The Miscellany News | April 14, 2011

The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

April 14, 2011

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CXLIV | Issue 20

Filing for

Res Life adjusts room draw

campaigns extended Aashim Usgaonkar

Edith Iyer-Hernandez

he Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council voted unanimously in a meeting on Sunday, April 10 to amend the VSA Bylaws based according to a proposal from Seth Warner ’14. The amendment will extend the filing period and the campaigning period of VSA elections and will partially go into effect for the VSA elections this spring.

Beginning with the fall elections of the 2011-2012 academic year, filing will begin three weeks prior to voting and last for two weeks. Only face-to-face campaigning will begin at the start of filing, and candidates will only be allowed to use posters or the Internet to campaign during the final two weeks until voting begins. Candidates who choose to file for their position early and make use of the additional time to campaign will be required to sign a statement affirming that they have read and understood Article VI of the VSA Bylaws, which pertains to elections procedures, and that they “will be held responsible for all of [their] campaign’s operations and activities.” Because these changes are new, the proposal stresses this requirement in order to ensure a fair election for all candidates.

Those candidates who choose not to file during the first week will be required to attend a candidate’s meeting after the close of filing.

VSA Council amended Warner’s proposal at its meeting to address concerns brought up by certain See ELECTIONS on page 4

oom draw policy, as it applies to this year and to future years, will change to give priority to the current residents of houses and students in good standing.

As was noted in the 2011 Room Draw Guide sent out to students “All new house change residents will be placed in order of their room draw number after the current residents (within the same class year) of their new house.” Current house residents will now be given priority over students transferring between houses, who will be placed at the bottom of the room draw list for students in their class year.

Associate Director of Residential Life Rich Horowitz explained in an emailed statement that the Office of Residential Life had, in the past five years, “received some complaints about house change students moving into new houses and having a better selection of rooms than students who were returning to that house.” Two years ago, the Office of Residential Life sent out a survey to students in order to learn more about their feelings about the room draw policy. Horowitz said that the results showed that “this was one area in which we believed we could improve our services.”

This change was produced directly through interactions between the student body and the Office of See ROOM DRAW on page 3

News Editor

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Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News

Chair of the Judicial Board Shouvik Bhattacharya ’11, left, acted as respondent on behalf of the Judicial Board in an April 12 appeal hearing called by VSA Vice President for Operations and the Board of Elections co-Chair Ruby Cramer ’12, right.

Judicial Board rejects appeal Referendum results deemed invalid Caitlin Clevenger

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News Editor

he amendments to the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Constitution that would create a senatorial Council structure will not be included in the VSA Consitution, following a final ruling by the Judicial Board on Tuesday, April 12.

Though the amendment failed to gain a two-thirds majority vote in a Council meeting on March 27, a petition with over 400 student signatures was filed, enough to send the amendment to a student referendum. The Judicial Board, after reviewing some conflicting language in the VSA Constitution and

the VSA Bylaws, recommended that Council institute a vote in which a positive vote from a majority of the entire VSA—that is, the student body—would be required to pass See APPEAL on page 4

Guest Reporter

Judicial Board advises, checks Council Dave Rosenkranz

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Assistant News Editor

ast week, Vassar students voted on a referendum to restructure the Vassar Student Association (VSA). This past Monday, it was overturned; the appeal to this decision also failed. The controversy surrounding the referendum and its

appeal has drawn a lot of attention to the normally peripheral “other branch” of student government.

The Judicial Board often goes unrecognized in terms of the workings of the VSA, but in situations such as these, its role becomes essential.

As established by Article IX of the VSA Constitution, the Judicial Board

is an elected committee of 17 students that hears cases related to residential life and student government.

It is composed of four members from each class and one chair elected by the student body as a whole. Judicial Board positions are filled at each annual VSA election, and its members See JUDICIAL BOARD on page 4

Courtesy of McAllen Coats via Flickr

Rachael Borné Arts Editor

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fter the warm weather, cool breezes, scantily clad sunbathers and collegiate camaraderie that Monday’s forecast afforded, there’s no denying it—spring has sprung. To celebrate this almost euphoric time of the year in true Vassar fashion, ViCE Jazz will partner with a handful of student orThe Rozatones, a funk soul band, is only one of the ganizations to present South musical acts performing at South by South Commons. by South Commons, an all-day, outdoor arts and music festival

Inside this issue

8

FEATURES

Not your average bread recipe

15 ARTS

and night-time silent disco taking place this Saturday, April 16 at, yep, you guessed it, the South Commons.

“I want to epitomize Vassar in the springtime. I think this event will provide the perfect opportunity for everyone to spend time together outside, listen to great music and dance our hearts out,” said President of ViCE Jazz Toby Sola ’13, the mastermind behind the festival. The event will feature a See SXSoCo on page 16

Spirit of Vassar shines in student letters

Courtesy of the Special Collections Archives

SXSoCo Vassar’s own arts festival

Has the weekly grind got you down? Take a break from your hectic schedule and turn to Page 5 for a look back at Vassar’s weekly calendar.

17 ARTS

Dancing with the Professors set to return

Page 2

The Miscellany News

April 14, 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 Managing Qian Xu

Since the Vassar Student Association was renamed in 1979, April issues of The Miscellany News have often been filled with students elections coverage.

Coverage has focused particularly on the VSA president and other members of the Council who set the agenda for the next academic year.

This Week in Vassar History 1801, Spring 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.

1831, April 14 Matthew Vassar was one of the incorporators of the Poughkeepsie Savings Bank. He was later on the board and president of the Farmers and Manufacturers National Bank, which was chartered in 1834.

1879, April “The Sophomores have founded a Political Club which they called the T. and M. Club.

Diligent inquiry has failed to discover the signification of their mysterious letters.” Vassar Miscellany.

The Vassar College Prospectus, compiled in the spring prior to the opening of the college, was explicit on the impropriety of debating: “Oratory and debate are not feminine accomplishments; and there will be nothing in the college arrangements to encourage them.” Nevertheless, with support from the president and the faculty, political and philosophical debating had been a feature of college life from the founding of Philaletheis in December of 1865.

Speculation about the mysteries of T. and M. and particularly its name produced suggestions ranging from Tempus et Mores to Tea and Milk, Toast and Muffins and Tadpole and Monkey.

By Dean Emeritus Colton Johnson

1880, April 16 Vassar Brothers Laboratory was completed.

Since joining the faculty in 1874 as professor of chemistry, LeRoy C. Cooley had noted his concern over the poor lighting and ventilation in the chemistry laboratory, on the lower floor of Main Building, urging that it was not only inadequate but also dangerous. When an accidental fire in the chemistry laboratory of the monumental Pardee Hall at Lafayette College leveled the $300,000 building on June 4, 1879, Cooley’s concerns were acted upon.

1922, April 15 At the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City Vassar defeated Smith College 27 to 18 in the first intercollegiate basketball game between teams representing women’s colleges.

Nearly 4,000 spectators, most of them sporting touches of either Vassar’s rose and gray or the white and gold of Smith, watched as teams of alumnae from the two colleges watched a game that The New York Times called “fast and furious from the start.”

1944, April 15 Harriet Warner Bishop ’67, the last survivor of the seven members of the college’s first graduating class, died at her home in Detroit at the age of 98.

1951, April 20-21 Student leaders of Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar and Welles-

ley met at Barnard for the Seven-College Conference on Student Government.

1961, April 19 The Committee on Instruction announced the creation of the Department of Independent Study for the next academic year as a necessary step in achieving “education of the whole woman.”

1962, April 13-15 Four Vassar students participated in an intercollegiate conference on Civil Right in the North at Sarah Lawrence, where they conversed with leaders of the civil rights movement.

1962, April 18 Sarah Gibson Blanding, president of the college since 1946, announced that she would retire in 1964.

1965, April 17 Fourteen Vassar students marched in a protest against the war in Vietnam in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Women Strike for Peace also participated.

1967, April 17 As letters of acceptance to Class of 1971 at Ivy League and Seven College Conference institutions went out, The New York Times noted sharply increased efforts to add cultural and racial diversity to their student bodies.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Assistant News Joey Rearick Dave Rosenkranz 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 Laci Dent Shruti Manian Kristine Olson Connor O’Neill Jack Owen Chelsea Peterson- Salahuddin Jessica Tarantine Nathan Tauger Columnists Brittany Hunt Michael Mestitz Tom Renjilian Andy Sussman Nik Trkulja Christie Chea Katie de Heras Photographers 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.

April 14, 2011

NEWS

Page 3

Switzer speaks on gender equality in athletics New policy

discourages house changes

Joey Rearick

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Assistant News Editor

Katie De Heras/The Miscellany News

athrine Switzer’s life is defined by a single photograph, an image that captured the attention of the world and altered the course of her life forever. The photo shows her midstride, competing as the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon in 1962. Just behind her, a man incensed by her participation prepares to lunge. His hand is poised to seize her official race tags, to stop the historic run just two miles in.

“That was the event that changed history for women, and for men,” said Switzer, speaking to a gathering of Vassar students and faculty on Tuesday. “The story 44 years later is more important than it has ever been.”

Those familiar with the photo know what happened next: The angry race official, Jock Semple, attacked the 20-year-old Switzer, hoping to pull her out of the race. But moments later, her boyfriend and former NCAA football All-American Tom Miller tackled Semple, sending him flying. “I thought Tom had killed him,” Switzer recalled, only half jokingly, “But I knew I had to finish the race. If I didn’t finish, I would set women back. I would prove women couldn’t do it.”

Switzer did finish, and went on to complete 36 more marathons in her career, during which women’s sports grew at an exponential rate.

What might have been the darkest moment of her life, immortalized in a seminal photograph, gave her the strength to become a driving force in the push for equality between men and women both in the world of sports and beyond.

Switzer had enjoyed a successful athletic career in high school, but, upon arriving to study at Syracuse University in 1965, was annoyed by the absence of women’s sports teams. Eventually, she approached the men’s track coach, who allowed her the opportunity to train with the team. “The guys we’re really welcoming,” Switzer fondly remembered. “So amazing, so motivated. It was the first time I saw that runners are incredibly thoughtful people.”

She struck up a friendship with aging team assistant Arnie Miller—no relation to Tom Miller, her boyfriend—and the two worked out

Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, spoke about her experiences fighting for gender equality in athletics in a lecture delivered earlier this week in the Students’ Building. together at a slower pace. One day, after disagreeing about the feasibility of a woman completing the marathon, they struck up a bet: If she could finish the 26.2 miles, he would take her to the Boston Marathon and they would run it together. She completed the course he selected—even going five extra miles—and they registered her for the race under the ambiguous initial K. Switzer. Her boyfriend, then training for the Olympic shot put competition, was not to be outdone. “He said, ‘If a girl can do it, I can do it,’” said Switzer. After protecting her from Temple, however, he resigned to walking and finished hours after she did.

Switzer told the crowd gathered to hear her in the Students’ Building that she has improved as an athlete and used her sport to empower women around the world. She won the New York City Marathon in 1974, and helped stage over 300 races across the world to make a case for the inclusion of a women’s marathon in the Olympics, a goal she saw as powerfully impor-

tant for women everywhere. “I said that no one will know how important this is until the first woman comes through that tunnel into the Olympic stadium.” When that moment finally occurred, in 1984 in Los Angeles, she was covering the event as a television announcer. That triumphant moment forms the last paragraph of her memoir, Marathon Woman.

“Men are not better athletes than women,” she reminded her audience. “They are different athletes. Talent is everywhere; it’s just waiting for an opportunity.”

The lecture was organized by Director of Health Education Renee Pabst. Introducing Switzer, Pabst tied Vassar’s history of defying gender norms with Switzer’s courageous run.

She spoke of the College’s founding 150 years ago, when the experiment of educating women was far from universally accepted or supported.

“What Kathrine did, like Vassar, is a great example of women acting in defiance of conventional wisdom,” Pabst said.

Borgwardt discusses history of human rights Matthew Brock

Contributing Editor

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ssociate Professor Elizabeth Borgwardt of Washington University addressed the students and faculty who crammed into Sanders Hall’s Blanche Brumback Spitzer Auditorium on April 11 to hear her present her research on the history of human rights for the History Department’s C. Mildred Thompson Lecture.

“I want to begin with a particular document, the 1941 Atlantic Charter, as a jumping off point,” she began. “The Atlantic Charter is a short statement of war and peace aims … It’s fewer than 400 words—that’s even shorter than an op-ed that you’d see in a local newspaper.”

Borgwardt argues that this document, which was negotiated by President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1941, was the beginning of the modern conception of human rights.

She began by setting the scene for this momentous occasion. “Aug. 10, 1941…found President Roosevelt taking his longest public walk since he contracted polio,” she said. “He’s making his way along the deck of this British battleship, the Prince of Wales. He’s balanced on one side on his cane and on the other side on his son, Eliot … He’s walking to the right-hand side of [Churchill], who set up this elaborate religious service on deck.”

The meeting between the two world leaders was held in complete secrecy on a battleship off the coast of Finland, explained Borgwardt, so the press would not get wind of it too soon.

“Part of Roosevelt’s security is sailing up and down Cape Cod, taking turns with the cigar and fishing so the press thinks he’s on vacation,” she said.

The document that resulted from this meeting, explained Borgwardt, contained three main points. “The first group is a rehash of Wilsonian ideas,” she said. “The conflict is not about territorial aggrandizement. Once this event is over, any territorial changes will be in accor-

dance with self-determination.”

“The second includes provisions advocating free trade and disarmament under a collective security organization,” said Borgwardt, who paused to consider the meaning of this term.

“What does that mean? That’s the first reference to what becomes the United Nations, but it’s very vague because Roosevelt is afraid of inflaming this isolationist sentiment.”

The Atlantic Charter’s third point is concerned with “promoting the development of the human personality. Improved labor standards, social security … What’s this doing in a statement about war aims?” she asked. “You need to get at the domestic causes of wars,” she answered, “and one of those is instability.”

Of course, Roosevelt did not stop his march towards human rights with the Atlantic Charter, said Borgwardt. “Roosevelt proclaimed that he sought to establish four essential human freedoms everywhere in the world: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear.”

“Both the four freedoms and Atlantic Charter mean different things to different people”, said Borgwardt. The central point in this conflict revolved around a question: To whom do these freedoms apply?

Some believe that the Charter explicitly applies to every person and country in the world.

“They hope to see established a peace which will ‘afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all the men in all the lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want,’” Borgwardt quoted from the Charter.

“This language about all the men had this implicit corollary: Individuals were now an appropriate object of international concern,” explained Borgwardt. “This idea was seized upon by a young black lawyer in South Africa: Nelson Mandela,” who saw the struggle for human rights in Europe as the same as the struggle for

human rights in Africa, and thought the Charter should apply to both.

“Unsurprisingly, Nelson Mandela’s charter was not Churchill’s,” said Borgwardt; Churchill believed that it should only apply to the European states occupied by Nazi forces. “[Roosevelt’s] contribution was to emphasize aspirational economic rights,” explained Borgwardt, reaching her final conclusion: “The internationalized version of the four freedoms and the Atlantic Charter can be seen as a projection of the New Deal regulatory government onto an international stage.”

“In 1942, Churchill and Roosevelt negotiate a document that is a wartime statement of alliance,” said Borgwardt: The Declaration by United Nations, which was the first official document to explicitly reference human rights.

According to Borgwardt, this document contained four elements: traditional political rights, the broader rights found in the four freedoms, the inclusion of individuals over sovereign states and the emphasis that these principles should be applied internationally instead of domestically.

“This synthesis was something new under the sun,” she said. “All four elements influence our post-war understanding of human rights.”

Borgwardt acknowledged that while the Atlantic Charter and the four freedoms were a huge breakthrough, they were ultimately unenforceable through legal means. “It’s related to creating transnational institutions to create jus cogens—the idea that if you violate a particular type of norm, you know that you are doing wrong,” said Borgwardt.

“I want to leave you with a quote from Churchill that unwittingly captures the spirit of the Atlantic Charter…He was trying to argue that the Atlantic Charter was not a contract, it’s not legally binding,” concluded Borgwardt. “‘The Atlantic Charter is not a law, it is a star.

But sometimes we are more bound by our stars than by our laws.’”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ROOM DRAW continued from page 1 Residential Life, according to Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa.

Housing assignments will freeze at the end of room draw, at which point Horowitz wrote that he will “focus on Commencement housing, late stays, student conduct and first-year student preparation.” The Office of Residential Life will continue to accept emails from students who are unhappy with their current assignments throughout the summer, beginning on July 18. At that point, Horowitz plans to let students know what options are still available. In addition, negotiations to switch rooms and houses will continue throughout the 2011-2012 academic year, with the stipulation that only students initially in singles can move to other singles. Students that draw into a double or a triple will only be permitted to transfer into another double or triple.

Part of the survey the Office of Residential Life presented to the student body addressed whether students on probation should automatically receive less desirable room and house draw numbers. 65 percent of the respondents voted that such a policy should be enacted. Horowitz agreed with the majority, writing in an emailed statement, “In addressing matters of student conduct, I often find myself explaining the difference between punishment and logical consequence.

Punishment is a penalty imposed. A logical consequence is something one should reasonably expect given their behavior.

Probation in the assignment of draw numbers will most likely be viewed as a punitive measure by those who experience it, but it’s really a logical consequence,” Horowitz said. “You should expect either not to be invited back or—at least—not be given the nicest guest room if you visit a house and don’t meet the expectations of the host.” As such, the Office of Residential Life plans to institute a policy that would give draw numbers at the bottom of their class to students who had been placed on probation at any time during the academic year preceding room draw.

The Office of Residential Life is still working on developing their policies about students on probation. “Where we are stuck is the impact on apartment draw,” said Inoa in an April 10 Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meeting, saying that it would be hard to penalize a group of students if only one of its members were on probation. Still, when Inoa presented the survey results and the developing policy to the VSA, it received strong support.

Council members generally agreed that probation status currently means little to students in terms of penalization, and that a “logical consequence” would change that.

This policy is still in development and will only affect those students receiving probation after its enactment in the 2011-2012 academic year. Students who receive probation before the policy is put into place will not be affected. Horowitz also wrote that Residential Life “would certainly give the entire student population warning before putting [the new policy] in place.”

The policy already enacted, which gives poorer draw numbers to students changing houses, has decreased incentive for students to switch houses, and those still intent on switching face a more difficult time of procuring singles.

Rough estimates already indicate that house request changes have decreased by about 25 percent since the implementation of the current house change policy this year. There is also a significant increase in the amount of students requesting house changes with roommates, who will be able to draw a double room based on their roommate’s more favorable draw number.

Page 4

NEWS

April 14, 2011

VSA Council Judicial Board rarely hears VSA cases amends proposal ELECTIONS continued from page 1 Council members. VSA Vice President for Activities Tanay Tatum ’12 wished to strike Section 6 of the amendment, which states, “Promotional materials may be distributed during the course of direct contact between the candidate (or his/her representative) and the recipient. The creation of materials is subject to the financial regulations set forth in Section 5(d).” Tatum felt that “there was no way to enforce this. People could flyer the campus and [later claim that] they ‘just dropped it.’”

The motion to strike Section 6 was passed unanimously.

There was also a concern that these changes—taking place very close to the filing period—may cause confusion in the student body. Lathrop House President Sam Garcia ’13 said she “[doesn’t] feel comfortable having only those 10 or 15 who know [about the amendment] run against the rest of student body who may not know about it.” She added, “I personally don’t feel like it is fair in this situation.” Noyes House President Jenna Konstantine ’13 agreed, saying that she too is “very worried about confusion surrounding the change.”

Responding to these comments, VSA Vice President for Operations Ruby Cramer ’12 asked Council to ponder the implications of postponing the entire amendment. Warner argued that he sympathized with the sentiments, but “[thinks] it’s important we have this transition into these elections,” and proposed that Council only postpone the enforcement of certain portions of the proposal. He suggested that the enactment clause of his proposal be amended so as to postpone the implementation of Sections 5 and 6 until next year. At an earlier meeting, Warner stressed that the amendment, if enacted, would not greatly disturb the electoral process, saying it would be “great in effect but small in change.” He has created a website, www.vsaelections.co.cc, to explain the proposed amendment and to urge students to contact their representatives about it.

Section 5, which states, “Candidates may only use the Internet to campaign during the two weeks preceding the beginning of the voting period. Such Internet solicitations must adhere to all other regulations herein defined,” along with Section 6, which states, “Posters may only be displayed during the two weeks preceding the beginning of the voting period” were successfully postponed to the 2011 freshmen elections cycle. Council unanimously voted to amend the enactment clause, which added the sentence, “Sections 5 and 6 shall not be enacted until the Fall 2011 Elections cycle,” to the section.

However, this year, the start of filing period has been delayed after the referendum vote on other VSA Constitutional amendments to accommodate Judicial Board hearings on the referendum’s constitutionality.

While the Judicial Board deemed it unconstitutional, the decision was appealed; the appeal, however, failed on the Judicial Board’s floor on Tuesday, April 12. While the filing period has been postponed, the positions being contested remain the same.

