The Miscellany News | Mar 31, 2011

The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

March 31, 2011

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CXLIV | Issue 18

Satisfaction with CDO questioned

Committee attempts to attract vets

Molly Turpin

Angela Aiuto

enior Survey data suggests that the Career Development Office (CDO) ranks among the lowest in student satisfaction in a long list of aspects of the College, but Vassar is hardly alone in this trend.

This data from the 2010 Senior Survey administered by the Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) may confirm some anecdotal evidence of frustration with the office, but pinpointing specific factors that led to these results is a difficult task.

According to Director of the CDO Mary Raymond, “I was troubled, I’ll admit, in that it didn’t reflect what we thought we were doing,” she said. “And as far as being a weakness, students have such varying perspectives on what counseling means.” She said that the data is motivating the office to work with students and to find out from them how the CDO might improve.

Though the Vassar-specific data was disappointing to Raymond, Vassar scored very similarly to other colleges and universities participating in the survey, though it tended to score slightly lower than average on most points. According to Director of Institutional Research David Davis-Van Atta, none of these data points is statistically significant when observed individually, but the fact that so many are just under average is probably not a fluke. “It’s a little lower for Vassar, and that’s the most important thing that’s going to come out of the stuff on CDO is that the differences are small, but they are consistently there, so you have to pay some attention to it.”

Because the Senior Survey records See CDO on page 7

assar’s student body has become increasingly diverse in recent years, with the Class of 2014 representing the most racially and socio-economically diverse class in the College’s history. That effort is expanding to bolster the representation of another group on campus: veterans.

“It’s one element of diversity that we haven’t paid a lot of attention to in the past,” said Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger, who brought together an ad-hoc committee in the fall of 2009 tasked with attracting veterans to Vassar. “I think it’s one way that the College can recognize the sacrifices that young people who have gone into the military are making, and try to do our part to pay them back in some ways for their sacrifices.”

The committee was formed as part of Vassar’s 2009 decision to participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program, a program offered through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in accordance with the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008. This law expanded the educational benefits available to veterans who served after Sept. 11, 2001 to equal the cost of the highest public undergraduate tuition in the individual’s state. “The Yellow Ribbon Program adds additional support from both the federal government and the See VETERANS on page 7

Editor in Chief

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Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

The Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council failed to pass an amendment to the VSA’s Constitution at its meeting last Sunday. The proposed amendment, Article VII, would create the position of a “class senator,”

Amendment fails in Council Proposal may go to referendum Aashim Usgaonkar

students have begun a petition to bring the proprosal to a referendum vote.

Amendments mandating that vacant committee positions be filled

by Council members and change the name “Residence Councils” to “House Teams,” however, passed unanimously.

VSA Vice President for Student Life Samin Shehab ’11 began the amendment discussions by explaining the process that led to the

News Editor

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he Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council failed to pass an amendment to the VSA’s Constitution at its meeting last Sunday. The proposed amendment, Article VII, would create the position of a “class senator,” and if passed this amendment would have ushered in a new Council structure. The amendment failed by a narrow margin, and some Council members as well as other

Second teach-in focuses on Japan Joey Rearick

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Assistant News Editors

eeks after suffering the worst natural disaster in its history, Japan continues to confront the aftermath of its recent

earthquake and tsunami, as more news emerges about the ongoing nuclear disaster. On Friday, students and faculty gathered in Rockefeller 300 for a “teach-in” about Japan’s struggles, where

Inside this issue

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NEWS

Student seminars return with variety and popularity

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FEATURES

A peek into the Library’s offsite Annex

Annual comedy night celebrates alumnus

Courtesy of Convoy Improv

Courtesy of Rhys Bambrick

Above, a sculpture by Rhys Bambrick ’11 installed in the Thompson Memorial Library, is one of many sculptures detailed on page 15.

panelists considered the catastrophe from a range of personal and academic perspectives.

The newly-formed Vassar Japan Relief group, founded on March 20 by a group of students and faculty with personal ties to Japan, coordinated the event. In less than a week of existence, the group raised nearly $1,000 from student donations, and collected even more donations at the entrance to the teach-in. The group’s fund-raising efforts will culminate in a benefit event on April 15. Moderator Jessica Peng ’11 hoped the event would spread word of the group’s mission and help Vassar “learn more about the mechanics and magnitude of the crisis.” The departments of Asian Studies, Earth Science and Geography, and International Studies sponsored the teach-in with assistance from the Office of Campus Activities.

The event began with members of the group reading brief letters from former members of the Vassar comSee TEACH-IN on page 4

vote. “It began when we had conversations about the VSA advisory Council,” which Council felt was a necessary means to “create a more inclusive body to represent voices See COUNCIL on page 4

Senior Editor

Los Angeles comedy group Convoy, pictured above, will be headlining this year’s Matt Carey Comedy Night this Saturday, April 2 in the Students’ Building.

Chalacia Dent Guest Reporter

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he Vassar Community anticipates the arrival of the Matt Carey Comedy Night, a show in its sixth year running, headlined by three Vassar alumni who make up Los Angeles’s Convoy and also featuring the on-campus talent of com-

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OPINIONS

edy groups Improv and The Limit.

The event serves as a memorial for the late Matt Carey ’03, a former member of Improv and co-founder of The Limit, who died tragically in 2004 due to heart failure. Matt Carey’s mother Jeanne Carey had the idea for the annual show, and set it See COMEDY on page 17

Students weigh in on VSA Council, amendments

The Miscellany News

Page 2

March 24, 2011

Editor in Chief Molly Turpin Senior Editor Angela Aiuto

Contributing Editors Matthew Brock Lila Teeters

News Caitlin Clevenger Aashim Usgaonkar Features Mitchell Gilburne Jillian Scharr Opinions Joshua Rosen Humor & Satire Alanna Okun Arts Rachael Borné Sports Corey Cohn Andy Marmer Copy Katharine Austin Design Eric Estes Photography Juliana Halpert Online Erik Lorenzsonn Social Media Marie Dugo

Following a divisive speech from President Sarah Gibson Blanding, The Miscellany News polled students and ran a special supplement documenting opinions on her assertions that inappropriate behavior, especially promiscuity, would not be tolerated among students. The speech was also noted in the national press.

This Week in Vassar History

By Dean Emeritus Colton Johnson

1801, Spring

1864, April

James Vassar sold his farm and settled in the center of Poughkeepsie to brew ale. He built a brewery, in a part of which the family lived while a house was built for them nearby.

Milo P. Jewett resigned as President of Vassar following a difference of opinion with the Founder about when the college should open.

Jewett wanted to begin as soon as the physical plant was ready, while Vassar insisted on waiting for the end of war, both so that his experiment could start in as calm and favorable a public climate as possible and so that the unruly financial fluctuations caused by the war could subside. A letter sent by Jewett to several trustees, in which he described the Founder as “vacillating and growing daily more childish and fickle,” was brought to Matthew Vassar’s attention. He declined to have any further dealings with Jewett and demanded his resignation.

1845, April

Matthew Vassar and his wife, accompanied by his secretary, Cyrus Swan—later a charter trustee—sailed for Europe in the packet-ship Northumberland. “…about 1845 I visited Europe & while in London visited the famous ‘Guy’ Hospitall, the founder of which a family relative, ‘[Thomas] Guy’…had the honor of being named after.—Seeing this Institution first suggested the idea of devoting a portion of my Estate to some Charitable purpose, and about this period took quite an interest in a niece of mine, Lydia Booth, who was then engaged in a small way in the tuition of Children resulting in after years in the opening of a female seminary in Poughkeepsie being the first of its kind excepting one other, Mrs. Conger, in the village.”

Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, ed., Autobiography and Letters of Matthew Vassar

1864, April

Rev. John H. Raymond, a charter trustee, accepted the presidency of Vassar Female College at a salary of $4,000 per annum.

nasium, Dr. D. A. Sargent, who described it as a combination of bowling, baseball, cricket, football, handball and tennis.

1962, April 4

In an all-campus meeting, President Sarah Gibson Blanding told the student body that premarital sex and excessive drinking would not be tolerated at Vassar. Declaring sexual promiscuity to be “indecent and immoral,” she said that disciplinary action would be taken against those who did not follow the standards of the college. The speech inspired heated debate across the campus for some time. A poll of students found that 52% of the campus supported Blanding, 40% disagreed and the rest were undecided. However, 81 % of students agreed that social mores were personal issues that should only be of concern to the college when they brought its name into public disrepute.

1973, April

1895, April

Vassar students were among the first to take up a new sport, battle ball, devised the previous summer by the director of Harvard’s gym-

The Student Fellow program, a program in which upper-classmen were chosen to be peer counselors to freshmen, selected its first fellows for the following fall.

CORRECTIONS The article “Hill hosts first ‘Vassar Today’ panels,” which appeared on the front page of the 03.24.11 issue, incorrectly stated that Vassar receives over two-thirds of its revenue from tuiton. The correct figure is just over 50 percent.

“Hill hosts first ‘Vassar Today’ panels” also incorrectly stated that the College’s endownment is currently valued at $1.3 billion. The correct figure is $800 million.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Assistant News Joey Rearick Assistant Features Matthew Bock Danielle Bukowski Mary Huber Assistant Opinions Hannah Blume Assistant Arts Adam Buchsbaum Connor O’Neill Assistant Copy Katie Cornish Stephen Loder Gretchen Maslin Assistant Photo Madeline Zappala Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Reporters Vee Benard Ruth Bolster Adam Buchsbaum Emma Daniels Shruti Manian Kristine Olson Connor O’Neill Chelsea Peterson- Salahuddin Joseph Rearick Dave Rosenkranz Nathan Tauger Columnists Hannah Blume Brittany Hunt Michael Mestitz Tom Renjilian Andy Sussman Nik Trkulja Photographers Christie Chea Katie de Heras Carlos Hernandez Jared Saunders Eric Schuman LETTERS POLICY

The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers. Letters to the Editor should not exceed 450 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue.

Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu.

The Editorial Board holds weekly meetings every Sunday at 9 p.m. in the Rose Parlor. All members of the Vassar community interested in joining the newspaper’s staff or in a critique of the current issue are welcome. The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented in the Opinions pages.

The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board. The Miscellany News is published weekly by the students of Vassar College. The Miscellany News office is located in College Center Room 303, Vassar College.

March 24, 2011

NEWS

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Panelists discuss Vassar’s academics Pounder to lecture on Matthew Brock

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Contributing Editor

archaeologists Chelsea Petersen-Salhuddin

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

tudents gathered on the second floor of the Students’ Building Tuesday night to partake in an intimate discussion about academics at Vassar with Dean of the Faculty Jonathan Chenette, Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger, Dean of Freshmen Benjamin Lotto and Dean of Studies Joanne Long. Tuesday’s discussion was the third event in the Vassar Today series, where students are given an opportunity to talk to administrators about select issues.

As always, the event began with students asking about the impact of the current economic crisis on the Vassar experience. “In 2007/8 and 2008/9 we had about 1220 class sections, as they are counted by the registrar,” said Chenette. “The average class size then was 16.4 in 2007/8. In 2008/9, the average class size was 16.1.”

“The following year there were 1156 classes, about 65 less than the previous year. It would have been even lower than that if we hadn’t made some adjustments in course releases,” he continued, referring to the policy whereby department chairs or committee members can receive a release from their teaching requirements. “Now we are 30 sections less than our peak. Average class size is 16.8 this year,” he said.

The economic crisis has also prevented Vassar from uniformly hiring temporary replacements for faculty who are on leave and from keeping as large a staff of adjuncts as it once did.

Determining where these cuts should be made is difficult, explained Long, because the administration never knows which courses students will want to take. Referring to the surveys that incoming freshman fill out about their academic interests, Long said, “My very first year as dean of freshman I had many statements indicating interest in women’s studies and Africana studies on my desk. Several years later I had many indicating interest in neuroscience courses.”

The administration is also considering how to reformat the curriculum as well as the course registration process to best serve students. One major concern was the existence of what Long termed “choke points”—popular classes that many students need to take to fulfill requirements but are unable to enroll in due to overcrowding.

Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger, Dean of Freshmen Benjamin Lotto and Dean of Studies Joanne Long, pictured from left to right, participate in a panel discussion on Vassar’s academics.

One option, explained Long, is to give priority to majors so that “all those seniors that suddenly say, ‘I want Psych 105’ are not going to take the places of that sophomore who wants to take it as a corequisite for her education major.”

“Another thing we’ve been talking about is restricting preregistration enrollment to 4.5 courses at the most,” said Chenette, who hopes that such a policy would free up a number of courses throughout the curriculum.

“I’ve been talking to students who say they register for 5 with full knowledge that they will drop one,” he said.

Although the administrators are looking at the registration process, the students at the event urged them to prioritize the pre-major advising program, which many view as ineffective.

“I think the way that we advise first-year students has a lot of questions attached to it,” said Lotto. “The first thing that happens from your point of view as a freshman is when I send you the handbook—that’s advising…because it’s the basis on which you make your first course selection,” he explained. However, he conceded that a pre-major advisor may often be unable to serve a students’ interests because many students do not know what they want to study. “There is a lot that the Vassar

curriculum offers that is not familiar to a lot of students,” said Lotto. “Most highs schools don’t offer a lot of religion classes or Greek and Roman studies … so to judge a pre-major advisor for a high-school student who may or may not have read the handbook before they come in is a flawed task.”

“One of the models some schools use instead is a professional advising class where everyone comes to someone who knows the curriculum and can talk to them about it,” said Long, who prefers Vassar’s current system for the personal connection it makes between students and faculty.

Chenette ended the conversation with a discussion of future innovations in the Vassar curriculum. “A group of faculty is talking about food as an area of academic study,” he said, raising “the idea of a food semester where maybe three faculty work together and offer food courses in conjunction together.”

This program would function much like one of Vassar’s abroad programs in that it would consume an entire semester. “Students would have to sign up for all three courses and the fourth course is independent research or fieldwork,” said Chenette. This possible food semester would also guarantee participants a paid internship related to the subject matter for the following summer.

Student-led seminars return, fill up Caitlin Clevenger

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News Editor

his spring, nearly 100 Vassar students have registered to participate in Student Seminars, student-taught courses on topics outside of Vassar’s curriculum, including Irish fiddle, tarot and barbershop singing.

In the Student Seminar’s first semester, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) and its Academics and Activities Committees are offering eight courses, which began on Monday, March 28. Each course will meet once a week for four weeks.

The instructors of the Student Seminars are volunteers with a particular interest in the topic they’re teaching.

Many of the seminars are designed to teach students a skill. Hallie Stotler ’14 is teaching a course on Irish Fiddle, an instrument identical to the violin but played in a different style.

Stotler will teach one tune a week—the Jig, the Reel, the Hornpipe and the Slow Air—which students will have to learn by ear. “There is nothing that brings me more joy than playing the fiddle, and I wanted to share that joy with others,” wrote Stotler in an emailed statement. “I wanted to show people that there is more to Irish music than Riverdance.”

Nicholas Rocha ’11 will teach An Introduction to Crowley Thoth Tarot, a set of symbolic cards that practitioners believe have divinatory properties. His Student Seminar will focus on the symbolic language of the cards, but will conclude with a lesson in performing a reading. “I feel like part of my life purpose is to share this information with people and to help them understand it so that they too may reap the Tarot’s endless benefits,” wrote

Rocha in an emailed statement.

The Barbershop Singing seminar, taught by Alexander McCoy ’11, is open to all regardless of musical experience or talent. McCoy hopes to dispel one of the myths about barbershop music, writing in an emailed statement, “Although most consider barbershop a hobby just for men, this course is open to all, regardless of gender.”

The Art of Drag, a seminar taught by Mitchell Gilburne ’12, will explore the history and significance of drag kings and queens while helping students to develop the foundational skills in make up, costume and charisma that make for a “drag superstar.” [Disclosure: Mitchell Gilburne is a Features Editor for The Miscellany News.] Jamee Bateau ’12, author of bathroom comic The TP Exchange, will teach a seminar on cartooning that focuses on “cartoony” facial and body expressions, as opposed to traditional drawing methods.

Even the seemingly simple game of Rock, Paper, Scissors has a seminar, co-taught by Mookie Thottam ’12, McCoy, Jesse Greenberg ’13, Chris Connors ’12 and Christian Nadell ’13. The course will focus on the game’s strategy and psychology. The instructors wrote in their course description, “We wish to show all participants that this game is far more than luck.”

Other seminars are forums for exploring a topic in a group.

Andrew Billings ’12 will teach a seminar titled Fairy Tales Are More Than True: The Mind of Neil Gaiman, which will introduce students to the works of the author, graphic novelist and screenwriter. “I’d especially love to make converts of people into lovers of the

graphic novel as an art form,” wrote Billings in an emailed statement.

Why the Divide, a seminar taught by Sharon Onga ’13, will be a space for students to explore the curricular divide between natural sciences and humanities courses at Vassar.

The eight courses included in this semester’s Student Seminars comprise a pilot program based on the now-defunct mini-course program once run by the Campus Activities Office. The Student Seminars are overseen instead by the VSA’s Academics and Activities Committees.

“We approved applications that were wellthought out, with a detailed syllabus, proposal and goal,” wrote VSA Vice President for Academics Laura Riker ’11. “Along with that, we approved the applications that we felt would garner the most interest from Vassar students.

We also wanted a diverse range of available seminars.”

Although beer- or wine-tasting classes were a staple of mini-courses in the past, Aramark Corporation now holds Vassar’s liquor license, so Student Seminars will not involve any alcohol.

Though the pilot program’s success cannot be judged until the courses have been completed, Riker sees the Student Seminar program continuing in the future. “Our hope is that this will become an established program under the VSA, and that it will continue to grow next year,” wrote Riker.

“I would also love to see staff and faculty members teaching courses in the upcoming years as well, and for this to become a means by which the entire Vassar community can come together.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

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Reporter

rofessor Robert Pounder will lecture in the Villard Room entitled “Carl and Libbie and Bert and Ida: Re-defining Family.” The lecture will center around Pounder’s research concerning the intertwined relationships between four American archeologists in the first half of the twentieth century: Vassar alumnae, Ida Thallon Hil1, Class of 1897, and Elizabeth Pierce Blegen, Class of 1910, and their husbands Bert Hodge Hill and Carl Blegen, respectively, and will be held on Thursday, March 31 at 5:30.

When he last gave this lecture in December 2009, Pounder examined the lives of these four archeologists and the influence archeology had on the analytical study of ancient civilization.

Pounder’s new lecture aims will build on this by exploring these relationships through examining journals and personal letters belonging to the two couples.

These spouses came to re-define popular understandings and notions of “what constitutes a family” by creating a menage to help solve marital problems while strengthening the love they had for one another. Though unconventional, the marriages between these two couples created a family unit which affirmed the love these couples had for one another and lasted for the rest of their lives. Furthermore, Pounder aims to look at the interplay between the personal and professional lives of these archeologists, and how these two facets of their lives were deeply connected.

The work and lives of Elizabeth Peirce Blegen and Ida Thallon Hill have had a long lasting and profound impact on Vassar College as an institution. Blegen was one of the most impartial and influential women classicists in the Vassar Greek and Roman Studies Department. From 1915-1922 Blegen taught ancient art and served as the assistant curator of the Lehman Loeb Art Gallery. Hill also taught as a classicist in the Greek and Roman Studies Department from 1906-1924. Both Blegen and Hill spent the majority of their professional lives in Athens, Greece at the American School of Classic Studies, where they met their husbands. The bond which Vassar alumnae turned professors shared with Vassar as an institution as well as the bond which they shared with one another were exceptionally strong. In Athens, Blegen, Hill, and their husbands shared a house and supported one another professionally, academically and emotionally. During the lecture, Pounder will explore and reflect on the private and academic lives of these four archeologists, and speak to both their individual and collective influences on the progress of archeology in Greece. Aside from examining the impact which these archeologists’ research had on archeology in Greece and here on Vassar campus, Pounder’s lecture will also address the LGBTQ narrative and history of these couples.

The legacy of these couples has also had a profound and lasting impact upon the currentday Vassar College community, which can be seen in the form of the Blegen Fellow, a visiting professor housed annually by the Greek and Roman Studies Department. In addition, their legacy could also be seen in the form of Blegen House, the former Vassar LGBTQ center, now located in the College Center. Blegen House served as Vassar College’s LGBTQ center until 2008 when, due to the College’s financial situation during the recession, the campus LGBTQ center was permanently moved to the College Center room 235 and the former Blegen House became a single-family dwelling for Vassar professors.

Pounder first came to Vassar in 1973 to fill a one-year teaching position while working on his Ph. D. at Brown University. He currently serves as Professor Emeritus in the Greek and Roman Studies Department as well as the Special Assistant to the President of the College.

Pounder’s main area of academic interest is Greek inscriptions and he has published several reviews, essays and articles pertaining to the subject. He is also currently working on a book centered on the basis of his lecture.

NEWS

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March 24, 2011

Event covered Oliver Wang discusses mobile DJ crews causes,effects Dave Rosenkranz Reporter

of Japan disaster

merica’s Most Influential Dance Crews?: Spin Doctors”, a lecture by Dr. Oliver Wang, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University’s Long Beach campus, chronicled the history of San Francisco’s late 21st-century Filipino-American mobile DJ crews. Wang, speaking from the podium in Sander’s Auditorium last Monday, discussed the combined impact of Filipino and suburban culture on the growth of San Francisco’s DJ crews.

“The department invited [Wang] to present from his forthcoming book, which examines why there was such a robust scene of young, Filipino-American DJs concentrated in San Francisco’s mobile party scene in the 1980s and early ’90s,” wrote Assistant Professor of English Hua Hsu in an emailed statement. “Though the topic might seem esoteric, it’s quite a universal story: These were young people experimenting with new ways to pass the time and entertain themselves and their friends. It just so happened that they were also re-imagining the city in new ways, and defining their identities along unprecedented new axes.”

Wang began the lecture by defining the “mobile DJ crew.”

These were usually small groups of high-school students that performed at a variety of “de facto, ephemeral forums.” These DJ crews were constantly moving around, playing music for

Courtesy of lightintheattic.net

TEACH-IN continued from page 1 munity who currently live in Japan, including transfer students and language fellows from the 2009-2010 school year. While none of the authors lived in the provinces most directly affected by the disaster, their words made clear the tragedy’s consequences for the entire nation. One letter described a “constant fear of radiation,” while another student illustrated the rising price of bottled water, explaining there is literally “no way for me to afford to buy a new bottle for every day of the next week.”

