Misc5 28 17

The Miscellany News

Volume CXLIX | Issue 23

May 28, 2017

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Congratulations to the Vassar College Class of 2017 One Hundred and Fifty-third Commencement

Courtesy of Karl Rabe

Courtesy of Karl Rabe

Courtesy of Karl Rabe

Courtesy of Karl Rabe

Courtesy of Karl Rabe

Courtesy of Karl Rabe

Courtesy of Karl Rabe

Talya Phelps

Outgoing Design Editor

his Senior Week, Ian Snyder ’17 discovered something he never expected to. In an email, he reported from his trip to the Catskill Animal Sanctuary: “I learned that the little bulging protuberation [sic] on a turkey’s forehead is called a snood!”

Snyder, a veteran Sanctuary volunteer, utilized the tour this past Wednesday, May 24, as an opportunity to better acquaint himself with the hundreds of animals housed on the farm. For students with an interest in veganism, which the Sanctuary advo-

cates, or those who simply wished to spend an afternoon interacting with pigs and chickens rescued from factory farms, the trip offered an excursion to the idyllic Catskills and a chance to become more educated about animal rights.

Summing up her reasons for attending the trip, Kaitryn Doyle ’17 said, “I’m not really big on drinking, I’m not really big on formals, I’m not really big on bowling, and I really like animals.”

For Doyle, the Sanctuary trip filled a lacuna left by the other Senior Week events offered, which that day consistSee SANCTUARY on page 3

Courtesy of Gelsey White

Sanctuary welcomes VC animal enthusiasts Seniors take final T VC bows On May 24, the second day of Senior Week, 11 Vassar students enjoyed guided tours of the Catskill Animal Sanctuary. Here, students pose with Sanctuary tour guides and Vassar graduates Rocky Schwartz ’15 and Kaden Maguire ’16.

Science students trek Graduates pay tribute to ‘land of fire and ice’ to sports community Laila Volpe

hile some may think of Iceland as just an island with a misleading name, 15 Vassar students are currently taking advantage of its rich, diverse terrain to conduct research.

The Environmental Studies Program (ENST) often organizes field trip courses to allow students observe the relationship between a culture and its environment. The students take a credited class during the semester that is followed by a two-week adventure.

This trip generally takes place over See ICELAND on page 4

This finals week, students travelled to Iceland for the Environmental Science in the Field class. This year’s two weeks of research are part of the ninth iteration of the class.

Sports Editors

F

rom school records to big upsets, 2017 has one impeccable senior class of student athletes. In the 36year history of Division III Vassar athletics, this year’s graduating class is arguably one of the most accomplished and decorated. This Sunday, approximately 95 student-athletes will walk across the stage in front of Sunset Lake to receive their diplomas.

In honor of these student-athletes, The Miscellany News would like to highlight just a few of their Brewer memories.

Elijah Winston, of Gilbert, AZ, was a four-year member of the Vassar men’s basketball team and a two-year member of the track and field team.

In the final meet of his career on May 17, Winston put his name in the record books with a school’s best time of 49.67 in the 400-meter dash.

“It is important to focus on your sport and be dedicated,” Winston expressed in an email when asked what advice he would give to future Brewers. “[Having] a goal or ‘why’ can give people the drive and focus necessary sometimes. At the same time, it is D3 See ATHLETES on page 8

Arts Editor

T

heatre is an inherently collaborative art. The final product on opening night is a team effort, the combined vision of dedicated directors, designers, actors and stage managers. Here at Vassar, we can proudly claim that this collaboration goes beyond the rehearsals and design meetings; it is a spirit deeply rooted in the vibrant student theatre community.

Every May brings about a new group of integral members involved in student theatre who graduate after four years See THEATER on page 7

Courtesy of Lily Wang

W

Mack Liederman & Robert Pinataro

Courtesy of Gentry Laughlin

Assistant Features Editor

Matt Stein

Seniors Lukas Sarnow and Becky Wilson starred in FWA’s production of “Into the Woods,” marking one of their last performances of four years of Vassar student theatre.

Inside this issue

6

Wise alums act as advisors for college survivors

13

Through successes and tears, seniors look back on four years

19

Gain a Vassar perspective with our Misc retrospective

Page 2

The Miscellany News

May 28, 2017

2017 Commencement Events

Editor-in-Chief

Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson

Senior Editor Noah Purdy

Courtesy of Vassar College

Courtesy of Vassar College Baccalaureate Service: Presented by the Council of Black Seniors,

this celebration is rooted in the tradition of the Black church, faith and spirituality in recognition of academic achievement. It is open to the entire Vassar community of graduates and families.

Daisy

Chain: This tradition dates back from the when members of the sophomore class decorated the Class Day with daisies. From then on, the carrying Chain became a feature of Vassar’s Class Day

late 1880s Chapel for of a Daisy ceremonies.

Contributing Editors Sarah Dolan Anika Lanser

News Laurel Hennen Vigil Humor and Satire Leah Cates Yesenia Garcia Arts Matt Stein Patrick Tanella Sports Mack Liederman Robert Pinataro Design Yoav Yaron Online Kelsey Quinn Copy Tanya Kotru Gode Sumiko Neary

Courtesy of Vassar College

Assistant Features Laila Volpe Assistant Arts Sasha Gopalakrishnan Assistant Copy Claire Baker Assistant Social Media Hannah Nice Assistant Photo Michael Chung Web Master & Technical Advisor George Witteman

Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Graduation Celebration: Alumnae/i of Courtesy of Vassar College

Asian and Pacific descent will present identifying senior graduates with a red satin stole to wear with their caps and gowns during Commencement.

African Violets: This tradition recognizes first-, second-, and third-year Courtesy of Vassar College

women of color that had assisted the Council of Black Seniors (CBS) in activities during the academic year, notably the Baccalaureate Service.

Reporters Fiona MacLeod Dylan Smith Kaitlin Prado Andrea Yang Columnists Jimmy Christon Lucy Ellman Jesser Horowitz Steven Park Sylvan Perlmutter Drew Solender Design Scarlett Neuberger Maya Sterling Copy Adele Birkenes James Bonanno Gabriela Calderon Jillian Frechette Jessica Roden

Kente Cloth Ceremony: Black and African American alumnae/i

present Kente cloth stoles for seniors to wear with their caps and gowns during Commencement, welcoming the seniors to the African American Alumnae/i of Vassar College (AAAVC) family.

will present scholastic prizes and awards to the graduating class of 2017.

Courtesy of Vassar College

Courtesy of Vassar College

Awarding of the Prizes: The Dean of the College and the Dean of Studies

Commencement

Address:

Bial will deliver the 153rd ceremony. Her significance: Among veterans brought to

Posse Foundation president Deborah Commencement address at Vassar College’s selection as speaker this year has special the class of 2017 is the first group of Vassar using a model pioneered by Bial.

Thank you to Vassar College for the photos and event descriptions of commencement traditions.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only accept corrections for any misquotes, misrepresentations or factual errors for an article within the semester it is printed.

The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board.

May 28, 2017

COMMENCEMENT

Page 3

Farm animal refuge provides escape from Vassar bubble SANCTUARY continued from page 1

ideological focus. “I can definitely get behind minimizing animals’ pain and trying to reduce the amount of dairy or other animal byproducts that we consume,” she remarked. “The tour guide’s speeches definitely made me rethink what I’m really buying and what I’m really consuming.”

Doyle noted that during the tour, which lasted about 90 minutes, the guides explained each animal’s unique backstory, as well as special practices designed to accommodate animals who have been rescued from factory farms.

“We first met this one rooster named Jailbird who was really sweet, and let people hold and pet him,” she said. “They went into the energy consumption in terms of chickens laying eggs and how it’s unnatural to lay as many eggs as they do, so the sanctuary tries to basically feed the eggs back to the other animals.”

The Sanctuary makes special arrangements for its pigs as well, Doyle explained: “Pigs immediately start rooting around and destroy green spaces, so [the Sanctuary] circulates them between fields, and dug them a little swimming pit.”

All in all, Doyle found the trip to be a success.

“Even as someone who is not vegan, I thought it was a good balance of interacting with the animals and seeing how friendly they are and knowing exactly the hardships they face,” she said, adding, “Bring Purell if you go.”

As a return visitor to the Sanctuary, Snyder brought a different perspective to the trip, but echoed Doyle’s appreciation.

“I chose to attend the event because I have gone to the Catskill Animal Sanctuary twice before—once as a guest at their annual shindig in the fall and again as a volunteer to help out—and I adore the environment of the place and love the animals,” he explained in an email. “I wanted to go back again to see the animals and people I recognize, meet new ones and get an actual tour of the place from Rocky Schwartz, Class of ’15.”

He further enthused, “I had a fantastic time at the event—the weather was perfect, the ride there was comfortable, the animals were all adorable, and the tour by Rocky was extremely infor-

Courtesy of Ian Snyder

ed of a brunch at the Poughkeepsie Ice House on the Hudson, a trip to Spins Bowl and a show by comedy group Indecent Exposure.

According to its website, the Catskill Animal Sanctuary has rescued over 4,000 animals of 11 different species since its inception in 2001.

Kathy Stevens, who co-founded the Sanctuary with Jesse Moore, has written two books relating stories of the animals who have resided on the farm, and she speaks throughout the year at schools and conferences.

The Sanctuary also strives to educate visitors on veganism and factory farming through tours like the one Vassar students were given on Wednesday, overnight stays, a children’s camp and events, including the upcoming “Cocktails and Cow Tales” benefit on June 7, which will feature a vegan menu. Guided by its culinary curriculum known as Compassionate Cuisine, the Sanctuary offers cooking classes on its grounds and runs a blog dedicated to a diet free of animal products. The Sanctuary shares many of its guiding principles with similar refuges for farm animals, such as the Safe Haven Farm Sanctuary in nearby Poughquag, NY. Co-founder of Safe Haven Bill Crain explained in a phone interview that his sanctuary works with the Catskill Farm Sanctuary to place animals and that while his establishment is significantly smaller, its mission is similar.

He commented, “We both try to provide as loving homes as possible and let visitors come so that they could learn something about farm animals.” Crain has college students visit and volunteer from Vassar, Marist College, SUNY Binghamton and The City College of New York, where he is a professor. “We’d like to have more kids and college students if we can,” he added.

As a first-time visitor to the Sanctuary, Doyle was not sure what to expect. “I was a little surprised that it was mostly for rescued barn animals,” she explained, adding, “There were also two cats there that I got to pet.”

Although Doyle is not a vegan, she was still able to appreciate the benefits of the Sanctuary’s

Maya Enriquez ’17 bonds with a chicken as tour guide Rocky Schwartz ’15 looks on. According to the Sanctuary’s website, between 250 and 350 residents reside on the grounds at any given time. mative, inspiring, and engaging.”