Warner is the first student who was not a member of VSA Council to propose an amendment to any of the VSA’s governing documents in recent memory, as Council members noted at their last meeting. “The Operations Committee was so lucky to be able to work with [Warner] on this issue,” wrote Cramer in an emailed statement. “In what history of the VSA that I know, I have never heard of a student at-large taking the initiative to introduce a Bylaw amendment his- or herself, so what Seth did was truly unprecedented,” she wrote, adding, “We’re incredibly glad to have a student who cares enough about this issue to bring it forward on his own.”

JUDICIAL BOARD continued from page 1 cannot also sit on the VSA Council. This separation renders them an independent and, ideally, unbiased body of students.

With regards to the VSA, the Judicial Board wields considerable authority. As outlined in Article IX, Section 2 of the VSA Constitution, the Judicial Board is, in some ways, an advisor to the VSA: “The Judicial Board may convene to review the VSA Constitution and the VSA Bylaws and advise the VSA Council of problems or inconsistencies therein.” In other ways, the Board acts as a rule enforcer: “The Judicial Board shall ensure the compliance of VSA legislation with this Constitution and other legislation of the VSA”.

To this end, the Judicial Board’s jurisdiction extends “to all cases arising under the VSA Constitution, the VSA Bylaws and under any social regulations or other rules established by the VSA Council,” according to the VSA Constitution. Essentially, the Judicial Board makes sure that the VSA follows its own rules.

Judicial Board member Lane Kisonak ’13 wrote in an emailed statement, “The Board acts as a check/balance and is available...whenever there may have been a discrepancy between action and regulations.” Kisonak also emphasized the student role in determining what the Judicial Board hears, as per Article VII of the VSA Bylaws. Students can bring a concern by directing them towards the Chair of the Board,

determined yearly in spring elections.

After a case is brought up for consideration, the Judicial Board chair can choose to accept it or reject it based on its relevance to the VSA Constitution or the VSA Bylaws, and can choose which four Judicial Board members preside over it. The format of the Board’s hearings, described in detail in Article VII of the VSA Bylaws, calls for, among other things, the public presentation of charges, the entrance of pleas, presentation of evidence by both parties and time for questions. After the hearing, the Judicial Board makes its decision in a closed session and, according to Article IX, Section 3, “appropriate disciplinary action shall be determined by concurrence of at least three of the members hearing the case.” In the past week, the student body witnessed this process in full as the Judicial Board heard a complaint against the recent referendum vote.

These decisions, however, are not always final.

Article IX, Section 5 of the VSA Constitution describes the process by which appeals can be brought before the Board. According to Part A, “The Judicial Board shall have the authority to retry cases on appeal from the original Judicial Board decision in the case that substantial new evidence exists and/or the procedural rights of the respondent or complainant were violated.”

The primary method for bringing an appeal before the Judicial Board is by presenting a

petition to the VSA president. Appeal hearings are slightly different from a complaint hearing.

During an appeal against a Judicial Board decision, the VSA President acts as the Judicial Board chair and the four Judicial Board members that preside over the case must be different than the four that presided over the original hearing, based on availability.

Although the Judicial Board wields considerable authority over the VSA, its other duties typically take up the bulk of its time. Judicial Board members must sit on the Academic Panel, the College Regulations Panel and the Audit Committee. On these committees, Board members hear various cases related to residential life including minor drug possession, drug dealing, assault and even weapons possession.

“The Judicial Board typically only hears a few cases regarding the VSA each year. Last year, I believe the Judicial Board heard two. This year’s case on the referendum is the first case to arise from the VSA for the 2010-2011 academic year,” wrote Judicial Board member Alaric Chinn ’13, highlighting the disproportionate number of residential life issues that occur compared to VSA hearings.

“Unlike the VSA Executive or the VSA Council, the Judicial Board is a separate and distinct entity that truly serves as a separate branch of student government. [It gets] involved when there is a question of constitutionality and the correctness of procedure,” summarized Chinn.

BOE appeal hinged on issue of abstentions APPEAL continued from page 1 the amendment. The Board of Elections (BOE) met to review the recommendation, but ruled that a majority of cast ballots in favor of the article would be sufficient to pass the amendment.

The referendum voting took place from 5:03 p.m. on Thursday, April 7 to 5:03 p.m. on Saturday, April 9. 521 students voted in support of the amendments, while 270 students voted against.

30.5 percent of the student body participated in the vote, and because the BOE had determined that a simple majority of ballots cast would be considered sufficient to pass the amendment in a referendum, the amendments at that time were ratified.

However, Alex Koren ’13 filed a complaint with the Judicial Board against the Board of Elections’ decision, making the charge: “The VSA Board of Elections’ decision to require a simple majority of participating voters and not a majority of all members of the VSA is a violation of the VSA Constitution.”

The Judicial Board held an open hearing on Monday, April 11 in which Koren acted as complainant and VSA Vice President for Operations and co-Chair of the BOE Ruby Cramer ’12 acted as respondent on behalf of the BOE. Chair of the Judicial Board Shouvik Bhattacharya ’11 and four additional members of the Judicial Board presided over the hearing.

Koren argued that the bylaw used as precedent for the vote, which states, “The winning candidate must receive more than 50 percent of the votes cast by the relevant constituency, not including abstentions,” was not applicable to a constitutional amendment, as a candidate specifically refers to a person. Instead, he believed the BOE should have used as precedent the bylaw stating, “In a referendum vote, the article shall be deemed to have passed if a simple majority of the VSA has voted in favor of the article, not including abstentions.” Koren noted that to abstain is to “to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial from an action or practice.” Not voting, he argued, was not a deliberate act, and so should not have been considered an abstention. Although he acknowledged that it would have been difficult to achieve a majority of the VSA’s support, or over 1,250 “yes” votes, Koren said, “Constitutional modifications are serious, and should be difficult to pass.”

Cramer responded to Koren’s statements by pointing to a clause in the VSA Constitution, which refers to amendments passed by Council: “A simple majority of those casting ballots, regardless of abstentions, shall be required to either pass or defeat the amendment.” She argued that this process for referendum should be extended to the immediately following clause

of the Constitution, which states, “Any proposed amendment not supported by the VSA Council may be brought to a referendum with a petition signed by 15 percent of the VSA,” but does not state how the results of the referendum should be determined. Although language establishing a 50-percent participation threshold for referenda had been adopted into the VSA Bylaws in 2009, that language had never been added to publicly available copies of the document due to error of the previous Council.

At the recommendation of the Judicial Board in an April 10 meeting, that language had been ignored, and so the BOE was only able to rule based on the bylaw, the constitutional clause, and the precedents set by past VSA actions.

The presiding members of the Judicial Board, after deliberating in a closed session, unanimously decided to uphold the charge against the BOE. In a memorandum sent out to all students, Bhattacharya wrote, “The decision in this case hinged on the interpretation of ‘abstention.’ If the governing documents define ‘abstention’ as ‘not voting,’ the Board of Elections would be in compliance with the VSA governing documents.” However, the Judicial Board ruled that this was not the case, as Bhattacharya cited a bylaw that states, “Ballots shall include the names of each candidate in random order and a space or instructions for abstention.” While the BOE could have declared that not voting was an abstention, it did not provide instructions to this effect, but instead “disregarded this provision on abstentions entirely, and in so doing, they did not fulfill their mandate of a comprehensive, reasonable interpretation of the governing documents,” wrote Bhattacharya.

The BOE filed an appeal shortly after the Judicial Board’s ruling was made public on the basis of a violation of procedural rights and new evidence. The appeal stated, “Procedural rights were violated with regards to the decision being founded on evidence that was not mentioned by either party during the trial.” It also claimed a dialogue from an April 4 Operations Committee meeting as new evidence.

Both bases for the appeal were in response to the Judicial Board’s use of the bylaw stating that a space or instructions for abstention must be included on ballots, which was not brought into evidence during the hearing.

The appeal states, “The Operations Committee came to the consensus that ‘not voting’ has always been declared an abstention by the Board of Elections. This consensus was based on the precedent established by every VSA election in the past three years. There has never been wording on a VSA ballot that states that a non-vote is an abstention. Furthermore, there has never been an option to abstain on

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

any VSA general body vote … Under the court’s ruling, the entire VSA Council, along with the Judicial Board and all other elected officials, have not been legitimately elected.”

Cramer clarified in an appeal hearing held on Tuesday, April 12, that she believes abstentions were dropped from VSA elections following the transition from paper ballots to an electronic voting system. The VSA Bylaws state, “In tabulating votes, any blank ballot or ballot indicating an ineligible or disqualified candidate shall be considered an abstention.” However, entirely blank ballots are impossible to submit using the current voting software; at the very least, a voter must make a choice in one of the polls. Though an abstention choice can be added to a “yes or no” question, such as a referendum, options for candidate elections can only be submitted with a corresponding Vassar identification number. Past and current Boards of Elections have therefore adopted the practice of considering non-votes as abstentions.

Bhattacharya acted as the respondent in the appeal hearing on behalf of the members of the Judicial Board who made the ruling. At the hearing, he stated that there was “no basis for an appeal.” He claimed that abstentions were given a great deal of attention during the hearing and so Cramer was given adequate time to defend the BOE’s interpretation of abstentions.

Koren, in an emailed statement, confirmed, “I discussed the concept of the abstention at length in my written complaint and the Board of Elections had access to this document in advance of the hearing. In my oral presentation, I explicitly stated, ‘I believe the issue of abstention is what this case really comes down to.’”

Though the bylaw requiring an explicit option for abstention was not actually mentioned during the hearing, Bhattacharya cited the constitutional power of the Judicial Board to “have access to every VSA resource, file or any other material deemed necessary to the effective execution of the case.”

Though he acknowledged a discrepancy between the Bylaws and actual practice, he concluded, “It is not our fault that the documents are not up to date. Our mandate is to look at the documents and make sure the VSA is in compliance with that.”

The members of the Judicial Board that voted on the appeal met in a closed session following the appeal and unanimously voted to uphold the ruling of the initial hearing. The referendum is thus considered to be not in compliance with the VSA’s governing documents, and the amendment to the VSA Constitution has failed.

Filing began on Wednesday, April 13 for spring elections, which will be held for the positions of class president and house president as they are defined by the current VSA Constitution.

FEATURES

April 14, 2011

Page 5

Your week ahead, in retrospect

Tracking historic changes and traditions across Vassar’s weekly calendar

Monday monotony spans the century Wednesday Danielle Bukowski

Assistant Features Editor

I

t is a truth universally acknowledged that 18- to 22-year-old students do not enjoy waking up for 9 a.m. classes on a Monday morning.

Even in the 19th century, Mondays are only extraordinary in their averageness.

The “Letters Home”exhibit in the Vassar archives, a collection of various letters written to and by Vassar students, has records of student descriptions of their day. Vassar girls during the late 1880s upheld a rigid schedule for every weekday. The curriculum was far more rigid than today; students had little say in the classes they chose. So, Monday through Friday was almost entirely devoted to classes such as English, Latin, and Mathematics, and then tea, chapel and dinner. The days were structured in a similar fashion until the mid-1900s, and then into later years when students were eventually allowed more say in their classes and when they took them.

During the first half of the 1900s, the president of the College would hold Monday assemblies for the members of the College to discuss important matters. In April of 1927, a College assembly was called in the chapel to discuss changes to what would become the Vassar Students Association. During the assembly, former Vassar student Alice Hubbard reported on the renewal of power granted to the students for their association. In May of that year, President of the College Henry McCracken spoke to the College at an assembly to discuss the new curriculum plan.

In fact, in the 1930s, The Miscellany News’

calendar of events wouldn’t even include Mondays. The calendar was often subject to change from issue to issue; sometimes it would start on Saturdays and end with Wednesday and sometimes it would start on Tuesday, but either way it would not include Monday. Not even a header.

The most popular local hangout of the 1970s, Pizza Town, was closed on Mondays.

Students could go to Frivolous Sal’s on 44 Raymond Avenue instead to watch Monday Night Football. The decade also saw the rise in popularity of the Intramural Street Hockey League, which ended its 1973 season with a Monday night game between Cushing and Josselyn Houses. Joss won the title with a 4-3 victory over Cushing.

In general, though, it appears that Mondays have always been dominated by classes and other scheduled commitments. Associate Professor of History and Director of Women’s Studies Lydia Murdoch graduated from Vassar College in 1992, and now teaches at the College. “I don’t recall anything specific about Mondays from my student days,” Murdoch said in an emailed statement, “and now my typical Mondays are spent running from class to class to meetings!”

Daniel Berkowitz ’11 has a very rigid Monday schedule. “Before I handed in my thesis I had thesis work, class, lunch, gym, maybe a nap, thesis, dinner, then friends came over.”

Derek Parrott ’14 describes his Mondays as similarly structured. “Mondays are usually rather uneventful. I’ve got three classes...

Then [in the evenings] I do physics homework.”

However, current Vassar students bright-

remains for

en up the mundaneness of Mondays with a variety of organizations and meetings. ViCE Jazz, Operation Donation, Ballroom Dancing, The Madrigal Singers, Vassar College Jazz Ensemble, the Chess Club, the Vassar Democrats and the NSO are a selection of groups that hold meetings on Monday nights.

President of Vassar’s Ballroom Dancing Club Alex Wang ’12 said in an emailed statement, “Our decision [to hold meetings on Mondays] was based primarily on an informal survey done at the birth of our Club two years ago. Most of our core members’ schedules were the freest on Mondays.” The group also meets on Wednesday afternoons, but Wang said that “Monday is our most popular day.”

Vassar’s No Such Organization (NSO) holds a social dinner in Dining Room A on Mondays, as well as open Library Hours in the Raymond basement. President of the NSO Carolyn Grabill ’11 wrote in an emailed statement, “I actually have no idea why social dinner is on Mondays. It’s always been that way, as far as I know. I talked to last year’s president, and she didn’t know of a time when it wasn’t Monday, but she has no idea why, either.” Grabill also noted that NSO events on Mondays have featured cartoons for the past few years, but not consistently.

In a typical Vassar student’s week, where Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are packed with concerts, parties, student theater and sporting events, students have little time on Mondays to do more than nurse a hangover, recover from a long Sunday spent in the Library, or simply try to forget that it’s Monday.

extracurriculars Ruth Bolster

W

Reporter

ednesday, or “hump day” as it is sometimes called, may be described with the same language as one would a mountain summit. If Monday and Tuesday are a sharp, trudging up-hill climb in terms of homework, obligations and individuals’ energy levels, then Wednesday is the coveted halfway point that reassures students and teachers alike that, yes, there is an end in sight.

In order to disperse these clouds of work-related stress with something both compelling and informative, Vassar has historically scheduled lectures and events for the middle of the week. Specifically, Wednesday has served as one of the primary days for lectures and events ever since the 1950s.

There are no scheduled classes after 3pm on Wednesdays. “The College has kept Wednesday afternoons free of classes for these many years in order to allow at least part of the week to be free of classes,” said Registrar Daniel Giannini, “so that faculty and students can schedule non-class activities such as meetings, lectures, and other extracurricular classes without conflicting directly with scheduled classes.” According to Giannini, Vassar has kept Wednesday afternoons free since as far back as the 1960s.

“Historically, Wednesday afternoon has always been free. The school has always done this so people would have time to do things they would See WEDNESDAY on page 16

Tuesday a ’round-the-clock, tasty, jazzy production Mary Huber

Assistant Features Editor

T

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

hough academia reigns supreme during daylight hours, Tuesday nights are a haven for the extracurricular. With both The Miscellany News’ production night, and a history of ViCE Jazz Night on its roster, Tuesdays haven spoken to a broad set of individuals throughout the college’s history.

Brian Farkas ’10, the Miscellany’s Editor-inChief from 2008-09 and author of Covering the Campus: A History of the Miscellany News at Vassar College, described production night in an emailed statement: “For the weekly print edition, everything comes together on Tuesdays. Tuesday night, between 5 p.m. and 3 or 4 a.m., College Center 303 is filled with crazed editors. Everyone is reading, writing, designing or editing.” Farkas is quick to point out that the Miscellany has expanded its online coverage, which can be published at any time of the week, but maintains that Tuesday is still the single busiest night for Miscellany editors.

The production of the Miscellany has important social and historical aspects, besides the obvious practical ones. “That’s really the only time all week when all of the editors are in the same room working at the same time. Some of my best college memories are from those very late nights in the newsroom,” wrote Farkas.

“Editors made strong connections with one another during all of the weekly stress.”

While researching the history of the Miscellany for his book, Farkas discovered accounts of production nights that lasted through the night as far back as the turn of the 20th century. Vassar Stories, 1907, a 1908 book detailing life at Vassar, shared this anecdote: “‘We’ve got to put the Miscellany to bed, you know,’ nagged one Vassar student to another. ‘Hang the Miscellany!’ responded the other girl with a gloomy rage. ‘I’m tired as a little dog. I want to

Miscellany News editors remained in the office late into the night last Tuesday, April 12 to finalize the paper before it is sent to the printer. Production of the Miscellany has fallen on Tuesdays since the early 1900s. go to bed. Let’s send it off tomorrow!’ The first girl, the Editor-in-Chief, would have none of it.

‘No, Sir! We’ve never been late to the printer yet. We’re not going to break our record now.

We’ve got to take an all-nighter,’ she insisted.”

There is no stated reason for it, but Tuesday has most likely “stuck” as the Miscellany’s production night because Thursday is the most practical day to release the paper. “The current schedule gives reporters Monday and Tuesday to do last-minute interviews with administrators,” explained Farkas. “It also lets them begin preliminary interviews on Thursday and Friday after the mid-week Editorial Board meeting.” Some of the reasons might have more to

do with the general student body. “I’d be afraid that many College employees wouldn’t have enough time to pick up a copy if it came out on Fridays—the students would snatch them up over the weekend, and they’d be gone before Monday,” wrote Farkas.

While the Miscellany staff had been busy at their keyboards, the rest of campus found their Tuesday night schedules a bit more flexible. In the heyday of Tuesday ViCE Jazz Nights, students could expect a consistent flow of quality performances that boasted plenty of “Danceability”, a coin termed by the current ViCE Jazz Chair, Toby Sola ’13. Tuesday ViCE Jazz Nights offered an opportunity for students to relax

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

while dancing to a wide range of musical styles.

“Jazz night had been on Tuesdays for at least 10 or so years,” wrote Sola in an emailed statement. “[I’m] not sure why [ViCE Jazz Night] got Tuesdays originally,” admitted Sola, “maybe because No-ViCE had the prime real estate of live music that is Thursdays, and Fridays and Saturdays had to be left open for any [organization] to plan events in the Mug.” Still, Sola didn’t think this was necessarily a bad thing at the time, even though now most ViCE Jazz shows now occupy more premun, weekend real estate. “I think that it originally worked because Jazz Night is all about dancing, not partying,” claimed Sola, “and this fit the Tuesday vibe.”

Sola rescheduled and restructured Jazz Night at the beginning of this semester. In its 1.26.11 issue, Miscellany News Arts Editor Rachel Borne ’13 wrote in an article titled “Jazz night new and improved for spring” that “most Vassar students adhere strongly to the age-old expression, ‘work hard and play hard.’ Moving Jazz Nights to Thursday will allow everyone to take care of academics without worrying about missing out, while also getting totally pumped about the near-weekend shows.”

However, Tuesday Jazz Nights have not been completely discontinued. Vassar bands play occasional shows on Tuesday, “simply because students are more willing to abandon work in support of their friends,” according to Borne’s article. The occasional Tuesday shows also lend continuity to a potential Vassar tradition.

As it turns out, Tuesday, despite its unfortunate spot in the week, has several such traditions.

And if you’re lookimg for some daytime delight, Tuesday is especially beloved for “Tasty Tuesdays,” during which time local food vendors storm the College Center, to make each and every Tuesday a memorable and delicious treat.

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April 14, 2011

Thursday channels academic focus, social restlessness Mitchell Gilburne

F

Features Editor

ADVERTISEMENT

Carlos Hernandez/The Miscellany News

or many Vassar students, Thursday evening is the finish line for the week. Even those who know how much they’ll regret a night of revelry during their 9 a.m. biology lab cannot resist the siren call of a Thursday evening with friends. Whether enjoying the arts, “dining” at Billy Bob’s Barbeque, picking up a copy of The Miscellany News, enjoying some quality time with a professor or heading off on a weekend adventure, Thursday is intriguing in its versatility.

It even seems that Thursday night fever is infectious. The All Campus Dining Center (ACDC) is a bit less crowded, and the dorms are abuzz with action. Thursday not only signals weekend partying, but also the opportunity to engage with extracurricular interests as the majority of student organizations plan their programs and activities for Thursday and, of course into the weekend, in hopes of drawing the largest crowd possible.

Thirsty Thursday at Billy Bob’s Barbeque (previously The Dutch Cabin), mere steps off of campus, is perhaps most emblematic of Vassar’s Thursday philosophy. With dollar draft beers and a “students only” vibe, this local haunt has encouraged students to fully embrace Thursday as the end of the academic week.

