VSA could have pursued, including a freeze of the organization’s funds, the removal of its officers, a referral to the Judicial Panel, decertification and censure.

Many members of the Council, including Ly, voiced their concern that another censure without an additional punishment, which would only require that the team write a letter of apology to Ly as President of the VSA, would not be a harsh enough consequence. Town House President Riley Greene ’10, to decrease the fine to $1,500, but her motion failed to pass by a vote of 21 to three after the Executive Board explained that the team would be allowed to apply for funds later in the semester.

Ultimately, the motion to fine the Frisbee team $3,000 passed with a vote of 23 to one and a second motion to censure the Frisbee Team passed unanimously.

November 5, 2009

News Briefs Imposing Imposters Security received a call on Oct. 30 regarding three individuals who were trying to enter Davison House by asking a student to swipe them in. The student lied to the individuals, telling them that her ID wouldn’t open the door and reported them to Security. Someone else did swipe them in, but they were caught

by Security on the first floor. The invaders were escorted off campus.

—Rose Hendricks, Assistant News Editor

Creeping on the Quad On Oct. 30, students reported that a male, who was walking in the quad, made them feel uncomfortable. Security caught the suspect, who was a Poughkeepsie resident posing as a Vassar student who lived off campus.

—R.H.

Aspiring Arsonist Early in the morning on Oct. 30, both Vassar Security and the Arlington Fire Department responded to a call regarding a student who tried to set fire to the pile of wood on Joss Beach.

—R.H.

Trick-or-Treat Two unknown males between the ages of 18 and 20 were banging on the doors of Josselyn House in the early morning of Oct. 31. They took off running when Security showed up.

—R.H.

Killing Time A Vassar student’s guest broke the glass on the grandfather clock in the second floor of Main Building by the Rose Parlor at 1 a.m. on Nov. 1. After an investigation by Security, the guest admitted to breaking the glass.

—R.H.

Exhibitionists welcome During the early morning of Nov. 1, a bathroom stall door was found missing in Jewett House. The door has yet to be found.

—R.H.

Jordanian speaker fights Middle Eastern honor killings with history peace, culture Rose Hendricks

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Assistant News Editor

very year, 5,000 women—including three in the United States last year—are murdered for dishonoring their families. In response to these atrocities, Ahmad Ghashmari, a Jordanian Ph.D. student at Kent State University, has made it his mission to combat these honor killings across the globe.

Ghashmari was brought to Vassar by Project Nur—a secular, Muslim, intercampus student group created by the American Islamic Congress—and gave a lecture in Rockefeller Hall on Oct. 30. There were six students in attendance.

“In the Middle Eastern part of Africa and the Persian gulf, women are traditionally looked at as property to men,” he said, trying to help the audience put themselves in the mindset of traditional Jordanian villagers. “If something bad happened to her, it’s all the responsibility of men, and if she does something bad, they feel that the man has the right to fix it.”

For the most part, said Ghashmari, these killings have to do with extramarital affairs. “In Islamic culture, women are not supposed to have relationships with men who are not their relatives unless they are married,” he explained.

“If a woman is caught having a sexual affair with a man, in most cases, the man stabs the woman to death,” Ghashmari continued.

“Sometimes it’s only suspicion because there isn’t this idea of friendship between women and men outside of the family.”

At present, Jordanian law requires that men who commit honor killings receive lenient sentences, usually three to six months in prison.

All legislation to undo this provision has thus far been defeated by a wide margin, and women who try to seek protective custody are essentially put into prison and can only be released when a male relative comes to take them home, after which they are usually murdered.

Ghashmari, now 24, began his campaign when he was 19 years old after he heard about an honor killing on the news. He went to the victim’s village to investigate the incident and found that it had all started when she was raped.

First, “[her family] arranged a marriage with a very old man from another village who didn’t know the family, and they covered up the [rape], but it didn’t work. The man knew, and he divorced her, and he returned her to the family… so they shot her,” he said.

Shocked by these events, he decided to become an activist for women’s rights. “It’s so terrible—I couldn’t understand how they could do this,” he said.

At his college, Ghashmari created a student group that began spreading awareness about honor killings. “Student volunteers went to live in villages for several weeks or a month and talked to people who have gone through this experience to learn how they think,” he said.

A major issue that Ghashmari continuously stresses is that honor killings are “not a religious thing; it is a traditional thing,” meaning that honor killings are not a core tenant of Islam, but just a practice engrained in some Middle Eastern cultures.

In addition, the killings are not localized to Jordan, but occur worldwide, which is why Ghashmari is giving lectures in many countries

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

outside of the Middle East. “[Honor killing] is not an issue of Jordan or of Egypt or of Syria: The issue is all over,” he said.

Furthermore, Ghashmari contended that change cannot be imposed upon the culture from the outside, but has to come from within.

“Other initiatives [to abolish honor killings] got the idea wrong. They never studied the culture; they never lived with the people and worked with them. They think that what applies to the West can apply to any culture in the Middle East, and this is a fallacy,” he explained.

“You have to open your eyes and look within your culture and your history. The answers lie there, within your culture,” said Ghashmari.

To combat honor killings, Ghashmari educates people about women within Muslim history who have held positions of power. For instance, the Prophet Mohammad worked for his wife, Khadija, who was a successful businesswoman, and there were a number of female caliphs. “[Muslims] love to be around their culture or their history…when you give them examples from their history or culture they do accept it as it is—they don’t even question,” he said. Ghashmari’s hope is that if he can turn enough people in support of women’s rights, the Parliament will pass legislation imposing harsher punishments on people who kill women in the name of honor and put more focus on basic rights.

“We want to see our constitution being separated from tradition because sometimes some traditions cannot be justified—people stick to them and nobody can oppose them, but sometimes you can’t justify them—who said that a woman is property of a man?”

November 5, 2009

FEATURES

Page 5

Senior geology major spends a summer in the Gobi: Nadine Reitman conducts paleontological field research Kelly Stout

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Features Editor

Patricia Cruz/The Miscellany News

hat do Kingston, N.Y. and the Gobi desert have in common? Just ask Nadine Reitman, a senior who spent the summer conducting paleo-bio-geographic research on the Gobi-Altai Terrane in Southeast Mongolia. In laypersons’ terms, Reitman spent four weeks figuring out what kinds of organisms lived in that particular “block of the earth’s crust” 400 million years ago. She found that the fossils on the Gobi-Altai Terrane matched up fairly closely scientists have discovered just north of Poughkeepsie in the town of Kingston.

But Reitman concedes that this is about the only practical application—“if you can even call it that”—of her summer work. Reitman applied to work in Mongolia as part of the Keck Geology Consortium, a conglomeration of geology departments at small liberal arts colleges. Why Mongolia? For Reitman, that was a large part of the draw. “It was Mongolia,” says Reitman, “and c’mon, who doesn’t want to go to Mongolia?”

Reitman joined a group of three American professors, two Mongolian professors, eight American college seniors, four Mongolian students, two cooks and three drivers, on a journey from the Mongolian capital city of Ulaanbaatar to a remote province in Southeastern Mongolia.

Reitman’s plan was to fly into Ulaanbaatar on a Monday, then begin the four-day overland journey to the site in Shine Jinst on a Tuesday.

However, on Reitman’s first day in Ulaanbaatar, professor of earth science at Mongolian Technical University Min Jin, “explained that Tuesday is an unlucky day to travel, so we decided to leave on Wednesday. Then it rained on Tuesday, and the bridges were all washed out, so we left Thursday.”

Although the incident was Reitman’s initial introduction to Mongolia, it was not the only cultural difference she found shocking. “Ulaanbaatar is a post-Soviet third-world city that is loud, dirty, and run-down” said Reitman. She remembers that the suburbs of Ulaanbaatar are mostly made of gers—traditional circular houses made of felt and wood. Chingis Khan “has been their national hero since like, 1200, and continues to be.” Reitman found it more than a little shocking to see “Chingis Khan airports, diapers, soda, and tons of vodka” in Ulaanbaatar.

But the landscape changed dramatically when Reitman and the rest of the Keck team reached Shine Jinst and they split up to do field research with the eventual hope of correlating data from various locations. Reitman spent most of the day unearthing fossils, then returned at night to “our own ger that we brought. It was our kitchen and office space.”

The short-term goal of the Keck project was

Reitman spends long nights at Ely Hall splitting rocks for her senior thesis project, which she will present at the Keck Consortium Symposium, a conference on independent research for undergraduate science students at small liberal arts colleges, held during the Spring of 2010. to determine “what the environment was like in Mongolia about 400 million years ago.” The correlated data that Reitman and her team compiled “can be read like a chronology of the area’s rocks. That means they can be put in chronological order without gaps in between, which is great because hopefully we can have a complete picture of how the biology changed over time, which can correlate Mongolia’s landmass with other land masses.”

According to Reitman, fossils were one of the ways plate tectonics became accepted as a geological phenomenon. “You know, Mongolia wasn’t always connected to Russia and China,” she says, “It’s all because of plate tectonics.”

Reitman is realistic about the nonscientific community’s enthusiasm about plate tectonics and paleo-bio-geographic geology. “The chal-

lenge for this kind of research is that 99 percent of the world never cares what paleontologists do.” She pauses and reevaluates her statement: “Maybe 99.9 percent.”

Reitman is hoping to study not paleontology but hydrogeology in graduate school. She she describes hydrogeology as “studying water underground. Hydrogeology combines geology and geophysics to discuss water availability. And that is a big issue today.” Reitman finds herself looking for applications for what she’s learned to measure and test as a geology major at Vassar, but admits that she “[hasn’t] found that in paleontology.”

Reitman’s trip to Mongolia not only helped narrow her academic interests, but also gave her a head start on her senior thesis project.

Working with the Keck team gave Reitman ex-

perience doing her own fieldwork, conducting her own lab time, and participating in a student symposium that will close in December with in a sort of “practice peer-review process.” It’s an experience “not a lot of undergraduates will get,” says Reitman.

When Reitman applied to the Keck Consortium in the spring of her junior year, it was with the understanding that the research would culminate in her senior thesis at Vassar, a project that has taken her from Southeastern Mongolia to the hills of the Hudson Valley. “I love geology,” she says, reaching for the hiking equipment she’s brought to our interview. And with a smile, Reitman adds, “I really do. I’m so excited about my senior project.” She takes her things and heads off to cut rocks in the geology lab in Ely Hall.

Senior leaders reminisce about final Halloween party Selina Strasburger and Austin Saddlemire

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Guest Columnists

hen planning an all-campus party it tends to be a given that no one will arrive for the first half hour. For whatever reason, Vassar students tend to embrace the idea of being “fashionably late” and won’t make an appearance until well after the party’s start time. So, when security approached us at 11:03 p.m. saying that we needed to hurry up and open the Halloween party because there was a line of 50 people waiting to purchase tickets and get in, we knew we had a big night ahead of us.

Halloween is the biggest event the senior class puts on, and it’s one of the biggest all-campus parties of the year. While we as a council were fully aware of this, none of us entirely comprehended the amount of work that was going to be required. The initial discussion of the event began in September with Terry Quinn, director of campus activities and advisor to the senior class council.

Though we were originally planning on simply putting on a party as in years past, we were warned early on that this may not be the best idea. Given the history of the party and the high number of people with negative experiences due to alcohol, it was becoming more difficult to justify having such an event. After meeting

with a number of campus officials, the message was clear: something needed to be done to try and prevent the excessive drinking that happens on Halloween.

Our class council took our mission seriously, and decided to offer a multitude of activities to give everyone the opportunity to participate in programming that didn’t revolve around copious amounts of alcohol consumption. We had the perfect Halloween planned: a costume fun run in the afternoon, trick-or-treating at every residence hall as well as at the President’s House and the Pratt House, a movie screening in Blodgett Hall, pizza delivered to all the houses, all followed by a bonfire where everyone could (soberly, of course) celebrate the spirit of All Hallows’ Eve. Afterwards everyone would migrate to the party, which would have a fun house, movie screening, costume contest, and—obviously—a great dance party in the VIllard Room.

Of course, as those who did participate in these events know, everything did not go as planned. We were unable to convince all the houses to participate as some were planning their own events; pizza arrived late; the bonfire was canceled due to the weather; and our fun house, while well-conceived, for various unforeseen reasons ended up being, well, unfun.

As happens whenever the perfect plan doesn’t turn out perfect, we were more than a little disappointed. However, the events that did take place were great successes and we are incredibly grateful to Terry Quinn, Maureen King, Ken Oldehoff, Don Marsala, and Renee Pabst for all their help in putting the event together, as well as to President Hill and Dean Roellke for opening up their homes for trick-or-treating. And of course the party had it’s own highs and lows.

Highs: Free beer (though we didn’t actually get around to drinking much of any), some fabulous costumes (Bud Light Year, the Morton Salt Girl, Marvel characters, and iPhone all walked away with sweet prizes), and just the pure entertainment of soberly watching your friends act less than sober. Lows: not drinking; belligerent kids lying to your face about having a ticket and then getting mad when you call them out for lying; the high number of EMS calls; falling on your face and looking like your wasted when you’re actually incredibly sober; realizing how hot and disgusting the Villard room actually is; crazy girls turning on the lights and then not understanding why that’s not the best idea; having to clean up a ridiculous amount of Styrofoam belonging to a certain rice cake costume, and did we mention not drinking?

The party was stressful, and chaotic. We sim-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ply had no preparation for the amount of planning, man-power (fine womyn-power for my gender studies majors), and hours that were necessary for a successful Halloween. You should all thank 2010 Secretary Christina Peltier and Treasurer Brian Kim, because without them this party would have shriveled up and died a month ago. All four of us would have probably cried at the party if it hadn’t been for the help of our class council, along with our brave and resilient Daisies and Violets.

The saddest part is, there’s not a single photo showing that either of us attended the party. Our disco ball and sushi costumes are remembered only in the fuzzy memories of everyone’s festive night. That said, we don’t want to linger on the bad for a party that was, in our humble opinion, a success. After refilling the water jug for the final time we saw one our peers in a fantastic Lady Gaga get-up. Though it was more pokerface disco-stick attire, Gaga’s immortal lyrics ran through our minds and we knew it was time to “just dance.” Even though we were only being treated to the vocal stylings of a certain sassy sophomore, we felt, with sudden, blissful relief that everything was “gonna be ok.” All we had to do was dance, enjoy the party for what it was (and wasn’t), and be glad to have had this one final Halloween dance with our friends.

Page 6

FEATURES

November 5, 2009

Faculty opinion about salary Failed court injunction raises reductions revealed in survey town-gown political tensions SALARIES continued from on page 1 In a recent interview with the Miscellany, President Hill explained that last year she and other senior officers chose to donate to the Annual Fund and the Hardship Fund in lieu of an official pay cut. Hill stated that she had personally contributed 5 percent of her yearly salary to the funds, and that other senior officers contributed on average about 2.5 percent of their salaries. “I felt strongly it wasn’t right to take pay cuts given different personal situations and salaries,” Hill explained. “It’s unfortunate that our donations to the Annual Fund and the Hardship Fund aren’t seen as a ‘cuts.’”

In this week’s issue of the Miscellany, however, Hill wrote a Letter to the Editor (“President Hill replies to Miscellany editorial, addresses issue of pay cut and makes promise for next year,” 11.5.09) explaining that next year she plans to take a five percent pay cut from her 2010-11 salary “to symbolize that everyone is sacrificing at this moment in our college’s history.” To read more of Hill’s letter, turn to page nine.

Generally, though, Hill’s and the senior officers’ salaries are determined each year by the Personnel and Compensation Committee, a subcommittee of the Board of Trustees including William Plapinger ’74. Three other trustees sit on the committee as well, and last year former trustee Mark Ordan ’79 served as its Chair.

Hill’s compensation for the year 2007-2008 is reported on The Chronicle of Higher Education website as $390,500 in salary and $59,637 in benefits for a total of $450,137. Her 5% donation to the Annual and Hardship Funds totaled $19,990.

Betsy Eismeier, Vice President for Finance and Administration, explained that during early responses to the financial crisis last year, some administrators “proposed that there be some leadership shown by taking pay cuts in a very public way.”

“But I think President Hill felt a responsibility to ensure that we were focused on permanent restructuring, not just temporary measures,” Eismeier said. “When we were considering whether this was a permanent strategy and whether we should take such a step, there was a sense that it would be better for the institution if individuals would consider this in terms of their charitable giving, and make contributions back to the College.”

Hill’s voluntary 5 percent donation is comparable with pay cuts and contributions made by college presidents around the country, especially when considering her salary.

Ronald Liebowitz, president of Middlebury College, asked his 16 staff members to take a 2.5 percent reduction in pay while Vice Presidents took a 5 percent cut. Liebowitz himself took a 10% cut. However, even with a 10 percent reduction to his 2007-2008 salary, Liebowitz would have made about $31,000 more than Hill due to his higher benefits.

Even so, Hill’s and others’ donations to the Annual and Hardship Funds do not have the same significance for some as an official pay cut. Robyn Smigel ’12, a student who has been involved in the CSWG but who asked that her statements not be read as representative of that group, asserted that “gifts to the annual fund are not the same as pay cuts, period.”

“They do not constitute structural changes in the college’s budget, and they do not acknowledge any unfairness in the current financial organization,” Smigel said. “Even if the amount of money is the same, gift-giving is a supererogatory act. It implies unusual generosity on the part of the giver. A pay cut implies a desire to right a wrong.”

Sarah Muenzinger ’10 spoke at the October 14 rally but also requested that her statements in this article only reflect her personal opinion. She said that it was irresponsible for the College to justify its actions based on other schools’ decisions. “Every college operates differently,” Muenzinger said. “Every college has different goals. Just because our tuition, or endowment, or faculty-to-student ratio seem similar to another institution doesn’t mean we should run like they do.

“Vassar has a rich history of breaking the mold,” she added. “Why stop now? Why can’t we be the trend-setters?” The administrators’ response is that Vassar, like its peer institu-

tions, must offer competitive pay in order to retain the best faculty and staff. Hill pointed out that Vassar is the “preferred employer” in the region, and Eismeier asserted that gradual changes to compensation for any Vassar employee (faculty, administration or staff) could hurt the College’s ability to recruit and retain its workers over time.

“There is a fear that if we erode compensation, we’re going to end up losing some of the best people,” Eismeier said. “And that will ultimately harm the institution. It’s not going to happen right away; it’s one of these things that if you’re not regularly maintaining [it] then you can go five or 10 years, and suddenly you’re not competitive anymore, and it’s very hard to catch up.”