Next, Associate Professor of Earth Science Brian McAdoo, an expert in natural disasters who traveled to Indonesia in the wake of the 2004 tsunami there, described the causes of the disaster and the preparations the Japanese had taken in advance to mitigate damage. Japan has long sought to minimize its vulnerability to earthquakes and tsunamis, and these efforts paid great dividends. “I think we’re going to see this as a success; it could have been much worse.”

Associate Professor of Chinese and Japanese Hiromi Tsuchiya Dollase agreed that the Japanese incorporated safety measures into their culture long ago to guard against the dangers of natural forces. She described a pervasive awareness of surrounding shelters that simply has no equivalent in American culture.

“If you were in Poughkeepsie, where would you go [in the case of a natural disaster]?” she asked the audience. “In Japan, anyone on the street could probably tell you where the closest shelter is.”

Senior Lecturer in Science, Technology and Society James F. Challey offered a brief introduction to the man-made disaster now threatening Japan: the disruption of nuclear reactors.

“Engineering disasters almost always have to do with improbable events or events that were thought to be improbable,” he said. Even in a nation well aware of the danger of earthquakes, the effects of an approximately ninemagnitude quake caused a malfunction no one foresaw. “There’s a lot we just don’t know,” Challey readily admitted. He also took time to credit the plant workers who braved death to attempt repairs, calling them “truly heroic.”

The presentation also offered student perspectives, first from Hiroe Nakada ’13. Nakada was visiting her home in Tokyo for Spring Break when the quake hit, and she felt her house tremble and then continue to shake for more than a minute. “We got under the table; I was terrified,” she said. She and her mother managed to contact her father, whose train home from work had been delayed. Her sister had to reach her through Facebook to let her know that she was fine because the volume of callers trying to reach loved ones disrupted cell-phone service. “Facebook and Twitter were helpful for people trying to find each other,” she said.

Toru Momii ’11 was not home in Japan during the disaster, but offered his own experience of an earthquake when he was just fiveyears-old. That quake affected the port city of Kobe, directly next to his childhood home.

“You hear the wood of the building creaking,” he said. “It’s the creepiest thing you will ever hear.” From this past, he then turned to his country’s future.

“There’s a big debate in Japan about whether to return to normal life,” he said. “We want to give the appropriate amount of respect, but critics say the mourning may damage the economy.”

Associate Professor of Economics Robert Rebelein touched on a similar subject. He mentioned the economic stasis that affected Japan in the 1990s after the burst of the housing bubble, explaining that Japan could illafford another such stretch. “Japan’s national debt is huge,” he said. “Their national debt is 225 percent of their GDP.” This debt is unlikely to be repaid soon, especially because, according to Rebelein, “clean-up of the affected areas is estimated to cost 300 billion dollars.”

This teach-in is the second Vassar has seen this semester. The first, held on Feb. 11, was on events in Egypt.

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everything from garage parties to backyard debuts. This fluid existence was made possible by several characteristics of the Filipino-American community’s suburban home.

“After immigrating, [Filipinos] initially lived in working-class, central-city neighborhoods in California. Later, they moved to the middle-class, suburban neighborhoods surrounding cities,” wrote Wang in his Powerpoint presentation. This suburban location, argued Wang, was central to the formation of Filipino mobile DJ groups.

Transportation, for one thing, was much easier in the suburbs, where the high-school students that made up these crews had access to their parents’ cars. Space was also important. In big cities, parties could hardly take place inside small apartment buildings. The suburban garages and churches were perfect venues for DJs. These impromptu dance halls reflected the improvisational nature of the DJ crews. “[Mobile DJ crews] are interesting because this is at a time where there is no DJ specialty store. There weren’t enough resources for a lot of the stuff they were trying to put together. They had a real do-it-yourself aesthetic,” commented Wang, highlighting the effort each crew put into its existence. Their stands, lighting and other equipment couldn’t be easily found, and often crews had to assemble their technology from spare parts. These DJ crews needed some kind of foundation—a foundation provided by

Assistant Professor of Sociology Oliver Wang, pictured above, delivered a lecture on San Francisco’s Filipino-American mobile DJ crews last Monday. the Filipino-American culture of the 1970s–80s.

“Within Filipino family community life there is a preponderance of music-appropriate social events,” said Wang, crediting the Filipino community’s affection for music with establishing a strong foundation for the mobile DJ scene. Strong family ties, a notable characteristic of many immigrant communities, was also crucial for providing aspiring DJs with start-up equipment. According to Wang, such families were often large and provided, in addition to financial support, an expansive referral network. The importance of this

cultural and familial support is intimately related to Dr. Wang’s sociological studies.

According to his website, www.o-dub.com, Wang’s work on pop music and culture has been published by NPR, Vibe, The Los Angeles Times and other organizations. He holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from University of California Berkeley and wrote his dissertation on the same topic as this lecture.“To me, the story of these mobile crews suggest the ways in which, given the right set of resources, and an idea that inspires them, they become incredible cultural producers,” commented Wang.

Council members hope to revisit restructuring COUNCIL continued from page 1 that are not necessarily represented by current Council positions.” However, after “further consideration,” Council felt that this was “just a band-aid solution, as the Council [would] single out marginalized voices,” said Shehab. The current amendments, said Shehab, stemmed from this realization.

The amendment introduces senators that Shehab felt “would give a voice to those students who don’t identify strongly with their [residence] houses.” Shehab noted that members of the VSA Executive Board currently decide the agenda for Council meetings, but with the presence of class senators, who would be elected on the grounds of specific agendas that they would bring to Council, “power from the Executive Board will be decentralized,” thus making conversations at Council more inclusive of the needs of a larger student body.

The origin and purpose of the amendments having been explained, several Council members as well as guests to the meeting expressed views both for and against the changes, with many Council members citing the feedback they had received about the amendments from their constituents during the week before Sunday’s meeting.

Lathrop House President Sam Garcia ’13 began the deliberations by listing some of the praises and grievances her constituents had with the proposed amendments. Speaking on behalf of the Board of House Presidents, Garcia noted that her constituents had felt some changes were “too rushed, especially this close to elections.” Garcia’s “house team bombarded [her] with negative feedback,” she reported. “I can’t support [Article VII] because I would not be supporting my constituents.”

Main House President Boyd Gardner ’12 stressed that he felt “discussions on this topic are very valuable, but unfortunately, the timing was bad.” Gardner noted, “100 percent of the feedback I have gotten has been overwhelmingly negative,” which resulted in his vote being set, reflecting the opinion of his constituency.

Voicing strong support in favor of the changes, Class of 2014 President Michael Moore sensed an “allergic reaction to change” in the past week. “There is a certain number of dynamic student leaders whose voice doesn’t get heard on Council,” he said, because “only certain types of students run for president.” This change will address the flaw to an extent, said Moore. Moore also commented that he was “not discounting student feedback,” but felt Council’s decision must be a balance between the opinion of constituents and their representatives.

Several students who were not serving VSA Council also took the opportunity to speak, and opinions among such participants were just as divided as were those from Council itself. Alex Koren ’13 emphasized the importance of a “dorm-based community” at Vassar, and expressed a concern that such changes would jeopardize that community. Charlie Dobb ’11 thanked Council members for their “unprecedented reach out to their constituency,” but said that the changes seemed very rushed. “The idea that student leaderships believes that it knows more than its constituents is very scary to me,” concluded Dobb.

Sharon Onga ’13 and Class of 2013 Vice President Shanaye Williams argued for the changes. “I believe that the senatorial system will bring new issues to the forefront of at VSA Council,”said Williams. Those in favor of the amendments contended that these senators would run for elections based on specific agendas, and not for the programming-heavy roles of president. Because these people will now have the opportunity to be on Council without the added responsibility of programming, several of these agendas will come to the fore.

Noting this variety of opinion in the room, VSA President Mat Leonard ’11 suggested that Council should consider the option of sending the amendment out to the student body as a referendum. In such a case, a simple majority of students would automatically ratify the changes if 40 percent of the body were to vote. Sophomore Cory Epstein was against this move: “You guys are sitting on Council

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

and know more things and experience more things than all the people that elected you.

Sometimes you have to make the courageous decision,” he said. The vote to send the discussion to referendum failed.

Having failed the referendum, Council was required to vote on amendments. South Commons, Class of 2012 and Davison, Strong, Cushing, Main, Josselyn and Lathrop Houses voted against the amendment. With the remaining 14 members of Council in favor, the constitutional amendment did not garner a two-thirds majority, and thus could not be ratified at the meeting.

“I think that its failure will enable us to take some of the good ideas that were presented and continue working with them, making sure that we’ve done due diligence and have really scrutinized and considered both the potential benefits and potential drawbacks of such changes,” said Acevedo in retrospect of the issue.

The only way the proposed changes shall pass before spring elections is if 15 percent of the VSA’s members—roughly 360 students—petition to send the amendment to a referendum by April 1. “The petition and student-referendum process exists so that all student voices may be heard. Whether or not that particular method of action is utilized in the coming weeks, we now have the opportunity as a student body to open up this dialogue and produce an even better document,” wrote Class of 2012 President Pamela Vogel in an emailed statement. “I don’t believe that Sunday’s vote marked the end of this road to reform, but rather represented the beginning of a much longer process in which student opinions will truly begin to take center-stage,” said Vogel.

VSA Vice President for Activities Tanay Tatum ’12 shared Vogel’s optimism and wrote in an e-mailed statement, “I believe in the power of grassroots organizing. If the student body believes the VSA should move from a residential focus to an issue-driven senatorial system, then they will rally together a petition to have the failed vote moved to a referendum.”

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March 24, 2011

Page 5

Features field trip to Yale Daily News College coed, Jill Scharr

Features Editor

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hile many Vassar students might consider producing a weekly publication a difficult task, they would be awestruck by the precision and dedication that I witnessed this Sunday, when I visited Yale University and spent the evening with The Yale Daily News.

The Yale Daily News, founded in 1878, is the oldest college daily in the country. They are a private organization fiscally independent of the university itself; the paper is paid for through its ads and their facilities—a four-story building equipped with Macintoshes, wide-screen televisions and shelves and shelves of books—are supported through alumnae/i donations.

Its staff members take their commitment to this tradition seriously: They are in the office every night Sunday through Thursday, from 6:30 p.m. to as late as 3 a.m.

Editor in Chief Vivian Yee ’12 spoke lightly of this great time commitment. “People sign up to this commitment back in the fall, and they know they’re supposed to be here every night.”

The way the paper manages its staff of approximately 250 students, as Yee estimates, is strictly hierarchical. Students usually join as freshmen, writing whatever articles a given editor asks of them. Sophomores become ‘beat reporters’; they are assigned a specific subject, such as student government or musical performances, and expected to produce two to three articles a week from their given beat.

The vast majority of editors on the Yale Daily News are juniors. Seniors typically do not participate in the paper, “so that seniors kind of get their lives back for a year,” joked News Desk Editor Lauren Rosenthal.

This contrasts sharply with The Miscellany News’s staff structure. Class year is not a factor in editor selection—in the past three years the paper has seen a sophomore Editor in Chief and several freshman and sophomore section editors.

Each October, the exiting Yale Daily News Editorial Board invites rising juniors to apply for an editor position. Anyone who’s been invited, then, is guaranteed a role on the board, but after applying it’s impossible to know which position one will be assigned.

Unlike Miscellany News editors, Yale Daily News editors do not write for the paper. Instead, the editors work hands-on with reporters on their articles. Being a daily paper, this responsibility is more than enough to keep them occupied throughout the week.

So the editors of the Yale Daily News were remarkably cheerful for a Sunday evening where they would surely be spending six hours or more pouring over Adobe inDesign on their office Macintoshes, classic rock playing over Pandora Radio.

“When you do it every day it just stops being stressful and it just starts being what you do,” suggested Production and Design Editor Raisa Bruner ’13.

“We have no formal journalism major,” Rosenthal pointed out. “A lot of students participate in journalism on campus in other

ways. There’s a weekly paper on campus, The Weekly Herald,…there’s a million magazines basically for every niche you could imagine.”

“Yale is a very journalistic campus,” she said. “Everyone writes. Everyone does something.”

This is not to say that the Yale Daily News editors take their jobs lightly. The paper has received praise for its quick, accurate and professional reporting, particularly in relation to events such as the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le in 2009.

“We got the alert pretty early that administrators were concerned about this missing student,” said Yee, “so from that point on we were pretty much ahead of the national media, even though they descended on it, so I would say we were a big player in that coverage.”

It is in situations such as this that a daily publishing schedule is at once so grueling for writers and so necessary to the university community at large. “The entire staff was on duty all the time and people were working pretty late into the night and getting up early to [edit] again,” recalled Yee. “It was a really intense experience. A couple of reporters had to be sitting at 10 Amistad Street, which is the building where [Le] was killed, pretty much around the clock, just to see if anything was going on at the building.”

After my visit I was both impressed and awed with the Yale Daily News’ efficiency.

However, I did leave feeling that The Miscellany News does have a special something and that comparing is really a matter of apples and oranges.

Mechanized mysteries of Library Annex Ruth Bolster Reporter

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Courtesy of James Costopoulo

ith a collection of over one million volumes, it is no secret that the Vassar Libraries are too small to accommodate the College’s vast quantity of books, periodicals and documents. Yet in the minds of most students, this collection is limited only to the dutifully arranged books on the shelves of the Thompson Memorial, Art and Music Libraries.

Despite one’s vague memories of the mention of an off-site storage facility acquired during some prematriculation tour of the school, little thought is given to where these unshelved volumes are actually stored. As the home of approximately 250,000 titles, the Library Annex is a highly efficient, almost futuristic means of storing and protecting Vassar’s lesserused library materials.

For a number of students, the mere mention of the Library Annex conjures up images of a lonely building brimming with tall shelves and worn, if not somewhat dusty, books that are ready to be browsed and perused at one’s leisure. In short, a Library Annex should look like a library, right?

Wrong. Located approximately 30 minutes away from Poughkeepsie in scenic Patterson, N.Y., the Library Annex is a high-tech warehouse-like storage facility that makes liberal use of barcodes and temperature-controlled rooms.

“The facility is actually highdensity storage,” noted Vassar’s Director of Libraries Sabrina Pape. “Books and periodicals are stored in size order and they are processed when they come [into the facility] so they can be retrieved by barcode. Their system tells them exactly where our books are located and it is not done with any bibliographical information at all.” This method of storage not only provides a means for organizing a high volume of inventory, but also allows

for quick and easy retrieval.

With high ceilings and hundreds of thousands of books neatly tucked away into boxes, the facility itself is privately owned and operated by the Clancy-Cullen Moving and Storage Company, who charge as much as $13 to transport each volume.

Vassar first began using offsite storage in 1998. “We had to move material offsite when we had to bring the Library up to code in regards to sprinklers not being used as bookends. Needless to say, we lost a lot of space,” admitted Pape half-jokingly. “At the same time, the collection continues to grow, and we have a finite envelope to fit it in.”

Originally, the material was stored in a former IBM building located two miles away from Vassar’s campus. With books readily available for browsing, students would be allowed to visit the old annex and peruse through the material just as they would in the Thompson Memorial Library.

However, the College administration eventually sold the building.

Once a publication is pulled from the Annex, it is typically housed back in the Thompson Memorial Library for the foreseeable future. Although a book in the Annex is considered to be in storage, requests for these volumes are welcome and are even encouraged by the Library administration. They are listed in the electronic catalogue like any other book in Vassar’s collection, and can be requested through the Library’s website.

“If you need a material, you should request it,” urged Pape.

“You could argue that if [a material] is not in front of you, it is hard to request, which is not the case. You will get an email saying it is here, and you can easily pick it up from the Circulation Desk in 24 hours or less during the week.

However, we don’t do delivery during the weekends. We actu-

The Library Annex, pictured above, is located about 30 minutes away from campus in Patterson, N.Y. The facility contains approximately 250,000 titles. ally did do that originally, but we found that people did not come to pick it up.

Annually, Annex books typically account for three percent of Vassar Libraries’ circulation. Of that three percent, approximately one-third of the books are requested through the InterLibrary Loan system; 72 percent of the books requested from the Annex are monographs, or non-serialized publications. However, serialized journals from the first half of the 20th century make up a majority of the material in the Annex.

“When we originally moved to the Annex, we did not have the electronic access that we have today,” began Costopoulo. “We had to come up with some sort of basis to determine what we can store, so we looked at different pre-1950s periodicals. And of

course, different departments use different things. For example, the science departments only want current periodicals; however, the History Department does not want the older periodicals to go into storage. It can be tricky.”

Despite this, Library personnel are generally satisfied with both the off-site facility and their methods of storing and retrieving materials.

While it may not look like a typical library, the Library Annex is nevertheless an efficient means of housing one fourth of Vassar’s collection of periodicals and books. Although these books and journals are stored in an offsite facility, students are encouraged to utilize the resources in the Annex and are guaranteed to receive their materials in a timely manner.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

some spaces still gendered Mary Huber

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Assistant Features Editor

assar takes pride in its history as a women’s college and its continuing commitment to women’s issues, going so far as to maintain an all-female house and a Women’s Center. This designation of space as “male” or “female” has powerful implications for gender at Vassar.

Assistant Professor of Greek and Roman Studies and Women’s Studies Barbara Olsen wrote in an emailed statement, “I spend a fair amount of time thinking about the ways in which women traverse physical space, how welcome they are in the public sphere, how freely they can travel for work or leisure, and even the impact time of day has on the gendering of space.”

There is no doubt that the more overtly gendered spaces on campus–Strong House, the Women’s Center—reflect Vassar’s history as an all-female institution. “Overall, our job is to contribute to and enrich feminist-related discussions and events on campus,” wrote Jaleesa Johnston ’11, who volunteers at the Women’s Center, in an emailed statement. “The Women’s Center has been questioned quite a bit as to why we exist,” Johnston admitted, “and we have always responded that there will always be a need for spaces like the Women’s Center, the Women’s Studies Department, Strong House, Fem Alliance, [Women of Color Alliance] and Twat Chat because women continue to confront issues of sexism and patriarchy that take many forms.”

Both Johnston and Olsen supported Strong House as an instrument of women’s empowerment, though Johnston made it clear that Strong and the Women’s Center fill different needs.

“Strong is important because it provides a much-needed space for women to live together in a dorm community; however, that does not necessarily make it a feminist space,” claimed Johnston, for whom feminism is an act rather than a state. “The Women’s Center, however, tries to offer that feminist space within Strong.

But we are also careful not to draw lines.”

Olsen emphasized the importance of an allfemale space in developing female leadership.

“We did a poll at one point during my House Fellow term and discovered that Strong, as an all-women’s space, had an unexpectedly high number of women in leadership posts in student [organizations],” she wrote, “I think this is one of the most important strengths of Strong House.”

Also a bit overlooked on campus, according to Olsen, are male spaces. “We’ve had men’s athletic teams since the College went co-ed in 1969 alongside women’s teams. I’ve always found it interesting that when discussions of gendered spaces emerge on campus we seem to disproportionately focus on Strong, the Women’s Center, Indecent Exposure, etc., but rarely ask how teamwork and leadership skills are being developed and encouraged alongside athletic excellence. I think the voices of athletes on single-sex and co-ed teams would make important contributions to this discussion.”

While male voices are often lacking in discussions of gendered space on campus, those interviewed tended to focus on the positive role of women’s spaces in confronting patriarchal beliefs. Johnston was particularly concerned with the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses, saying, “We have had many occurrences of sexual assault on campus, a lot of them involving women, and these occurrences speak to greater issues of rape and sexual assault of women on a worldwide level.” Professor Olsen concurred, “[Sexual Assault Response Team], CARES and Security do heroic work at assisting student, faculty and staff in the aftermath of violence, but, with the recent conclusion of a Justice Department grant which funded a Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention Coordinator, [we have] a gap in providing education and prevention programming.”

“I’d love to see Vassar emerge as a national leader on sexual-assault prevention and education,” Olsen mused, “I think this would be a fitting tribute to our historical identity as the first women’s college and to our continuing role as a leader in liberal arts education.”

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Page 6

March 24, 2011

Students’ activism abounds, faces challenges head on Danielle Bukowski

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Assistant Features Editor

he community-building conference for student activism held this past weekend at Vassar brought up important issues for current student activists, alumnae/i, community members and all other interested people who attended. The Grassroots Alliance for Alternative Politics (GAAP) organized the event, and speakers were brought in to discuss current issues and the future of student activism both on and off campus.

It’s really I think just picking up on energy that’s already there in students, and wanting to collaborate more with it, because I think a lot of people are unhappy with where we are as a country,” said GAAP president Maya Acevedo ’11. On the eve of a planned takeover of the Albany State Capital building, she discussed GAAP’s plans to ally with other New York schools to protest sweeping budget cuts at the state level, as well as her concern over a soon-to-be-expired ban on natural gas drilling--a process called hydrofracking--in New York. “The work never stops but it’s important work. This budget stuff is really serious. And hydrofracking is really serious.”

On Friday, Jackson Kroopf ’10 and Victor Monterrosa ’07 spoke about their experiences as student activists at Vassar College and their continuing experience after graduation.

Kroopf began the Hip Hop Theory as a junior at Vassar, and Monterrosa is currently a community organizer in Newark, N.J. President of the Vassar Prison Initiative (VPI) Stephanie Damon-Moore ’11 said, “The conference was about activism at Vassar and how it works, who’s involved, how we communicate, the obstacles we face and how we work around them … What I think was most important about these conferences was that they caused students to think critically about the work they are doing. Talking with the other activists on campus is a good way to build connections and future collaborations.”

“We came into the [conference] with the desire to get to know each other as activists on campus,” said Acevedo, “but also wanting to come up with ideas for how to increase collaboration, communicate with each other, know whose events were happening when and

not step on each others’ toes, and back each other’s efforts. Maybe do less things.”

Organizing such events is only part of what Vassar student activists do. The Vassar chapter of Habitat for Humanity recently returned from a Spring Break trip to Ocala, Fla. “We did a lot of clearing on different properties, fencing, painting and different kinds of work in their warehouse,” Marissa Gauthier ’11, the group’s president, wrote in an emailed statement. The chapter will also have one more build this semester with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh.

The Vassar Greens are currently involved in three different campaigns: Zero Waste, to encourage second-hand use of clothing and other items; Tap That, to encourage drinking tap water instead of bottled water; and the Ant-Incinerator campaign to replace incineration with sustainable diversion practices, such as reuse, materials retrofitting and recycling.

“I believe students should try to engage with Poughkeepsie if they are interested in learning from the community they are situated in,” said campaign coordinator for AntiIncinerator Luke Leavitt ’12. “If you don’t think Poughkeepsie can teach you anything, and don’t care about making a positive impression—if not impact—on Poughkeepsie, then it’s fine to stay on campus. I personally don’t think this is the case, and find that working in Poughkeepsie enriches what I learn at school, and puts the kind of self-engrossed frenzy of student life in perspective.” The Anti-Incinerator campaign is working to guarantee that upcoming waste management legislation contains sustainable solid-waste management practices.