While some may think of only the jubilation of Thursday night festivities, the prevalance of pre-weekend partying raises concerns for those who are tasked with the stewardship of our health and safety. “Thursdays nights now are getting pretty active... We didn’t have as much of an issue until the last two or three years.

We’ve noticed things have increased to include Thursdays as part of the weekend.” said Assistant Director of Safety and Security Kim Squillace. She continued, “W recently hired three new people who were given Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday off, so we could have full staffing guaranteed on Thursday.”

While this mentality concerning Thursdays certainly enriches campus life, there is a notso-unimportant voice from the academic sector clamoring to take Thursday back as an aca-

demic evening. Professors intentionally avoid scheduling Friday classes knowing of students’ commitment to Thursday night outings and in hopes of promoting maximum attendance. And students perpetuate this cycle by continuing to outfox each other in creating the most convenient and lenient schedules.

In contrast, certain high demand courses such as science labs purposefully schedule classes on Fridays in hopes of weeding out those students who love their Thursday festivities too much to devote the time to hitting the books.

Thirsty Thursday, however, did not invent the notion of Thursday as the herald of the weekend. Indeed, students have been chasing leisure on Thursdays since the early days of Vassar, especially before it became co-educational. In fact, the Vassar Encyclopedia reports Vassar’s history as a “weekend campus” with students migrating en masse, often for overnight trips, on Thursday afternoons. Vassar girls were quick to leave the land of their foremothers for greener and more matrimonially charged pastures at various other institutions such as Dartmouth College and Yale University. This tendency goes as far back to the days of Vassar’s founding, though, in her earliest days, students were only permitted a limited number of days that could be spent away from campus.

Luckily, Vassar has always boasted a dedicated and committed faculty comprised of warm hearts and brilliant minds. Vassar professors have valued maintaining connections with their students from the start, and saw Thursdays as an ideal time in which to enrich their relationships with their students. Nearby professors and House Fellows alike have been opening their homes to Vassar students for a century and a half, and Thursdays seemed to have provided the perfect blend between academic clarity and casual socializing. As early as 1895, eventual English Department Chair Laura J. Wylie of the Class of 1875 hosted tea and conversation in her home every Thursday. This tradition has been maintained in many and varied iterations, but it all started on a Thursday night.

Despite their sometimes raucous reputation,

Above, two students admire a painting in the Frances Lehman Loeb Arts Center during last week’s Late Night at the Lehman Loeb. Held every Thursday evening, Late Night features live music and snacks.

Thursdays at Vassar in its sesquicentennial year are often imbued with a touch of class.

Every Thursday, the Francis Lehman Loeb Arts Center presents extended hours, live music and scrumptious snacks as part of their Late Night at the Lehman Loeb campaign. Late Night capitalizes on the unique position of Thursday amongst the other days of the week in order to channel residual academic energy into a social yet sophisticated environment, and the gourmet hors d’oeuvres make for an excellent alternative to another meal at the ACDC. Additionally, this year Thursdays are home to ViCE’s Special Events and Music meetings. These two ViCE subcommittees are the entities behind some of the largest program-

ming endeavors on campus. They represent the people who brought the Sexycentennial party, the Dustin Lance Black lecture and this year’s enormous Spring Concert featuring The Knocks and of Montreal. Again, Thursday nights are the perfect fit as they capitalize on a desire for down time coupled with the focus of the academic week.

Of course, no Thursday is complete without the release of each week’s issue of The Miscellany News. In this regard, Thursday is perhaps the most important day of the week. Without Thursday you wouldn’t be reading these words, and you certainly wouldn’t have a perch from which to look forward to the rest of this incredible weekend.

Middle of week reserved for out-of-class education WEDNESDAY continued from page 5 normally be too busy to do in the middle of the week,” said Vassar College Historian Elizabeth Daniels ’41.

Although such events have never been exclusively scheduled on Wednesdays, with this free time built right into the College’s weekly calendar, it is no coincidence that lectures would predominantly be held on this day.

Like Vassar’s more contemporary speakers, guest lecturers of years past hailed from highly respectable institutions and gave presentations on a wide variety of topics ranging from historical perspectives on autonomous government to an analysis of the Greek Orthodox Church’s contributions to Christianity. On Wednesday, Nov 17, 1954, three different lectures were scheduled for that afternoon and evening: an art history lecture

by Grace Harrington entitled “Gallery Talk,” a political science presentation by attorney and statesman Dr. J.B. Danquah headlined “Background to the Present Developments Towards Self-Government in the Gold Coast,” and the aforementioned lecture by Reverend Alexander Schmemann on Greek religion called “The Greek Church: Its Contributions to World Christianity.”

Embracing all topics, these lectures have never shied away from the controversial. On Wednesday, January 19, 1955, Professor of Biology at Harvard University Dr. George Wald presented his studies in the field of biological adaptation to the Vassar community in a lecture entitled “The Origin of Life.” In addition to his work in biochemical evolution, Ward was renowned for his research on the chemical effects of the Vitamin A compound. In the review of the lecture on the following Wednesday, Ward was accredited with making the claim that science can only be focused on the “spontaneous generation of life” rather than the argument for intelligent design.

As Sara Stoesser ’56 wrote in her January 26 summary of the lecture for the Miscellany,

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Spontaneous generation is nothing more than the coincidence of the ‘right materials’ in the ‘right organization’ at the ‘right time.’”

The lecture then moved on to comment on the possibility of life on other planets.

“With 100,000 bodies similar to Earth in our galaxy, and 100,000,000 known galaxies in the universe, it is almost inevitable that life does exist on planets other than our own by virtue of the law of probability,” noted Stoesser. “Dr. Wald believes that this life is very much like that which exists on Earth, or is perhaps better.”

In stark contrast to the idea that life was spontaneously generated, another lecture entitled “Nature and the Natural Order of Catholicism” was held on Wednesday, February 23, 1955, only a few weeks after Ward’s presentation. Reverend William F. Lynch of Fordham University discussed the position of the Roman Catholic Church on the widespread belief that religion is a concept irreconcilable with the confines of the tangible world. Ultimately, with this lecture, he hoped to denounce the “erroneous” idea that religion is an escape from the actual, citing Karl Marx as an example of a modern man who believed that the Church opposes reality. In addition to this, Lynch examined the Catholic practices of affirming one’s belief through the sacraments and other physical world-based practices.

Naturally, lectures such as these not only exposed students to material that may have not been touched upon in their classes, but also gave them concrete insight into the nature of scholarly debates and the spectrum of viewpoints within the academic realm.

By featuring such a wide breadth of topics, Wednesday lectures ultimately proved to be an excellent, educational means of breaking up the week’s tedious workload. Moreover, this tradition of hosting presentations and guest speakers has remained an unwavering staple of Vassar’s scheduled mid-week events.

April 14, 2011

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Page 7

The great Friday flight: How Saturdays once marred by Vassar got its students back stress of morning classes Nathan Tauger

F

Reporter

rom theater to sports to off-campus trips, the beginning of the weekend has always been an important and interesting part of the Vassar student’s life.

Athletic competition played a significant role in the start of the Vassar weekend of generations past and still resonates with students today. Elizabeth Moffat Drouilhet ’30 was Warden of the College from 1941-1976 and, in an interview with Vassar College Historian Elizabeth Daniels ’41 from 1981, told Daniels with one word how she spent her undergraduate weekends: “Athletics.” Captain of the women’s soccer team Keiko Kurita ’13 confirms this point noting that Friday practices have had a large role in shaping her Vassar experience.

Pursuing theater on the weekends has also been a hobby of Vassar students since the founding days of the College. Former student Helen Jackson, in a letter home from 1877, told her parents about the vibrant social life at the College, writing that she had plenty to do as there were plays put on by Philaletheis each Friday. Luckily the dramatic urge has not left Vassar’s campus in the past century-and-a-half; member of Philaletheis Aidan Kahn ’14 commented on his ideal Friday at Vassar: “I see a student play or comedy show and then I go to a party at the [Town Houses].” But campus parties were less gender-diverse before 1969, so the thrill of leaving campus tempted the precoed Vassar women.

Unfortunately, students were only permitted to leave campus for the weekend a few times per year until the mid 20th century. At the College’s founding, students were only allowed to leave campus in the company of a teacher. All off-campus trips had to be arranged by the administration and properly chaperoned.

Although these regulations had lessened in Drouilhet’s and Daniels’ time, students’ weekends were still much more limited than those of current students. “There were rules and regulations, you could only take a certain number of weekends.” said Daniels of her own undergraduate experience. “Well, everybody was on limited number of leaves so the bulk of the College was here every weekend,” said Drouilhet.

Daniels asked whether they were able to take night leaves or weekend leaves and Drouilhet

responded, “Night leaves, but you could take two night leaves in a row,” she said, which would amount to an a hoc weekend leave.

“But even seniors had relatively few so that probably 90 percent of the College was here every weekend and all athletic competition was scheduled beginning Friday and going all day Saturday.”

Eventually the limitations on leaving campus changed due to internal turmoil between alumnae and faculty. “The faculty felt that the alumnae were playing too direct a role in the day-by-day administration of the College and certainly in the planning.” Drouilhet continued: “[We were] trying to decide whether our limited funds could best be used to help the medium-income student who needed some assistance to come to Vassar; or whether huge scholarships should be given to students who had no funds whatsoever, thus limiting the number,” she said.

“Maybe we were only a mirror image of what was happening in the world,” Drouilhet said. “It was a period that focused on one of Vassar’s greatest handicaps, and that’s its geographic location. Our students felt that they were totally isolated from the opposite sex.” It was this feature that brought Drouilhet to create one of Vassar’s most well known historical characteristics: “It started off as early as ’47 and ’48 and I went over and talked to the Dean of Freshmen at Yale to see if we could work out some mixers, joint mixers ... So, we started off the YaleVassar mixers and they would alternate. Vassar students preferred to go down to Yale, because there was so much more to do there—but we alternated and Yale came over to Vassar.”

When asked if Friday has always been a party night on Vassar’s campus, Vassar Historian Elizabeth Daniels ’41, responded that during her years as a professor of English at Vassar College: “Lots of people cleared off campus on Friday. A lot of students used to go to Yale, maybe hired a car. Students left to visit boyfriends and some went home.” Daniels continued, “From my own experience you would try to find something to do off campus. We went to the Bardavon Theater in downtown Poughkeepsie.”

But whether going down to Yale, playing sports or watching a play, Friday means something timeless to Vassar students. Daniels says it best: “We wanted to do something special.”

Jillian Scharr

S

Features Editor

aturday night may be all right for fighting, but Vassar students have always found a much wider range of activities in which to participate on the first day of the weekend.

From letters that early Vassar students wrote, collected in the “Letters Home” exhibit in the Vassar Archives, we know that although students had more free time on the weekends, Saturdays were still as rigidly structured as the rest of the week. Girls were required to exercise, attend chapel and go to Bible study classes.

In fact, it seems that Saturdays were predominately reserved for letter writing, when students would write to friends and family.

However, as more clubs and activities were formed on campus, Saturdays began to fill up with other pursuits as well.

In one letter in the Archives, Sarah Glazier Bates, Class of 1868, wrote: “Saturdays are no longer the ‘beautiful days we once enjoyed,’ where we could engage in letter-writing for diversion—Today we had the first regular meeting of a ‘missionary society’ (don’t you wonder what organizations will spring up next?) which is to meet once a month.”

In another, former Vassar student Helen Jackson wrote to her parents in 1877 that she was always very busy, saying that there was a play every Friday on campus and a dance every Saturday.

In the early 20th century, some Vassar students also had to attend classes on Saturday morning. “We used to have Saturday classes,” said Vassar Historian and former Professor of English Elizabeth Daniels ’41. “When I taught English we still had them; the young professors like me would get stuck with the Saturday classes.” Daniels says that the Saturday morning classes had died out by the mid-1950s.

But Saturdays were for more than just classes, clubs and letter-writing: Daniels recalled that, as a student, they were spent “doing the things that you hadn’t done during the week, like changing your sheets and sleeping late—probably going down to the city of Poughkeepsie for a movie…most likely on a bus that went the route stopping at Main Gate, and before that it was trolley tracks that

would be the way you’d get downtown.”

Another popular hangout for Vassar girls was the Cider Mill. Students were always “cordially invited” to walk to the mill, located on Cedar Avenue east of Hooker Avenue, to partake in fresh-brewed cider and donuts.

“Vassar students might set out after lunch in the afternoon to walk over there and spend some time there and meet other people,” Daniels said.

Public transportation was also arranged to help students who wished to go off-campus.

Because of Vassar’s proximity to the train line to New York City, some students were able to visit home on the weekends. And as the College’s security strictures relaxed, students were allowed to travel elsewhere on the weekends too.

“Buses used to go on weekends to Yale [University], and probably to West Point [Academy] also,” recalled Daniels of her time as a Vassar student. The Yale Daily News reported that by the 1960s both schools frequently chartered buses back and forth; Vassar girls would visit New Haven for a football game and stay the weekend at the Hotel Taft on-campus. And Yale boys with cars often drove to Poughkeepsie “for dinner and drinks” after class (“Yale-Vassar: The marriage that almost was,” 10.20.09).

The advent of the automobile in Poughkeepsie and on the Vassar campus would radically change the way students spent their Saturdays. “I would say no one had a car… until around the time of the development of co-education,” said Daniels.

According to Associate Director of Security Kim Squillace, Fridays and Saturdays are by far the busiest days for both Vassar student partiers and Vassar Security officers. And, she said, in the 15 years she’s been working at Vassar, student partying has increased drastically. “Definitely… This year, we have in my opinion an issue with student drinking, more than I’ve seen in the past … the smoking of illegal substances has always been here, but at least [Security] is catching more of it. I can’t say if it was there many years ago and we just didn’t know about it.” So, make everyone’s lives safer and easier by partying smarter rather than harder this Saturday!

Sundays provide time for contemplation, conversations Jessica Tarantine

F

Reporter

Carlos Hernandez/The Miscellany News

or some Vassar students, Sundays are a scramble to catch up on weekend homework. Others do indulge in napping and late brunches, but then of course these are always accompanied by feelings of regret and selfloathing, and they have to pull an all-nighter into Monday to make up for lost time.

Emma Logan McCoy, Class of 1877 described Sundays as “doleful” in a letter to her parents which has now become part of the Vassar Archive’s “Letters Home” collection. It’s a sentiment that—according to the Vassar Encyclopedia—was shared by many of the other students at the time. It seems that the gloomy atmosphere was caused by a lack of structured activity. This absence of responsibility allowed students more reflection and resulted in a homesickness that was absent on the other days of the week which provided little free time.

Although some students still take time aside on Sundays for religious worship, during the beginning days of the College, participation in religious activity was required. In addition to the three required church services attended by students during the weekend, Professor of Chemistry and Physics Charles Farrar offered “Sunday Lectures” on religion that were widely attended.

Vassar Historian Elizabeth Daniels ’41 said that during her time at Vassar in the first half of the twentieth century, “families in Poughkeepsie who knew someone at Vassar would invite them to go to church with them and then have lunch with them.”

Professor of Astronomy and Chair of the Astronomy Department Mary Watson Whitney,

Class of 1869, also took Sundays as an opportunity to explore out-of-classroom activities.

After studying mathematics and astronomy at Vassar as a student, Whitney returned to Vassar as the chair of the Astronomy Department in 1889, succeeding celebrated Professor of Astronomy Maria Mitchell, the first faculty member that Matthew Vassar hired.

A few years later in the College’s history, Sundays were used for giving back to the community, which provided a different kind of reflection. The Goodfellow Club was founded in 1901 for the purpose of enriching the lives of Vassar College maids by giving them access to resources of the College. In addition to providing a library and laundry facilities, the club taught courses in a number of subjects, like dancing, sewing, physics, typing and cooking.

But just a few decades later, Sundays had adopted a very different feel, as the majority of students spent their weekends away from Vassar.

In a conversation with Daniels, Dean of the College and Professor of English Colton Johnson recorded in the Vassar Archives, Johnson wrote, “I know when I came to Vassar and would occasionally go to a Yale football game, I’d often see some of my students in the mid ’60s there enjoying a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-aweek environment, whereas at Vassar, we really didn’t do that much after classes were over for the week.”

Agreeing, Daniels stated, “Vassar was really having a big exodus on the weekend so that if you were a teacher, your students were trying hard to avoid weekend work, and they were sleepy when they got back on Sunday night.

It was turning into a weekend-away-from-thecollege College.”

The Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council’s weekly meetings are held each Sunday evening at 7 p.m. in the College Center Multi-purpose Room. Above, Council members discuss recent events at the College.

In fact, during the ’50s and ’60s the Retreat was closed all day Sunday, and the Library didn’t open until 2 p.m. “If you’d see someone on the campus dragging her New York Times back to her residence hall at about 10 o’clock Sunday morning you knew she was thinking she wasn’t one of the most sought-after social companions,” stated Johnson, aptly describing the Sunday social scene at Vassar during the ’50s and ’60s.

In the years to come, Vassar would slowly move away from the “weekend-away-from-thecollege” atmosphere, until it reached today’s week-long, full-time residence environment.

Today’s Sunday, no longer dreaded for the lack of structural activities, is not only welcomed as a reprieve from the week’s many de-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

mands, and the weekend’s many delights, but also entrusted as time to gather as a campus to look forward to the week both ahead and past.

On the relaxing side, Sundays offer dormsponsored tea and cookies gatherings (or smoothies, if you live in Main Building), which offer a chance for the residents of the dorms to come together and talk about their weeks while enjoying good company and a good cup of tea.

On the more serious end, Sundays are also host to the Vassar Student Association’s weekly meetings, where Council and Executive Board members deal with the weekly going–ons of the College, providing both a chance to share the past week’s activities, and plan for the next.

FEATURES

Page 8

April 14, 2011

A venture into breadmaking need not be intimidating Cinnamon pull-apart bread makes for a sweet, simple start Samantha Loewen Guest Columnist

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—Samantha Loewen ’13 is the Vice President of Slow Food Vassar.

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

or some reason yeast scares people.

Even long-time cooks and bakers occasionally shy away from the innocuous little dough-maker. Banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread: These baked goods are approachable in that they can be assembled, baked and eaten in under an hour. Or consider muffins—no one is afraid of a muffin. They are like the aforementioned quick breads, just adorably miniaturized and individually portioned.

So why is it that a bread that is not ‘quick’ is so intimidating? There are few things in culinary history more ancient or basic than bread, but still the aversion remains. I would think that in our sugarloving culture, we would quickly embrace a coffeecake with open arms. It seems that the allure of sugar should overpower the fear of yeast. Are people deterred because yeast breads involve a little wait time? Or is the fear of the dough not rising too paralyzing? Whatever the reason, I would like to confront this yeast phobia head on and embrace the ‘slow’ bread. I am here to be yeast’s advocate in the form of cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread.

Before anyone runs away, give the bread a chance. For one, it is simple. It requires no funky ingredients or fancy gadgets. In fact, it does not even take much kitchen prowess to pull this recipe off. This is the bread your mom probably let you help her make without worrying that you might chop off a finger, blow up the kitchen, or worse, ruin it. Cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread is a happy little introduction to baking and the scary world of yeast.

Breads are also quite conducive to the college lifestyle. When working with yeast, you never have to commit to the baking project for longer than 30 minutes at a time. Usually, you mix up the ingredients then let the dough rest. Punch it down after it rises and let it rest again.

Form it into the shape you want and again, let it rest. The whole process might take longer than a batch of cookies, but it gives you plenty of down time to do some laundry, watch a show or write your essay if you so choose.

This bread also provides quite the therapeutic experience. You can let out all your pent-up stress over that lame research paper you just turned in or your mom making you minor in economics by kneading the dough for a few minutes.

The repetitive motions will soothe it all away. Then, later in the process, you get to indulge your compulsive side by first cutting the dough into strips, then cutting the strips into little squares and then stacking them all up in a neat little row.

The slightly compulsive arrangement of dough is what gives this bread a special touch. When the little dough squares all bake together they create a wonderfully fun bread to eat. You get to peel off sheets of cinnamon-sugar deliciousness instead of cutting the bread with a knife.

Fun, right? It’s like Pull n’ Peel Twizzlers or those flaky biscuits that come in a tube in the grocery store.

But it’s more than just fun—this is a bread that will impress. When it comes out of the pan it is quite striking. The layered look makes this treat appear much more complex and technically difficult than it really is. It would be a great addition to an early morning meeting with a professor. The loaf itself is very light, moist and doughy, and the edges of each sheet have a nice crunch to contrast with the lovely, soft interior. It is sweet, but not too much so; like monkey bread with less of a sugar punch. I believe this charming, yeasty loaf has the power to win over even the most breadphobic of bakers.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread (Adapted from Joy the Baker) Makes: one 9x5x3-inch loaf For the Dough »» 2 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour »» 1/4 cup granulated sugar »» 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast »» 1/2 teaspoon salt »» 2 ounces unsalted butter »» 1/3 cup whole milk »» 1/4 cup water »» 2 large eggs, at room temperature »» 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract For the Filling »» 1 cup granulated sugar »» 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon »» 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg »» pinch salt »» 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted until browned

1. In a large bowl whisk together 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Set aside.

2. Whisk together eggs and set aside.

3. In a small saucepan, melt together milk and butter until butter has just melted. Remove from the heat and add water and vanilla extract. Let mixture stand for a minute or two.

4. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix. Add the eggs and stir the mixture until the eggs are incorporated into the batter. It will look soupy, keep stirring. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and stir for about 2 minutes. The dough will be sticky.

5. Place the dough is a large, greased bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Place in a warm space and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

The dough can be risen until doubled in size, then refrigerated overnight for use in the morning. If you’re using this method, just let the dough rest on the counter for 30 minutes before following the roll-out directions below.

6. While the dough rises, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt for the filling. Set aside. Melt 2 ounces of butter until browned. Set aside. Grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

7. Deflate the risen dough and knead about 2

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

tablespoons of flour into the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. On a lightly floured work surface, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out.

The dough should be 12-inches tall and about 20-inches long. Spread melted butter across all of the dough. Sprinkle with all of the sugar and cinnamon mixture.

8. Slice the dough vertically, into six equalsized strips. Stack the strips on top of one another and slice the stack into six equal slices once again. You’ll have six stacks of six squares. Layer the dough squares in the loaf pan like a flip-book. Place a kitchen towel over the loaf pan and let it sit in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes or until almost doubled in size.

9. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Place loaf in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is very golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to loosen the bread and invert onto a clean board. Place a cake stand or cake plate on top of the upside down loaf, and carefully invert so it’s right side up.

OPINIONS

April 14, 2011

Page 9

Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Recent debate lays foundation for future reform F

or the past few weeks, students have been engaged in a heated discussion over the 25th Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council’s amendments to the VSA Constitution and Bylaws. Though this particular debate ended with Tuesday evening’s Judicial Board ruling, which found the Board of Election’s appeal to be “without merit” and the results of the student referendum to be unconstitutional, the larger conversation of the VSA’s efficacy as a representative body is not over. In many ways, the controversy over these amendments has fostered a greater understanding of Council’s structure, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. The Miscellany News Editorial Board hopes that this greater understanding will inform discussions on improving the structure of the VSA as they extend into next year and beyond.

Indeed, the student body deserves praise for the active role it has taken in the conversation about restructuring. The March 27 meeting at which Council voted on the amendments drew a larger crowd than any other meeting of this year; as students shared their thoughts and asked questions about the amendments, the speaker’s list grew to include almost as many students as it did Council members.

After the amendments failed in Council, students passionately in favor of the changes picked up the referendum effort, tabling in the College Center and in some cases even going door-to-door to convince their peers of the wisdom of the restructuring. Another student filed a complaint with the Judicial Board against the referendum vote, citing a violation of the VSA Constitution. While students may disagree on the nature of Council’s problems and the necessary means to solve them, their continued attention to and involvement in Council’s affairs will alone serve to create a more open and responsive Council.

A significant number of students are undoubtedly unhappy with the Judicial Board’s final ruling; nevertheless, the conversation over these amendments has

benefitted the entire community by better acquainting the student body with how Council functions. Many of the students who were drawn to Sunday Council meetings, the teach-in or outside conversations to discuss the changes professed to have never taken much of an interest in Council.

At the end of this discussion, students now have a greater understanding of the VSA’s structure and how its various components work together. Beyond the basic workings of Council, students have become more familiar with the ways that they are able to access and effect change through Council, such as attending VSA committee meetings, which are open to the entire student body. This knowledge will certainly inform and enrich future discussions about Council’s structure, and its strengths and weaknesses.

Although the amendments were introduced without less regard for transparency than the ideal, Council has worked hard in recent weeks to explain the amendments and their impact to the student body. In particular, a teach-in held by VSA Council the week leading into the referendum vote provided concerned students with the opportunity to hear arguments both in favor of and against the amendments, as well as to ask questions about the reforms. The Editorial Board commends Council for making the effort to engage with the student body over such an important issue.

The Miscellany News Editorial Board hopes that next year’s Council will continue along the path of self-reflection and selfimprovement. We have some suggestions that we believe may serve to enhance the inclusivity and transparency of Council.

First, the VSA Council should conduct a review of its governing documents. If the referendum has highlighted anything, it is that the VSA Constitution and Bylaws are at times murky, contradictory, and out of date. For example, much time and discussion has been devoted to a discrepancy between the two documents concerning the threshold required for amendments

to pass by referendum. This discrepancy has created confusion over whether the amendments required only a simple majority of referendum voters or a simple majority of the entire student body for adoption, dragging out the amendment process for several additional days. A review of Council’s governing documents with the aim of discovering and correcting such inconsistencies would certainly improve the efficiency of Council, a major goal of the recent amendments.

Second, we think that the next Council should amend the VSA Constitution to introduce a timeline for structural reform. A majority of the complaints against these recent amendments, including our own, focused not on the content of the changes to the VSA’s structure, but rather on the manner in which they were introduced to the student body. Furthermore, the amendment process has made it clear that introducing changes of this magnitude in close proximity to an election cycle benefits no one; filing for elections was delayed by two days due to Judicial Board hearings. The Editorial Board recommends that Council consider a constitutional amendment allowing structural reforms to be introduced only in the fall semester, or at the very least before the spring break, of each school year in order to ensure that the necessary amount of time for debate and enactment of the changes is available.

The Editorial Board wishes next year’s representatives luck in creating a Council that is both transparent and responsive to student need and interests. We would also like to remind the student body of the important role each Council member plays in shaping student government, and urge them to take an active part not only in the upcoming student elections as voters and as candidates, but in next year’s continuing discussions.

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

CDO working to improve career services Mary Raymond

T

Guest Columnist

o the Editors of The Miscellany News: The Career Development Office (CDO) wishes to thank you for the attention and commentary you have brought to what we do, and the discouraging findings of a recent satisfaction survey from the Class of 2010. We recognize this as an opportune time for department review, and will seek input from students, recent alumnae/i and other interested members of the Vassar community to inspire change where it may be indicated.

These results were, and were not, surprising for us in the CDO. We were surprised in that our energies are so caught up in activities for current students that last year’s myriad challenges faded once we began a fresh start with the current year. On the other hand, we were not surprised; due to diminished staff as a result of retirement incentives and an inability to replace a significant student employment advisor, there were fewer hours available for career advisement. A weak market for internships and jobs increased the demand for advisement yet we had the fewest hours available ever for the 2009-2010 school year. In the Miscellany News article entitled “Survey data points to low satisfaction with CDO” (3.30.11), Dean of the College Chris Roellke commented on our change of reporting structure, which places the CDO under the auspices of the Dean of Studies Office, as a welcome opportunity for career services to be more closely aligned with academic advising. Student Employment, which had been an aspect of the CDO operation from 2005-2010, was formally moved to the Office of Financial Aid also for the start of this 2010 -2011 aca-

demic year, yielding a significant and positive impact on career advisement services.

In spite of the success we have had in partnering with academic departments for programs, we admit there is more that can be done. In previous years we have assisted with alumnae/i panels for the Departments of Sociology, Economics, Psychology, STS, Cognitive Science, Film and Computer Science. We welcome these opportunities to work closely with faculty since indeed we do then gain access to alumnae/i who can expand upon the existing network of V-NET participants.

For all students who have sought advisement, we have always emphasized the priority of pursuing a major in a discipline about which they are passionate. But the importance of taking time to apply this intellectual foundation to experiential learning that also becomes resume-building opportunities is also highlighted. Assisting students with understanding the nuances of the world of work has resulted in programs that might be thought of as “Road trips to the real world,” and what we have named the immersion program. Each year alumnae/i hosts have sponsored a group of students for a multi-day visit to a selection of work sites for information sessions. The industries we have explored to date have included financial services (New York City, N.Y.), film and entertainment (Los Angeles, Calif.), public policy, service and non-governmental organizations (Washington, D.C.) and most recently biotechnology (Cambridge, Mass.). These early experiences aimed at freshmen and sophomores are later built upon by the categorization of the most popular internship and job websites by industry, a much sought after resource by juniors

and seniors that is available on the downloadable section of the CDO webpage.

Worth noting is that we too have considered the value of career advisors assuming the role of specialists for popular industry destinations.

At present, we might be called advisement generalists; excluding law, for which Senior Associate Director Stacy Bingham and myself are the prelaw advisors. This is in addition to the clearly defined responsibilities we each have regarding employer relations, Internship Grant Fund and winternship administration, technology coordination, career assistant training and supervision, etc. In the past, when we have explored advisor specialization as a staffing direction, what always came into consideration was the desire to be as accessible as possible to students seeking our time. Many industries are time sensitive in their hiring needs and should one advisor be named as the ‘expert,’ we speculated that students seeking this advisor might be displeased by the wait for an appointment, or would believe that the availability of a different counselor would be perceived as second best.

Once again, the CDO would like to thank the Miscellany News for having the foresight to recognize what the strengths and limitations are at the moment. We will welcome and appreciate all commentary and constructive criticism as we move forward with a review. In the meantime, we will continue to strive forward in our objective to provide career services reflective of the caliber of a Vassar education.

Sincerely, Mary Raymond Director, Career Development Office

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

How would you spend $1.98 million?

“Bribe the Jud Board.”

Matt Wheeler ’12

“FresCo and Oasis.”

Ray Noonan ’12

“Invest some, keep some and give some to charity.”

Angelica Periera ’14

“1.98 million hamburgers off the Dollar Menu.”

Brian Muir ’13 —Juliana Halpert, Photography Editor Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

Word on the seankoerner

Sean Koerner ’11

Functional printers.

12 Apr via web

LouiseDufresne

Louise Dufresne ’12

New bathrooms in Cushing!

9 Apr via Twitter for iPhone

rubycramer

Ruby Cramer ’12

Joint answer with @BrianFarkas1 [Brian Farkas ’10]: demolition of Chicago Hall 9 Apr via web

madsvassar Mads Vassar

TOO SOON 8 Apr via web

—Marie Dugo, Social Media Editor

OPINIONS April 14, 2011 White House’s clean energy Graduating early an option proposal inadequate, tame more students should consider Page 10

Jack Mullan

W

Guest Columnist

hat do turmoil in the Middle East, a Japanese earthquake and the approaching summer all have in common? The answer is that they all raise both the cost of and the public’s anxiety about energy. Right on the cue, on March 30, the White House offered its new plan to protect “America’s Energy Security.” Unfortunately, the plan is incredibly timid. Despite President Barack Obama’s attempts to turn his last State of the Union address into a “winning the future” parade, this energy proposal is stuck in the past, coming nowhere close enough to accommodate the pressing demands of a looming energy crisis.

“Energy Security” is DC-talk for oil drilled in the United States, as opposed to imported oil. Accordingly, the first part of the White House’s release concerns the expansion of domestic production: “Our dependence on foreign oil threatens our national security, our environment and our economy. We must make the investments in clean energy sources that will put Americans back in control of our energy future, create millions of new jobs and lay the foundation for long-term economic security.” The hope is that, by 2025, America will have slashed its 11 million barrels-a-day intake by one-third by increasing its domestic output. However, the plan offers nothing in terms of imposing limits on carbon emissions.

Of course, a cap-and-trade strategy—a system

advocated by both Obama and his adversary John McCain during the 2008 election campaign—would significantly help to control pollution by capping carbon emissions, and it would make our oil industry more competitive by providing economic incentives for reducing pollutants. But at some point between the 2008 campaign and now, cap-andtrade, or any kind of carbon-pricing agenda, became severely stigmatized, and is no longer politically feasible. Another one of Sarah Palin’s hyperbolized misnomers—she wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post in 2009 decrying “cap-and-tax” as an “enormous threat to our economy”—has been the centerpiece for a strong wave of aversion to any kind of progressive energy reform amid an unstable economy, despite the fact that both a cap-andtrade and carbon tax would reduce the deficit, and, in some versions, provide a rebate to taxpayers. Additionally, a Gallup poll conducted in early March found that somehow 48% of Americans worry about global warming “not much [or] not at all,” so it’s clear that any kind of “radical” forward-thinking energy legislation would evaporate in Congress.

Instead, Washington has suggested a “cleanenergy standard,” or CES, with this new proposal. Perhaps the most significant portion of the plan is “an ambitious but achievable goal of generating 80 percent of the Nation’s electricity from clean energy sources by 2035” See ENERGY on page 12

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Brian Kim

U

Guest Columnist

p to about two weeks before classes started for the current spring semester, I had assumed and fully intended to graduate at the traditional gait of eight semesters. Fortunately, certain personal exigencies forced me to reconsider, and with the benevolent help of a few faculty members and administrators (to whom I am eternally grateful), I graduated in seven. Looking back on the affair, I feel ashamed that I intended to take that extra semester, when either subconsciously or by accident, I had already completed all of my major and degree requirements.

You might say that I am being too hard on myself, but you’re wrong. Publicly, I have wondered aloud what might have compelled me to stay, and there are those easy and acceptable answers: friends, academic hopes, the job market. But in my private moments I have grown increasingly certain that what kept me back was a simple and banal fear: the fear of defining the ideal course that my life should follow, answering the question, “What do you want to do with your life?”

This fear had so gripped me that I almost allowed a small fortune to be spent on my behalf for classes that had somewhat diminished in their returns and for living accommodations that did not exactly live up to the amount of money spent. And what a formidable foe is the staggering cost of a liberal arts education? I find it almost unimaginable that I would have put that additional financial burden on my parents, not so much because I particularly like them, but because there really was no reason to stay. And besides my parents, there is also the fact that I would have been taking need-based scholarships for which there was no actual need. I suppose it is easy to forget that financial aid comes from a finite source, but even still it seems dishonest that I would have taken money from an office that must work so hard to make a Vassar education affordable.

I do not want this talk about money to mislead you. I do not mean to say that a Vassar education is not worth the cost, or that it is not a valuable and worthwhile endeavor. On the contrary, look at how my writing sparkles in its clarity, precision and self-aware swagger, a feat that is at least partially due to the fact that I braved a paper gauntlet at the end of just about every semester. In my time at Vassar I have come across so many exciting ideas, learned so many interesting things and met so many cool people; for this I am thankful.

But do these sorts of benefits motivate four years at Vassar as opposed to three or three and a half? Though I haven’t seen any data on the matter, I don’t think that it would be that far-fetched to guess that senior year is not the most productive of our years in terms of intellectual growth. And what’s more is that this sort of growth only plays an instrumental role in what a student wants to do with her or his life, insofar as I don’t think that any student comes to Vassar wanting to be the world’s greatest critical thinker. Everyone would hate that person. What became apparent was that in the later years, college became less of a life experience and more of a way to put life off.

For me, the title “student” no longer seems to indicate someone who learns as much as it indicates a young person who does not want to feel bad about not working.

I can’t think of a good argument for staying at Vassar beyond what it takes to get your degree. By far the most frustrating one I heard was that you should stay four years because

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

there is something special to being a student, that “you can only be a student once.” Not only is this argument frustratingly vague, it represents a gross failure of the imagination, especially when it comes from bright and capable Vassar students. It is partly based on a lie propagated by parents and others which can be summarized as the claim that “college will be the best time of your life.”

Regardless of how much fun and enriching my time at Vassar was, I refuse to believe that life should peak at the turn of its first quarter.

Whatever it is that you like about Vassar can be reproduced outside of it, whether it’s the lively intellectual discussions or the various hijinks with your friends. I would like students to hope and expect that what they do after College will be rewarding and meaningful, so much so that they find it hard to sleep at night from the excitement.

Despite what some older folks say about our generation being entitled, what I see is that we do not have enough entitlement. We don’t see ourselves entitled to change the world as we see fit, and not just in the narrow political sense that ex-hippies talk about, but in a social, cultural and economic sense as well. This is the same lack of entitlement that has enabled predatory employers to get young adults seeking fulfillment to work for free through “internships for school credit.” Students should remember that they can create their own opportunities, perhaps, for instance, with the money that would have gone to a senior year.

A much better argument is that you should stay if you want to continue your studies in a particular field, but even here I caution students to be wary. Faculty, despite good intentions, have an incentive to encourage more research and interest in their respective fields, and in just four years of a poor job market students are more widely considering biding their time with more education. And I don’t trust students to make an objective decision themselves, insofar as they are probably sleep-deprived, stressed out and don’t want something they’ve worked so hard on to not play a major role in their lives. And at a certain point, I think students should give autodidacticism a go.

Here’s what I want to see happen. To the student who has trouble finding at least five classes that s/he truly wants to take every semester: Graduate early. To the student who has three majors: Why are you doing this to yourself? Pick one, drop the rest and graduate early. To the student who is planning to be abroad all of junior year: Why not graduate early and travel without the pretense of being a student? (Hint: Try couch surfing, farming or teaching English.) To the student who’s in a band and is tired of playing to the same Vassar crowd: Graduate early. To the kid scorned

by Vassar’s insular and homogeneous comedy scene: Buck up and graduate early. To the student who wants to help his or her community: Know that you will never truly be a part of that community as long as you are a student, that is, a creature that probably does not pay rent or taxes on their own, and graduate early.

To administrators: Encourage students to graduate early, and support their aspirations no matter how wild they may seem. To current freshmen, sophomores and juniors: Crack open that catalogue and fire up that AskBannner and see how easy it is to graduate early. To my fellow seniors: It was mighty fly to roll with you guys and I will see you all soon enough.

–Brian Kim ’11 graduated at the end of the fall semester of the 2010/2011 school year. He was a philosophy major.

Page 11 OPINIONS Future representatives must Democracy in Middle East engage, include constituents unlikely, not in U.S. interests April 14, 2011

Seth Warner

T

Guest Columnist

his past Sunday, April 10, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) passed an amendment to its Bylaws ensuring important reforms to the association’s elections system.

These adjustments will go a long way toward fairer, more competitive and more substantive elections without significant procedural change to the format that elections have had in past years.

As the sponsor of these reforms, I found my experience to be bittersweet—but more sweet than bitter! During the framing of the amendment, the legislative support that I received from VSA Council members was enthusiastic and encouraging. The unanimity of their vote, moreover, made me ecstatic about the future of VSA elections. The only bitter point was hearing this one exclamation, time and time again: “Wow! Nobody has ever proposed an amendment, much less a freshman!”

While it was meant as a compliment, and I was humbled as such, I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Student involvement shouldn’t be a rare occurrence. Instead, involvement should be fostered on a longterm basis, and the student body should be kept informed and aware of Council developments.

My reforms are a step in that direction.

The amendment creates a longer, three-week campaigning period that overlaps the filing period, and alters the rules to emphasize face-to-face contact over impersonal promotions that have dominated VSA elections in the past. Such adjustments will reward enthusiastic candidates—who will become enthusiastic leaders—and help raise awareness

of the issues among the student body. With greater awareness comes greater participation. More students will take an interest in VSA affairs, introduce ideas to their student representatives and decide to run for office.

Elections are important, but they cannot do it all. As candidates begin campaigning this week, it’s important that they do so committed to a new form of leadership: one of transparency and integration, one of open dialogue and renewed trust, one of legitimate student involvement. Council was supportive and enthusiastic when I came to them, but looking forward, our leaders must do a better job of coming to us.

Student government by the students.

That’s what I’ll be campaigning on, and I hope that others will join me. Alongside the practical effects that my election reforms bring, they also set up a framework for future student involvement. I may be one of few that have presented a reform this year, but I’m not the only one with ideas. We all have thoughts about what can be better, and many of us are just waiting to be asked. It’s our leaders’ jobs to ask.

My positive Council experience has pushed me to get involved, and I know that an attentive government can have the same effect on others. By the time this reaches print, I’ll have (hopefully) begun knocking on doors and meeting with voters. And when I do so, I’ll make them a promise. Though I can’t fix everything, if elected, I will listen and I will knock on every constituent’s door at least once during every semester of my term.

The VSA needs student government by the students. Election reforms were the first step, and now it’s the candidates’ jobs to make this goal a reality.

Nikolas Goldberg

F

Guest Columnist

irst, Tunisia erupted. It was followed by Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen. Will democracy come to the Arab world, or will regimes change and the state power structure stay the same?

Part of the complication in the Middle East stems from the colonization process, which embedded a power superstructure that was passed from colonizer to colonial subject, such that, in some cases, independence represented a second colonization.

Nationalist movements that emerged in the postwar period are representative of this model, especially in the case of Egypt. After all, democracy is an inorganic, unnatural state in which the West has rested uneasily for the past half-century. As a consequence of its contrived form, democracy is unlikely to arise organically. If it did, however, it would constitute a dynamic liberalization of the region, making 2011 the year of the Arab Spring, similar to the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia in 1968. So, what should the West expect from an Arab Spring? I would suggest that the West should not have high hopes.

