The Miscellany News | September 29, 2011

The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

September 29, 2011

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CXLV | Issue 4

VSA backs statement against discrimination Aashim Usgaonkar

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Tara Mazer/The Miscellany News

Freshman Presidential Candidates participate in last Thursday’s debate. Voting ended yesterday at 5 p.m., and the Board of Elections will announce results on Friday at 8 p.m. See Miscellanynews.com for a live blog of the results.

Senior Editor

ontinuing its discussions about discriminatory remarks made at this year’s Serenading awards ceremony, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council moved to endorse a position statement that condemns the incident and aims to institutionalize a response within the VSA’s constitution to cases of “identity-based discrimination” in the future. The letter is signed by VSA President Tanay Tatum ’12 and serves as an explicit statement of Council’s position not only on this incident specifically but also on discrimination in any form.

“The student response to the events [at Serenading] was something that we as a Council and I as senior class president needed to address,” said Class of 2012 President Pamela Vogel ’12. “As representatives of the student body, we needed to make ourselves accountable to the students,” she added.

Specifically, the letter mentions

“certain comments made by a Class Gift co-chair on the Senior Class Council” at the ceremony held on the day of Serenading on Sept. 10. Remarks directed at the residents of Strong House, such as “[the residents of Strong are] just jealous because their parents made them live in Strong,” as well as references to menstrual blood, sparked a flurry of conversations around campus about gender-based discrimination.

“The comments were concerning and evidence of the continued presence of sexism and misogyny on Vassar’s campus,” wrote Rachel Ritter ’12, a former resident of Strong House and member of the Feminist Alliance, in an emailed statement. She clarified, however, that the group has not had a chance to get together and discuss this issue. “Strong House is an essential, safe space for female-identified people on campus and it was deeply disturbing to hear it (and its residents) made fun of in such a disrespectful and See LETTER on page 4

Focus groups to gauge Campus responds to dining services quality Jazz singer Elling to serenade in Skinner break-ins A Dave Rosenkranz News Editor

s a result of Vassar’s expiring contract with ARAMARK Food Services, the Campus Dining Review Committee (CDRC) has begun to collect student input with regard to Vassar’s dining system as a whole.

The CDRC, co-chaired by Vassar Student Association (VSA) Vice

Joey Rearick

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Assistant News Editor

Mary Huber

Features Editor

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ith the recent news that the Vassar College Bookstore will move ahead with plans to relocate to the Juliet space, the Bookstore—and its management by Barnes & Noble—have come to the forefront of local discourse. Barnes

NEWS

& Noble’s increasing involvement in the college bookstore market has raised concerns for the future of the independent college bookstore across higher education. And while many praise the efficiency of Barnes & Noble’s management, some on campus wonder if those See BOOKSTORE on page 7

Preeminent jazz vocalist Kurt Elling, above, will perform as the Kickinson-Kayden fund quest artist in Skinner Hall on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m.

Matthew Hauptman

Pictured above, the Vassar College Bookstore, owned by Barnes & Noble, will move off campus to the space currently occupied by the Juliet Café and Billiards.

Inside this issue

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Courtesy of Allaboutjazz.com

Move raises questions over bookstore market

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

n recent weeks, Vassar’s Safety and Security has investigated a series of vehicle break-ins and larcenies that have taken place on campus. These crimes, in addition to similar crimes in the surrounding Poughkeepsie community, have lead Safety and Security to encourage students to take measures to avoid becoming victims of similar thefts. On Wednesday, Sept. 21, Director of Safety and Security Donald Marsala issued an email advisory to the College, urging those with cars to “lock your vehicles, leave any items of value out of sight and call the Campus Response Center [CRC]…if you see anyone that looks out of place or suspicious to you in any of our lots.”

Students’ cars in South and North Lots have been targeted, in addition to a car on Raymond Avenue. Most recently, a Buildings & Grounds employee found his car, which was parked in an off-campus driveway nearby, had been broken into. Most of the vehicles involved were unlocked, though in two separate instances, the perpetrators broke windows to enter the vehicle. According to Marsala, thieves have taken “GPS devices, loose change and personal items” from cars belonging to people affiliated with the College.

“This happens sporadically,” said Marsala, who has seen dozens of cases like throughout his long career with the school. “Usually the police catch them because they keep doing it.” He said he believes the same individual or group of individuals are conducting all the break-ins, as it is unlikely See SECURITY on page 4

President of Student Life Charlie Dobb ’12 and Assistant Dean for Campus Activities Theresa Quinn will develop several focus groups, administer campus-wide surveys, host informal dinners at the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC), organize “Food for Thought, Thought for Food” meetings in each dorm, See COMMITTEE on page 4

Construction projects on campus progress

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FEATURES

Symposium draws Bishop scholars

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Guest Reporter

e was nominated for nine Grammys, won one, was featured on the cover of a handful of jazz magazines, and was recognized as Jazz Journalists Association’s male singer of the year seven times. For the Music Department’s biggest concert of the year, Jazz vocalist Kurt Elling will perform as the Kickinson-Kayden fund quest artist in Skinner Hall on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. According to Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Samuel Speers, “His music is his theology.”

Born in Chicago, Elling, 43, first

15 ARTS

became interested in music at a very young age, not least of all because of his father’s background as a Kapellmeister (music-maker) in a Lutheran church. During his youth, Elling sang in choirs and played the violin, French horn, piano and drums.

Elling was an undergraduate at Gustavus Adolphus College, a private liberal arts institution affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States. A history major and religion minor, Elling sang in an a cappella choir that performed works from a variety of composers, allowing him to See ELLING on page 16

Class studies Vassar’s own architecture

Page 2

The Miscellany News

September 29, 2011

Editor in Chief Molly Turpin Senior Editors

Katharine Austin Erik Lorenzsonn Aashim Usgaonkar

Contributing Editors Katie Cornish Carrie Hojnicki Jillian Scharr

News Dave Rosenkranz Features Danielle Bukowski Mary Huber Opinions Hannah Blume Humor & Satire Alanna Okun Arts Rachael Borné Adam Buchsbaum Sports Corey Cohn Andy Marmer Photography Juliana Halpert Madeline Zappala Online Nathan Tauger Social Media Matt Ortile Managing Qian Xu Assistant News Joey Rearick Assistant Features Ruth Bolster Jessica Tarantine Assistant Arts Charlacia Dent Shruti Manian Assistant Photo Carlos Hernandez Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Columnists Brittany Hu`nt Michael Mestitz Tom Renjilian Andy Sussman Reporters Emma Daniels Jack Owen Photographers Alex Schlesinger In early October 1969, the College announced its intention to pursue complete coeducation at, taking the method of its application and cost under consideration. At the same time, President Alan Simpson proposed a residential exchange program between the College and nearby male institutions.

This Week in Vassar History 1931, Oct. 5 Because of a polio epidemic that had swept the region since July, Vassar opened two weeks late, in strict quarantine.

Speaking at the opening convocation, Professor of English Winifred Smith ’04 said, “There are still many people who are afraid of letting girls go out into the world alone, afraid of their earning a living, of their getting ideas, of their being highbrows, of their looking or acting like thinking, grown-up individuals. It is your task to convince such people that experiments sincerely made, and new ideas actively held, do not hurt girls any more than they hurt boys, but on the contrary strengthen them; that you are human beings first and well brought up young women second….”

1938, Oct. 3 “Cels”—watercolors on celluloid used in animated films—from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) went on view in Taylor Hall.

1951, Oct. 5 The Dexter M. Ferry Jr. Cooperative House was dedicated. The gift of Mr. Ferry, father of Edith

By Dean Emeritus Colton Johnson

Ferry Hooper ‘32 and Jean Ferry Davis ‘35, the building was designed by Marcel Breuer, who was responsible also for its interior design and its landscaping. Constructed at a cost of $200,000, the T-shaped modernist building accommodated 27 student residents and a faculty advisor.

Two of Mr. Ferry’s sisters, Blanche Ferry Hooker ’94 and Queene Ferry Coonley ’96 had given $100,000 in 1919 for the erection of Alumnae House. At the dedication, Mr. Ferry—five of whose nieces and whose daughter-in-law also attended Vassar—said that the “the building is in grateful appreciation of all Vassar has meant to the Ferry family.” Mr. Ferry had previously presented to the college twelve outstanding works of nineteenth century European art.

Katharine Blodgett Hadley ’20, chair of the board of trustees, accepted the building for the college, and both President Blanding an Marcel Breuer spoke at the dedication. Penelope Wells ’52, president of the new residence, expressed the students’ appreciation.

1961, Oct. 4 Shakespeare scholar Helen Sandison, professor emeritus of English, was the guest of her onetime student, Jacqueline Kennedy, at a dinner

in the White House. After dinner, four scenes from Shakespeare were performed for the guest of honor, Sudanese President Ibrahim Abboud, on a new, permanent stage in the East Ballroom. The troupe, under the direction of Jack Landau and Lincoln Kirstein, performed scenes from Macbeth, As You Like It, Henry V and Troilus and Cressida.

Also in the audience were British Shakespearean actor Sir Ralph Richardson, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Joseph Pultizer, Jr., Under Secretary of State Chester Bowles, David Rockefeller and Henry Cabot Lodge, former United States representative to the United Nations. Dr. James G. McManaway, senior staff member of the Folger Shakespeare Library and editor of The Shakespeare Quarterly, noted that President Kennedy now joined his predecessors Lincoln, Jefferson and Adams in his demonstrated love of Shakespeare. The New York Times 1971, Sept. 30 Vassar College students Michael J. Breen ‘73 and Stephen R. Post ’73 were placed on the Democratic ticket for election to the Dutchess County Board of Representatives.

CORRECTION In an article in the 9.22.11 issue of The Miscellany News, “Plans to move bookstore advance: Relocation possible by early 2012,” the headline of the article implied that the College bookstore’s move into

the Juliet building will be completed earlier than is the case. In fact, the project will be put out to bid in 2012, and the entire move will most likely be finished in 2013.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

LETTERS POLICY

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

ADVERTISING POLICY

The Miscellany News (1) reserves the right to reject or edit any advertising copy at any time; (2) will not accept advertisements that promote discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex or sexual orientation, nor will it accept advertisements of a political nature or advertisements that promote products or services illegal in the State of New York: (3) will print every advertisement with the word “advertisement” above it; (4) shall not be liable for failure to print, publish or circulate all or any portion of any issue if such a failure is the result of circumstances beyond the paper’s control.

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.

September 29, 2011

NEWS

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Library, dorms undergo construction Families join freshmen, O tour campus Bobbie Lucas

Guest Reporter

ver the summer, the Vassar Building & Grounds Department was hard at work improving the campus. Several construction projects are still in progress and will continue throughout the fall of the 2011-2012 school year.

The most obvious construction is taking place outside the Thompson Memorial Library. During weekdays, construction crews can be found working steadily at both ends of the Library. On the north entrance to the Library, construction is being completed to provide elevators compliant with the American Disabilities Act. On the other side of the Library, near Chicago Hall, the Visage Construction Corporation, based in Germantown, N.Y., has been making progress. Charlie Lent, one of the construction workers employed by Visage, explained the reason for the giant excavators at the site. “We are putting in mechanical equipment and vaults for heating and cooling in the Library,” he explained.

Lent said, “the Library construction began at the end of June and should be done relatively soon, most likely by November.

Although a specific date for completion is hard to say because we basically just do the digging.”

In addition to their current project, the Visage Construction Corporation also installed drainage pipes over the summer around the Library.

Lent explained that construction plans are on a tight schedule and expressed hope that the loud noise was not disturbing students who were studying in the Library. Jordan Bunzel ’14, who works at the circulation desk, described that, although noise from the construction cannot be heard inside the Library, “there is always an awareness of the construction,” because of “vibrations [which] can be felt from the construction work going on outside.”

Mike Quattrociocchi, a Buildings & Grounds project manager, explained that he personally has no large ongoing projects, except for maintenance work in Baldwin Hall and exploratory maintenance work elsewhere, and that the majority of his work is focused on planning for the next summer’s upcoming projects. “We like to have projects completely planned out by the winter so that we can start preparation and begin the construction once the spring rolls around,” he said.

Last summer, his projects included all of the renovations completed in Rockefeller Hall, Chicago Hall and Josselyn House. Rockefeller Hall had its entire roof replaced and underwent a two-phased exterior brick restoration. Additionally, it’s interior underwent bathroom renovations and air conditioners were added to the fourth-floor offices. Similarly, in Chicago Hall the roof was replaced and new insulation was provided. In Josselyn House, the third of a four-phase project was completed with the replacement of the final

section of roofing. Repairs were made on the brick masonry of the building’s exterior.

In Josselyn, Cushing and Main Houses, the kitchens were upgraded with several minor improvements.

As for next summer, the plans are already underway. Rockefeller Hall will undergo the second and final phase of construction, which includes finishing the masonry work, replacing the windows of the building and rebuilding the dilapidated stone entrances near the steps.

Josselyn will also enter its last phase of renovation. The plans for the dorm are still being determined. Buildings & Grounds want to do some type of repair to the windows, but are researching now to see how much work needs to be done. Quattrociocchi said, “We hope to be able to restore the current windows instead of replacing them. We want to clean them, put on a fresh coat of paint and add new glass where necessary, but this plan depends on the current condition of the windows, which is still being examined.”

As was the case last summer, several diverse and multi-faceted projects will take place next summer. “Now that most of the projects from the summer are complete, we can look to the future and begin plans for next year,” Quattrociocchi said. “The winter is relatively quiet except for small maintenance issues, so it is a good time to catch up on paperwork and set in motion the preparation for the next summer. The work never ends.”

Vendors flock to Arlington Street Fair Danielle Gensburg

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Guest Reporter

Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News

midst live entertainment, more than 100 vendors and a statewide Chili CookOff competition, Poughkeepsie’s 12th annual Arlington Street Fair brought together local residents, Vassar students and parents in a community celebration last Saturday. “The fair has several purposes,” said Director of International Services and Chair of Arlington Special Events Andrew Meade. “To celebrate the grand re-opening of Raymond Avenue, to create energy toward revitalization efforts, to welcome Vassar students and parents back to Arlington, to raise money and awareness for local charities, and for everyone to have lots of fun.”

This year’s fair, held from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., featured a wide variety of entertainment, including performances by the Stark Raven band; Evan Gottfried; the Arlington Middle School Jazz Band; and hip hop dance by Hype, T.C. Weaver and Poughkeepsie musicians.