Many student activist leaders spoke about “engagement” within Vassar and with the community. Damon-Moore clarified that this term can mean a lot of things, but it is important that “anybody trying to do things outside of the Vassar bubble must be conscious of how we are engaging. It’s not charity work: We benefit just as much as the community benefits.”

Gauthier described becoming involved in Habitat for Humanity’s building projects as addicting. “From meeting other volunteers, to getting your hands dirty, and even meeting the future home-owner of the project you’re

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working on, it’s a very rewarding experience that I don’t think I could find anywhere else except with other activist- and volunteerbased work,” she wrote.

In describing Vassar students’ interest in activism, Operation Donation President Emily Hefter ’12 said, “I think Vassar students are interested in activism, but they have many different interests.” Operation Donation runs food drives at local supermarkets on the weekends, averaging $800 a week in food. On April 16 they will canvass the neighborhood by leaving paper bags on doorsteps and collecting them a week later filled with food donations. Hefter said she notices that a lot of activist groups have a core membership of 10 dedicated students, and that many new activist groups and aspiring groups have come up this year. “It is important to get involved in the world outside of Vassar. There is always something students can get involved in.”

Lead coordinator for the Vassar Greens’ Tap That campaign Eliza Gercke ’13 said she thought the weekend conferences were very productive. “I saw people I don’t usually see at activism events, and it was definitely a good first step.” she said. “We should have more things like that, so more change starts to happen.” Originally from Maine, Gercke became interested in the issue of tap water versus bottled water after seeing the movie Tapped, about bottling company Poland Springs (which gets its water from towns in Maine).

The campaign is looking to eventually ban the sale of bottled water on campus; they’re currently selling reusable water bottles and getting students to sign pledges to use water fountains instead.

All of the student leaders encouraged more Vassar students to get involved in issues that interest them. Hefter noted that while Vassar students may believe that their fellow students are all Democrats and vegetarians, there really is a wide range of interests; she cited how the resurgence of the more right-leaning Chronicle publication “shows that there is always an outlet for a group to express itself.”

“People do care about the issues,” Gercke said, “but there has been an air of indifference for the past decade. I’ve been surprised how unresponsive people are—we definitely do

have a decent amount of support, but for some reason activism isn’t as popular right now.”

Professor of Political Science and Main House Fellow Sarita Gregory wrote in an emailed statement, “Since I have arrived at Vassar in 2007, I have been very impressed with the level of activism that many students are engaged in … I think it is the task of liberal education to ensure that students leave with a sense of what it means to care about an issue enough to argue over it and work towards its achievement. Some students who take my Democratic Engagement course, for example, come often because they want to learn more about different types of engagement or because they are in their senior year and have not been off of campus beyond going to the train station. More often students are interested in trying to make sense of their experiences (from Field Work or volunteering) that have raised questions for them about membership, privilege, authority or identity.”

Both Leavitt and Damon-Moore expressed interest in having more guidance from the school regarding how to get involved with activism. Damon-Moore said, “There have been talks about creating an office to help with that, but there currently aren’t any funds. A lot of campuses have volunteer- or service-learning offices. Vassar would benefit from having at least a point of reference on these questions.”

With student-activist groups prepared for more wide-reaching events this spring, the lessons from the activism conference are more vital now than ever. The speakers brought the issues of student activism to light, and the meeting space allowed activist leaders and members to speak about current projects and plans for the future. Damon-Moore commented, “Working together, combining our forces, getting to know each other and reflecting on where we have come and where we want to go is very important; the conferences helped us to achieve that.”

“The beautiful thing about Vassar is, it does have the space for it. You can basically do anything at this school; you just need to put the work in,” said Acevedo. “There are so many great ideas from Vassar students about what we can do on campus, how we can better relate to our community.”

Molé Molé: new location,

delicioso as ever before Matthew Bock

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Assistant Features Editor

olé Molé, the Mexican-restaurant chain whose reasonable prices have attracted Vassar students to Main Street for years, has opened a new location on Lagrange Avenue closer to campus. The new installment proudly advertises itself with festive lights and a chalkboard that promises “fresh, light Mexican food.” Its interior is characteristically decorated in charming Mexican accoutrements; the walls are painted pastel colors and adorned with drawings of skulls and superheroes. The space is also larger and less claustrophobic than the Main street location, although on a Thursday night, my fellow foodie Elizabeth “Lily” Gile ’11 and I were the only two customers in the restaurant. Gile remarked of the space, “it’s kitschy in here, but if you don’t look too close, [it’s] a pleasant atmosphere for dining.”

To begin, we shared a Michelada ($5), an unusually large beer mixed with Worcester and chile sauces, lime juice and spices, served in a chilled salt- and pepper-rimmed glass. The Michelada was, perhaps, the highlight of the evening: cold, spicy, tangy and sweet. The next drink, Mole’s Hibiscus House Sangria (also $5), was not as delicious, perhaps owing to the fact that it was not served with fresh fruit. Even more loveless was the free house salsa served with chips: Lily and I added hot sauce to make it taste like something.

Whether or not Molé lived up to its promise of serving “fresh, light Mexican food” was questionable. My marinated grilled chicken quesadilla ($7.99) was simultaneously too spicy amd yet not flavorful enough, and did not contain enough of the cheese that the menu had

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

promised. It was also weighted down in a thick chile sauce. The guacamole—which was nutty, chunky and delicious—had, unfortunately, to be ordered separately ($5.99) from the dishes, although it did come with free sour cream.

A choriqueso torta ($7.99)—Mexican for “chorizo sandwich”—was also on the heavier side but spicy and tender. The avocado on the toasted bread complemented the pork nicely.

Other additions to the sandwich did not mesh well, however, like the lettuce that got soggy when mixed with the other ingredients. Vegetable tacos, which were not on the menu but the kitchen agreed to cook for Gile, were “predictable but enjoyable,” according to Gile. For dessert, traditional Mexican churros, covered in sugar and cinnamon, were not as crispy as they might have been, although they did the trick—greasy and slightly sweet.

It seems that one’s experience at the new Molé depends upon what one orders. Kalei Talwar ’13, a definite fan of the restaurant, said that the Mexican pizza ($7.99), which Gile and I did not order, “is delicious for those who love fried foods.” She raved about the chile verde ($9.99), which she said was “flavorful” and contained “delicate chicken breast,” and recommended the flautas ($7.99), which are deepfried chicken or pork tortilla rolls.

If you’re taking a trip to the Lagrange location, it might be wise, therefore, to go with a group and order a variety of dishes to share.

Just make sure you try the Michelada. If you’re overage, that is.

Molé Molé can be found at 25 Lagrange Avenue in Poughkeepsie. Check out its Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ Mole-Mole/251421111765.

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March 24, 2011

Page 7

Quiet no longer, Lathrop reinvents house identity Jessica Tarantine Reporter

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jections would be raised, which the residents labeled as “noise and safety concerns.”

While a conclusion was eventually reached that included restriction on the use of space, some raised objections over the “true” cause of the concerns. With the murmurs of racially motivated objectives heard on campus, Lathrop Senator Lloyd Westerman firmly disagreed, explaining that the house was not sufficiently consulted on the issue, and the house had an interest to uphold the integrity of the dorm: “Lathrop is known as a quiet dorm and has a stringent noise code.”

The last statement might seem odd to current students, as Lathrop’s reputation has radically changed since 1977. Lathrop has become known for its party culture and lessthan-pristine conditions. “Lathrop House’s reputation for the last few years has been the dirty, old and disgusting dorm where no one cares if you vomit in the hallway,” house team member Julia Nethero ’12 wrote in a 2009 Miscellany News opinion piece (“Reputation of Lathrop House is changing,” Dec 2, 2009).

While in 2009 it seemed as though Lathrop might be recovering with its

Katie De Heras/The Miscellany News

athrop House, the third house built after the decision to expand residential space from Main Building, was finished in 1901 amidst a backdrop of students and administrators clamoring for less-crowded living conditions.

Lathrop would join Raymond and Strong as the third built quad dorm, preceding only Davison. Its design varied little from the previous two with the exception of the placement of faux battlements on Lathrop’s façade.

Unlike the previous two dorms, Lathrop was financed by the College itself. The house was named for charter trustee of the College Dr. Edward Lathrop, whose daughter also attended Vassar. Utilizing a multidimensional approach for her studies, Julia Lathrop graduated Vassar in 1880, and would become an alumna of distinction with her dedication to social work and appointment as President of the Children’s Bureau in the Department of Commerce and Labor by President Taft in 1912, allowing her to become the first female Bureau president.

Lathrop’s addition to the quad, however, has not gone without cri-

tique. Vassar alumna and scholar Karen Van Lengen ’73 wrote in Vassar College: an Architectural Tour: “In practice, the sense of integration and enclosure apparent at other collegiate quadrangles such as those at Columbia or Harvard [Universities], is absent from the Vassar space.” She goes on to cite the outward-facing dorm orientation as a contributing factor, explaining that the layout of Vassar’s quadrangle gave the sense of a “series of independent units.”

Perhaps in the spirit of social progress, Lathrop very fittingly became the home of the Intercultural Center in 1976. But the allocation of permanent space did not come without hardship. This proposal, the result of the formation of the Space Committee, was met with opposition from the residents of Lathrop House, but with the conditional approval of the Committee of Race Relations and the Campus Master Planning Committee. The only thing left to acquire was the approval of the house itself.

Acting House President Joyce Vailonis asked to gain the opinion of her house residents before granting approval. But after the first house meeting, it became clear that ob-

Above, students spend time in the Lathrop House parlor. The third dormitory to be built on campus, in recent years Lathrop has become known for its party culture. win in the year’s Serenading contest and its house team’s dedication to improving its house’s reputation detailed in that same column, in the following year Lathrop took a dive as it was a house that received blame for trashing Noyes House’s bathroom in the aftermath of the 2010 Serenading. But while the future reputation of Lathrop seems uncertain, some of Lathrop’s 2010-2011 house teams remain optimistic.

Margret Mielke ’14, future Lathrop

student fellow stated, “I think that all the dorms’ reputations kind of build on themselves, and are more based on talk than action. But this does create a cycle where people expect certain things from certain dorms, which does end up feeding the notoriety.

However, I do think that the reputation definitely causes certain things to be overlooked, like the great sense of community (and Lathrop Love) which is created and sustained by a vibrant group of people.”

Career services satisfaction low among peer institutions

Yellow Ribbon program helps vets afford Vassar

CDO continued from page 1 student feelings and experience at the end of their careers as Vassar students, Davis-Van Atta noted that the data could not be used to objectively prove any one thing. “In the end, they are all subjective responses by students,” he said.

“So you can’t take these all the way to the bank; you also can’t toss them out as meaningless.”

Some of the statistics make more immediate sense than others. For example, according to the data, students tend to use Internet resources for job-hunting much more often than they use printed materials—a fairly predictable outcome, says Davis-Van Atta. This point falls right in line with a criticism Raymond has heard of the CDO. “I have heard that it’s confusing, hard to access by students,” she said and noted that there are plans to revise the website.

According to Raymond, while the office cannot redesign its website on its own, the CDO’s page is currently in the queue of the College’s web designers, who take on various Vassar webpages in turns.

However, not all of the problems and solutions are as easy to identify. Some of the results may simply be chalked up to misunderstandings between students and the CDO. According to Raymond, students sometimes come to the office with a different idea of what kind of direction it provides than the reality. “I think there are times when students just want that formula for success, ‘Tell me what to do,’” said Raymond.

Raymond speculated that perhaps student interactions with the office had become too rushed, in part because so much of the interaction is now electronic. “It makes us accessible, but then I wonder if we’re losing that personal touch.”

She also noted that Vassar’s CDO tends to be more lenient about formal requirements, such as having a resume completed before having an appointment, than career counseling services at other colleges. While she valued this, she also wondered if it could have gone too far in one direction. “There are times when I think maybe we’re too easy. Maybe those speed bumps make things seem more precious because they’re harder to access.”

Questions like this arise from the data because even as they indicate areas that may need improvement, they cannot show how that change should come about. “If you’re the CDO office, you hope for high percentages in, say, ‘Exploring career options,’” said Davis-Van Atta.

“Because we’re not necessarily going to get you a job; that’s not in our purview…but helping

VETERANS continued from page 1 college to students who wish to use their benefits at private colleges and universities where the costs of attendance tend to be higher,” explained Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus in an emailed statement. Under this program, the college or university can choose to contribute up to 50 percent of the additional tuition and fees, an amount that will then be matched by the VA. “Joining the Yellow Ribbon Program seemed to be absolutely in line with our institutional interest in expanding access to a Vassar education to a widely diverse group of students,” wrote Borus. “Such diversity enhances dialogue on campus by bringing together students with different backgrounds and experiences, and certainly veterans may have perspectives which would add to that mix, both in and out of the classroom.”

For Kitzinger’s committee, a first step in attracting veterans to attend Vassar under the Yellow Ribbon Program is ensuring that Vassar has the resources to adequately accommodate them. “We recognized that you have to have a lot of things in place to make this kind of initiative effective, and that’s partly because veterans come with a very particular kind of experience and could easily find this atmosphere alien.”

Andrew Spencer ’11, a veteran of the U.S. Navy who currently attends Vassar under the Yellow Ribbon Program, admits that transitioning to life at college was sometimes difficult. “I happened to live with a bunch of seniors [my freshman year], so that wasn’t so bad,” said Spencer, who was 24 years old when he arrived at Vassar in 2007. But as time went on, the lack of older peers began to wear on him. “In the Navy, you didn’t have just a bunch of people who were all the same age … Even in training, one guy was like 26, and some people were going on 40 in some cases.”

But Spencer’s struggles go beyond mere age differences. “I feel like I can’t be myself here at all,” he said. “I never considered myself to be terribly blue collar or conservative or ‘military,’ but now I’m here and people are just overwhelmingly sensitive. I’m a pretty liberal guy, and that’s the way I see it.” These statements appear to be consistent with findings from the Committee on Inclusion and Excellence’s cultural audit, which noted, “There is a strong sense that there is a dominant, assumed and controlling liberal secular viewpoint on campus, and there is a deep re-

people explore options, you’d like to see that.”

According to the survey, just above 10 percent of Vassar students deemed this category of career services to be “very valuable” or “essential.”

“I think we need to be more explicit in what we can do and how we can be helpful,” added Raymond.

Of course, one possible explanation for the data points is the difficult economy. This survey, administered at the end of 2010, captures a snapshot of a particularly difficult year.

Still, this is not the whole story. Davis-Van Atta said that career development is an area of student services that perennially comes under fire in these Senior Surveys among the participating schools, regardless of the state of the economy.

According to Dean of the College Christopher Roellke, liberal arts colleges face the challenge of creating career development services that have to navigate the love-of-learning attitude of the liberal arts and increasing pressure for colleges to demonstrate a clear return on investment. “Historically we’ve always been anti-vocational,” he said. “Students and families are making investments on their student undergraduate experience, and they want to see an outcome. And there’s anxiety about that.

So I think it’s really important that liberal arts colleges like Vassar really be attentive to this anxiety that’s out there.”

To address both the real and perceived problems in the office, Roellke and Raymond have several thoughts on possible improvements, some of which are already being addressed.

According to Roellke, bringing the CDO under the auspices of the Dean of Studies Office last summer was a step towards bridging academic and career advising, two areas of support he feels should be more closely linked. He added that working more with Vassar alumnae/i will be critical.

Raymond also hopes to hold focus groups to hear directly from students where some concerns lie. She also cited regular forums for students that the CDO holds, but noted with interest that they tend to be better attended when directed at a specific audience.

Davis-Van Atta praised the CDO for their response to data that is, at a glance, disappointing, “They’re being very thoughtful about it, and they’re definitely interested in it, which is the reaction you hope to get.”

Roellke, too, noted that the data from this survey could be seen as diagnostic and a starting point in helping the College meet challenges facing many liberal arts colleges today.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

sistance or hesitancy on the part of students to disrupt this seemingly privileged and prescriptive worldview.”

Appropriately, a primary goal of Kitzinger’s committee is to make the Vassar experience more inclusive for those veterans who are interested in attending. “The number-one recommendation we got through the research we did was that you need to try to create a cohort of veterans,” Kitzinger explained. “It really increases the stress of adapting to this environment if they really feel that they’re unique.” In an attempt to begin building this group at Vassar, the committee has focused its efforts on attracting veterans who currently attend local community colleges and may be seeking to transfer to a four-year institution. “They will have already done some of the transitional adapting that veterans will be doing as they come back,” said Kitzinger.

“They’ll also be local, so they’ll have a whole network of support already here.”

The committee has attempted to reach out to this population by establishing contact with veterans’ advisors at local community colleges and informing them of the opportunities available to veterans at the College.

According to Borus, representatives from the College have already met with three staff members at Dutchess Community College. A member of the Admissions staff also attended an Ulster Community College workshop for veterans in order to publicize Vassar’s programs.

While the College works to expand its veteran population, current Vassar students are taking an interest in the military through the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program at Marist College. Rob Rooney ’11, Samuel Ballard ’13 and Morgan Foster ’14 are currently enrolled in the program, attending physical training sessions and military science classes at Marist each week.

“Walking around campus [in uniform], I notice that people actually smile at me a lot more,” said Foster. “I think it’s because they’re staring at me because I’m different, and they just need an excuse to be staring, so they’ll smile.” Surprise and curiosity are also common reactions, according to Foster. “A lot of people ask questions, too, like, ‘What are you doing? Do you really go to Vassar?’”

Given the College’s recent efforts to foster a military community on campus, perhaps such surprise will become increasingly less common.

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Council’s vote only a start on reform process Alex Koren and Jason Rubin Guest Columnists

A

fter five hours of contentious debate this past Sunday, the proposed restructuring of the Vassar Student Association (VSA) failed to achieve the two-thirds Council support it needed to pass. The debate grew intense and emotional as Council members and students in attendance passionately debated the merits of the proposal. When the votes had finally been cast and the dust settled, the entirety of Council appeared visibly shaken and upset. A feeling of frustration and failure pervaded the room.

While it is easy to view Council’s inaction as a failure, further consideration reveals this is not the case. Simply put, Council ran out of time. Our own position on this issue has evolved considerably since we first learned about it on Facebook just a week ago. At first, our reactions were immensely negative. However, the information session held on Saturday and the VSA debate Sunday night, as well as the discussion leading into the vote at Sunday night’s VSA Council meeting, all clarified and assuaged many of our concerns. While there are still many areas that could use improvement, further discussion on the proposal and some alteration to its components would likely have created a plan we could have supported. Council’s vote of “no” this past Sunday will allow the discussion to continue and these alterations to take place.

The VSA Council and the VSA Executive Board have much to be proud of in the work they did with the proposal. It will undoubtedly be invaluable to those that will take up their mantle and work to bring about change next year. The legwork they did in looking into the student government structures of other schools, meeting with past presidents and synthesizing their findings and their own beliefs into their final proposal will not be forgotten; rather, they will be the foundation on which future change is built.

In addition, the VSA Executive Board brought visibility to the significant flaws within the current VSA structure. Restructuring of the VSA Council is now at the top of the VSA agenda and at the forefront of the student body’s consciousness. The Executive Board’s willingness to wade See RESTRUCTURING on page 12

March 24, 2011

Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Changes needed better communication to pass A

fter more than five hours of discussion and debate on Sunday, March 27, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council failed to pass the recently proposed Article VII of the VSA Constitution, which would have created the position of class senator.

Had the Council passed this article, they would have ushered in a new senator- and class-based VSA Council structure.

First and foremost, The Miscellany News Editorial Board wants to thank Council members for the way they voted—either yes or no—and the manner in which they comported themselves on Council. Every member’s decision obviously came after careful consideration and casting each vote took great courage. Furthermore, the discussion during the meeting was both intelligent and honest from both Council members and the students in attendance.

This editorial, however, does not seek to comment on the content of the proposed changes. While the Miscellany Editorial Board has its concerns, the intentions behind the revisions were good. The process by which the Executive Board and Council communicated the revisions and the reasons for them, however, failed. We would like to address these errors in the hope that future VSA candidates will learn from their mistakes and continue this crucial discussion with the student body in the proper fashion, which is already apparent in the openness of the referendum petition.

According to the members of the Executive Board, these changes have been in Council discussions for months. We appreciate that much work went into the revisions; it is to be expected of such significant changes and reflects well on the thoughtfulness of our student leaders. However, if this has been such a long process, why were students left in the dark for so long? As far as students are concerned, the proposed changes were only announced two weeks ago. Is it then so unreasonable for them to find these revisions to be rushed?

The members of the Miscellany Editorial Board understand the concern about misinformation and rumors among students as reasons not to brief the student body on an ongoing drafting process, and on a practical level not everyone wants or needs to be informed

about goings on of every student committee meeting. But surely the greatest way to combat misinformation in this case would have been to be open and forthright about the procedure. We wish that Council members could have had the respect and trust for their constituents to believe that they can understand the process. No VSA plans should ever have to be “leaked” in any student forum to reach the student body.

We are especially concerned to hear our house and class representatives say they were encouraged not to inform their constituents until the revisions were finalized, and we reject any idea that students cannot handle a work in progress. The Executive Board cannot on the one hand tout the openness of their committee meetings, the times of which are not publicized, and on the other hand suggest that Council members not discuss the evolution of major developments with their constituencies. These actions suggest that student involvement is really not being fostered, even though that is the message that we continuously hear.

The failure of these revisions lies in the manner in which the information was revealed to students. Had they been informed and included in the process by the Executive Board, students might have felt more comfortable to discuss concerns and suggestions and more accepting of the idea of change in general. The fact that many students attending the meeting were persuaded in favor of the revisions by arguments in the Council proves that students simply needed more time to become familiar with them and to engage with them.

Our critique of these mistakes is not so much about a lack of student involvement in the process of constitutional changes— indeed the Executive Board noted, admirably, how a few students outside of Council were involved. Rather we question the communication with students who may not feel the need to be involved in VSA committees or to sit on Council directly, but who do care about the Council’s actions. The members of the Miscellany Editorial Board are among these students.

As the student newspaper of the College, we understand that we also have a responsibility to bring the information from VSA

Council to the student body and we recognize that we might have pressed the Council harder and earlier to be forthcoming with their progress and plans. Please know that we have learned from this process ourselves, and will be listening and inquiring more intently in the future.