History tells us that the Prague Spring was a complete failure because it was squashed by the Soviet Union by the end of the year. Although the specter of communism is no more, if one listens to today’s current talking heads, their main question seems to be: Is Islam incompatible with democracy? However, a larger question should be asked: Why aren’t Judaism and Christianity at odds with democracy, as well? Religion in its fundamental state is by nature autocratic; without getting into a theological debate, there is an ultimate power from which the legitimizing power and subsequent power structure is derived. If a highly religious Judeo–Christian nation like the United States is able to uphold a democracy, is it that difficult to believe that Egypt could have democratic institutions one day soon? Moreover, we share the same im-

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perializing power, Great Britain, which instilled parliamentary practices upon both Egypt and the United States. Our revolutions represented bloody transfers of power from the elites in the mother country to ones in our own—something that may very well be the result of the incipient Arab Spring.

Theoretically, yes, democratic institutions should become more prevalent in the Arab world.

However, there will not be an Arab Spring this year.

Though there exists the blueprint for these institutions buried in the recent past, the superstructure of power that currently exists is ruled by strong men.

Both autocratic rule and parliamentary institutions are leftovers from the autocratic nature of colonial rule. No motivations exist in the respective power structures for changing the status quo. Recent history, especially the United States’ intervention in Iran in the 1950s and the continual support of regimes like Saudi Arabia, reinforce the idea that they are crucial from a Western standpoint. The material necessity for oil is obvious, but it also seems almost crucial for the Western mindset for there to be the problem of the Middle Eastern morass.

It vindicates our interests in the region and creates the necessary battle cry that has lead the West into conflict in the region since the Middle Ages.

It would not be beneficial to the United States for the Middle East to be democratic. Even from a material standpoint, bringing democracy to the Arab world and Middle East would include liberalizing their resources, and would thus have a negative impact upon the prices of precious commodities.

Our allies in the region are the existing autocratic regimes who cater to the Western world than we like to admit; without them we would have to pay a fair price for petroleum, which would shake the foundation of the integrated economic system. So, listen closely to those calling for liberalization in the Middle East, because the full story is not being told.

OPINIONS

Page 12

Dems must take tougher stance in energy fight ENERGY continued from page 10 through increased use of wind, solar, nuclear, and clean coal. But don’t let the White House’s rhetoric fool you; there is nothing innovative or “ambitious” about this plan. To start, this clean-energy standard would only apply to electricity, which means it will only catch about a third of all emissions. In addition, a CES will do nothing to reduce the deficit, as it panders to conservative anti-carbon tax philosophy and gives utilities free licenses to emit a certain amount of carbon. Robert Stavins, an environmental economist at Harvard University, has addressed the idea of a clean-energy standard before and said it “would accomplish considerably less and would impose much higher costs per ton of emissions reduction than cap-and-trade would”. This standard is merely a pale imitation of everything that preceded it: it’s less market-based, and worse for emissions, for the deficit, and for our international strategy.

But for all the flaws of this administration’s new policy, they certainly got the politics right. The combination of the right-wing hullabaloo over a carbon-tax in Washington, American indifference to global warming, and rising gas prices left the president with very few politically-acceptable options to choose from. The case for a CES is clearly a political one, based not on what the administration thinks we should do, but on the constraints of what we can do. So it’s a start. And, in fact, a number of prominent Republicans—Richard Lugar, Haley Barbour, and Lindsey Graham—have come out in favor of a CES, so if they remain true to their word—a tall task for some of today’s GOPers—it is possible that we’ll see this legislation passed. Still, it remains a massive concession and will only generate incremental gains. If it is able to survive Congress with most of its provisions intact, it is incumbent upon President Obama and his party to use the legislation as a platform for more progressive action in the future. Over the last couple of decades, it has almost seemed as if the rate at which our dependence on foreign oil has been commensurate with the number of empty promises made by our presidents concerning any change—both trapped in an inexorable incline, without anything actually being done. If the president wishes to take global warming seriously and “win the future,” he and his Democratic cohort will have to quit playing politics and stand up and fight for the policy they believe in.

April 14, 2011

Personal choice, not tech, to blame Kris Yim

T

Guest Columnist

he technology of our decade has inevitably given rise to a number of teen sexting controversies. They’ve all followed the same narrative, and the story of 14-year-old Washington resident Margarite was no exception. In The Miscellany News column “Teen sexting scandal illustrates dangers of technological era” (04.06.11) author John Kenney ’14 reflects on how technology changes social interactions in the context of Margarite’s case.

In a nutshell, Margarite sent a nude photo of herself to her then boyfriend Isaiah, and, following their separation, a rivaling peer circle sent the photo into school-wide circulation via chain text messaging. Kenney’s opinions on the teens’ punishments are valid, but in the article, he discusses the role of today’s technological luxuries in altering the social setting, stating the event “raises some serious questions about the implications of technology on social lives.” Considering examples of pure irresponsibility in light of “cell phones and Facebook” is misguided and misleading because, in saying that technology has “redefined social relationships,” Kenney essentially implies our actions are more wrong when it is easier for other people to find out about them.

The irrelevance of technology is best complimented by an in-depth reexamination of Margarite’s case. As Kenney states, “In some cases, the underage minor who took the photo of him- or herself has been charged with distribution of child pornography.” Not only is it “unnecessarily cruel,” but it would be a huge mistake. A distinction must be made between different kinds of “bad” actions to shed light on the legal controversy: There are morally bad actions, and those that are recklessly self-destructive. As with cases like Margarite’s, this distinction is useful in sorting the intricacies of complex situations and refocusing the law’s blindness to context. On the superficial level, morally bad actions may promise material or otherwise shallow profit at the unfair expense of others, and thus bear no intrinsic consequences. Laws are a means to impose artificial, external consequences to such actions in order to maintain large-scale fairness. On the other hand, some actions are merely careless, where the consequences to the self are inherent.

Pedophiles, quite obviously, are morally bad, so child pornography prevention laws are established to justly stunt the sexual exploitation of minors. Margarite, though, seems to have acted carelessly. Her reckless sexting gave way for her rival acquaintances to shame her; they retexted Margarite’s photo insofar as it would demean a victimized peer. In this context, the photo is valued as a child’s tool for social defamation, and it exists merely as much, for all intents and purposes. A charge of child pornography distribution even to her hateful peers would be completely misguided; an explicit photo of a minor in that context would hardly be the same. For Margarite, legal punishment would be rubbing salt in the wound; she acted carelessly, not immorally, and suffered social torment as a direct result, already a punishment of sorts. For her peers, their immoral action warranted their legal charge—gross misdemeanor of telephone harassment—but felony charges would have completely missed the point.

It would also be a mistake to suggest that technology somehow “redefine[s]” the social setting; it doesn’t. As far as Margarite’s case went, her embarrassing message and photograph spread within her social environment: her school. If cell phones didn’t exist, similar personal information could conceivably spread throughout her school in the same way, through the careless release of a print photograph, perhaps. Citing sexting as “just one of many facets we have to consider when we consider the behavior of youth,” including “parties” and drug usage, it is remarkable that Kenney is able to sidestep any significant statement about “the behavior of youth” itself.

Instead, he insists on focusing on how fragile the veil of teenagers’ secret lives becomes with the introduction of technology.

From Kenney’s article, two possible conclusions can be derived: Either today’s youth should act with more prudence, or they should not, at least by their own will, make pictures public via technology. Another way to frame the question is to ask whether the “silly decision” he mentions is the “wild night of debauchery,” or actually the act of posting it on Facebook? The column is daringly vague; Kenney writes, “any decision that is made digitally can serve to haunt our real selves for years to come.” The key word is “digitally,” implicitly stating that our digital

decisions—posting what we do online—are truly dangerous, and are somehow separable from our so-called “real selves” and our “real” actions. In other words, Kenney suggests that the presence of technology makes matters completely different; his article cautions us to change our behavior not because it’s wrong or “irresponsible,” but because, at least partially, other people—college admissions, employers or peers—would find out.

He writes, “A simple status update about marijuana is there forever. A tagged photo on Facebook of a wild night of debauchery can be seen by anyone ... Our lives are now under a microscope.” By the same token, many concerns about Facebook’s privacy issues have arisen. These concerns seem to forget that it is ultimately the users who choose what to make public. Technology is merely an extension of our will. Facebook isn’t some hidden listening device that follows us to our most intimate moments; rather, it works much like it does in real life: If you’ve got a secret, don’t shout it in a room where hundreds of your friends, acquaintances, teachers and employers are conveniently and idly huddled together. Kenney calls it “a scary fact” that “our social lives and actions are now available for others to see in a way that would not have even been imaginable 20 years ago.” No, people choose what to say about themselves, and if they say it, it would oftentimes be regrettably accurate. So, technology cannot serve to mitigate, even partially, the blame for irresponsible actions.

Thus, we must inevitably consider our actions. Kenney himself states a simple solution: “Underage students should of course think twice before sending a nude picture of themselves to anyone.” What continually puzzles me is his dismissal, “That being said, the practice probably will not stop,” and subsequent discourse on the “dangers” of the technological era. No, the “behavior of youth” has never changed. Social relationships are not “completely redefined,” but, on the contrary, they are revealed by technology. Still, on some level, Kenney recognizes much of teenagers’ behavior as “irresponsible.” It may not seem so at first, but I think Kenney’s article is, in essence, an inadvertent criticism of not merely brash sexting, but, implicitly, drug use and the party scene as a whole, muddled by a misdiagnosis of human ignorance.

Crossword by Jack Mullan ACROSS 1. Deep mysteries 7. “Goldilocks” figure 15. Iowa is the first in an election year 16. Bond 17. Nahuatl speakers 18. Folk-rock pioneer 19. ___ Moines 20. Burdened 22. French novelist Zola 23. Lion of Narnia 28. Norse trickster

31. Do business with 32. Fill fully 33. What a “V” may stand for 37. New York brokerage firm 38. Open Training and Education Network: Abbr.

39. Mistake 40. Balzac’s “Le ___ Goriot” 41. Spring bloom

Answers to last week’s puzzle

42. Starbucks order 43. Rowers’ instruments 44. One way to fall 46. Diarist Frank 47. Blackmore’s “Lorna ___” 48. PC insert 52. Writer Joyce Carol ___ 53. Little, to Balzac 56. Given a new look 62. Finals week woe 64. Merit badge recipient 65. Game that has its faults 66. Elite athletes 67. Tolkien character Gardner DOWN 1. Military sch.

2. Destroy 3. Grooves 4. Detective Ventura 5. Atomic centers 6. Indian silk center 7. Old-time actress Normand 8. Unaccompanied 9. New York Mets’ league

10. A helping hand 11. San Fran/Oakland separator 12. Blown-up photo: Abbr.

13. Here, to Javier 14. Stimpy’s TV partner 21. Prince William’s mum, briefly 23. Latin pluralizer 24. Loafer, e.g.

25. Big name in catalogues 26. Pied-___ 27. Schnozzes 28. Javier’s ethnonym, perhaps 29. 1887 Verdi opera 30. Where Vassar’s squash courts are found 31. Desiccated 32. Like a rock 33. Only player to be part of three World Cup- winning teams 34. ___ of Good Feelings 35. The “A” of MoMA 36. Small bed 45. __-Day (May 8, 1945) 46. Dutch brew 48. Heart, to Balzac

49. Pub competition 50. Path (abbr.)

51. 90 degrees from norte 53. One of the Ivies

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

54. Electro Scientific Industries’ stock name 55. Cold War inits.

56. C.E.O.’s deg.

57. “You’ve got mail” co.

58. Arizona senator Jon 59. Twisted letter 60. Halloween’s mo.

61. News inits.

63. Genetic letters

April 14, 2011

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 13

OPINIONS

A Roaring ’20s week in Facebook status updates Dana Cass still not used to this whole prohibition racket. how am i supposed to get through the end of winter without my booze jacket, as the girls are calling it? moonshine it is, then…

April 14, 1920 at 10:37pm Dana Cass likes Best Dorm Bathroom Moonshine Recipes.

April 15, 1920 at 8:15pm Dana Cass SNOW? STILL? now how am i supposed to shock my mother by wearing fringe if it’s just going to freeze every time i step outside? this is the worst.

April 16, 1920 at 9:20am Dana Cass likes Raising Your Skirts and Bobbing Your Hair.

April 17, 1920 at 1:27pm Dana Cass OUT OF TYPEWRITER RIBBON. PANIC. THESIS DRAFT DUE TOMORROW. April 18, 1920 at 2:54am Dana Cass got written up for trying to make gin in the fourth floor bathroom. sirs, i respectfully disagree that matthew vassar is rolling in his grave! may i remind you, the man was a brewer.

April 19, 1920 at 12:06am Dana Cass is attending Speakeasy in Matthew’s Mug (Private Event).

April 19, 1920 at 12:07am Dana Cass last night was the bee’s knees! nearly had to fight off the yale boys with a stick. it sure is swell to go to a college so progressive that we’re allowed to motor with them unchaperoned!

April 20, 1920 at 11:15am Dana Cass is now friends with George Herbert-Wilson IV and Charles Smootley.

April 20, 1920 at 3:16pm Dana Cass is attending Votes for Women, Step in Time!

April 20, 1920 at 6:02pm

Gems of the Course Catalogue Part IV: Class Struggles Michael Mestitz

I

t’s that time of year again! Everyone log on to Ask Banner and despair of ever getting into that class you need to satisfy your major because your draw number is lower than Chris Roellke’s tolerance for losing. Luckily for you, I’ve done my perennial scan through the course offering, as in “Gems of the course catalogue” parts I, II and III (11.19.09, 3.31.10 and 11.17.10), and have come up with the classes for next fall that still have some space in them.

Physical Education 321: Varsity Aesthetics

Now that we offer academic credit to athletes, the College is exploring ways to further erode the academic/athletic dichotomy. This experimental class will teach students the skills necessary to examine affective domain responses to objects or phenomena, either competitively or recreationally. Students learn fundamental Hegelian dialectic maneuvers, individual and team concepts, and general rules of critical reflection. The subject is taught in the non-contact mode, and the inherently beautiful structure of the universe is provided. Mental exercise outside of class is required. Cross-listed with Philosophy. R, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Walker Field House.

Chemistry 105: College Chemistry

No, this isn’t chemistry at a college level.

That’s all of our courses, you idiot. This is chemistry for college students, incorporating elements of the everyday. As a final project at the end of the semester, students collaborate to design experiments pointed towards confirming or refuting the possibility of the existence of a stable “Five Loko” isotope. TR, 1:30 to 2:45 p.m., Mudd Chemistry.

Dance 162: Beginning Ballet Is Not At All Like Black Swan

Seriously. Yes, that movie was terrifying. But this class is nothing like that. Students will simply master basic skills and exercises for barre and centre. I mean, really, the movie was totally unrealistic anyway; there was that guy hitting on Natalie Portman, and everyone knows there’s no such thing as a straight male dancer. MWF, 3:10 to 4:25 p.m., Kenyon Hall.

Dana Cass hunger strike for women’s suffrage!

April 21, 1920 at 3:37pm Dana Cass i’m hungry.

April 21, 1920 at 3:39pm

English 219: Pre-Meta

Although Vassar officially doesn’t offer pre-

Weekly Calendar: 4/14 - 4/20 Thursday, 4/14 3 p.m. Tea. Referenda we should pass. Rose Parlor.

Columnist

Political Science 248: Gagacracy

Popular monarchy is a system of governance in which the monarch’s title is linked with a popular mandate rather than a constitutional state. In looking at such a pop monarchy, this political theory course will focus on determining from where Lady Gaga derives the right to claim a noble title. Is it indeed an aristocratic right born of popular acclimatization? Or is she just playing a love game?

We will compare the philosophy behind pop monarchies with those that give rise to other systems of government, including cheertatorship (not a cheerocracy), demROCKracy (“give me liberty or give me deafness”) and ologarchGlee (rule by a group of auto-tuned social outcasts). Professor Richard “Born this way.” MW, 10 to 11:15 a.m., Rockefeller Hall.

College Course 352: JYArrival

Offered as a seminar for those juniors or seniors returning from their study abroad experiences, this course is designed to facilitate their re-entry into the Vassar campus community. Questions to be answered include, “Why am I in class so damn much all of a sudden?,” “What do you mean day-drinking isn’t acceptable here?” and “It didn’t count as cheating because we were on different continents, right?” M, 3:10 to 5:10 p.m., Rockefeller Hall.

Physics 239: E&S&M

For those of you who didn’t think that electricity and magnetism was sadistic enough already. Sticks and stones may break my bones but I want to know what excites electrons.

Topics include electrostatics of conductors and dielectrics, electric currents, magnetic fields, chain magnetism and literal chains.

The safe word is μ = ((B0/H0)cosδ) – j((B0/ H0)sinδ) = μ’ – jμ,’’ but I like my partners like I like my superconductors: with zero resistance. MW, 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., the creepy basement rooms of Sanders Physics.

by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

namesake, except your odds of leaving with an STD so obscure you totally haven’t heard of it before are even higher.

SoCos.

and a cappella groups/high Cs. Rose Parlor.

10 p.m. Trivia Night. Question #49: What the tits is hydrof-

racking? Faculty Commons.

5 p.m. Chocolate Seder. WAIT WHAT THIS IS THE BEST

IDEA EVER I CAN’T EVEN. Too bad it’s four days before Passover starts and thus can’t actually alleviate the yeastless pain and suffering. College Center 237.

TA where you threw up in the kitchen sink last weekend.

Davison MPR.

8 p.m. “The Pillowman.” It’s just like that six-foot-long body

Sunday, 4/17

pillow you bought to cry into and snot all over when your girlfriend broke up with you sophomore year! Shiva.

3 p.m. Madrigals Concert. I’ve always wondered why the Vassar Mads and MadsVassar have never brought a lawsuit against one another. The VSA can’t have ALL the judicial fun! Skinner.

Friday, 4/15

professional courses, overwhelming demand has led to this collaborative course offering from the Department of English and the Career Development Office which focuses on preparing students in the Pre-Meta track.

Topics covered will be mind-blowingly selfreferential: ceci n’est pas un cours. TR, 12 to 1:15 p.m., here.

8 p.m. “The Clean House.” Spoiler alert #2: It’s not that new

3 p.m. Tea. All students are hereby required to obtain writ-

Tuesday, 4/19 3 p.m. Tea. Any class whose title contains the word “Mod-

ern,” “Modernity” or “Modernism” will qualify for no more than .0000000000005 credits. Rose Parlor.

6 p.m. Second Passover Seder. By this point I’ll have totally

lost the will to go on, reduced to eating nothing but bunless burgers and cheesy matzah for sustenance. College Center MPR.

ten permission from the VSA Council, to be requested no less than three weeks in advance, before hooking up with someone with whom they share a bathroom. Rose Parlor.

8 p.m. Night Owls/Axies Concert. The theme is “S-AxieCentenni-Owl.” And here you thought sesquicentennial puns were dead. Rocky 300.

Wednesday, 4/20

7 p.m. Vassar’s Best Dance Crew. Spoiler alert #1: It’s not

Monday, 4/18

MICA. Villard Room.

3 p.m. Tea. Any member of the Barefoot Monkeys who hits another student with a sock full of gravel, or whatever the fuck those twirly things are, shall be placed on immediate academic suspension. Same goes for Frisbee team/Frisbees

Miscellany News office receives a complete set of brandnew spinny chairs. #selfservingreferendum? #dejavu. Rose Parlor.

Saturday, 4/16 12 p.m. South by South Commons Music Festival. Just like its

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

3 p.m. Tea. All org funding will be hereby frozen until The

8 p.m. Dancing with the Professors. I call Webster (he’s got

to have tenure by now). UpC.

ARTS

Page 14

Souls with Voices fills silences Charlacia Dent

E

Reporter

“Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights” of the Chapel Shruti Manian

T

Reporter

he end of the week holds many a delight for the theater-loving Vassar community. Of the bounty of upcoming plays, one that stands out for its extraordinary story and an even more unusual interpretation is Unbound’s “Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights.”

The play goes up Friday, April 15 at 8 p.m. and continues on Saturday, April 16 at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the Main Chapel.

In terms of composition and plot, “Dr. Faustus” is a complete departure from tradition. With a meandering storyline that weaves its way through the characters’ constant struggles with themselves as well as their interactions with one another, the play tells an elaborate story full of fantastical elements--there’s a pact with Lucifer, a tempting viper and a tough run in with original sin.

“Dr. Faustus” is the work of eminent, modernist American playwright Gertrude Stein.

Arianna Gass ’13 chose to direct “Dr. Faustus” after reading the play last summer, when its difficulty both challenged and fascinated her.

After overcoming her initial apprehensions of working on such a convoluted play, Gass began to hone her ideas. “I was scared to do the play, but images about it kept coming to me, I still wasn’t sure of how everything would look,” said Gass. She decided that “Dr. Faustus” would be a collaborative project, with significant creative input from numerous people. “I have done collaborative theater before and it is great working together with people. It was like a room full of beautiful minds and at first people wouldn’t contradict me, but soon enough they started putting their ideas forward,” said Gass.