Unlike Doyle, Snyder has been a vegan for several years and he is also participant in animal rights activism. His experience at the Sanctuary, however, still provided new and valuable information.

As he reflected, “I learned an incredible amount about the plight of the 10 billion land animals...and one trillion sea animals that are exploited and killed for human consumption each year in the USA.” Like Doyle, Snyder noted that the event provided a non-alcoholic alternative to Wednesday’s brunch. Senior Class President Aleena Malik ’17 identified the need for substance-free programming as one of the reasons the event was planned.

Indeed, several Senior Week events, such as the Winery Tour, the Pub Crawl and the Champagne Reception, center on alcohol, and other events such as the brunch and the Grandview Formal offer drinks at the bar.

In an email, Malik also pointed out the event’s popularity in past years and the fact that it gives students the chance to visit somewhere they likely have not been to during their time at Vassar.

While the turnout for the trip was small in comparison to the Ice House brunch—Doyle reported that around 15 students purchased tickets and 11 ended up attending—Snyder was enthusiastic about the future of the event. He declared, “I absolutely think this event should continue in future Senior Weeks...and that more people should go!”

News Briefs Trump fires FBI Director James Comey On May 9, FBI Director James Comey was fired by President Trump. The president announced Comey’s firing via a news release along with letters from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recommending Comey’s dismissal. Firing FBI directors is unusual; the last time this occurred was in 1993 when President Bill Clinton fired then-director William Sessions after a series of ethical violations.

Initially, President Trump stated that he fired Comey because of his mishandling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Trump also asserted that he had always intended to fire Comey (NBC News, “Lester Holt’s Extended Interview With President Trump,” 05.11.2017).

Although there is evidence to corroborate Trump’s claim that he wanted to fire Comey for months, many speculate that the timing of this dismissal was strategic.

Soon after Comey was fired, it came to light that he had requested additional personnel to assist with his investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election. He felt that the FBI had not dedicated enough resources to the investigation and that it warranted more serious consideration than it had been given (The New York Times, “Days Before Firing, Comey Asked for More Resources for Russia Inquiry,” 05.10.2017). In February, he received a memo from President Trump asking him to halt the investigation of Trump’s former security adviser, Michael T. Flynn (The New York Times, “Comey Says Trump Asked Him to End Flynn Investigation,” 05.16.2017). Many are concerned that Trump did not fire Comey earlier in his term as he allegedly intended to; rather he waited until Comey began investigating his presidential campaign to remove him.

On May 12, three days after Comey was fired, President Trump tweeted, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversation before he starts leaking to the press!” His implication of wiretapping and taping calls (which Trump was suspected of during his business dealings in New York) raised concerns about

Trump threatening witnesses in the investigation, which is a federal crime (The New York Times, “Trump Warning to Comey Prompts Questions on ‘Tapes,’” 05.12.2017). Trump’s communications regarding Comey have been compared to the Watergate scandal, in which President Richard Nixon fired the prosecutor hired to investigate the case.

Comey also kept diligent records throughout his time as FBI Director. A former Department of Justice Spokesperson Matthew Miller, who has worked closely with Comey in the past, has indicated that this constitutes a purposeful use of bureaucratic structures. In an interview with The Washington Post, Miller noted “[Comey] might’ve had two motives here. One is, when you’re put in this situation, you want to make a record, so if the other side ever tells their story, you can pretty clearly demonstrate with contemporaneous records that you acted appropriately. I keep wondering — something in the back of my head keeps saying to me — maybe Comey was actually trying to build an obstruction-of-justice case against the president here,” (The Washington Post, “The guy who predicted Comey’s memos thinks Comey may be trying to take down Trump,” 05.17.2017).

After coming under fire for supporting Comey’s termination, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead the investigation into collusion with Russia. Rosenstein is currently the most senior White House staff member heading the investigation, as Attorney General Sessions recused himself due to his role in the Trump campaign and his undisclosed meetings with Russian government officials. Although he still must report to the Deputy Attorney General and to President Trump, Mueller in his role as special counsel will have more independence in running the investigation than a government-affiliated attorney would have (The New York Times, “Robert Mueller, Former FBI Director, Named Special Counsel for Russia Investigation,” 05.17.2017).

—Sarah Dolan, Contributing Editor

Investigation follows Manchester Arena bombing On Monday, May 22, the deadliest terrorist attack in Britain since 2005 occurred at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England (The New York Times, “Ariana Grande Manchester Concert Ends in Explosion, Panic, and Death,” 05.22.2017). The bombing injured 59 and killed 22 (The New York Times, “Ariana Grande Manchester Concert Ends in Explosion, Panic, and Death,” 05.22.2017). Details are still emerging about the attack, but police have identified Salman Abedi as the suicide bomber and ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack. The construction of the bomb appeared to be more precise and thorough than is typically seen in suicide bombs (The New York Times, “Found at the Scene in Manchester: Shrapnel, a Backpack and a Battery,” 05.24.2017).

So far, seven people have been detained due to possible connection with the attack. Four people have been arrested, in England and in Libya, one being Abedi’s older brother Ismail who was aprehended in Tripoli (The Washington Post, “Manchester bombing probe expands with arrests on two continents,” 05.24.2017).

Prior to the Manchester Arena bombing, the threat level in Great Britain was set at the second-highest level, indicating the predicted likeliness of an attack (The New York Times, “Ariana Grande Manchester Concert Ends in Explosion, Panic, and Death,” 05.22.2017). The Prime Minister moved to the highest alert level after the attack, illustrating the fear of another terrorist attack in the near future (The New York Times, “Terror alert in Britain is raised to maximum as ISIS claims Manchester Attack,” 05.23.2017).

After looking further into Abedi’s travels and connections prior to the attack, officials are trying to understand possible connections to terrorist networks. The Washington Post reported, “The bomber, 22-year-old Salman Abedi, had been in Dusseldorf just four days before the bombing. The development signaled an expansion of an investigation that already has stretched to North Africa and continental Europe” (The Washington Post, “Manchester bombing probe expands to Germany amid raids, arrests in Brit-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ain,” 05.25.2017). The investigation will aim to examine the possible connections of Abedi, a British citizen of Libyan descent, to terrorist cells in Libya. However, it is unclear how successful the investigation will be in Libya. The Washington Post noted, “After six years of civil conflict and a revolving door of political and military players, it’s also unclear whether Britain and its Western allies have reliable contacts and sources to help with the probe. Every Western embassy in Tripoli has been closed for at least two years or longer; Italy’s reopened only this year” (The Washington Post, “Investigators face challenges as Libya becomes a key focus of bombing probe,” 05.25.2017).

As details continue to emerge surrounding the attack, there have also been concerns about information collected by British intelligence leaking via other countries, such as the United States and Germany. British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the disclosure of information on terrorist attacks in Britain by the United States, in particular. In response, President Trump said his administration would get to the bottom of the leaks: “These leaks have been going on for a long time, and my administration will get to the bottom of this. The leaks of sensitive information pose a grave threat to our national security” (The New York Times, “Trump condemns ‘alleged leaks,’ after complaints from Britain,” 05.25.2017).

The Washington Post reported, “Leaks from the ongoing investigation—including the publication of crime-scene photos in the New York Times and the naming of the suspected bomber

by U.S. broadcasters—have provoked ire from British officials” (The Washington Post, “Trump calls for investigation of U.S. leaks in Manchester bomb investigation probe,” 05.25.2017). Numerous British officials have described the leaks as undermining the investigation. The New York Times has since defended their decision to publish forensic photographs and graphics of the crime scene, calling their coverage “comprehensive and responsible” (The Washington Post, “Trump calls for investigation of U.S. leaks in Manchester bomb investigation probe,” 05.25.17).

—Anika Lanser, Contributing Editor

COMMENCEMENT

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May 28, 2017

Org lends support to North Korean advocacy cause Talya Phelps

Outgoing Design Editor

U

ntil 2013, its image on Google Earth was nothing but a featureless blob. Its Internet reportedly only has 28 websites. Its totalitarian threatened violent retaliation over a James Franco and Seth Rogen comedy flick. With the mystery, terror and surreal rumors shrouding North Korea, it is easy to lose sight of the very real citizens suffering there. Luckily, organizations like Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) act as crucial advocates for the people of North Korea, both by carrying out rescue missions for refugees and by emphasizing the challenges facing North Koreans and their potential to create change.

Here on campus, the student organization LiNK at Vassar represents one of the many chapters raising funds to support LiNK’s mission. Their most recent event, entitled “VC Munchies: Study Week Edition,” occurred on May 14, just in time to provide sustenance for diligent students preparing for finals.

For the Study Week event, LiNK at Vassar offered steamed pork, chicken and veggie buns, as well as sweet red bean buns, for delivery from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. The organization provided direct delivery to all dorms and senior housing, the Old Bookstore, the College Center, the Retreat, the library and the Bridge Building. Orders were processed through a Google form, with buns costing $1 or $2 and payment via cash or Venmo.

“We got a lot of orders and it turned out really well,” remarked 2017-2018 Secretary of LiNK Sooyeon Baek ’20. Indeed, the snacks were so popular that two of the bun varieties were sold out by 12:30. 2016-2017 Vice President of LiNK Kelly Yu ’17 specified in an email, “This year, we raised about the same amount as we always do, so I would consider that successful.”

Baek noted that the organization tries to integrate Korean culture into its fundraising events, which occur throughout the school year. Last September, LiNK kicked off the semester by tabling with steamed buns for sale in the College Center. Then, starting in early February, they

offered a special Valentine’s Day event in which students could personalize a Valentine-gram and have it delivered to the recipient’s door along with a box of Pocky. Later that month, LiNK offered a benefit concert in the Aula with a variety of performers, including a K-Pop dance group, a capella groups Home Brewed and BAM and comedians Evelyn Frick ’19 and Bianca Barragan ’19, both of Indecent Exposure. During the concert, LiNK set up a benefit flea market with donated clothing. In April, the organization partnered with BurgerFi, establishing a time frame in which mentioning LiNK with any order would give 10 percent of the purchase to aiding North Korean refugees. In addition, LiNK was part of the Night Market in November, an event with food vendors and music organized by the Asian Students’ Alliance in collaboration with 12 student groups and intended to emulate the atmosphere of East Asian night markets.

Funds raised by LiNK at Vassar join the pool of earnings from LiNK groups at other colleges, which are known as Rescue Teams and work to finance the goals of LiNK’s headquarters in California. According to Rescue Teams Manager Sarah Palmer, LiNK emerged out of the 2004 Korean American Students Conference at Yale, where a documentary screening about the North Korean refugee crisis spurred around 40 universities to form advocacy groups. After a largely unsuccessful period of focusing on topdown policy change, LiNK relocated its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to California in 2009 and began working to rescue refugees the following year.

As Palmer recalled, “We took a more grassroots approach by doing tours, engaging with campus groups, funding refugee rescues and working more directly with North Korean people.” As of 2017, LiNK’s website reports that the organization has assisted in 618 refugee rescues.