The pay for private university and college presidents has increased consistently over the last decade. A recent report by The Chronicle of Higher Education showed that the average compensation for leaders at private liberal-arts colleges has increased 11.4% over five years, from $281,237 in 2002-2003 to $366,606 in 20072008. The Chronicle also released data showing that 23 presidents of private non-profit colleges and universities made over $1 million in the fiscal year 2007-2008, and 110 of the 419 institutions studied earned more than $500,000.

Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, topped the list with about $1.6 million in compensation.

In her interview with the Miscellany, Hill also pointed out the differences between salaries for male and female presidents within Vassar’s peer group. Hill is tenth on the list of 21 presidents, and the seven top-paid presidents are all men.

Although he only took office in 2007, Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University, earned about $190,000 more than Hill in 2007-2008.

Considering that she sits at about the fiftieth percentile for compensation in this peer group, Eismeier referred to Hill’s pay as “fairly modest” when compared to other college presidents. She compared the desire to place blame on Hill to the vilification of Wall Street executives. “It’s controversial to see [that] executives in a Wall Street Firm or a General Motors and the CEOs might make a hundred to a thousand times what the line worker makes,” Eismeier mused. “That’s just not the case here. There’s not that big of a salary spread in the first place, but there’s still a sense that pay should be flatter than it is. But we have to remember that our structure is flatter than those corporations.”

Still, both Muenzinger and John Joyce ’12 made arguments for a more sincere consideration of structural changes, even if they may not reflect models of competitive pay.

“There are multiple solutions to this [crisis],” Muenzinger said, “from pay cuts of senior officers, to new fund raising ideas, to coming together and realizing [that] we can use our brain power to figure out something completely different from our ‘peers.’ For the 13 job cuts we’re talking about saving less than one half of one percent [of the budget]. Can’t we possibly think of something else?”

“Are we here for competitive compensation or for the community of Vassar College?” asked Joyce, who also requested that his comments not be considered illustrative of the CWSG views. “If the former, we must think critically about why this community relies on these models of management used at other schools rather than forging our own strategy of management, based on Vassar’s specific needs. If [it’s] the latter, then we should begin to think about how the entire community can shoulder the burdens of the economic crisis without forcing individual members of our community out.”

David Davis-Van Atta, Vassar’s Director of Institutional Research, also cautioned against resorting to peer comparisons when making financial decisions for the college. “Comparative data are never a mandate for institutional action,” Davis-Van Atta said. “It can tell you where to stand, but not where to go. There is a risk of becoming a bland amalgam of other what other colleges are doing.”

“We are not cookie cutters of each other, and it’s a wonderful thing,” he continued. “All colleges are different, not just in their cultures, See PEERS on page 8

A Vassar College van transported students all day to Arthur S. May Elementary School in Poughkeepsie, NY, on Nov. 3 to vote in the 2009 Dutchess County General Elections.

ELECTIONS continued from on page 1 longer live there,” said Girardin.

“I barely got a word in,” said Heller, “I’ll be honest, if it was a voter intimidation tactic, it worked.” Heller however, was finally allowed to cast his vote in polling booth.

According to Board of Elections (BOE) senior elections specialist Ira Margulies, Girardin was well within his rights as a voter and election observer to challenge Heller’s eligibility, stating, “To challenge a voter is perfectly legal. There’s nothing wrong with it. But that doesn’t take away your right to vote.”

When a voter’s right to cast a ballot is challenged, there is a set protocol for resolution, according to Margulies. First, a voter or elections worker present at the polling location must make a challenge. Then the voter is required to take an oath certifying that his or her voter registration information is correct. Then there is an opportunity for the four elections specialists to question the voter and decide whether or not he or she is eligible. If at least two of the four specialists affirm that the voter is eligible, he or she can cast a vote in a polling booth.

According to Margulies, however, the trouble often comes when election officials fail to inform voters that they are allowed, by law, to cast a provisional paper ballot if their names appear on the voter registry—even if they are deemed ineligible. Heller was not informed of this right, but was allowed to cast his vote because BOE representatives at Arthur S. May deemed him eligible.

According to Girardin, though the challenge was “raised, but dropped,” and he didn’t consider it a formal challenge to Heller’s status as a legal voter. Margulies disagreed, stating that the challenge was a formal one that required the vote of the four BOE elections specialists present at Arthur S. May. Boyd Gardner ’12 had a similar experience to Heller’s, but was asked to take an oath before BOE officials. “Right after I signed myself in [an election official] challenged my eligibility to vote based on his belief that I don’t live where I say I live,” said Gardner, “I had to swear that I lived where I said I lived, which was in Main House.”

Court Injunction “Based on that misleading information [concerning residency],” explained Martinelli, “we want to confirm that people are voting where they live.”

Students who voted later in the day, however, after the injunction to the New York Supreme Court had been passed by Judge James V. Brands, had to, according to the injunction, “cast their ballots as affidavit ballots, or alternatively, for such voters to appear before a justice of this Court and on the basis of adequate evidence of residency, apply for an order of the Court allowing them to vote on the voting machines.” These affidavit ballots would have been counted on Nov. 12.

“This is unconstitutional,” said Town

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Democratic Committee Chairman and New York Democratic Lawyer Council Chair Gary Levine. “There is a process in the election laws as to how to handle residency.” He explained that prospective voters whose current addresses don’t match the address at which they were registered, but are still in the same voting district, should be required to take an oath “given to the inspectors.”

The issue brought up by the Republicans, Levine explained, “is legitimate if a student moved out of an election district…but if they move from dorm to dorm, they should still be able to vote.”

Moving out of an election district is an issue for all current Vassar seniors who moved to the THs this year, since the THs are in District 8, while the rest of the campus is part of District 6.

“Anyone whom they challenged based on residence is being prevented from voting on a machine, not from voting period,” explained Vassar Democrats Vice President of Voter and Community Outreach Megan Levine ’12. Affidavit ballots “go back to the Board of Elections—they receive it, scrutinize it, and determine whether they count or not.”

Dutchess County Democratic Campaign Field Coordinator Sung Eun Kim ’10 expressed skepticism as to whether affidavit votes would have been counted. “Paper ballots go missing,” he said; “That’s how [the Republican party] pulled off the 2000 Bush election.”

Republican election inspector for District 6 Donna Burns left Arthur S. May Elementary School around 4 p.m. in protest of Martinelli’s “harassment” towards Vassar students. “Martinelli’s challenging every Vassar student,” Burrns said. “If you live in a dorm and changed rooms, it’s considered fraud…I think it’s because a librarian from Vassar’s running.”

Democratic Commissioner of the Dutchess County BOE Fran Knapp called challenges to Vassar students’ eligibility unfounded, and “nothing more than voter intimidation.” Knapp was outraged at the situation at Arthur S. May, and said, “you cannot wholesale block a group from voting. And that’s what [Republican election officials] are trying to do. It’s terrible. It’s a political tactic.” Knapp sees a correlation between last year’s outpouring of student voters from Vassar and an increase in “intimidation of student voters.”

Professor of Political Science Sidney Plotkin weighed in, “New York state has some of the most cumbersome, obstreperous, frustrating, confusing, difficult voting laws in the U.S.…that’s a legacy of the old days of machine politics when the dominant parties wanted to assure that only their voters would get to the polls.”

And this legacy is still alive today, he says.

“The two parties in New York cooperate to complicate these rules. As a result, judges gain an enormous amount of discretionary power to decide who gets to vote and who doesn’t.

“It’s very easy to violate New York State’s See POLLS on page 8

FEATURES

November 5, 2009

Page 7

Chicken, chard and polenta serve up plenty of flavor Nate Silver

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Columnist

Scout MacEachron /The Miscellany News

las, I’ve waited as long as I could: chicken. It’s that quintessential fowl that everything exotic “tastes like;” the perpetual favorite of picky eaters; the true gastronomic blank canvas; it’s more popular than just about any food you can imagine and as versatile as duct tape. What’s not to love?

When making chicken, which I must admit I cook sparingly because I’m always drawn to slightly more exciting proteins, I do have one very simple rule: Unless I’m breading, frying and serving with honey mustard, I never buy boneless-skinless.

Chicken has a tendency to dry out (as I’m sure you are all aware). Buying chicken with the skin on helps ensure a succulent bird while the bone is there to impart some extra flavor. Also, when you buy boneless-skinless, you’re paying for the work that the butcher has already done for you, so you’ll save money by buying a less-handled fowl.

Nothing satisfies my soul on a cool October evening like a hearty Italian meal, and this week’s recipe hits on some delicious northern Italian notes. Polenta is a wonderful base—a great substitute for rice or pasta—and it does a fantastic job of soaking up the liquids produced by the pan sauce from the chicken and the Swiss chard. I like it soft and creamy, but depending on how much liquid you add to it, polenta can also be cake-like, great baked or fried. Traditional polenta takes about 30 minutes to cook, but the instant variety cooks in just a few minutes. I had planned to buy the traditional stuff and spend a bubbly half-hour with my polenta, but I was surprised to find that Adam’s only had instant on its shelves this week.

No matter—it’s still a delicious component to this meal, especially when finished with a pat of butter and some grated Romano cheese.

Pan roasting is definitely my favorite way to prepare chicken because it cooks quickly, has a nice crispy skin and results in very moist meat.

Searing the chicken at a high heat on the stove seals in the juices, and finishing the cooking in the oven is a gentle way for it to cook through. Lots of garlic and parsley throughout make the bird extra-delicious, and creating a pan sauce with mushrooms and balsamic vinegar provides a great marriage between acidity and sweetness.

I was searching for a green to add to this dish— something to boost the nutrition of the meal as well as to add color—and I settled on what is unquestionably the most beautiful autumnal green: Swiss chard. With gorgeous stalks ranging in color from white to yellow to red, it looks amazing on the plate. The leaves are bright green and ribbed, and the fact that chard is loaded with vitamin A, iron and fiber makes it a great supplement to any dish. Cooked simply—with garlic, shallots, a few chili flakes and a squeeze of lemon—is my favorite way to enjoy it. When conceiving this dish I thought a lot about textural contrasts and complements—the creaminess of the polenta, the delicate chard stems and leaves, the perfectly crisp skin on the chicken and the tender meat all combine well to create a balanced meal.

I realized that I have yet to fully disclose my affinity for shallots in this weekly column, so let me take a brief moment to do so. Shallots are, in a word, perfect. Much more subtle than garlic and sweeter than onion, shallots are my go-to allium (or the onion genus, a plant family that includes shallots, leeks, scallions, and garlic). A great base for sautéed greens and pan sauces, delicious when sliced thin and fried for salads, and also magnificent enjoyed raw on a hamburger, shallots are wholly flexible and tasty.

As you create this meal for yourself and your friends, may your kitchens be filled with the delicious aroma of a home-cooked meal, and may your bellies be full of chicken and chard. I’ll see you in a week.

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Balsamic Mushrooms »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »» »»

5 chicken breasts, bone in, skin on 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons chopped parsley Salt and pepper to taste 2 tablespoons olive oil 3 cups sliced mushrooms 1 shallot, minced 1/2 cup chicken stock 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place a sheet tray in your oven and allow it to heat up.

2. Mix together the garlic and the parsley.

3. Using your fingers, gently separate the skin from the flesh of the chicken—you want to keep the skin attached, while creating a small pocket under the skin.

4. Stuff the garlic and parsley mixture underneath the skin of each piece of chicken. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts accordingly.

5. In a skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil.

6. Place the chicken in the pan, skin side down, and brown for 4 to 5 minutes, until

the skin is crispy and golden.

7. Remove the chicken from the pan and place on the sheet tray, skin side up. Cook for 12 to 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.

8. While the chicken is in the oven, add the shallots and mushrooms to the pan you cooked the chicken in. Add a bit of salt and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes.

9. Add the stock and balsamic vinegar, turn the heat to low, and allow it to reduce and thicken.

for about 3 minutes to prevent lumps.

Note: If you’re using instant polenta, it will basically be done after 3 to 5 minutes.

If you’re using traditional polenta it will need to simmer 30 to 40 minutes, and you will need to stir it occasionally. You are looking for the consistency of loose oatmeal or porridge. My experience with the instant was that I consistently needed to add more milk to maintain the right con-

sistency because it will quickly become gummy. Monitor.

3. Once the polenta achieves a smooth, creamy texture, add the cheese, butter and salt.

4. Adjust the thickness by adding more stock and milk, if necessary.

Creamy Polenta »» »» »» »» »» »»

3 cups chicken stock 3 cups whole milk 1 1/2 cups polenta 1/2 cup Romano cheese 1 tablespoon butter Salt, to taste

1. Bring the stock and milk to a boil in a medium sized pot.

2. Add the polenta and whisk consistently

Sautéed Swiss Chard »» »» »» »» »» »» »»

1 tablespoon olive oil 2 bunches Swiss chard, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 shallot, minced 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes Juice of half a lemon Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.

2. Add the garlic, shallots and red pepper flakes and sauté for 3 minutes, being careful not to brown the garlic and shallots.

3. Add the Swiss chard and toss it with the

garlic and shallots to combine well.

4. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Sauté the greens for 3 to 4 minutes, until they are bright green and just wilted.

5. Add the juice of half a lemon and serve immediately.

To serve the entire dish: Place a small mound of polenta on a plate. Place some Swiss chard on the polenta and one breast of chicken on top of the chard. Spoon some of the mushrooms and sauce over the chicken and garnish with chopped parsley and Romano cheese.

Available Online at miscellanynews.com To view this recipe step-by-step in photos, please visit the Miscellany’s photojournalism blog, Exposure.

Exposure

Vassar in pictures http://blogs.miscellanynews.com/exposure

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Grocery List Chicken Stock Parsley Shallots Lemon Whole Milk Garlic Romano Cheese Mushrooms Polenta Swiss Chard Chicken Breasts

$2.99 $0.99 $0.47 $0.40 $0.99 $0.22 $2.08 $1.39 $2.99 $1.99 $4.21

Total:

$18.72

FEATURES

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November 5, 2009

Student ballots counted despite controversial ruling: Injunction to ‘suppress the college vote,’ according to Knapp POLLS continued from page 6 voting laws,” Plotkin concluded.

Injunction Repealed In response to Martinelli’s court injunction filed in the early afternoon on Tuesday morning, New York Appellate Court Judge Mark Dillon agreed to hear arguments via conference call from Knapp and Republican BOE Commissioner David Gamache, and their respective lawyers. Judge Dillon issued a stay on the injunction and, according to Knapp, ruled that “Vassar College students can vote if they’re [registered] in the poll books.”

For Vassar students, this means that affidavit ballots they cast during the day were counted along with votes cast in booths. Those votes were not be counted in the same manner as absentee ballots, as they would have, had the injunction remained. According to Knapp, “[Martinelli’s injunction] was totally targeted to suppress the college vote. It’s recognized case law that students can vote at college addresses.”

However, according to Kim, the repeal came too late for some Vassar students, who, Kim postulated in a telephone interview, were harassed or pressured into thinking they could not vote.

Kim also stated that Lieb’s campaign is unaware of whether TH students’ votes were counted.

Town-Gown Tension Assistant Professor of Classics Barbara Olsen believes Vassar student voters are “disproportionately challenged” at the polls compared with other voters. “I have a 124 Raymond Ave. address,” said Olsen, who is a House Fellow in Strong House, “but election officials made no attempt to challenge me [because I am not a student].” Margulies argued that there are par-

tisan issues at play in the way Vassar students like Gardner and Heller are treated when they go to the polls. “The people who are challenging these votes are Republicans,” he observed, referring to Vassar’s image as a liberal bloc of voters.

Democrat Fred Bunnell, Flesland’s predecessor in the County Legislature, agreed. He said that the influx of Democratic voters from Vassar is one factor pushing Dutchess County away from its status as a “one party-dominated Republican County,” and some Dutchess Republicans have see this as a threat. “If you look at numbers,” said Bunnell, “the Vassar students can swing this election, and that’s why [Republicans] are going all-out.”

“The inevitable tensions of a political campaign have come to the surface,” said Bunnell, pointing out that there is “a long history” of challenging student votes in close elections like Tuesday’s.

In addition to town-gown partisan tensions, Bunnell sees class issues at play in the challenges to Vassar voters. “Marist doesn’t have the same [political image] as Vassar. It’s class, but it’s also localism—you know, ‘this is our turf.’”

Bunnell said, “Vassar College is perceived— including Vassar students and Vassar Democrats—as richer [than the rest of Dutchess County] as a whole.”

“I understand why communities get upset about [students voting],” said Plotkin, explaining that residents “fear that students will vote liberal…which will produce a proregulatory, higher-tax council…which people find offensive, because they’re the ones that are going to pay the taxes.”

“If students have residence in a community,” explain Plotkin, “by definition they legitimately claim the right to vote in that community. The notion that they are temporary residents strikes

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me as a futile false argument because residential mobility in the U.S. is very high under ordinary circumstances. Many of us live in communities for short periods of time and nevertheless vote in those communities.”

The situation Vassar students faced on Tuesday is not at all unique. College towns throughout the country have faced similar obstacles to voting, especially when the overall political leanings of the college differ from those of the town. “There is a sense that students vote different values from those of the community,” said Olsen. A similar event at the State University of New York at Purchase (SUNY Purchase) lead to the Williams-Salerno law in 1986, which ensured students’ right to vote in the district of their college residence.

For example, in the days leading up to the election, supporters of Flesland released fliers which read “Do you want Vassar College to decide who will represent you in the Dutchess County Elections?” The fliers continued, “Vassar College is a good neighbor, but the students who attend it are not permanent residents like us.” The posters criticize Lieb for living on the Vassar campus, “sheltered from the challenges we face in the Town of Poughkeepsie.”

Sophia Williams ’10, student intern with Flesland’s campaign and member of the Moderate, Independent and Conservative Alliance, stated in an e-mail that these fliers were not put out by Flesland’s campaign nor were they endorsed by her.

Professor of Political Science Richard Born noted that “they sent [the fliers] out clearly at the last minute. There’s no time to respond… this is a tactic that’s been used very frequently in slimy, dirty campaigning.” Born said that the fliers made clear attitudes that have been underlying in the community for a long time. “In

the past it’s been implied: ‘Vassar is an island…

Vassar is doing things in its own self interest,’” he said, “[but] this is the first time I’ve seen this so explicit.”