Bringing life to the complex, experimental and non-linear plot has been challenging for the cast; however, they have risen to the task with skill. Willow Thompson ’14 plays the split personality of Marguerite Ida and Helena Anabel, one person with two distinct characters. “She is the kind of woman who is trying to deal with the patriarchal society that she is a part of and is attempting to break out of it,” said Thompson. The production uses a great deal of dance technique and rhythm to convey the essence of a play that was initially written as a libretto. Gass wished to incorporate its intended musical aesthetic, and so sought inspiration from prolific dance companies like the Netherlands Dance Theater.

Kat Mehocic/The Miscellany News

ach year, the Black Student Union (BSU) hosts Souls with Voices, an event that gives students and people of color around and within the Vassar community an opportunity to come together to celebrate and promote their culture.

This year, the event will take place on Saturday, April 16 at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the Students’ Building.

According to Literary Editor of the BSU Cydney Smith ’13 , this year the performances will be especially exciting, as they’ll showcase everything from spoken word by local artists from Poughkeepsie to the black musical group Vassar Has Soul to stand up comedy by Brandon Greene ’13 to special performances by rapper Ade Raphael ’12, Ade Ra as known onstage.

For nearly 10 years, one of the main goals of the event has been to give voice to the people in our communities who are often under-represented. “I feel like different types of art forms are silenced. We have so many different musical groups on campus, but even though black music, art and dance—from African drums, blues, jazz and even many contemporary art forms— have been so influential, we don’t have a lot of it on our campus,” President of the African Violets Cordelia Elaiho ’12 said. The African Violets work directly with the Council of Back Seniors to offer resources to graduating seniors.

Souls with Voices has thus provided an outlet for expression on campus. Its success in previous years has greatly influenced creative pursuits within the Vassar community, specifically inspiring the music group Vassar Has Soul. The event gave a group of students exactly the type of supportive thrust they needed to take off as a musical act: “Many of our members had been a part of different musical groups on campus, and our needs were not being met. We wanted a group that represented many of our religious backgrounds and was inclusive of our soulful tastes,” said Stephanie George ’14, member of the newly formed musical group Vassar Has Soul.

Although Souls with Voices is a great showcase, Vassar Has Soul wanted to become something permanent, something year-long. They were given necessary confidence through the annual event to become a full-fledged group. “We were inspired by the Souls with Voices event, and wanted something that was not only active within it, but something that we could engage in all year. When our voices come together during a performance or weekly rehearsal, I am able to escape all the mundanity of college life,” George commented.

Taking place during the annual Focus weekend, a three-day program for incoming admitted students, the event is also effective in its ability to highlight the diversity and many creative voices on campus. “My prospie [prospective student] was present at the event last year, and she got to see me perform. She absolutely loved it,” shared Sharon Onga ’13, another member of Vassar Has Soul. Prospective students from different backgrounds are able to see how Vassar students pursue their interests in a supportive environment. As representatives of a racial minority, incoming students of color are given a chance to see all the ways they can get involved with campus life at Vassar and to have their voices heard.

Each year the BSU planning committee hopes to see a greater turn-out involving more groups: “Our goal was to reach out to the talent of the Vassar community, Poughkeepsie and other organizations such as Poder Latino and the South Asian Student Alliance.” Spoken word by one of Poughkeepsie’s finest poets, Bettina “Gold” Wilkerson, will also be an integral part of the event this year.

Souls with Voices is an event for everyone to come together, celebrate and integrate those who are often overlooked, and an opportunity to highlight how the College expresses and appreciates the voices of individuals from different walks of life. According to Elaiho, “There is no event like it, it bridges the gap between all forms of expression and showcases all types of talent.”

April 14, 2011

Above, student actors rehearse a scene from “Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights,” the latest production from Unbound. “Dr. Faustus” will be performed in Main Chapel at 8 p.m. this Friday and Saturday.

“We thought that there could be dance without movement, and you see our characters are dancing with their eyes and their hands; the lights and the sounds add to the rhythms as well,” said Gass. “Every bodily movement has significance and is a stylized way of expression,” added Thompson.

Adapted from the ancient myth of Faust, the play traces the story of Dr. Faustus, who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for powers that he believes are worth spending an eternity in Hell to get. He receives Mephisto as an aid to assist him in his quest for knowledge; however, Faustus learns that Mephisto is kind of devil incarnation himself. The performance starts at the point where Faustus sells his soul to the devil, and then goes on to portray his interactions with various characters and the battle of good and evil raging inside of each. The play is suffused with religious symbolism and addresses numerous religious subjects like atheism, original sin and the presence of the Devil.

A unique aspect of this Unbound production is its unconventional, yet highly appropriate location. The play will not be staged at one of Vassar’s numerous theaters, but will instead take place in the Vassar Chapel. “It is a

story that engages religious ideology in a critical way, and the Chapel is a space that is so connected to the plot,” said Gass. Moreover, the actors will use the pews and the balcony of the Chapel as their stage, while the audience will be seated on the actual, physical stage of the Chapel. “This gives the audience an interesting position, they are spectators as well as participants in the performance; we hope to really engage the community,” said Gass.

The play is also multi-media. An organist as well as various slide projections are key factors that help create the mysterious and inscrutable atmosphere that the play requires. “The play is experimental and the challenge for the audience is that they accept that certain parts of the play that they might not understand are not meant to be understood at all,” said Gass.

The play is a blend of a number of curious themes with a quirky and perplexing plot that is as different as can be from a traditional theatrical production in terms of both storyline as well as execution. “It is definitely not theater in the conventional sense, where you will see actors get a role, learn their bits and get applauded. It’s more of a process than a performance,” said Gass.

Media dialogue joins town and campus Emma Daniels

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Reporter

n April 20, Poughkeepsie community member and Vassar Academic Computing Consultant Matthew Slaats and Vassar’s Media Studies Department will hold an event in downtown Poughkeepsie called Media in the Community. Slaats defined it as a community conversation, as it invites local artists, academics and the public to engage in a dialogue about the roles, strategies and processes that are being used to build greater connectivity through art, culture and public media.

Although there are Vassar professors participating in the event, most of the contributors are members of the Hudson Valley community. The conversation will take place in downtown Poughkeepsie from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Cunneen-Hackett Theatre, located inside a 122-year-old landmark building.

Slaats said, “So much of what goes on inside the Vassar walls is for a Vassar audience. We’re trying to show that there are abilities for vibrant conversations to happen when you mix people from Vassar and from other places.”

The idea for the project came from Slaats, a media artist who approached the Media Studies Department with the idea of both hosting this conversation, and using it to help promote dialogues between and within local communities. According to Slaats, “The talk sees culture as a social glue that defines our community and our identity. In a world dominated by virtuality and forms of pop culture, the importance of these practices ever remains.”

Director of Media Studies and Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Eva Woods said

the department’s desire to help was threefold.

They wanted to engage with Slaats’ vision, emphasize community issues regarding social justice and also further connect Vassar to the community of which it is a part. Both Woods and Slaats emphasized that they want students to come even though the event is off-campus and mentioned that students can use the Vassar shuttle to get there.

Woods said, “We want to promote relationships between Vassar and the community artists, intellectuals and academics. We also really want to help promote conversations that will lead to something concrete. Rather than having this be an academic talk, where people are talked at, we’re hoping this generates ideas and momentum for projects in the community. We’re looking at it as more of a workshop.” The project is not a series of lectures, but of short presentations.

One presenter is Tom Roe of WGXC and Free103point9, a member of an audio sound group in Hudson, N.Y. According to the WGXC website, the radio station is “a community-run media project, re-envisioning radio as an innovative platform for local participation with special exhibitions and events.”

Slaats will discuss People Art Urban Space Exchange (PAUSE), an organization he founded that focuses on working with the community to build cultural assets. According to its website, “PAUSE is about using the arts to initiate, engage and sustain conversation within various spaces and communities. By organizing performances, building structures and creating partnerships, this effort creates possibilities for re-thinking and re-seeing urban space as a group.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

The band Decora, a member of the Readnex Poetry Squad in Newburgh, N.Y., will also do a presentation. The group works to uplift urban communities with their lyrical messages influenced by hip-hop, Latin and Caribbean music.

Decora focuses on the spoken word as it relates to education. According to their website, they “seek to alleviate ignorance by tackling various issues including but certainly not limited to race, gender, politics, history, social injustice, gentrification, poverty and segregation.”

Like the Readnex Poetry Squad, Maria Marewski and Nicole Fenichel Hewitt of the Childrens Media Project and Assistant Professor of English at Vassar Kiese Laymon will discuss education.

Another person presenting is Professor of Media Studies at Marist College Karen Michel, who will discuss her role as the ViceChair at Large of the Dutchess County Arts Council during the conversation.

Assistant to the President and Presidential Fellow Edward Summers of Marist College will talk about the role that culture plays in community development and the idea of the “creative class.” Associate Professor of Sociology at Vassar Leonard Nevarez will discuss the commoditization of culture, how it is losing its ability to have meaning and ideas about how that could change.

Slaats noted that the conversation will hopefully not only connect members of different local communities, but also groups from different local colleges, notably Vassar and Marist.

He said, “Maybe there’s work we can do together, and perspectives we could share.

This is a major part of what could happen, but hasn’t happened before.”

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April 14, 2011

Page 15

“Letters in Pink and Grey” an epistolary tale of Vassar Adam Buchsbaum

I

Assistant Arts Editor

Courtesy of Max Kaluzny

n a dramatized reading entitled “Letters in Pink and Grey,” five current Vassar women will tell the lives of five previous Vassar women spanning 1869 to 1937 using their private letters to express the timeless Vassar experience.

The readings will range from the playful to the sad, and will all take place in the classic Rose Parlor, a campus locale decades of Vassar girls have occupied.

But it is important to first note that this production does not fall into a neat, traditional category for a performance. Though the letters read are real, each is enacted in a theatrical space. And even though the women did not know each other, their letters are linked into a loose paralleling narrative arc that begins with matriculation and ends at graduation.

“It’s not a plot, it’s not a dialogue,” said Lyla Porter-Follows ’14, an ensemble actress. “It’s taking a glimpse into these different stories and trying to bring them to life.” This dramatization is about capturing the fairly universal experience of being a student at Vassar College throughout its history. “Vassar has not changed,” Violet Edelman ’12, the coordinator of the project, said.

“There’s something about the way students feel about this place and their time here and what they do here that remains today.”

As coordinator, Edelman helps link the cast— which is the ensemble cast of five actresses—to the production team. Edelman also originated the idea for the performance and rounded up the cast and crew. “I really wanted to do something with Philaletheis honoring the sesquicentennial because Phil is the oldest student [organization],” Edelman said. “It was originally a literary society, so I thought something that was literary and theatrical and playing with the boundaries there would be appropriate.” Edelman also found inspiration in a book, Letters from Old-Time Vassar Written by a Student in 1869-70. Edelman found that letters worked perfectly, and assembled her cast and crew. The group has met twice a week since the beginning of the spring semester, and most days of each week after break. However, Edelman is by no means the director of this piece. The event is collaborative in nature, lacking any one director whose vision trumps the rest. For one, this means open critique, response and direction from every member of the ensemble. “It’s great

“Letters in Pink and Grey,” a dramatized reading coordinated by Violet Edelman ’12, tells the lives of five Vassar women spanning from 1869 to 1937 through excerpts from their private correspondences. to have five different people looking at one thing,” Catherine Buxton ’12, ensemble actress, said. In addition to collaboration on acting, the ensemble collaborated on research. “Letters” required real letters from real Vassar women, so each member was assigned to research their individual role. The ensemble would enter Special Collections in the Library and pour through letters. At meetings, the ensemble would discuss their findings and pick and choose what worked and what didn’t. Eventually, the group had their letters and characters set and wrote up their scripts together. In picking the characters, the ensemble tried to cover a range of experience. “We tried to have the five of them represent a balance of the kinds of students who were here throughout the years,” Edelman said. “I wanted to get a sense of Vassar through the ages.” The ensemble found themselves connected very strongly with the letters, discovering shadows of their experience in these distant women. “You listen to somebody else reading their letter and you’re like: ‘I felt that

way yesterday. I had this moment earlier this week,’” Siobhan Reddy-Best ’13, ensemble actress, said. Porter-Follows agreed: “The things they’re dealing with really overlap and are even still completely relevant to what we go through in college,” she said. This strong connection to the letters posed an interesting problem. By the nature of the piece, not every worthy letter could be performed. Letters were simply too long for dramatization or did not fit with the loose narrative. The ensemble had to simply let go of some letters, even if they were great. “We haven’t even read all the letters that there are down there because there’s so many,” Edelman said. “By the time we felt like we had enough to cover everything, we stopped.” Just as essential to the performance are its theatrical elements. The Rose Parlor is an iconic setting for “Letters” because it is one of the few constant, concrete things that links the experience of each woman at Vassar. “It’s timeless,” said Porter-Follows. Its unconventional space also means the staging will be atypical of theater,

with each woman occupying a sort of sphere from which they act and read. In addition, costuming is important in this production. Since each character occupies a very distinctive time period for fashion, she requires a period-accurate costume that establishes circumstance and feels believable. For just this, Edelman turned to Faren Tang ’13 to design the costumes.

“I went into Special Collections and I looked at pictures of Vassar students from the various periods,” Tang said. “You can sit there all day and look at fashion history books, but to see what Vassar girls were really wearing was very interesting.” Tang spent weeks doing her fashion research and preparation. Tang also read over the letters to get a sense of the women’s personalities, then went on to her sketches.

The process of making the clothing was very time-consuming. “I went through three sets of fittings in muslin before I even knew what fabric I was using,” Tang said. “It took up all of my free time for several weeks,” she said.

Tang strived for detailed reproduction of the costuming—meaning, intricacy. Corsets, two to three petticoats and even a wire bustle for Reddy-Best—that metal frame worn under the skirt way back when that puffs out the skirt’s behind like in costume dramas. It all added up quite quickly and made for much work. Because the show requires only one costume per character, Tang was able to give much attention and care to costuming. “It takes me half an hour to get them dressed because they have so many layers in the costumes ... nobody except me even knows how to get them on,” Tang said. Between digging through the depths of the Library’s Special Collection for letters and costuming, meeting constantly and collaborative directing, it is clear this production is a unique, both academic and theatrical dramatization that enlightens the audience to the experience of being a Vassar student, regardless of time. And it won’t be long before students have the chance to see this performed. The show will run from April 14 to 16 at 8 p.m. and April 16 at 3 p.m. in the Rose Parlor. “I hope that [students] feel like we’ve brought Vassar history to life. And I also hope that they feel more connected to the past and to the heritage we belong to than they already do,” Edelman concluded. “It’s very much a kind of ode to Vassar, so I hope it leaves people feeling as in love with the College as I am.”

Survey of three movies linked in content, catalogue Connor O’Neill

A

Assistant Arts Editor

s of Sunday, April 10, the Thompson Memorial Library’s DVD collection clocked in at 6,051 titles.

Curious to get a cursory sense of this collection, I rented the first and last movie in the collection and then split the difference and rented the middle one too. The title that bears the loneliest number in the collection is City of Angels, the hybrid romantic-comedy/supernatural love story starring Nicholas Cage and romantic comedy darling Meg Ryan. The 3025th spot belonged to an A&E Biography episode on the film actress Bette Davis, while the final call number was the classic concert-movie Stop Making Sense by the Talking Heads.

So what is the connection between these titles, you ask? Well, to be perfectly frank, nothing immediately apparent. But I beg that you, dear reader, like that patient student worker behind the reserve desk who humored my request to browse the end of the collection, and who helped me carry the three when doing the math to figure out the midpoint, will indulge me in this little exercise. The hope being that some intriguing threads might arise from this arbitrary system of comparison.

The cataloging system of the collection works in ascending numerical order in which the films are acquired.

Which means that City of Angels was the first DVD that our College broke

the bank on, probably at some point in 1998—that serendipitous year that saw both the release of the film and the rise of the DVD. Directed by Brad Silberling, the film is a puzzling meditation on human life and, as one might expect from a ’90s romantic comedy, a hokey testament to the transcendence of love.

Cage plays the delicate-voiced angel Seth, who invisibly passes through Los Angeles in a rather creepy fashion, peering into the lives of the city dwellers when he becomes fixated on the morose but stunning surgeon Maggie (Ryan). Seth, in one of his many angelic tricks, allows Maggie to see him and begins his eerie, stuttering courtship.

The catch is that as an angel he has no sensory experience of the world.

He can’t taste the pears at the market and he can’t feel her touch, though she can feel his. This unreciprocated physical connection proves to be too much for Maggie and she leaves him.

But Seth has realized that he can fall from his status as angel and become human and so he jumps from a downtown Los Angeles building and lands beaten and bloody as a mortal.

He travels to Tahoe to the sounds of the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” (the only truly memorable part of the movie is this song—you know all the words, trust me), and he and Maggie consummate their relationship as well as his newly acquired feelings on the floor next to a roaring fire. The

City of Angels, left, and Stop Making Sense, right, are the first and last additions, respectively, to the Thompson Memorial Library’s DVD collection. The collection includes 6,051 titles, including an A&E Biography episode on actress Bette Davis, center. next morning, during some fantastic cuts, Seth experiences the wonders of a shower while Maggie flies down the country roads on her bike. Then (spoiler alert) she’s hit by a truck and dies and Seth is left to experience the rest of his numbered days alone. He is sad, no doubt, but finds joys in the tastes and smells of life, telling his angel friend “For one living breath of her hair, I would trade a lifetime of being an angel” or something like that. The film is a testament to the enriching potential of the mortal coil, to the fantastic experiences a body offers us, in Ryan’s bed or not.

And the life of Davis, as the A&E

Biography shows, had much to do with navigating the Hollywood landscape as a woman endowed with a remarkable body and an ambition and intellect to match.

Entering the business as a young woman in the 1930s, during the first boom of the movie industry, she signed on to Warner Bros. Studio. As was the case with all working actors of the time, she signed a contract that bound her to that studio and prohibited her from choosing her own roles or allowing her the freedom to work on movies produced by other studios.

And the studio kept her at a break-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

neck pace, doing five, six, even seven movies a year—all B List. Jack Warner, the head of the studio, denied all of her requests for a longer leash or better directors, but finally relented and allowed her to star in Of Human Bondage, an intense, gritty role that asked Davis to push her body to the limits and appear haggard and dejected on screen—a task that many actresses of the day balked at, afraid to sully their pristine reputations and on-screen veneers. But Davis was headstrong and dedicated and the role won her an Academy Award.

This type of tug of war battle with See MOVIES on page 16

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Page 16

April 14, 2011

VC students make music fest happen Quirky director just wants to have fun Jack Owen

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Reporter

agnolia Swanson ’12 has always loved putting on a show. “My first interaction with drama was that as a child I liked playing dress up. As you can tell from my outfit, I still do,” she said with a laugh, pointing to her thick boots, lacy black top and over-sized denim jacket.

For Swanson, a psychology and Chinese double major, theater and costume have been great outlets for her creativity and self-expression. “I was always shy as a child, but I didn’t have any apprehension about performing,” she said. She became involved in her schools’ theater productions early on, but did not start working on the technical side of shows until high school.

In her sophomore year at Vassar she was placed as set and props assistant designer for the Drama Department. “I had some experience before Vassar,” said Swanson, “but let’s just say in the department I learned the ropes very quickly.” Swanson’s intrinsic artistic vision made working for the Drama Department a perfect match. Also as a sophomore, she dove further into Vassar’s drama scene by participating in a Philaletheis directing workshop. “I really enjoyed the process, and this summer I knew that I wanted to direct a play as a transition,” she said. Directing, for Swanson, marked the beginning of a transition for her as an artist, allowing her to dabble in a side of theater with more decision making power, where she could work with others to manifest a creative vision.

Now, after just a few months and a semester in Shanghai, Swanson directed Ariel Dorfman’s “Death and the Maiden,” and has undoubtedly asserted herself as an inventive and top-notch director. The play was performed in the Shiva Theater this past weekend, and tells the story of Paulina Salas and Gerardo Escobar, a wife and husband who are perpetually affected by Salas’s dark past. “I picked up ‘Death and the Maiden’ in a book store and after reading it was sure I wanted to direct it,” Swanson said.

“The subject matter deals with rape and murder and how to address the human rights violations of the Old Regime [in Latin America] and move on.” She added, “I think the show can open up a lot of conversations because it deals with a lot of moral issues and, in a way,

Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News

SXSoCo continued from page 1 huge, 4,500-square-foot tent, so all is on, rain or shine.

Sola was inspired by a similar festival called How About that happened in 2008 under the leadership of then ViCE Jazz President Noah Chilton ’12. “I talked to a lot of seniors about that festival, and they said it was their most memorable event at Vassar,” explained Sola.