Factoring in the cost of basic needs, transportation, shelter, rescue fees, emergencies and resettlement, each rescue comes at a price of $3,000.

The rescue process begins after North Korean

refugees cross into China, Palmer explained.

LiNK staff connect with them via the organization’s partners on the ground and help them escape through a route traversing approximately 3,000 miles. “It’s essentially a modern-day Underground Railroad,” she commented.

Once refugees are placed in South Korea or the United States, they have to contend with adjusting to a new lifestyle. According to LiNK’s website, the organization provides the refugees it assists with support in the form of counseling, healthcare and financial aid and translation services. Palmer reported, “Once refugees resettle in South Korea or the United States, many are able to call their families and friends and even send money back home through brokers.”

She described this flow of cash and information as a black market—a phenomenon that has existed in North Korea since the famine of the 1990s. “They are sending 10 to 15 million dollars every year back to their families, creating more stability, less reliance on the government and more market activity,” said Palmer. “[North Koreans] are able to know through these phone calls that their family members are okay and hear from the outside world. It’s making a big change in the mindset of people in North Korea.” Palmer maintained that while LiNK does work to create media and campaigns to bring attention to the issues, the most substantial positive effects come from empowering North Koreans to create change. “We really believe that the North Korean people will be the ones to achieve liberty in our lifetime,” she said. Grassroots efforts from students and communities across the globe are indispensable in achieving this goal, and LiNK’s website notes the presence of over 275 Rescue Teams in 16 countries.

Palmer suggested, “If there’s not a Rescue Team at your school, starting one is definitely something that can make a huge difference for the the North Korean refugees you’re fundraising for, but you might also be the first person or group to bring attention to the issue on your campus.” She added, “You’re helping an individ-

ual, but you’re also becoming part of history.”

Alternatively, students can engage with LiNK by reaching out to family and friends to raise funds, or by joining the organization as an intern.

While Palmer celebrates LiNK’s successes and explores potential for the future in California, Vassar’s 2017-2018 LiNK President Ashley Kim ’19 does the same in Poughkeepsie. “This past year has been a very successful one, and we want to continue to put out new events and spread awareness,” said Kim in an email. “I think rather than doing something differently, we would like to focus on continuing and magnifying the upward trend we’ve had in the past few years.”

According to Yu, such efforts have recently included greater participation in LiNK’s mission outside of club events. As she reflected, “Our EB this year talked about being more active in refugee efforts and encouraged our members to be involved with a lot of on and off campus rallies and organizations.” In terms of the positive direction in which the club is moving, Kim specified, “We’ve had more outreach in terms of community, and even though we’re a small student organization, I’ve been seeing a lot more people who have heard of LiNK and more people asking about LiNK.” Yu also emphasized this movement toward inclusivity. She remarked, “We have been focusing a lot on making sure we are branching out from our immediate friend groups. In doing so, I think we have been able to make out events and tabling sessions more effective.”

Results of this successful publicity include recruiting first-year students like Baek, who prides LiNK on providing an accepting atmosphere. “I want [people] to know that LiNK isn’t just an organization for Koreans helping Koreans or Asians helping Koreans,” she said, a policy reflected in the makeup of the 2017-18 Exec Board. Baek noted, “Our Vice President and our Media Chair are not Asians. Everybody is welcome; we’re all working towards one good cause.”

Environmental Studies students explore Icelandic terrain ICELAND continued from page 1

October or spring break; however, this year it is being held after finals week. Previous field trips for ENST 254: Environmental Science in the Field include studying coral reefs in Bermuda, hydrology in the Southwest and the effects of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana.

Each class is co-taught by professors from different departments in order to diversify and make the experience as interdisciplinary as possible. This year the trip is being led by Professor of Biology Mark Schlessman and Professor of Earth Science Kirsten Menking.

Menking, who co-taught the first iteration of the interdisciplinary course, stated in an email, “The first trip to the Pacific NW was largely a show and tell trip. While we saw a lot of amazing geology and biology, we realized with that trip that we had spent way too much time in the van driving from place to place.”

As a result, the professors decided to spend

all or part of each trip at a field station where the students could take part in original hands-on research projects. Menking described the project for this trip, explaining, “We’ll be looking at how guano from seabirds affects soil fertility by measuring phosphate and nitrate concentrations in soils where Eider ducks and Arctic terns are nesting as well as in soils unaffected by either bird.”

In this year’s Environmental Science in the Field course, the ninth of its kind, the students will tour around eastern and southern Iceland from May 23 through June 5. In preparation for the trip, the class meetings provided an overview of the geology and biology of Iceland.

“Each student picked a topic related to one of those fields and created a field guide for the other students,” explained geography major Gentry Laughlin ’19 in an email, who focused her guide on Icelandic cattle.

In addition to the training the actual course

Courtesy of Gentry Laughlin

Students on the Iceland trip examined the environment of Iceland, comparing it to the differences in the U.S. landscapes that they usually study. Pictured here, they enjoy a dip in the ocean.

provided, each student was expected to complete several readings to better acclimate themselves to being in Iceland before their arrival.

The students were provided with details about their trip in addition to background on Iceland’s geography, culture and more, information gained by the professors who scouted out the country during the summer of 2016.

In a written guide introducing Iceland to the students, the two professors discussed the landscape, describing the relationship between Iceland’s glaciers and volcanoes, as well as areas with recently planted trees: “The joke that ‘if you are lost in a forest in Iceland, you merely need to stand up,’ is very much true as most trees are not much over chest high.”

The professors covered local customs and proper etiquette for the visiting students as well, connecting them to proposals within the country to use tourism rather than industrial development to expand Iceland’s economy. “Inasmuch as we will be tourists in Iceland ourselves,” the professors asserted, “we hope to be able to give back to the island by participating in a project to plant native trees.” The website is careful to emphasize this balance between tourism and field work, claiming, “This is not a vacation.”

Schlessman gave a more detailed account of what students will be doing, stating in an email, “[The trip involves] hands-on study of the geology and ecology of Iceland, emphasizing environmental topics such as: climate change, fishing, soil erosion, reforestation, afforestation, carbon sequestration, geothermal energy, hydroelectric power generation, aluminum smelting, tourism, volcanism, glaciology.” He stressed that one of the program’s top priorities is to give the students an opportunity to study in an environment they might otherwise never experience.

Laughlin, for one, is eager to compare and contrast the Icelandic setting she will be surrounded by with what she is used to: “I’m interested in environmental preservation, particularly in the U.S., so it will be interesting to see how similar/different this location is to national forests I’m used to.”

Sophie Cash ’19 chose the class to diversify her experiences as well, stating in an email, “I

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

love travel and one of my goals...is to learn about as many new places and cultures as I can. One of the biggest reasons is that as an Environmental Studies major, I’m especially interested in how a culture interacts with their environment, and how the biology is changing due to climate change. We’ll be studying a lot of that there, and Iceland is a prime example of a country whose biota will be affected by climate change.”

The professors organized both the in-class activities before the trip and the trip itself around the hope that students would absorb as much as possible from this experience. Schlessman explained, “[We wanted to] maximize their opportunity to learn as much as they possibly can about the unique environment of Iceland, the environmental challenges facing Icelanders, and how Icelanders are responding to those challenges.”

Cash­, in explaining how she is not only intrigued by the biological aspects of the trip, but also wants to learn more about Iceland as a country, added, “I’m fascinated by Icelandic culture, and the very unique people, so I’m very excited to interact with them and learn about their history and perspective.”

The students will be able to learn about the diversity of both Icelandic culture and biology with their extensive schedule: They will begin by spending three nights at the Skalanes field station in eastern Iceland, studying invasive plants and Arctic bird colonies. The students will then travel to Skaftafell National Park, where they will explore glaciers, sample water and study plant colonization in deglaciated terrain. From there, they will visit different cities and partake in various activities such as climbing Eldfell volcano, visiting Reykjavík before flying home.

The trip is sure to give the students an incredible opportunity for hands-on work in their desired field, as well as a unique chance to travel to a foreign country. Laughlin commented, “I have taken many earth science classes and have a more complete understanding of geology, so doing field research will definitely help develop a more comprehensive understanding of the country and how biology and geology shape climate/culture.”

May 28, 2017

Campus Canvas

COMMENCEMENT A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

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Bored at graduation?

So am I...

Evelyn Frick

Outgoing Humor & Satire Editor

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Preta in Madrid, spring 2016, pen on paper

Kate and a Friend, summer 2016, pen and marker on paper

Barbie Goes Fishing in All the Wrong Places, summer 2016, collage on Polaroid

Writers are told to write what they know and for artists, we’re told that the sky’s the limit. I don’t disagree but I do take more of a writerly approach to my art. I am interested in capturing daily moments of those close to me as I know them and their routines well. From there I branch out and put together an end product that might look very different from the initial idea. As an art history major, I obsessively research and a lot of that goes into my artwork.

—Ryan Holgu´ˆin ’17, art history major & Hispanic studies correlate

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

s the end of May approaches, every parent’s, grandparent’s, uncle’s, and vodka aunt’s favorite time of year gets closer and closer: graduation season. Don’t get me wrong, graduations are important! My sister graduated from college a few weeks ago, and I will literally tell any hobo off the street that she graduated magna cum laude because I’m so damn proud of her. But let me let you in on a little secret. You ready? Come closer. Okay, here we go: Commencement is boring. It’s so fucking dull. It’s probably one of the most boring things on the planet, among other mind-numbing activities such as watching paint dry or learning to differentiate between types of soils (shout out to the Geology Department). Here is a compiled list of all the reasons why Commencement is the worst: 1. It takes forever Yeah, you might be radiating happiness about your graduate for the first two hours, but as soon as your kid’s name is called and there are 300 other dumb kids left, the magic instantly disappears. I’m dead serious, the ceremony goes from the entertainment level of Disneyland all the way down to that of waiting in line at the DMV. Sure you can bring something to pass the time (a book, a crossword puzzle, a flask strapped to your inner thigh, etc.), but thus far I haven’t found a method that completely drowns out the sound of apathetic administrators mispronouncing people’s names.

2. You will probably be seated next to the worst people on the planet Maybe you’ll be sitting in between family members and it’ll be fine (or maybe your family members are the worst people on the planet, I don’t know your life), but if your experience is anything close to mine, your aisle-mates won’t be the greatest. In my experience, I was surrounded by a giant family of conservative Trump supporters. To be fair, they never actually told me they were conservatives, but I could just kinda tell, ya know? For example, the father of the family took the time to explain to me that they were a family of southerners from southern Virginia whose southern children attended a non-southern college in south (not to be confused with “the South”) Pennsylvania, which was close to where the Mason-Dixon line was, but still as far north as they would go. Because they were from the South. Also, the dad kept checking The Wall Street Journal on his phone during the ceremony, so I mean, tell me I’m wrong.