Several Vassar student groups also performed, from the Vassar Devils, Aircapella and the Accidentals, to Vassar Ballroom Dancing, PoTown Swing and the Barefoot Monkeys. “The first fair was in 1999 and took place almost entirely on Collegeview Avenue,” said Meade.

“It was a smaller scale all the way around, with not nearly as many vendors and entertainers participating.”

While classic restaurants like Kismat, The Beechtree Grill, Twisted Soul and The Krafted Kup greeted fairgoers with familiar scents and tastes, more unique culinary delights were also present, including Bittersweet, an online chocolate and candy store owned by a Graphic Design artist, Heather Lent; Green Kettle corn, located in Wallkill, N.Y.; and Vassar Hot Dog, Collegeview Avenue’s new hot dog joint scheduled to open later this week.

“Everybody that has come in has been wonderful to us,” said Vassar Hot Dog owner Christine Nace. “It’s a great location and we’re here for the kids.”

One of the day’s most exciting events celebrated meat and bean soups; the third annual Chili Cook-Off competition, which is the final qualifying event for the World Championship Chili Cook-off in Manchester, N.H., was held at the Arthur S. May School parking lot between noon and 4 p.m. The competition featured three main categories: red chili, green chili and salsa. Competitors included the Professional Firefighters Chili group from the Arlington Fire Department, Third Times A Charm Chili, Mad Hatter Chili and Giants

Vassar Hot Dogs, whose stand is pictured above, was one of the many food vendors present at last Saturday’s Arlington Street Fair. The restaurant will open for business later this week.

Tailgate Chili, among others.

Chief Judge and 1997 World Chili Champion Steve Falkowski emphasized the dedication of those involved who travel far and wide to compete in these cook-offs. “I started cooking chili in 1989 and it’s been a combination of skill and luck,” Falkowski said. “These competitors here today come from all over and all they want to do is be able to compete at the world championship.” Among the winners were Jonathan Everin, of Giants Tailgate Chili, who attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and served up a delicious pot of beef and pork chili at the fair; Alison Saccoccio of Mad Hatter’s Chili, who served a delicious chicken chili; and Mike Kropp of the ChiliCats, who won in the salsa category.

Winners of the People’s Choice were none other than the Arlington Professional Firefighters, who greeted fairgoers with animated conversation and classic beef and pepper chili topped with sour cream, onions and hot sauce. “We started this competition years ago through a guy on the Arlington Fire Department who had been in the CIA,” Firefighter Captain Jim Snyder said. “I just like being in the public and talking to people.” Above all, however, the competition represents strong community and a passion for chili. “We’re

family,” said Falkowski. “It’s serious fun. I like to see the enthusiasm of the winners.

They travel from all these different places and they have to love it.”

Aside from the award-winning food, the fair also included several dozen other vendors and craft merchants from nearby towns, one of which sold handmade backscratchers for $15 a piece. Michele Mahoney, the entrepreneur behind these convenient creations, came up with the idea after her husband continuously asked her to scratch his back.

“They’re made out of bamboo, eco-friendly spatulas,” explained Maloney. “I cut them out, design them, paint them, pick the nails out and get different charms to go with the nails, and then glue the nails onto the spatula, creating the backscratcher.” Coming in several different colors and patters, Maloney’s backscratchers are fun, unusual and durable.

“They’re very fancy, high-end backscratchers,” said Vassar parent Jill Smilow after purchasing one. “It’s the first backscratcher with a manicure.”

With a broad array of food, entertainment and crafts, the 12th annual Arlington Street Fair was, above all, a multitude of distinct personalities and individuals, all gathered for a day of fun and community.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Bethan Johnson Guest Reporter

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ast weekend, the Class of 2015 celebrated one month at Vassar with their parents during Freshman Families Weekend. For two days the campus hosted visiting family members, and held a number of events including lectures, discussion panels, fire shows and concerts.

Saturday’s activities commenced with a student panel led by Dean of Students David “D.B.” Brown. The panel featured four students in different stages of their Vassar careers: Dip Patel ’14, Stephanie George ’14, Tiffany Shi ’12 and Cliff Quinn ’12. After basic introductions and a few starter questions, the discussion was immediately opened up to parent questions. The audience did not hesitate to ask the student panelists for advice on everything from the more practical—“What was the best financial management system?”—to the personal: “If you could do anything differently, what would you change?” However, the most well recieved question seemed to be “What advice would you give a Vassar parent?”

Parents went through a slew of emotions during the lecture. They were thrilled to hear that simply “keeping a money journal,” as George described it, would help students keep track of their finances. Parents were then told that it was time to, possibly, face their fear of technology and make a Skype account in order to make communicating with their child easier. Finally, the panelists comforted parents by saying that each freshman is bound to have some troubles adjusting; as Patel ‘14 explained, “we are here to learn how to be away from you [in] this home away from home!”

The second panel was led by Dean of Freshmen Benjamen Lotto and dealt with what Lotto considered “one of the signatures of Vassar academia”: multi-disciplinary courses. The panel consisted of Psychology Professor Ken Livingston, English and Africana Studies Professor Kiese Laymon, Director of International Studies and Senior Lecturer of Urban Studies Tim Koechlin and Political Science Professor Katherine Hite, and was focused on telling parents about the multidisciplinary courses being offered to freshmen this academic year. Lotto said he chose this topic for the panel because multi-disciplinary studies are not widely understood even though “one-sixth of the senior class is majoring in one of these 12 multi-disciplinary majors.”

After these panels (which were filled with jokes about the Class of 2015’s “stormy” arrival, the average student’s perpetual sleepless state and Vassar’s nationally ranked quidditch team) were over, families could walk around Raymond Avenue for the Arlington Fair, watch an athletic game near the field or aimlessly wander around campus to catch glimpses of the community that their children have started to call home. Brown suggested that parents grab “a taste of faculty in action” by visiting presentations in Rockefeller Hall about courseless topics that were interesting to professors.

Despite the schedule of events centering on freshman families, even freshman without visitors benefited from the weekend in different ways. Students were able to learn about some of the successes of the Career Development Office through the “Vassar Students and How They Spent Their Summer” panel, or learn about what their faculty members researched this summer through the available faculty presentations. “Even though my parents didn’t come this weekend, I had a lot of fun,” said Yasmine Hallab ’15, addng, “There were really interesting events going on around campus that I could enjoy.”At the end of the day, the Barefoot Monkeys’ made their contribution to the weekend’s festivities with a fire show that drew a crowd of hundreds onto the quad.

Although most visitors began to make their return trip on Sunday, the events and sentiments of Freshman Families Weekend are sure to to linger long after the concluding brunch in the All Campus Dining Center. The weekend gave students and families the opportunity to reconnect, and to experience Vassar as members of its community for the first time.

Page 4

Serenading prompts VSA to pen letter

September 29, 2011

Committee reviews dining preferences COMMITTEE continued from page 1 and arrange a town-hall-style meeting in Main.

According to Jewett President and CDRC member Clayton Masterman ’13, the goal of these events and research programs is to “try and start a conversation and try to answer the questions that people want answered.”

The focus groups will be comprised of 10 to 15 students each. There will be one group of athletes; one group of students with special dietary interests; one group of students with special political, social, or environmental interests; one group of faculty; and two randomly selected control groups. The focus of each group’s discussions will be weighted by the results of the campus-wide survey, which will be administered some time in October and the membership of each group is in varying stages of finality. “The charge of the students on [the CDRC] is not to represent every student on campus, because they can’t, but to think creatively about how to get every student’s voice that wants to be heard, heard,” said Dobb, adding that, although it’s impossible to get 2400 students in focus groups, the survey and focus groups will certainly produce a helpful approximation.

The programming half of the CDRC’s plans is meant to both collect information and disseminate. The town-hall-style meeting, for example, will give students a chance to talk directly to administration in a public forum.

“There’s a tendency to see dining as a sort of mysterious process. For example, how are price points set? This is an effort to address that,” explained Dobb.

President of Main and member of the CDRC Jeremy Garza ’14 believes that the committee’s focus should be on gathering student input regarding broad, systematic changes, saying, “[the CDRC] is interested in structural changes, not specifics.” Dobb agreed with Garza, adding, “the contract is not a relevant document to the everyday student. Most of the contract is occupied with employment language and insurance issues. It’s not a contract that spells out in detail a lot of the quality things.”

Dobb echoed Garza, saying that the CDRC isn’t concerned with what food stations are where, or how many chocolate desserts there are. He thinks that the most important considerations for the contract renegotiation are “What do students want dining to look like?

What do their lifestyles demand? What kinds of hours do they need out of a dining center?”

“It’s really about understanding the role that dining plays on campus and in students’ lives in a very broad sense,” added Dobb.

Despite their committee’s systemic focus, both Dobb and Garza agree that detail-level issues are extremely important. However, they are already handled internally by the Food Committee and the Food Dining Implementation Committee. Although, as Masterman pointed out, a variety of food in general is also an important consideration for the CDRC. He explained, “if we find that’s what students want, that’s something we can push for.”

Some of the biggest suggestions that have

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

LETTER continued from page 1 insulting way.”

As an all-female-identifying house, Strong has held a unique place in Vassar’s residential life; at times, this position has meant that it has garnered “the disdain of the Vassar community,” wrote Ritter. “Rather than take this opportunity to change that attitude, certain members of Senior Class Council chose to reinforce it.”

The letter, however, doesn’t just address the incident that took place on the day of Serenading, explained Vogel. “In addition to the incident at Serenading, there have also been some comments on Say Anything Vassar that have been offensive to women, so the letter is addressing those comments as well,” she said.

Because the issue isn’t just limited to one incident, Vogel explained that the letter was “not only needed to address Serenading” but also to “state what measures [VSA Council] can put in place so that it is in a better position to address such type of issues in the future.”

“Every year, some students say something that is hurtful or offensive to some other students or groups of students, or uses language that is exclusive in nature,” said Vogel. Members of VSA Council therefore felt that institutionalizing a response to such events within the VSA’s constitution was necessary both in order to safeguard marginalized groups on campus and be consistent when dealing with issues of discrimination when they emerge.

Currently, no language addressing a mechanism of response to problems of bias or discrimination exist in the VSA’s constitution to the degree that is needed, said Tatum at last Sunday’s Council meeting. Indeed, while Article XII of the VSA Constitution states that the VSA “shall not discriminate, nor by its actions encourage discrimination,” no language exists that outlines a clear course of action should an incident of dicrimination in one of its organizations be discovered or reported. The position statement itself notes that the section of the constitution dealing with discrimination is “inadequate.”

The statement identifies “sanction, censure, decertification, indictment and impeachment of officers” as possible punishments if a VSA organization is found guilty of any variant of discrimination. While the exact course is not outlined, the statement has now put in place a timeline for the introduction of language to help respond to such incidents in the future.

Council agreed “to conduct a thorough and comprehensive review of its policies regarding these issues,” according to the statement. In the weeks to come, the Operations Committee will be required to introduce language relating to such incidents, headed by the Vice President for Operations Jenna Konstantine ’13. According to the endorsed statement, the Operations committee “shall provide recommendations to address this failing to the VSA Council within two weeks of the approval of this statement.” After these amendments are introduced, they have to be tabled for a week before being voted on like all constitutional amendments; as such, they may be adopted in the first week of October.

“Because these incidents are always different, they have to be dealt with on an individual basis,” said Vogel, explaining that, because of the distinctive nature of incidents of discrimination, she is not yet sure what kind of changes the Operations Committee wil propose. While she could not precisely outline the language, she hopes that “as much as possible is included so that these discussions do not escape the institutional memory of the College.”

“Ideally, this could all have happened before,” conceded Vogel. “But if that meant that we could not institutionalize a viable policy, then it wouldn’t be worth it,” she said. “I’m glad we could address it in a way that will be more meaningful.”

NEWS

Above, a campus worker prepares food in the All Campus Dining Center kitchen. The Campus Dining Review Committee intends to use focus groups to gauge student satisfaction of dining services. been made so far have been bringing ACDC back to an à la carte (pay for what you buy) system similar to the Retreat, an increased focus on local food or regular themed nights (such as Meatless Mondays), although there is some degree of opposition to both changes. Other students have expressed interest in bringing back the Atrium, which was an UpCstyle cafe in the Athletics Center that served smoothies, fruits and fresh sandwiches for a meal swipe until 2007.

Although Vassar first asked ARAMARK to manage campus dining in 1989, new contracts between them have been made regularly since then. Before 1989, Vassar managed it’s own food service system but, as Senior Director of Campus Dining and ARAMARK representative Maureen King explained, “the College is in the business of educating students, not in providing dining.” The most recent contract, which was signed during the 2007-2008 academic year, was the only one made after Vassar “went to the market” for alternatives to ARAMARK since 1989.

Unfortunately, none of the CDRC members could disclose any financial details due to the nature of the negotiations process. However, they did say that Vassar would probably not “go to market” and leave ARAMARK. Garza and CDRC member Jacob Greenberg ’14 attrib-

uted this decision to the high cost of bringing in a new provider, although, as Dobb pointed out, “nothing is set in stone,” adding, “if the research really shows that this current situation is untenable, then that option [of leaving ARAMARK] is on the table.”

Some members of the CDRC like Garza and Greenberg have been disappointed with the administration throughout this process. They both felt that “the administration has not been transparent” and that “there has been a lot of bureaucratic miscommunication.” Specifically, they criticized the administration for not providing students on the CDRC with a copy of the actual contract. Masterman and Dobb disagreed, however, saying that most of their requests have been honored, and that those that haven’t weren’t necessary. “I don’t feel as if I’ve had important, helpful information not shown,” said Masterman.

Although the contract doesn’t expire until the end of the 2012-2013 academic year, the CDRC’s research and programming will begin as early as October. As the dining discussion gains momentum on campus, Dobb wants both his committee and students at large to “start from a blank state.”

“Instead of asking what’s wrong with the current system, let’s figure out what kind of a system we want to see,” emphasized Dobb.

Security on alert after rash of car break-ins SECURITY continued from page 1 several independent criminals have coincidentally adopted the same techniques. “This has apparently been happening all over town, most probably by the same group,” said Marsala.

He continued to say that these relatively small larcenies have been happening in Poughkeepsie for weeks, and that the rash of crimes is “not Vassar-specific.” In fact, break-ins with similar characteristics happened in Poughkeepsie for some time before any incidents were reported on campus. Safety and Security is cooperating with the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department and contributing information about the crimes on campus to an ongoing police investigation of the larcenies.