The conversation of VSA constitutional change is still possible and still ongoing. We hope that next year’s Council will be able to act on some of these revisions and alter them to reflect the informed responses they will continue to receive from their constituents. If the matter of constitutional revision is brought to referendum, we implore students to become well acquainted with the proposals and to vote according to their own appraisals.

At the end of the meeting, the VSA president said, “As it stands now, the Council cannot function.” The Miscellany Editorial Board believes this to be untrue. Past Councils have achieved significant goals within the current structure. We hope that this year’s Council has not resigned itself to turning this statement into a self-fulfilling prophecy. The system could be better, and we hope that it will be, but that does not mean that the entirety of the current system is necessarily defunct.

These revisions are a significant accomplishment even without their passage. The VSA has managed to re-imagine the VSA Council beginning from a blank slate. This is no small task. However, by keeping the process to themselves, the Council thwarted and stifled what could have been meaningful change and fruitful long-term discussion.

In the end, enforcing government accountability lies with the students and though the Council did not pass the amendment, there is still an opportunity to engage with the revisions. First, for students in support of them, there is the referendum petition led by both members of the VSA Council and other students. For those not in support of the revisions, the discussions about revision are sure to continue with or without a referendum. Take this opportunity to make comments and suggestions so that any further revisions that materialize will be as strong as possible.

—The Staff Editorial represents the opinion of at least two thirds of the 18-member Miscellany News Editorial Board.

Restructuring would create Issues-based senate system more active, inclusive Council would foster accountability Maya Acevedo

O

Guest Columnist

verall, I am very happy with this past Sunday’s Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meeting. As I mentioned pretty early on in the night, I fully support the restructuring of the VSA and I think that it’s important that this happen sooner rather than later!

I’m all about action and inclusion, and I think this restructuring has the potential for both. With the small adjustments argument—which states that we don’t have to do such a major overhaul to see the things change that we wish to see for Council—I think it is very likely that many of the problems we’ve encountered this year, and for the past several years, will just come up again. I believe that for the student culture at Vassar to change towards the kinds of goals that were being brought up on Sunday, we need more than small adjustments.

To be honest, there are so many voices on this campus that don’t have a place on Council as it exists now. My own case was pretty unique. I went from ignorantly hating the VSA for years to joking about running to change it up to being appointed for the long-vacant Town Students posi-

tion because I was informed that the spot was open. Really, I’m on the VSA Council by chance! I’ve gotten the opportunity to speak to several of those students who feel like there is no place for them on Council, and through our conversations I’ve yet to find anyone who doesn’t think the VSA should restructure as a way to include more voices.

On the win-win side of the failure of the changes to the constitution, it seems that sometimes it takes some drama—the product of a generation that has grown up with reality TV, perhaps?—to get people thinking and talking about things. In other words, even if there isn’t a student referendum that would overturn the vote, thereby allowing for the restructuring to happen this year, I do think that students will be talking about what the role of student government at Vassar should be.

This is a conversation that has been largely neglected campus-wide during the five years that I’ve been here. I just don’t think another year should go by with the same ineffective structure that is the current one!

—Maya Acevedo ’11 is President of the Town Students. She is an American Culture major.

Hannah Turk

I

Guest Editor

’m all over the place, and I don’t think I’m the only one. Vassar students have classes, and we have friends, and we have a zillion emails in our inboxes and life gets a little loud sometimes. Plus, we haven’t slept...in a long while. Things are busy, and options seem to be ever-increasing as we’re gradually asked to make more choices ourselves, choices that have “real” repercussions with this whole “future” thing. We live in crazy times; everything moves so quickly. And with what goes on in the news, it feels all right to create this “out there” world that we aren’t quite a part of. It’s hard enough to control the avalanche that is our own lives.

And Vassar offers a lot. Tons of classes, great professors, nice trees and grass to sit on, innumerable organizations and events on weekends: Your options are endless. In theory, it’s pretty nice, we have a lot of diversity and potential for more. I know that when I came to visit Vassar, the Admissions Office let me know how easily I could create my own student group, how much freedom I could take with what I do with my time at Vassar. And that sounded great. And in fact, it has been great. It’s a huge luxury that I have really taken advantage of and appreciate so much.

But here’s the thing: With all of these possibili-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ties, guidance is needed. Many students end up feeling overwhelmed and unfulfilled—a product of great options offered in an inefficient way.

I don’t think Vassar students need “more guidance,” because the beauty of this place is that you are supposed to find it within yourself. What I think is that “supposed to” is not enough, and that we need a campus culture that tasks us to be resourceful and independent. We must be held more accountable for our actions and choices, which in my mind would be most effectively achieved through a greater sense of responsibility to ourselves as community members.

This is why I’m in support of the changes to the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Constitution, of moving to a student referendum to pass this initiative to restructure the VSA. It’s high time we take action toward our lack of community accountability, that we let ourselves address our issues and care enough to try and make change.

The VSA has been a pretty ineffective body for quite some time now, and I believe we are brave and smart enough to bring real efficiency to our student government. An issues-based senate system would do everything but under-represent Vassar’s student body. In fact, it would be a more direct method of bringing our voices to the administration.

—Hannah Turk ’14 is a student at Vassar College.

March 24, 2011

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Students should support changes, referendum Activities of VSA Council T too opaque Cory Epstein

Guest Columnist

his past Sunday evening I attended the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meeting to hear the debate over the proposed changes to the VSA Constitution, especially the contentious section outlining the creation of class senators. I was originally very opposed to these amendments. I did not like the proposal, which I thought would have limited house president, and thus house team, input into VSA Council decision-making. My strong feelings against the change prompted me to invite people to a Facebook event promoting solidarity against the proposal and write a four-page letter to members of the VSA Council urging them not to adopt these changes.

As the meeting began I found myself nodding in agreement with the various representatives who spoke out strongly against these changes.

Students spoke of the rushed process, loss of the representation by a house president “down the hall” whom you know would always be at VSA Council meetings, and negative feedback they received from their constituents.

Yet many other Council members highlighted the great benefits that would come from adopting these changes. Town Students President Maya Acevedo ’11 and Class of 2014 President Michael Moore especially, as well as the VSA Executive Board members, eloquently described the positive changes these amendments would bring to the VSA. As I saw the battle lines being drawn in front of me, with those for and against the proposed changes debating specific points back and forth, one thing became strikingly clear: My initial ideas regarding the changes were entirely off-point.

Changing the VSA Council structure would in fact greatly benefit the VSA Council and more importantly, the entire student body here at Vassar.

For the regular Vassar student who does not serve on the VSA Council, the changes might seem inconsequential or even harmful.

Yet these changes are meaningful, progres-

sive and benefit all students directly. First of all, this proposal will allow the VSA Council to accomplish more of its goals. Class senators would not have the many responsibilities that house presidents currently have, giving them adequate time to serve on important VSA committees. Currently, some VSA committees are not getting anything accomplished because they are simply not meeting due to the fact that the people who sit on them do not have time to meet. With class senators, committee work would be reinvigorated because committees could actually meet and produce meaningful policies. For example, the VSA Council could form a sub-committee to focus on improving access to local, sustainable food on campus.

Class senators, not bogged down with houserelated concerns, would have the time to devote to crafting a policy to bring food from local farms to campus. Right now, the VSA is stretched too thin and these important subcommittees, which deal with issues we care about, cannot be formed. If you care about getting things done and changing the College through student-led proposals, you should support these changes.

In addition, creating the class senator position would allow more issues to be brought to the VSA Council. Class senators could run to be on VSA Council because they are passionate about issues and not, as they frequently must be now, the area in which they live. This will allow students who are passionate about sustainability, improving the connection between Vassar and Poughkeepsie, or some other important topic to run for our student government and advocate for policies that incorporate their passions. Currently, the passion of some of our most active students never makes it to our most important student-governing body, the VSA Council, because these students do not want to be a house or class president or a member of the VSA Executive Board. They want to serve on VSA Council but there is no role for them there currently. Creating the class senator positions would open up the avenues

of participation in our student government. If you believe in bringing more passionate voices to our student government, you should support these changes.

Many people, including myself, were upset because not every house president would sit on VSA Council under the proposed changes.

However, just because they would not be at VSA Council every week does not mean that the relationship between the house president and their dorm would change. Presidents will still lead house teams and be fierce advocates for their dorms. They would meet weekly in the Residence Council, a body that would allow house-specific issues to be discussed among all the residence area presidents, ensuring that house issues are dealt with efficiently.

And when house issues need to be brought up at VSA Council, three Residence Council senators would serve on this body and do just this. Nothing about this proposal would interfere with the amazing residential experience we enjoy here at Vassar, another reason you should support these changes.

Unfortunately, these changes did not pass by the necessary two-thirds majority needed to amend our VSA Constitution. Therefore, a coalition of VSA Council members and regular Vassar students have decided to come together to push for a student referendum on the issue.

This will allow the entire student voice to be heard, and allow for our entire student body to come together and vote on these proposals to make our student government more effective and our experiences at Vassar more fruitful.

Do not focus on the proposal’s imperfections; no policy can ever be perfect. Do not look back on the messy process that led to these amendments; look forward to the improvements these changes will bring to us as a student body. If you want to see these changes, if you want to improve our College, please support this referendum.

—Cory Epstein ’13 is Vice President of Davison House.

Council should seek, encourage student voice Charlie Dobb

Guest Columnist

T

he Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council set out to draft constitutional reforms, which, amongst other things, increased and diversified the student voice heard by the Council, decreased the power of the VSA Executive Board and reinvigorated campus leadership. Ironically, the Council missed an opportunity to accomplish each of those objectives in its consideration of those very reforms. Constitutional reform was a major issue in which the student body could have easily become invested. The Council had the chance to involve every student, from an early point, in writing the amendments. The Council could have sponsored forums or publicized the time, date and place of committee meetings discussing the changes, thereby encouraging student attendance.

It could have used the writing of the amendments to encourage representatives to get in touch with their constituency and revitalize that connection. Instead, the amendments were yet another VSA-Executive-Board– driven initiative, written by a few members of the Council, in small, secluded meetings with limited—if any—direct constituent contribution.

Instead of a collaborative project that the entire student body was informed of and contributed to and, therefore, was passionate about, the amendments emerged as a dense and obscure series of “reforms” presented to the student body within a narrow one-week time frame in a take-it-or-leave-it fashion.

It’s not surprising that many constituents did not understand or did not support the proposed changes. The amendments were doomed to fail, and rightly so. No matter how strong the amendments were on the merits, I couldn’t support any piece of major policy that had been reached in such an exclusively top-down way.

The failure of the amendments last Sunday leaves the sitting Council at a crossroads. It can either lay down in defeat and wait for

next year’s Council to implement reforms, or it can take a critical look at the issues that arose from last Sunday’s debate and optimize the existing system. One problem came up again and again last Sunday: lack of constituent voice in the Council. Fixing that problem can start with a re-imagining of how the existing structures of the VSA Council are perceived and function. Right now there is an inexplicable disconnect between activism, student issues on campus and the VSA leadership. There are over 100 student organizations on this campus, and many more students, each with issues and passions that every day yield impressive displays of activism, including teach-ins, forums and lectures, and yet very few of these students or organizations ever appear before the VSA Council.

If the Council is genuine in its desire to hear significant issues from its constituents, it can repair this disconnect in two essential steps. Step one is for the Council to make clear what it can contribute to student issues.

What are the tools at its disposal beyond money? Is it time? Or resolutions of support?

Can students write legislation? If so, how?

Step two is to clarify how students can bring their issues to Council. Under the existing system, house teams and class councils are the most direct conduits students have to bring issues to the VSA Council. As a member of a house team for almost two years now, I have seen first hand how house teams and class councils are perceived and utilized by this campus. Essentially, they are understood as programming committees, there to plan and host various events for their house or class and the larger campus throughout the year. That perception is the result of how the positions have been treated historically, not how they are structured. Both of those bodies are, in fact, legislative ones, and their programming and other commitments should come second to hearing from students and bringing the concerns of constituents to the full VSA Council. There has to be a complete overhaul in how students interact with their

respective representatives. As issues come up that are important to them, students’ first step should be reaching out to VSA leadership. Going to class council or house team meetings should not be a rare occurrence that requires careful thought and consideration, but an obvious choice, the first step for anyone considering how to bring an issue to the campus, whether that issue is relevant to the campus, Poughkeepsie, New York State or the United States.

I challenge the entire VSA Council, including house teams and class councils, to think about how it can make itself approachable and encourage outreach from its constituents. For example, these bodies could more readily publish the date, time and place of their meetings or occasionally clear their agenda and hold open forums dedicated exclusively to giving students an opportunity to bring their concerns. The various councils could send representatives to student-organization meetings, or reach out and request the attendance of specific organization representatives at the Council meeting occasionally. Whatever method it chooses, the VSA Council, and each of its sub-bodies, has to reframe itself in the campus dialogue. The Council has to make itself a routine element of activism on this campus, the obvious first choice for anyone with a plan or passion.

There is no doubt in my mind that the foundation has been laid for next year’s VSA Council to once again perform some critical self-reflection and strive to reform itself in some critical ways. I can only hope that that Council understands the value of the student voice and seeks to incorporate it more fully until it has a set of reforms that a genuine majority of students understand and support. Until then, the current system can work if both representatives and constituents make it. In the absence of reform, there is still room for improvement.

—Charlie Dobb ’12 is Jewett House Student Advisor.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Matthew Wheeler Guest Columnist

S

unday’s Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meeting was the first I ever bothered to attend.

I’ve never felt particularly inspired to go before. I’m not president or treasurer of an organization. I’ve always felt comfortable with my representation—comfortable that they would, on the rarest occasions I felt I had anything of worth to say, take my opinions into consideration when voting. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there has never been an issue on the table I felt strongly enough about to see it through to a VSA Council vote. That is, until Sunday. Until the VSA Council put a major restructure on the table that I had fewer than two weeks to familiarize myself with and with which I did not agree. Sunday’s VSA Council meeting was the first I ever bothered to attend, and I’m glad I did because I learned a lot.

The VSA is a representative form of government. That means we elect people to sit on Council so we don’t have to, so people like me can go nearly three years without attending a meeting. These representatives are charged with understanding what their constituents want and voting in a way that reflects those wants. However, representatives are also in charge of moving information in the other direction. As several Council members reminded us that night, members of Council are often better informed about issues than their constituents. As far as I’m concerned, it is then the representative’s job to take their understanding and bring it back to their constituents so that those who are willing to inform themselves and express educated opinions may do so. What I learned on Sunday, however, is that the representatives who sat on the joint Student Life and Operations Committee which worked on these major constitutional changes were encouraged to not share this information with their constituencies.

This is contrary to everything for which representative government stands. The VSA Executive Board members who encouraged our house and class representatives who sit on those committees to refrain from speaking about the committee’s activities to their constituents acted in a way that was a violation of the principles of good representation. That isn’t transparency; that’s blatantly opaque. And what’s more: I also learned that night that the internal committee meetings, save for that of the Finance Committee, are open to any student who wants to attend.

But even if I had known that fact, there is no way of knowing when those meetings are because they do not meet regularly, nor are the meeting times publicized. But still, there is an inherent contradiction here. Caught it yet? If not, I’ll fill you in: VSA Council representatives were encouraged to not share with the student body information presented in committees that are technically open to the entire student body.

None of this adds up, and it makes me sick. Our elected leaders are using every trick in the book to keep us from knowing when these open meetings are. Then, when we don’t know and subsequently cannot attend, they tell our representatives not to share the information until it’s ready. I must admit, when I found out my house president, Dan Flynn ’13, who sits on the Student Life Committee, and my class president, Pamela Vogel ’12, who sat on the joint committee, did not inform me of the restructuring proposal sooner, I was displeased. But, Dan and Pam, my displeasure is no longer directed at either of you. Now, I’m choosing to direct it, via this column, at the holdups in place that kept you from delivering that information to me. It’s clear to me that something in the VSA needs to change, but it isn’t the structure.

OPINIONS

Page 10

March 24, 2011

IBM not fulfilling its responsibility to Poughkeepsie Hannah Blume

I

Assistant Opinions Editor

n 1924, when a traveling salesman named Thomas J. Watson founded IBM in Endicott, N.Y., he cultivated what he called the “IBM family.”

In its earliest years, the company steadfastly provided unrivaled health benefits and free daycare. Watson’s biggest pride, however, was a company country club, which hosted family dinners three nights a week to relieve IBM wives of their cooking duties.

When IBM moved to Poughkeepsie in the early 1940s, Watson wasted no time getting cozy with his new workers, personally selecting the site for the IBM Country Club—complete with tennis courts, swimming pools and a clubhouse—on South Road. The company struck a deal with local schools to provide free technical training for employees. IBM even erected Spackenkill Heights—a sprawling subdivision exclusively for IBM employees— that offered options from a basic house with a carport to a four-bedroom complete with a garage.

It was bliss: IBM was stable and loyal; Poughkeepsie was home. The two were inseparable. The people of Poughkeepsie were part of the IBM family.

That’s why it was such a low blow when IBM announced last week that they plan to invest $50 million in their Poughkeepsie site, which, in part, will settle a lawsuit with the Town of Poughkeepsie that will cheat its citizens out of millions of tax dollars.

In 2009, when IBM bombarded the Town with a string of lawsuits, alleging their property assessment was too high, they threatened to abandon the city IBM has called home for half a century: “The Poughkeepsie site is in competition with other sites for its ongoing mission,” one IBM spokesperson threatened.

In an attempt to bully the Town into lowering its tax rate, company officials referenced the $6.3 million they paid last cycle compared to the $1.6 million for their Rochester, Minn. plant.

IBM executives called in the Dutchess County Industrial Development Agency to help cut a deal. They approved a PILOT—an acronym for payment in lieu of tax—agreement wherein the Town would essentially chop off $50 million from the property’s assessed value of $159.8 million.

Essentially, IBM sued Poughkeepsie to pay fewer taxes—and won.

And so the Town of Poughkeepsie was left with two options: either accept a cut of one third of its biggest source of revenue, or watch IBM pack up and leave Poughkeepsie with an abandoned plant, 5,000 unemployed workers and a broken budget.

Reader comments on The Poughkeepsie Journal website suggest that many Town of Poughkeepsie citizens, whose tax burden will undoubtedly increase as a result of the deal, feel betrayed by IBM. One referred to the company as “blood sucking.” Another bitterly pointed to the hefty bonus of an extra 30 percent that IBM CEO Sam Palmisano took this year. Many resi-

dents questioned, ‘Where is my PILOT plan?’

Another warned that “properties around here will soon turn into slums” if the Town does not “stop catering to greed.” And another noted that IBM would deserve a tax break had they not wreaked “havoc” on Poughkeepsie, adding, “They should be put in prison.”

The IBM spokesman offered a nauseatingly textbook, pro-business alibi: “High costs locally make it hard for Poughkeepsie when new missions are considered by IBM.” He continued, “It’s hard to get in the game to get that mission for the site.” Despite his rambling prose, his message resounds loud and clear throughout the Hudson Valley: ‘Sorry, Poughkeepsie—business is business.’

This is not just business.

It wasn’t just business—or so it must have seemed—when IBM came and wooed Poughkeepsie with their big ideas, rosy country club and folksy, annual employee barbeques. Not when it effectively wiped out the urban center of the City of Poughkeepsie by slicing it in half with an arterial highway for the ease of IBM commuters. And not when their presence drained the City of Poughkeepsie of commercial activity by attracting nearby strip malls.

Not when, in 2001, IBM received a $9 million government grant to build a new chip plant in the area, creating 5,348 jobs, before proceeding to significantly downsize their microelectronics division in 2003. Not when IBM enjoyed paying zero property taxes on their East Fishkill facility and $156 million in other tax exemptions in a span of 10 years. And cer-

tainly not when Dutchess County funded two thirds of a $23 million project to build a 13-mile pipeline that IBM needed to supply their plant with water needed for production.

No, this is deeply personal.

The relationship between IBM and Poughkeepsie is so much more than business. The two are inextricably linked.

Jim King, the Poughkeepsie plant manager, said it best himself when the site won the Assembly Plant of the Year 2008 award: “IBM Poughkeepsie has a strong history of heritage,” he said, acknowledging Poughkeepsie as the “flagship of the IBM Corporation.”

Some have suggested that when Watson moved IBM to the Hudson Valley, he put Poughkeepsie on the map. But, in truth, it was Poughkeepsie residents who assembled world-renowned mainframe computers. It was Poughkeepsie’s women who built Browning automatic rifles, which were sent to Europe in the 1940s. It was Poughkeepsie’s architects who designed the first-ever, fully functioning automatic production line for transistors.

And it was Poughkeepsie’s engineers who first conceived of today’s world’s fastest microprocessor.

Poughkeepsie put its hard work and faith into IBM. Now, IBM needs to do the same for Poughkeepsie.

At least, that’s what family should do. ­ Hannah Blume ’13 is assistant opinions edi— tor of The Miscellany News. She is a sociology major.

Barbour links mainstream, fringe elements of GOP Joseph Hoffheimer Guest Columnist

T

he prospects of birther Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, gas station frozen pizza entrepreneur Herman Cain, Jimmy “The Rent is Too Damn High” McMillan, bankrupt billionaire Donald Trump and half-term governor Sarah Palin running for president have all generated a circus in the wild card 2012 Republican primary rumor mill. With pandemonium guaranteed, the question has become who will represent the more mainstream faction of the GOP. Lackluster candidates ranging from former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty to Newt Gingrich leave little to be desired. After all, in the first case, a different former Minnesota governor, big-time wrestler Jesse Ventura, would fit much better with the current GOP field and, in the second, 1994 was 17 years ago.

If you look hard enough for Republican contenders who may receive serious attention, and serious is a relative term, there is one potential candidate with deep party establishment connections, connections so deep that he was a Republican before Republicans were Republicans. They were called Dixiecrats. Meet Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

Right now, you may wonder who Barbour is but, make no mistake about it, this former tobacco lobbyist, Republican National Committee chairman and White Citizens Council associate may very well run for president. After all, the self-proclaimed “fat redneck” now orders salads instead of steak in the luxurious restaurant owned by his lobbying firm, has been on a fact-finding envoy to Israel and the Middle East, and currently spends more time in Washington than Mississippi.

Of course, somewhere in there, Barbour will have to talk about his actual record in both state and national politics, but we have little need to worry, as he has already preempted our inquiry into his past. After all, he recently expressed support for a civil rights museum and groups “opposing” the KKK, has taken exaggerated credit for hurricane relief, and claimed that the experience of winning people to his side as a corporate lobbyist actually gives him perfect preparation for leading the country.