Comments on The Pougkeepsie Journal online article “Appellate judge overrules decision on Vassar student voting” showed strong reactions to the idea of Vassar students voting. “Vassar, Marist, Bard and CIA students…don’t have a long-term vested interest in the issues and decisions that affect us permanent local taxpayers,” wrote one commenter, saying, “I wish the visiting students would take that into consideration and decide not to vote in our local elections.” Other comments were more belligerent: “Few Vassar students have a clue about the real world. Have you ever heard them prattle on? Likely safe to assume that not one has done an honest day’s labor or anything approaching manual work. Ever. They do have that whole smug, holier-than-thou thing down, however.”

The Dutchess County candidates held a public forum to Vassar on Oct. 28 at which Lieb, Flesland, Rolison and Salvia were in attendance.

Also present were incumbent comptroller Diane Jablonski, who lost in Tuesday’s election to James L. Coughlan, and Judge David Steinberg, one of eleven candidates for New York Supreme Court, who lost to Orazio R. Bellantoni by approximately three percentage points.

This “Meet the Candidates” event was, according to Assistant Professor of Political Science Sarita Gregory, “the first time [to my knowledge] that local candidates running for local office have been invited to a public forum on Vassar’s campus.” The forum was held in Rockefeller Hall 300, moderated by Gregory, and attended by about 20 to 30 Vassar community members.

Donations on par with peer cuts PEERS continued from page 6 but also in their economies. At Vassar, we have our own set of problems.”

Although Eismeier said that she had engaged in some discussions with heads of finance at other institutions, those conversations are strictly governed by a long history of antitrust laws and therefore have little influence on Vassar’s own financial decisions.

She and other senior officers will not see other colleges’ compensation data for the fiscal year 2008-2009 until about this time next year. In turn, colleges act more autonomously and reach more independent solutions than students may assume. “Colleges can’t collude on determining a students need and on setting tuition, or on the setting of faculty salaries,” Eismeier said. “And by collude I mean looking ahead and saying, ‘let’s not pay any faculty more than X amount.’ Because of the antitrust laws, there are some serious constraints. We definitely share information after the fact, we just can’t talk about the future.”

“It’s unfortunate, because I think higher education as a community and the liberal arts colleges in particular are very interested in helping each other figure out how to be more efficient,” Eismeier said. “In this day and age, that’s a pretty important conversation.”

With the results of the recent FPCC-FCC survey, the administration is also now confronting a better read of faculty opinion. The survey constituted of two parts: the first survey gathered opinion on potential changes, such as reduced sabbatical pay, and the second survey offered four different “scenarios” based on the preferences expressed in the first survey. The scenarios essentially proposed different methods of cutting costs and course load from the curriculum, and were reflective of the results in the first survey. According to the FPCCFCC, in the first survey faculty expressed: 1. very strong opposition to reducing sabbatical pay; 2. strong opposition to reducing the growth in faculty salaries; 3. strong support for minimizing replacements for faculty members leaving the College; 4. considerable support for, but some significant opposition to, reducing the ranks of the contingent [visiting/adjunct] faculty.

In the second survey, the responses for the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

four scenarios were quite spread out, but Scenario C (described as “Higher Salary Growth; Higher Replacement; Higher Contingent Reduction”) earned 36 percent of the 208 respondents’ support. This scenario offered the most financial savings ($1,858,532) and the greatest reduction in course sections (80 total). The results—especially the 41 percent of faculty who stated strong resistance to reductions in salary—came as a surprise to many students.

Even Eismeier said that sentiment wasn’t so clearly stated at faculty meetings, even though the majority (237 on the first portion and 208 on the second portion) of the 331 eligible faculty responded to both surveys.

“The survey was seen as a way for people to voice how they really felt about things that were quite personal,” she said.

“I don’t believe our faculty members chose this career to maximize their income,” Eismeier continued. “By and large, they’re not overly focused on compensation. But that said, the survey results are what they are.”

“The faculty seem to be concerned about not eroding compensation relative to our peers,” Hill said when asked about the survey. “And at all levels of the college, we have to think about what constitutes fair and equitable pay.”

Joyce conceded that the chant for “Cappy needs a pay cut” heard at the rally in mid-October might have lost some of its volume in the last few weeks. “I think that there is a growing trend among people active in campus issues that the focus on individual compensation packages of senior officers is not necessarily productive,” he reflected. “Clearly, these officers make substantially more than most other employees, but people are beginning to recognize that our issues at Vassar run deeper than simply Cappy’s compensation package.”

Both Smigel and Muenzinger said that they hoped to see a deeper understanding of Vassar’s workers in future employment decisions.

“Many people working here are not working here simply for ‘competitive pay’ but because they see Vassar as something special, unique, and worth preserving,” said Muenzinger.

“When we decide to throw away everything that makes Vassar important, then our education become less meaningful, and everything is reduced to money and numbers.”

November 5, 2009

OPINIONS

Page 9

Letter: President Hill replies to Miscellany editorial, addresses issue of pay cut and makes promise for next year I

write in response to the editorial of Oct. 29 calling for the “symbolic act” of a salary reduction for the senior officers of the College (“As a symbolic act, if nothing else, senior officers must reconsider pay cut,” 10.29.09).

First I would like to express my appreciation to the editors of the The Miscellany News for recognizing the work our senior officers do daily to “maintain our community whilst preserving the economic health of the College” during these difficult economic times. There is no doubt that this has been a year of unprecedented challenge for our College and I appreciate the constructive role that the Miscellany has played by fairly reporting on proposals, decisions and plans and raising important issues and questions for the community to consider and discuss.

Let me put your proposal in some context.

One of the suggestions for what would actually constitute significant relief of budgetary pressure has been to make an across-the-board pay cut for employees whose salaries are above some threshold. Depending on that threshold, this would include the more senior members of the administration and the faculty. This proposal was considered carefully and ultimately rejected in recognition that a long-term solution to the financial situation requires changes in the College’s organizational structure and employment levels, rather than a short-term lowering of current employees’ compensation. Competitiveness plays some role in this, but more fundamentally it is important that work be compensated equitably and fairly. We have always closely monitored Vassar’s compensation levels relative to those of peer institutions and the local economy.

The goal (not consistently achieved) has been to have faculty compensation in the top third of our 21-college peer group. To ensure that other employees are well paid, we monitor administrative salaries against data provided by the College and University Professional Association for

Human Resources (CUPA-HR) and compensation for staff relative to the local labor environment. The Board of Trustees sets the President’s salary and that of the senior officers, taking into account comparative data for our peer schools.

Although we rejected the approach of acrossthe-board cuts, we did incorporate a version of this strategy last year by only giving increases to unionized staff (as contracted) as well as to the less highly paid administrators and faculty.

Compensation for higher-paid administrators and faculty members was frozen at 2008-09 levels. The savings to the College were significant, and I can assure you that many of those not

the same challenges faced by every area of the College through reduced budgets and services.

In fact, they are responsible for all these other areas of the College and are managing now with fewer people and resources.

I do recognize the importance of a special commitment to Vassar from those who are the most highly paid at the institution—and I mean more than a symbolic commitment. There is a mechanism already in place for just that, which is making a contribution to the College through the Annual Fund—money that goes directly into offsetting current expenses. The editorial seems to dismiss such contributions as inadequately

I will reduce my current salary next year by five percent to signal—to symbolize—that everyone is sacrificing at this moment in our College’s history. receiving the expected annual increase understood this as a sacrifice asked of them for the good of the institution.

Having rejected an across-the-board cut in compensation for a larger group of employees, I would not single out the senior officers for such reductions. Their positions require them to manage various aspects of the College in response to institutional financial realities, and cutting their personal compensation because of having those responsibilities almost seems to fault them for having to make difficult and painful decisions.

I would also reject the editorial’s assertion that no sacrifice has been made by senior officers similar to those identified in the editorial (reductions in curriculum, staff size, equipment and plant budgets). Their offices and the operations that support them have been subjected to

symbolic, but there is little financial difference to an individual or the College if the money is given back or never received. I would argue that the more powerful symbolic act is the voluntary one. As the head of the institution and its highest paid employee, I do feel a special responsibility, and so I have contributed five percent of my salary this year to the College. All of the senior officers supported the Annual Fund generously this year as well. Perhaps it was my mistake not to realize the extent to which symbolic acts need to be public acts, but at the time I made this decision, it seemed to me to be a personal one.

My hope would be that these examples motivate others able to do so to make their own contributions and together make a truly meaningful, not merely symbolic, difference in Vassar’s

financial health. Although it may be surprising to some, it is a great testament to the strength of our community that many employees and a significant number of families of current Vassar students give to the Annual Fund. Of course, not everyone is in the position to make a financial gift to the College, and that is understandable.

There are many other ways to support Vassar, including participating in the discussions about the future of the institution in constructive, responsible and thoughtful ways.

Let me once again express my appreciation for the balance reflected in the Miscellany’s editorial of Oct. 29 and in its thorough coverage of Vassar’s fiscal challenges more generally. The Miscellany News has shown that genuinely useful service to any institution comes when facts and data are considered thoughtfully and rhetoric is employed carefully. The key point made in the Oct. 29 editorial is that the symbolism of a voluntary pay cut on the part of the leader of the institution would be “meaningful” to the community, not as a solution to our difficulties but as a sign that I understand that sacrifices are being made everywhere, and that such a cut would be perceived differently by the community than the private giving that the leadership of the College has undertaken this year.

Vassar’s senior officers already have, and continue to, make sacrifices for “the community which we call home.” As President of the College and a member of this community, I will reduce my current salary next year by five percent to signal—to symbolize—that everyone is sacrificing at this moment in our College’s history.

I want to thank all the members of our community who have participated in our ongoing conversations about the College’s response to the current fiscal situation with thoughtfulness and respect for differing points of view.

—Catharine Bond Hill, President of Vassar College.

Student Radical-trons clarify Cuts should be decided by they are controlled by faculty most informed, experienced Royce Drake and Robyn Smigel

G

Guest Columnists

reetings Humans: We are Radical-tron 3000™s, and we write to you today to challenge the ill-informed and spiteful accusations that we are not automatons. We were created by a select group of manipulative faculty and their Union allies to be the muscle in a larger plan far beyond our robotic understanding. However, we have come to realize, thanks to your infinitely helpful comments on the Miscellany website (“Eliminating positions affects livelihoods: jobs aren’t figures, but homes and families,” 10.29.09) and a circulating faculty letter (“Confusion surrounds recent exchange of financial data,” 10.29.09), that this plan is far more sinister than we could have imagined...if we had imaginations.

To those brave souls who called us “absurd idealists,” you got it half right. Yes, we have been programmed with multiple idealisms, including, but not limited to: “People Matter 2.0,” “There Are Multiple Solutions to One Problem,” and the beta version of “Social Justice is Something to Strive For.” Unfortunately, the concept of absurdity does not compute with us, as we are perfectly rational machines, but hopefully we will be more absurd once we upgrade to Idealism XP. There are some who thought that we were humans experiencing a protracted childhood, and were victims of a system that allowed that. We must clarify that, being machines, we never had a childhood, unlike the rest of you students who are quite clearly much matured since the days when you played dress-up and had others prepare your meals. We cannot be victims—we have no feelings, thoughts or personal motivations.

If we had emotions, we would pity those who humanized us to the point of saying we believed ourselves “smarter...than the individuals who run our College.” As you must realize now, we cannot think we are smarter, since we are incapable of original thought. We lack the critical thinking abilities and imaginative problem-solving skills that Vassar instills in its human students.

Though we are not among the models built by Professor of English Donald Foster, we hear he has been busy in his laboratory this year. Being that we are manufactured goods, the claim circulated by four faculty members in their letter to their colleagues is irrational. Faculty could no more recruit us than they could a hammer. We were built to serve only those who score at least a seven out of 10 on the Marxian Scale®. One commentator was more accurate in his assessment when he called us “Union pawns.”

We are not trying to be cool; we are merely replicating the functions of older models such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Henry David Thoreau and Angela Davis. Just like these previous Radical-Trons, we say that we are standing up for what we believe in, when in reality we are only following the lines of code in our hard drives.

For too long we have stood by and allowed others to hurl insults at us, claiming we can think for ourselves, that we may very well have our own motivations, and that we could quite possibly be manipulators in our own right. Some even say that the exchange of ideas isn’t always one-sided­ —that people with different backgrounds and desires might actually work together as equals for common goals. These claims are untrue, and they would shame us terribly if we were capable of such emotion. We say openly now that we are robots (or, for all those bleeding-heart liberals, Mechanical-Americans), and we want all accusations to the contrary to cease.

We leave you with a few words from our databanks, though we don’t know what they mean.

From Martin Luther King, Jr., in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”: “Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas...But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.”

And George Carlin: “Don’t sweat the petty things; don’t pet the sweaty things.” Now we must reboot and recharge for another day of pawnery.

Rob Woodward Guest Columnist

I

remember last year when it seemed as though Vassar’s endowment was imploding.

There were constant e-mails about the financial health of the College, about classes and staff being cut and about the need to cut back discretionary spending wherever possible.

Students and alums complained about random cuts with which they had a personal problem.

It is all very well for students and alumnae/i to express their concerns with how the College is run, but it is best to take a step back before becoming too involved in someone else’s life.

The basic issue with staffing any institution in a recession is that it is politically more problematic to decrease wages than to lay off staff.

Perhaps this is because even if every staffer’s faith in their job security is undermined by layoffs, the actual monetary harm only falls on a few people, whereas reductions in pay affects everyone. Of course, the few people who are laid off are hurt pretty badly. Losing a job is not just a loss of remuneration: it is also a loss of social status. But, as a group, workers tend to prefer layoffs to widespread minor harm in the form of pay cuts. How should we students and alumnae/i react to this?

Intervention is tempting. Presumably there are two motivations: actually caring about the welfare of those who are laid off and wanting to be a hero. The problem with the first motivation is that it interferes with the collective bargaining process that staff members undertake through their union and ignores their preference for focusing the damage on a few individuals. The problem with the second motivation is that it is condescending. Although it is truly awful that some hard-working people will lose their jobs, Vassar’s staffers are adults who can bargain for their own jobs. Besides examining the motivation behind our impulse to intervene, maybe we should also look at the information behind that impulse. Students and

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

professors observe the day-to-day working of the College in a way that administrators cannot. Thus when there are staff cuts, student feedback is useful in determining the impact on the College’s educational mission. However, students are also less able to appreciate the rationale behind shifting budget allocations because their noses are too close to the ground and because they are not intimately acquainted with the College’s finances. This is not simply because students lack information, but also because they lack the financial experience to be able to process that information.

General lack of financial experience is precisely the reason that the College’s financial decisions are kept behind closed doors.

Although we might think that having access to information about the College’s investments and budgeting would help students make more informed decisions about issues like staff cuts, it could well do the opposite. The danger is that students will be overwhelmed juggling too many variables.

This is not at all to say that Vassar should not care about cutting staff members, but just that we have to recognize some cuts are necessary and the call is best made by administrators who are informed and experienced. It is a difficult decision to lay off someone who will likely find it hard to find new employment in the current economic climate. However, the school has taken steps to ease this difficulty with a plan to aid laid off workers in finding other employment and to provide access to temp work. This is not only a feel-good solution: it also provides a sense of security to other staffers, and can be used as a benefit to attract staffers to Vassar without having to pay higher wages. Of course, whether these benefits are actually worth it is another question that only the administration can duly answer.

—Rob Woodward is a graduate of the Class of 2009.

OPINIONS

Page 10

November 5, 2009

VSA fine to Ultimate Frisbee will take toll on team members T

he Vassar Ultimate Frisbee Team accepts anyone interested in playing. Members are not required to attend every practice, and there is no coach responsible for dictating how a particular practice or game is run. Instead, student captains lead and guide the team, but do not enforce specific requirements on commitment or conduct. Team members are responsible for their own decisions, both in how they play on the field and how they relate to the larger Vassar community. Our team budget allows us to travel away from Vassar and play the sport we love with colleges all over the northeast. In covering the cost of tournament fees as well as transportation and gas, our budget allows members to play frisbee without paying money out of their pockets.

On Sunday, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) voted 23 to 1 to fine the team the $3,000 we were awarded during this year’s supplemental budgeting as a result of the actions of some members of the team. It is our understanding that this cut in funding was intended to send a message to the team regarding the members who were written up for drinking beer at a practice before October Break. But the impact of this action will be felt in drastically different ways.

Many students at Vassar are conscious of class distinctions, and how our society radically

separates those with money from those without.

On campus, within the “Vassar bubble,” many of us believe that these distinctions fade into the background. Instead of focusing on the economic status of a particular person, we can conceive of them as simply a Vassar student with similar commitments and responsibilities as ourselves.

Campus organizations such as the Vassar Outing Club and Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) further act to blur class distinctions by making shows or off-campus excursions freely available to any Vassar student interested. Instead of only those with money being able to buy tickets to attend the Grizzly Bear show, anyone willing to wait in line for long enough got to go.

The Vassar Ultimate Frisbee Team is another such organization. It brings together students interested in playing the sport of frisbee and allows them, regardless of their class background, to attend tournaments. Just like other sports organizations on campus—whether intramural or varsity—ultimate frisbee players do not have to pay to attend their sporting events. The VSA decision to fine the team an amount which is about one-third of its operating budget no longer makes this possible.

With the drastic drop in team budgeting comes not an impetus for the team to change its perceived ways, but rather an elimination of

the possibility of participating in the sport for those without the economic means to pay 40 or 50 dollars for a weekend of frisbee.

Is there a way to chastise the team without limiting its membership to only those with the monetary means to pay? While this question was repeatedly asked of the frisbee leaders at Sunday’s VSA Council, the bylaws of the VSA Constitution consist of a specific set of penalties that include only minimal punishments such as an official reprimand, or severe penalties such as the freezing of all funds or the decertification of an organization. This small set of “options” seems to constrain the VSA’s ability to respond to incidents by addressing the context under which they occurred.

If the goal was to both encourage more responsible behavior as well as protect Vassar’s image, we feel a fine of this severity was not productive. If anything, limiting funding gives the ultimate team fewer opportunities to positively represent Vassar College when visiting other schools off campus.The frisbee team is in a unique situation at Vassar in which we are able to play not just Division III schools, but also Division I universities and other large schools that Vassar sports teams do not otherwise encounter. Everywhere we go, Vassar Ultimate carries a high level of spirit and sportsmanship.