After Marsala wrote his email warning campus about the break-ins, he said, “People contacted me after, and said that this had happened to them, but it was only spare change so they didn’t say anything.” He urged the student body to call his office through the CRC if they observe any suspicious activity on campus, or if they believe they have fallen victim to a crime. “It’s good for us to know,” he said.

When Security responds to a report of damage or theft from a vehicle, officers ask the victim if he or she would like to file a report with the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department.

Often students do not pursue a case with legal authorities because the thefts are generally small. Also, Security’s documentation of the damage to a car can be enough for a student to prove damages to vehicle insurance providers without an additional police report. However, Security is passing along whatever information it can to the police, who are compiling a mounting list of vehicle larcenies in Poughkeepsie.

For the most part, the 2011-2012 school year has been unremarkable in terms of crime on campus. According to Marsala, some bike thefts have been reported, but “we always get a few of those.” In addition, Safety and Security has responded to a few cases of trespassing in which people entered the dorms illegitimately. Using a technique Marsala called “piggy-backing,” these individuals entered a residential building by waiting for a student with a V-Card to swipe into a dormitory and

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

then following them in before the door could lock behind them. In these cases, students reported suspicious persons wandering the dorms and contacted Security. Marsala said that these trespassers are usually looking for parties, or claim to be confused. They are escorted off campus by Safety and Security but are generally not subject to legal action unless they repeat the offense.

The state of vehicle break-ins has not been the subject of much discussion on campus; few find the theft of relatively small items from cars cause for major concern. Luke Hopping ’14 did not bring a car during his freshman year, but is excited to move his car from home to campus in the next two weeks. He says he is unfazed by the recent reports, because the convenience of having a vehicle available outweighs the risk of theft. “I feel like this campus is always going through little crime waves,” he said. “I get a lot of email about things like bike thefts, and I think it’s all about being a little lucky.” He did, however, agree with Marsala’s practical advice. “I would never leave things visible in my car,” he said.

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September 29, 2011

Page 5

Bishop Symposium attracts scholars, poet’s devotees Ruth Bolster

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Assistant Features Editor

my friend W.H. Auden what to do, and he said to teach metrics—meter and rhyme.’ The only think that I could think was, ‘Her friend Auden?!’”

“She wasn’t a great teacher,” Shore later admitted, “I don’t think that she had much interest in it. I think that she had a genuine affection for people, but I think it was a bit of a chore for her.”

Despite her lackluster classroom experience, Shore later went on to develop a close working relationship with her, ultimately citing Bishop as a mentor. Her poem dedicated to Bishop, “A Luna Moth,” was directly inspired by Bishop’s technique of projecting emotions on natural landscapes and was read before the panel.

It is this modest, confessional technique, the panelists agreed, that has made Bishop an oftentimes deceptively easy poet to study in the classroom. While discussing Bishop’s method, Spires insisted that students need guideposts to pinpoint emotional undercurrents in her poetry.

Despite the subtle complexities of her poems’ messages, Bishop’s diction has ensured that her work will continue to be taught.

“She found this sweet spot in the American language, where she doesn’t use erudite diction and she doesn’t go down to the vernacular and the colloquial very much at all.

But she has this sweet spot that is just poised with such tremendous elegance, right there in the middle, that makes it so available for those reading her works,” noted Goldensohn.

The day’s events continued with a reading by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, who presented a poem commissioned by the College

Courtesy of Guernica Mag

ith an encyclopedic collection of her papers stashed away in the basement of the Library and a series of stone benches lining the path to the All Campus Dining Center engraved with her poems, Elizabeth Bishop ’34 has left her mark as one of Vassar’s most celebrated alumnae/i.

In addition to marking Vassar’s sesquicentennial, 2011 is also the poet’s own centennial, resulting in much celebration from Bishop’s editors, scholars and fans. In conjunction with the Special Collections display of her papers in the Thompson Memorial Library, on Sept. 24 Vassar hosted a symposium commemorating the life and career of this former U.S. Poet Laureate.

Bishop Scholars and enthusiasts flocked to Taylor Hall last Saturday to hear those who knew Bishop speak candidly about her work in two panel discussions. The first panel, entitled “On Editing Bishop,” was moderated

by Hartwick College Professor of English Thomas Travisano, and focused specifically on scholars’ experiences with editing Bishop’s work.

Along with panelist Saskia Hamilton, Travisano is the co-editor of the book Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Vassar Professor Emeritus of English Barbara Page moderated the second panel, “On Teaching Bishop,” in which poets and professors recollected their experiences with Bishop in the classroom as well as their personal interactions with her. The panelists included former Vassar professor Lorrie Goldensohn, Vassar graduate and Goucher College Professor

of English Elizabeth Spires ’74, and current George Washington University Professor of English Jane Shore.

Bishop, as they collectively recalled, was uncommonly modest about her work. Spires, who interviewed Bishop for a 1979 issue of the Vassar Quarterly, noted, “She had this reticence in terms of talking about certain kinds of things. She didn’t want to talk about her writing and she didn’t want to talk about herself as a writer.”

“What I remember is that she was doing a reading at Skinner Hall [in the Spring of 1979] and she read for about 20 minutes and then she started to leave,” said Page. “She sheepishly asked ‘Is that enough?’ The house was absolutely jam-packed, and there was a rumpus saying, ‘No, no, come back.’ You could see she was about to seep away again, and the audience had to cheer her on. But it was a wonderful reading.”

Despite Bishop’s modesty, her work continued to earn her notable repute in the academic arena, ultimately allowing her the opportunity to teach at Harvard University in the early 1970s. Shore first met Bishop after graduating from the MFA program at the University of Iowa. A poet herself, she received a grant to write and lecture at Radcliffe College at the same time that Bishop was teaching writing classes at Harvard.

After learning about Bishop’s poetry workshop, Shore asked if she could audit Bishop’s lectures.

“As a teacher, she was very different than what I had before,” noted Shore. “She was not about herself.

On the first day of class, when we all walked in, she said, ‘I really don’t know how to teach poetry, so I asked

U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, above, presented a poem commissioned by Vassar last Saturday to commemorate the legacy of poet Elizabeth Bishop ’34. to commemorate Bishop’s legacy. In addition to this, Special Collections proudly announced the acquisition of a new collection of Bishop’s papers, including recently discovered notebooks and over 270 pages of her correspondences with Lota de Macedo Soares and Alice Methfessel. “There is a lot of new material, and we are especially happy to be announcing this on the occasion of this conference,” noted Head of Special Collections Ronald Patkus. “As you know, the topic of this conference is ‘From

the Archive: Discovering Elizabeth Bishop,’ and we want to highlight the ways that students and scholars can use the material. We are so happy that on this occasion, we have another resource to provide students who want to discover Bishop.”

Undoubtedly, Bishop has secured her station in both the literary and academic realms, and with its unprecedented collection of her papers and notebooks, Vassar will continue to draw attention from both Bishop scholars and admirers.

Campus Life Office continues to support dialogue Alyssa Aquino Guest Reporter

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Carlos Hernandez/The Miscellany News

he Office of Campus Life resembles any other administrative office. Its space is preceded with a bulletin board describing events, two sheets displaying its mission statement and a plaque next to a door announcing Office of Campus Life.

In reality, however, the Office of Campus Life, officially named the Office of Campus Life and Diversity, is more than just a nondescript door in a hall of other offices: the Office encompasses the Women’s Center, the ALANA Center, the LGBTQ Center, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Campus Life Resource Group.

Associate Dean for the Office of Campus Life and Diversity Edward Pittman calls diversity an inherent component of general life, citing the Office’s mission as one to make a “space for inclusion, [to] create an avenue for students to feel a sense of belonging.”

This goal is intricately tied with the history of Campus Life. Although the current incarnation of the Office did not come into fruition until 2001, early versions of it existed as far back as the 1970s. The earliest beginnings of Campus Life can be seen with an office created in the ’70s, which sought to provide support for minority students. This idea developed throughout the years. In 1990, the Office was named the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and in 1998, it was called the Office of Campus Community.

Throughout this evolution, organizations catered to specific groups of students—like ALANA and LGBTQ—that had come into being, and were already working closely with Campus Community to make sure that “students feel supported and heard,” as Pittman said. It wasn’t until 2001 that the Office of Campus Community was revamped into Campus Life, and several smaller groups were invited into the fold, helping further the perpetual mission of community and safety.

The Office carries out this demanding mission through a series of initiatives. Aside from the aforementioned cultural centers, the Of-

The LGBTQ Office, its interns pictured above, works with the Campus Life Office to bring speakers to campus. Last year, the two offices featured author Juditih Stacey in a lecture about her book, Unhitched. fice sponsors campus dialogues throughout the year, two per semester. These dialogues are conversation dinners of around 100 campus members (faculty, students, etc.) who are invited to talk about a question on Vassar life.

The questions differ from dialogue to dialogue, ranging from prompts concerning safety within the Vassar community to one as intangible as “What is Vassar’s ethos?” Pittman views these dinners as successful, and remarked that a former student once wrote back in thanks for the opportunity to talk openly.

Relating back to its goal to make the Vassar community inclusive, Assistant Director of Campus Life Steve Lavoie, who works in the LGBTQ Office, discussed how his office seeks to change students’ perspectives, and how the center is not bringing in mainstream speakers: “Vassar College is too unique for that. It’s not new and interesting, it won’t push the bound-

aries to make you think in new and inclusive ways.” In March of last year, Judith Stacey, author of Unhitched, a book that questions traditional family structures, came to speak at Vassar; the event was sponsored through the LGBTQ Office.

Another event that Campus Life hosts is All College Day. Occurring every third Wednesday of February, All College Day began as a response to a campus-wide controversy. The incident occurred 22 years ago, when a comedy troupe, Laughing Stock, put on a satirical sketch. Members of the community believed the satire in question pushed past the boundaries of good-natured humor with its inclusion of a racial slur. In reaction to the crisis, the Office invited students to talk about the incident in a safe environment. Eventually, this open forum spun into All College Day, an entire day of discussions and events where students reflect

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

on how they see the campus. In celebration of Vassar’s sesquicentennial, the 2011 question asked students what the anniversary meant to Vassar.

Incidents similar to the one that occurred 22 years ago still happen occasionally at Vassar. The Campus Life Response Team (CLRT), a mix of students and faculty, exists because of this inevitable reality, given the unenviable task of getting information to and from the Vassar community, and acting as a pillar of support to those affected by situations. The number of members in the group changes as the Office of Campus Life sees fit. Although the team deals with experiences that impact the Vassar community, these incidents run the gamut, ranging from student injuries to scenes of a more offensive nature. For instance, last year, benches near Blodgett Hall were covered with spraypainted swastikas. In another case, CLRT was left in the wake of a wholly unexpected incident: a student suicide. In a year, the CLRT is used about three times; relatively low for an institute of higher learning, but still not low enough.

Of course, the Office of Campus Life is not all crisis management. One of its more exciting events is the Freshman 15, where freshman students perform skits, generally three minutes long, about their harrowing first year at college. And of course, everyone knows of the Vassar First Year program, which is meant to help freshmen transition to college life.

When asked if the Vassar College campus would be the same without Campus Life, Pittman modestly replied yes. “The Vassar community,” he explained, “has a tradition of being on the edge and liberal and adventurous.

[It] would push the College. Vassar has always been this way. Students push for resources.”

Lavoie also said: “Vassar students are special.” Working for the LGBTQ office, he said, “The Center doesn’t necessarily function the way it would in other colleges or universities.

Students don’t use it for that [a safe place] here.

Here, it’s an intellectual, spiritual space to raise dialogue.”

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September 29, 2011

Maids an essential, often overlooked part of VC history Jill Scharr

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Contributing Editor

Courtesy of the Vassar Encyclopedia

he sesquicentennial marks more than Vassar’s 150th year as an institution of higher education; the College has been the home and livelihood of many in the Poughkeepsie area as well.

What was life like for Vassar’s maids and other employees 100 years ago? There are no primary source materials, but they appear occasionally in College documents and old Miscellany News issues, and from these pieces a fuller picture can be drawn.

According to an 1873 report that Vassar president John Howard Raymond sent to the U.S. Commissioner of Education, the school had 390 students and 120 employees. Most of these employees lived on the campus.

“Subservient to the material wants of the College and the college family,” continues the report, “are various business departments [including]…the Steward’s Department, embracing the kitchen, bakery, dining hall and laundry.”

With students and employees in such close proximity, at a time when class distinctions were highly visible, class differences played strongly into the internal social hierarchy of the Vassar community.

The maids’ secondary status was reiterated by their smaller and more peripheral quarters in the dormitories. This is why the fifth floor of the quad dorms has smaller rooms than those on the first four floors. They also lived in a building that has since been torn down, located “between the back of Main and the water…used for putting up maids, and eventually for putting up immigrant workers,” said College Historian Elizabeth Daniels ’41.

Aside from their socioeconomic status, however, the students and maids were perhaps more similar

Pictured above, the former Goodfellowship Club—composed of both students and employees—worked to help the College’s maids attain greater education. The organization disbanded after college workers became unionized in the 1940s. than they thought themselves to be.

Both were typically young, unmarried women who lived and worked on campus for a few years at a time, though Daniels says that there were probably a few male employees in the kitchens.

It also seems that many of the young women considered their tenure at Vassar to be a sort of stepping stone to later careers or married life.

Vassar maids saved money for their future households or businesses, while Vassar students invested in their education to either go into a profession or make a good marriage.

Both students and maids were also required to observe strict rules of propriety. Mae Gessner, who worked as a Vassar maid from 1901 to 1903, said in an interview with Daniels: “You were allowed two nights a week out. You had to write

your name on the book at night. You had to be in by 10 and then go up to Ms. Graham’s door, she was the head housekeeper, and let her know that you were in.”

Daniels believes that Gessner “may have been typical [for a Vassar maid] … her parents lived across the river [and] some way, her mother got hold of the notion that Vassar College was going to hire maids … they considered it a great privilege to be a maid at Vassar.”

That doesn’t mean life for a Vassar maid was easy, by any means, or that it offered guaranteed employment.

During both World Wars, the Miscellany News contained mentions of fewer maids, both at the College and at the students’ homes, to help the College save money.

In an article about student participation in the war effort in 1918, one

unnamed student said, “I did housework—thus eliminating servants.”

The Miscellany News went on to quip, “We hope she swept the poor maid all up carefully” (“Seen on Our War Work Slips”, 10.26.18).