At second glance, though, each of Barbour’s superficial claims hides a deeper story, especially when these claims involve race. Barbour is not a newcomer to controversy surrounding racist allegations, but some unfortunate comments on national television have demonstrated only further hypocrisy in this regard. First, there was that little snafu involving Confederate History Month. When asked about the exclusion of the state’s history of slavery from the commemoration, Barbour replied that slavery “did not amount to diddly” yet, of course, was still a “bad thing.”

More recently, Barbour talked about racial “moderation” in his hometown of Yazoo City, where he boasted of how the White Citizens Council ran affairs for a time. Although Citizens Councils, otherwise known as the “White Collar Klan,” may have differed from the bluecollar KKK and, in fact, did not get along with the KKK if only because of its white-trash reputation, the two groups effectively held the same segregationist ideology.

If you still doubt Barbour’s leadership on racial issues, he attended integrated schools and even knew the African-Americans he went to school with! However, ask any of his black

classmates, and they do not remember things from the civil rights era quite so fondly. With such a past and national ambitions, perhaps the sudden opposition to a license plate in commemoration of KKK-founding Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and announcement of a new civil rights museum should not come as a surprise.

Barbour first received significant national attention as a politician, rather than lobbyist, in his role as governor during Hurricane Katrina.

He took immediate responsibility for a successful but, in reality, incomplete reconstruction of the Gulf Coast and used his experience to prominently brief Senator John McCain and Palin, neither elected to national office nor from a hurricane-affected state, on an impending hurricane and consequently postponed the 2008 Republican National Convention. Shockingly, Barbour’s own family members and friends pocketed substantial amounts of federal recovery money, according to Bloomberg News, though no violations of the law have been confirmed.

And like all good Republicans, including the sideshow of whacko potential presidential contenders, Barbour has always represented around the top five percent of Americans or, in other words, the few who actually benefit from the upper-income portion of the Bush tax cuts, as opposed to the citizens of the nation’s poorest state.

Yes, what Obama called the “Three G’s” of God, guns and gays have distracted many socially conservative poor rural voters from their economic interests but, to see whom Barbour’s policies have not served, one should only take a look at his hometown of Yazoo City, which uses pastel-colored façades and

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creepy-sounding music frozen in the 1970s to distracts visitors from its abandoned downtown and, more broadly, the city’s overall economic decline.

Somehow, Barbour continues to believe that lobbying has prepared him for national office, and it has, just not in the persuasive or productive way he wants people to believe. Just as Speaker of the House John Boehner passed around tobacco lobbyist checks on the House floor, Barbour once lobbied the same politicians on behalf of the tobacco industry. Since he currently sits on top of both the lobbying and political fundraising worlds, Barbour simply represents another wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America that can bill taxpayers for private flights to a Fox News show or a conservative conference but ironically makes the message at either event about budget-slashing “fiscal responsibility.”

In short, despite the dominance of the Palins and Bachmanns in the GOP field, Barbour has proven how the mainstream, establishment or serious wing of the party can still deliver as well. Moreover, this wing has even proven that, besides being locked in present competition with the entertainment wing of the party in the tabloid category, it has the actual experience and history in demonstrating these antics as well. So yes, we do have an establishment Republican running who can generate attention, buzz and excitement. He just happens to serve as the perfect bridge from the Party of Bush to the three-ring circus currently emblematic of the GOP. –Joseph Hoffheimer ’11 is an urban studies major from Oxford, Miss. He is Treasurer of the Vassar College Democrats.

March 24, 2011

OPINIONS

Page 11

Republican presidential candidates weak Juan Thompson

A

Guest Columnist

n orgy of idiocy. That is the perfect definition for what is shaping up to be one of the weakest Republican presidential primaries in modern history. It is a pool of divisive, pandering, dishonest and ill-prepared candidates who will make President Obama’s reelection efforts that much easier.

In the top tier are former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich. All four have tremendous baggage that will make any chance of victory in November 2012 slim. Romney is the nominal frontrunner because he ran last time and has vast name recognition, not to mention a vast fortune. But he has spent this past year attacking what he labels “Obamacare,” which, as it turns out, is eerily similar to the health care proposal implemented by Romney when he was the governor of Massachusetts. Confused? So too will the American electorate be when they realize that Romney is attacking the president for a health care bill that mirrors his own. This is Romney’s fundamental problem: He is an inauthentic phony who will take any position and say anything to anyone if he believed it would advance his political ambitions. Former Vice President Al Gore and Senator John Kerry both faced this meme of flip-flopping; but unlike Gore and Kerry, Romney actually deserves this criticism.

Pawlenty is setting himself up as the alternative to Romney; as part of that effort, he should seek a personality transplant because T-Paw could not fire up a crowd to

save his life. The juxtaposition of Obama, the inspiring orator, and the bland Pawlenty will be astonishing. Beyond that, Pawlenty’s record as the governor of Minnesota is nothing to be proud of. Pawlenty served two terms as governor and yet, with all his posturing as a deficit hawk, Minnesota’s deficit actually increased during his tenure from $4 billion dollars to over $5 billion dollars, making it the largest in state history. The land of ten thousand lakes also saw its credit rating downgraded by Moody’s from stable to negative in February 2010.

Moody’s blamed the downgrade on a “loss of budget reserves and heavy reliance on one-time measures that only temporarily solve deficits.”

If Pawlenty is planning to do to the United States what he did to Minnesota, I say no thanks.

Barbour and Gingrich round out the top tier. The fact that Gingrich is even a plausible nominee tells you all you need to know about this sorry crop of candidates. Thus far, the thrice-married Gingrich has been traveling the country preaching against Obama’s “secular, socialist, anti-Christian, anti-Jew machine.” What does that mean? I don’t know and I don’t think Gingrich knows because while Gingrich is often cited as a conservative intellectual force by the mainstream media, the man has actually shown himself to be a pseudo-intellectual loud mouth who says whatever he thinks the crowd before him wants to hear. He has no fresh ideas, no game-changing policy proposals and no convincing reason for why he should ever be entrusted with the American presidency.

Instead we get a retread of tired, right-wing attacks and a lame, spotlight-chasing hypocrite whose moment in the sun passed over a decade ago.

Then there’s Barbour. Barbour has governed Mississippi since 2003 and the state, which has consistently ranked near the bottom in public education and poverty, continues to struggle. In 2001, as a lobbyist for the Mexican government, Barbour lobbied in favor of creating a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, while now, a decade later, he criticizes the same proposal. Who should the American people believe? Barbour, the right-wing governor, or Barbour the lobbyist? This contradiction won’t play well with the American people, and more importantly for Barbour, it won’t play well with a far-right conservative primary electorate when they’re made aware that he lobbied for citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

These four men exemplify everything that is wrong with the Republican Party and explain why Republicans face long odds at winning the White House in 2012.

The American people may not be completely happy with President Obama, but they do, as numerous polls show, like the president and admire him. The same cannot be said of the Republican candidates.

As TIME Magazine columnist Joe Klein recently wrote, “I have never before seen such a bunch of vile, desperate-to-please, shameless, embarrassing losers coagulated under a single party’s banner.”

What prank would you play on Vassar?

“The implementation of real police instead of security. April Fools’!”

Jessica Young ’12

“Fill ACDC with baby bunnies.”

Nina Vyedin ’11

—Juan Thompson ’13 is a political science major.

AT&T-T-Mobile deal harms consumers Kelly Shortridge

A

Guest Columnist

T&T has recently acquired T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom in a deal valued at $39 billion. For Deutsche Telekom, this means an eight percent minority interest in AT&T, as well as a seat on the board of directors of AT&T. For AT&T, this means a consolidation in the American telecommunications industry that will boost AT&T’s subscriber base to around 125 million, versus the next largest competitor Verizon’s 93 million. With an acquisition of this scope, federal regulators are on the prowl, hoping to find fault with the deal on an anti-trust and anti-competition basis. But for consumers, the deal bodes poorly.

AT&T asserts in the press release for the deal that the large jump in subscribers is not the driving reason behind the acquisition; it is merely a peripheral benefit in their quest to add network capacity and improve network quality. AT&T also claims that, going forward, they will use this acquisition to commit to and deliver 4G access to around 47 million new customers. There are several main questions on everyone’s mind, which AT&T attempted to address in its press release. I do not feel that the reasons, however articulate, actually demonstrated that this deal is not a move to step up on a pedestal as the most-subscribed-to wireless provider in the United States.

The first issue is pricing. The reason regulators broke up AT&T in the days of Ma Bell— when AT&T’s Bell Telephone Company held a monopoly over telephone service—was that prices were too high and service was lax because AT&T was the only game in town.

Besides AT&T’s own opinion on this new deal, which is obviously that wireless service prices will continue to decline and that competition will stay the same, an interesting affirmation is given by John Tamny, writing for Forbes magazine. Tamny points out that TMobile might not survive in this competitive wireless landscape unless acquired. He looks to John D. Rockefeller’s movements in the 19th century in the oil industry for support, saying that many of the companies Rockefeller purchased would have gone under had Rockefeller not consolidated them. He also points out that Rockefeller, contrary to what monopolistic economics might tell us, actu-

ally reduced prices. His point makes sense: We expect price hikes and luxurious profits from monopolistic companies, but in the case of the U.S. telecom industry right now, with oligopolistic players AT&T and Verizon (among others) continually butting heads, a rise in prices by AT&T would only encourage even more intense competition. To me, Tamny’s argument makes sense, but I haven’t seen the follow-through in his point that oligopoly price increases will increase competition. If AT&T has the incentive now to reduce prices, then that actually reduces competition for AT&T because they are now the biggest and the cheapest. Also, if T-Mobile fails, competition is reduced for everyone. If T-Mobile does not go under, however, then we would maintain our current level of competition.

The second issue is technological. Rights to portions of the wireless spectrum must be bought, and you’d think that there would be enough for everyone. This is not the case—actually, the costs are increasing for companies to expand their shares of the wireless spectrum because there aren’t enough frequencies to go around, so to speak. AT&T says that by buying T-Mobile, they can get the supply that they need while waiting for the government to allow more spectrum for use by wireless companies. I would counter this by saying that, if the situation were reversed and Verizon were buying T-Mobile, they might say the exact same thing. In this case, it seems to me like AT&T is stating, “This deal needs to go through because it will increase our ability to cater to our customers.” This is an obvious point. Catering to customers is something that every company needs to do, and the reasoning given by AT&T does not counter the anti-trust sentiment of the opposed.

There are numerous other reasons that AT&T delivers: In fact, there are six, ranging from the reasons above to “creating an impressive, combined workforce.” I don’t think any of them dig at the real meat of the problem everyone sees: Sure, AT&T has the money to buy this company and can do what it wants, but wasn’t AT&T a monopoly years ago and didn’t we break them up for similar behavior? An opinion piece by Om Malik— writing for gigaom.com, a technology blog— puts my thoughts on the matter far more eloquently than I can: “It doesn’t matter how you look at it;

this is just bad for wireless innovation, which means bad news for consumers. TMobile has been pretty experimental and innovative: It has experimented with newer technologies such as UMA, built its own handsets and has generally been a more consumer-centric company. AT&T, on the other hand, has the innovation of a lead pencil and has the mentality more suited to a monopoly: a position it wants to regain.”

Once upon a time, Bell Labs was the headquarters of innovation, and maybe Rockefeller did lower prices, but I have to stand by the old saying, “Once bitten, twice shy.” The AT&T-TMobile deal is probably only going to reduce the innovation of the latter, decrease competition in the marketplace and force consumers to effectively choose the lesser of two evils by helping remove items from the list of choices when picking wireless service providers.

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“Switch all of the tofu in ACDC with meat...”

Nick Corda ’14

“...And all the meat with tofu!”

Chelsea Yamada ’14 —Juliana Halpert, Photography Editor

Word on the juliaeicher

Julia Eicher ’11

make all the V-Print printers actually work #willneverhappen #aprilfools 28 Mar

shariiii

Shari Reiter ’11

cigarette smoking on campus has been officially and permanently banned.#hipsteroutrage #aprilfools 2:24 PM Mar 27th via web

lindsey1z

Lindsey Liese ’11

creation of a new, more functional campus student network- “StudentSecure.” oh, wait 27 Mar via web

—Marie Dugo, Social Media Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

Restructuring should be taken up next year RESTRUCTURING continued from page 8 into the contentious and dangerous waters of government restructuring played a substantial part in these developments. This is not an endpoint but rather the first part in what will hopefully be a two-part process. We thank the VSA Council for completing this first part and leaving next year’s VSA with much to work with.

As VSA President Mathew Leonard ’11 stated in his remarks at the beginning of the year, Vassar College has been in existence for 150 years and will exist for centuries more. The student government we create should ideally be productive and long lasting. We have a duty to ourselves and to future generations of students to get this right. It is our view that Council’s vote this past Sunday has provided us with the muchneeded time to discuss, debate and form a new structure. Through this proposal, the VSA has finally obtained what it has always wanted: students who care about the issue, are informed and want to be involved. This “no” vote will allow that student voice to be heard well into the future. Moreover, this voice will be a voice that fully participates and has real input in the policy-crafting process.

Students cannot sit on the VSA Council without planning events. There is only one freshman on VSA Council. House Presidents must split their time and energy between their residence and VSA Council. These are real problems with the current structure of the VSA Council that are not going away and must be rectified. As members of the VSA, we personally vow to use the groundwork laid this year to change the VSA’s structure next year. We hope you will join us.

March 24, 2011

Domestic injustices deserve priority Rachel Anspach Guest Columnist

T

he United States prides itself on always taking a stand against injustice. We are currently involved in a war in Afghanistan, have recently ended combat operations in Iraq and entering into a third war with Libya in the name of protecting the innocent and furthering democracy. In addition to military expenses, the United States also gives billions of dollars in aid to countries throughout the world to encourage the curtailment of human rights abuses, leaving less money for social welfare programs here at home at a time when the size of our national debt is a major political concern. The United States’ claim to fight for equality is proven hollow as it continues to ignore the issues that lead to the vast racial disparities in our country. For example, in 2010, the United States spent around $848.1 billion on its military and foreign aid budget. In that same year, the United States spent about $546 billion on pre-primary through secondary education.

Democracy means that all people have an equal chance at succeeding. However, the systemic racism in our country, particularly in the prison and education systems, means that not everyone is getting the same shot. Eliminating the immense inequalities between races in the United States is a daunting task. This inequality should be viewed as a violation of human rights, not just an issue of civil rights. I am not suggesting that the United States should never get involved abroad, but that our government should ensure that democratic ideals are being carried out within our own borders before we intervene in other nations.

In my classes at Vassar I have learned a lot about past human rights violations, as well as those currently taking place throughout the world. My classmates and I have had many debates about what the United States should have

or should do to combat these crimes against humanity, and to what level the United States is responsible for crimes committed by other countries. However, what I have not heard discussed as much is what the United States could do to address the inequalities within our own society, or why the focus is often outward rather than inward. This could just be the classes I have taken, but it seems to me that there is a focus within both American culture and government on judging human-rights violations abroad while not acknowledging those at home.

I am in the prison internship program here at Vassar, and at both the maximum-security prison Green Haven Correctional Facility and mediumsecurity Otisville Correctional Facility, I am always struck by the fact that almost all of the Vassar students are white, and almost all of the incarcerated men are black. Here in New York, less than 20 percent of incarcerated people are white, even though the state is over 50 percent white. Obviously, it is not a coincidence that the elite college students are largely white and incarcerated people are predominantly minorities.

This fact points to the immense racial inequality that remains in American society. In fact, the United States has by far the most bloated prison system in the world, with Americans accounting for 25 percent of the global prison population and only 5 percent of the world’s total population. In addition, 48.2 percent of incarcerated people are black, even though black people make up about 12.7 percent of the American population. Here, people are imprisoned for lesser crimes, with much longer sentences than any other developed nation. The institutionalized racism and the massive overall prison population demonstrate the need for the United States to address its prison system as a threat to democracy because it reveals justice is not doled out equally to all people.

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The United States created its public education system to create an equal opportunity for all Americans to become educated. To foster education opportunities abroad, the United States has created foreign-aid programs to help improve education, such as the Education Program in Pakistan. However, this same level of attention has not been applied recently to the severe disparities in education in our country, which directly relate to race. It is common knowledge that poverty is related to ethnicity (about 27% of African-Americans and Latinos live below the poverty line, as opposed to 11 percent of whites), and that poor minorities tend to live in innercity neighborhoods. One of the major funding sources for public schools is property tax, meaning that public schools in poor neighborhoods receive far less funding than wealthy areas. In addition, the middle class has the option to send their child to private school if their local public school is not up to par, which is an option that the poor do not have. The vast inequalities in our education system mean that children going to an under-funded school will be much more likely to slip through the cracks and drop out, or if they graduate, will be much less prepared for college.

This is not to say that people cannot make it out with a thorough education, but they will have to work much harder for it than a student at a wellfunded school would. Due largely to the inequality in education as a result of poverty, the average black score on the SAT in 2009 was 1276, while the white average was 1581, and the Asian average was 1623. This extreme injustice in opportunity is one of the major reasons that almost three quarters of people who recently graduated with bachelor’s degrees were white.

The United States should begin to focus more on improving the human rights of its own citizens, instead of always pointing the finger at the rest of the world. It may sound extreme to discuss human rights violations within the United States, but when people are less likely to receive a good education, and more likely to end up in prison due to their race, I cannot think of anything else to call it. It should be within our grasp to work on fixing both our prison and education systems and end this cycle of poverty. If we could eliminate the racism and inequality inherent in both systems, this would be a large step for human rights and democracy, as well as legitimize America’s human right’s agenda abroad.

Crossword by Jonathan Garfinkel ACROSS 1. Study at the last minute 5. Frequent utterances from Santa 8. Puzzlemaker’s nickname 12. Progenitor 15. Actress Thurman 16. Menagerie 17. Bomber’s goal 18. “Up in the Air” carrier, briefly 19. Certain woodwind 20. Genetic stuff, briefly 21. Rider’s whip

23. Deviate 24. Observe surreptitiously 26. Author Joyce Carol _____ 28. Pastry found in the proverbial sky?

29. Scent 33. Bruin great Bobby ___ 34. Mailing label abbr.

35. Hanoi holiday 37. Cheat, perhaps 39. What a 19-across has two of 41. SNL alum MacDonald

Answers to last week’s puzzle

44. Place for some cobrahunting in the Bronx 46. At once, once 47. Horror director Craven 48. First woman, to the ancient Greeks 50. Nice water 51. John _____ tractors 53. “Cloud Shepherd” sculptor 54. Atilla, for one 55. Shank 58. Bill Clinton’s instrument 60. Yoko and kin 62. “___ thee hence!”

63. Emporio ______ 67. Bruins of the NCAA 68. Pittsburgh-NYC dir.

69. Some china 70. Legit 71. Paths (abbr.)

72. Outdo DOWN 1. With “The”, home for Snoop and Dre, briefly 2. Norma ___, Sally Field title role 3. Alight 4. Jolly 5. McCarthy group, briefly 6. “The Wire” stickup

man extraordinaire 7. Bar in the old west 8. Slime 9. Playwright Edward _____ 10. Results of the Rodney King verdict 11. “Everything Is Illuminated” Author Jonathan Safran ____ 13. Parisian denial 14. “___-La-La” 22. Treaty 24. Horse’s daddy 25. Hollywood blogger Hilton 27. Angsty one 28. Genre for Britney or Ke$ha 29. Listener 30. Suffix for “home” or “farm” 31. Courtroom typist, briefly 32. “Star Wars” home of the Ewoks 36. Jenga structure 38. Big (holy) Poppa?

40. Airport code in The O.C. 42. What one must do with what one sows 43. East Lansing sch.

45. Boat movers 49. “______ region” (“naughty bits”) 51. Idiot 52. Hiroshima B-29 _____ Gay 53. Some feller, say

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

54. Word with “finest” or “darkest” 56. Dean Martin song, “____ that a Kick in the Head” 57. Apiary denizens 58. Maple syrup precursor

59. “Alice’s Restaurant” Singer Guthrie 61. “Rebel Without a Cause” actor Mineo 64. Consumed 65. Teutonic “new” 66. AOL, for one

HUMOR & SATIRE

March 24, 2011

Page 13

OPINIONS

An open letter from concerned minority Brittany Hunt Columnist

Dear Vassar College, I have been going to Vassar for three years now, and in my time here I have become hyperaware of the glaring oppression that my peers and I face everyday. The oppression is intertwined in the very framework of our institution, and it needs to stop to ensure that all Vassar students are treated fairly and equally. This is my treatise: I am a bro, and I’ve had enough.

You always hear about how it’s so tough for women, students of color and gay homos, but you never hear about the struggles encountered every day by the average straight, white, upper-middle class dude.

It’s tough to be silenced. I have tried to channel my thoughts and voice my opinions through numerous outlets on campus, but I only ever seem to have one option: The Chronicle.

So what problems, exactly, are bros facing across this campus? Well, for one, the All Campus Dining Center does not cater to the bro diet. I learned in that single day I spent in Intro to Sociology that humans have a basic right to nutritional and enjoyable food; having only one hamburger station is not nearly enough. Explain to me- what even is a “Vegan Sloppy Joe?” If I wanted to eat “organic” and all that shit I would have gone to Bard. Bros have a very special set of dietary restrictions that the liberal hippie population does not respect. We need lots of protein for playing sports, pwning n00bs in Halo, drinking keg beer and banging chicks. These nutrients can only be found in burgers, hot dogs, pizza and Poppin’ Pink Lemonade.

Another issue is the rampant

misuse of Vassar’s public spaces.

Whenever I try to watch some sports—you know, validate my sweet March Madness bracket— some girls are always watching Top Model marathons on all the dorm TVs. What is that shit?

Also, scheduling late seminars during prime sports-watching time is a blatant attack against my people. They wouldn’t dare schedule school during SXSW, so why would they do it during the Islanders game? Discrimination, that’s why.

Lastly, I feel that the entire style aesthetic at Vassar is geared to keep my brethren ostracized.

How the hell am I supposed to fit this muscular ass, sculpted from years of peewee football, into a pair of American Apparel skinny jeans? Those things will suffocate your sperm, and I for one plan to reproduce extensively with my hot future wife in order to produce baby bros to repopulate this world. Why do I get dirty looks when I roll into Intro to Macro in sweats?

This shit would not happen at Marist.

I think it is fairly obvious that Vassar is horrendously insensitive to a whole group of people on campus. I thought this was supposed to be a place where we could all learn together without the prejudice that has so long haunted this nation. We must unite as bros to tear apart this system that is treating us like second-class citizens. We will not rest until every student has a Natty Ice in their hand, every sports team has a cheerleading squad, every professor is packing a lip and every Hollister accepts V-Cash.