‘Helping Vassar remain Vassar,’ not corporate: AAUP organizer Moser inspires conviction Judith Nichols

T

Guest Columnist

he Mission Statement of Vassar College reads: “Vassar College is committed to working toward a more just, diverse, egalitarian and inclusive college community where all members feel valued and are fully empowered to claim a place in­—and responsibility for—our shared working, living and learning. The College affirms the inherent value of a diverse campus and curriculum reflective of our lives as members of multiple local and global communities.”

What Rich Moser, American Association of University Professors (AAUP) organizer and Rutgers University historian, taught Vassar organizers and others about organizing in his Friday, Oct. 30 visit to campus will be hard to fit into a short editorial. Moser possessed some of the conviction and clarity of organizers like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Crystal Lee Sutton (portrayed as Norma Rae in the 1979 classic movie of the same title), but he seemed more exhausted than my image of great organizers.

His voice was tired, and he said that he can no longer speak to groups for long periods without becoming hoarse. But what I learned from Moser through talking with him throughout the day was that the slow work of organizing community members on college campuses often produces significant results.

When Moser spoke to a room of staff, union leaders, faculty and students in Rockefeller Hall, a number of us were struck by the nuanced nature of his critique of the corporatization of higher education in America.

He talked for thirty minutes on American social and economic history before getting to his central message. By the end of Moser’s talk, I sensed that many of us in the room believed Moser’s main argument: Vassar is not alone in our careening descent into a corporate style management with diminished democracy, diminished worker rights and diminished curricular diversity.

Moser is a serious intellectual who wasn’t afraid to talk in one line sound bites when he got to the second part of our meeting in room 200. Organizing was the topic some of us were eager to hear Moser discuss. Sound bites aren’t too popular in the circles that I run in here at Vassar.

Typical Vassar verbal contributions take between five to twenty minutes to deliver.

The phenomenon of the long, wandering sound bite is common at our dinner table and in the various meetings I attend. The wandering sound bite is probably part of why I love Vassar.

It strikes me that part of the work that exists in helping Vassar remain Vassar is this: Even though we love discourse and complexity of argument, faculty, students and staff need to learn to create and embrace one-liners right now.

In order to move beyond the managerial rhetoric of inevitability, our community may benefit from developing some terse rallying points. “Social movements prosper by articulating alternative visions,” Moser said.

Clearly such sounds bites aren’t enough to create a social movement, but community members who are learning how to become organizers might consider that framing rhetorical alternatives to the narrative of inevitability is central work for us. The inevitability of cutting the low cost labor force at Vassar breaks contract with our mission statement.

Perhaps we can work together to invent, reinvent and present our new messages in creative ways. We need anchors of language and rhetoric to keep us steady in the sea of seemingly rational economic talk. We need to be smarter and more creative than the managers who are hollowing out the college quickly, relentlessly and without any sense of humility.

To oppose “saving the institution” by cutting our most economically vulnerable community members will require memorable language and inventive phrases. We need all our writers, cooks, carpenters, dancers, economists, nurses, philosophers, sociologists, artists, psychologists, electricians and historians—everyone and her sister working around the clock.

Moser encourages organizers to let go of our engagement with power. Our interest in talking with the Vassar Board of Trustees and top administrators is natural; it’s seductive to be called in to express ourselves to people who hold the purse strings, and we probably do need to talk with these groups from time to time, but the bulk of our work needs to be organizing our communities at Vassar.

We need to help community members find ways to let Vassar become the Vassar that we imagine in our mission statement.

We need to find tasks to share with others.

Organizing is much more work than just doing the work ourselves.

We will also benefit, Moser said, if we leave the dancing numbers and narratives of mismanagement behind for the time being and find ways to act that move the institution forward toward realizing our core mission. Some of us will do that through official channels and AAUP meetings. Oth-

ers will do it through demonstrations, public dialogue on employees’ rights, and attending Campus Solidarity meetings. We will benefit from talking with each other and respecting our different and shared methods of working.

Finding daily and weekly ways of pressing each other to help make Vassar’s mission statement a living document will have more benefits for our institution that anything else we can do.

We may want to attend staff coffee breaks on Thursday at 10 a.m. outside the bookstore each week. We may benefit from attending college-sanctioned meetings with greater regularity.

We may need to plan additional events and talk to each other outside our usual constituencies and communities.

China and Thailand are showing how the global economic crisis creates challenge in terms of developing new priorities. Look back and find something reliable to hold on to that still makes sense, they seem to say.

When things are tough, invest in education!

China and Thailand are investing significant resources into higher education during the economic crisis while American managers of higher education are divesting in the labor force and the teachers who allow liberal arts to flourish.

Moser helped me believe we can warm up this chilly intellectual environment and build vigorous dialogue. Recent administrative decisions to erode fair work practices and lay off the most vulnerable workers and teachers suggest a movement away from our mission statement. It will require vigorous citizenship to change the corporate style that has begun to shape our institution. Moser suggests that perhaps the Vassar community, with our history of concern for social justice, our powerful mission statement, and our room full of committed organizers, is up to the task at hand.

One liners don’t come naturally to me but here are a couple to try out for starters: Turn the tides at Vassar: help make our mission statement a living document.

Invest in labor, invest in education Save jobs, share jobs, cancel layoffs An economic crisis does not equal an in stitutional identiy crisis.

—Judith Nichols, Adjunct Associate Professor of English, is a member of the Campus Solidarity Working Group and also a member of the developing Vassar Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Without sacrificing competitiveness, we seek to foster good relationships with all the teams we visit. Over the years, we have created a number of close connections with other ultimate teams in the area. This is one of the reasons we are so disheartened that the on-campus actions of some members of the team have prevented us from fully being able to positively represent Vassar off-campus.

We feel that there are still possible alternatives to the punishment that we received, and the collective minds of the VSA might be the best place to explore those options. A number of solutions seem more in line with an intended goal of limiting future such incidents: have a meeting with the team explaining the expectations of the VSA and how they would like the frisbee team culture to change; stronger punishments for the individuals found responsible of having an open container at practice; or limiting the use of the space in which the actual incident occurred. But instead of decreasing the possibility of such occurrences or changing the environment that lead to such an infraction, the VSA ruling merely acts to cut off many of those interested in ultimate frisbee from access to the sport itself.

—The Vassar Ultimate Frisbee Team

Fox directs focus away from issues Timothy McCormick

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Guest Columnist

here has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the White House and their recent war with the conservative Fox News network. Obama administration officials like Anita Dunn and Rahm Emmanuel have charged Fox with being an “arm of the Republican Party” and urged networks like CNN to stop listening to Fox. Fox and their allies have returned in kind with comparisons of Obama to Nixon and levying charges of despotism on the part of the White House and ineptitude on the part of CNN. While Obama and Fox seem to be reaching a ceasefire of sorts on their recent war, it nevertheless remains important to analyze the situation and how a network like Fox News affects media and the democratic bias.

It is hardly an edgy or biased claim that Fox has some bias in its programming. Fox’s opinion shows have a severe slant to the right and hosts a cadre of conservative darlings such as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. However, the network engages in slanting its program beyond its opinion shows. Your World with Neil Cavuto, which spans the gap between opinionated talk programming and news show, frequently has biased, polemical headlines such as “The liberal media: out to sabotage the economy?” or “Will Dems crush the economy if they control Congress?” Such shows seem to feel that anything can be unbiased reporting if they slap a question mark at the end of their beliefs.

Even more hampering to journalistic integrity is the “errors” that their regular news programming seems to engage in at an almost continual basis. Many have already commented on the network’s coincidental habit of accidentally attaching a “(D)” to Republican senators embroiled in scandal, former Representative Mark Foley of Florida being the first among them. However, the network has engaged in worse practices. The Huffington Post has recently put out an article displaying several moments in Fox News programming where quotes by President Obama talking about implementing a “healthcare system like the European countries” and Vice President Biden saying “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” in the midst of our recession. Both of these quotes were taken severely out of context. The first incident was Obama at a Q&A session repeating a question given to him; the second was Biden on the campaign trail repeating a quote said by Senator John McCain. Such mistakes call into question the journalistic integrity of Fox; more-so since all of these mistakes seem to follow a political bias.

Perhaps the most damning evidence for bias in the network come from a series of memos by Fox news exec John Moody by the watchdog group Media Matters. The memos are filled with right-wing talking points (talking about Kerry’s “flip-flop voting record”, for example) and urged employees to protect the Bush administration during the 9/11 Commission (“so called commission” in his words), saying “Do not turn See FOX on page 11

OPINIONS

November 5, 2009

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Obama must push for climate legislation Mandana Nakhai Guest Columnist

The huge amount of attention garnered by Congress’s struggle to pass a comprehensive and bipartisan health care bill has distracted the nation from efforts to pass legislation on climate change. The House passed its own version of the bill, the Waxman-Markey bill, on June 26 of this year, and another bill was introduced in the Senate by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Sept. 30. Though President Barack Obama has devoted many quotable moments and sound bites to expressing his commitment to “greening” the economy and taking a position of leadership in the global struggle against climate change, his actions have not yet demonstrated significant will to accomplish these goals.

Obama refers to the contemporary environmental movement as gaining energy, but often resists placing his administration at the center of responsibility. And while stimulus money has been spent on projects to improve energy independence and other environmental projects, these actions are only small steps towards the massive restructuring of American thought on environmentalism that will be the key ingredient in creating the political will to pass such legislation. As for the bills currently working their way through Congress, partisan members of Congress have already rendered the bill as just another irresponsible and irrational measure of spending by the Democrats. Of course, this is unbeknownst to most Americans, who are more likely to weigh in on news about health care, Afghanistan or Iraq because they are portrayed as the most pressing and relevant issues.

The Boxer-Kerry bill, which draws on some

aspects of the House’s Waxman-Markey bill and changes others, seeks to reduce and strictly regulate pollution and provide incentives for investment in research and development of new, sustainable technologies. It sets an achievable, short-term goal for carbon reduction as well as establishes measures of market oversight and transparency to limit speculation on cap-and-trade programs while retaining the authenticity of their environmental impact. The framing of this bill has revealed an idealistically holistic approach to environmental legislation. Boxer and Kerry seem to understand that for climate change legislation to succeed, it must be removed from association with an elitist, niche environmentalism.

Federal legislation is often perceived as affecting a small aspect of society—changing one small part of the whole. But climate change legislation must take an expansive view of the connection between humans and their environment. For example, instead of addressing the plight of the polar bear, legislators should instead focus on issues like the needs of people on the margin who will be disproportionately affected by climate change.

This bill must explicitly and dramatically show, without any specter of doubt, that what we think of as the distant “environment” and not-in-my-suburbia “nature” are really right outside our front doors. The existence of an urban park, the health of the water that runs through municipal pipelines and the quality of the food we eat every day are not realities estranged from those of the wildlife preserve or national park we seek to protect. Thus, the Boxer-Kerry bill is right in connecting the national dialogue of American innovation, our hopes for the economy and the importance of national security as all converging in climate

change legislation.

Yet the voice of opposition, largely divided along party lines, has already said the bill goes “too far.” Opponents of the Boxer-Kerry bill generally support climate change legislation and acknowledge the problems that global climate change will and already are causing.

But they are simply unwilling to take any steps that could harm the energy industry and other major polluters. Clearly, the fate of undeniably harmful and destructive industries such as coal is deeply intertwined with the wellbeing of thousands of Americans, whose livelihoods depend on them. But the deepest message of environmentalism promotes an ideal of human existence that is free from both economic insecurity and environmental degradation. Should we, in not wanting to endanger the jobs of coal workers, put them and their families in the certain danger of the toxic water and polluted air and soil that inevitably flows from this industry? Or should we fight for an entirely new conception of economic and national security that states that where ecosystems and environments are healthy, humans will flourish as well? Opposition to the Boxer-Kerry bill claims that the bill asks for too much, too fast. But its emissions reduction targets are only at or even below the very minimum of the carbon reductions scientists claim are absolutely necessary. Obama must push this legislation with a heavy hand to show that what is good for the environment will, in the end, be good for people too. He must go beyond photo shoots with solar panels and show the country that environmentalism is patriotism.

What did you do with your extra hour on Sunday?

“I watched the basketball game.”

Connor McGallagher ’13

“We cuddled.”

Shari Silver ’10 and Kristen Meade ’10

—Mandana Makhai is a member of the Vassar Sustainability Committee.

US suffers from Legitimate Afghan gov’t key lack of substance Steve Keller

FOX continued from page 10 this into Watergate. Remember the fleeting sense of national unity that emerged from this tragedy.”

Of course, that isn’t to say that Fox is wrong in having political bias; different points of view should be allowed to have their outlet in a democracy. It is the audacious attempt on the part of Fox News to try and pass off such biased reports as impartial news, and in turn the mistake on the part of networks such as MSNBC to respond to Fox as a news network. While media is proven to be not an effective means of changing peoples minds, it does very effectively set the tone as to what sorts of issues are going to be brought up at dinner tables and water coolers. If a network like Fox is, say, giving movements like the Obama birthers (those who think Obama is from Kenya) time on air disproportionate to their legitimacy, and other networks report on that, then the nation as a whole suffers because we as a people are inundated with the birther’s ridiculous claims and are thus inclined to talk about them.

Our media is not going to discuss more pertinent issues unless the money behind these networks stops getting so large a say in what they do. Networks such as Fox are not principally designed to bring noteworthy news items to their viewers; they are business models designed to maximize profit and secure an investment for a select few individuals. As such, they are more inclined to turn to irrelevant, polemical discussions in place of actually reporting important news items; since the higher ups of the network also contain political bias, their polemics are going to slant far to the right. Since the network is so motivated for profit, the top executives and investors have a large say in what sorts of issues are going to be covered. Since all the news networks in turn cover the same issue, we as a nation are now forced to view petty news stories day after day. This in turn hurts our democratic process, as we are not able to be as informed on important issues as we would like. In that sense, the White House has a point, and some advice we should take if we as a nation want to enrich our democratic process. Turn off the TV and turn the motive profit against the networks: give them a reason to actually report.

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Guest Columnist

ight years ago, I began following the news. It was just after Sept. 11, 2001, and the United States had the will of the world behind it as it tried to unseat the Afghani Taliban government. With lightning speed, the Northern Alliance—an organization of Afghanis who opposed Taliban rule—overthrew the Taliban with the help of US air power. I watched as the US got its revenge and freed a people under autocratic rule.

Since then, I’ve been an interventionist.

When I see genocide, I want to stop it—that’s why we should have gone into Sudan half a decade ago. When I see political oppression, I want to fight against it—that’s why we should have done more to help the Iranian “Facebook” revolution earlier this summer. When we’re attacked, I want to utterly destroy the enemy using disproportionate force that will show any cell or state that dares to cross us that they will be destroyed a hundredfold if they hurt or kill Americans.

The invasion of Afghanistan was absolutely justified—even Iran supported it. The United States asked that the Taliban give up Osama bin Laden and end the safe harbor of terrorists within their country; they refused, so we overthrew them. We were right to try to install a democracy within the country.

But unfortunately, that dream of an Afghan democracy is flagging; it is in danger of being replaced by the Taliban government we toppled eight years ago, a government whose counterpart in Pakistan could cause severe problems for the nuclear-armed nation.

The recent electoral crisis in Afghanistan, in which the American-installed President Hamid Karzai is being accused of massive voter fraud, sends my mind back to Vietnam. We had this same problem back in the 1950s, specifically: an unstable government, massive voter fraud, and an unhappy populace threatened by an irregular insurgency.

A poor reading of history would be that the people of South Vietnam unilaterally supported the government–which, of course was a democratic one. The truth is more muddled. The United States plucked Ngo Dinh Diem out of a monastery in New Jersey and set him up as the President of South Vietnam, after a fraudulent election

that suppressed support for Ho Chi Minh, whom many scholars agree would have won had the vote not been tampered with.

We need a democratic government in Afghanistan, but more importantly, we need a legitimate government. Right now, the only thing standing between a Taliban takeover of the country is the “democratic” government in Afghanistan. Karzai is still the only thing we have to prevent such a catastrophe. There are many problems we’d have to deal with in the event of a takeover of Afghanistan, but the overarching one is the danger a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan would pose to Pakistan, which is facing an insurgency of its own. And should the Pakistanis lose control of the capital to the Taliban or other radical Islamists, we could face a grave nuclear threat.

The Vietnamese Army rose up against Ngo Dinh Diem in late 1963, killing him, his brother, and ushering in an era of extreme political instability in South Vietnam that would not end until the Communists took over in 1975. Billions of dollars and thousands of American lives were lost defending a state that was neither democratic nor in our vital interest to defend. It does not matter if it is Karzai in control or if it is his rival, Abdullah Abdullah; what matters is that the government is legitimate. If the government is perceived to have been sworn in under an air of illegitimacy, it will be doomed to failure. And while losing the country to the Taliban will be a bad thing, should the Karzai regime be viewed as antidemocratic there will be nothing we can do other than delay it’s fall.

I want to win the war in Afghanistan, but there is simply no way that we can win, especially if our repreysentatives in the country (the Karzai government) are perceived as being undemocratic.

History should serve as a warning to us in this case. It would be bad to leave Afghanistan, and even dangerous. But if Karzai refuses to be democratic, and if the Afghan government does not recognize the people, there is very little that U.S. support will accomplish except for delaying the inevitable resurgence of the Taliban. Karzai needs to get his act together or we need to get out, painful though it may be.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“I stayed up an extra hour to read The Miscellany News.”

Peter Rotundo ’09

“I spent it watching the Korean drama Boys Before Flowers.”

Joseph Kim ’12

“Party!”

Jordan Crook ’12 and Luci Rowe ’13

“I slept”

Koko Fisch ’13 — Angela Aiuto and Kelly Shortridge, Opinions Editors

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November 5, 2009

Republicans should focus on small government movement Kelly Shortridge

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Opinions Editor

hether you like the teabaggers or not, it must be recognized that their movement has sent a substantial adrenaline shot into the hearts of many voters who favor limited government. Tired of both stale GOP dogma and President Obama & Co.’s big government spending spree, these citizens, ranging from moderates to very right-wingers, have protested—loudly and passionately—in favor of small government and lower taxes.

The leaders of the GOP seem to be deaf.

They seem to believe that keeping up with their 2000-election era social-issues platform and mixing a dash of “compromise” in the form of liberal economics is what will win votes.