A letter to the editor from a 1921 issue of the Miscellany News provides insight into a Vassar maid’s life from the admittedly rather biased and self-centered perspective of the students. “The maid returns and begins to take in orders which are shouted to her from all sides … [She] departs with her mind in a whirl, reiterating what she thought she heard … This is not efficiency! And we can’t blame our long-suffering maids, either. Why not make their work of remembering our varied and multifarious orders simpler and thus get what we want when we want it?”

The relationships between stu-

dents and maids were not always so hierarchical. At the same time that Gessner was working at Vassar, a group of students and employees formed the Goodfellowship Club, which worked to help the maids attain greater education and opportunities and establish a space on campus specifically for them.

Finally built in 1908 and designed

by Vassar Professor of Art and architect of Jewett House Lewis Pilcher, the Maids’ Club House (now the Admissions House) included a library and a piano in the living room, as well as two infirmary rooms.

A record of a Students’ Association meeting on May 23, 1914 describes the activities of the Maids’ Club House.

The record describes Vassar students tutoring staff “in elementary and secondary subjects, and one or two of the more ambitious have asked for instruction in economics and European history.” Several were planning on taking the Regents Exam, the New York state aptitude tests, in order to pursue further careers as nurses or business secretaries. There was also a dance social for students and employees every Thursday night, which the Goodfellowship Club representatives urged the Student Association to support.

The Goodfellowship Club was a thriving part of the Vassar community for over 40 years, but the unionization of Vassar’s workers in the 1940s rendered many of the club’s functions superfluous.

Vassar’s staffing arrangements began to increasingly resemble our current system, and by the time Vassar College became co-educational in 1969 the once-called maids no longer lived in the dorms alongside students.

Despite their efforts, however, their contributions have not been widely documented, aside from Daniels’s interviews, or celebrated as part of the sesquicentennial.

MICA aims to provide alternative political forum Lea Brown and Casey Zuckerman Guest Reporters

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assar has long been known as a bastion of liberal politics. For students who hold other political views, their opinions can sometimes be lost in the shuffle.

The Moderate, Independent and Conservative Alliance (MICA) aims to give a voice to those with more right-leaning political views.

President of MICA Will Serio ’13 jokingly described the majority of Vassar students as being “far left and farther left.” MICA, founded in 2002, is a place for Vassar students of various political opinions to discuss current events. “It’s a great way to hear and discuss a variety of opinions about current events outside of Vassar’s traditional political mindset,” said Todd Densen ’12, who, along with David Keith ’13, acts as vice president.

“To use the cliché, not all Republicans are conservatives and not all Democrats are liberals. Acknowledging this is essential to political discourse. MICA rejects the paradigm of political labels—it has members from across the political spectrum,” said Secretary Alaric Chinn ’13.

Serio was adamant that MICA, while largely associated with conservatism, actually represents the middle ground of politics.

He also stressed that MICA is not an activist organization, but simply serves as a forum for both political discussion and philosophical issues. Densen wrote in an emailed statement, “What is great about MICA is that it isn’t like College Republicans or College Democrats where everyone there is of similar political minds. MICA is the Moderate Independent Conservative Alliance for a reason, because people of different political

ideologies are welcome, and this leads to great discussion. It’s a great way to hear and discuss a variety of opinions about current events outside of Vassar’s traditional political mindset.”

MICA was the subject of controversy in 2005, when an article in the now-folded MICA newspaper, The Imperialist, was accused of expressing racist and sexist sentiments.‘“How is diversity achieved,” reads the article “Race and Freedom,” written under the nom de plume “Constantine,” when minority and gay and lesbian students “are voluntarily confining themselves to ghettoes” of cultural centers created for them? “I find the objective of diversity to be utterly meritless, suggesting that our colleges should become some zoological preserve in some paternalistic attempt [to] benefit our ‘non diverse’ students.”’ (9.26.2005, “Unedited Articles Infuriate Vassar Students,” Inside Higher Ed) Serio was hesitant to elaborate on the incident, simply stating that MICA has since “reformed” and that it is not the same as it once was. Yet he believes that an “institutional stigma” currently, and may always, stain its reputation. “[There is] some sort of stigma against having conservatives...[supposedly] in a room plotting,” he said. Serio, however, is optimistic about these suspicions decreasing over time. Chinn wrote, “I would say that last year, there were a number of students who believed that the Vassar Chronicle would have a negative impact on the campus, but I believe this had to do with past MICA publications.” He added that he believed the Chronicle had a positive impact on the political discourse at Vassar.

Members stated that their meetings bring

together all of the different voices in political discussion. “During a typical meeting,” Serio wrote in an emailed statement, “We talk about electoral politics (local, national and sometimes even foreign), current policies and legislation that have been proposed (social, economic, etc.), current events/news (local, national and foreign), and we also update the group on our progress with garnering speakers to come to the Vassar in order to meet with MICA and/or speak to the campus at large.” When news comes up, he added, they will change their agenda to discuss what’s most pertinent.

Serio added, “We have had members of the Vassar Democrats come to our meetings in the past ... we do [also] have members of the Chronicle that are part of the Vassar Democrats,” which furthers their goal to open up Vassar to a wider political debate. Serio added, “I never specifically asked the group if any of them are part of the Dems, so there could possibly be some at each meeting and I’ll never know until I ask.”

The annual MICA vs. Vassar Democrats Debate also allows the two groups to exchange ideas and opinions.

While the Vassar Democrats actively support and canvass for the Democratic Party, Serio says that it’s difficult to endorse someone from MICA’s standpoint, since it incorporates so many different parties. For the 2008 presidential elections, MICA had a subcommittee supporting Senator John McCain (R-AZ), but did not endorse any one candidate.

Because the group includes liberals, Democrats, libertarians, conservatives, Republicans, independents and moderates, Serio could not predict which candidate members

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

will choose to stand behind during the 2012 elections. Among the current favorites are candidates such as John Huntsman and Mitt Romney.

Among MICA’s goals for the year are bringing in speakers that would engage not only the organization, but the Vassar campus at large. “We have some great events planned this semester. We are in talks to bring former Vassar Science Technology and Society Professor Michael Bennett to campus to talk about patent reform, and we are also in discussions to bring Vassar alumnus Rick Lazio ’80 to speak as well,” said Densen.

MICA also plans on improving and expanding its newspaper, the Vassar Chronicle. The Chronicle has fizzled in and out of existence several times, most popularly running in the 1950s. In the winter of 2010 MICA spearheaded its revival, and the group currently pays for its publication. The newspaper encompasses everything from Poughkeepsie politics and foreign affairs to “Office Hours,” a section in which Vassar professors are interviewed and discuss a variety of topics. Serio says that anyone can write for the Chronicle, and pieces are published so long as they are well written and well reasoned.

When asked about the future of MICA, Serio expressed hope that the organization would be found more acceptable on campus.

Above all, Serio wants students to know that MICA’s goal is to stimulate discussion on campus, not to cause controversy or discord.

“Vassar is so focused on the left,” Serio said. “We want to let people know that we’re not crazy. We’re not Tea Partiers. We’re trying to bring a dialogue to campus so we can understand each other.”

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September 29, 2011

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Try chia seeds: delicious, nutritious new superfood Roxanne Ringer

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Guest Columnist

Molly Turpin/The Miscellany News

t seems every couple of months a new “miracle nut” or “magic berry” rolls out of the jungle and into mainstream cuisine. Remember quinoa with its seven amino acids, and the antioxidant-packed açai berry? So-called “superfood crazes” evolve as fast as fashion; and the newest style is here.

Chia seeds are about the size of a pin head and relatively flavorless. When added to liquid they gel, melting to an almost pudding-like consistency, which means you can add it to any food you want: smoothies, cereal, salads, baked goods. Of course, this doesn’t mean you should crack open your family’s Chia pet and start munching.

The chia seeds you want originate in Central America, where ancient Aztec warriors ate them to boost their energy for battle. After the Spanish conquest, chia seeds were banned because of their ties to the Aztec religion.

But now, because of its incredible nutritional value, the chia seed is making a comeback.

In the event that you’re not planning on going into battle soon, here are a few other benefits the chia seed can bring.

They are the richest and only unprocessed, whole food source of pure Omega-3, which is that pesky fatty acid our bodies need for metabolism but can’t make for themselves. Present in flaxseed oil and fish oil, it’s the reason fish is called brain food and has been claimed to improve heart health, depression, ADHD symptoms and memory.

Chia seeds are also rich with age-defying antioxidants that can reduce inflammation in sore joints.

Their gelling qualities balance blood sugar by slowing down your body’s conversion of starches into sugars.

This means a nice steady flow of energy through your day and none of those annoying spikes and crashes.

Chia seeds are packed full of complete protein, minerals and vitamins. They cut cravings and keep you feeling full without a lot of calories.

With all the over-processed foods like refined white flour today, vitamins are recommended to make up the fiber and nutrients we’ve lost. But a unique combination of soluble and insoluble fiber is found in, you guessed it, the chia seed.

Because they gel in liquid, the seeds can substitute for half of the artery-clogging butter in most baked goods recipes, and the antioxidants can keep the food tasting fresh longer.

Convinced yet? Then try this delicious, filling and nutritious chia banana pikelet (mini pancake) recipe.

Chia banana pikelets, above, incorporate today’s newest superfood: chia seeds. Among their many nutritional benefits, chia seeds are the richest and only unprocessed, whole food source of pure Omega-3, the fatty acid our bodies need to manage their metabolisms.

Chia Banana Pikelets Ingredients: »» 1/2 cup of plain flour »» 2 tablespoons of chia seeds »» 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder »» 1/4 cup of plain yogurt »» half mashed banana »» half teaspoon vanilla extract »» 2 eggs, separated »» 1 banana for topping (optional) »» a drizzle of honey (optional)

Combine flour, chia seeds and baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix yogurt, egg yolks, mashed banana and a dessert spoon of water. Mix into batter. You may need to use a little extra water. Beat egg white in an elextric blender until soft peaks form. Mix into batter. Heat a little olive oil in a non stick pan. Turn stove down to low.

Drop a tablespoon of batter into pan. Turn when light brown. (Careful! These cook quickly.) Makes 8 pikelets.

Serve warm with sliced banana and a drizzle of honey on top.

Barnes & Noble brings pros, cons to college store market BOOKSTORE continued from page 1 benefits come at the price of quality and transparency.

Several professors worry how Barnes & Noble will continue to affect local booksellers, especially Vassar’s neighbor, the Three Arts Bookstore. Associate Professor of English Peter Antelyes wrote in an emailed statement about his decision to make students buy textbooks for his class at the Three Arts, “I prefer…to support smaller, local bookstores, as they are being pressed from any number of angles: large chains like B&N, online-sales sources like Amazon.”

Walter Effron, who owns the Three Arts, agreed that this has been the case, but added, “There was an increase in student patronage for several years immediately following the change to [Barnes & Noble], and a net small increase in faculty class orders. At the time, there appeared to be organized student opposition to outsourcing the bookstore operation to Barnes & Noble and the Three Arts benefited from this. However, there has not been any increase in general walk-in trade which has seriously declined over the last 10 to 12 years, creating a situation in which additional loss is difficult to sustain.”

Both Antelyes and Effron expressed apprehension about what would happen when the College Bookstore moves to the Juliet space.

“In its present, reasonably small form, the College Bookstore isn’t likely to have a businessthreatening impact on the Three Arts,” said Antelyes. “A shift to a much larger venue in the Juliet space, though, could only magnify the effects.”

Effron concurred: “But it will definitely take some walk-in business away from me.” He continued, “Possibly having two bookstores next to each other will increase foot traffic, but I’m not going to have the stock they have. If it’s the hot book that everyone wants, they’ll probably have a ton, and I’ll have maybe one copy.”

Barnes & Noble leases and operates college bookstores besides Vassar’s, including most in

the local area. “We [Barnes & Noble] have over 600 stores,” said Vassar Bookstore Manager Paul Maggio, “In the local area we have Marist, we have Bard, Albany. Then there are more upstate.”

According to Assistant Vice President of Finance and Administration David English, Vassar originally turned management of the store over to Barnes & Noble in 2000 because it believed the company would offer a greater efficiency in getting textbooks to students.

Maggio cited Barnes & Noble’s greater efficiency as a benefit the store offers over an independently owned one. “I’d say a bigger company has more avenues to get certain products that a smaller store might have difficulty getting,” he explained. He emphasized their greater amount of stock: “We offer a lot more options. We have new books, used or eBooks; then you can rent books, or you can even rent the eBook. I’m not sure if an institution-owned bookstore could do that.”

There are other advantages to a corporate store. Said English, “When the HEO Act required us to put ISBN numbers of the books on the website, Barnes & Noble did that centrally at their national office. It was much quicker and more efficient than if we had had to do it ourselves.”

Assistant Professor of English Dorothy Kim, who worked on the board of the student-owned and operated University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Student Store for several years while a graduate student at UCLA, debated the assertion that corporate bookstores are usually more efficient. “[The UCLA Student Store] never had problems [with efficiency], and there were almost 40,000 students on campus. In terms of efficiency, there’s not really a difference,” she said of the store, which also handled a host of other responsibilities.

However, even an independent college bookstore like UCLA’s had corporate elements. “We had to decide whether to remove one corporate

entity, and whether to let others in ... It was always a question of balance,” said Kim. The difference was that any profits from the Student Store were put back into student programming and events, something that is unthinkable with corporate management. Vassar receives a fixed amount of money leasing the Bookstore, but all profits go to Barnes & Noble.

The other difference is one of transparency.

Vassar’s contract with Barnes & Noble is protected by a confidentiality clause, which is typical of business contracts with vendors, but a student-run store has more public accountability.

Jack Cella, general manager of the University of Chicago Seminary Co-op, which exists on the same campus as a Barnes & Noble run store, stressed student involvement in the institution. “The co-op is a customer-owned operation, owned by people who have purchased shares in the co-operative,” he stated. “Many, many students, current and former, are or were members of the co-op, and the co-op has employed hundreds of students during the course of its 50 years.”

Cella realized, however, that chain stores have certain advantages over independents.

“Barnes & Noble is able to do things we can’t.

For instance, as a large chain with substantial resources they are able to take advantage of changing technology in ways that we can’t.”

UCLA and the University of Chicago have much larger student bodies to draw student workers and board members from, and more resources than Vassar, so a similar type of store would probably not be viable here.