3. Who the fuck actually likes “Pomp and Circumstance”?

I know that it’s a tradition or whatever, but after listening to 10 minutes of some shitty underclassmen instrumentalists half-heartedly playing “Pomp and Circumstance” while 599 graduates who are not your child walk by, you’ll never want to hear that dumb song again. Also, who decided that “Pomp and Circumstance” is the graduation song? I mean, no offense to Sir Edward Elgar, but there are so many better options. Why not process to something more modern, like “Cha Cha Slide” or “Bad and Boujee”? Or perhaps we can use a super-fast march so graduates would have to fucking run to their seats, mortar boards a-flyin’!

4. There’s always one jackass with an air horn Over the multiple commencements I’ve had to sit through, this is the one constant. I don’t know if families pass down an heirloom air horn from generation to generation to take to graduations, but somehow, at least once a commencement like a goddamn quota or something, an air horn goes off.

I mean, at a very base level, it’s nice that a family loves their graduate that much. But why does your public display of affection have to be so annoying?

Just get the kid flowers or something.

And if you’re the jackass with the airhorn: Well, at least it’s not a vuvuzela.

5. All the fuss about cords People get really competitive about how many pieces of string they have hanging from their neck.

Newsflash: Yeah, it’s cool you’re in a frat, but the whole point of a graduation ceremony is that you’re graduating. Everyone graduating worked really hard to get to this point and regardless of whether you have a red or blue or gold-blue or pink-green-purple or yellow-blue-orange-polkadot cord or not, you’re not better than anyone else.

COMMENCEMENT

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May 28, 2017

Alumnae/i share wisdom, advice with the Class of 2017!

Noah Purdy & Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson Senior Editor & Editor-in-Chief

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ongratulations! Be proud of everything you’ve accomplished and let everyone who helped you get here know how grateful you are. The most important thing you can do after graduation is to find work you love to do, and pursue it with all the passion and ambition you can muster. Don’t be afraid if you have to start small, and don’t be worried if you feel like the work you’re doing initially falls short of your highest expectations. Anything worth doing takes years of practice and experience to master. New opportunities will present themselves if you work hard and treat everyone around you with kindness. Measure your success by the improvements you make in the lives of others. You have a great education—let it be a force for good in the world.”

—Steve Reilly ’09, Investigative Reporter at USA TODAY and finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting “Sometimes your first job—or even jobs—out of college can be anything but dream employment. I was once ordered to clean the mold out of a refrigerator and later asked if I would take free food instead of a paycheck. So while you’re putting in the grind and dealing with bosses you don’t love, assignments that are mind-numbing, and salaries that could use a few more zeros, try to evaluate if your job is a means to an end or just a dead end. Is there someone in the office that you would love to be one day? Or did someone who has your dream job once find themselves in the same situation? Are you in a company you would like to grow in? As long as you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, all the grunt work is worth it.

Also, your twenties fly by. Feel free to have one hell of a good time—at least on the weekends.”

—Karin Tanabe ’02, novelist, author of “The

Gilded Years: A Novel” about the first Black Vassar graduate “You may think you can lay out your life according to a plan, as if you were drawing up plans for a dream house. Most people can’t.

You build your life from decisions big and small.

Attend to opportunities as they present themselves.

Certain choices will have enormous consequences, but you might not realize which ones until much later.

When you take responsibility for your own decisions, you might find it easier to accept— with grace and courage—the moments when you have no choice.

Be polite and respectful to everyone. It isn’t that hard, and it matters.”

—Elliot Shapiro ’87, Senior Lecturer, Knight Foundation Director of the Writing in the Majors program and Director of Instruction for University Courses at Cornell University “My advice for graduating seniors, especially for those pursing a career in medicine, would be to be your own advocate and never say no to a professional opportunity. Also, seek out clubs or teams in whatever city you move to...it is a different experience trying to make friends in the real world than college, specifically if you work in a small lab. But most importantly, always remember one door always leads to the next.”

—Cecilia Rosenbaum ’15, Clinical Research Assistant at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute “Congratulations to the Class of 2017! You have all worked so hard to get where you are and you deserve every wonderful thing that’s in store. Essie, Calvin, Abby, Aleena, and Apoorva, you are all so dear to my heart and I’m so thankful to have spent 3 years at Vassar with you. To you and the rest of your class, I wish you the

very best. Life outside of that beautiful campus is much different, in ways both good and bad. It’s unlikely you’ll end up completely surrounded by so many like-minded people again, but Vassar has prepared you well to connect with a lot of different kinds of people. Since graduating, I’ve come to appreciate my time at Vassar more than ever, and I hope you’ll find the same. Your core values will be tested as you venture out into the world, and I hope you’ll find that your time at Vassar has left you with a strong sense of who you are, and that you will take that with you into the many situations that will challenge and shake you. I’m so proud of all of you. Congratulations again, and good luck!”

—Ramy Abbady ’16, Assistant Community Coordinator at Sonoma State University, pursuing an M.A. in Higher Education & Student Affairs at the University of San Francisco “I graduated from Vassar in 1949. In the four years that I was there the cost of tuition and room & board rose from $1200 to $1600 a year.

When we graduated, we thought that the world was our oyster. We could travel, get married or get a job. Living was pretty cheap.

Today I would like to say the world is still your oyster, but to follow your dreams and pursue your passions is very different. Many of you are saddled with huge debts, and the cost of living has skyrocketed. For those of you who are not going to graduate school you are probably going to have to find a job. For those of you who have majored in history or philosophy, as I did, or English, or music or literature, you will probably not be able to find a position in those fields with high salaries. You chose these courses knowing they would enrich your life but not necessarily in salary. When you do look for a job, you needn’t think of it as forever. Hopefully, you will be able to earn enough and also find gratification. Then you may eventually decide to go to medical school, or to teach, or become a farmer.

We know there’s no free lunch. So how can

you do what will make your life happy without compromising your values? First of all, take care of yourself, so you will have a long and healthy life. You will want to sustain yourself and still have time left for the things that give you pleasure. And always be sure that there is some sweet honey on your plate!

—Marjory Popky Blacher ’49, violinist and music teacher, mother of Martha Hausman ’84 (below) “What I perceived about Vassar when I chose it as my early decision target was that it valued individuality and community, without one detracting from the other. The ability to hold two values, two truths, live them and honor them in others, was mandatory for admission and graduation, even if not stated in so many words.

My understanding from my aunt (1945) my cousins (1975 and 1981) and my ‘little’ cousins (2014 and 2019) is that this has always and will always be true.

So, you are self-selected, and selected by Vassar, to embody these values. What does that mean? It’s not about you. It is all about you. As a Talmudic story portrays, Rabbi Simcha Bunem of Pershyscha(!) carried two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one was written ‘For my sake the world was created.’ The other said, ‘I am but dust and ashes.’

Be brave, for the world was created for you... to keep creating it. It is your world. Beautify it.

Protect it. Walk with dignity, purpose and entitlement. Be brave in love, and work and service.

But listen and wonder. You are only one part of a community of humans who deserve as much respect and compassion as you do.

Congratulations Vassar Grads. You are so lucky!”

—Martha Hausman ’84, lawyer & mediator for clergy and religious professionals, Martha Hausman Negotiation, daughter of Marjory Popky Blacher ’49 (above)

Exhibition pays tribute to In wake of remake, a fresh local history of refugees look at 1987’s ‘Dirty Dancing’ Sasha Gopalakrishnan Assistant Arts Editor

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oughkeepsie, along with the larger Hudson Valley, has a long history of housing refugees.

In order to preserve their stories of flight from violence and repression and of finding refuge in the United States, Vassar’s History Department, along with Vassar Refugee Solidarity, organized “Migration, Exile, Refuge: Stories from the Hudson Valley,” an exhibition taking place from May 13 to June 25, 2017, at the Glebe House at 635 Main Street in downtown Poughkeepsie.

The project began as History Department Chair and Vassar Refugee Solidarity co-founder Maria Höhn propelled discussions on how history interacts with the issues of migration and refugees.

“We wanted to look at how we may be able to talk more about these issues, especially in the current political climate, so we started with asking local artists from Poughkeepsie and the Hudson Valley to create art in response to these topics,” explained Nikki Lohr ’17, one of the organizers of the exhibition. From there, the project expanded to present the history of refugees in the Hudson Valley through artwork, photography, stories and documents, all of which are currently on display in the exhibition, which centers mostly on refugees from World War II. Vassar Refugee Solidarity co-founder Anish Kanoria ’18 clarified how the exhibition relates to the organization’s initiative: “It highlights our goal of engaging with the local community and emphasizing that this is not something that’s ‘out there’ but something that has been part of our lives and communities since the beginning.”

In order to present people’s personal narratives, Vassar students interviewed several individuals in the Hudson Valley community, including refugees, immigrants and their relatives. Some individuals spoke of their parents’ experiences in Japanese internment camps, provoking thoughts on what it means to be displaced and imprisoned within one’s country due to race. One story delved into the plight of a German Jew who fled from Germany to the United Kingdom during WWII.

However, because of his German identity, he was placed in an internment camp in London.

To connect these stories back to our campus, the curatorial team found documents within the Vassar Archives revealing that during WWII, Vassar housed refugees as well, and some of whom even went on to be employed as professors. Some of the documents on display at the exhibition are original letters written by of these refugees. Lohr shared the story of Ernst Krenek, for example, a famous Austrian composer of Czech origin who sought refuge from the Nazi regime in the United States in 1938 and taught music at Vassar.

Students also explored the stories of refugees and immigrants who came to the United States in historical contexts beyond WWII. For example, they interviewed people whose parents witnessed the Armenian genocide during World War I, as well as a woman from Morocco who related her past experiences to the present as an immigrant.

Lohr elucidated the message that they hope to convey through the project: “By no means do we claim to have told the whole story of refugees in the Hudson Valley. However, we see this as a start of a conversation, one that prompts our audience to think about...immigration and exile...and what exactly that entails.”

Lohr further explained their hopes to eventually expand their research into the experiences of Latin American immigrants­—of which there are a great deal in Poughkeepsie—as well as of Syrian refugees, if it is safe enough to do so. The team actively decided to avoid collecting the stories of current undocumented immigrants for this exhibition despite the importance of hearing those narratives, because under the current administration, it could very well pose a safety issue for them.

In closing, Lohr mentioned, “Think about if you had 10 minutes to leave your home and put your entire life in a backpack. Many of us have been fortunate enough to never experience this, but it is extremely important to think about those who have gone through it in the past, and those who are still going through it in this world...and it’s imperative to recognize that alienation and anguish.

Lucy Ellman Columnist

Dirty Dancing

Emile Ardolino Vestron Pictures

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veryone has that one movie. It’s the film that they, for some reason or another, are absolutely obsessed with. They can quote every line, reference scene and will actually bite your ear off if they figure out that you somehow haven’t seen it.