Blaming Bush is already becoming passé, as now the blame of the current economic problems falls almost evenly on Dubya and Obama (rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/october_2009/49_ blame_bush_for_economy_45_blame_obama); the Republican party leaders, however, seem to be trying to distance themselves from Bush by emphasizing being “moderate.” Their definition

of moderate, however, involves the opposite of what the enormous grassroots effort is calling for: an end to wasteful spending.

Despite what the White House may think about the media juggernaut that is Fox News, the vast majority of news is still liberal. Because of this, the Republicans that get the most press coverage are quite possibly the ones with the weakest and most inflammatory viewpoints, such as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, and others like them. Furthermore, the liberal media— which, as I have said before, is the media minus Fox News and perhaps the Wall Street Journal— seems to think that people like Glenn Beck take themselves seriously. This leads me to believe they have never actually watched Fox News, as he consistently has admitted that his show is simply opinion.

However, his opinions have riled many voters up, and the White House is nervous. If they are to keep control of Congress, they must make sure that Republicans lose in 2010, and that the Independents do not decide to side with rightof-center candidates. It is a sign of weakness and of fear that the White House has devoted so much time to slamming and degrading Fox

News; as if the other networks don’t buy into the same cash-cow that is populist scaremongering.

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of the network, but with our current President (just as liberal networks such as MSNBC and CNN were important during George W. Bush’s presidency), it is important that opposing viewpoints are out there.

I get the feeling that the Democrats—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi especially—would love to have government-sponsored media (and perhaps government-sponsored everything) so that they can keep control of the government for years to come. The future of the Democrats is in as much of a dire state as the Republicans; they are sticking with viewpoints that are unfavorable, just as the Republicans did for eight years under Bush, and I fear (well, actually I’m glad, since I believe it will cost them future elections) they will make the same mistake and continue to hold onto radically leftist policies and ideas which Independents seem to not like.

The leaders of the conservative grassroots efforts have recognized this and come up with a new movement that is a departure from neoconservatism and the “same ol’ same ol’”; it is

a breath of fresh air that many voters identify with.

Will the Republican leaders understand this and allow candidates from the school of Ron Paul rather than Pat Robertson rise to the upper ranks of the party, or will they stubbornly stick with what lost them the election this past year?

It is clear from the election in New York’s 23rd Congressional District that grassroots support and a candidate in favor of small government will come out much stronger than a “moderate” with the support of dusty neo-cons. The GOP must put aside their stubbornness and understand that if they are to avoid another two years of complete Democrat control by losing the 2010 elections, they need to revamp the party’s image—as the grassroots movement has already done quite successfully—and start getting some fresh, economically-minded faces in the spotlight.

—Kelly Shortridge ’12 is the Opinions Editor.

This year, she and Opinions Editor Angela Aiuto ’11 are maintaining an alternating column called “Point, Counterpoint,” in which they engage one another in conversation.

Judges can’t represent majority: The evolution of the media: Opinion delays marriage equality Megan Feldmeier

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Guest Columnist

ucked into the Oct. 26, 2009 edition of The New York Times was an article titled “In Battle Over Gay Marriage, Timing May Be Key,” which argued that waiting for public opinion to become more favorable toward same-sex marriage may be the best strategy for achieving marriage equality via the federal court system.

Theodore Olson and David Boies, two prominent lawyers from opposite sides of the political spectrum, are working to make gay marriage legal through the federal court system. They are suing on behalf of a lesbian and a gay couple, claiming that Proposition 8, California’s voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriage, violates the US Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and due process. They hope to take this suit to the U.S. Supreme Court; if they succeed, and win the case, every state in our nation will have marriage equality.

The article brings attention to the realities of our court system and the question of how to effectively win equal rights for homosexual Americans.

It highlights the view that working vertically—that is, making gay marriage legal through a Supreme Court ruling—will be ineffective, and that it would be better to work horizontally— gaining ground by making marriage legal in individual states. Some gay rights organizations fear that taking the issue directly to federal court, or using the vertical method, runs a high risk for setting a negative Supreme Court precedent.

If the Supreme Court doesn’t rule in favor of equality, it will be much more difficult to win the smaller battles in the states. And furthermore, these organizations feel that gaining equality in a large number of states, using the horizontal method, will make the Supreme Court more likely to ultimately rule in favor of equality. However, as a supporter of gay rights, I support the Mr. Olson’s and Mr. Boies’ suit and argue that all gay rights activists should as well.

The article cites the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which found a law that treated homosexual sex as a crime to be constitutional; two-thirds of Americans supported such a law at the time of the Court’s rulng.

It also cites Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which overruled the Court’s decision in Bowers, when public support for said law waned to one-third.

In these examples, we are supposed to see that the courts tend to align their rulings with the consensus of the population. Tolerating, or rather fostering, this failure of the court system by not pushing ahead the Olson and Boies case and other minority suits is ludicrous. We have no need for the judicial branch’s unique power to interpret the constitutionality of laws if their rulings are simply representative of majority opinion.

If judges and justices are going to be representatives instead of unbiased legal and constitutional experts, it seems we might as well just take a nationwide vote on gay marriage, and skip the trouble of having the courts try to figure it out if equality is “constitutional.” And while we’re at it, we could all vote whether or not we want to override President Obama’s decision to allow people with HIV to immigrate to our country, so he, too, can make his decisions democratically, instead of with the decision-making power we gave him when we elected him to be our president.

It is important for this suit to have the support of gay rights activists. Rather than internally bickering about whether or not the Court will read the Constitution fairly, with this suit we will demand that the judges and justices do their job (while also gaining same-sex marriage rights). Judges and justices have a responsibility to interpret the Constitution without being influenced by majority opinion. They are not supposed to be representatives; they are supposed to interpret our Constitution with unbiased precision because the vast majority of the population fails to do so. In our democratic country, the majority opinion has the unfortunate power to silence the minority. The courts are meant to protect this minority from losing their constitutional rights because rights are not about what is popular. That is why this fight is important: because while grassroots efforts are valuable (and I both support and partake in them), a court ruling will enforce a policy of equality and of minority protection in our country.

As gay rights activists remind us, equality for some isn’t equality at all. The courts have a responsibility to see this, even though the majority of U.S. citizens are still blind to it. Support Mr. Olson and Mr. Boies in their suit for equality—it’s about more than just gay rights: it’s about minority protection in our country and demanding that the Court does its constitutionally-given job.

Now more imperative than ever Julian Mundy

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Guest Columnist

nlike many of my generation, I’ve never felt entirely compelled to invest any significant portion of my day watching the news on TV. Maybe I watched with more frequency and perhaps more genuine interest when I was younger, but again, unlike many of my generation, my love for the news media has only lessened with age. It would be negligent of me not to keep myself informed of world events, though, and this is where I turn to internet sources like The Huffington Post, where I feel there is less spin and more factual news. Give me the facts and I’ll be satisfied that I’ve done my due diligence.

That said, you can see why I avoid Fox News like the plague, as that particular network has to my mind been nothing other than an assembly of demagogues that somehow find themselves broadcasting nationwide so that they can disseminate their all-spin, no-fact “journalism” across the country to be swallowed gladly by the willfully ignorant and the tragically misinformed. My uncle and I are exceptionally vocal in our family circle about the damage that Fox News inflicts on public opinion. Bill O’Reilly in particular has come to remind me of the mouthy, propaganda-spouting TV personality Lewis Prothero in Alan Moore’s graphic novel, V for Vendetta. The comparison becomes increasingly alarming the longer one considers it, because not only does the thick-necked, thinhaired O’Reilly look physically similar to Prothero, but also the man and the character share a love for misinformation that I would describe as uncanny if it weren’t so damn frightening.

The point I’m trying to make, at last, is that given my indignation for the sort of people Fox News employs and the sort of reporting they do, how has it taken so long, approximately 13 years, for the White House to notice what I could identify as a young teenager? It must be a sign of the times that the White House has finally acknowledged to the public that Fox News is nothing but a conduit for heavily spun conservative dogma. Other news networks, whose neutrality is questionable at best (I’m looking at you, CNN), are also jumping on the bandwagon in dissecting the imprudence exercised by Fox News.

I do give CNN credit for having Director of White House Communications Anita Dunn on the show to give an open and honest criticism of what Fox News really is: a mouth for

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the Republican party’s brain. Frankly, I couldn’t be more in agreement with Dunn’s sentiments that Fox News isn’t news at all. I also agree with MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow that news can be reported with opinions attached and still be responsibly, truthfully disclosed news.

At this point, I feel as though the only journalism we can trust as a country is that which is not fed to us after being filtered through a corporate sieve, as any major news broadcast is likely to be influenced by the business interests of one or more affiliated major corporations. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that we are only being told what Big Brother wants us to be told, but I can scarcely deny my fear of taking too much stock in what networks like MSNBC have to say. My trust is slightly greater in CNN and CBS because even with their liberal leanings, they have been more reliable in reporting the honest, factual truth, and my love of Walter Cronkite’s work persists to this day.

But as with any form of media, I feel that, in some ways, TV journalism is being slowly phased out. Perhaps not out of the public eye, as most of the ratings for most news networks have never been higher, but more out of the realm of what we as Americans feel that we can trust. One bizarre example is something that I’ve found myself doing more and more lately: Turning not only to internet sources like The Huffington Post for news, but to YouTube as well. One YouTuber by the name of LiberalViewer has been of particular interest to me, because while he may not be a reporter in the traditional sense, his status as a prominent member of the American Civil Liberties Union gives him a degree of clarity that often causes his views and mine to work in concert.

On certain occasions, his pointed analysis of the televised news has informed my own views, including the topic of this column.

In closing, I would simply like to assert my belief that we as a species have an intrinsic hunger for the truth, whatever that means to you.

The age of gonzo journalism is all but a thing of the past, so we must do some digging of our own. We are advancing quicker than ever and as a result, we may have to wean ourselves off of the sort of fake punditry and false journalism of the Glenn Becks and Katie Kourics of the world. Evolution is a natural imperative, and it applies to everything. Evolve or perish, and at this point, my only question is this: What’s taking so long?

HUMOR & SATIRE

November 5, 2009

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OPINIONS

I’m 19 years old and I’m gonna have a baby, someday Mitchell Gilburne

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Guest Columnist

et’s leave last week in the past and dive into something new! This week, I’d like to contemplate fatherhood, or rather the idea that I’m biologically capable of becoming a father at any second. It really sends me for a loop. I’m used to everyone my age having relatively similar life experiences. Regardless of race, gender, wealth etc., we’ve all pretty much been through the drooling and the schooling and find ourselves at something of a common ground. I understand that we’re currently in the launching pad years and our experiences will see some serious variety, but to think that someone made it to the age of 18-22 and has a child while I’ve made it to age 18-22 and still am a child is trippy stuff! I’m so curious to see if Vassar would set me up in some luxurious family apartment. If that is the case, I might have to give this some serious consideration.

I actually really want to be a dad...someday, but I don’t have an image of how kids fit into the plan yet. I’ll be 20 this year. That gives me eight or nine years before I’m out of eggs. If I want kids, I have to hurry! But seriously, I don’t want to be an old dad. I know some kids have older parents, and it seems to work out very nicely. There’s financial stability and a certain sophistication that comes from having parents the age of my grandparents, but I really like my young parents. Maybe that’s just because that’s what I’m used to.

And here I am, thinking way too hard about starting a family when I don’t even have a boyfriend! That’s probably step one. Step two might involve circumventing the limits of biology, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. The moral of the story is that I need to be mega-rich by the time I’m 28, and then I can have a baby. And if I’m not mega-rich by the time I’m 35, it looks like the Gilburne name ends with me because I sure as hell am not having kids after I’m 35. These are my golden years we’re talking about, and I’m not willing to give them up for the sake of some brat.

(Yeah, I know I have a younger brother so the Gilburne name dies with him if it dies at all, but that really sucks the drama out of the situation.)

So, now I’m 28, happily married or partnered or whatever the government is letting us do these days. I’m really rich. I’m chauffeured in a flying car to the space station that I own and attend to whatever business is responsible for my riches (this is not something I’m picky about, but I fancy myself a successful and ambitious black market arms dealer). Hopefully we’ve made first contact by now, and I either smuggle advanced alien technology, or I’m an ambassador from the galactic union of Earth and our fledgling colonies on Jupiter (it was really a very difficult project to colonize Jupi-

ter, considering it’s a gas giant and all.) Sorry, I’ve probably lost you by now. Let’s recap. I’m rich, married, and I’m gonna have a baby!

It seems like everything is in place, but really it’s only beginning. I’m going to want to raise the baby Jewish and honor my heritage and have it Bar/Bat Mitzvah-ed, but who knows what my husband will want. Will he even be human? I figure if I’m going to be working so closely with aliens I should show them that my intentions are pure by marrying one of their own, right? So, it looks like I’m shacking up with E.T. But will my galactic lover feel the same way I do? What if aliens are anti-Semitic? What if my baby is an atheist?

Oh shit! I’m an atheist, but my mom would kill me if my kid isn’t Bar/Bat Mitzvah-ed.

Now, if you think this Bar/Bat business is getting tedious, you’re not alone. But this is the issue that I’ve really been dreading. Do I want a boy or a girl? I know you’re not supposed to have a preference, but I think I might.

I think I want a boy, and I know he’ll be raised in the future, but what if it’s not easy for him to have two daddies and all of the other spacekids make fun of him? I don’t want that. But I think it would be so fun to raise a kind, smart, sensitive young boy who plays sports and likes girls and all of those other boy things but has that special twist that can only come from having me as a parent. Of course, with a girl her life would be glitz and sparkles and unicorns, but a girl would be too easy, and isn’t parenthood supposed to be a fulfilling yet frustrating challenge?

Shit! What if my alien baby doesn’t have gender at all? All this talk of boys, girls, and neuter alien babies makes me realize what a strong hold gender has on our conception of almost everything. It also makes me hungry.

Okay, Now I’ve confused myself. Time for another recap. I’m rich, married, Jewish and I have a baby. I’ve decided he’s a boy. I can’t help it; I want one, and it happens to be the natural biological result of the fertilization ritual I have engaged in with my alien lover. This is the future; anything is possible! Now what? Of course he’ll be getting a private education, but where? Will he board on Earth, or go to one of those snobby academies on the rings of Saturn? Will he live at home? Will we move to a suburban space colony because the schools are better there? But wouldn’t that affect MY life? I need to be close to a metropolitan space station for my job. We may be rich, but I’m young, and I have my whole career ahead of me, and it’s just not something I’m willing to give up.

As you can see, family planning has its unique and stimulating challenges, and after really thinking it over seriously, despite it all, I think I’m ready to be Dad today! Bring it on, universe!

Cartoon by Liza Donnelly, Professor of Women’s Studies

Letter: Examples from nature, world explain Vassar behavior A

s academics, we must strive to find connections in our world and explanations for the strange and bizarre behaviors of Vassar College students, which constitute mere microcosms of human nature. While these underlying mechanisms are often difficult to locate, given that a large percentage of Brewer behavior seems to have no rhyme or reason, we are certain that evolutionary perspectives must shed some light on these odd patterns of socialization. Here, we review two examples of behavior that can be identified as “abuse of community resources,” which we seek to explain through traditional, rigorous methods of scientific inquiry.

We begin by examining whether a given behavior observed in the Vassar population can be found elsewhere in the animal world, thus lending evidence to the theory that these traits serve an evolutionary purpose. In fact, scientists from the University of Exeter conducted a study in July 2009 proving that when it came to foodstealing, gray squirrels were very quick learners.

The study showed that gray squirrels are primed to recognize each other as “potential food thieves,” and also that they learn very quickly from each other through real life observations.

Given the close co-habitation of Vassar students and gray squirrels, we posit the hypothesis that Vassar students may have developed their compulsion to sneak in the back doors at ACDC and slip Retreat apples into their book bags, despite the common finding that many students have more than enough meals and points, from observing the behaviors of the infamously crafty Vassar squirrels. Whether the same traits that are present in the squirrel population evolved

Weekly Calendar: 11/5 - 11/11 THURSDAY, 11/5

SATURDAY, 11/7

3 p.m. Tea. An ode to the things I saw on Halloween night.

Rose Parlor.

8 p.m. “Clue.” It was a belligerent underclassman in the Rose Parlor with the broken clock. Main Building Lobby.

9 p.m. HEL Show. Does not stand for Helsinki International Airport. Confusing, I know. Susan Stein Shiva Theater.

10 p.m. TONCA Middle School Mug Night. Together Opposing *N Sync and Christina Aguilera. The Mug.

FRIDAY, 11/6

11:30 p.m. “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Let’s not do the time warp ever again. Sanders Auditorium.

3 p.m. Tea. Driven crazy by thesis-writing, senior repeatedly hits carved pumpkins with a plunger; cheerful pumpkin faces stare back into her bloodshot eyes. Rose Parlor.

10 p.m. Stoplight Party: Rainbow Edition. Somewhere over the rainbow someone is subverting heteronormative paradigms and getting laid all in one go. Why, oh why can’t I? UpCDC. 10 p.m. SASA Mug Night. Food for thought: to what extent would it be an appropriation of an entire subcontinent to come prepared with all the moves memorized from that dance they do at the end of “Slumdog Millionaire?” The Mug.

SUNDAY, 11/8 5:30 Poughkeepsie Farm Potluck. What an ironic scandal it would be to bring vegetables from Stop and Shop! UpCDC. 8 p.m. Night Owls/Axies Concert. Gender. Binary. Rocky 200.

separately, but for comparable purposes, in Vassar students, or if this is a case of learning and imitation, is yet unknown. Both possibilities seem equally likely.

We next move to findings that certain abuses of community resources once thought as local to Vassar may show up in other human populations. A recent headline from the reputable news source, The New York Times, read, “French ideal of bicycle-sharing meets the reality of disrespect.” An excerpt from the article provides a particularly apt comparison for these findings at Vassar: “…this latest French utopia has met a prosaic reality: Many of the specially designed bikes, which cost $3,500 each, are showing up on black markets in Eastern Europe and northern Africa. Many others are being spirited away for urban joy rides, then ditched by roadsides, their wheels bent and tires stripped...” Of course, we all recognize the connections, as several pink bikes have recently been discovered in Ukraine and Morocco. We hope that these examples have illuminated the potential to develop a framework for rationalizing Vassar student behavior. Future research may choose to focus on such phenomena as shoe avoidance, communication breakdown between V-Print and thesis students, and the general fascination with irony.