Even at a university with resources like Chicago, the Seminary Co-op admits that they can’t compete with Barnes & Noble in the fastest-growing sector of the book market, raising the question of whether independent college bookstores are capable of surviving on a wider scale.

Besides digital options and efficiency, there is a sort of consistency to Barnes & Noble’s

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

stores. “Generally we have a base of products we carry in every store,” said Maggio. “Then there are some things that the school asks us to carry.”

This consistency has rubbed off on other aspects of the store. “We’re in the process of soliciting student feedback on what kind of Vassar apparel they like. You may have noticed it’s become much less of a hodge-podge collection, and more a consistent Vassar brand,” said English.

That very consistency, however, is one reason Antelyes mourns the passing of the independent college bookstore. “It’s sad to ponder a world without the kinds of browsable spaces provided by the smaller stores, particularly with regard to books from smaller publishers in a diversity of areas that one wouldn’t likely encounter elsewhere,” he stated.

However, the largest concern among those interviewed was the future of bookstores in general. “Historically, they played a big role in wiping out independent bookstores, over the past 15 to 18 years,” said Effron of the wider effect of Barnes & Noble. “It’s not the same impact anymore, because all bookstores are suffering from Internet competition.” According to him, Barnes & Noble and Three Arts may face common threats. “Now they’re being driven out

by Amazon,” he said. “So I don’t know if they’re the same villain they used to be.”

The extent to which Barnes & Noble has suffered from Internet competition is debateable.

Though it is feeling pressure from Amazon’s Kindle and the iPad, the company has had fairly strong digital sales, in part thanks to its Nook reader. Of all the chain bookstores, Barnes & Noble is in the best financial shape and is the one most geared toward changing technology.

Whether the company will succeed in carving out a portion of the digital book market is unknown, but their involvement in the Vassar College Bookstore is here for the foreseeable future.

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Sustainability committee greens campus Sasha Brown

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Guest Columnist

ave you noticed the new lights in the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC)? Until this past summer, the ACDC was lit entirely by incandescent light bulbs. With funding from the new Resource Conservation Fund, the light bulbs were replaced with new energy-efficient LED bulbs that are brighter, too. The Resource Conservation Fund was created by the College Committee on Sustainability and the Department of Buildings & Grounds to support college-wide initiatives to conserve resources. Replacing the light bulbs required an initial investment of approximately $25,000 and is expected to save the College $30,000 in energy costs per year. The energy savings will also reduce the College’s greenhouse gas emissions and its reliance on unsafe energy practices in the area, such as coal and nuclear power.

These kinds of initiatives, which require capital to perform yet have demonstrable cost savings for the school, should be the highest priority for Vassar as the College tries to work towards a sustainable campus and save money doing it.

Directed by the College Committee of Sustainability, the Resource Conservation Fund reflects Vassar’s commitment to sustainability. Proposals are welcome from all members of the Vassar College community.

Priority will be given to projects with the highest rate of payback, but the nature of a sustainability committee on a college campus extends much further than mere money-saving techniques. The lighting of the ACDC was chosen as the pilot project not only for its conservation of environmental and financial resources, but also because of its benefits for the Vassar College community.

A more sustainable Vassar College begins with a well-lit campus, but requires a comprehensive look at all activities on campus- and communitywide discussions on sustainability and resource use.

You can find more information about the College Committee on Sustainability and the Resource Conservation Fund on the CCS blog, www.blogs.vassar.edu/ccs/.

September 29, 2011

Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Bookstore move merits increased dialogue Voices of local businesses must be incl`uded A

s reported in last week’s issue of The Miscellany News, starting as soon as mid to late 2012, the plan to move the Vassar College Bookstore to the space occupied by the Juliet Café Pizzeria and Billiards will pick up again in earnest.

This move has been in the works for some years well before its announcement and subsequent community forum debates in 2008, and while local opinions vary on the relocation of the store, the time for criticism of the move itself has passed. The editors of the Miscellany believe that the Bookstore, in its future location, will provide several benefits to the campus community.

First of all, it will free up the area below the College Center that the Bookstore currently occupies, providing the chance to create much-needed rehearsal, programming and/or performance space. Not to mention the floor plan of the Juliet space is larger and more open, allowing the Bookstore to expand to include not only books, College merchandise, and some dorm necessities, but also a community space on its second floor for use by both College and local groups.

Lastly, the move will give students a clear reason to venture off campus, hopefully driving up student business at local stores as well as, conversely, Poughkeepsie residents’ further inclusion in the Vassar community via the new bookstore. Engagement with Poughkeepsie is a constant topic among students, faculty, administrators and the Vassar Student Association Council, and this is a concrete step in that direction.

These benefits, however, do come with their disadvantages. While the future Bookstore could serve to draw students off campus, it will also undoubtedly compete with the local businesses on Raymond Avenue. Several local business owners have expressed concern

about the move, and it is impossible to only tout the potential benefits of the relocation to Vassar and the community without acknowledging these very legitimate anxieties.

Vassar’s administrators, in an effort to ensure that Vassar remained sensitive to these concerns, established dialogues with the larger community throughout the moving process, specifically speaking with the owner of the Three Arts Bookstore, Walter Effron, whose store will be mere doors away from the future College Bookstore. The College also hosted open forums on the bookstore’s move when the plans were originally moving forward in 2008.

While we commend the College for engaging in talks with Effron, the editors of the Miscellany are concerned that other local businesses with the similar worries over competition were not given the same consideration. The new Bookstore will feature a prominent café area, in accordance with Barnes & Noble regulations, which could potentially divert the flow of business from local coffee sellers such as the Krafted Cup and the Cubbyhole.

Unlike Effron, Ken Kraft, owner of the Krafted Cup, was not approached by the College during the making of these decisions, and we feel that his voice is an integral one to any discussion that affects Raymond Avenue businesses, particularly those involving the sale of coffee.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that Vassar acts as a landlord to many of the businesses on Raymond Avenue—including the Juliet—via its subsidiary College Properties LLC. Vassar has every right to use the space however it chooses, and we are pleased to see the College consider the community in its business decisions. We encourage Vassar to keep up positive relationships with its tenants, includ-

ing the current occupant of the Juliet space, who also faces a challenging business move in a difficult economy.

The editors of the Miscellany hope that the College will engage in more dialogues with not only the business owners affected by the Bookstore’s move, but with all local business owners, whether directly affected by the move or not. The move of the bookstore may be moving forward, but there is still time to work with local business owners to make the move truly beneficial to all parties and to bring concerns about the plans more into the open—outside of the decision-making environment of Town of Poughkeepsie Planning Board Meetings.

In moving forward, we would like to encourage the entire Vassar community, from administrators to students, to be mindful and appreciative of our Poughkeepsie neighbors. We need to involve everyone affected by the College’s decisions in a dialogue to ensure both understanding and cooperation.

The Bookstore move will be as successful as we are willing to make it. The new space comes with a second floor, for example, available for meetings and programming. The space is an excellent opportunity to invite members of the Poughkeepsie community to interact and work with Vassar students and organizations. If instead of restricting ourselves to the Vassar campus, we continue to buy from local businesses and use the Bookstore’s new location as a launching pad to the rest of Raymond Avenue, we’ll be making a crucial step towards a better and more sustainable relationship with the city in which we all reside.

—The Staff Editorial represents the opinion of at least two thirds of the 21-member Miscellany News Editorial Board.

—Sasha Brown ’13 is a student intern on the College Committee on Sustainability.

A letter of apology to Strong House, VC community Rash action a reminder for students to respect peers Mitchell Gilburne Guest Columnist

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ear Vassar, I guess I’d like to start out by thanking you for providing a safe space in which I’ve been able to thrive academically, socially and extracurricularly. As a gay Jew with the big mouth to compliment the package, I’ve always used those few quiet, reflective moments to recognize and appreciate the safe space that Vassar has been for me over the past three years. I’ve never had to look over my shoulder, or had to feel my stomach drop when I walked into a room wondering if I’d be received by smiles or scowls, or had to keep quiet when the things going on around me felt wrong or unwarranted. That’s why I have been so appalled and embarrassed to learn that my actions at Serenading have made such a negative impression on a community that has proven itself to have the potential to be so nurturing.

What slipped through my socially lubricated lips in an instant has certainly haunted me over the past few weeks, and I wanted to take the opportunity to share my shame with our campus in hopes of setting the record straight, repairing at least some of the damage done, making sure similar slip-ups don’t make Serenading any more slippery in the future, and—most of all— to apologize and recognize that I have nothing to hide behind, no defense for my actions in this instance.

In case you’re out of the loop, during Strong House’s performance during this year’s Ser-

enading festivities I made the poor decision to counter their harmless zingers aimed at the cleanliness (or lack thereof) of senior housing with a nasty comment that drew its potency from unavoidable biology, which undermined the spirit that characterizes not only Strong’s mission, but also the duty of our entire community. Vassar’s rich history as a space where humans are expected to engage with the world critically regardless of gender and other such constructs is a powerful and sturdy legacy upon which we should all lean defensively. I recognize that with my words I may as well have been throwing balloons filled with the noxious waters of Sunset Lake in the face of what has always been ubiquitously Vassar. And while I can’t take back the action, I at least hope that I can mop up the mess.

It is irrefutable that Strong’s legacy and its implications are of tantamount importance to the College, and it is juvenile to look with scorn on gender-segregated housing. And what pains me the most is that my thoughtless words may have affected the pride that my peers take in being Vassar students. If on that day even one student—freshman, Strong resident or otherwise—was made to feel that they were less of a member of our community because of the babbling of an incoherent senior during a tradition that draws its strength from deconstructing hierarchies at Vassar, then this apology is already well warranted.

The lesson that I am drawing from this mis-

take is one that teaches me to be mindful of my actions, and to realize that my perspective is not universal. I want to extend my respect to the residents of Strong House and the women across our campus, and I want to implore our entire community to wear the label of feminist with pride. After all, feminism is only the radical belief that men and women are equal. I had long thought that this mantra was evident in the manner in which I conduct myself, and find it particularly shattering to learn that—even if only for one moment—this was not the case.

It is most frustrating to me that I cannot hope to empathize with the women at whom my remarks were aimed. I may not ever know what it feels like to be a resident of Bessie Rockefeller Strong House, but I do know that it breaks my heart to think that I have contributed to any stigma that may hang at its doorstep.

So, I take this moment to apologize for the words that were spoken openly and publicly, but also for the snide remarks, the whispers, the thoughts unspoken and the insidious incidents that slip just under the radar because every infraction against a woman on this campus is condoned so long as a voice such as the one I expressed during my silly stint on stage at Serenading is allowed to poison our community.

I cannot stomach becoming an emblem of the forces that contort what should be the given parameters of conduct at Vassar. I apologize because carelessness and slips of the tongue are the keys that open the floodgates that cre-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ate a status quo, and I need to plug the leak that my darting tongue sprung. As a senior, a student leader and a representative of our Senior Class Council I want to assure you, my peers, neighbors and friends, that this was an isolated instance and also one that has been the cause of much introspection, regret and humiliation.

To the Class of 2015, I especially hope that my transgressions did not overshadow the beginnings of a memorable freshman year and that you were able to enjoy the rest of the orientation schedule without restraint.

Let us all use my example to inform not only our words and actions, but also our thoughts. If we can examine and purge the undertones in our own community that allow such thoughts to manifest, even in jest, then we will be doing a service to this campus of unimaginable import.

I hope that Vassar continues to be the school that sets the standard for equality in all fields and that our women continue to prove the unflinching adage that “Well-behaved women never make history” because failing to embody these tenants means failing to be Vassar.

I appreciate whatever time you took out of your undoubtedly busy Vassar schedule to hear me out.

Mitchell can be contacted at migilburne@ vassar.edu for further dialogue.

—Mitchell Gilburne ’12 is the director of Vassar College Entertainment and co-chair of the Senior Class Gift. He is a classics major.

September 29, 2011

OPINIONS

Page 9

State slashing of school budgets harmful Students must engage with R local elections Sabrina Sucato Guest Columnist

ecently, reductions in state aid have forced local schools to readjust their budgets. The Poughkeepsie City School District in particular, which depends on state aid to run smoothly, has had to make severe cuts in order to stay within the approved budget plan. According to the superintendent, Laval Wilson, the district has had to cope with a state aid reduction of over $5 million in the past two years. In all, the state of New York has decreased state aid by approximately $1.3 billion. t often seems easy to read statistics like these sympathetically, but then forget about them shortly afterward. This is different. The Poughkeepsie district, composed of about 4,600 students, shares the same community as Vassar College.

The high school and the middle school are about a five minute walk away. Vassar collaborates on multiple programs with the district, including Let’s Get Ready, VELLOP, VAST and more. The students of Poughkeepsie deserve better than having to deal with all of the changes that have been forced upon them.

Speaking of changes, the budget cuts have had many effects, most, if not all, of which have been detrimental to the well-being of the student population as a whole. At the beginning of the last

I

school year, one of the local elementary schools, W.W. Smith Humanities Magnet School, was forced to close because there was not enough money to keep it running.

Smith School was considered to be one of the better elementary schools in the Poughkeepsie district, as it offered some more advanced programs, including language classes and music instruction. The students who were attending Smith were forced to transfer to the other elementary schools within the district, creating problems for families who had to travel farther to get their children to school. Larger class sizes, which are generally thought to detract from the quality of education, were the result.

Also forced into closure was the school for disruptive students in the district, the Circle of Courage. Students in this program were reintegrated into the middle school and high school, from which they had previously been taken. It may just be me, but putting troubled kids back into a school that they were kicked out of in the first place does not seem like the best idea.

As for the elementary schools, kindergarten was shortened from full-day to half-day, and less post-lunch recess was allowed, thanks to an insufficient amount of teaching assistants available to watch the students.

Now, the district has joined an initia-

tive with the School Cuts Hurt campaign to hold meetings for community members to learn about and speak on the recent financial issues. The campaign is run by two non-profit groups, Alliance for Quality Education and Citizen Action of New York. One meeting was held in Poughkeepsie on Sept. 21, and more will be following in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse.

Severe budget cuts like these should not be left ignored. The changes that the district has made have all been harmful to the students. The local community has tried to help by passing the most recent school budget, even with the property tax hikes. The Poughkeepsie School District needs to re-evaluate its budget and figure out how to help its reason for existence: the students. One of the first things that should be analyzed are the salaries of board members, the superintendent and the teachers. Salary freezes or cuts would be helpful in gathering more money. Research should also be done to see whether there are any available grants or funds for the district.