South by South Commons is the sum of what Sola describes as “a cacophony of ideas” presented by individuals and student organizations alike. He compares the event to Founder’s Day, except with much less baggage, and a product of student collaboration from the ground up. “I’ve been totally surprised by how everything has blossomed and expanded into something far beyond my original conception of the event,” he said.

In addition to four top-notch, totally danceable musical acts, the festival will also boast student art installations, an interactive graffiti wall, henna tattooing, tye dying, s’more roasting and old school backyard games like sack racing and three-legged races.

Contrast, Vassar’s art and fashion magazine, will set up a flea market made up of student clothing donations. Considering the unfalteringly hip ensembles worn by Vassar’s students on any given day, there are sure to be some one-of-a-kind picks in the sale pile.

The Vassar Haiti Project will also take part in the festival by extending its reforestation campaign. “They’re going to set up by the SoCo tree with a crafts table where students can make Christmas tree ornaments to hang on the tree. It’ll have ideological implications as well as being crafty and fun,” said Sola.

No doubt the diverse food offerings at the event will draw a big crowd. In addition to some old favorites like Twisted Soul, Zorona’s and Kismat, the festival will also bring some new players to the table. “I wanted to get some unique food vendors because we usually have the same groups on campus,” said Sola. La Cabianita, a Mexican restaurant on Main Street, and Rossi’s, an Italian Deli, will both switch it up with their menus. In addition, Vassar’s Slow Food movement will set up a beverage bar, including such innovative and refreshing concepts as lavender and basil lemonades.

As for musical acts, Vassar’s own Body Electric afro-funk band will open the show at 1 p.m. sharp. “Part of the reason I wanted to have the Body Electric open the festival is to draw a crowd that will stick for the rest of the day,” explained Sola. After that, funk rock trio Mauce will play, followed by Rozatones, a funk soul band, and then Goosepimp Orchestra will make way for the much anticipated silent disco. From 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., two live DJs will transmit their sets through headphones distributed by all interested in serious groovin’ and shakin’. Everyone will be able to switch from each set with the simple touch of a button located on the headphones. “It will be super bizarre and really unique, and yet a totally banging party,” Sola explained, adding, “And when you take your headset off, there will be a room full of people seemingly dancing to nothing.”

Sola found the South Commons as an attractive festival location because it’s hardly the most frequented locale on campus. Instead of using the TH circle, Noyes Circle or the Quad, Sola strategically opted for an unappreciated space: “If you go to an event in a space you’re not used to going to and from, you’re less likely to leave immediately.”

In addition, the fact that no stigma or preconceived reputation applies to the SoCo location makes it a real blank slate for a successful festival. “It’s great to create an event in a little bubble that allows us to create an atmosphere,” he explained. South by South Commons is rooted in the idea of forging an artistic, welcoming and totally stress relieving environment created by and and for students.

When asked to summarize the atmosphere in one sentence, Sola responded definitively: “Extremely chill vibes all day and all night.”

After participating in a Philaletheis workshop, Artist of the Week Magnolia Swanson ’12 decided to try her hand at directing. Her production of “Death and the Maiden” was performed in the Shiva Theater this past weekend. asks those in the audience to examine themselves,” she expounded.

Swanson has found the drama and arts scene at Vassar to be incredibly thrilling, as it represents the convergence of so many original pursuits. “I’m from a small town outside of Tucson, so I am always so impressed by the work that goes on here,” Swanson said. “It can sometimes be overwhelming just how much creativity and dedication the students have here. They can create such exciting designs.”

When asked what her inspiration for her work is, Swanson said with shining eyes and a big grin, “Not to sound corny, but in the words of Cindy Lauper—girls just wanna have fun!”

Swanson’s passion for drama is completely unpretentious, as she is fully aware of the hard work that goes into theater making, but is also

free-spirited and passionate enough to love the process.

Her attitude is highly enthusiastic—she loves to feel involved and takes things as they come, always doing what she loves: “Honestly I don’t really think of myself as an ‘artist.’ I just enjoy having an outlet and that is what theater is for me. It’s nice when other people are receptive to it but whether or not they are I’d still continue to do it,” she said.

Luckily we have yet another year to see how Swanson’s vision will help shape the drama and arts scene. It is her fun-loving nature and willingness to tackle provocative issues that really sets her apart as an artist. We can only anticipate the fervent and spirited personality Swanson will bring to theater productions in years to come.

Making movie rental an art all its own MOVIES continued from page 15 the powers that be would dominate her career, which saw its ups and downs. But Davis was unrelenting, sacrificing many personal pleasures to commit more fully to her career.

Having made more than her first husband and unwilling to conceive a child because of the roles she would miss, that marriage ended in divorce and her second marriage was a sustained struggle to remain a serious actress while staying active in her family life. Indeed, the title credits in her film Dark Victory, with Ronald Reagan, read, “She’s Everything a Woman Can Dare to Be.” Her career was one of a headstrong, talented actress encountering and pushing against the structural constraints the studios hoped to impose on what they saw as simply a beautiful one. But as attentive as the documentary is to her endeavor, it is content to cast her as a relatively flat figure, shying away from her daughter’s critique of her as attention seeking and neglectful. Such sidestepping allows the brief film (it clocks in at under 50 minutes) to move at pace. But as quick and straightforward as its path is, by the time the smarmy narrator sitting at the fake desk comes back on screen, one is ready to be done with the film.

And at last we come to the crown jewel of not only these three mile-marker films, but really of this or any movie collection. Stop Making Sense, made by the thoroughly engrossing performers the Talking Heads, is by far the most cinematic film in the concert-movie genre, as well as one of the most (literally) moving and performative of any narrative film.

Directed by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs), the first few songs of the concert are a sort of birth story of the band, with a new member coming on stage after each song.

The film opens to a shot of the floor of the stage, curtains peaking open to allow light to sneak in. Then a shadow of the neck of front man David Byrne’s guitar, and from there we are off to the races. Byrne, who is the visionary behind the staging of the concert, takes “Pyscho Killer” to himself, accompanied only by a 808 drum track played on a boom box.

When he is not strumming, singing and foundering at the knee like a New-Wave Elvis, he is stumbling around the barren stage almost as if he has lost control yet he stays in time to the beat.

As the members of the band join him and the sets and the lighting become more elaborate, a visceral pull begins to form and mount in the viewer’s body. Byrne cannot stand still, constantly gesticulating to the fidgety guitars and whirring synthesizers. He is always either running in place, moving with the other performers or running laps around the set, all while singing in his distinct, mouth-wide-open delivery. Its as much an aerobics video as it is a display of the power of music to move, as the stage is transformed over the course of the film into a sort of Dionysian petri dish, with dance breeding in the flashing lights.

All of his band members have joined Byrne by the time they hit “Life in Wartime,” seventh in the set list, and they gesticulate in sync across the stage, swelling with movement and grinning ear to ear. It looks like the most fun a

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

performer has had since the King himself.

But this is less sex, more pure spectacle.

For “What A Day That Was” each performer is illumined with their own individual light, the stage in darkness. They are half shadow, half brightly lit and they are all gesture. Late in the set, during “Girlfriend is Better” after Byrne has returned to the stage in a hilariously oversized suit, the artifice is broken for a moment when the camera catches a part of lighting crew on stage. But then Byrne holds out the microphone to him, acknowledging the rift, and he sings “stop making sense” and any notion of cinematic convention is erased and we are again folded into the revelry of the performance.

In a wickedly funny self-interview that is included as a special feature in the DVD, Byrne asks himself why the movie is called Stop Making Sense, to which he responds, “because its good advice. Music and performing don’t make sense.” When asked, “Why a big suit?”

He respponded, “I wanted my head to appear smaller and the easiest way to do that was to make my body bigger. Because music is very physical and often the body understands it before the head.”

And for a project that was conceived of as an intellectual exercise in cataloguing the catalogue, what was really learned, or rather reiterated, was the importance of such attention to the body. Its staggering potential to move and connect was a reminder to remain attentive to the physicality that governs our lives, from the mawkish to the performative.

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Page 17

Students, professors take to the dance floor Adam Buchsbaum

Assistant Arts Editor

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Live Music starts at 1:00 p.m.

Dancing with the Professors, an annual event first held two years ago by the Vassar Ballroom Club, will take place next Wednesday, April 20 at 8 p.m. in the second floor of the Students’ Building. proached Harriford and asked her to participate. Harriford agreed to it, and chose her former student Flynn as her partner. “I thought it may be fun to try dancing again, now that I have fallen off my bicycle many times and read numerous books,” Harriford continued.

“I am sure my mother is smiling wherever she is as I try to channel her grace and skill.”

Vassar Ballroom began Dancing with the Professors two years ago in an attempt to bring ballroom dancing to not only the students, but also the faculty as a whole. At first, the club thought to have President Catharine Bond Hill judge the performances, but decided against it since it would add an extra stress level to what should be a fun, casual event.

Alex Wang ’12, the leader of Vassar Ballroom, has only positive things to say about the event.

This is his third year participating, and he still recalls vividly his previous performances.

“For those few minutes on stage, as well as the four weeks of rehearsals, we weren’t a professor or a student, we were simply two people trying to show the audience something beautiful,” Wang wrote in an emailed

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

statement. “Those shared moments of hard work, frustration, laughter, fatigue, inspiration, fear and euphoria created a unique bond between my professors and me, one that can’t really be described.”

This year, Wang will dance the salsa with Assistant Professor of Psychology Dara Greenwood. “She’s a very fun person to work with,” Wang wrote. “I think we spend about as much time giggling as rehearsing.”

The show will feature six acts, all roughly two minutes each. Before each dance, a projector in front of audiences will show a small video introduction to the dancing professor and student.

They will dance on Wednesday, April 20 at 8 p.m. in the second floor of the Students’ Building. “I am constantly amazed by the courage of our Vassar professors,” Wang wrote. “Everyone just felt like they accomplished something big. I don’t think we have had a single participant of [Dancing with the Professors] who did not love the experience.

I think it really does bring the community closer together.”

➸ Outdoor Activities Student Art Installations Flea Market Tie Dying Henna Tattoos Spray Paint Wall S’more-Roasting Fire

➸ Local Food Vendors La Cabanita Rossi’s Deli Twisted Soul Zorona’s Kismat Slow Food Beverage Bar

➸ Schedule 1 p.m. - The Body Electric 3 p.m. - Intermission for Field Day games, three-legged races, sac races 3:30 p.m. - Mauce 5:30 p.m. - The Rozatones 8 p.m. - Goosepimp Orchestra 10 p.m. - Silent Disco starts (Feauring: gold’n’lung, Maziar Kazmi, Dylan & Cash, das shniz bot)

submit to misc@vassar.edu

Mauce

Courtesy of the Rozatones

The Rozatones

Goosepimp Orchestra

Courtesy of Goosepimp Orchestra

My piece is a woodblock print of Daphne turning into a tree. The print is composed of eight colors, meaning the woodblock was cut and printed eight times. In total, there were 13 copies in the edition.

Though a very time-intensive process, I really love printmaking. Woodblock is a wonderful medium. It forces you to put a lot of time in to your art—prints require careful planning and execution. Some of the best prints come out because you cannot really predict the end product The result is always different then what you planned. This randomness in many ways counteracts the rigidity of the form.

When you create art, there is a bond of trust created between the artist and the viewer—an unspoken contract. Viewers agree to take time to look at and think about your piece, and they trust that the artist put time and effort into making it The printmak ing process provides a framework for this negotiation by slowing artists down and making them think. Unfortunately, this piece is hard to see if it is not in color and will not be up in the printmaking show. Still, I encourage students to go to the Palmer Gallery this week and look at the prints that were created by their fellow students.

Approximately 24in x 30in —Matt Kramer

Courtesy of maucemusic.com

Campus Canvas

All-Day Arts Festival

Courtesy of Mrinmayee Patel

n Rockefeller Hall on a Sunday evening, Chris Flynn ’14 dances with Professor of Sociology Diane Harriford. Their feet make the old, wooden, scratched-up floor creak with each planned step. They are rehearsing the foxtrot for Dancing with the Professors.

Flynn met Harriford through his Introduction to Sociology class last semester. Harriford wished to dance in the event and approached Flynn, who was happy to help: “If I could help introduce anyone to ballroom dancing, then why not?” Flynn said. “It’s like dancing with anybody else.” Flynn is early to rehearsal. He moves aside all the chairs to one side of the classroom, leaving an empty space. He sets his computer out and awaits Harriford, who soon arrives and sets her coat on a chair. As she changes into her dance shoes, Harriford quickly notes the reason why she’s dancing.

“I don’t think we have enough fun at Vassar,” Harriford said. “And it is a challenge.”

As the two rehearse, Flynn decides to bring on the music. He walks up to his laptop perched on a table and hits play. “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” by Dinah Washington plays over the room. The door to classroom 201 is slightly ajar, so any passing student would hear only the faint sound of jazzy music and shuffling feet. While the two practiced, other students were working on plays in other rooms, unaware of the dancers’ rehearsal. The duo continued while Flynn directed. Flynn choreographed the short, twominute dance himself, and sometimes stops to discuss their work or make changes.

As for the other professor-student competitors, Flynn has no idea what types of routines are in store aside from their basic style of dance--salsa, tango, rumba and swing.

Rehearsal, scheduling and choreography are entirely up to the professor and the student.

Harriford explained her mother’s legacy on her affinity to dance, as she danced in a chorus line with Count Basie, a premier big band leader in the ’30s. “As her only daughter, she had hoped that I would love to dance as she did and made it her business to make sure that I had dance lessons,” Harriford wrote in an emailed statement. “I was hopeless and frankly more interested in reading books and riding my bicycle.” Elizabeth Boateng ’11, a member of the Vassar Ballroom Club, ap-

—Rachael Borné Arts Editor

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

SPORTS

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April 14, 2011

Stonitsch provides stabilizing force for VC runners Kristine Olson

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Reporter

Courtesy of Sports Information

aving worked at Vassar for nearly 30 years, track and cross country Volunteer Assistant Coach Ron Stonitsch knows almost everything there is to know about the history of those two sports at Vassar.

The personal interest he takes in his students remains one of his biggest contributions to the programs. Using his personal triumphs, Stonitsch has created a personal narrative around his sport that is only enhanced by his noteworthy performances.

In 1982, after a friend showed him an ad in the paper for the open position, Stonitsch took on the position of head coach of the Vassar College men’s and women’s cross country teams. “I thought it would be fun,” stated Stonitsch. A track team did not yet exist, and the men and women’s cross country teams were what Stonitsch described as “club-like.” In regard to the competitiveness of the team, Stonitsch noted: “The women generally did it for fitness back then.”

The Vassar College men’s and women’s cross country teams became varsity sports in 1979 and NCAA Division III programs in 1980-81.

In 1985, as cross country developed into an increasingly competitive sport, Stonitsch helped his studentathletes to found the Vassar Track Club in the spring so runners could train year-round. He volunteered his time to coach and to arrange meet schedules for a season that lasted from March 1 until mid-May. “It was an unpaid job, but the kids were dedicated,” said Stonitsch, “and the Athletic Department was very supportive of our club.”

At first, the team was mainly comprised of distance runners and Stonitsch called in workouts, practice times and locations for them. “I often drove my own van to meets, and we got our own food. Captains helped me out a lot as I could only get to campus at 4:15 or 4:45 p.m.,” shared Stonitsch.

Stonitsch graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Education from the C. W. Post Campus of Long

Volunteer Assistant Coach Ron Stonitsch, pictured left with his student runners, first came to Vassar in 1982 as the head coach of the men’s and women’s cross country teams. The track and cross country programs have changed significantly during his time at the College.

Island University and a Masters of Education degree from State University of New York at Cortland. In addition to coaching, for nearly forty years Stonitsch worked full-time in the Hudson Valley for the New York State Department of Labor, where he interviewed unemployed individuals, helped and advised businesses and promoted programs to benefit jobseekers and businesses. He has also worked as the Assistant Personnel Director at the Kingston Hospital.

Already busy working a full-time job, Stonitsch’s initial interest in coaching stemmed from his own experience with the sport. In fact, Stonitsch has been running since 1964, “after running a mile in street shoes in gym class!” he shared. Only a few years later, in 1967, Stonitsch won the New York State High School Championship in the mile with a time of 4:15.

His collegiate cross country and track records are even more impressive. He was the 1969 NCAA Division II Cross Country National Champion, an eight-time All-American and three-time National College Cross Country and Track (three- and six-mile) Champion, as well as the

1970 Penn Relays MVP and the Penn Relays record-holder for the twomile (8:38), mile (4:01) and half mile (1:51). He is also the record holder in the one-, two- and three-mile events at C.W. Post Campus.

During his time as head coach of cross country, Stonitsch coached two All-Americans: Tracy Nichols ’91 and James McCowan ’99. Since relinquishing head-coaching duties he has continued to guide talented runners through National Championship races as an assistant coach.

Although his teams experienced development and success, Stonitsch concedes that coaching while also holding a full-time job “impacted my coaching, my abilities to advocate for my teams and to have campus input and to be strong in recruiting.” Even so, Stonitsch noted: “It was perhaps because of the handicaps and the experiences of Vassar College cross country and track runners having only a part-time and volunteer head coach that I have a great many loyal [alumnae/i] who have maintained a regular connection with me and Vassar cross country and track!”

One such connection was with McCowan, who is now the head coach

of Vassar College’s varsity cross country and track teams. Stonitsch knew McCowan was interested in coaching and “knew of his dedication to the sport and to his Alma Mater,” added Stonitsch, “so I made a request and made a case for the fulltime head coach position and some varsity equity,” and with full-time commitments at the Department of Labor, Stonitsch recommended McCowan for the head coach position.

As a part-time head coach, Stonitsch “saw that our cross country teams were not benefiting compared to other Vassar teams in terms of staffing. Most varsity teams had full-time coaches and full-time assistants.”

As a result of Stonitsch’s advocacy for full-time staffing, McCowan became Vassar’s first varsity coach for cross country and track. “For our relatively successful programs to finally have a full-time coach dramatically improved our programs,” said Stonitsch. “The significance of having someone on campus to be a voice and an in-person representative for your sport in meetings and for related campus activities and decision making is very beneficial.” As a full-

time head coach he works diligently within Vassar’s Athletic Department to recruit new runners, organize training and meet schedules and to provide competitive opportunities for his teams.

Even though he no longer calls in practice locations, or drives his van to meets, 26 years after he first helped his runners start a track club, Stonitsch still volunteers to coach track at Vassar each spring—taking splits, coaching from the sidelines, making sandwiches for his runners before and after their races and telling many stories.

Since the beginning, Stonitsch’s relationship with his runners has always been a fun and personable one. Asked what he enjoys the most about coaching at Vassar, Stonitsch said, “The various personalities and seeing the maturing process in four years.” “Watching an athlete improve and grow as a runner and a scholar is somehow constantly exciting for me. I still get giddy with the start of every season and love seeing Vassar win (and we have had our fair share of winning),” he wrote in an emailed response.

The worst part of the job, he said, is saying goodbye to seniors. “That’s followed closely by runners not reaching their potential due to injuries,” he added.

No matter the runner, though, Stonitsch exhorts his athletes to “rise to their highest level of ability and to aspire to do the best work they can and to not settle for a B when they can do A or A+ work,” which is the kind of challenge Stonitsch knows resonates with Vassar students.

As a volunteer track coach, Stonitsch said his goals are simply to support the track team. But whether he is coaching cross country or track, “I always suggest each person set a goal, or time they want to run,” said Stonitsch, “because if you strive toward those times and goals then everything else kind of slips into place.” Indeed, this outlook is applicable both on and off the track, and to runners and nonrunners alike.

Athlete of the Week: Men’s lacrosse goalie Alex Tice Nicolette Harley

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Guest Reporter

has been recognized twice by the Liberty League as the Defensive Performer of the Week.

Intrinsically driven, Tice likes to “motivate [him]self to perfection.” His positive energy, efforts and enthusiasm for the game are not lost on the field and are an asset to the team.

In high school Tice had a goalie-specific coach who helped encourage him to play and get better. Now, as captain, he’s taking on the same role. “I’m always talking and trying to keep them motivated,” said Tice. “It’s my job to yell as goalie and captain,” he laughed.

He thinks to himself, “What would motivate me?” and does it. “We make mistakes, [but you have to] try to stay positive and acknowledge the good stuff,” he said.

Lacrosse is such an integral part of Tice’s life that there is no room in his schedule for extracurriculars between his practices, games and completing the requirements for his psychology major.

“My focus is lacrosse,” said Tice, sporting his Vassar lacrosse sweatshirt. After college, Tice plans to play in adult leagues and eventually hopes to coach middle or high school teams. “[You] have to give back because you did it,” said Tice. “It’s still a small sport”—and he’d like to build a bigger following.