While no studies currently exist detailing squirrel hook-up culture, we are confident that links could be identified to further bolster the evolutionary findings detailed above.

—Seniors Lorraine DeGraffenreidt, Catie Tombs and Molly Cahen are members of Indecent Exposure.

by Kelly Stout

international superstar David Hasselhoff. CC North Atrium.

1 p.m. Academic Majors Fair. The race is on between Medieval/Renaissance studies and Victorian studies to see who can field a larger team. Or, who can field a team at all. Villard Room 3 p.m. Tea. Rice cake costume crowd surfs at Villard Room party; hits a certain Miscellany News editor in the head. Rose Parlor.

TUESDAY, 11/10 3 p.m. Tea. Seniors rummage through leftover pizza boxes on the ground at the THs; reminiscent of groundhogs. Rose Parlor.

WEDNESDAY, 11/11 3 p.m. Tea. Sophomore dances wildly; smacks other sophomore in the face; knocks her unconscious. Rose Parlor.

MONDAY, 11/9 9 a.m. Fall of the Berlin Wall Anniversary Event. Featuring special guest speakers include former President Ronald Reagan, professor of German Studies Maria Höhn, and

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

5 p.m. Stroke Awareness Workshop. The first in the AARP-sponsored workshop series: “Things You Didn’t Think You Would Need to Worry About Until Age 65+” Villard Room.

ARTS

Page 14

November 5, 2009

Student filmmakers attempt to publicize projects, craft Erik Lorenzsonn

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Arts Editor

Courtesy of youtube.com

othing is more vibrant than Vassar’s campus on a crisp fall day. Besides the picturesque setting there are students speed-walking to class, professors lazily walking their dogs, groundskeepers and staff working diligently, and joggers and cyclists galore. But look hard enough and you’ll notice something else interspersed amongst the general bustle: students armed with movie cameras.

Student filmmakers are a common sight at Vassar, whether they’re shooting a scene by Sunset Lake, on the quad, in the College Center or outside the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC).

It is therefore a bit of a conundrum that although student filmmakers are themselves visible, the films they shoot are seemingly hard to find.

“I mean, I’m only a freshman,” said Kate Warrick. “But I haven’t seen anything prominent at all [in terms of student film].”

Charlie Pane, a senior film major, feels the same way.

“I wouldn’t say that it is all that visible on campus,” said Pane about student-made movies.

“Before I became a film major, I didn’t even hear anything about it except from a friend or two who were doing film production classes.”

This semester has seen a dearth of student films presented formally on campus. There has only been one showcase thus far: Vassar Filmmaker’s 12-hour film project movie screenings in late September. The screening was part of a project in which seven groups of students shot a five-minute film in 12 hours or less, edited it within a week and then displayed their work at Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film on September 25.

The 12-hour film project was part of an effort to attract new members to Vassar Filmmakers, the only Vassar Student Association (VSA)-certified organization that serves the needs of filmmakers. The group was created in 2006, but in three years it has managed to provide students with accessible means to make movies. Members have easy access to high-quality film equipment, workshops and editing equipment.

The organization’s president and creative director Kyle Porter ’10 said that increased exposure of films is a goal for the group this year.

“I think part of it is just the fact that we’re a relatively new organization,” said Porter ’10 of the club’s limited publicity. “We’re still seen as a bunch of weirdos.”

Besides the 12-hour film project, Vassar Filmmakers has also kept up campus appearances campus with 21st Century Fit, which was not so

Vassar alumna and renowned actress Lisa Kudrow ’85 makes a cameo appearance in Fourth Floor of Main, an online video series created by the Office of College Relations. much a showcase as it was experimental theater. The other major event for the Filmmakers was the screening of Porter’s own short film, “Facial,” immediately before Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) Film League’s presentation of Coraline 3D on Halloween night at Blodgett Hall.

At the behest of ViCE Film League director Max Kutner ’10, Porter filmed the darkly humorous and bizarre short during October Break.

Porter’s minimalist vignette is a dialogue of the discontent, a single scene involving a girl and her mother lounging and drinking. The film was recently submitted to a film competition called Live by the Creed, which is sponsored by the Independent Film Channel and the upcoming video game Assassin’s Creed 2. There is a $10,000 grand prize for the winner, along with a copy of the game and a video game console of their choice.

“I found out about the contest, and thought why not?” said Porter. “And I got to see a nice crowd reaction at the screening, which helped.

There was one joke that went on really, really long, and no one laughed. So I re-edited it and improved everything before putting together the final product.”

Vassar Filmmakers are trying to extend their reach beyond Vassar by submitting movies to similar competitions and festivals. Festival submission is something on which Porter has tried to collaborate with the Film Department.

“We use our resources as much as possible,

as much as any other organization,” said Porter.

“But there is still a great unknown factor [with Vassar Filmmakers].”

A different film ensemble on campus has had less trouble with visibility. Fourth Floor Main is an online video series created by College Relations Consultant Julia Van Develder. The show is an homage to the television comedy The Office, in that it profiles a fellow group from Main Building as the TV show follows a group of disgruntled office workers. The series was created after Van Develder interviewed a real fellow group from the fourth floor of Main House, and came up with the idea to create a series based on their stories. Van Develder and director Yang Miller cast actors, and the subsequent ensemble began brainstorming ideas for the series.

“Honestly, the students involved had a huge amount of input,” said Ben Palacios ’11, an actor in the series, in an e-mailed statement. “It was a very exciting and demanding project to be a part of.”

Palacios played the role of Derek Holiday, whose doomed long-distance relationship is the subject of the serie’s first episode. The second episode dealt with the supposed haunting of the group’s hallway by the ghost of Matthew Vassar, and the third centered itself on a cameo appearance by none other than Lisa Kudrow ’85. Kudrow is best known for her role on the popular TV show “Friends,” and agreed to act in the episode when she visited campus for a meeting of the Board of Trustees, of which she is a member.

Fourth Floor Main is considerably more visible than other film projects because of its direct ties to the College. The latest episode was featured on Vassar’s homepage, and the group’s website is a subdomain of Vassar’s website.

“Its visibility is a given, since it was put together by College Relations, and student-led productions at Vassar generally get less press than department productions,” said Crystal Tung ’11 in an e-mailed statement, who plays the role of Alex Leung.

Tung also stressed that the project was the brainchild of College Relations, but students are the creative forces behind the production.

“We had as much of a say in what went on in the series as did anyone else, if not more, because it was meant to capture dorm life, which we, as students, experience much more thoroughly than any College Relations admin does,” said Tung.

In contrast to College Relations, the Film Department itself sometimes struggles to garner recognition for students’ work. They do manage to attain some level of visibility for the projects of film students.

“The Film Department has an administrative assistant who sends our student films out to festivals,” said Professor of Film and Department Chair Ken Robinson. “We hold screenings at the end of each semester to screen the selected student projects to the campus at large.”

The majority of the projects that will be highlighted at the department screenings will be senior project documentaries. Various film majors are working on five different projects, covering a multitude of subject matter relevant to the Poughkeepsie community. One is about a Satanist who lives in Poughkeepsie, another is about chess players who earn money playing in Washington Park, and a third deals with a program that helps fight poverty through the sport of fencing. The ideas for the various topics come from students, which professors helped develop.

“Students are always asked to come up with and develop their own ideas,” said Robinson.

“As teachers, part of our responsibility is to get students to think things through and to explore as many sides of an issue as time permits. Both theory and practice follow this model.”

These senior projects are in fact a contentious matter with students, and seem to be representative of a larger issue with production classes altogether.

“I do feel that we get a complete education in the various areas of film production,” said film See FILMMAKERS on page 16

Interactive murder mystery invades parlors of Main Building Alexandra Sareigeorgiou

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Guest Reporter

Jared Saunders/The Miscellany News

e all know, or are at least vaguely familiar with, the story: Six colorful guests arrive at a dinner party only to find out that the host has been murdered. Who did it? Where? With what? From the classic murder-mystery board game first published in 1949, to the endless spinoffs and the hilarious ’80s film, there is no doubt that Clue has become a pop culture staple over the past few decades.

Nate Silver ’10, director and organizer of the production, admits to being a huge fan of the film, which was inspired by the board game.

“I’m trying to remember the first time I saw it,” he said, “but whenever it was, I immediately became a fan. Whenever I stayed home sick from school, it was always the movie I rented to watch.” Silver, a drama major, has wanted to create a stage version of the movie for a long time, and in his final year at Vassar, he has decided to make his idea a reality. “I’ve wanted to do a stage version of Clue since I was in high school,” he said. “Once I got heavily involved in theater, I realized how fun it would be to translate the film to the stage. I had been waiting for the right opportunity to produce it, and once I became a senior, I realized I was running out of time and that I better do it soon.”

The stage version is not an exact replica of the film; it merely takes the film as an inspiration and starting point for a one-of-a-kind, interactive performance. “The film,” explained Silver, “serves as a skeleton to this production— the characters and the plot are similar, and some of the dialogue is the same.” What promises to make this performance exciting and unique is

its interactive nature; as the plot develops, the audience will choose which character they want to follow around Main Building, which for a few days will be transformed into the Hill House Mansion.

“I was walking through Main one day and sat in a parlor,” Silver explains. “I realized how perfect it would be to stage the play promenade, with the audience moving from space to space, following the action.” Indeed, it is easy to see the resemblance between Main Building and Hill House Mansion. This simiarity, along with the play’s hard-working costume and set designers, will help the audience lose themselves in the glamorously mysterious world of “Clue,” if only for a few hours.

“We will essentially be using most of the second floor—the Rose, Jade, Faculty and Gold Parlors, the catering kitchen, the Villard Room, the President’s Conference Room and a women’s bathroom. During the production, Main House will become Hill House in the sense that we will leave our perceptions of Main at the door and enter into a 1954 murder mystery that takes place in unfamiliar ways,” explained Silver.

One of the challenges of creating a stage version of Clue has to do with the nature of the transitions between scenes in the film. This is where improvisation comes in: “Because film has the ability to quickly cut from scene to scene and in our production those transitions have significantly more duration,” Silver remarked, “the actors have worked hard to flush out those moments and incorporate improvisation into the production.” This makes the production all the more exciting, as the characters truly come to life and take over Main Building in their search

Cast members of Clue rehearse an uproarious scene from the play. Staged in a variey of Main Building venues, the play invites the audience to play along solving the murder case. for the murderer, he explained. “I love this production because it is so interactive.” said actor Seth Biberstein ’10. “With the audience following us around ‘Hill House,’ the spontaneity of the actors is heightened, and we’re required to utilize our improvisational skills. It’s fun to take a script and add our own comedic impulses.”

But just as the actors are fully immersed in the world of “Clue,” so, too, is the audience.

“When the actors split up,” explained Silver, “no one will be able to see everything, so folks will have to choose among following Yvette and Mr. Green upstairs, following Professor Plum and

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Mrs. Peacock downstairs, staying where they are to keep an eye on the impending murders, etc…The audience will have to take an active role into how best to experience the production and make decisions about which principle narrative to follow.”

“Clue” guarantees a truly immersing, fun experience, as actors and audience alike will try to unveil the mystery of the Hill House murder.

“Never knowing where they will be heading next,” Silver said, “the audience will be kept in suspense, trying to piece the entire story together.”

November 5, 2009

ARTS

Page 15

Bahrani to discuss new independent film Baroque group David Lopez

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Guest Reporter

brings passion to the classics Rachael Borné Reporter

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Image courtesy of imdb.com

North Carolina native is making waves in the international film community.

Ramin Bahrani’s bold and independent films have earned him acclaim worldwide, and The Chicago-Sun Times’ Roger Ebert even said that “Ramin Bahrani is the new great American director.” Whether his character is a young Latino boy in the gritty streets of Queens or an elderly gentlemen who attempts to regain his past, Bahrani’s powerful stories continue to break visual and emotional ground with fresh points of view.

“Bahrani, who writes, directs, produces and edits his own films, is something of an auteur, and his work is truly inspiring in that he is able to deliver compelling dramatic material by working with the independent model,” wrote Assistant Professor of Film Kathleen Man in an e-mailed statement. “His stories are refreshingly humanistic, and provide an oasis of thoughtprovoking work in the midst of market-driven fare,” she continued.

As a Columbia University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in film, Bahrani has had great success since his first feature film Man Push Cart was released in 2005. Set in New York City, the film features the story of a Pakistani cart pusher whose distant past includes being a rock star. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2005 and was later screened at The Sundance Film Festival in 2006.

Bahrani’s next film from 2007—Chop Shop— depicts the tough life of an orphan named Alejandro who tries to persevere amidst the backdrop of New York City violence, poverty and the daily struggles he and his sister, Isamar, must endure. Chop Shop earned Bahrani the Acura “Someone to Watch” Independent Spirit Award in 2008, and was also an official selection in numerous events including the 2007 Toronto Film Festival. “He has managed to do what so many young filmmakers only dream of, which is to make his own films outside of the conventional system and thus maintain autho-

rial control,” stated Man. The 2008 film Goodbye Solo —Bahrani’s most recent production—has also attained critical praise. This is Bahrani’s first film set in North Carolina—unlike his earlier two films which are set in New York. Goodbye Solo follows the merging friendship between an older man and a hard-working Senegalese cab driver. As a The New York Times Critic’s Pick, A.O. Scott said, “grace is what defines Mr. Bahrani’s filmmaking. I can’t think of anything else to call the quality of exquisite attention, wry humor and wide-awake intelligence that informs every frame of this almost perfect film.”

Bahrani’s lecture at Vassar is part a guest filmmakers series, the purpose of which is to inspire film majors, non-majors and anyone interested in the filmmaking process. “I applied for an institutional grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in January 2009 to support a guest filmmaker series for our academic year 2009-2010. In April, I received the news that Vassar was granted a substantial fund to support the series,” said Man. “Over the summer, I made inquiries with several prominent filmmakers and was fortunate to secure Ramin Bahrani as our first guest filmmaker.”

“The scope of the filmmaker series is broad, in the sense that we would like to invite industry professionals who work in different key departments (direction, screenwriting, cinematography, lighting, editing, sound, etc.). I think a lot of our production students could learn a great deal from Mr. Bahrani,” explained Man. Bahrani’s motion picture production company, Noruz Films, deals with many aspects of filmmaking that are at the core of the entire filmmaker series.

“Nowadays, with financing and distribution systems falling apart and people desperately trying to figure out what the new film/television/web industry will look like, filmmakers have more obstacles than ever before to get their films made and seen,” explained Man. With the financial crunch seeping into every sector of

Chop Shop is the latest film by Bahrani, who will lecture on Thursday, Nov. 5, at 5 p.m. the economy, creative and new ideas in independent filmmaking are crucial. “It’ll take a lot of creative and innovative thinking—as well as sheer stamina and determination—to overcome those odds and see it through, and someone like Ramin Bahrani can speak to these challenges with a great deal of insight,” said Man. “Anybody interested in American filmmaking, independent film or the future of American cinema would find his lecture interesting. Mr. Bahrani’s films are incredibly moving, and to meet the writer/director behind these films is quite an opportunity.”

Bahrani will give a lecture on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. in the Rosenwald Screening Room in Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film.

Ensemble recalls history on Vassar stage Wally Fisher

F

Reporter

Courtesy of Harlem Dance Theatre Ensemble

ew Vassarians are likely aware that their school has ties to the prestigious multicultural dance company Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Professor of Dance Jeanne Czula decided to invite the Ensemble last year, a decision rooted in her previous experiences with the Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH), the school that houses the company. Czula worked with the DTH personnel for years in conjunction with both Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) and the Department of Dance. The company’s current artistic director Virginia Johnson and ballet instructor Ronald Perry visited Vassar during the early years of VRDT. The company’s co-founder Arthur Mitchell also gave a Master class in the early 1990’s. Czula summarized, “They have an untarnished record in my book. Every time they come, they’re wonderful.”

The Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble, comprised of 14 DTH-trained dancers, will grace the stage of the Frances Daly Ferguson Dance Theater on Sunday, bringing with them a little bit of American history. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as the impetus for DTH’s founding in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook. DTH became a means to give black children, specifically those of Mitchell’s home community Harlem, the largely nonexistent opportunity to learn about dance and the arts. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of DTH’s inception, the Harlem Dance Theatre Ensemble was formed in 2009 and will begin a nation-wide inaugural tour in November, with Vassar as their third stop.

This 14-member Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble will be the largest-ever dance ensemble to appear at Vassar College as guests. And their appearance is generating a sort of buzz among the student dancers. “There’s something to be said for dancing on a stage that will house and has housed such reputable companies,” explained VRDT member Mickey Mahar ’12 in an e-mailed statement.

“Not that it needs to, but this event sort of bolsters the legitimacy of what VRDT and Fly-

The Harlem Dance Theatre Ensemble will perform on Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theatre in the largest-ever dance guest performance brought to Vassar.

People are doing,” wrote Mahar. “I’m honored that Dance Theatre of Harlem has decided that Vassar is a place worthy of sharing [its] work.”

Because of the group’s combined interest in social activism and the arts, many departments and offices including Dance, Africana Studies, American Culture, Women’s Studies, the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, the Athletics/ Life Fitness Program, the Art Department and the JPCz Fund (Jeanne Periolat Czula Fund and Endowment) have agreed to fund the performance. “I’m thrilled that so many people supported this,” said Czula.

She also cited student support as a great aid in the preparation effort. Because it is the largest guest company to appear at Vassar, there was quite a bit of work to do. “Students have been wonderful, offering their time to help out,” remarked Czula.

For the students of the Dance Department, there is more to gain from such a peformance than sheer artistry or history. “As a dancer I am

aware of the visual experience and perhaps the ‘spectacle’, but at the same time I am also conscious of the technical composition/execution of the piece. It makes my experience almost a little richer.”

He added, “I would also agree that dances have become almost a learning experience for me, a kinesthetic text for critique and examination.” Czula mirrored these sentiments, saying, “When you’re a dancer, you are immersed whenever hours you’re awake. There’s no time to lose.”

Even for the non-dancers, there is an added bonus of a brief reception with the dancers following their performance. It is rare that anyone gets to have some time talking with professional dancers about their craft, but it is not unusual for the DTH to do extraordinary things.