Whatever the case, the Poughkeepsie City School District is in pain, and needs some serious care (and money) in order to get well again.

—Sabrina Sucato ’15.

Obama blocks EPA’s crucial TCE report Gabriel Dunsmith Guest Columnist

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t the Camp Lejeune military base near Wilmington, N.C., 750,000 people were exposed to the industrial chemical trichloroethylene (TCE), which is known to cause liver and kidney damage and is a suspected carcinogen. In Woburn, Mass., multiple chemical companies polluted the town’s water supply with TCE, providing the backstory for the book and film A Civil Action. And in Asheville, N.C., electroplating company CTS Corporation dumped TCE onto the ground, contaminating streams and groundwater; a nearby family’s well tested with 4,200 times the legal limit of TCE, and 49 cases of NonHodgkin’s Lymphoma cropped up within a mile of the site.

President Obama recently made a disastrous decision in regards to TCE that will have detrimental consequences on human health and the environment.

On Friday, Sept. 2, the White House blocked a report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that would have classified TCE as a carcinogen. News of the decision was muffled because, that very same day, the Administration killed the EPA’s tighter ozone standards, shocking the environmental community. Not only would the EPA’s report have classified TCE as a cancer-causing chemical, but it would have also chronicled the chemical’s adverse effects on the nervous, reproductive and immune systems.

Letter to the Editor

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would like to clarify a possible misunderstanding of my view of the planned move f the College Bookstore into the Juliet building. In the article “Plans to move bookstore advance” in the Miscellany News issue from of Sept. 22, my outlook is characterized as “cautiously optimistic about the Bookstore’s move.”

I am not in favor of this project. I am hopeful that my bookstore, The Three Arts, will be able to survive, but I do not regard the plan to turn the Juliet into a bookstore and café as in my interest, or in the interest of a number of the other local businesses in the neighborhood.

Sincerely, Walter Effron, proprietor The Three Arts Bookshop

The current guidelines for TCE are over 20 years old, having been last revised in 1989.

TCE is classified as a carcinogen in the European Union, and has been completely banned in Sweden.

During the Bush Administration, senior officials interfered with the EPA’s Integrated Risk Management System (IRIS), the program responsible for issuing reports on toxic chemicals. Lenny Siegel, director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO), claims that EPA scientists were told they would lose their jobs if they pushed for stricter standards on TCE. For some time, Obama’s EPA sought to rekindle IRIS. But concerns about backlash from the chemical industry may have caused the Administration to reconsider. Environmental groups have pointed a finger at Bill Daley, the White House chief of staff, who was hired in an effort to restore the Administration’s relationship with the business community after Republicans trampled the Democrats in last year’s midterms.

TCE is one of the most common pollutants at Superfund sites across the nation. Many of these contaminated facilities were run by the Fed itself—such as the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which is now seeing a $1 billion cleanup. Because the new TCE report would pave the way for stricter health standards and reinvigorated clean-up efforts, the chemical industry has lobbied for decades to keep new rules off the table. The Pentagon, with its extensive pollution history, hasn’t been too keen on new EPA regulations either.

After Obama quashed the TCE report, environmental groups were irate. “Given its recent record of catering to the chemical industry,” said Daniel Rosenberg of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “we are concerned that the White House is resorting to the Bush Administration’s approach of interference to delay the release of health assessments.”

Lenny Siegel with the CPEO (who also won EPA’s 2011 Citizen’s Excellence in Community Involvement Award) demanded in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that the EPA “release the TCE Toxicological Review immediately.”

The TCE report was seen as pivotal in the Obama Administration’s relationship with corporate polluters.

IRIS is in charge of issuing reports on many other chemicals, too. TCE is only a small part of a gargantuan picture: IRIS could be delaying all of its reports on toxic chemicals, and thereby hampering the protection that millions of Americans need from

chemical exposure.

Human lives swing in the balance.

Now that the TCE report has been vetoed, it isn’t a great sign for other environmental initiatives in the United States. If the president nullified something as seemingly simple as a cancer report, then greed and money are playing into the mix. Behind closed doors, corporate polluters are winning the battle to erode environmental protections and decimate public health.

Here’s the ugly truth: electroplating companies (like the aforementioned CTS Corporation) use TCE every day. Chemical companies profit from it. And when politics is concerned, placation sometimes overtakes morality.

It is high time for President Obama to stop caving to the demands of the chemical industry. TCE kills. If the president cares more about corporate profits than the health and safety of the American people, then he shows a lack of compassion for human life.

If Obama is under the impression he is helping the economy by stuffing more money into the wallets of chemical companies, then he is sorely misguided. And even if it were helping the economy, then sure, the economy’s important, but not at the expense of human health and the environment.

Hundreds of communities need protection from TCE. People shouldn’t encounter it in the environment; it shouldn’t be in the air they breathe or the water they drink. Children shouldn’t be forced to grow up in a world where they are exposed to life-threatening chemicals.

The president has a moral obligation to act for the American people. He must brand TCE as a carcinogen, fund full-scale clean ups at TCE-stricken sites across the nation, provide healthcare to all who have been exposed to the toxin, punish the polluters and ban TCE from our environment and industrial processes.

While Obama can’t undo the wounds that TCE has already caused, he can prevent maladies from occurring in the future. The last thing he should do is prolong the pain and suffering that too many Americans have endured due to trichloroethylene exposure. Every day of inaction—every day of blockages or delays on EPA reports—is another day that TCE can wreck havoc on human bodies.

If nothing is done to stop trichloroethylene, it will continue to contaminate our land, seep into our water and make our people sick.

Obama must reverse his obstruction of the TCE rule, and do it now.

—Gabriel Dunsmith ’15 is a member of the Vassar Greens.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Zachary Lobel

Guest Columnist

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obody understands the excitement of a presidential election better than I do. You are reading the words of someone who’s thrown more election parties than birthday parties (that’s actually not true but the numbers are close). Americans with even the smallest modicum of civic interest, who spend more time watching ESPN than CNN and are unaware of the names of the officials representing them in state and federal government mysteriously seem to rise to action every four years when it’s time to elect a president. And why shouldn’t they? We see evidence every day of the actions of our country’s chief executive on the radio, in the newspapers and on TV when our favorite shows are interrupted for a special presidential address from the White House East Room.

Furthermore, to the national psyche, the president is more than just the CEO of the United States; he is our head of state and our moral leader.

Conversely, elected officials at the local level are rarely part of the national debate.

You never see county executives on Hardball or town supervisors on Meet the Press, but local government has a tangible and important influence on our lives every day; it just doesn’t have the resources to market itself the way that those in higher offices can. The Dutchess County government, for example, led by the County Executive, manages a budget of over $400 million. County governments in New York State spend billions of dollars of public money on real programs and services in the areas of public safety, health, transportation, economic assistance, recreation and education. Mayors too can be enormously influential, especially in big cities, where they are often in charge of the police, fire, education, housing and transportation departments (among others) that provide vital services on which we have come to rely.

Most of the more tangible interactions we have with government on a daily basis take place at the local level. Local government is our schools. Local government is our roads and our libraries and our hospitals. We pay taxes to local government and we can serve time in local jails. Voting for your mayor, town council or county legislator may not be as glamorous or romantic as voting for your president, or even your senator, but in terms of impact, it is not less important.

If this isn’t enough to get you to the polls this November, allow me to sweeten the deal by telling you that your vote counts more during elections held in years where no federal races occur. Off-year elections have embarrassingly low voter turnout rates that make political science professors weep at night. It is not uncommon for turnout to drop into single digits, which, when compared to the 2008 figure of just over 62 percent, is just sad. It doesn’t take a mathematician or a political scientist (or some creepy big-brained hybrid of the two) to figure out that when turnout is low, each individual vote becomes more important.

My point is this: “local elections don’t matter” is not a legitimate excuse to skip voting in an election. Local government administers an array of valuable services and you have a stronger voice voting for local officials in offyear elections than for any official in the year of a presidential contest. Vassar prides itself on being a campus of opinionated students with minds attuned to and engaged with the biggest issues of today. We live in a community with a jail that fails to meet our county’s needs, an inefficient waste management system and an unemployment rate of over seven percent. If you have an opinion on any local issue whatsoever, before you join the picket line or go on a hunger strike, cast your vote. “Thinking is not to agree or disagree,” Robert Frost once said, “That’s voting.” The voter registration deadline for this year’s local election in Dutchess County is Oct. 14.

—Zachary Lobel ’12 is a political science major.

OPINIONS

Page 10

Davis execution indicative of injustices of death penalty Jon Bix

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Guest Columnist

n Sept. 21, Troy Davis was executed in Georgia in one of the most controversial death penalty cases in American history. The saga of his case has spanned three different decades, beginning with his arrest and indictment in 1989. There was never any physical evidence linking Davis to the crime, the murder of a security guard, who was also an off-duty police officer, when he intervened in an argument between two men. Davis’s case is only one example, though a powerful one, of the senselessness and unacceptability of our death penalty system.

Davis’s conviction in 1989 was based entirely on the testimony of nine witnesses. Seven of these witnesses have since recanted their testimony, some saying that they were coerced into testifying against Davis by police, or that they only testified to improve their own situation with the law. Sylvester Coles, one of the two who has not recanted his testimony, is likely the real suspect. Several other witnesses have identified him as the shooter, and one has said that he confessed to them. Two of the jurors who originally convicted Davis have since said they would not have convicted him if they had been presented with these facts originally.

In order to even convict someone of a crime, much less sentence him to death, there cannot be reasonable doubt about his guilt. There was obviously reasonable doubt in this case, and at the very least Davis should have been granted clemency.

The use of the death penalty is clearly related to race. It is applied differentially by region, with 80 percent of all executions occurring in the South, and Davis was convicted in Georgia.

Many studies in recent years, including a fouryear project reported by University of North Carolina professors in 2001, have found that a defendant is around four times more likely to be sentenced to death if the person he killed was white, and the defendant is more likely to

be sentenced to death if he is black. Davis was black and “killed” a white man. Lastly, a defendant is more likely to be sentenced to death if he cannot afford to hire a lawyer, which Davis could not.

There are other practical reasons to abolish the death penalty. It is more expensive than life imprisonment, and criminology experts overwhelmingly reject the idea that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder. If someone has been wrongly imprisoned, he can be set free, but mistakes cannot be corrected if the convicted person has been killed. The death penalty is also often used for political gain, as exemplified by Rick Perry. As governor, he allowed Cameron Todd Willingham to be executed for supposedly intentionally setting fire to his own home and thus killing his three children. Perry allowed this execution despite last-minute persuasive evidence that Willingham may have been innocent. Perry even refused to grant a stay of execution, because he did not want to look soft. Experts later determined that the fire for which Willingham was executed was not even a case of arson.

As Davis himself said, “This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me.

We need to dismantle this unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.”

It is ironic that as the self-proclaimed leader of the free world, the United States has chosen to keep the death penalty and to reject the path taken by every other comparably industrialized country save Japan, and instead align itself with countries like North Korea and Pakistan. The death penalty is a generally immoral practice, unfairly implemented, expensive and with no real deterrent effect—a fact long since recognized by nearly all democratic members of the international community. It is time the United States joined them.

—Jonathan Bix ’14 is a political science and sociology major.

September 29, 2011

Issues plaguing campus workers remain at large Tim McCormick

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Guest Columnist

hat does it mean to be part of the campus community? Who do we consider a part of that community? Certainly, myself and my 2500 some odd peers, the students, form a large part of this community; we are the reason the schools exists. Our mentors and teachers, the faculty, are also surely a part of what we call the Vassar community, as they are the ones who guide through these four years and ensure that our college experience is one that prepares us for the road ahead. And one can see how the president, trustees and deans are part of the community as well. They represent us to both alumnae/i and potential students, as well as anyone else who wants to be involved with the College in the first place.

But what about the multitude of workers who cook for us, clean our living areas and grounds, and ensure that everything is this college is maintained, organized, functioning and cleaned? Are we always mindful of their place in the community?

Are they always heard?

Sometimes, they are heard very loudly.

Two years ago, workers and students had joined together to protest what they felt was unfair treatment for workers. Their main demand was simple; instead of using subcontracted labor to take care of various cleaning jobs around campus while the students were away, use other Vassar laborers instead, as they had no work at all during such down time. At its heart, the workers merely wanted to be treated with respect when having to talk to the College about issues that were important to them (such as job security). Having felt unnoticed, they decided to have this protest and make their problem more visible. For awhile, it worked. Their rallies

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

and marches on campus had the effect of making it a larger issue, which was talked about in and outside the classroom. As several students decided to take a hunger strike against the campus, some sense of urgency even pervaded this issue.

However, although the workers were heard, victory still remained outside their grasp. Rather than sitting down with the workers and trying to figure out the root causes of their problems, the school simply set up a “hardship fund” and hoped that the generosity of student would simply wash this problem away. With the creation of this hardship fund, the workers went back to not being heard, being excluded, to some degree by the Vassar community. The problems still remained, and workers are trying to figure how to be heard again, how their demands for dignity and respect can be accepted by the College as a whole.

Again, workers are looking to ensure their jobs by inserting a clause into their contract which says the College can’t hire outside labor. In addition, they want reasonable work hours for certain buildings and grounds work. Outside of this, they do not want much; the way they want their contract to go right now would leave almost no pension increases for them and no wage increases for the following year. And again, among the reasons they want this is respect. They want to feel that they are valued for their work; that they can’t simply be fired and replaced by an outside company at a whim. They want the agreements that they have made already with the College to be met. They want to be a stronger part of our fabric.

—Tim McCormick ’12 is a member of Grassroots Alliance for Alternative Politics.

September 29, 2011

OPINIONS

Page 11

U.S. must abandon culture of death Juan Thompson

W

Guest Columnist

e have a culture of death in this republic. A culture so sickening and erosive and yet it is manifested in our music, our movies, our politics and our public policies. Certain events over the past few weeks have brought this oft-ignored fact to light and this should be a clarion call for us all to stand up and do whatever we can to transform the nation from one that participates in and celebrates death to a country that promotes life and community.