For some people, their movie is a classic, like a sing-along “Sound of Music” or the oft-quoted “The Godfather Part II.” For others, it’s a Disney film or probably something directed by Quentin Tarantino. For my roommate, it’s “Dirty Dancing.”

She knows this 1987 classic film starring Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze by heart.

She owns a vinyl copy of the film soundtrack and this year even modeled her Founder’s Day outfit off of Jennifer Grey’s glorious high-waisted shorts/floral button-down combo. She has told me multiple times that Patrick Swayze is “the one that got away.”

To be fair, I too have seen “Dirty Dancing.” At some point. I can’t quite remember when. It might have been at a sleepover in middle school? Although we may have chosen to watch “13 Going on 30” instead. Anyway, I really did not remember any of it. A bunch of people dance dirty and Baby doesn’t want to be in a corner. That’s all there is to it, right?

Last week, after finals were over and I had no more excuses to justify not having seen it officially, I sat down with a freshly popped bag of vending machine popcorn and watched “Dirty Dancing,” Guess what, guys: It’s good! Who knew?

I know I am officially 30 years late, but “Dirty Dancing” is a thoroughly enjoyable, surprisingly progressive, feel-good romantic comedy. And they dance dirty. What more is there to ask for?

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

The film should certainly not be heralded as an iconic progressive piece that tears down boundaries and paves the way for more diverse representation on screen—I spotted a grand total of two people of color in the entire film, and they were very much in the background. For its time, however, “Dirty Dancing” did cover some radical topics.

Firstly, I was intrigued by the characterization of Jennifer Grey. Perhaps the original “not-likeother-girls” character, Baby can carry her own.

She wants to do something to make the world better and even plans on joining the Peace Corps after she graduates from Mount Holyoke. While now audiences are sick of this old trope (Hailee Steinfeld, for example, just released a new single titled “Most Girls” condemning this tired narrative), it was 1987, so I’ll give the production team some props.

Yet, what stunned me the most about Dirty Dancing was its treatment of abortion.

The entire plot, in fact, revolves around Baby helping a woman get an abortion, taking her place in a dance competition alongside Patrick Swayze and making numerous personal sacrifices in order to ensure this woman’s choice.

How did I miss this? Why is nobody talking about this? Like Mickey Rooney’s atrocious I. Y. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” film history has seemingly forgotten this aspect of a beloved movie.

Even to this day, the topic of abortion is rarely touched with a 10-foot pole in the cinema, with seemingly progressive films like “Juno” glancing over the topic lest it lead to some greater controversy. “Dirty Dancing,” though, does not run away from this topic, but rather embraces it. The character is never blamed for wanting to get an abortion, never questioned by her friends for making the choice even when it all goes horribly wrong.

In a time when reproductive rights are under attacked, it’s important to remember that this is not normal. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze knew that all the way back in ’87. Let’s not forget now.

And hey, go watch “Dirty Dancing.” Turns out my roommate was right: It’s pretty great.

May 28, 2017

COMMENCEMENT

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Exeunt seniors: students reflect on theatre THEATER continued from page 1

Courtesy of Katie Scibelli

of dedication. Over their undergraduate careers, these seniors have borne witness and been the agents of change for the vast presence student theatre still has. And while everyone will go on to do fantastic things and we will miss them dearly, what we lose in presence we gain in gratitude for the years to come.

As they look back over their time at Vassar, several seniors sat down to reflect on their experience and discuss both how they have seen student theatre change and how student theatre has changed them.

Max Fine ’17 has been the president of Merely Players since Fall 2015 and is one of the most dedicated and trustworthy people in student theatre.

While he has designed for other student theatre orgs, Fine’s involvement in Merely Players’ growing presence at Vassar has been indispensable.

Fine talked about what drew him to student theatre and Merely Players in particular: “I like doing theatre. I like the closeness it fosters and the friends I’ve made from it. I think so many of my close friends I made from working on ‘Richard’ and Arden and ‘Tony & Cleo.’ And so for me I’ve really just liked the closeness of going in and working every day with a group of people. It feels nice and I really do enjoy that closeness. I also feel that because Merely’s a bit more of a self-sustaining community in itself, you usually get a few holdovers between a lot of different shows. With other orgs, it’s much more show-dependent, whereas it’s also show-dependent with Merely, but one good show means you have someone stick around for longer than just that show, which is really nice.”

Ryan Eykholt ’17 has been a member of both the board of Future Waitstaff of America (FWA) and of the Shiva Theater staff. A welcoming figure in the student theatre community, Eykholt has taken on numerous roles, such as acting, directing and playing in the pit band. Eykholt co-directed FWA’s “Formerly Known,” a devised musical, in Fall 2015.

“When I first joined student theatre, I liked seeing how passionate and driven and creative all the students here are and the diversity of storytelling and art that people were making,” Eykholt, a media studies major, commented, reflecting on howhe has been able to integrate theatre into his life. “I found it to be incredibly fulfilling and found it to be a better outlet for me to do theatre than through a major. It’s been nice over four years, having the flexibility with it. I think I’ve [developed] varying degrees of flexibility over that time.”

Eykholt continued, “All and all, I think it’s really been just the people I’ve been working with. It’s hard to sum them up in distinct memories, but it’s been really amazing to learn from so many awesome people.”

Lee Anne Meeks ’17 has worked in essentially every role and with essentially every single student theatre org at Vassar. One of the most beloved theatremakers on campus, she cherishes the time she’s spent with Idlewild the moving during these past four years, from seeing the ensemble grow in numbers and having the benefit of directing The Five Lesbian Brothers’ “The Secretaries” this past semester.

“In terms of roles, I appreciate student theatre for giving me the opportunity to spread my wings as a theatremaker in that I’ve been able to direct, dramaturg, design, manage, and perform,” Meeks said in an email about the boundless opportunities student theatre has offered. “Student theatre allows easy introduction to roles even if one has never done them before.”

Word on the street What do you want to say to the class of 2017?

Dedicated student theatre member Max Fine ’17 has served as president of Merely Players since the fall of 2015, directing shows such as “Antony and Cleopatra” (cast and crew pictured above).

She continued: “Vassar has provided me with the opportunity to accept theater-making as a passion as opposed to shoving myself in a box wherein flexibility is unallowed. Even if all of my individual skillsets are not honed, I believe I have gained willingness to try new things and the ability to believe in myself when the going gets difficult.”

Logan Pitts ’17 is one of the kindest, friendliest and tallest people you will find in student theatre and, like Meeks, has worn many hats in campus theatre productions. He has worked with Unbound and Philaletheis, but primarily has been involved with FWA productions, acting, directing and choreographing for multiple shows.

Pitts reflected on some of his favorite moments working with FWA. “Coming in, ‘Violet’ was my first show at FWA and it was just the most delightful time,” he reflected in an email. “It was a great cast; we were very close; I loved all those people and working with them, and just getting to perform and doing something I love. Equally then, working on ‘Lemonade’ as director, I also love directing, and then again it was the perfect, right group of people to make something work as fast as it needed to happen. It was exciting. Student theatre’s always been very community-oriented in that way, and that’d done it for me.”

Outgoing FWA president Becky Wilson ’17, who has given some of the most eclectic performances in many of the group’s shows, cabarets and midnight musicals, also had fond memories of her time in student theater. Besides her work with FWA, Wilson has also acted in Philaletheis special events and full-lengths and in Unbound’s “Dead Fish, Ma Fish.”

Wilson reflected on what convinced her to get more involved with Vassar’s student theatre community when she was a first-year: “I fell in love with it and the people were so passionate about it.

I loved that it was led by students and peers could lift each other up and help each other out to make incredible art. One thing that’s beautiful about the student theatre here is that everybody has the opportunity to learn and grow from things even if they don’t have the experience.”

“I think my favorite show I’ve ever been involved in is ‘Into the Woods,’ which just happened,” Wilson continued. “It’s such a beautiful show. And if we’re talking about my growth as an artist, I would never have been able to have done that my freshman year. And I feel really proud of myself for getting to that point.”

Courtesy of Elizabeth Snyderman

Graduate Elizabeth Snyderman has been involved in many campus productions during her time at Vassar, such as co-directing Unbound’s “The Poundcake Family Band.”

Outgoing president of Philaletheis Landry Levine ’17 has been a member of Shakespeare Troupe the last four years. His work with Philaletheis and the Student Theatre Alliance has helped student theatre become a stronger community for creativity and inclusivity.

Levine commented on the creative possibilities he has embraced in the student theatre community, saying in an email, “I’m going to miss how easy it is to make theatre here and how there aren’t commercial pressures the same way there are in the professional world. I don’t know if I really want to transition into that professional way of making theatre. If I keep doing it, I want to keep doing it the way we do it here, for fun. I feel so lucky to be in a place where there is a vibrant community where dozens of productions go up every semester. And I see all this new work and learn from all the talented peers working around me.”

Zeke Maben ’17 is one of the busiest people at Vassar but also one of the most hard-working, and displayed similar commitment to evaluating the role and tone of student theatre orgs. He has been a key member of the Merely Players community and has taken on countless roles in productions.

In Fall 2016, for example, Maben directed Philaletheis’ “The Lion in Winter.”

Maben spoke about how he hopes Merely Players, and the student theatre community in general, progresses in the years to come. “I’d love to see two or three Merely Players shows every semester,” he said. “I hope that it gets to a point where no one has any expectations going into a show. I want it to be where the student theatre community is so diverse in terms of creative output and the people in it that you don’t go and say ‘Are you going to go see the new Merely Players show? I’m sure that X, Y, and Z will happen.’ I want it to that there’s so much creative diversity in the show-to-show output that you can’t pin down an org as ‘They do this’ or ‘They do this.’ And I think we’re well on our way towards that.”

Elizabeth Snyderman, lastly, has been the president of Unbound since Fall 2016, but has been on the board since sophomore year. Also a key member of Vassar’s comedy scene as president of Indecent Exposure, Snyderman has pushed the boundaries of student theatre, whether it was the various staged cold readings of plays or “Poundcake Family Band,” which Snyderman co-wrote and co-directed, to name a few.

“I think I now conceive of myself more as a writer or in general as a theatremaker, which I feel a lot of people at Vassar do,” Snyderman stated. “[Other students often] conceive of themselves less as ‘This is a thing I do’ and more broadly. I’ve definitely gained a lot of skills in thinking of theatre as a bigger picture and thinking about what theatre can be and what is in a performance,” Snyderman expressed, reflecting on how her campus involvement has redefined her artistic identity.

Snyderman continued: “It’s been artistically fulfilling in a lot of ways. I feel that the more involved you get in student theatre, the more you become aware of ways you can put on your weird projects.

What’s so great about student theatre in college is that it’s the only time in your life where people are just going to give you money to do weird things.

And so I hope that people keep being weird and proposing weird concepts.”