The Harlem Dance Theatre Ensemble will perform their classical dance repertoire in the Frances Daly Ferguson Dance Theater on Nov. 8 at 3 p.m.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

adness and craziness are terms rarely associated with chamber music, but for the 12-member string ensemble La Follia Barocca, the name says it all. Literally translated as “baroque madness,” La Follia Barocca takes a passionate stance on early music, boasting a repertoire that ranges from the Renaissance to the Classical era. “We’re just a bunch of crazy musicians trying to make music together,” said violinist Steve Slade. The ensemble will grace Vassar College with its presence this Saturday at Skinner Hall of Music at 8 p.m.

While their self-proclaimed craziness may be a nod to “La Follia Barocca’s” light-hearted side, the group has established themselves as a serious presence in the world of classical music. Professor of Music Todd Crow explained that La Follia Barocca “includes solo musicians who have performed with some of Europe’s most prestigious Baroque instrumental groups, including Europa Galante, Il Giardino Armonico, Addademia Bizantina, The Hannover Band and Il Complesso Barocco.”

Garnishing their claims to classical music fame is their ability to improvise, which according to Slade, is conducive to the interpretative freedom early music allows. Composers of the Italian Baroque period did not specify dynamics-they are instead decided by the musicians. “There are few limits. We invent things as we go along,” said Slade. “It makes playing much more exciting, rich and interesting.”

Unlike many other chamber orchestras, La Follia Barocca does not have an official director. “We’re directed by our two soloists, Enrico Casazza [on violin] and Marcello Scandelli [on cello],” said Slade.

The group formed five years ago in Milan, Italy, and have since experienced only a few changes to the group’s composition. The 12-member group, comprised of four first violinists, three second violinists, two violas, two cellists, one bassist and one harpsichordist is making their second U.S. tour. The ensemble is making stops in seven cities, including its final stop in Poughkeepsie.

Casazza and Scandelli are the principal soloists on the group’s recording of the complete Concerti Grossi Opus 1 by 18th-century Italian composer Pietro Antonio Locatelli. The recent recording has gained serious renown in the world of classical music. It was named CD of the month by the Italian classical music magazine, Classic Voice, and described as “highly-reccomended” by American magazine Fanfare.

“La Follia Barocca will play Italian Baroque instrumental works by Fiorenza, Locatelli, Vivaldi and others,” said Crow, outlining the group’s set for Saturday.

The individual musicians all come from very different areas of expertise. “We have members who only play early music and haven’t played a modern instrument in years, but there are also others who play modern violin and cello,” said Slade. “We’re really a mixture.”

With that in mind, you may ask why the group is called “baroque madness”? Folia spelled with one “l” is actually the Spanish word for a dance popular in the 1700s.

La Follia Barocca chose the Italian term meaning craziness and madness to account for the group’s enthusiasm and playful spirit— plus it makes for a clever musical joke. “A lot of composers use folia in their works, like Vivaldi’s ‘Folia,’”explained Slade.

Concert-goers should expect songs that provoke varying emotions. “Some of the pieces are real tear-jerkers, some songs are spectacular and showy, and the finale is a real applausegetter. The sound is electrifying,” said Slade.

The atmosphere of an early music performance is very different than that of a typical orchestra concert. “It’s not a black tie affair,” explained Slade. “In order to play early music, there’s a real jazzy feeling. It really swings.”

The ensemble will showcase its early music prowess with a performance in the Skinner Hall of Music on Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m.

ARTS

Page 16

November 5, 2009

Film students feel disconnect with program

Biberstein a master of ad-libs and arias Esther Clowney

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Reporter

f you’ve seen Seth Biberstein ’10 lately, you might have noticed that the amiable senior has been sporting what he terms a “ridiculous moustache.”

Biberstein’s facial hair, grown and groomed for his upcoming role as Colonel Mustard in “Clue,” may elicit laughs from the few Vassar students not yet desensitized to creative whiskers. But while his involvement in the performing arts began with comedy, Biberstein is not an actor to be taken lightly.

“I joined an improvisational comedy group when I was a freshman in high school,” said Biberstein. “I had never set foot on a stage until I started doing improv.”

Two years later, after familiarizing himself with the scary concept of performing in front of an audience, Biberstein acted in his first play: a musical called “Little Shop of Horrors.”

“Comedy has been the transitional force in my development as an actor, and the comedic themes of musical theater made it a natural next step,” Biberstein said. He performed in several more plays in his hometown of San Diego, Ca. and arrived at Vassar as a potential drama major.

“Improv used to sort of define me,” said Biberstein. “At Vassar, I’ve been able to define myself much more as an actor. I’ve discovered that I’m passionate about both music and theater.”

Though Biberstein played piano and cello in his youth, he gave up both by his sophomore year of high school. He developed his voice, a baritone, through musical theater and now sings opera and classical music.

“For me, the line between drama and music is very thin. There is a degree of acting in music, no matter what you play,” said Biberstein.

Biberstein performed in the opera workshops sponsored by the Music Department in his freshman and junior years, and plans to participate again this year. He is currently putting together his senior recital, a classical vocal program that will highlight “Winterreise,” a cycle of 24 songs by the German composer Franz Schubert based on the poems by Wilhelm Müller. He is performing seven of the 24 pieces due to time constraints.

In addition to his recital, Biberstein is also tackling part of his senior project in the Drama Department, Biberstein will direct the first quarto version of “Hamlet” with Nate Silver ’10, Jamie Watkins ’10 and Baize Buzan ’10.

Katie De Heras/The Miscellany News

FILMMAKERS continued from page 14 major Emelia Mendieta ’10. “That being said, I think we could also use a little more specific training in some areas we might be interested in. One of the voiced opinions of production students is that our training in sound and sound design isn’t as in-depth as it could be.”

Even people who have taken their leave of Vassar often look back negatively at their experiences with the Film Department. Vassar alum Brian Paccione ’09 was the director of Vassar Filmmakers last year, and has continued honing his craft as a graduate student at Columbia University. “In one sense, Vassar was absolutely amazing,” said Paccione in an e-mailed statement. “The resources are unparalleled.

The opportunity to shoot on 16 millimeter film and not pay a single cent is priceless, unheard of. Students need to take advantage of this.”

“That being said,” continued Paccione, “I had to teach myself how to make films. Vassar gave me the technical resources, but not the education on how to direct films: how to use the camera as a narrator and how to deal with actors. Vassar lacks a production teacher.”

Paccione has recently received attention for his short film, “Heartlands,” which he filmed in his senior year at Vassar. The movie is about a strongman and a clown, presumably brother and sister, who live in a broken down car in the backwoods of middle America. The short is a wordless exploration of alienation, family and escape. It has screened at a variety of film festivals, and made the cut of top ten movies at the Columbia University National Undergraduate Film Festival.

“I will say that my film teacher and many film classmates absolutely hated ‘Heartlands’,” said Paccione. “They said it was pretentious and egotistical. I didn’t listen to them and made it anyway, and now it is in festivals and winning awards. It is one of the things that got me into graduate school.”

The department may have flaws, and overall exposure of student film may be inadequate.

But student-created film at Vassar continues to be an art as vibrant as the community it embodies, if the works of Porter, Paccione and Fourth Floor Main are any indication. Paccione encourages filmmakers to continue pushing limits with their craft. “Make films that talk about and show what everyone is afraid to hear and see,” said Paccione. “The sissies will be scared, but the really talented ones, the ones who will get you a job, who are going to make you famous, will appreciate them.”

Seth Biberstein ’10 will star as Colonel Mustard in the student-directed play, “Clue,” which will be performed in Main on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Throughout his time at Vassar, Biberstein has appeared in four previous Drama Department plays: “Cloud Nine,” “Merrily We Roll Along” (in which he played the lead), “First Lady Suite” and “Haarlem Berlin.” Biberstein’s theatrical pursuits are not limited to departmental work.

Just last year he was accepted into Shakespeare Troupe and performed in “Richard III.” Biberstein was cast as Colonel Mustard in a theatrical adaptation of the cinematic interpretation of the board game Clue, which will run from Nov. 5 to Nov. 7 and will be staged in several different rooms in Main Building.

“Colonel Mustard is the piece I always pick when playing the game,” said Biberstein. “Obviously, I have a very strong connection to the

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character.”

Despite his extensive work with theater, Biberstein has not forgotten his comedic roots.

“This is my fourth year in Vassar Improv and The Limit,” said Biberstein, referring to popular comedy ensembles at Vassar. “I frequently pull sketch ideas for The Limit from Improv practices because Improv generates so many great scenarios that audiences never see.”

The spontaneity of theater, which takes its rawest form in improvisational comedy, is what will continue to draw Biberstein to the stage as both an actor and a musician.

“I’d like to act or perform in any capacity, whether it’s improv, opera, musicals or theater,” he said.

November 5, 2009

ARTS

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King of Pop’s final concert shows finesse Michael Jackson’s This is It Kenny Ortega [Columbia]

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week ago I sat in the airy confines of the Vogelstein Center of Drama and Film’s screening room for my National Indian Cinema class. The professor dimmed the lights to show a clip from Mahakaal, an early ’90s Hindi rip-off of Nightmare on Elm Street (the villain even had spindly steel fingers.) On screen, soon-to-be-slaughtered teenagers were sitting down for refreshments in a small café, chattering away feverishly in Hindi.

And then came something unexpected: Out popped the café’s owner, an Indian doppelganger of Michael Jackson, complete with the crazy ‘do and Billy Jean dance moves. He began doing a gratuitous impersonation of the King of Pop in a lampoon milked for all it was worth. It was a bizarre tribute, but nothing else I’ve seen comes close to epitomizing the global nature of Jackson’s legacy.

Perhaps it is because Jackson is such a globalized icon that the movie Michael Jackson’s This is It is already on its way to breaking international box office records after only a single weekend. The documentary showing the preperations for Jackson’s comback concert has grossed over $100 million worldwide, making it the most commercially successful concert movie of all time. Why is it such a smash? As I said, the King of Pop has universal appeal: Jackson’s reign extended into Bollywood and beyond. But the movie has also mucked up a lot of controversy.

Jackson’s family has called it blatant exploitation of the singer’s death, fans have called it a misleading representation of his health in his final days, and some conspiracy theorists claim that a body-double for the pop star was used during the filming. The brouhaha is like a marketing campaign all by itself.

It’s true that the movie commercializes the highly publicized demise of Jackson to an extent, if for no other reason than it hit theaters three months after his death. But all other controversy aside, this is a very flattering tribute to the man. Jackson comes across as someone who is just a really nice guy, when it comes down to it. True, he is also a diva and a weirdo. The film is inundated with Jackson’s foibles and odd methods of articulation: “It feels like someone’s stuffed a fist in my ear.”

“Do you mean the volume is too loud, Michael?”

“Yes.” But this is almost endearing in a way, and even if he is a diva, he’s too gosh-darn sweet for it to matter. And as a musician, he is masterful. I am not a fan of Jackson’s music, but the songs in Michael Jackson’s This is It are some of the best parts of the movie. The man is an incredible entertainer. The moonwalking, the strutting, the simpering falsetto, the razor-sharp choreography, the pyrotechnics, the instrumentals: It’s an extravaganza, and what you see onscreen are only rehearsals.

Jackson may have been a product of the ’80s, but the concert preparation shows that Jackson also had 21st century savvy. The effects, such as a huge animatronic spider out of which Jackson emerges to sing “Thriller,” rocked my socks off. And the videos that play

on the venue’s jumbotron to complement his songs are pretty mindblowing too. In the video that introduces “Smooth Criminal,” Jackson is seamlessly integrated into an old Bogart film noir movie. And for “Speechless,” a Lord of the Rings-sized army of dancers break it down in militaristic uniforms.

If Jackson hadn’t died three week’s before opening night, this would have been a oncein-a-lifetime concert.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It certainly does what it can to make you feel like you’ve scored seats to a Jackson concert. As I walked away from the box office after buying my ticket, the theater employee shouted after me, “Don’t you want your lanyard?” You heard right: All attendees get a commemorative lanyard reminiscent of a backstage-pass.

Sweet.

The film itself was shot with a hand-held camera from an angle that makes you feel like you’re in the front row yourself. And even though there are some talking head interviews that serve as bridges between songs, there is no voiceover or overarching narration. The movie is vaguely cinéma vérité in that it simply shows Jackson doing his thing.

It feels very organic and very real.

The bottom line is, do you want to dish out $10 to see a Jackson concert? “Yes” is the obvious answer if you’re a fan, and even if you’re not this might be worthwhile to rent a few months down the line. And for the next best thing, there’s always a good old-fashioned Bollywood impersonators to tide us over.

Carrie Hojnicki

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Arts Editor

Kelley Van Dilla for The Miscellany News

Katie Thulin ’11 and Nijae Draine ’11 perform in Woodshed’s production of “Brides of the Moon.” The play was set in Matthew’s Mug on Friady, Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31. vich, a pronunciation whose undertones come to light throughout the performance) and the 31-year-old astronaut wannabe who still lives with her parents, Carmen Powers.

Thulin goes from character to character with effortless grace, a nod to her sheer strength as a performer. The audience laughed with Thulin’s every move, especially those in which Rimjobavich actively pursued the play’s additional three astronauts, played by Gabby Gottlieb ’12, Baize Buzan ’10 and Nijae Draine ’11, and even the spaceship’s monkey, Didi, as played by Hannah Gold ’10.

Typical to Woodshed’s repertoire, there was no hiding the sex. The audience saw bras, moaning, unzipped space suits and a considerable amount of touching. While at times uncomfortable, Woodshed’s no-nonsense, or

FRESH AND ONLYS

Grey-Eyed Girls

2

GIRLS

Album

3

[Woodsist]

[True Panther Sounds]

MILES BENJAMIN AN

THONY ROBINSON

Summer Of Fear

[Saddle Creek]

4

THAO WITH THE GET

DOWN STAY DOWN

Know Better Learn Faster

[Kill Rock Stars]

5

DEAD MAN’S BONES

Dead Man’s Bones

[Anti]

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

Woodshed’s galactic comedy invades Mug: Sci-fi sex romp tackles issues close to home ntering Matthew’s Mug in the afternoon was a strange experience. Where was Betty? Where was that disgusting humidity usually felt while descending the stairs?

The locale mostly associated with rubbing up against sweaty strangers shed its perspiratory reputation to serve as a surprisingly tame theatrical venue.

Although the Mug may have been a mild setting, “Brides of the Moon” by no means merits a similar description. Theatrical conventions were chewed, swallowed and spit out with Woodshed’s uproarious production of “Brides of the Moon,” a comedy written by avant-garde playwrights The Five Lesbian Brothers. The play follows four astronauts (and their monkey) as they embark on a copulation-focused mission, formally termed BJ15, to a planet exclusively inhabited by men, hence the name “Brides of the Moon.” Their mission is inhibited by technical problems, and the only communication they are able to find is with a dysfunctional Midwestern family through their microwave. Hilarity ensues.

“Brides of the Moon” opened, true to its otherworldly plot, with a blast off. Once the astronaut crew reached its zero gravity locale, the stage was basked in an eerie glow, which Woodshed member Gabby Gottlieb ’12 enthusiastically described as “space lights.”

With these lights, blue space suit uniforms, and chick rock musical interludes, Woodshed created an atmosphere perfectly suited for the play’s eccentric content.

One of the more hilarious theater pieces in Vassar’s recent dramatic history, “Brides of the Moon”’s greatest success lay, for the most part, with the brilliance of its actors.

Kate Thulin ’11 stole the show in her roles as both the thickly accented Russian astronaut Slotya Rimjobavich (yes, Rim-job-a-

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maybe all-nonsense, approach to sex brought the group’s fervant fearlessness to the forefront of the production.

All of the actresses threw themselves into their roles (and at each other), achieving a final product that continuity surprised, considering the plot’s obvious potential for disjointedness. While the production lacked the polish of most of Woodshed’s past work, this roughness—accompanied by the locale— acted as a comfortable niche for the lesbian sex romp that dominated the play’s storyline.

“Brides of the Moon” was so funny, so absurd, that this lack of finesse was a trivial matter in the audience’s overall perception. Woodshed succeeded again with this hilarious commentary on love, sexuality, growing up and familial relationships.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Jim Breuer Bananas Comedy Club 8:00 PM and 10:45 PM, 11/6; 7:30 PM and 10:30 PM, 11/7 $35 For those who talk about the Will Ferrell years as the time when “Saturday Night Live was actually good,” Jim Breuer may be up your ally. The comedian was on SNL from 1995 until 1998; in fact, he may be better known as his recurring character “goat boy,” a goat/man hybrid who hosts a show on MTV. Since his stint on the popular sketch comedy show, Breuer has worked with the likes of Dave Chapelle and Conan O’Brien. He has also premiered his own hour-long special on Comedy Central called “Let’s Clear the Air.” And for any Godfather fans, watch out: apparently his DeNiro impersonation is killer.

Lyle Lovett and His Large Band Ulster Performing Arts Center 11/16 $55 The numbers add up for Lyle Lovett: a thirty-year music career, four million records sold, four Grammies, seventeen singles to hit the charts, five different appearances in Robert Altman movies and (most significantly) a cover of Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” in the soundtrack to Toy Story.

The country singer-songwriter has quite the legacy, but still he trucks on. He released a brand new album less than a month ago called “Natural Forces,” which has already climbed the country music charts. Lovett is considered a songwriting icon, and is a mustsee for those who are in the mood for a little bluegrass or gospel.

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November 5, 2009

SPORTS

Page 19

Shea leads offensive line to Athletic divisions ought not a high-scoring fall season be what dictates motivation W

Mitchell Gilburne Reporter

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Courtesy of Rachel Shea

hen most students were reacquainting themselves with their favorite beds at home, Rachel Shea ’11 kicked off her October Break with two goals and a major contributing role in Vassar women’s soccer team’s 5-0 win over Mount St. Mary College. Shea, an offensive center forward, channeled her inner Amazon and repeatedly broke enemy lines, creating and capitalizing on holes in her opponents’ defenses during the Oct. 20 game.

On the field, Shea possesses a powerful grace that both intimidates and awes. She is dedicated to her position and is always ready to check back, receive or lay off to wing. Furthermore, Shea is a team player whose commitment to her team is evident even over a plate of onion rings at the All Campus Dining Center.

Shea has been thinking with her feet since the ripe age of five. Soccer has been an omnipresent force in her life, and her dedication has been rewarded with positions of leadership both in high school at Kingswood-Oxford in West Hartford, Conn. and at Vassar.

Shea has been scoring goals for the Brewers since her freshman year. Vassar recruited her along with six other teammates at a summer camp program.