On Sept. 7, the Republicans running for president met for a Politico/NBC News sponsored debate at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library in California. Debate moderator Brian Williams posed the following question to newly minted frontrunner, Texas Governor Rick Perry: “Governor Perry, a question about Texas. Your state has executed 234 [235 following the execution last week of the white racist convicted of murdering James Byrd] death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times. Have you struggled to sleep at night?” At the mention of 234 the Republican audience delivered thunderous and sustained applause. The death penalty is a heated and emotional subject, but decent people can disagree on it. However, decent people never applaud at the mere mention of 234 humans being murdered by the state. We often hear the term “necessary evil,” when it comes to war and the death penalty, and I grudgingly accept that language, even if I fundamentally disagree with it. But what I won’t accept and what I find deplorable is a room full of people who describe themselves as pro-life enthusiastically cheering on state-sanctioned murder.

Perry didn’t disappoint either. His response is what one would expect to hear from a party that cheers on death: “No sir, I’ve never struggled with that at all.”

Never. At all. No. This is either idiotic bravado or cruelness so severe that it borders

on inhumanity. Either way, Perry’s behavior, coupled with the lack of outrage, illustrates the mighty battle we have ahead of us if we want to combat the culture of death.

The Republicans kept up their anti-life, ghoulish behavior at a CNN/Tea Party Express debate the following week in Florida.

CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer posed the hypothetical question of “What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn’t have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? Are you saying society should just let him die?” The Republican audience, playing to type, yelled “Yeah!” and cheered loudly.

This startling display was even too much for the chief executor himself, Perry. He said the next day, “I was a bit taken aback by that myself. We’re the party of life. We ought to be coming up with ways to save lives.” It would be great if he would heed his own advice and pardon all those on Texas’s death row.

The most disturbing event came on Sept.

21 when Troy Davis was executed by the state of Georgia. Davis had been convicted of murdering a police officer in 1989. He had originally been scheduled to die in 2007 but through stays and other legal maneuvers Davis was able to stave off the execution chamber. Finally, his time ran out last week when the U.S. Supreme Court denied his last attempt for a reprieve. He was executed by lethal injection at 11:08 p.m.

Eastern Standard Time. Davis’ case became a cause célèbre for anti-death penalty groups because of the diverse cast of characters that came to his defense including Desmond Tutu, Pope Benedict XVI, Rev. Al Sharpton, a former conservative congressman and a former Republican F.B.I. director. A majority of the witnesses who testified against Davis later recanted their testimonies and some fingered another man who was originally suspected, but ultimately not charged. Davis maintained his innocence throughout the process; indeed his last words before being murdered were “I

am innocent.” Whether Davis was innocent or not is beside the point. The United States should not be using an outdated and inhumane tool, as the death penalty most certainly is, to deter or punish crime. We should not in the company of countries like Iraq and Egypt when it comes to executions. There is never, ever an excuse for the state to systematically murder its citizens.

A gang of white teens murdered James Anderson in Mississippi in June and his family requested that state prosecutors not to seek the death penalty against the culprits. In a letter to their district attourney, they wrote, “We also oppose the death penalty because it historically has been used in Mississippi and the South primarily against people of color for killing whites. Executing James’s killers will not help balance the scales. But sparing them may help to spark a dialogue that one day will lead to the elimination of capital punishment.”

That letter embodies the spirit we should be aiming for. It would behoove us to take up the example set by Anderson’s family. If a person is close to death because he or she cannot afford health care, we should assist that person, not cheer his death. And there should be no one on death row. We should protest every single time the state executes a person. Electing state legislatures that will outlaw the death penalty is also vital. But of course none of this is easy, a sizeable chunk of the American people still favor the death penalty. Persuasion and dialogue is how grassroots movements start; radical change is how they end. Though change won’t occur overnight, if we commit ourselves to justice and humanity, it will occur eventually.

In the meantime, we should do what the Anderson family did: set aside our anger on the issues that divide us and reach for a culture of life and community.

Which professor would you put on your intramural team?

“Molly Nesbit, Ultimate Frisbee.”

Mia Fermindoza ’14

“Professor Rashid, rugby”

Eleni Macrakis ’14

“Nick Adams, bowling.”

—Juan Thompson ’13 is a political science major.

GOP abuses Israel-Palestine debate

Logan Woodruff ’14

Emma Lowe

Guest Columnist

L

ast week President Obama gave a speech at the United Nations in which he addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among other issues. President Obama stated that it is up to the Israelis and Palestinians, not the rest of the world, to figure out their problems.

He also announced that he would veto any attempt to form a Palestinian member state at the United Nations.

Now some would-be presidential Republican candidates have decried President Obama’s abandonment of the state of Israel.

Governor of Texas Rick Perry described President Obama’s policy as “naïve, arrogant, misguided and dangerous.” That is probably a better description of Perry himself than of President Obama’s policy. But apparently Republicans view Israel as the new effective line of attack against the president. It seems to me that their mention of Israel has much more to do with placating American voters than with American foreign policy, and their manipulation of Israel’s political problems is only detrimental to American-Israeli relations.

The GOP is using Israel as a way to siphon off voters from the president’s re-election campaign. They are trying to persuade Jewish Americans (who voted almost entirely for Obama in 2008) that the president does not care about Israel. I won’t go into the problem of treating American Jews as single-issue voters, but by treating Israel as a wedge issue, Republicans ignore the real problems Israel faces.

“Just because President Obama’s policies contain political and social nuances, that does not make them ineffective.”

Reading between the lines of the Republican pro-Israeli stance there is not a concern for the Jewish community, but rather an underlying Islamophobia and a lack of knowledge about the substantive issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Their decisive anti-Palestinian stance demonstrates how simplistic their understanding of the situation really is. Since the rise of the Tea Party, compromise has become anathema to the Republican agenda both domestically and abroad. They view the Israeli government sitting down to talk with Palestinian leaders from Hamas as negotiating with terrorists, something the United States does not do. What Republicans fail to understand is that an unwillingness to promote compromise is a much bigger threat to Israeli security than permitting the formation of a Palestinian state.

Moreover their characterization of President Obama’s Middle East policies are ineffective are ludicrous. Just because President Obama’s policies contain political and social nuances does not make them ineffective, it makes them sensitive and rightly so in a situation as precarious as this one.

Israel is also an issue in this election be-

cause it is another means through which Republicans can secure the evangelical vote.

Biblically speaking, Israel’s existence is necessary in order for the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to occur. So for American evangelicals (and their political leaders), letting Israel fall to the wayside is an impossibility. Now as a Jewish American and a supporter of Israel, I want to see the continued American support of a Jewish state.

But this uncompromising Republican form of supporting Israel is phony and unhelpful.

Let them demonstrate a better understanding of the conflict, and maybe I will change my mind. Israel’s significance in American foreign policy has created this unintentional platform from which theocratic candidates like Perry can spew ignorance and fear. By citing a Christian obligation to protect Israel, Perry unintentionally brings to light the Islamophobia and consistent misinformation that characterize the Republican motivations in Israeli foreign policy.

—Emma Lowe ’12 is an international studies major. She is secretary of the Vassar Democrats.

“Richard Wilson, competitive weight-lifting.”

Michael Hofmann ’13

“Roman Czula, military obstacle course.”

Hannah Siebens ’12

“Sarah Kozloff, jousting.”

ADVERTISEMENT Elana Schulman ’12 —Juliana Halpert, Photography Editor Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

OPINIONS

Page 12

September 29, 2011

Foreign currency fears real Qian Xu

Managing Editor

T

he debate on the manipulation of U.S. Dollar (USD) to Chinese Yuan (CHY) exchange rate has always been under the global spotlight. It is commonly known, and feared, among the U.S. public that our country has a trade deficit with China. And it’s true—Americans have a lot to fear. Housing prices are low and unemployment is soaring, but amid this crisis, we can’t lose our cool and chalk it up to only the exchange rate issue.

Before considering the ramifications of the issue, it is perhaps helpful for us to reflect on the fundamentals of exchange rate theory in the first place. Exchange rates arise from the difference in productivity, or comparative advantage, in producing the same goods and services by different countries. In short, if one country can produce a good more efficiently (normally indicated by lower cost) than another country, its price in theory would be cheaper. However, given the free flow of the market, this difference in the price eventually erodes as the exchange rate changes. Today, due to heavy regulations imposed by the Chinese government, that flow is blocked and the CHY is undervalued.

It’s no secret that there is a significant difference in productivity between the United States and China— the United States is more efficient at producing high technology goods and services whereas China is more efficient in labor-intensive industries. The exchange rate should reflect the weighted effects of both, but in reality, the undervalued CHY makes the entire U.S. economy appear more efficient than it really is.

But, remember that the United States’s comparative advantage mainly lies in technology and capital intensive industries, which means the capital and technology intensive industries in the United States will suffer most from exchange rate issues, leaving only marginal effects on labor intensive industries in the United States. Thus complaints tied to job losses in the manufacturing sector cannot be attributed to the exchange rate; instead, they are the natural product of economic evolution.

Given the currency circumstances, the loss of jobs in capital and technological industries can only be solved by rising to the occasion and creating new innovation. In this sense, the undervalued CHY serves to “force” the U.S. economy to progress.

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There are two sides to the coin. From the perspective of China, the undervalued CHY could generate more jobs in labor-intensive industries, but in a sense it will hinder the progress of the Chinese economy to move up the production chain because entrepreneurs are likely to stay in their comfort zone of labor intensive industries. Thus, there are no absolute advantages or disadvantages for either country.

A more tangible evaluation of the issue can be derived from the perspective of citizens in each country.

It is safe to presume that job security and quality are primary concerns for workers in both countries. For the United States, it is keeping jobs and for the Chinese it is to increase job quality. Thus the United States’s primary challenge is to increase its export competitiveness and China’s primary challenge is to find channels to assimilate advanced key technology. This is the source of the conflict.

Without arriving at any substantial agreement on these two topics, each country has to work on its own: the United States resorts to trade barriers and China continues its exploration in innovation without sufficiently complying with intellectual property rules, while eagerly promoting domestic consumption to maintain jobs in labor-intensive industry. For two tremendous economies, it is understandable that conflicts and frictions would undoubtedly exist; and it will be hard for either side to give way substantially to the other side. Of course, great amount of collaboration and multi-billion trade contracts are signed between the two from time to time. It seems that the two countries have been stuck at the problem of currency control and technology transfer control.

Indeed, the United States would be hesitant about losing its technological edge over China and the need for the United States to appreciate CHY is urgent, but not yet desperate. The same effect is true for China, which places much confidence in its domestic market and collective pool of intellects. The balance of power is likely to persist until one becomes needier. As we discuss the exchange rate, it is important not to lose sight of this larger picture.

—Qian Xu ’13 is an economics major. She is a member of the Vassar Business Club and the managing editor for The Miscellany News.

Crossword by Jonathan Garfinkel ACROSS 1. Render inoperative 8. Holey material 12. One counting beans (abbr.)

15. Mythical son of Sparta and Lacedaemon 16. The ozone layer’s home, briefly 18. Certain pilgrimage (var.)

19. *The world’s third-largest corporation 20. Atlanta fast-food indulgence, perhaps 22. “Green” prefix 23. Until now 24. Add on 25. Procedure resulting in Octomom (abbr.)

28. Twin municipalities in KS and MO

30. Ms., to Pablo 32. Train unit 33. Bruins of the NCAA 35. Truthful bit of Shakira’s anatomy 37. Omelet necessity 39. Proposes 41. Nab 43. Camera type, briefly 44. Whom Uncle Sam wants 46. For, to Juan 49. Online ending 50. Years and years 52. Many a prosecutor, briefly 53. Smokin’, say 54. Was introduced 55. “T”, to airmen 57. Release 62. Baller Ming 63. Dr. Dre output Answers to last week’s puzzle 64. “It’s a ____!!” -- Admiral Ackbar 65. President #32, or a NYC traffic SNAFU 68. Mt. Rushmore locale, briefly 71. Bill at a watering hole 73. Peter, Paul, and others 74. Trounce 76. Party in power, briefly 77. Edinburgh denial

79. “Trapped in the Closet”, for one 81. *Where one might salivate over plasma screens 85. Hullabaloo 86. Boot camp negative 87. Mimic 88. Snitch 89. Plus 90. Oral roofs DOWN 1. Crow relative, briefly 2. “___ Slave 4 U” 3. Bit of a word (abbr.)

4. A Company that Makes Everything 5. With 40-Down, big day for any of the answers to the starred clues 6. Hoffman-_______ (The people who brought you Tamiflu) 7. “Is” to Quintus 8. *Herald Square fixture 9. Old-school anesthetic 10. Enamored of 11. Ad-___ 12. Porcelain 13. Pastier 14. Achaean hero of the Iliad 17. Precursor to reggae 21. Glenn Beck’s home, briefly 25. Cause for celebration in Super Mario Bros.

26. Bit of old A/V equipment 27. Dentist’s recommendation 29. Knight’s honorific 31. Slackjawed 34. On the water 36. Crazy

38. Preens 40. See 5-Down 41. Ft. ______ (Site of the first shots of the Civil War) 42. Bert’s pal, on his birth certificate?

45. Certain tic-tac-toe win 48. Phil Spector victim Clarkson, and others 51. Mixes 56. Venus or Hera 58. Yoga surface 59. Rio hot spot 60. Cereal bit 61. Some medical assistants (abbr.)

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

65. Painter Kahlo 66. Big railway station, perhaps 67. Bit of a cheer 69. Eagle’s nest 70. *19-Across competitor 72. Common herb 74. Burn 75. Smiling Lisa 78. Jazzy James 80. Location (abbr.)

81. Notable Marcel Marceau character 82. Baseball club 83. Utah native tribe 84. Affirmative briefly

HUMOR & SATIRE

September 29, 2011

Page 13

OPINIONS

Brittany Hunt’s big night out: My The wizarding world date with a young Republican of Residential Life Brittany Hunt

Guest Columnist

E

very feminist comes to the point in her undergraduate life when she can no longer afford the organic cotton t-shirts and vintage loafers necessary to sustain her image. In this situation there are two options: start shopping at cheaper stores that use sweatshop labor, or begin dating a Republican. I chose the latter.

Let’s face it, the George Bushes of the world have the money, and they are willing to spend it on you at fancy steakhouses. Plus, they’re known for their good manners; most guys I date think chivalry is allowing me to flush their toilet after merely a number one, so I figured maybe it was time for a change. It was time for me to officially abandon everything I’ve learned in my women’s studies major. It was time to date a Republican. I’d met one while mistakenly wandering into an econ class in Kenyon when I was looking for the Fem Alliance meeting. I swallowed my pride and two shots of Crystal Palace Gin and started prepping for my date. For a girl who doesn’t shave her legs, I clean up nice: I threw on the pearls my dad gave me for my eighth grade graduation and put on my best virgin face. People are supposed to be open, right?