Sincerely, A Bro

at Vassar College - Switch Campus

Say you’re sitting in class, or at the dining hall, or staring creepily out your window down to the quad below, when you spot someone you think is kind of a tiny bit attractive. You wouldn’t go out of your way for this person, but you totally wouldn’t say no if they tried to suck face with you at a TH party. So how do you let this person know that you’re ever-so-slightly interested in their body? The answer: Like...A Little?

At Bio: Female, Brunette I dig the way you keep absent-mindedly chewing your pencil, and your purple Le Sportsac is bitchin’.

You’re at least the third-hottest girl in the class.

2 days ago • Like

Corndog says: I know who you’re talking about, and she’s definitely the second-hottest.

Author says: Maybe, but only on days when that blonde freshman wears contacts.

Corndog says: Fair.

At Jewett: Male, Blonde We’ve made out a few times. It wasn’t spectacular.

3 days ago • 2 Likes

Portobello says: BR? Fried Egg with Broken Yolk and American Cheese says: FL? Bagel says: I think this is me!!

At Lathrop: Male, Brunette You’re cute, but I don’t think you’re remotely attracted to my gender. If not, oh well. If so, oh well.

4 days ago • 1 Like

Crepe-adilla says: Preach.

At THs: Female, Blonde Does anyone else totally hate how you HAVE to pick a gender on this website? Like, what if I don’t know? Or what if he/she/zhe doesn’t know?? And how come “Other” is an acceptable hair color?!

COULD YOU STOP OTHERING ME ALREADY, LIKEALITTLE?!?

1 week ago • 3 Like

Author says: Also, hotties get at me.

PS: Who the FUCK is Of Montreal?

Weekly Calendar: 3/31 - 4/6 Thursday, 3/31 3 p.m. Tea. Ways to make this unseasonably frigid weather

less unbearable. Rose Parlor.

by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

8 p.m. Women’s Chorus Concert. I dare you to come to this concert and not want to leave with Elizabeth Scopel ’14 smuggled in your purse. Skinner.

Saturday, 4/2

10 p.m. Trivia Night. Question #83: Is it okay to title that babysitting job you had for two weeks the summer after sophomore year of high school “Executive Childcare Specialist” on your resume? Faculty Commons.

5:30 p.m. Robert Pounder Lecture. “Pounder? I hardly know ‘er! Oh wait, no, nevermind, we totally grinded to ‘S&M’ at the Mug last weekend.” Villard Room.

8 p.m. Saturn Watch. If you like it then you shoulda put a

Tuesday, 4/5

ring on it. Farm.

3 p.m. Tea. Make out. Like, a bunch. With anyone/any-

7 p.m. Haitian Comedy Night. “Knock-knock.” ”Who’s there?”

10 p.m. Around the World Party. “Julie, you can’t just throw

“Devastating earthquake resulting in an unbelievably high death toll and far-reaching structural, political and economic consequences!” “…That’s not funny.” “Yeah, you’re right.” Aula.

on a bedsheet and start yelling ‘OPAAAA’ and claim to be Greece. That’s not how Greece works.” Villard Room.

thing that’s remotely ready/willing/stays in one place long enough. Those almost-twin dorm beds get awful cozy when you try to squeeze in a second (or third) person.

Rose Parlor.

Sunday, 4/3

5:30 p.m. Panel on Careers in Finance. First topic: how to

3 p.m. Vassar College Choir Concert. Bach, Brahms and

Beethoven: Perfect for when you roll out of bed hungover at 2:48 p.m. on Sunday. Skinner.

stretch that $1.22 of Retreat points you still have left over the rest of the semester. Oh, that’s not a career? Bored. Rocky 200.

Friday, 4/1 3 p.m. Tea. Set fire to that philosophy midterm you totally

bombed—what the balls even is a panopticon, riiiight?—and huddle around the flames for warmth. Rose Parlor.

Monday, 4/4

Wednesday, 4/6

4 p.m. ALANA Center Jam. Confession: As an Alanna, I like

3 p.m. Tea. Look on the bright side: You have another entire

to pretend that all ALANA Center events are completely focused around me, i.e. this one would just be six straight hours of me singing, eating three different kinds of hummus and talking about my webbed toes. TH Circle.

week to wear that oversized sweater from Urban Outfitters that you claim your dead grandmother knit for you even though everyone else at Vassar owns the exact same one.

Rose Parlor.

12 p.m. Blood Drive. MAYBE EDWARD CULLEN WILL BE THERE, YOU GUYS. Villard Room.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

3 p.m. Tea. Tea. No, like, actually, drinking tea is a really good way to stay warm. Rose Parlor.

ARTS

Page 14

March 24, 2011

One-woman Students play all summer at Powerhouse play captures Iraqi identity V Emma Daniels Reporter

Ellen Xie

he Artist-in-Residence Program, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will continue in its second phase this semester.

The program engages artists with the Vassar community and facilitates conversation across disciplines. Last semester, award-winning playwright and actress Heather Raffo worked on an adaptation of her Brodway production “9 Parts of Desire” to “Sounds of Desire.” Raffo has returned to Vassar for a spring residency through which she will teach a course, share the process she used to develop her play and work on a current project centered on Iraqi occupation after 2010.

On March 25, Raffo lead a lecture about the process of staging her one-woman show, on April 25 Raffo will discuss her new project, and on May 3, Raffo’s six-week course will perform monologues based on their conversations and interviews throughout the class.

In “9 Parts of Desire” Raffo plays out the lives of nine Iraqi women, including a painter, a radical Communist, doctors, exiles, wives and lovers. The play touches on the conflict between the ancient and the modern in developinchg feminine identity in a country consumed with war. Raffo identifies as an Iraqi-American and her immediate connection to both Iraq and the United States has, in her words, made her “a natural diplomat between those two heritages.”

She added, “I’m Iraqi and an American and it is an urgent dialogue for me personally, as much as it is for our nation’s future.” Pieces like Raffo’s are few; however, the public has been extremely receptive. In an article by Charles Isherwood of the New York Times, he described Raffo’s plays as “Powerful, impassioned, vivid and memorable.”

Her new piece seems to be going in a similar direction as it gives an inside look at Iraqi lives. Curator of the Artist in Residence Program and Costume Design Assistant Arden Kirkland commented on Raffo’s previous work: “[It’s] a voice that more generally represents the Other—those who are not being represented in mainstream media, but whose voices need to be heard.” These voices are critical in the context of post-occupation Iraq, as the potential for change, autonomy and representation across the board is highest.

Raffo’s production of “Sounds of Desire” includes the concert reading “9 Parts of Desire” accompanied by the music of Amir ElSaffar and Arab Maqam musicians Hadi el Debek, Johnny Farraj and Gaida Hinnawi. The adaptation allows the audience to relate emotionally: Kirkland commented, “I felt like I got to know her different characters—they made me laugh, or cry.” At the same time, though, the play questions marginality. Kirkland wondered, “Why did I not already know the stories of these women?”

This semester, Raffo’s project—involving 300 faculty members active in 28 academic departments, six interdepartmental programs and 13 multidisciplinary programs—will involve many disciplines including Women’s Studies, Music, Anthropology and Political Science. Raffo is teaching a course called Writing Immigrant Narrative, in which participants look at the ethnographic process behind the play “9 Parts of Desire.” Students write first-person narrative monologues or poems based on interviews with migrant communities. The class culminates with the development of an expressive character in a position different from one’s own. The idea is to generate student, professor and artist conversation and interaction to create something that will challenge current beliefs and perhaps shake the norms.

Both Raffo and the Vassar community will benefit from the program. The wide-array of faculty serves as a convenient resource for Raffo while her work provides a venue for conversation that may otherwise remain unaddressed.

Students will interview people from immigrant or migrant communities to create a narrative monologue or poem. Despite being its first year here, the Mellon Grant Artist-in-Residence Program has been, as Kirkland said, “a huge success.”

Courtesy of the Powerhouse Theater

T

Guest Reporter

assar is renowned for its impressive theater department and history of performing arts. The College added to this legacy by collaborating with the New York Stage and Film to create the Powerhouse Theater Program and Apprentice Training Program, a summer opportunity for students interested in acting, designing, directing and writing.

The selective Apprentice Training Program provides 40 theater students the opportunity to be exposed to a wide range of theatrical experiences, and the opportunity to work on the development of productions headed to New York, and to other top-ranked theaters in the area.

Participants in the program work with established members of the field. Producing Director of the Powerhouse Theater Edward Cheetham said, “I’ve contributed a lot to the program but also gotten a lot from the program.” The Powerhouse was influential in jump-starting Cheetham’s own career; he began his relationship with Powerhouse in 1991 as a directing apprentice.

He attested to the lasting power of the program when he said, “Our main goal is to nurture young artists, and the apprentices gain a lot from the program, whether they stay an artist or take the knowledge they’ve gained into different parts of the world.“ Students who participate in the program come from all corners of the country and beyond. Cheetham said, “I travel all over to preach the gospel of Powerhouse,” and participants have come from places as far-reaching as South Africa, Brazil and Singapore to participate. Some participants, however, find the program significantly closer to home. Every year, some Vassar drama students remain on campus to apprentice.

Cheetham commented specifically on Vassar students participating in the program. “It’s a complimentary program to what happens here during the academic year,” he said, but noted that it has significant differences from the Vassar experience. “You don’t have to worry about writing papers and doing homework.

All we’re asking you to do for six weeks is theater; you’re just here to play,” he said.

The Powerhouse Theater Program and Apprentice Training Program, created by Vassar and the New York Stage and Film, allows 40 theater students to learn from established members of the field.

Matthew Bourne ’11 reiterated Cheetham’s words in an emailed statement. “My summer as an apprentice was one of the most exciting and fruitful learning experiences that I’ve ever had, not to mention one of the most fun,” he wrote, adding, “I can’t stress enough how much I think that people who want to be in theater should do this program.”

Apprentices attend morning classes in acting, voice, movement, directing and soundpainting—the practice of composing sign language for performers. Students also participate in afternoon rehearsals and workshops and evening performances. According to the program’s website, one participant asserted, “You can always sleep later.”

The apprentices are also key players in helping to facilitate the professional season, which includes two main-stage productions, secondstage and workshop productions, and playreading festivals. Some shows that have been premiered at the Powerhouse are “Doubt” by John Patrick Shanley, which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the Tony-Awardwinning “Tru” by Jay Presson Allen.

The apprentices also participate in their

own productions—up to three outdoor productions, studio productions, site-specific plays, readings and workshops, which are free to the public.

Each summer, more than 7,000 Hudson-Valley residents and visitors attend Powerhouse performances of plays and musicals in development.

“The fact that the program exists at Vassar is great for the community,” said Bourne.

The program is most beneficial for those intimately involved, though. Hannah Rubinek ’13 wrote in an emailed statement, “Powerhouse is one of those programs that, as you’re doing it, you think it’s changing your life. Afterwards, when you look back, you know it did.”

She added, “It’s the kind of work that stays with you.”

Both Rubinek and Bourne’s words confirm the program’s cult-like following. Cheetham said that whenever he runs into a former apprentice, they never fail to reiterate what they’ve gained from participating in the Powerhouse program. “All the people who are here are here because they want to be here and believe in work they do,” he said.

Vassar Haiti Project celebrates 10th year Shruti Manian

N

Reporter

o question Haiti has endured hardships beyond its share, but this week, the Vassar Haiti Project (VHP) will highlight the dynamic, creative and often overshadowed aspect of Haitian culture: its vibrant artwork.

Director of Vassar’s International Services Andrew Meade and his wife Lila Meade have a very special connection to Haiti. Andrew Meade grew up in Haiti in the 1970s, while Lila Meade’s mother lived there in the 1920s.

“When we met each other, we realized that Haiti had affected us in so many different yet similar ways,” said Andrew Meade. With a desire to give back to the country that has provided so many fond memories, Andrew Meade began VHP in 2001. The Haitian Art exhibition, auction and sale is the most prominent event the VHP organizes at Vassar and Andrew Meade calls it their “anchor event.”

The exhibition will be held in two venues: the Palmer Gallery and the College Center Multi-Purpose Room (MPR). The College Center MPR will showcase a wide variety of works, ranging from paintings to handicrafts, while the Palmer will house the rest of the art, including some paintings to be auctioned. The auction elicits wide participation from members of the Poughkeepsie community, Vassar alumnae/i as well as families of current students. “The whole point of the auction is to build energy. It is an event that generates excitement and it is a fun event that involves participation from people,” said Andrew Meade.

The art on sale includes paintings, handicrafts, sculptures, and merchandise like scarves, bags, T-shirts and much more. All the art is created by artists from Haiti and is a window into the vibrant and colorful culture of the nation. “We try to represent as many artists and styles of

expressions as we can. We want to support the welfare of the artists to the best of our ability,” said Andrew Meade.

With 400 paintings from over 100 different artists, the exhibition gives painters from Haiti a chance to showcase their art on a platform that gives them a great deal of exposure. All the art is full of spirit and a refreshing, bright personality. According to Vice President for Programming in the VHP Mai Nguyen ’13, “Haitian Art is so inviting, it immediately draws you in.

Whatever their hardships might be, their art is so positive and full of color.” Nguyen has been involved with VHP since her freshman year at Vassar. She was also part of a group of 16 students that went to Haiti in October 2010.

The students visited a village school the VHP funds, met locals and helped out at a medical clinic. “All the market scenes, detailed landscapes just seem to come alive. After coming back from Haiti, all the art on display seems just like photographs,” said Nguyen.

What is remarkable is that despite the great turmoil that Haiti has seen in the last few years, their art always seems to reflect the bright side of life. “There is a sense of humor in their art, as if they are poking fun of life itself, despite the hardships it is full of. Even if you look at the painting depicting the recent earthquake, it is booming with color,” said Nguyen. “Despite the fact that most of these artists live in tents, the vibrant assortment of art they create literally brings the room alive,” added Lila Meade.

VHP uses all of the proceeds from the exhibition to fund various initiatives in Haiti. The VHP has used the funds to develop a lunch program to attract students to attend school, thus the one-room primary school has grown a great deal in the ensuing years. Accordingly, the reach of VHP has now expanded to numerous other initiatives like reforestation projects

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

and medical clinics.

In addition to the exhibitions, the Palmer Gallery will also have a wall dedicated to the faces of VHP. An entire wall will be covered with pictures of people who have been involved with VHP over the last 10 years. To tell the story of how the Vassar Haiti Project has grown over the years, from its humble beginnings to a prominent VSA organization this year, there will be a presentation called Timeline of VHP during the exhibition reception. The project is not just about supporting education in Haiti, but is also a lesson on how one can make a difference to a community.

It is something tangible that students can be involved with and know that their work is indeed making a significant contribution.

The organization has made a deliberate attempt to ensure that all the merchandise on sale is more affordable for Vassar students specifically. “Of course, you can’t expect students to be able to afford paintings. But they can most definitely buy the bags, scarves, T-shirts and other merchandise which are priced specifically for students,” said Lila Meade. The funds raised through the auction are sent directly to projects in Haiti.

Explained Lila Meade, “One of our major concerns is that the money should have an accountability trail and we know exactly where the money is going.”

VHP has raised over $650,000 to help Haiti, and this exhibition is one of the most vital events for the organization. “The whole idea behind the exhibition is to keep the art alive and support the artists as well as the art itself,” said Andrew Meade. The VHP exhibition will be held at the College Center MPR and the Palmer Gallery from April 8 to 10.

The Live Auction will be held on Saturday, April 9 from 4-6 p.m.

March 24, 2011

ARTS

Page 15

Sculptures turn Vassar campus into visual arts playground Connor O’Neill

Assistant Arts Editor

L

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

Courtesy of Samantha Shin

ate March and snow still traces the contours of the leaves that surround the path from Main Building to the All Campus Dining Center.

Dotted along that path are backless, gray-black, stone benches. They are hard to miss, but easy to overlook. Halfway down, one of them reads: “Hidden, oh hidden/In the high fog/The house we live in,/Beneath the magnetic rock./Rain-, rainbow-ridden,/Where blood-black/Bromelias, lichens,/Owls, and the lint/Of the waterfalls cling,/Familiar, unbidden.”

There are 20 benches in all, and like this one, all are engraved with the poetry of Vassar alumna Elizabeth Bishop. Installed in 2006 to commemorate then President of the College Frances Ferguson’s retirement, the benches occupy one of the most heavily trafficked areas and are thus an enviable location for hopeful artists on a campus teeming with works that attempt to tease out a vision of our surroundings out of that high fog of familiarity.

The benches were done by conceptual artist Terry Holzer, who is known for her work bringing text into public space. In a 2006 interview with the Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center Holzer noted, “This stone is a dignified and appropriate home for the Bishop poems.” The poems, chosen for the way they comment on the surrounding environment, conjure images of an ethereal natural world, full of atmospherics. Take, for example, this excerpt from “Sandpiper” that is etched onto a bench with an open view of Noyes Circle: “The world is a mist, and then the world is/Minute and vast and clear. The tide/Is higher or lower.” The piece works to great effect, as the viewer contemplates words etched in stone as the mutability of the natural world unfolds before their stone seat.

Farther across campus but no less concerned with the changing landscape sits the installation

by Sam Shin ’12 on Joss Beach. Tangled pieces of metal welded into warped, orb-like structures are attached to exposed parts of a tree where limbs have been cut off. “When I was a freshman, all these stumps still had their branches.

I noticed [they were gone] sophomore year and that’s when I thought I really wanted to do something with that,” Shin said. The opportunity arose that spring when she received an assignment to re-vamp an old sculpture. Originally one of the orbs sat in a tree on Sunset Hill but was tucked out of the way of much of the foot traffic on campus, and Shin took the chance to expand the project to fit three refurbished orbs on to the newly pruned tree outside her dorm door.

“I thought it was interesting that we are trying to protect this tree but yet we lop off its limbs. I think that’s the idea for this,” Shin said in reference to the experience of working within an arboretum. “I call it growth. This is what’s grown out of the trough, but its also a parasite,” she mused as she indicated the rusting metal and taught wire holding it in place. “Are these the wounds or is this the healing process?”

Vassar’s campus is home to a variety of sculpture installations, such as the benches lining the path from Main House to the All-Campus Dining Center. Junior Samantha Shin’s “Four Figures,” pictured left, can be found in the Library courtyard. An installation on Joss Beach is pictured to the right.

At once suggesting an organic bulb blossoming from the wood but carrying with it the cold connotations of steel, the installation presents a puzzling vision of a the natural world. “What right do I have to engage with a tree that is so much bigger than me?” Shin asked, reaching her arms out. “But I hope it brings attention to the tree and gets people to wonder more about the branches.” She trailed off and looked up at the branches, which begin far up the trunk, giving it the appearance of a popsicle.

Shin, whose favorite installation on campus is the half-buried house that sits not 20 paces from her own, is fully engaged in producing more installations. “My friends and I talk about doing more sculptures here [on Joss Beach] and turning it into a sculpture park.”

But her work is not limited to the northwest corner of campus. During study week last winter Shin installed the four plaster figures that stood in the Library courtyard. Titled “Four Figures,” the pieces, each around the size of a small giant, were arranged to face each other in a tight circle. Their undefined features and ghostly gray color gave off an eerie feel as they colluded out in the snow.

Originally meant to face outwards, patrolling the area, Shin changed her approach late in the process of constructing them. “I think this is a result of spending long nights in the studio. I started to sympathize with them. I was scared of them but they were scared of me and of each

other too,” she explained. “They are wondering who each other are.”

And Shin was not the only student to donate an artistic vision to the Library. Around the same time as Shin’s installation, Rhys Bambrick ’11 situated light boxes into the second floor niches of the Library that are three-dimensional representations of anatomical drawings. Having wandered the Library in contemplation, an idea came to him as if from the space itself. Bambrick describes his creative process: “I walked through the Library…my 21st century frame moving tightly through the 20th century stone doorways.” Attentive to the warmth of the space and the atmospheric lighting of the open second floor, he wrote in an emailed statement, “I had a distant feeling that I could highlight the human quality of this space where most students retreat into their mind.”

By pursuing the physicality his brainstorm suggested, Bambrick decided on sculptures that at once captured the warmth of the space as well as the nudge toward the bodily presence of the architecture. “Thinking of the nearby stained glass, I turned off my studio light and shone a very bright flashlight into my flesh, holding it tight against my hand and it glowed a beautiful red-orange.” Continuing to be inspired by the surroundings, Bambrick elaborated that he “thought about the figurative quality of the room. The ceiling beams recall ribs and the window mullions and the iron detailed of the ban-

isters look like webs of veins and arteries. This brought me to anatomical drawings.”

Installed, they are anatomical drawings brought to life and light, replete with gesture and hue and a corporeal illumination that no drawing on the page could render. “I wanted the work to embody that blissful warming of the body that occurs when I walk into a home warmed by a glowing fireplace,” wrote Bambrick, whose previous installation was constructed under rainy conditions at the Farm. And he, like Shin, hoped to install something that confronted the viewer whether or not they happened to be there to see the work. Even the placing itself works towards a cohesive vision of physicality not just in terms of the body but in actual location: “In a programmatically and atmospherically intellectual space, where a stained glass mural goads students to keep at their studies, these glowing anatomical collages remind the overworked student to remember her body. Once they acknowledge their corporeality, they hopefully stretch out sore typing fingers, take a little walk to refresh their blood flow, or reconsider that all-nighter.”

And should the weary student heed the artist’s urging and venture outside, a new installation put up only this weekend—a cluster of reeds huddled together, pitching in the chilly spring wind—awaits them on the front long. It is yet another example of an artist hoping to mold and reconfigure the experience of living and seeing the Vassar campus.

Ribicoff lecture shares highlights of Cloisters seminar Adam Buchsbaum

Assistant Arts Editor

O

n the top floor of a tower that boasts magnificent views of the Hudson River, 11 lucky students gather for their weekly seminar, Beyond Borders. The site of the scene is the Cloisters, a medieval art based-branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) located in New York City. Dr. Barbara Boehm, the curator of both the Cloisters and the Department of Medieval Art at the MET, is a visiting professor at Vassar this semester and leader of the seminar. Beyond Borders is the annual Ribicoff seminar, named for generous alumnae Belle Ribicoff ’45 This Monday, April 4, Dr. Boehm will deliver the Ribicoff lecture at 5 p.m. in Taylor Hall.

Entitled “A Land of Merchants, a Dwelling for Demons,” the talk will cover similar topics addressed in the seminar. Boehm will explore the place of Babylon in medieval faith, legend and commerce. While members of the seminar might be more than familiar with the lecture content, the event will provide the public and student body an expert’s perspective on an art historical period as well as a little glance into

one very specialized course offering.

The 300-level art seminar provides a unique, off-campus opportunity to students. Every Friday after taking a short bus trip, students arrive at the Cloisters for their two-hour seminar.