Shea has traveled through Vassar with her team as a constant support system, and as a result, she finds herself inspired to play harder because of her affection for the team.

Shea easily concedes that her teammates are her best friends. It is this bond that pushes a team and fosters growth and an unwillingness to settle for anything less than a sweeping victory. Shea does not hesitate to admit that the team has only improved over the course of her tenure at Vassar. She was quick to attribute such development to the overall quality of the group and the shared passion they possess for the sport.

When pressed to define her soccer career with a single, exhilarating moment, Shea, after

Junior Captain Rachel Shea started all 16 games and tallied six goals and four assists. taking a moment to wrap her mind around a lifetime of soccer, recalled the final conference weekend of last season. In the last two minutes of regular play, Shea scored the goal that pushed the game into overtime. This Herculean feat was accompanied by rain and muck, and Shea describes the day with a glint of fondness in her eyes.

She recounts, “We played so well, and it was in the rain, and the field was a pit of mud. It was really fun—a great day!” Sitting across from Shea and hearing her recount such an exciting game-changing moment, one can not help but visualize a team of Brewers soaked with mud as they cheer Shea onwards.

Shea’s name peppers the women’s soccer page of the Vassar Athletics website with seemingly reckless abandon. It is as if she is there to oppose every enemy striker or to tame each rogue ball or sneak in for a goal when all is at its most bleak.

Shea is a fighter, a leader, a captain and a friend, but most of all she is a darn good soccer player. We are lucky to have her charging through the muck, pursuing goal after goal after goal, for one more year.

Butterbeer Brewers take to their broomsticks at Midd Mitchell Gilburne Reporter

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in the results is indicative of the all-around nature of Division III student-athletes. According to Tauer, Division III athletics are the “purest form of intercollegiate competition” where “student-athletes are truly students first.” In turn, these students also experience their sport from a different standpoint and, when surveyed, explain their motivations for playing differently. Such answers, therefore, do not indicate at all any difference in their desire to win.

The only way Reiss could have justified his theory was if he had conducted the survey during games. If the same discrepancy had emerged when athletes were interviewed and asked these same questions during an intense period of the match, then there could be something to Reiss’ conclusion. Since the survey wasn’t conducted in such a way, however, its results cannot easily be taken as indicative of anything.

Furthermore, the fact that different sports were used for the different divisions places a limitation on the ability to generalize the results; there could be major differences in the ways different athletes experience different sports. This, in turn, would skew their responses, showing no difference between divisions but rather between sports.

Despite not agreeing with Reiss’ ideas, I am inclined to sit back for a few minutes and think about his claims. After all, how are Division I athletes really different from Vassar athletes, at least psychologically? In what ways do our motivations differ from those of peers at institutions with Division I athletics? Even more interesting, how do athletes differ in schools where both Division I and Division III teams exist, like at our Liberty League rival schools Clarkson and St. Lawrence Universities? And could studying differing motivations amongst them lead to any valuable conclusions?

Not being a psychology expert of any sort, I don’t know; however, I am very much intrigued. It’s a subject I feel is underreported, if not understudied, but it is extremely pertinent, especially at the true amateur level where money and fame certainly aren’t the end goals.

Athletes usually say that they play a sport because they love it. But does that mean that some love a sport more than others? And can that fact ever be proved or quantified? Should it be? It’s a thought-provoking question, and, even though I cannot provide an answer, I remain hopeful that it inspires people to think more about why they do whatever it is they doso as to possibly weed out some very revealing and much less generic answers as to what motivates student-athletes at all levels.

—Nik Trkulja ’11 is and Economics and Political Science double-major. This semester he will be editorializing on social issues surrounding sports outside of the Vassar athletics realm.

Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

magine yourself taking a quick study break to stare pensively out the window. Suddenly, a shimmering, hot pink object hurtles through your field of vision, leaving you stunned as you watch a single broom fiber float back to earth.

Chances are you just witnessed one of the famed and historic Butterbeer Broooers taking her broom out for a practice flight. Boasting the world’s second oldest collegiate quidditch team, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) honorably made the tradition of flight and fantasy official last fall by awarding the team VSA certification. The Broooers (the three Os signify the round hoops used as goals in quidditch) have been validating the fine literary tastes across campus with their own nod towards J.K. Rowling’s world of magic and whimsy.

The Quidditch World Cup Tournament, hosted at Middlebury College, attracts young muggles from far and wide. Students started taking to the skies at Middlebury College in 2007, and the quidditch community hasn’t touched back down to earth since. The soaring fan base continues to flourish as the annual Quidditch World Cup Touranment has grown from 12 to 20 teams over the course of a single year. The World Cup is the competitive focal point of the quidditch season, and although Vassar has dropped a few notches in the rankings, the Broooers’ hot pink capes make all the statements necessary to remind the wizarding world that Vassar athletes are not to be trifled with in matters of sorcery and fashion.

This year, the Broooers are led by Daniel

Bossert ’12, David Bridgman-Packer ’12 and Molly St. Clair ’12. These dedicated captains are striving to infuse Vassar quidditch with even more enchantment. Increased membership and an initiative to host Vassar’s first quidditch tournament, The Butterbeer Classic, promises to delight the campus while bringing quidditch to the forefront of Vassar organizations.

When questioned as to their wizarding pedigree, all three captains are hesitant to claim magical blood. Bridgman-Packer cautions against getting lost in the fantasy. He affectionately refers to muggle quidditch players as “land lubbers” and confesses an amused curiosity to know how the real wizarding world perceives the growing phenomenon.

Bridgman-Packer plays the position of chaser, and he likes to employ “something like Fred and George tactics” as detailed in Rowling’s series. When flitting through the field and scoring points with the mischievous grace of Mercury, Bridgman-Packer appreciates quidditch for its ability to surprise. “I never really thought of myself as a sports person,” he admits. “But then I came to Vassar and realized I was the captain of a sports team.” Bridgman-Packer smiles as he ponders the idea of quidditch as the great equalizer between the nerdiverse and athletics. He proposes that the magic of quidditch comes from the fact that “the enjoyment isn’t purely athletic. It stems from realizing you’re with equally nerdy people.” Bridgman-Packer appreciates quidditch for broadening his horizons, but also for the social opportunities it provides. Quidditch brings Harry Potter See QUIDDITCH on page 20

hat motivates a student-athlete? It’s a difficult and very obscure question and one that many have attempted to answer. However, a recent theory put forward by Steven Reiss, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychiatry at Ohio State University, has stirred up some controversy among NCAA Division III programs.

In a Sept. 10 blog post on Psychology Today’s website, Reiss stated that Division I student-athletes are motivated by their desire to win, but “those playing in Division III [want] to make friends.” Reiss’ conclusions stem from the results of his study of two Division I teams—a golf and a baseball team—and two Division III teams—a soccer and a tennis team.

Using the psychological concept of the “16 Human Needs” as the basis for his study, Reiss analyzed the specific needs of each athlete on all four teams and proceeded to interview them one-on-one. He found that “Division I players were primarily motivated by competition and achievement, whereas the Division III players were primarily motivated by social experiences.”

Reiss’ claims are disputable at first glance, but they merit analysis nonetheless. If one spares a moment to think about the pressures of being a Division I student-athlete, it becomes easy to understand why the athletes reported such an emphasis on “competition” in their consultations with Reiss. After all, unlike Division III athletes, Division I team members are constantly under pressure to achieve in order to maintain or receive athletic scholarships.

Furthermore, with the higher level of play associated with Division I athletics, it is natural to assume that there is a little more inherent competition and, by association, motivation to win within Division I teams.

This does not imply, however, that Division I players have a greater desire to win or compete than Division III athletes as a whole. Rather, all it shows is that competition is a more pressing issue for Division I athletes as evidenced by the prevalence of competition in one-on-one discussions. Seeing as there is no way to study motivation directly, one can only do it through surveys and interviews such as Reiss’ to assess the construct indirectly. I am not inclined to think, however, of the Division I athlete’s responses as unbiased indicators of desires to win or compete and as such proof of Reiss’ affirmations.

My views are mirrored by many others including John Tauer, Associate Professor of Psychology and Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach at the University of St. Thomas, a Division III powerhouse. In a response—also posted on Psychology Today’s website—to Reiss’ claims, Tauer asserts that it is wrong to declare that Division III athletes are any less motivated to compete or win than their Division I counterparts. Instead, he explains that the discrepancy

The quidditch team practices on a warm day in October. Vassar annually attends the Quidditch World Cup, held annually at Middlebury College, the founder of College Quidditch.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

SPORTS

Page 20

November 5, 2009

Watch out this Volleyball named Invitational Champions season for L.A. Lakers, Lebron A Andy Marmer Reporter

Andy Marmer

A

Guest Columnist

s basketball season gets underway, I’m here to help all of you established and aspiring basketball fans with a little personal insight on what to watch during this season’s hoops extravaganza. There’s a lot to pay attention to, including noteworthy teams and standout individual players.

Players Although the teams promise an exciting season, basketball would be nothing without the celebrity athletes who play the game. There are three players in particular who, for one reason or another, should attract the attention of basketball fans worldwide.

3. Derrick Rose: Last year’s rookie of the year may have established himself as one of the elite point guards in the league in just his first season. Will his beginner’s luck wear off and cause him to face a sophomore slump, or will he improve on his game and solidify his status as one of the leading faces of the game for years to come?

2. Kevin Durant: Have we ever seen a player with Durant’s unique set of skills? Last year, the six-foot-nine-inch forward averaged over 25 points per game while shooting 48 percent from the field and 42 percent from the threepoint range. Durant has already proven himself to be a remarkable player, and with a great season, he will establish himself as a sure MVP candidate.

1. Lebron “The King” James: Arguably the best player in the league right now, Lebron’s credentials need no introduction. This season is even more momentous as “The King” is currently entering the final year of his contract with the Cavaliers. Will James have an even better season this year to earn himself more money?

And perhaps more importantly, where will he play next year? There has been speculation for years over this very topic, and I doubt any free agent has ever been this hyped in the history of sports. James is sure to be the most entertaining player this NBA season.

Kathleen Mehocic/The Miscellany News

NBA Teams There are three NBA Teams that are worth keeping an eye on this year. I’ll begin in descending order and finish up with the team that has the most potential for a successful season and well-deserved media attention. Watch to find out if my speculations measure up.

3. Los Angeles Clippers: These perennial losers have an intriguing squad this year. First overall pick Blake Griffin has already been sidelined with an injury, but when he returns he will join a very talented group featuring Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, Eric Gordon and Marcus Camby.

Could the Clippers make a run to the Western Conference playoffs? The team has great potential for a fantastic turnaround season.

2. San Antonio Spurs: For the first time since 2000, the Spurs failed to make it out of the first round during last year’s postseason play. This year, the Spurs return their core three—Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan—from their successful team that traveled to the playoffs. Additionally, the usual contenders added a very solid NBA veteran this off-season in forward Richard Jefferson. One can only hope that the combination will lead to a repeat performance.

1. Los Angeles Lakers: This year’s Lakers may be the most interesting team in the NBA in the past decade. Team leader Kobe Bryant has won four titles, and you know he’s thinking about surpassing Michael Jordan’s six. Phil Jackson already has earned a record 10 coaching titles.

Will he be able to keep himself motivated?

Then let’s throw in the fact that the defending champions replaced a very solid player (Trevor Ariza, who fled to Houston in the off-season) with a man who could do just about anything: Ron Artest. Artest once famously beat up a fan in the stands during a game. So, how will he handle the pressure of Los Angeles? How will the Lakers react to having to defend their championship? This team is without a doubt the one to watch in their league.

fter a 0-4 performance in last year’s Vassar Volleyball Invitational, the women’s volleyball team won the title at this year’s event, improving their regular season record to 20-8.

En route to their Invitational Championship, Vassar went 3-1 defeating Sage College, University of Rochester and the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia before eventually losing to Stevens Institute of Technology.

The Brewers started off the weekend well, winning their first match 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-19) over Sage. The Brewers were led in the match by freshman hitter Chloe McGuire, who was named MVP of the Invitational with 15 kills and eight digs. Freshman setter Hilary Koenigs also came up big for the Brewers with 36 of the team’s 37 set assists. Junior defensive specialist Chelsea Mottern contributed 25 digs to the Brewers’ cause.

The real treat of the tournament was Friday’s second match, a 3-2 (14-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-16, 1513) slugfest with Rochester. The match went right down to the wire: Vassar came back to tie after a poor first set, only to fall behind again in the third, before finally battling back and winning the final two sets. McGuire once again was prominent in the Vassar victory, leading the team with 11 kills and 21 digs. Koenigs, who joined McGuire on the All-Invitational team, added 31 set assists and 11 digs.

Beginning the second day of play, Vassar picked up where they left off, defeating SUNY Fredonia 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-20). For the Brewers, the match closely resembled the previous night’s duel with Rochester. Once again the team trailed early before coming back. Again, McGuire led Vassar in kills and digs—this time with 14 kills and 21 digs—while Koenigs led the team with 37 assists. Senior Tess Johnson contributed 11 kills while Sarah Potts ’10 contributed four service aces and four block assists. The Brewers could not continue their winning ways in their final match of the tournament, though,

Freshman setter Hilary Koenigs sets up junior outside hitter Julianna Simon during a recent game at the women’s volleyball invitational on Oct. 30-31. Vassar won the tournament. and they dropped a tough loss to Stevens 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-17). Despite the loss, Vassar still won the Invitational by virtue of their 3-1 record in the tournament and their victory over fellow 3-1 team SUNY Fredonia.

With the Vassar Invitational complete, the Brewers will now turn their attention towards regaining the Liberty League Championship.

The Invitational Championship title should be excellent preparation for this weekend’s at-

tempt to win the Brewers’ first Liberty League Championship since 2006 this weekend in the Walker Field House.

With solid all-around play, including a hitter, McGuire, winning the Invitational MVP and a setter, Koenigs, being named to the All-Tournament team, plus two players—McGuire and Mottern—recording a total of 137 digs (17.125 per player per game), the Brewers should build on this weekend’s successes.

Vassar to explore club crew Broooers shoot program with local colleges sky-bound with Quidditch Cup

ROWING continued from on page 1 es for a coach and assistant coach.

Aside from the cost of the rowing program— which is the highest in the department—the Department felt that it could offer a competitive alternative for student rowers with a club program developed in partnership with the Hudson River Rowing Association (HRRA), a program maintained by coaches that serves the Mid-Hudson Valley and owns and operates Poughkeepsie’s HRRA Boathouse in Poughkeepsie.

According to Kitzinger, in the past HRRA has expressed interest in running a collegiate level team out of their boathouse, but because colleges in the area either have already had their own team—or haven’t had one at all—they haven’t been able to do so.

President of HRRA Andy Mauer—whose wife Tracy Wright-Mauer works as a Library Specialist in the Thompson Memorial Library—is “very eager to set up a collegiate competitive team,” said Kitzinger.

As Kitzinger explained, there is also the hope that student rowers from other MidHudson colleges—particularly Bard College, The State University of New York at New Paltz and Dutchess Community College—will also participate in the program.

“It would actually be a different athletic experience for our students,” said Kitzinger.

“They’d be paired with other college students from the area to compete with them.

Mauer was very eager about this, because he receives calls all the time from these schools that say ‘Can you provide a rowing experience for our students,’ so he’s excited to build something with those college. I think there’s real potential for a collaborative effort.”

The transition will begin next year when the rowing team will be in a sort of hybrid system, in which Vassar will save approximately $35,000 from the $75,000 rowing op-

erating budget. The College will continue to pay the salary of the current head coach of the team, Rodney Mott—who has agreed to work with HRRA—there will no longer be a need for an Assistant Coach, as many working at the HRRA will be able to fill that role.

In addition, Vassar will continue to provide shells and boathouse storage space.

While the details of how the program will be funded have not yet been finalized, the College expects that support will come from a combination of the Athletics Department, the Vassar Student Association and a student contribution of no more than $500 each semester.

“That is actually less than a lot of students spend to row in the varsity program, because they contribute to spring trips and things like that—and they do fundraising which they could continue to do to defray those costs,” said Kitzinger. “And the costs would lessen proportionally to how many students we can get involved.”

When asked why students weren’t consulted in this particular decision, Kitzinger responded, saying that in a way they were, involvement and retention in each sport were heavily considered.

“As with the curriculum,” she noted, “I do feel that the students let their opinions be known by their participation in the sport, as they do with their participation in departments.”

Kitzinger continued saying that the issue was a sensitive one, given that it involved “individual personnel.” “We reluctantly made this decision,” said Kitzinger. “It was no reflection on the coach or on students who are on that team—it’s just that given the criteria, rowing was the program that emerged to the surface.”

Director of Athletics and Physical Education Sharon Beverly could regrettably not be reached for a comment.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

QUIDDITCH continued from page 19 fans together in a way far more dynamic than arguing about Snape on a forum on Mugglenet, the ultimate Harry Potter fan website. Bossert plays the dual roles of chaser and snitch. He finds playing the snitch particularly exciting as the snitch has free rein of campus and loyalty only to the snitch itself. Bossert fondly recalls his first World Cup. He knew he was involved in something epic when “Yale [University] said ‘brooms up’ and I was like ‘wow, that’s legit.’” Bossert’s favorite tactics include taunting other players and unleashing his wolf patronus if any dementors dare to show up and spoil the fun.

St. Clair occupies the rough and tumble world of the beater. When questioned about her play style she simply states, “I go to my angry place,” with just a hint of malice in her eyes. St. Clair, an outwardly mild-mannered and charming person, can beat with the best of them, and her Laestrygonian tactics are vital for the maintenance of Broooer morale and performance. St. Clair also looks lovingly back upon her first World Cup, particularly the Broooers’ triumph over Princeton University’s team (190-10). “I got my first tackle. I remember that beater,” she recalls. The deadpan delivery and friendly scowl that accompanies that statement are all the convincing anyone would need to solidify St. Clair as a force that would take more than a few jinxes to make falter.

The Butterbeer Broooers, led by their three spellbinding captains, strive to indulge the fantasy planted in many from as early as the third grade. Harry Potter will forever hold a place in the hearts of that oh-so-special breed of adolescent who sets his sight on Vassar, and quidditch is just one exceptionally fun way to be a better fan. To see the Broooers in action be sure to polish your wand, dust off your robes and head to the Butterbeer Classic in Noyes Circle on Nov. 14.

Draco Dormiens Numquam Titillandus!