Whatever happens with these seniors after Sunday’s Commencement ceremony, they will be able to cherish the skills they have learned and the memories they have made from the student theatre community for the rest of their lives.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Come back and visit” — Siennah Yang ’18

“Now that you’re out of college, it counts as alcoholism” — Jordan Peyer ’18

“Don’t die out there” — Grace Bae ’18

“Don’t buy food if you’re not hungry” — Tyler Boyle ’18

“I just want to say thank you” — Katie Scibelli ’19

“Good luck with the real world” ­­— Thomas Schindelman ’19 & Yina Wang ’19

Noah Purdy, Senior Editor Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson, Editor-in-Chief

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COMMENCEMENT

May 28, 2017

Student-athletes reflect on four transformative years ATHLETES continued from page 1

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

“Being recognized as a captain my junior and athletics at a great academic school so enjoy senior years was quite an honor. Being able to that too. Don’t let sports limit you...simultane- share my love of the sport with a team that cares ously focus on academics, because at the end and supports each other was a real privilege.” of the day we’re at Vassar to set up our futures.”

Fellow senior athlete Rory Chipman, a fourWinston certainly did focus and challenge year member of the women’s soccer team, also himself in the classroom, as he will graduate on spoke to the community she was able to find Sunday with a major in physics and correlates at Vassar. in math and political science. Next year, he will “I became incredibly close with the students attend graduate school at Arizona State Univer- in my fellow group and they have become my sity, with hopes to then forge a career on the best friends,” Chipman said in an email. “None West Coast in sustainable solar energy. of them play varsity sports and I have been able “My experience as a student-athlete has been to experience so much more at Vassar because more of the community I’m a part of instead of of them.” the sport I’ve done,” Winston said. “One of the When it comes to athletics, Chipman is greatest lessons I’ve learned is grit and perse- most of proud of receiving the Iron Brewer verance in the face of disappointment and ad- Award her junior year, a nod to her outstanding versity. I developed a resiliency for what life achievement in the varsity weight room. throws my way.”

“I would advise student athletes to hit the Senior captain of the varsity men’s cross weight room and make as many friends as poscountry team Gabe Fishman also reflected sible,” Chipman said, looking back on her time fondly on his Vassar experience. For Fishman, as a Brewer. “As for something I would change, what he will miss most is simply being able to I would say that I would train harder for prerun alongside his teammates. seasons. What I would keep the same is how I “Many of my favorite memories were of our made it my team role to support all my teamSenior captain Julia Cunningham has earned numerous honors during her time at weekly Sunday long run,” Fishman said in an mates on and off the field.”

Vassar, including NCAA All-American Honors for her 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons. email. “The cross country team heads to New Chipman will graduate with an urban studies Rejected Mug Nights and Carlson Paltz every Sunday to run and not only are major and correlates in history and studio art.

This leadership, which earned him his role asMackenzie sey made theLittle long trip withKim my parents...This these long runs beautiful but we while we ran For the summer, she will be working at Back 40 captain, has helped the Class of 2017 become experience really showed how deep the conwe discussed classes, politics, literature or art, Farm in Connecticut with two Vassar alumni the winningest class in Vassar baseball history. nections you make at Vassar run.” of cars to in graduate Idaho (abbr.)

ACROSS all with a serious commitment to the conversawho were also student-athletes.

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The mountain that keeps appearing in our 17.

President's office community I got to foster,” Fishman stated. with awesome guys throughout my four years.” show up to support me, a friend from New JerasWhat they begin a newdoes chapter of their lives.

crosswords 18. At this Mug Night, show up with horns 10. A hired assassin, don't let him in the and a tail to descend into hell mug 19. Top __ is high quality 11. Fool 20. We stole this Mug Night theme from 12. Narrow valley Chuck E. Cheese (2 words) 22. For this Mug Night we'd break the 13. A sheepdog's job bathrooms, put leaks in the roof, and chain 21. May be cherry, ACROSS words) 39. “Female” sexmeat, cells apple, pumpkin, a tricycle to the wall.

What What? etc 1. Killed, like a dragon 57. IMMEDIATELY (abbr) 40. Most rigid 23. "You guys" in a losing Buffalothe accent 24. The is this 5. Make super happy 58. end Tropical fruit, rhymes with lava 44. Bitter about Founder’s Day theme poll? Come to the Mug as a 10. You’ve heard of Middle School Mug 25. Common 60. Oldercereal son ofgrain Isaac 26. The correct past participle of dressed saw triangle.

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46. What old wood does 62. Fungus that grows on rye 29. Famously lacked

by You-Know-Who person place or thing.

14. White rabbit’s flaw 47. Astonish, shocked, taken ____ 63. What I did down a slide 30. "___ House" Madness, 1982 31. Shakespearean oh no :( 15. The most dangerous way to be a trapeze 48.

Commonly wreaked 64. Yiks’ pals artist (2 words) insult 32. Aeneas's top adjective 49. Sturdy South American rodent, related 65. At this Mug Night, we’d serve pretzel 32. British 16. Keeping the car in neutral crusted andnetwork honeydew infused water. 1 34. Big Bang base Theory 2 3 4 5 6 7 17. President’s office 66. Mug Somebody __ me, the hit Killers 37. This Night features a variety of song 18. At this Mug Night, show up with horns activities, like water skiing, fencing, and a 14 15 and a tail to descend into hell DOWN game where you stack people on different 19. Top __ is high quality 1. 8075 on a calculator, upside down a shipthe and try is, nottotochildren make it fall 20. We stole this Mug Night theme from sides 2.ofWhat 17 18 floor over! 3. “And the rest” Chuck E. Cheese (2 words) 22. For this Mug Night we’d break the 41. Head affirmation 4. This Mug Night couldn’t take place in 20 21 bathrooms, put leaks in the roof, and chain Lathrop or Joss 42. Escape a tricycle to the wall. What What?

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OnAMe 37 38 39 34. Big Bang Theory network mug foot 48. Horse 37. This Mug Night features a variety of 11. Fool few of Barry Manilow's "Copa"s activities, like water skiing, fencing, and a49. A 12.

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61 62 Take On Me 34.

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“Rejected Mug Nights”

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56. At this Mug Night, we’d tear down the 59.Mug Ice,and New, or or Middle leave a giant gaping pit there for a

The Commencement Crossword

by Kim Carlson and Mackenzie Little

school year.

59. Ice, New, or or Middle 8

9

10

11

12

13

34

35

36

54

55

56

16 19 22

23 25

29

30

40 43 45

46

48 53 60 63 66

38. Sandy Cheek’s favorite pie

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

© 2017 (Published via Across Lite)

May 28, 2017

SENIOR ADS

Page 9

Congratulations to Sam Houston-Read and Vassar’s Class of 2017.

We are proud of you!

Love, Mom, Dad, Rebecca and Zachary

Good Job Amanda! We are so proud of you!

Love Mom, Dad, Melissa, Elaina

Page 10

SENIOR ADS

May 28, 2017

Congratulations Aaron

We are so proud of you!!!!

Mom, Dad, Margaret, Darcy, Dexter, and Max

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.”

—Shakespeare

Congratulations! Love Mom, Dad, Matthew and the Cats

May 28, 2017

SENIOR ADS

Page 11

WE’RE SO PROUD OF OUR GIRLS – SAPARJA, ANNIE, SARAH, CLARA AND MOLLY

SENIOR ADS

Page 12

May 28, 2017

Congratula@ons, Andrew, On your Commencement!

Loves Cog Sci and German!

Pre-school (Boston)

This is not an end, It is your beginning.

Your greatest adventures Are just around the corner And the world is at your doorstep.

You can make the world a beLer place for all.

Follow your heart and go for it!

With love from Mom & Dad, Grammy, Elizabeth, and Julian

Loves snow!

Loves his family!

Vassar senior

Congratulations Stephanie Jump, Class of 2017!

Step 1: Graduate Vassar...

May 28, 2017

SENIOR RETROSPECTIVES ADVERTISEMENT

Page 13

Calvin Lamothe I

have a secret Facebook group with my four best friends from home (for those who haven’t already made fun of me about it, home is Manchester, MA. Yes, Manchester-by-the-Sea; yes, I’ve seen the movie; no, I didn’t like it). When the five of us went off to college, we posted daily updates in the group to keep each other in the know. As preparation/procrastination for this retrospective, I scrolled all the way back to 2013 to relive the golden days, and I realized that the start of my time at Vassar wasn’t terribly different than the end has been.

Beginning of Freshman Year:

Day 1: Arrived at 7:30 a.m., dorms did not open until 8 (early bird gets the worm). Zack [roommate] got here (he’s very nice and funny and we have the same music taste; he plays guitar). Besides my tiny room, my dorm is SO nice. It’s like a luxury hotel. Love it. Showers are nice.

Day 2: Breakfast in the lobby of my dorm with all the other freshmen. Met two girls, [Redacted], didn’t talk with them that much. Just small talk.

Day 4: Picked up a care package from Mom [Really, mother? Day 4? Chill].

Day 7: Made myself a delicious breakfast with food I had in my room (granola, yogurt, raspberries). Went to the VSA (Vassar Student Association) Open House for free cookies, talked to the president of my house about maybe running for Jewett Freshman Rep. I did laundry for the first time!

Day 17: A CAPPELLA PREVIEW CONCERT!!!

All of the groups on campus (there are nine) each performed three songs. Some of them were SO GOOD. End of Senior Year:

Woke up at 11:30 a.m., had a meeting at 10:30 (early bird gets the worm?). Zack [now housemate] is always here (he’s very nice and funny but doesn’t do his dishes; he plays guitar). Besides my room, my house is a disaster. It’s practically made of cardboard. Shower is filthy.

Hors d’oeuvres in Alumnae/i House with all the other seniors. Caught up with [Redacted], didn’t talk with them that much. Just small talk.

Picked up a care package from Mom [Thank you, mother. I am out of groceries].

Made myself a...breakfast(?) with food I had in my kitchen (eggs, overripe banana, sauerkraut).

Officially finished my duties as VSA President—f*cking finally. I can’t remember the last time I did laundry.

Why in the world do we have nine a cappella groups? I never want to hear a cappella again.

There are so many more comparisons to be drawn—chasing my first shot of alcohol with tap water freshman year vs. senior year drinking cocktails with the Board of Trustees; going to events because they seemed interesting vs. going to events purely for free food; freshman year romantic drama vs. senior year romantic drama; the list goes on. Many things have changed, many not so much.

Thankfully, one constant has been that Vassar is a place I am lucky to call home. All of my VC families have made me laugh, stressed me out, taught me so much and filled me with endless love. My experience here would have been nothing without Jewett 7, Freshman Class Council, the Deece egg station, Jewett House Team 201415, Chili Wednesday, the friends I made from various iterations of the VSA, Quadrovia and Girl House, late night walks around campus, fellow student musicians and my amazing, beautiful, brilliant house mates. There is no other place but here that I would want to have spent the last four years.