The course focuses on the relation of medieval art with contemporary travel and trade. Assistant Professor of Art History Andrew Tallon is on leave, so he picked Dr. Boehm to fill his space as a Medievalist in the department. After graduating Wellesey with degrees in history and art history, Dr. Boehm pursued her interest in the Middle Ages with graduate studies at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

She then landed work at the Main Building of the MET, after which Dr. Boehm moved to the Cloisters, where she is the current Curator of the Department of Medieval Art. “Dr. Boehm is a world expert on reliquaries and works at the Cloisters Museum; we couldn’t have imagined a better person to teach in my stead while away, someone who could explore the world-class collection of the Cloisters onsite with Vassar students,” Tallon wrote in an emailed statement. “I wish only that I’d been able to take the course as well,” he added.

Students in the class not only closely discuss medieval art together, but are also expected to lead one of the seminars. Dr. Boehm began the course with an introduction to the Cloisters’ collection. From the introduction on, the students are expected to lead class. Each student must deliver a presentation on Medieval works of art in a specific medium—say, Gothic Ivories—whose creation can be more thoroughly appreciated through the framework of contemporary trade and travel.

Dr. Boehm still participates in the discussion, of course, playing an important role in directing and reacting to the discussion. “It’s great because she is really involved,” Mariclare Dasigenis ’10 said. “You’re leading the discussion, but then she asks pointed questions.” An art history major, Dasigenis was the first student to lead the seminar, presenting research on Gothic Ivories. “I did a lot of background research and then specific research about objects at the Cloisters,” she said. The prospect initially intimidated her, but still Dasigenis found the seminar fascinating and a unique opportunity.

Dasigenis also had to choose around 10 masterworks from the Cloisters’ collection for her

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

study to show during the presentation for immediate analysis and viewing. “They bring the objects out onto the table that we’re studying.

It’s really cool. So you’re looking right at the object,” she said. “We also go down into the museum for some things they couldn’t take off display.”

“It really teaches you how to research and think critically,” she concluded. In addition, Dasigenis finds Dr. Boehm’s unique point of view as the curator intriguing—the seminar exposes many elements of the museum profession. Concrete things about running a museum—such as acquiring works of art or how to display them—have come up in discussion.

The class is not limited to the tower, and walks around the Cloisters involve looking at, discussing and analyzing the works there. Dasigenis feels fortunate to experience the seminar.

“We’re really spoiled,” Dasigenis said. “I show up and get to look at beautiful things, which is awesome.” Dr. Boehm, who last taught a seminar back in 2005 for the Institute of Fine Arts, is glad for the opportunity to educate students again. “I jumped at the chance—I love teaching!” Dr. Boehm wrote.

ARTS

Page 16

Photographer Josh Cogan to give lecture

Daring artist tackles racial, gender issues

Mitchell Gilburne

Rachael Borné

Features Editor

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J

Arts Editor

aleesa Johnston ’11 has been drawing since she was just a kid. When asked how she first became interested in art, Johnston responded: “Not to sound corny, but my third-grade teacher gave me a sketchbook.” She drew in her sketchbook constantly, and her teacher quickly noticed her zeal and talent. She honed her drawing skills early on, and with her parents’ permission went on museum trips with her teacher, who encouraged her to continue drawing and to perhaps even pursue art as a career. She had taken many art classes in high school, but always saw it as more of a side interest rather than a vocation. It was not until her time at Vassar that Johnston began to truly see art as her possible career path.

Johnston is an art and ethnic studies double major, with ethnic studies as her own independent major. She has found the Art Department extremely welcoming and effective despite its small size, and greatly enjoys being closely involved with it. “The Art Department’s open critiques definitely made me more interested in the art community on campus,” Johnston said. In addition, she has found the slew of guest artists and lecturers the Art Department brings to Vassar incredibly inspiring.

Here at Vassar, Johnston mostly paints and draws, but says she has very recently started dabbling in photography. Her work primarily focuses on real-life set-ups, portraits and still lifes, but also sometimes stems from her imagination. At this point in her artwork she does not delve into the abstract, saying she is “not quite there yet.” She and several other students also helped put together work for the off-campus, student-run Catskill Art Show.

“The Catskill Art Show is the first time I’ve displayed any of my work outside of Vassar’s campus, so I’m very excited about that,” Johnston said. The students had to set up the walls and organize the show, giving them far more control and freedom than usual.

What really sets Johnston apart from other artists is her willingness to breach provocative issues in her paintings. Currently, she is working on her senior thesis, which focuses on black female sexuality. “The history of black female sexuality is very complicated

Campus Canvas

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

hotography, though a relatively recent member of the pantheon of artistic media, has experienced an accelerated rise to prominence as an instantly accessible, evocative and truthbaring form of art. Emmy-Award-winning photographer Josh Cogan, who claimed this title in the New Approaches to Documentary category, continues to muddle the line between the artistic, the anthropologic and the educational via his quest to capture images of and explore religious plurality and Jewish Diaspora. Cogan, the elder brother of Noah Cogan ’13, will be giving a talk during an event hosted by the Vassar Jewish Union entitled “Am Olam: People of the World” tonight at 5 p.m. in Rockefeller Hall room 200, during which he will illuminate his experiences, impart his wisdom and showcase his art.

Cogan’s work has been printed in such publications as The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and GQ magazine.

Additionally, Cogan’s talent is frequently called upon by the Travel Channel. Despite his success, Cogan had not always envisioned himself as an artist, let alone a photographer. After inheriting a healthy measure of “wander lust” from his maternal grandmother, Cogan headed off to Israel for his Junior Semester Abroad. Looking to immortalize his abroad experience, Cogan purchased a camera, and the rest seemed to flow forth naturally. “It just really worked for me,” explained Cogan, “It was a good thing for my personality type. It was the thing that allowed my mind to go quiet and allowed me to pursue things with my heart and intellect. It’s the thing that I love, that gives that buzz. I got the camera, started shooting, and I was non-stop shooting from that point on.”

From that moment onwards, Cogan synergized his academic background in anthropology with his emerging passion for art while prioritizing respect for his subjects over all else. “My approach is to blend in as seamlessly as possible. I try to make my presence have as little impact as possible,” he said.

Cogan’s current project was, at least in part, inspired by his observation of religious tolerance in Cochin, India. Boiling down his muse into a single snapshot, Cogan recalled, “I was in Cochin and I was working on this process on what kind of Jewish identity remained, and I met up with some local guys. We took this motorcycle ride to this area deep within one of the communities. We get back there about dusk and it’s this grave, a Jewish grave, and it’s been kind of Hindu-ized. It has been painted these bright colors and there are garlands on top. I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’ and all of a sudden these Hindu and Muslim kids start lighting candles at the grave.” Though he was taken aback, the anthropologist within could not let this scene go by unquestioned. “I asked these kids, ‘What are you doing?’ and they said, ‘Shabbos,’ so I go back and do some research and it turns out this was a Sephardic Jew who settled in Cochin in the 1600s and had been adopted as some type of sage.” Cogan contextualized, “This to me was interesting because you see a Jewish person being accepted and celebrated. It’s something particular to India because there’s a lot of plurality in the system as a whole.” With a full roster of gods, Cogan has found Hindi cultures to be more open to the idea of allowing other deities into their belief system.

For Cogan, Cochin provided the initial kernel of an artistic project that would grow as large as the world is round. Though initially hesitant to delve into his process, claiming, “Artists don’t really like to talk about what they do, it’s like thinking about how you breathe.” Cogan ultimately explains the philosophy behind his art. “You’re not capturing spirituality,” he instructed, “you’re capturing feeling, just like any art. You’re trying to get an image to embody a moment.”

In chasing the Jewish Diaspora and instances of religious pluralism that have sprung up in its wake, Cogan creates art out of anthropology and utilizes it’s emotional power to bring to life a world almost lost to the ravages of time, war and social tension.

March 24, 2011

Jaleesa Johnston ’11 first became interested in art when her third-grade teacher gave her a sketchbook. Now about to graduate, she plans to move to New York City to particpate in its arts scene. and has often been portrayed very negatively in society,” she said, “and painting allows me to assert my sexuality as a black woman.”

Her senior thesis is a clear example of how closely her two majors intertwine, with her painting exemplifying the struggles of a specific ethnic group. By merging the concepts and ideals of her two majors, Johnston has managed to demonstrate work that is both personal and multi-disciplinary.

As a senior, Johnston is in the midst of planning out her next move after Vassar. “I’m trying to find a job in New York City and use my earnings to support myself and paint,” Johnston said. “New York has such a great arts scene, and I’d really like to work to strengthen my portfolio,” she added. Johnston plans to attain a Master’s in Fine Arts once she has

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

“Reflection” is a 3x4 oil painting that I recently finished as part of my senior art project. A burlesque dancer sits on the countertop of her vanity mirror backstage, examining her nails. While we watch her during a commonplace and possibly private moment, her reflection looks up to catch our gaze with her glare. A common issue within the history of black female sexuality is the erasure of the separation between the public and the private: Black women’s bodies have always been on display for the dominant gaze, from African slaves such as Sarah Baartman to the contemporary video vixen. The subject in this painting is a performer, a woman who enjoys expressing herself through the erotic dance of burlesque; however, her reflection draws the line in defining when our gaze is welcomed and when it is not. This is one issue among many that I am in dialogue with in my work. The overall goal of my project is to utilize the luscious physicality of paint to talk about the fun, exciting and freeing moments of black women’s sexual expression while also acknowledging and nodding to the oppressive and exploitative history of black female sexuality. It is also a very personal expression of the contradictions that I have within my own sexuality, all of which I am constantly struggling with and embracing at the same time.

—Jaleesa Johnston ’11

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

spent some time after Vassar working on her portfolio and exploring her artist style further.

Johnston is from San Rafael, Calif., but is more than willing to sacrifice being near to home for the vivacious art scene of the Big Apple.

Johnston is definitely inspiring for any underclassmen currently looking into the possibility of becoming a studio art major.

The creative outlet has no doubt given her a vehicle for expressing passions and beliefs whole-heartedly. In addition, art has offered her an opportunity to explore issues of selfconsciousness and self-awareness within the framework of black female sexuality. Through her honesty and active involvement on campus, Johnston is committed to pursuing a career as an artist, and she is a testament to the rewarding nature of the arts path at Vassar.

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March 24, 2011

ARTS

Page 17

Convoy to host workshop, deliver laughs have always liked the juxtaposition between the mundane and the ridiculous. For us, the more ridiculous something is the more funny it is to examine what is mundane about it.”

Matt Carey’s involvement with comedy started long before his time at Vassar, and his legacy is no doubt still alive here today. He started performing during his senior year of high school where he participated in casual theater and sketch comedy through a group based in Cambridge, Mass. Shortly after, he performed with Boston Improv where he gained considerable praise, later to have a scholarship fund named in his honor.

At Vassar, Carey was a member of Improv with Alex Fernie ’03, Todd Fansen ’03 and Alex Berg ’03—all current members of Convoy. Together, the four talented comedians left their mark on Vassar by founding The Limit, a group thats name was inspired by the single “Take it to the Limit” by American rock band The Eagles.

After graduation, the four friends moved to Los Angeles and formed the comedy group Allergic to Todd, performing there until Carey’s death.

“It was a great loss, and he was a good kid­—a character,” commented Jeanne Carey. “Matt was trying really hard to make it in LA, but he didn’t have quite enough time to make it.”

Matt Carey’s creative pursuits may have been cut short, but his enthusiasm for comedy has a strong legacy. Remaining Convoy group members made an appearance on Reno 911 that aired on Comedy Central, and they also performed at the IO West and Largo theaters in Los Angeles.

As one of their greatest accomplishments, Convoy holds the Cage Match’s longest winning streak at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater in Los Angeles. Known as the world’s most dangerous improv show, the Cage Match involves two teams taking the stage for long periods of time, performing sketches and webisodes to prove who is the best of the best. The audience determines the winner by ballot and the winning team continues to advance each week

Henry 348 Warren Street Hudson, NY 12534

Saturday’s Comedy Night is held in memoriam of Matt Carey ’03, who died of heart failure in 2004. to defend their title against a new challenger.

Convoy boasts 44 straight wins, and remains undefeated to this day.

After working with and learning from Convoy in previous year’s comedy workshops, Thulin explained of the group, “They are humble, they are brilliant, they are fun and just a great group of humans. The Limit and Improv are so happy for them to be here.”

No doubt Matt Carey loved Vassar and enahanced the comedy scene considerably, as he helped start one of the most popular comedy groups on campus and laid the foundation for the prolific passion for humor we experience today with more than a handful of troupes on campus. He was always trying to involve the student body, thus the Matt Carey Comedy Night this Saturday is an honest testament to the thriving passion for humor one notable alumnus left in his wake.

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Artist Nancy Shaver’s brainchild in the quaint town of Hudson, N.Y. The store sells objects chosen specifically for their visual qualities, color, shape, form and texture. Last semester, Shaver gave a lecture explaining her aesthetic choices concerning design and artwork. Shaver believes that anything can serve a decorative function in specific settings. The store is located on a street lined with many creative shops and art spaces—the perfect weekend day trip for folks interested in collecting unique trinkets.

Courtesy of henryinhudson.com

COMEDY continued from page 1 up through the generous donations of friends, faculty, and alumnae/i. The Matt Carey Comedy Night will be celebrated this Saturday, April 2 at 8 p.m. in the second floor of the Students’ Building.

“Instead of people sending flowers, we wanted a fund through Vassar,” Carey explained.

“Matt was very invested in the comedy scene and getting new people involved in Improv while at Vassar, which is where the idea came from. We knew that this would be something that he would want. Each year, new people come that are exposed to comedy and who may want to get involved.”

The expectations for this year’s performance are as high as ever. Explained Carey, “It has evolved since 2005, every year they send a postcard to everyone who donates to the fund.

It’s been six years, but every year donations are made. People always seem to support this,” said Carey.

Convoy has not only agreed to headline the show, but will also be instructing a comedy workshop before their night performance. According to Kate Thulin ’11, member of Vassar’s current Improv group who will perform before the show, “You leave feeling like you’ve done something good that day.” She added, “After the workshops, I feel like I’ve gotten a reminder of what I’m supposed to do and how I’m supposed to think in the sets that we do during the shows.

Their outlook has been pretty instrumental in the way that we structure things.”

This Saturday, Convoy, Improv and the Limit will all be doing long-form sets, a type of nonstop, flowing performance composed of different scenes based on a set of themes. According to a description on the Convoy website, “What we try to do when we improvise is find worlds we can explore. We stumble upon a premise: This is what this world is. Then we explore that until it triggers another premise in our minds, and then we follow that.” The website also explained, “We

SPORTS

Page 18

March 24, 2011

Vassar teams, individual players thrive at home and away game of the day, Clarkson jumped out to an 8-0 lead, and although the Brewers fought back to cut the deficit to one, they were unable to tie as Clarkson persevered 8-7.

Andy Marmer Sports Editor

Men’s Fencing

In his fourth and final NCAA tournament appearance, Andrew Fischl ’11 finally achieved All-American status.

His 12th-place overall finish in the sabre earned Fischl recognition as an Honorable Mention All-American.

Fischl was joined at the event, which was hosted by Ohio State University, by junior epeeist Brian Rouse, who finished 24th in his weapon. Fischl finished with a record of 12-11 for the tournament, while Rouse fenced his way to a 6-16 mark. This year marked the first time two Vassar fencers competed in the national tournament. Fischl’s standing is also the highest finish from a Vassar fencer since 2005, when Michael Kantor finished 10th in the foil.

Men’s Lacrosse

Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News

Men’s Volleyball

In the inaugural United Volleyball Conference Tournament, the No. 4 seed Brewers swept No. 5 seed D’Youville College 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 25-22) in the first round. However, the Brewers’ momentum proved to be short-lived as No. 1 seed Nazareth College, the No. 2 ranked team in Division III, defeated Vassar 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-21).

Evan Fredericksen ’11 led the Vassar attack in both matches, totaling 30 kills on the day (14 against D’Youville, 16 against Nazareth).

Still, in the second match, the Brewers could not overcome a balanced Nazareth attack, which saw three players from the Golden Flyers reach double-digit kills.

This weekend, the Brewers will compete in the Northeast Collegiate Volleyball Association tournament.

Vassar earned the No. 10 seed and will take on Medaille College in the first round. The winner of the tournament earns a place in the Molten Championship.

Women’s Tennis

The No. 29 nationally ranked wom-

The men’s rugby team won over SUNY Albany last Saturday, March 26 with a score of 17-10 when scrumhalf Garrett Montgomery ’11 broke a 10-10 tie with just minutes remaining. The team recently returned from Spring Break in Barbados. en’s tennis team upset Liberty League rival No. 19 nationally ranked Skidmore College this past Saturday.

Although Skidmore picked up the first point of the day at No. 1 doubles, the Brewers fought back to take the other two doubles points, including a remarkable effort from Jennifer Beckerman ’12 and Alyssa Roush ’11 at No. 2. Beckerman and Roush trailed seven games to two; however, they successfully rallied for a 9-8 victory.

This momentum led Vassar to capture five of the six singles points en route to the 7-2 victory.

Men’s Tennis

Last Saturday, the men’s tennis team traveled to Tufts University and although Andrew Guzick ’13 and Max Willner ’11 earned a doubles victory, the team fell behind 2-1 entering singles play. Ben Guzick ’12 and Andrew

Guzick both earned victories at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively; however, the bottom of the Vassar lineup was unable to follow their lead as Vassar dropped the match 6-3. Notably, Andrew Guzick defeated his opponent in three sets, with all three sets reaching tiebreaks. The Brewers rebounded this past Monday with a 9-0 sweep of Drew University.

Baseball

This past weekend, the baseball team commenced Liberty League play, hosting Clarkson University for a four-game series. Although each game was decided by one run, Clarkson prevailed in three of the four contests.

In the first game of the weekend, sophomore Lawrence Flicker held the Golden Knights to just three runs over seven innings, but ultimately

Clarkson prevailed 3-2. In the second game, Clarkson scored five runs in the top of the ninth to send the contest to extra-innings. With darkness approaching, the decision was made to postpone the remainder of the game until the next day, but it only took one inning for Brewers second baseman Dave Robbins ’14 to drive home Joe Bubar ’11 with a single up the middle after Bubar doubled with two outs and in the process gave Vassar an 11-10 victory.

The first game of the second day began just as the previous one finished, in extra innings. The game that was scheduled for seven innings went nine, with Scott Allen ’12—after earning the victory in the previous game— giving up just three runs in eight innings. Still, after Allen exited in the bottom of the ninth, Clarkson pushed across the winning run. In the final

The men’s lacrosse team dropped a pair of contests this past week, including their first Liberty League contest of the season to No. 9 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

RPI jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first three quarters and cruised to a 10-2 victory. Vassar looked to rebound against Farmingdale State College last Saturday, but dropped the game 7-5 in a back-and-forth affair. Andrew Nicol ’14 made 20 saves in the two games.

Women’s Lacrosse

The women’s lacrosse team unleashed an unparalleled offensive onslaught, scoring 20 goals in a 2018 victory over SUNY Farmingdale last Monday. Sarah Warner ’11 led the attack with nine goals—a Vassar single-game record. Heather Kesselman ’12 started the second half in goal for the Brewers, with the game tied at 12 and made six saves in earning her first win of the season.

Women’s Rugby

Keri Peacock ’11 dominated Amherst College last Saturday. The senior scrumhalf recorded five tries in leading the women’s rugby team to a 44-5 victory. With Vassar leading 145, Peacock notched five of the next six tries, putting the contest out of reach.

Men’s Rugby

In a hard-fought match, the men’s rugby team triumphed over SUNY Albany 17-10. With the score tied at 10, scrumhalf Garrett Montgomery ’11 went over the touchline for the decisive try with just minutes remaining.

Following the try, the Vassar defense held firm, cementing the victory.

Track begins season with strong Monmouth meet Nathan Tauger

T

Reporter

Courtesy of Sports Information

he men’s and women’s track teams had promising performances from both expected and unexpected sources at their first meet of the season, the Annual Monmouth University Season Opener. From memorable premieres to exciting returns, track Coach James McCowan, via email, toured some of the performances of the day.

Stephanie Malek ’13, ran a 5:17 mile and placed first in her heat in the 800 meter, running a 2:35. “[Malek] had a great meet and the previous year and a half of hard work is finally starting to pay off,” wrote McCowan. “Her performances [at Monmouth] were a huge improvement over last year and only a taste of what she is truly capable of. Her progress and work ethic are a coach’s dream, and seeing her progress has been very rewarding.”

Some of the performances at Monmouth were returns to form rather than personal records, but these too were significant. “[Jon Erickson’s ’11] career here at Vassar is a story of tremendously huge highs punctuated by frustratingly long layoffs for injury. It has been a long time since the 2009 Liberty League 800-meter champion and school record-holder has raced on the track,” explained McCowan. Erickson made a triumphant return from last year’s season-ending foot sprain to take second in the 800 meter.

“Despite the long time off from racing, [Erickson] clearly still has the knack, and watching him take control of the track again is spectacular. Given his training to date and his layoff last year, [Erickson] is starting at a great place and will doubtlessly be setting more records this season,” wrote McCowan. Also in the 800 meter was Sam Wagner ’13, who placed fifth.

In addition to Erickson and Wagner, Yaron Teich ’13 placed highly at Monmouth. Teich finished fifth in the 10,000 meter run with a time of 33:44.18.

Yet perhaps the most surprising and promising showing at Monmouth was that of captain Zoë Carpenter ’11, in the 5,000 meter. Through an emailed statement Carpenter shared the anxiety of racing the event outside for the first time in her track career, and racing on a track for her first race since sophomore year. “I’ve raced 5K on the cross-country course but never on the track,” she wrote. “Until this season I ran mid-distance events, and I’m nursing a knee injury, so I wasn’t sure what the race would feel like or what kind of condition I was in.” Carpenter finished fourth in a field of 39 with a time of 18:22, qualifying for the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship (ECAC), which Coach McCowan called “pretty outstanding.” Carpenter described her smart race: “[Aubree Piepmeier ’14] and I ran shoulder-to-shoulder for the entire race, which helped with pacing and motivation. For the first half of the race we hung back slightly from the large front pack, but runners in that group started falling off the pace after the first mile and we were able to slowly close the gap.” Piepmeier also qualified for the ECAC Championship in the 5K, with a time of 18:25.

Piepmeier and Carpenter were Vassar’s anchors in the 5K but Chloe Williams ’14, Hannah Ziobrowski ’12, Arial Shogren ’13, Melissa McClung ’12 and Kristine Olson ’13 (Full Disclosure: Kristine Olson is a staff-writer for The Miscellany News) all broke 20 minutes in the 5K, an impressive feat for so many members of one team.