-Alex Tice is a first-time Athlete of the Week.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News

lex Tice ’11 has been playing lacrosse since fifth grade, when his babysitter, a former college lacrosse player herself, convinced him to give the sport a try. He took up the game right away and loved it. When he first started playing for a youth club in California, he experimented with the different positions, eventually settling at goalkeeper a year later. As Tice graduated to playing high school lacrosse, he excelled in and solidified his role as goalkeeper.

“It’s a funny story actually,” he said, recalling how he ended up as goalie.

In the beginning of his lacrosse career, Tice’s coach would alternate different players into the goalie position.

When he was in sixth grade, Tice’s coach decided they needed to stop that practice and asked for volunteers to play goalkeeper. Tice went home to think about it and was in the car with his father when he offered to be an alternate.

His dad called up the coach to say Tice would play backup. No one else volunteered for the position so the job went straight to Tice, who was willing to accept the challenging new role that requires a very different set of skills than other positions. Thrown straight into the goalkeeper position in sixth grade, Tice was “absolutely terrified.”

“You spend so much time [at the beginning] just avoiding [the ball],” said Tice. For someone who has skydived and bungee jumped in the same day, you’d wonder how he could have this fear. Luckily for us, he’s gotten over that feeling.

Tice has dedicated his Vassar career to bettering himself as a teammate. “It’s tough because it’s a small team [and] mentally you’re the last line [of defense],” he explained. “If you mess up, it’s a goal and if you play well it’s not.”

This is a lot of pressure to put on a single player, but Tice manages with ease.

“You just have to brush off the negatives,” he said. It is this kind of attitude that shows Tice’s abilities to move forward and push the team through rough times.

As a team captain, Tice brings strength and support to his teammates, especially when they need it most.

He had a season-high 14 saves against Clarkson University on April 2. Tice recalled the game was “one of the best I’ve ever had in terms of the types of saves.” Though the game ended in a 6-4 loss, Tice and the team’s efforts proved that they were a formidable and strong group.

Vassar is “always considered the underdog, [so I go in] with a chip on my shoulder to prove I’m as good as everybody else,” Tice said. His efforts on the field have not gone unrecognized. Tice

Alex Tice ’11, captain of the Vassar men’s lacrosse team, hopes to play in adult leagues and coach middle or high school teams after graduation.

SPORTS

April 14, 2011

Page 19

Championships hardly the Crackdown on technical final word in player legacies fouls hurting NBA games Andy Sussman Columnist

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he NBA playoffs start on Saturday, and while there is no shortage of compelling storylines this summer, the one most talked about will be if the Lakers can three-peat this season. More specifically, the focus will be on Kobe Bryant: Can he win his sixth championship, the same number Michael Jordan won in his career? Since Bryant is considered by most fans and analysts to be the best player on the Lakers this season, his legacy will be judged by whether the Lakers win the title this season. If he wins another title or two, there will be some people even outside of Los Angeles that will talk about Bryant in the same breath as Jordan. However, there is no conceivable chance that Bryant’s career can match up to Jordan’s. Judging a player by his number of championships is a heavily flawed mechanism that is consistently used to simplify a player’s greatness or lack thereof.

It is true that, as former NFL Head Coach Herm Edwards infamously remarked, “You play to win the game.” A team sport, though, is just that. One player, no matter how skilled, cannot win a title by himself. All that an individual can do is put his team in as good of a position to win as possible. On the surface, this seems obvious: For example, no one considers Robert Horry to be among the greatest basketball players of all time even though he won seven titles in his career. However, when we discuss who the greatest players of all time are, one of the first topics that comes up is the number of championships his team won. But by doing so, aren’t we judging players by their teammates rather than for their own contributions to the team?

There are numerous examples of this logic being applied. How many times have you heard Karl Malone or Elgin Baylor criticized for not winning a championship? Even Wilt Chamberlain, who won two titles in his career, gets frequently criticized for “only” winning two titles while Bill Russell, his main rival, won 11. If this were tennis, golf or any other individual sport, I would completely agree that this is a valid argument. Malone, Baylor and Chamberlain were the same players in the playoffs that they were in the regular season.

However, their teams were not able to win with the frequency that the Celtics did in the 1960s or the Lakers did in the 1980s because

their teams were just not as good overall.

When the Jazz and the Bulls faced off in the 1997 and 1998 NBA Finals, it was not simply Jordan versus Malone. There were 12 players on each team, and nearly every player had, to varying degrees of course, some sort of impact on which team actually won those championships (both won by the Bulls).

In football, quarterbacks are evaluated in history by how many titles their teams won.

So, Terry Bradshaw, despite having vastly inferior statistics and a historically great defense, is considered to be one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history because the Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls with him as the quarterback. Meanwhile, how much criticism has former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino received for never winning the Super Bowl, even though he never had nearly the talent that any of Bradshaw’s teams had in an expanded NFL? We do not judge legendary former Detroit Lions running back Barry Sanders for never winning a title because we know that it was not Sanders’ fault. Why, then, is a completely different standard applied when examining quarterbacks? While it is obviously a very important position, the quarterback does not solely determine a team’s fate.

To compare Marino and Bradshaw based on Super Bowl victories diminishes the necessity of a team and instead makes it a one-on-one matchup. It may be a simpler way of examining the issue, but it certainly is not the correct way.

Bryant is a great player. No one is disputing that. However, just because Bryant has a chance to equal the number of titles that Jordan won does not mean that he would then become his equal. Every statistic you could possibly examine, whether it is a simple one such as points or a more advanced stat like win shares, favors Jordan. Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time, but not because he won six titles. Rather, those championships are a product of his greatness and the all-around talent that Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and his other teammates possessed.

Essentially, Jordan contributed more to his team’s wins that anyone else. Bryant has likewise contributed a great deal, as did Malone.

One is not necessarily better than the other because of the end results for the team rather than the individual. And no one is better than Jordan.

Nik Trkulja Columnist

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rofessional basketball has entered the era of “family values.” Where once the game was dominated by physicality, today sportsmanship is the name of the game. This year, the NBA has clamped down on physical play like never before, stating that there is no place for such actions in the modern game. Some players, however, disagree.

In a recent interview with the Oklahoman, Kendrick Perkins, the Oklahoma City Thunder starting center, stated, “It’s times that you can get a good [technical foul] … you set the tone every now and then.” Perkins’ statement echoes a long-held belief amongst basketball players: A little bit of intimidation goes a long way. The NBA Commissioner’s office, though, does not see things that way. In their continued crusade to market the NBA as a familyfriendly league, the NBA has told its referees to be stricter than ever when enforcing rules against physical play. In turn, technicals have never been more prevalent.

The technical foul is basketball’s equivalent to soccer’s yellow card, given for exceptional offenses. Two “techs” and you are thrown out of a game, and likely banned for at least another by the league. Reach 16 technicals on the season, and you are again banned and fined for one game. The process repeats for every two technicals from then on. It’s a rule that’s meant to discourage players from screaming repeatedly at referees over fouls, constantly complaining and, more importantly, from beating each other to a pulp in front of thousands of people.

Not surprisingly, however, despite the continued promotion of the technical, physicality continues to be a major part of basketball. In an interesting twist, the existence of the technical has created an opportunity for those that seek to intimidate or incite violence. In this regard, the technical foul acts as a guide to action. For some players, getting a technical equates to proving your mettle. It becomes a legitimizer, you know who the “bruisers” and “enforcers” are in the game because of the technical and, if anything, stricter enforcement of the rule has made them stand out even more.

Kendrick Perkins is a perfect example of just that. 20 years ago, Perkins would have been a rather regular player in a league chock full of

those that thrived on physicality. Players like Charles Oakley, Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman and Moses Malone were just as famous for their mean streaks as they were for their game. It was part of the fabric of the league.

Slapping a player’s hands on defense was allowed, fighting for position under the basket was encouraged and a few mean hits were overlooked. Kurt Rambis’ epically dangerous clothesline of Kevin McHale, in the 1984 Finals, would have unleashed a storm from today’s league, leading to multi-game suspensions, fines and a public relations mess. Back then, however, it was just part and parcel of the game. Today, such plays are a thing of the past, but the place of the technical remains.

The league’s crusade against technical fouls was supposed to discourage players such as Perkins from their style of play; instead, though, it has only allowed them to shine more. Perkins’ willingness to take a technical foul now sets him apart in the league, giving him a discernable “skill” that otherwise would not have existed. Players like him become the entire team’s enforcers. Since no team can afford to have all its players get technical fouls, players such as Perkins fill a needed void for physicality. By throwing out an elbow every so often or getting tangled up with a superstar like Kobe Bryant, these otherwise middling NBA players become important members of a team by psychologically affecting the game.

Of course, none of this comes without its moral hazards. Everyone fears the day that some player goes too far. Wanting to prove a point or exert his ego, someone will re-enact Rambis’ clothesline, except this time the player acting as McHale won’t get up so easily.

The NBA knows it and is doing everything in its power to avoid a situation where physical play turns into a disaster. However, restricting the game to the equivalent of a kindergarten classroom is not the way to go about it.

The NBA is effectively coddling its players.

Technicals have gone from being a part of the game to a shock-and-awe moment, empowering physicality in exactly the wrong way. While obviously the league’s intentions are good, its actions have gone too far. We all understand that fights are not a good thing, and while turning a blind eye is not the solution, neither is handing out a barrage of fouls if two players happen to growl at each other. Basketball was, is and forever will be a physical game.

Sports Briefs Women’s Tennis:

into a 5-0 hole and was unable to overcome the early deficit, losing by a final score of 10-4.

Christopher Toffoli ’12 scored two goals in the loss. Goalies Alex Tice ’11 and Andrew Nicol ’14 together made 16 saves in the game, with Tice making 10 in the first half.

Men’s Rugby: Six men’s rugby players combined for seven tries, leading the Brewers to a 41-22 victory over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) last Saturday. The Brewers led 17-0 before RPI got on the board, and although RPI fought to keep the game close, the Vassar lead was never in doubt as they maintained a double-digit margin throughout the contest.

Women’s Rugby:

Facing the No. 3 ranked team in Division III, the women’s lacrosse team was quickly overwhelmed, dropping an 18-0 decision to Hamilton College last Friday, April 8.

The women’s rugby team steamrolled visiting University of Massachusetts at Amherst 42-0 as five Vassar players notched eight tries last Saturday afternoon. Right wing Margaret Kwateng ’14 led the Brewers with three tries and scrumhalf Keri Peacock ’11 scored two of her own in the lopsided victory.

Men’s Lacrosse

Baseball

Against Hamilton on April 9, the men’s lacrosse team quickly fell

The baseball team showed yet again that they are no stranger to close

Women’s Lacrosse

games, losing three games over the weekend to RPI all by the score of 5-4. Vassar managed one victory in the series, defeating the Engineers 7-5 in Saturday’s second game. Sal Costanzo ’12 led the Brewers in the lone victory, going 2-3 on the afternoon with two walks, a run scored and two RBIs. Brett Zaziski ’14 also keyed the onslaught, going 3-4 in the second game.

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

The women’s tennis team spent the weekend competing in the Seven Sisters Championship. The No. 19 ranked Brewers dominated in their first three matches, shutting out their opponents 15-0 to set up a championship match with Wellesley College. Against Wellesley, the Brewers fell behind early, dropping the first set in all five contests. Although Vassar managed to force a decisive third set in three of the five matches, they ultimately lost 4-1. Natalie Santiago ’13 and Lindsay Kantor ’14 earned the lone victory, competing at No. 2 doubles, and were rewarded with selection to the All-Seven Sisters team in recognition of finishing the tournament undefeated.

The Brewers dropped just nine games on the first day of the tournament and just 24 in their first three matches.

Women’s Golf: Three Vassar golfers finished in the top 10 of the Vassar College Invitational, but it was not enough for the Brewers to overcome Williams or Amherst Colleges. Vassar finished third in the two-day tournament.

Last year’s champion Celynne Balatbat ’13 led the Brewers, finishing tied for third with a two-day score of 167. Alex Bello ’12 finished tied for seventh with a score of 169 for the tournament, while Nicole Bronson ’13 shot 171 and tied for ninth place.

Men’s Tennis The No. 29 ranked men’s tennis team hosted No. 9 Williams this past weekend. Although the Brewers were largely outmatched, they were able to pick up a win at No. 2 doubles as Andrew Guzick ’13 and Max Willner ’11—playing in

Vassar’s baseball team lost three games to Rensselear Polytechnic Institute over the weekend, all by a score of 5-4, while winning one game 7-5. the final home match of his Vassar career—earned an 8-6 victory.

Men’s Track Jon Erickson ’11 placed second in the 800-meter run, finishing with an ECAC-qualifying time of 1:54.81.

Erickson came within an eyelash of winning, having been edged by under half a second in the race.

Women’s Track Members of the women’s track

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

team won two meets at the New Jersey Invitational this past Saturday.

Zoe Carpenter ’11 bested a field of 22 in her first-ever 1500-meter race, finishing in 4:51. In the 800-meter run, Kelly Holmes ’13 finished with a time of 2:17.57, edging the secondplace finisher by a fraction of a second. Aubree Piepmeier ’14 placed second in the 3000-meter race, with a time of 10:21.85.

—Andy Marmer, Sports Editor

SPORTS

Page 20

April 14, 2011

RunVassar guides, sponsors Vassar’s student runners Corey Cohn

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Sports Editor

Courtesy of Runvassar.com

ith the broad selection of varsity, club and intramural sports available on campus, some students might think that the only organizations that focus on fitness are those that incorporate the rigors of competition and team structure. But RunVassar, a club now in its fourth year, offers an alternative for those who seek support with developing or maintaining an interest in running.

RunVassar’s roots date back to 1985, when it was originally the Vassar Track Club. The latter was founded due in part to the efforts of then Head Coach of the cross country team Ron Stonitsch. (Stonitsch now serves as the track and cross country teams’ volunteer assistant coach.) The club formed to help keep cross country runners in shape during their offseason. In 2007, when Vassar created its first varsity track team, the Track Club dissolved and RunVassar was created in its place.

The evolution of this club has brought with it a new purpose, a new following and a new culture. The primary intention now, according to RunVassar President Jon Erickson ’11, is to “create a running community.” He added that “students don’t necessarily have to be competitive; they should run to meet their own goals.”

RunVassar helps these students, no matter what level of experience they bring, to reach those goals. The club offers training programs, running routes, shoe reviews and other resources (all of which can be found online at www.runvassar.com) to anyone in need. RunVassar also offers a sponsorship program to any student runners interested in entering a race. The club used to cover everything from race fees to transportation; however, budget cuts have since limited it to only reimbursing

runners for race registration. Still, anyone can be sponsored. “All we ask,” Erickson wrote in an emailed statement, “is for people to be committed to achieving their goal.”

Unlike the Vassar Track Club, RunVassar is more focused on the individual runners than on the collective group. “There are no competitive flows,” Erickson, who is also on the track team, said He emphasized the onus the club puts on helping runners with any aspect of their participation in the sport. Whether it’s helping to devise a training plan, ensuring that runners do not over-train or dealing with nagging injuries that arise, RunVassar is a constantly accessible resource. The website features an online forum for questions, which Erickson and the other officers, Vice President Zach Williams ’12 and Treasurer Johanna Spangler ’12, respond to regularly.

Aid can be sought even more informally, though; Erickson recalled a time he was asked for running-related advice while he was in a class.

RunVassar provides these services on relatively limited funding. The club receives $600 per year from the Vassar Student Association, about half of which, Erickson said, goes to sponsorship. Another portion of that funding goes into the most visible element of the club: the two Fun Runs it hosts each school year on Halloween and Founder’s Day. The Halloween Fun Run, which debuted in 2009, saw a strong increase in participation in its second year; Erickson estimated that there were roughly 50 more runners in 2010. The Founder’s Day Fun Run, which kicks off the endof-the-year celebration, has been going on since the 1980s and usually draws a healthy following.

Erickson remarked that both events, in addition to facilitating a connection with the Poughkeepsie community, provide “a healthy alternative” to what are often very party-oriented days.

Despite the steady involvement in the Fun

RunVassar, a club devoted to building a running community at Vassar, provides training programs, shoe reviews and running routes like the one pictured above on their website, www.runvassar.com.

Runs—no fewer than 92 people have participated in the Founder’s Day version over the past four years—RunVassar still has a relatively obscure presence on campus. Erickson acknowledged this without concern, saying, “We’re still a young club.” He added that the club has grown since 2007.

While new participants are slowly coming into the mix, members of the past have become mainstays. Earlier this month, when a runner posted a question on the RunVassar forums, Erickson was pleasantly surprised to find that Jamie Anderson ’08, almost three years after his

Golf looks to build on strong tournament Andy Marmer

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SCOREBOARD APRIL 9 WOMEN’S RUBY

Sports Editor

UNIV OF AT VASSAR

MASSAHUSETTS Courtesy of Sports Information

ith a roster of only five players and just three tournaments in the spring season, the women’s golf team features the smallest roster and shortest season of any of the Vassar sports teams. Despite the limited amount of time and small number of players, the team hopes to make the most of its remaining tournaments.

Last weekend, the Brewers hosted their annual tournament, the Vassar College Invitational, and finished in third place with a team score of 700. The 13-team field boasted five teams ranked in Division III, including No. 3 Williams College (the tournament’s champion), No. 10 Amherst College (the secondplace finisher), No. 12 New York University, No. 16 Wellesley College and No. 21 Middlebury College. Head Coach Rhett Myers was proud of the team’s accomplishment this weekend. He stated, “I thought the tournament was good. I think some of the girls felt a little disappointed they didn’t play a tad better, which could have moved us towards first, but third out of 13 was a good finish.”

Perhaps the most disappointed in her play was Captain Alex Bello ’12. Although Bello finished tied for seventh with a two day score of 169—just six strokes shy of champion Kimberly Eaton, who finished with a 163—she was frustrated by the outcome. Bello vented, “I think I personally struggled.” Nevertheless, the captain saw the bright side of the tournament, continuing, “But it’s early in the season and we haven’t had a lot of opportunities to practice because of the weather.”

While it is odd to see a junior assume the responsibilities as the lone captain of a team, Bello is in a unique situation as the only upperclassman on the roster. In addition to her, the team features three sophomores and a freshman. Myers believes Bello fulfills her responsibilities admirably, “Alex Bello, our number one player, surely I think, is looked up to as the captain, as the experienced player.

If [Bello] is playing good, I think everybody feeds off of that and also picks up their game.”

While Bello is without a doubt a skilled golfer, she is hardly the only talented player on the team. Sophomore Celynne Balatbat, who last year won the Invitational, finished with a 167, placing her in a tie for third

graduation, offered a response. Anderson was RunVassar’s first president.

Erickson, too, plans on keeping ties with the club after he graduates next month. But regardless of his personal involvement, Erickson sees further development in RunVassar’s future.

The club has already been trying to organize a possible third Fun Run to incorporate into the school year, this one on the Vassar Farm.

What’s most important, however, is for the club to continue reaching out to the student body.

“The best thing we can do,” Erickson said, “is to create a more visible running environment.”

Alex Bello ’12, captain of the women’s golf team, finished tied for seventh with a two-day score of 169 at last weekend’s Vassar College Invitation. The team finished in third place with a score of 700. place. Balatbat shot an 81 on the first day of the two-day tournament, which placed her in second place—one shot off the lead. Although her second-day score went up five strokes, she still managed to lead the Brewers with her third-place finish. Nicole Bronson ’13 also had a strong tournament, finishing tied for ninth with a 171. Bronson led the Brewers on the second day, recovering from an 89 on Saturday. She rallied and posted an 82 on the second day—the second-best round of the day. Both Balatbat and Bronson provide key depth for the team, Myers explained: “[Balatbat] and [Bronson]—our two and three players—are very good and can play as well as [Bello] on a given day; so we really have three strong players.”

At each tournament, up to five players from every team can compete, with the four lowest scores from each team being added together to provide the team score. The lowest team score at the end of the tournament wins. Since the Brewers only have five golfers on their roster, each player competes at every tournament, which, as Assistant Coach Andy Jennings pointed out, means “we have a small squad of players so all of them have to contribute.”

A roster featuring so few players has advantages and disadvantages. It allows each

player to play in every tournament; however, an injury can burden the remaining players as they feel more pressure to perform with a player absent. Myers, however, noted an advantage: “I’m always impressed with the camaraderie and sport they have. Whether one is playing 15 strokes better than the other...everyone realizes players are of different levels.” Myers further explained that this relationship is not necessarily typical of some of Vassar’s foes.

The Brewers will compete in two more tournaments. This weekend, they will compete in the Jack Lehman Golf Tournament hosted by Amherst. The event will feature competition on two different courses—a different course each day—including 18 holes at The Orchards Golf Club, site of the 2004 U.S. Women’s Open. Myers noted, “It’s such a great course to play that even if it beats the girls up a little bit they look forward to playing it ... It’s so wonderful and so scenic and challenging and fun to play, that’s the one they look forward to.”

Although they only have two more tournaments, Bello nonetheless has high expectations for the year. “Hopefully we can [finish third] or better in the next two tournaments, and I think we can because it’s mostly the same teams and courses that we know,” she said.

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