Back in August, it seemed surreal that I was considered old and wise enough to give advice to the first-years on their move-in day—in fact, it seemed surreal that I was a senior at all. Looking out at the class of 2020, I was reminded of myself, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and incredibly sweaty (from a Facebook update: “President’s Welcome in the Chapel. SO HOT”). Now, as this journey comes to a close, I realize that there is no formula for having wisdom; it just happens. I don’t think that any of us ever really knew what we were doing, but we did it together, and now we’re here, and soon we’ll be off getting older and wiser doing whatever we’re doing next, which will surely be something amazing.

I love you, thank you for an unforgettable college experience, stay in touch, HAGS, goodbye.

Lydia Wood M

y best piece of advice is to make connections. And I don’t really mean like business networking connections—those are great too, but I still don’t really know how to make those.

I mean connections across your academics, your extracurriculars and your personal life.

I ended up a religion major because I started writing every single thing my freshman year about religion: my history papers for my freshman writing seminar, my comparative politics papers, even my Spanish class. Growing up vaguely Protestant but without church attendance, I got interested in religion in high school because I wanted to know what I was missing. But once I got to college I started to see the potential for religion to be a connecting idea. Not in like a theological or practical social way, but in an academic way. I started looking at religion as a lens to study anything I wanted, a “good to think with” as Levi-Strauss would say. I entered the Religion Department thinking about studying Islam in America and somehow ended up writing half a thesis about Mormonism and museums.

I was always really intimidated by people who had a plan—biochem then med school, psych then social work, econ then finance.

I didn’t know what I wanted until 2nd semester junior year. I took a class in the Anthropology Department, From Natural History to EcoTourism with Professor Anne Pike-Tay and visiting artist Mark Dion. We studied the history of museums and display, all the while helping Mark put together an installation for the Loeb. I adored getting to dig through Vassar’s history and connect that local history to the complex history of collecting and display in America.

And somehow that dovetailed perfectly with my history class with Professor Merrell about Revolutionary-era America.

I ended up writing term papers for both classes about Charles Willson Peale’s natural history museum, focusing on creating American identity through the control and collection of the natural world and other cultures. That’s my advice, write two papers on one topic from two different an-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

gles.

And it’s even better if you can apply it outwards into your real life. That class and those papers are what helped me solidify my love of museums.

And it helped me understand what I love about them. I am fascinated by how they use objects to create a narrative and further an agenda and how that plays out in their education mission and collections.

But really, learning to look at one topic in depth from a thousand different angles is what a liber-

“I am fascinated by how [museums] use objects to create a narrative...how that plays out in their education mission and collections.” al arts education has given me. Being able to use religious studies and history and anthropological theory to learn about one topic is the best thing I’ve learned how to do. And making those cross-discipline connections are what excites me about my education and the future.

And that is what I want to carry outwards from Vassar. I want these interdisciplinary connections to be a part of my daily life and understanding of the world around me. And I don’t think I could really get rid of them anyway, Vassar has drilled a way of thinking into my head that has helped me understand what I want in life and how I can make the world a better place.

Obviously I have emotional connections to people and places associated with Vassar, too.

I love my friends and I love the Retreat and the Loeb and the blue heron that lives by the TA bridge. But it is the academic web of ideas, histories and theories that I’ll use every day.

Page 14

I

SENIOR RETROSPECTIVES Abby Johnson

spend a lot of time thinking about the alternate life I would have had at Oberlin College, which was the place I almost went to before Vassar accepted me. Once, when I asked a professor who attended Oberlin what my life would been like if I had chosen Oberlin over Vassar, he responded that if I were at Oberlin, I would be lying high in a cornfield. So, maybe not so different from Vassar.

The reality is that I can never know what would have happened if I chose Oberlin over Vassar (or University of Rochester over Vassar or no college over Vassar). I have this one experience and I’m semi-convinced that I will wake up one day next February and this will all feel like a bizarre fever dream.

If writing this retrospective is supposed to be a processing, I’m not quite sure what to do because I certainly have not processed Vassar yet.

I’ve barely begun to accept that by the time anyone is reading this, I will be expected to move out of my TH by 9 a.m. the next day.

However, I do think that I’m coming away from Vassar having learned a few things. When I left middle school, I was disappointed because I had finally figured out the most efficient strategies of getting out of gym class. I feel similarly about Vassar; I’m being forced to leave just as I think I have a handle on it.

In that vein, I’d like to leave a little bit of what I’ve learned here so it can remain on the internet and probably haunt me forever: 1. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. I could enroll for Intensive Ele-

mentary Italian second semester of my first year here. As someone who had never spoken Italian before and was generally not great at learning other languages, I should not have. But I did. I was really excellent at convincing my advisor that this was a smart move, but I was not excellent at actually learning or speaking Italian. In fact, I was very bad at it and today, I can say about five things in Italian.

“...I certainly have not processed Vassar yet.

I’ve barely begun to accept that by the time anyone is reading this, I will be expected to move out of my TH by 9 a.m. the next day.”

2. Stay home on the weekends. This year, I passed two first years on the TH path debating whether or not they were should go home as it was not even midnight. I remembered all the parties and events I had attended just because I thought I was supposed to be doing something.

Sometimes, you’re supposed to be in your bed doing nothing.

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3. When someone calls you out, listen to what they’re saying, say thank you because they just did some labor, and do better next time.

4. You don’t have to check your email as often as I did. More than once, a professor or administrator remarked on how quickly I was answering emails. I’m pretty sure that was a nice way of them saying that I should chill out. If your email goes unread for an hour, that’s okay. I also am writing this knowing very well that I will probably not follow it, but I know it to be true.

5. Make your own Vassar routines. I read The Miscellany News every week and spent a lot of time critiquing it to my friends. I’m pretty sure that every Thursday for the rest of my life, I will have the urge to find a newspaper that I can read and judge.

6. People will pretty much leave you be if you need to cry in the retreat or the deece or the library or UpC or the Bayit or at VSA Senate or in class or in your bedroom or in the bathroom or the Chapel or Sunset Lake. I should know. I cried at all those places and some more.

7. Find some time to read books that are not for class during the school year. I think I learned how to do this in October of my senior year so it takes a while but I highly recommend it.

8. Hold your communities close and tell them how much you love them, even when you’re annoyed because they all showed up to a meeting late. They will be the buoys you both want and, at times, desperately need. With that being said, please indulge me in some sentimentality, as I

May 28, 2017

thank three of those communities: My house mates/grousemates (Calvin, Meghan, Jessica, and Zack): I love that I get to come home to you all every night. It’s pretty much the coolest thing ever that I spent a year living with such funny, smart, and loving people.

“When someone calls you out, listen to what they’re saying, say thank you because they just did some labor, and do better next time.”

The Vassar Jewish Union: Four years ago, I attended Freshman Shabbat at the Bayit and I still distinctly remember it as the first time I thought I might find a home at Vassar. The VJU is the most fun, resilient, determined, thoughtful group of people. I’ve been so incredibly honored to be a leader in this group. Honestly, the whole time I wanted to pinch myself because these amazing people wanted to grow with me. I’m eighteen thousand times grateful.

My parents: I cannot believe I’m lucky enough to be your daughter. Thank you. I love you.

Mazel tov to the Class of 2017! It’s been a strange, sad, funny, and beautiful ride.

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“Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow” - Maria Mitchell Congratulations, Alexandra Trunnell!

Vassar Class of 2017 Love, Mom & Dad

We are so very proud of you Nick Lane Kohomban, and can’t wait to see where your creativity will take you. Remember, the force will be with you always.

Love, Mom, Dad, Jordan and Abbie MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

May 28, 2017

SENIOR ADS

Sarah C. Rodeo qui audet adipiscitur Some of us would change the world if we could You will change the world because you will From Vassar to Yale we all see it We congratulate you on your immense achievements To the Vassar Faculty especially Professor Christine Howlett & Professsor Lisl Prater-Lee We thank you for the power of conviction, for the strength you show our children, for the excellence you share & inspire, for the adults you help them to become

Congratulations to the Vassar Class of 2017 May God Go With You

Page 15

SENIOR RETROSPECTIVES Kelsey Quinn

Page 16

Excuse me,

Who from Vassar do you want to thank?

“I want to thank Kenisha Kelly for challenging me the most out of any human ever” — Hilde Wulf ’17

“I want to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Salyk; she’s this badass young woman in science, a real role model in many ways” — Alex Trunnell ’17 “Tim Koechlin, Katie Hite, Abby Baird and all of my other professors who I love just as equally, and all of my friends and the staff at the Wimpfheimer Nursery School” — Zoe Walker ’17

“Teresa Garrett, the Biochemistry Department, Georgette Silvers and SoCo 4” — Oluwadamilola Oke ’17

I

’m still waiting for college to be the best time of my life. I guess the three days I have before graduation aren’t enough time to make lifelong friends I can’t live without, but I’m still holding out on maybe one person telling me that they’ll miss me. The truth is, I have failed spectacularly at integrating myself into the Vassar community. Over the last semester I’ve chosen to cut my losses and disappear as quietly as possible through a descent into complete social obscurity.

This is where I endeavor to take a sharp turn from pity party to a productive piece on what it meant to make the transition from public school to “elite” academia. I just on a fundamental level felt unable to form meaningful connections with my peers. This was definitely for a whole assortment of reasons—including, but not limited to, my generally grumpy disposition and desire to only ever be in bed eating Taco Bell in my spare time. But beyond that, I really do feel that differences in background pervade so much of the discourse at Vassar, and in a way that seems to be entirely invisible to those perpetuating them. My undergraduate career has been a boring remake of The Sixth Sense where I can see rich people. To be technical, the disconnect is more of a difference in social status than class. Personally, I come

from a long line of nobodies. I actually don’t know anybody who’s done anything that’s conventionally impressive. Me coming here was a big deal.

Even though I am only here due to copious financial aid, I’m not a designated “low-income” student (which obviously is a different unique experience). I have my MacBook; I studied abroad in my junior year. I am average, and my intellectual abilities (whatever that means) have given me experiences and possessions far beyond what someone from my average background could normally expect. In high school I was so happy that my brain alone could take me places, but I didn’t realize how lonely those places could be. I can’t not Macaulay Culkin my way through this campus by noticing how laughably out-of-touch the average Vassar student is from the average American—and from myself.

So I’ve found myself in this weird place where I certainly don’t belong where I grew up, but because of where I grew up, I don’t belong in a community such as this one. Now, though, I don’t want to belong in either. I’m happy with the person I’ve become. I like being a nobody.

I like being around other nobodies. I also love school and want to be successful. Realizing all of this has been a weird process, and I’m not

May 28, 2017

exactly sure where to go now that I have the information.

I guess my point in writing this is that there’s a lot of work to be done. I find it appalling that Vassar is actually one of the best schools out there in terms of financial accessibility. My Delco self really had no business being here.