Also on the women’s side, short distance runners had impressive performances. Sopho-

Melissa McClung ’12, pictured above, was among the seven members of the women’s track team who broke 20 minutes in the 5K at the Annual Monmouth University Season Opener last Saturday. more Katherine Warrick had a strong day running the 100 meter and 400 meter events. In addition, Warrick was a member of the 4x100 meter relay team, which finished sixth overall.

Also competing on the Vassar squad was Olivia Iloetonma ’14, Tiffany Marchell ’13 and Emily Denn ’14.

Laura Van Eerde ’13 had a strong throw in the javelin, reaching 30.80 meters.

McCowan also received strong performances from Justin Rupert ’12, in the 1,500 meter, the 4x400-meter team consisting of Erickson, Wagner, Zach Williams ’12, Alvin Chang ’14 and

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Mathue Duhaney ’13 in the 100 meter. Regarding the entire meet, McCowan reflected: “This is a nice confidence builder for the teams, and as the weather warms I’m sure we will be seeing even faster performances ahead!”

The Brewers will look to display that confidence as both the men and women will be competing in two different meets this weekend. On Saturday they will travel to Princeton, N.J. for the Princeton Sam Howell Distance Classic.

The next day features a trip to Mahwah, N.J. for the Ramapo Invitational. Vassar did not compete in either event last season.

March 24, 2011

SPORTS

Page 19

Amidst league lockouts, fans are forgotten constituency Nik Trkulja Columnist

L

ockout season is upon us. The NFL and the NBA both seem set to endure prolonged lockouts as disagreements over revenue distribution between teams and players continue. Everywhere you turn, a media pundit is either defending the owners or the players.

Yet, amidst all the talk about lockouts, I keep wondering, what’s in it for the fans? Somehow, we’ve simply been discarded in this feud, between millionaires and billionaires, over control of our sports.

Maybe I’m delusional, but I always thought that professional sports existed because of the fans. Humans want to watch other humans compete with each other. It’s a very simple concept. In fact, we want to see this competition so much, we are willing to pay exorbitant amounts of money to make it happen. Every year, it seems as if sports bleed my wallet dry. I pay to watch games live. I pay to legitimize my support with official gear. I pay to see athletes on my television and, of course, I pay by sitting through countless hours of commercials for the privilege of two minutes of action in between TV time-outs.

All my support and enthusiasm would be for naught if I were, say, a Mets fan. Losing money, time and sleep, fans of bottom-feeding teams have it worse than anyone. True, they get a 25 percent discount on gear and tickets, but they don’t get that sweet smugness that comes with a Kobe

Bryant championship. The simple joy of rubbing a Lakers’ Game 7 victory into the faces of Celtics fans has kept me going this entire year. Let’s face it, since the leagues are hell-bent on raising prices, feeding me commercials and then calling me spoiled for expecting victories, I might as well jump on the bandwagon of good teams and enjoy myself. Yes, I am a Yankees fan.

This brings me to a more important question. If fans are the lifeblood of professional sports, then why do the players and owners call the shots? I can’t say I’ve woken up in a cold sweat recently wondering how Jason Kidd will fare in retirement, or how Deron Williams will send four kids to college. Honestly, I don’t care what the players in any of these leagues earn. The fact that they have jobs is enough for me. Similarly, I don’t care about the team owners, either. If you have enough money to buy a team, you’re doing pretty well for yourself.

I’m dreaming about owning a worthwhile fantasy team, so listening to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones cry about his finances is not really something I want to do every day.

Yet, ESPN forces me to go through a daily cryfest about who has it harder, owners or players.

Right now, I’m torn about who to cry for. NFL owners have locked players out because players refuse to accept a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Their new CBA would see the owners skim a total of $2 billion off the top of the NFL’s $9 billion of revenue and then have player salaries cut. In the NBA, players

and owners can’t agree on a new CBA because owners claim losses are mounting, while players claim that all revenue streams have never been better and the biggest costs, salaries, have actually decreased over the last three years. It’s a fantastic argument on all sides: “Give me my money because I said so.”

Nobody actually knows what the finances of the NFL or the NBA are like because the owners won’t allow full disclosure. In turn, the fight continues and instead of football and basketball, we’ll get to enjoy prolonged statements on why each party is in the right and how they both just want what’s best for the fans.

Excuse me? What’s best for the fans? In this world of ever-rising prices for all things sporting and less accessibility for the average fan, let alone the student fan, I’m happy to know owners and players have my interests at heart.

When they whine about their disgusting revenues, I feel like I’m in a cocoon of team-owner love. When NBA players want more guaranteed money, I look at their unemployed peers and understand the pain of a paltry $490,000 minimum salary. After all, who wants to settle for a mere Porsche at 19?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about correct revenue distribution. I really do believe that players need to get the most out of their playing careers.

Why should owners, who have other revenue streams, exploit players for maximum benefit?

Furthermore, why should owners exploit fans’ dedication and love? I shop at Best Buy because

it’s cheap, not because I’m a diehard fan. When Best Buy raises its prices, I move along. I can’t do that when my team decides it wants more money. I love my team and I’m not about to turn my back simply because it’s cheaper to support another. Owners know that and they exploit it— why wouldn’t they?—it’s a steady stream of income that will never budge.

That’s where this whole lockout business gets really bad. Instead of wasting breath talking about owners and players, we should concentrate on the fans. Whatever happens, it’s the fans that are going to lose. Either we won’t get to watch the sports we love or we’ll have to pay more to make up for the lost revenue or higher costs. It’s a lose-lose situation for us. When the Knicks were terrible, the fans suffered but the team still made money. Now that the team may start getting good, instead of rewarding the fans, the team raised ticket prices 49 percent.

It was a clear slap in the face of dedicated fans.

As a fan, I can’t stop watching sports; that’s what I love doing. By extension, I can’t stop them from making money off me. It’s part of the game. But I can stop defending them and pretending like I care about their revenues and salaries. While the owners and players may get rich off the fans, the teams survive solely because of us. Without fans, there is no team, there is no league and there is no discussion of revenue. So to the owners and players I say: Take your hands out of my wallet and just play ball already.

A researcher’s journey American League team and back to soccer fandom players to watch this season Kelly Capehart

I

Guest Columnist

thought I was going to know how to write about American soccer fan culture when I embarked upon my senior thesis in American Culture in August. I had a clear vision of how it was going to go: I’d meet some soccer fans, go to a couple games with them, take some notes and write. Never did I imagine I would become so completely engrossed in their culture. I realized just how deeply ingrained my research was in my mind when I attended the U.S. Men’s Soccer match against Argentina last Saturday at the New Meadowlands Stadium with the American Outlaws (AO), one of the fan groups on which my research focused.

Soccer fans in the United States are a peculiar bunch of people. They are at once vilified (as would-be hooligans) and derided (as failed, imitation hooligans); they are both overlooked by the mainstream media and also (as my thesis argues) called upon— pressured, really—to build a bridge between the United States and the world using soccer as a common language. I wrote in a semicoherent manner about the unusual plight of the American soccer fan and how he can’t live up to the vision of enlightened, liberal, open-minded fanhood that some soccer intellectuals so desperately hope he will, and I wrote about how maybe we should give the American soccer fan a break.

The hazard of being a researcher is that, ultimately, you feel that you are somehow in charge. In a strict sense, you are the one who puts the final word down on paper and draws the meaningful conclusions. But at some point, your thesis or your article or your research ends, and you are left standing empty-handed. To go from being an omnipotent researcher to just another spectator is a rude awakening.

I wandered through the crowd of soccer supporters in the parking lot, greeting the guys I knew and nodding awkwardly at the ones I only recognized. I talked to some of them about my thesis, but we also reminisced about our trips to Chicago and Philadelphia together and debated such topics as the merits of the new U.S. kit. At one point, one of my subjects told a beautiful story about a memento he had saved from the first U.S. soccer match he ever watched, and how he carried it to every game he attended to remind himself of how far he’d come as a fan. I thought, “What a wonderful

anecdote for my thesis!” But my thesis was over. I wasn’t a researcher anymore.

We stood in the stands in the gruesome wind, trying to hear which chants were being sung a few rows down from us and watching our team display varying degrees of aptitude on the field. The atmosphere was pretty lousy in comparison to other matches I’d been to with AO; I commented to myself, “I should assess that in my thesis.” But that opportunity, obviously, had passed.

During lulls in the game, I talked to the guy next to me. He had read my thesis just that morning and claimed to like it; we discussed the advantages of my being a female researcher, reasons why the English Premier League structure would never work in the United States and whether or not American soccer fans sometimes like to play the role of underdog. It was a meaningful, thoughtful conversation, but it wasn’t one that was happening between a researcher and a subject.

Even after I closed the cover of my thesis, my relationship with these soccer fans has continued. Moments ago, I replied to an email from one of them; I appear in someone’s Facebook profile picture; I need to remember to text one of them later this evening. They are more than just my subjects, and more than just fellow soccer fans, though in the United States that’s enough to create a certain kinship. They have become, really and truly, my friends.

The match ended a little after 9 p.m., one goal on each side: an even score, with neither side obviously in control, especially in the second half. Some may claim that Argentina didn’t bother to show up in a mental sense, but I saw the heated discussions happening between the teams on the field: the passion, and the respect, was there. As we left the stadium and I headed to my own car, my AO friends and I realized that this was the last time we’d be together, at least for a while. We shared some hugs and a few jokes outside the gates, and then we went our separate ways.

As I pulled my USA soccer jacket and AO bandana closer to myself against the awful winter wind, I wondered whether I had closed the book on AO forever. On that evening, I was just another person—one of over 78,000—in the stands.

On Saturday night, I wasn’t a researcher: I was a fan. And I still don’t know how to write about that.

Andy Sussman

L

Columnist

eaves are growing on the trees, the temperature is above freezing and my March Madness bracket is completely decimated: That means it is spring, and with spring comes baseball. With Opening Day now upon us, I give to you my predictions for the 2011 season, starting with the American League (AL). Warning: Bet on these predictions at your own risk.

AL East Winner: Boston Red Sox. How often does a team lose its best hitter and fielder and get better? Welcome to Beantown, where the Red Sox made up for losing All-Star third baseman Adrian Beltre with the signing of speedy Carl Crawford and the trade for Adrian Gonzalez, one of the best all-around first basemen in baseball. This was a team last year that won 89 games in spite of the fact that its players were more injury-prone than Ken Griffey, Jr. and Grant Hill running barefoot in a minefield.

Even in the exceptionally tough AL East, the Red Sox stand as the favorites with their strong pitching, patient hitting and Dropkick Murphys background music.

AL Central Winner: Minnesota Twins. Like the AL East, the AL Central most likely will be a competitive race between two or three teams.

Unlike the East, however, it is highly debatable that any team in the AL Central knows what it means to be above .500. So while the Chicago White Sox signed slugger Adam Dunn, the Detroit Tigers have formidable pitching behind ace Justin Verlander and the Kansas City Royals have little-leaguers on its roster, my imaginary money is going on the perennially playoff-bound Twins. Joe Mauer is an elite catcher, Francisco Liriano has recovered from his Tommy John surgery several years ago and even 70 games of a concussed Justin Morneau at first base is better than most of the division has to offer.

AL West Winner: Oakland Athletics. I’m thinking of a team in the Bay Area with four talented young starting pitchers who look to be real playoff threats this year, but I’m not thinking about the 2010 World Champion San Francisco Giants. Yes, I am quite aware that the Athletics have not had a winning season since 2006 and have considered changing the team’s philosophy from “Moneyball” to “No-Money Bore.” However, the Athletics have Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez and Dallas Braden to pitch them into contention, even if the team’s hitting is so pathetic that it will le-

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gitimately miss Jack Cust. The Rangers are not as strong as they were last year when Cliff Lee was on the team, so this division is up for grabs.

And you know the most “Athletic” team gets the stuff that is up for grabs (sorry, sorry).

AL Wild Card: New York Yankees. To hear a Yankees fan talk about the 2010 offseason, you would think that the team got relocated to Siberia after Communists decapitated Babe Ruth’s corpse. No, the Yankees were not able to sign Cliff Lee, and their bitter rivals did improve rather markedly, but that does not mean the Yankees are without talent and money. Star shortstop, Captain and Minka Kelly’s fiancé Derek Jeter re-signed with the team, along with the greatest closer of all time in Mariano Rivera. Not to mention the Yankees signed AllStar reliever Rafael Soriano, meaning the team already has more quality relievers than it has had in a decade. Throw in Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano, along with bona fide ace C.C. Sabathia and you have a very highly paid but also very talented nucleus that is more than capable of winning the 90 games or so to clinch a playoff berth.

And now for the individual end-of-season awards: AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers. It has not been the best start to Cabrera’s year, as he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and went to rehab. However, there is no better hitter in the American League than Cabrera, who will be in his prime this year.

With the Tigers likely to be in playoff contention the entire season, this could be the year of redemption for Cabrera, just as it was for Josh Hamilton last season. Personally, I can’t wait for the movie, when the role of Cabrera will be played by Lindsay Lohan.

AL Cy Young: Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox. Just four and a half years ago, Lester was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, potentially derailing the young pitcher’s promising career and life. Thankfully, however, Lester quickly overcame the disease and has developed into one of the best and most consistent starting pitchers in baseball. Lester will have more than enough run support behind him and should continue to dominate hitters and Cesar Izturis alike.

Worst Newcomer: Bartolo Colon, Yankees.

Remember when I wrote several paragraphs ago that Yankees fans are overreacting to one disappointing offseason? Well, Bartolo Colon is every Yankees fan’s counterargument number one.

SPORTS

Page 20

March 24, 2011

Club offers Vassar skaters new opportunities on rink Corey Cohn

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Sports Editor

Courtesy of Iced Brew

ynchronized skating is an incredibly challenging sport, as it combines the grace of individual figure skating with the critical collaboration of traditional team sports. It has reached higher levels of popularity in recent years, highlighted by modest efforts to make it a future Olympic event. Although there is no indication that synchronized skating will be featured in the 2014 Winter Games in Russia, there are plenty of opportunities to participate on the local level, including here at Vassar.

Synchronized skating is built on precision.

With groups consisting of as many as 16 skaters on the ice at once, each participant must not only be concerned with his or her own movement, but his or her place in the routine as a whole. Formations are judged based on how well moves are executed as well as how flawlessly the team stays in unison—beyond just the actual skating. Everything, from clothing to jewelry to how skaters wear their hair, must be consistent.

Iced Brew is the name of Vassar’s synchronized skating team, one of several club sports on campus. It was founded during the 20062007 school year through the efforts of thenfreshman Hannah Erdheim ’10, though the club did not begin operating until the following year. Rachel Eisen ’11, who has participated in the club for the last four years, still remembers the team’s humble beginnings. “The club was so small that we could not even compete because we did not have the minimum number of skaters [eight] required,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “We had no coach, one student leader (Erdheim) and our program was very, very simple.”

Iced Brew has grown considerably, and consistently, since then. The team has a coach, Deirdre Bonanno, who has been serving in that role for the past three years, following one year as a consultant, and has coached in several disciplines for the last 20 years. Vice President Lauren Chin ’13 said the team has increased in size every year since its inception. The club, which started with six members, currently has 19, 17 of whom are female. “We’re trying to increase the number of men,” Chin said, “but we always want to attract as many people as possible.”

Chin explained that, after spending much of her life figure skating, she did not want to give up the pastime once she enrolled at Vassar.

Iced Brew, Vassar’s synchorinzed skating team, has grown considerably since its founding in the 2006-2007 school year. Starting with only six members, the club has since expanded to 19.

Once she learned about the synchronized skating team, she said, “I thought I might as well give it a try.” Chin believes that is the attitude of a lot of potential team members, who are usually accustomed to figure skating but not afraid to try something quite a bit different.

Such is the case with freshman Michelle Molina, who wrote in an emailed statement that Iced Brew was a major factor in her decision to come to Vassar, even though she had no previous experience with synchronized skating. Molina, who began ice skating in her native Philippines at age seven, shared Chin’s desire to keep skating while at college. “Knowing Vassar had a [synchronized skating] team was one of the many reasons Vassar was my first choice,” she wrote.

But Iced Brew is open to diversity. “Whatever your [skating] background is, we’ll accept you,” Chin remarked. Captain Meghan Cooper ’13 had never figure skated before coming to Vassar, but she was attracted to the synchronized skating team after meeting some of the members at the school’s annual Activities Fair.

Cooper said she had previously learned to hockey skate and always loved being on the ice.

She encourages even the most inexperienced

of skaters to give synchronized skating a try. “[We will accept you] even if you’ve never put on a pair of skates before,” she said.

The organization of the club allows for such a wide spectrum of skating skills. The team is broken down into three groups: competitors, alternates and trainers. Competitors are guaranteed to skate in competitions, while the alternates must know all the positions should they have to fill in. The trainers are mostly there to practice and learn the routines, with the ultimate goal of growing more comfortable with skating.

Bonanno explained how she manages a team with players who come in with varied degrees of prowess. “At the beginning of every new season, the first two weeks are assigned to team development,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “After that each member of the team is assigned a position, but that position does not exclude any team member; at each practice every skater is expected to skate no matter what.”

Iced Brew practices once a week at the MidHudson Civic Center, which is about a 15-minute drive away from Vassar’s campus. The team also holds off-ice training in the Athletics and Fitness

Center. The season, which runs from September to early February, features two competitions: the Terry Connors Synchronized Skating Open in December and the Eastern Sectional Championships at the conclusion of the season. The latter features schools in what is currently an 11-team division, including Hamilton College, Boston College and the University of Delaware. Iced Brew finished 11th in the 2011 Eastern Sectionals, held at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, but Chin pointed out that many other competing schools have synchronized skating programs that have a more established history.

Those other schools never tempted Molina, however. “Since I knew [Vassar’s] team was fairly new and still growing,” she wrote, “I knew it would be mostly for fun and not as intensely competitive as other schools’ programs.”

There are some drawbacks from the team’s club sport status, however, namely in terms of finances. Each skater is charged a membership fee of $300 for the season ($150 for trainers), which, according to Eisen, means “we need to... do a lot of fundraising in order to cover icetime costs, and travel, hotels and registration for competitions.”

But Chin, whose position on the club renders her responsible for fundraisers, said that is a great way to advertise themselves to the rest of the student body. Chin mentioned bake sales, frequent “Friday Night Skating” nights held throughout the year at the Civic Center and an “ice pong” table set up during last fall’s MidAutumn Festival in the College Center as some of the noteworthy ways the team has worked to raise money.

Just as important, though, is the camaraderie these activities help to build. As the name of the sport implies, it is crucial for everyone to be in sync both on and off the ice. Cooper said that the members of Iced Brew “try to spend as much time together as we can,” between cooking, tabling and the occasional team dinner at the All Campus Dining Center. Chin added that, now that the team has developed, there is more of a focus on team spirit and unity. This is the first year the club has an executive board, and that structure, Chin said, “helps everyone feel more comfortable with each other.”

In Bonanno’s eyes, this cohesion has always been one of Iced Brew’s most impressive features. Even back in her first coaching season, she recalled that “no matter what, no matter the teammate, there was no skater left behind.

Iced Brew is first and foremost a team!”

Lacrosse looking for Liberty League breakthrough Kristine Olson

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Reporter

Courtesy of Sports Information

he Vassar College men’s lacrosse team has never won a Liberty League game, and yet the Brewers are confident in their potential and ability to succeed. While their perseverance and positive attitude is commendable, their love of the game itself paired with a steadfast work ethic is the driving force of the men’s lacrosse team, a combination they hope will ultimately lead to at least one victory within the Liberty League this season.

The season has already proven to be a rough one for the Brewers, who are 2-4. The Liberty League for men’s lacrosse—which includes Skidmore College, Union College, St. Lawrence University, Hamilton College, Clarkson University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, ranked ninth in the nation—is difficult as usual. And with only 20 players, the Brewers are a small team compared to their competitors, which generally boast 30 to 40 team members.

The Brewers are also adjusting to the presence of a new coach as Drew Bezek steps into the role of interim head coach with Head Coach Joe Proud taking a leave of absence from the sidelines this year. Even amidst these adversities, Captain and goalie Alex Tice ’11 is confident that the Brewers can win Liberty League games regardless of their past history and present standing.

“We’re capable of winning against these teams,” said Tice. “We’ve come close before, losing by one point in overtime. So it’s not that we’re completely outmatched,“ he asserted. It seems that in seasons past, preparation simply never met opportunity—a recurring outcome

that Tice and his teammates hope to curtail.

What can, and will, the Brewers do this year to achieve their goal of winning a game in the Liberty League? “Everyone has to play,” said Tice. “And everyone is willing to play roles that need to be filled. We’re starting 10 to 12 guys who are in better shape than most of our competitors because they have to play the whole time at all our practices and games,” he added.

With this in mind, the Brewers will have to heed the fine line between fitness and burnout. As to why the Vassar men’s lacrosse team has generally been on the small side, “the jump from high school to college is huge,” Tice said.

He also cited other factors, including scheduling conflicts between practices and classes, time commitment and the prioritization of other interests.

The retention of players from freshman to senior year is a key component to the program’s ability to succeed, noted Tice. The inconsistency this presents to team dynamic and development has likely been a major contributing factor to the Brewers’ inability to bring it all together.

There is always the possibility and the hope that this year will be different. The Brewers’ defense is, as Tice put it, “veteran,” with Stephen Kozey ’12, Jeremy Gottlieb ’12, Rob Rooney ’11 and Zach Beauchamp ’11. Freshmen Max Herman, an attacker, and Andrew Nicol, a goalie, have also proven their skill, and will be notable components to the team’s success. Nicol made eight saves and Herman scored two of the Brewers’ five goals against State University of New York-Farmingdale, whom they fell to 7-5 last Saturday, March 26.

The Vassar College men’s lacrosse team is seeking to win a game in this year’s Liberty League despite the difficulties presented by the team’s relatively small size and the presence of a new coach.

When it comes to their source of motivation, aside from the enjoyment of playing, Tice added, “It means a lot for us when we have fans at games. And we have a lot of home games this season.” Fans will have a chance to cheer on the Vassar College men’s lacrosse team at home this coming Saturday, April 2 at 2 p.m. as

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the Brewers host Clarkson, whom they lost to, 9-8, in overtime last season. In that game, Jack Gross ’12 scored two fourth quarter goals, giving Vassar an 8-6 lead with 10:24 remaining in the contest. However, Clarkson scored twice late to tie the game, which they eventually won in overtime.