The lower-income student story doesn’t end after admission, and the campus environments themselves have to become more welcoming if anyone wants lower-income students to attend schools like Vassar in higher numbers.

There are many reasons why many students feel isolated or even unsafe at Vassar, and I’m not here to try to assert the importance of my experience over theirs. Vassar has been fine for me. The low-income students who do significantly struggle, though, deserve better.

And now, so as to not to entirely give in to my propensity for complaining, here are some things I’ve been grateful for in my time at Vassar. I love being an English major more than anything, and I truly feel I have gotten the best education in literature that I could have imagined for myself. I’ve also had so much fun being the Online Editor for the Misc for the past three semesters. Thanks for giving me this opportunity to overshare in my parting words to Vassar.

Max Fine A

s many of my friends and family have told me, I like looking back. This is probably why I’ve always enjoyed history and why I declared it as my major at the beginning of my sophomore year. Retrospection’s fun, what can I say?

Apparently my close friend mine actually got tired of hearing me say the word “nostalgia” over the course of this semester. I’m not surprised. So of course, when presented with the opportunity to actually look back on my own four years here, I had to take it.

I was going to be a music minor. This was about all I knew when I first set foot in my room in Main in the fall of 2013. I had played piano for twelve years, picked up a few other instruments along the way, and started writing music in my spare time, but I had no intention of doing any of this professionally. No idea of who my friends would be, what I’d major in, or what I might want to do for a living, everything was up in the air, but a music minor, that much I knew for sure.

I was wrong. Four years later, after pursuing (at different times) a music correlate, a German correlate, and a variety of identity-crisis-provoking additional second majors, I am graduating with a degree in history, and nothing else. I certainly got used to this reality over the past few years. But a few weeks ago, when I watched the time capsule video I sent to myself

from first semester freshman year, I realized I was wrong about how much of the last four years would turn out.

Thank god. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the past four years is to be grateful for being wrong when it really counted, like during freshman year.

“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the past four years is to be grateful for being wrong when it really counted, like during freshman year.”

I nearly considered double majoring in a way that would have necessitated taking 28 credits between the two majors. Thankfully my freshman writing seminar professor told me that I was a history major, because “you read Robert Caro [author of an ongoing multi-volume biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson] for fun.”

Or later that year, when I considered quitting theater entirely, before getting cast in Merely Players’ production of A Midsummer Night’s

Dream. Now, four years later, I’ve written a senior history thesis I’m proud of, and made many of my closest friends from working on shows through Merely Players over the past three years.

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me about watching my video was not the answers to the questions I asked myself, but the questions I was asking. It was disorienting to remember what I was interested in and what I was thinking at the time, but it also brought back so many memories of another time. It really showed me that I am not the same person who first walked into Vassar four years ago, nor is this school the place it was then either.

This not to say the past few years have been idyllic. Vassar can be a crucible with visceral ups and downs, but on the whole it was worth it for me.

I guess I know more than I did four years ago, but I also know enough to realize that I’ve still got a ways to go. Vassar’s given me a lot, and I’ve learned a lot from it and the people here, and I’m glad I’ll be able to take that with me as I go forward into the next phase of life.

So if there’s anything to take away from this mess of words, it’s to take the opportunities you get, but only when you’re fully able to take advantage of them. Better to enjoy what you do then to do everything and enjoy none of it.

Thanks for reading.

Lucy Balcezak

“The Econ Department for making me realizing what I never want to do with my life” — Sheharyar Imran ’17

I

“I’d like to thank the Academy” — JD Nichols ’17

Noah Purdy, Senior Editor Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson, Editor-in-Chief

am a racer. There is no closure in racing.

There are always more races, faster times, better places, and more grit to be had, which can never be had. As long as you put your heart on the line of every race, it will leave you wondering why you didn’t have a bigger heart. So you tell yourself, next race. Next race, I will find more heart to give. I am out of races.

Two and a half weeks from the end of my senior track season, I developed a blood clot in my left leg. I was hospitalized for four days, the weekend before what should have been the biggest race of my career. A career that began at age seven. A few hours after I got out of the hospital, I was back crutching around the track, in the vain hope that I could get back onto the 4x400 team in three days. My doctor laughed when I asked to race. I just didn’t feel done. I still don’t.

Watching the team run without me that Wednesday was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I screamed at them until my voice cracked, even when they were much too far away to hear.

I am so proud to have trained and raced with such powerful people over the last four years here. There is a quiet strength about the team.

The grit to giggle about snot four miles into an

eight-mile marathon pace run, or three reps into a bleed run. The power to stand tall, pushing through injury after injury to get back onto the course or the track. The sheer faith in the joy of pushing yourself so far past your limit that standing is no longer possible and there is only running, running until you pass the finish line and collapse. That is the legacy of my team on my soul, and it is an immense gift. I am so jealous that they got a last race.

There were no goodbyes. My last class ended without comment. I was in the hospital, bathed in two different opiates, for my last violin concerts. The whole college experience feels distinctly unfinished. Yet, Vassar will fade into the background, as high school did, and before that, elementary school.

My hand remained outstretched until the end, looking for that next race. Eventually, next races stop coming. Ends tend to sneak up on me while I am out looking for the next great thing.

This must therefore be a moment to pause.

To say goodbye to the professors who bent my mind into grotesque and gorgeous shapes; to the classmates who challenged me with the unexpected; to the man whose little dog walks him around campus; and finally to my coaches

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and my team: I cannot express the fullness of my love and admiration. Thank you for pushing me and teaching me and hugging me and listening to me and talking to me, and just for making this experience what it was. Whatever it was, it was beautiful in its wholeness and its roundness, its frustrations and its joys.

I have come to realize that even if I were able to race one last time, or play in one last concert, I still would not have closure because conversations and possibilities are always infinite.

Once those conversations happen, they will always be and they will always have been. The thought on this campus shapes my future, and it shapes my relationship with the past. Thus, it is time to learn gratitude for all the incredible conversations I have witnessed and engaged.

We are in a moment of goodbyes. Of pretending we will see each other soon. The next time we meet, we will be different people, and that is as it should be.

Hug your friends today, and remind them that you love them and will always have loved them, even as you grow apart and change. Endings are as porous as the relationships they contain and I have not yet found my moment of closure. My hand is still outstretched, as indeed it should be.

May 28, 2017

T

SENIOR RETROSPECTIVES Rainah Umlauf

hese last few days (well, weeks, and in some sense this whole year) have been incredibly strange. I am inhabiting a space that I know is precarious and temporary, and yet is still my tangible day-to-day reality. Even now, we are still here at Vassar. I will see my friends this afternoon, I will sleep in my TA. But this rational understanding that I am still here is overshadowed by the knowledge that this tangible Vassar reality is finite.

All of this has been grieving-in-anticipation of the loss that will truly become real only after we move out and away. I’m appreciating the moments of joy in anticipation of their finality.

Although the Vassar experience can be painful and exhausting, I’ve found that for me it has also been a period of growth and finding friendships.

What gives particular shape to my grief are the student groups that I’ve become a part of and led. I was one of the captains of the Quidditch team this year, and for the last few weeks I would often step back and dwell in the realness of it, knowing that next year my underclassmen friends would carry on this amazing community...without me.

I found myself thinking: What will I do every time this club meets for the next three years?

Will I feel a twinge of pain every Thursday night at 10 p.m. to know that my teammates are gathered despite my absence? It took me a

whole year before I really found my people, and I joined hesitantly. Now I am a leader, I helped recruit and teach our freshmen, welcome them into the team. Next year, four of them will inherit the team’s leadership. Passing it off was one of the happiest things I’ve ever done, and watching them lead their first few practices made me incredibly proud. But it was also deeply melancholy.

I’ve found myself appreciating my fellow seniors, many to whom I have never spoken, in their own leadership roles, knowing that they, too, must have similar kind of fellowship in their own organizations. It happens countless times, with people I’ve barely talked to; whenever I see Ryan music-direct an a capella group or Christa gather the Monkeys, I remember how we were all freshmen together and that now we’ve found communities and are now helping to build it for others.

For me, saying goodbye to underclassmen feels different than goodbyes to each other. When I’ve said goodbye to my underclassmen friends, it’s been a heartbreaking goodbye: knowing that they’ll still be here in this reality and that they’ll continue on with these familiar spaces.

I dread hearing “Oh, you’ll come back to visit,” which I find to be an artificial attempt to placate the pain of goodbye. I will come back, but it will be different; I will no longer be an insider who

shares in the everyday life of the org. Next year, in the long spaces during which I am not visiting, there will be new freshmen who don’t know who I am, another generation of org leaders, new inside jokes made at after-practice dinners.

Of course, I know rationally that it is my time to move on. I recognize in these underclassmen the differences between us: they have so much more Vassar-centric growing to do, in ways that I cannot express to them because I didn’t even realize that I had grown in those ways except retroactively.

I recently watched my first-year time capsule video, and I was struck less by what I said than how I said it: I can easily see now how much stronger I’ve become—less timid, more confident and articulate.

This obviously hasn’t been everyone’s experience at Vassar. Vassar’s flaws are undeniable and it doesn’t treat everyone equally. Moving on comes as an inexhaustible joy to many, which is a position that I deeply respect. But moving on will be a transition for all of us. I wonder if my grief would all be easier if I knew where I was going next. I think it probably would. But it’s also a grieving regardless.

I’ve found that saying goodbye to my friends in the Class of 2017 is easier. There is a sense of mutual moving-on, that we will each go forward into different places and realities. We will

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have to build new lives, apart from the things we knew together these last four years. I have better faith that my senior friends will make an effort to stay in touch as we leave the familiar. They are all so strong-of-will that they will continue our connection no matter how different our day-today lives turn out.

As I have been doing all year, I remind myself that we are still here. This grieving-in-anticipation has been dreadful enough, and I wonder what will it feel like when it is just grieving. After we take off our robes and return to our hometowns or new jobs or summer plans, what will it feel like to process the loss in a place that is estranged from here?

These feelings are not easily washed away; I do rationally know that we will all move on to great adventures and rewarding futures, but in this moment, that’s not what I want to hear.

I’ll need a little while to grieve this loss, to become accustomed to not being able to walk across campus to my closest friends, to grow nonchalant about the times when my organizations meet weekly.

It will happen, for all of us. But I hope it happens, for me, not because I am trying not to think about it, to will the loss away into unrecognition, but rather because I am gradually coming to terms with the loss as a painful but inextricable part of the things that I’ve gained here.

“The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.”

—Maya Angelou

Congratulations Kim on four great years at Vassar! We love you!!

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May 28, 2017

A YEAR IN REVIEW Page 18

Seniors all smiles in preparation for commencement

May 28, 2017

A YEAR IN REVIEW

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CAMPUS MAP

Important locations circled!

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May 28, 2017