Maybe this guy would be really nice and smart and would change his mind about Roe v. Wade if I wore the right pair of shoes and laughed at his jokes.

After some awkward small talk outside of my dorm room, we drove to the restaurant in his dad’s Audi.

This place was old money. I smelt Vanderbilt with floral undertones of old lady perfume. It was the kind

of place where old men wear “sportscoats” and use “handkerchiefs.” I tried to trick myself into forgetting that I’m half-Jewish.

I saw not one vegetarian item on the menu but I wasn’t about to complain because usually I subsist on macaroni and cheese and Triscuits anyway, so I figured I’d ignore the inherent similarities between the commercial meat industry and the oppression of women and dig into a half-duck. This place served half of a duck. And I ordered it. Sitting with a Republican in a polo shirt.

Next came conversation time. Oy. In between bites of my [succulent] [well-seasoned] [I’m never eating fucking tofu again] duck, we discussed the big issues: gay marriage, the economy, Sperry Topsiders. While I tried to argue that marriage is an oppressive institution that should be banned outright, he argued that gay marriage is chill, because country clubs will make more money off of the unions of rich Westchester homosexuals. While I talked about how we should tax the rich he talked about how that would be a major bummer for his grandfather, who invented the mall.

We both agreed that boat shoes are really cute with the right outfit.

In short, this guy was gross and I never saw him again—keeping the Ray-Bans he left in my room as a prize for dealing with his Fox News-cribbed speeches for two hours of my precious life. The experience taught me a lot, though. It taught me that your soul isn’t worth half of a duck. I’ll stick to the smelly dudes in my Renaissance Poetry class who drink that creepy raw milk out of mason jars.

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Arick Wong

W

hen filling out my housing application before the beginning of my freshman year, I struggled with the living habits questionnaire. My life was essentially being reduced to “yes or no” questions, and it frustrated me that I couldn’t effectively communicate my varied and nuanced living habits. How could I express on the housing survey that I rarely smoke cigarettes, unless I’m reading existential philosophy? And how could I even begin to describe my sleeping habits? I don’t have a set bedtime. I usually go to bed when I run out of Project Runway episodes.

Completing this survey took an inordinate amount of time. I lost countless hours of sleep over it, and then I had to go back and record my sleep deprivation on the questionnaire. However, the section that I lost the most sleep over was the infamous final question: “Do you believe in magic?”

My friend’s sister’s ex-convict boyfriend (Vassar Class of ’04) warned me of the consequences of picking the wrong answer to this question. Many who have chosen wrongly ended up mocked, scorned, ridiculed or (horror of horrors) placed in Cushing.

This one question seemingly dictated the rest of my Vassar career. If I put “yes,” Residential Life would undoubtedly pair me with a Lord of the Harry Twilight fanboy who extracts the blood of small woodland creatures to make potions. If I put “no,” I could have an overbearingly-religious roommate who would remind me that I’m going to Hell every 10 minutes. “Unsure” was also an option, and I considered it the safest compromise. I hesitantly checked the “unsure” option and held my breath as I submitted my application. And yet, “Do you believe in magic?” still lingered in my mind.

My roommate ended up being a completely normal kid from Idaho, apart from his strange conspiracy theory that Cappy was an unregistered animagus.

So for most of my freshman year, my views on magic were shifty at best. It wasn’t until Founder’s Day when my

Weekly Calendar: 9/29 - 10/5 Thursday, 9/29

Guest Columnist

by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

class president next year. Also a vestigial tail. Sunset Lake.

3 p.m. Tea. “Wait, you’re sick too? I’ve had this nasty cold

for at least a week!” Rose Parlor

8 p.m. An evening of jazz with Kurt Elling. Fun fact: Kurt El-

6 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Evening Services. We should all take

ling has more Grammys than Jesse McCartney, 98 Degrees and the A*Teens combined. There is no cultural fairness left in this world. Skinner.

this time to reflect on the upcoming year, atone for our sins and try to be kind and generous to our fellow man. Aula.

agnosticism solidified. Waking up at 11 a.m., I went downstairs, and my friends invited me to try some of their “potions.”

People mumbled some of the most unintelligible things I’ve ever heard; it was obvious that they were just casting spells. Someone even offered me a mysterious white powdered substance that resembled grounded phoenix feathers.

(I refused; I’m more of a dragon heartstring guy myself.) By four o’clock, a somnolent shroud covered the campus as students fell asleep in random places, known as to most as the Founder’s Day nap. This rare, collective napping only happens in fairy tales, pre-schools or after group fornication. After Founder’s Day, I felt completely indoctrinated into Vassar’s magical culture. Looking back, I would happily revise my housing questionnaire.

Since then, I’ve encountered more magic in my daily life. The other day, I convinced the worker at the Retreat to make me a jerk chicken wrap, which is no longer listed on the menu. What I said was something along the lines of, “Excuse me, sir. I’ve noticed that the jerk chicken wraps are not on the menu anymore. However, it is critical to my health that I have a jerk chicken wrap immediately. OR ELSE I WILL DIE.” Scholars and even scientists would explain this mysterious phenomenon as “being sassy,” but I personally believe it’s the work of magic. Last semester, a friend of mine decided to explore his academic horizons and take Intro to Urban Studies. His hair underwent the most mystical metamorphosis, and then he eventually moved off campus.

Eventually, he disappeared one day. I figured he transferred to Marist to pursue transfiguration.

A lot of inexplicable things happen on this campus. How did I get into that chemistry class with a 50-person waitlist? What do they put in the chili on Chili Wednesdays to keep us coming back for more? Where did my pants go after FlyPeople Mug Night? While some explain these phenomena with quantum mechanics, Sartre and even the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I prefer to believe in magic.

Sunday, 10/2

Roellke. Topics for discussion include “A Hundred Ways to Beige” and “Sportsmanship.” UpC.

Tuesday, 10/4 3 p.m. Tea. “Want to come with me to Baldwin? If we’re

lucky they’ll ask us repeatedly if we’re pregnant and then give us some aspirin and won’t let us skip class.” Rose Parlor.

7 p.m. Rosh Hashanah Dinner. JK, goyim, that’s Yom Kip-

9 a.m. Huck for Red October Ultimate Frisbee Tournament.

10 p.m. Trivia Night. Question #78: Under what circum-

pur, let’s get tanked and yell at each other. CC MPR.

Phew, it’s a good thing somebody saw fit to start importing shoeless, tangle-haired freegans from other schools; Vassar’s been undergoing a crippling shortage lately. Noyes Circle.

stances is it permissible to take someone else’s damp laundry out of the dryer and dump it on the floor? (None.) Mug.

Friday, 9/30 3 p.m. Tea. “Yeah, it totally sucks. I got it from my room-

mate who got it from this guy in the Barefoot Monkeys who got it from that weird blue-haired girl who grades the symbolic logic problem sets.” Rose Parlor.

8:30 p.m. Vassar Haiti Project Open Mic Night. It’s official

Monday, 10/3

“Preach.” Rose Parlor.

some of that Vassar Dems’ sweet potato fries in the Retreat last week, and he got it from one of eight possible a cappella groups.” Rose Parlor.

4 p.m. VRDT “First Showings.” The world premiere of the

student-choreographed piece “Dudes in Tights, or, Entirely Too Much Information.” Kenyon.

5:30 p.m. Lecture: Michael Van Valkenberg. The ride of the

valkenbergs. Taylor 203.

12 p.m. 2014 Class Picnic. Whoever is brave enough to at-

tempt the butterfly stroke in Sunset Lake gets to be 2014

3 p.m. Tea. “What’s the point. This place is a cesspool.”

3 p.m. Tea. “Interesting. I think I caught it when I stole

you guys—jokes about Haiti STILL aren’t funny. CDF Quad.

Saturday, 10/1

Wednesday, 10/5

9 p.m. 2012 Town Hall Meeting with Cappy Hill and Chris

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

5:30 p.m. Edwidge Danticat Reading and Talk. For real she is so great and perfect and you should go to this if you even remotely care about the written word and gahhhhh. UpC.

ARTS

Page 14

Grabowski a dedicated director Jack Owen

“F

Reporter

Local co-op exhibits in Palmer Gallery Burcu Noyan

M

Guest Reporter

eet emotions modeled as sculptures, collage works of memories, paintings of fuzzy spontaneity, portraitures of pets and humans curiously thrown into a vibrantly colored world of asymmetries, and antique furniture reinterpreted with photography constructions. 19 different artists of the Long Reach Arts Cooperative express the Hudson Valley with all its various layers and moments, style by style, in numerous mediums, and with every subject possible.

For the upcoming “Structure and Texture” exhibition in the Palmer Gallery, Cooperative artists compose another Hudson Valley impression, and as indicated with the self-explanatory title, this time through an emphasis of structures and textures. The exhibition will be on display from Thursday, Sept. 29 until Sunday, Oct. 16.

The idea of an artist cooperative germinated in the spring of 1982, when a group of professional artists who live and work in the Hudson Valley met, looking for new exhibition ideas.

Their venture into a realm of arts begins with a summer exhibition in the old Mid-Hudson Arts and Sciences Center (MASC) housed in the former City Hall. The positive response received from the local community gives way to more collective exhibitions over the duration of the summer seasons; thus, they adopt the name “Summergroup” that is now the Long Reach Arts.

The group was in Poughkeepsie a few years back and approached Assistant Dean for Campus Activities Teresa Quinn with the idea for an exhibition at Vassar. She explained, “I saw it as a great opportunity to have this cooperative of Hudson Valley artists to showcase their works, rather than just having one or two individual artists.” She added, “They are all individually well-known artists, but when I’ve been to their exhibition and meetings, it was just amazing to see how these artists who work with different mediums and styles could come together, share their ideas and experiences, and be so supportive of each other.”

Quinn was particularly interested in the Co-op because of her background in art. She was drawn to the togetherness of the group; their ability to effectively collaborate and bring their work to the public eye.

“I was a studio art major in college, and I’ve realized that art can sometimes be very solitary and the working process, very much in isolation,” Quinn said, adding, “It’s very easy to fall into that pattern, but then again, what

Courtesy of Long Range Arrts

amily legend says that my mother was pregnant with me when she worked on her first play,” said Professor of Drama, Chair of the Drama Department and Director of Theater Chris Grabowski. “As children we often went to rehearsal with my mom, particularly in the summers, and would have the run of the place and often have little parts in the play.”

Clearly, theater has been an important part of Grabowski’s life since birth, and his mother’s experiences caused him to pursue acting early on. “In high school I was president of the drama club and my sister was in the club as well. She and I were the leads in all the plays,” he said. Grabowski went on to garner a Bachelor’s Degree in theater arts at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC).

While at UCSC, Grabowski had to face harsh realities and alter his plans for the future after auditioning for plays and repeatedly not getting called back. “I went to college and ran into a brick wall and found out that I didn’t really enjoy acting and wasn’t very good at it,” he said. “I had to face what I was good at and what I wasn’t good at.” Luckily for Grabowski, the director of the play suggested that he fill the role of assistant director, which introduced him to a side of theater he had never experienced before.

“I discovered that directing was what I was really going to be good at,” said Grabowski with a smile. After graduating from UCSC he went on to receive his Master’s in Fine Arts in directing from the Yale School of Drama.

Shortly after, Grabowski moved to New York City, where he worked as the associate artistic director and literary manager at the New York Theater Workshop (NYTW). Working at NYTW was an enriching experience for Grabowski. “It was an amazing intersection of people and we did workshops and retreats and saw lots of theater. It was a great job and I’m still really connected to their work,” he explained.

While at NYTW Grabowski worked on productions such as “Angels in America,” “Gross Indecency” and the wildly popular musical “Rent.” “I finally did get to do ‘Rent’ here at Vassar. I had promised my students, See GRABOWSKI on page 17

September 29, 2011

Above, members of the Long Reach Arts Cooperative examine a collaborative painting. Artwork made by artists of the Cooperative will feature in the Palmer Gallery from Sept. 29 to Oct. 16. value does art have when it’s not shared with people?”

With an enthusiastic response from the public, the group has made exhibitions throughout the Hudson Valley, New York City and beyond. They are today represented in numerous public and private collections in the United States, Europe and Israel.

The individual successes of the artists are also not to be underestimated. Artist Stacie Flint’s bold-colored, vibrant oil paintings of daily life in New York City are among the private collection of film director Shawn Levy, whose recent movies include the blockbusters Date Night and Night at the Museum. The scratchboard painter with a unique approach, Elayne Seaman has works represented in the Bibliothéque National, or the National Library, in Paris, France.

For the Palmer Gallery exhibition, the artists of the Cooperative were given a tough task. The small gallery area is divided for each of the 19 artists, and they needed to come up with works that they can fit within a space very limited in width, yet unlimited in height from floor to ceiling.

According to painter Carol Loizides from the Cooperative, “An artist once said that you paint your childhood. Art certainly must come from that place so strongly imprinted by early impressions of the wonder and mystery of life.” Loizides’ poetic roots are an apparent part of the creative process of each artist of the Co-op, who each share the same passion for art, though they may express it in completely different ways.

Their current name, Long Reach Arts, in celebration of their 25th anniversary, refers both to a sailor term for the Hudson River as well as their years of outreach efforts to Hudson Valley artists and communities around the world.

A reception for the exhibition will occur on October 6 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The artists in the Long Reach Arts Cooperative are Mildred Cohen, Staats Fasoldt, Flint, Susan Fowler-Gallagher, Gomez, Claudia Gorman, Rob Greene, Trina Greene, Robert Hastings, Loizides, Basha Maryanska, Sherrill MeyersNilson, Ellen Metzger O’Shea, Carol PepperCooper, Elisa Pritzker, Nancy Scott, Seaman, Michelle Squires and Marlene Wiedenbaum.

VRDT ‘First Showings’ highlights choreographic talents Ana Santiago

Guest Reporter

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Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News

arkness fills every corner of the theater and the air is consumed with silence save the occasional chatter of audience in anticipation. Suddenly the curtain is lifted and a figure stands illuminated on the stage. The dancer casts its shadow upon the faces of the audience and the prevailing hum of music resonates from the stage as the dancer begins to move fluidly with the harmony. And so begins the powerful feeling of attending any great dance performance.

On Wednesday, Oct. 5 students and faculty alike will get the opportunity to experience such sensations as the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre, also known as VRDT, will present their “First Showings” in Kenyon Hall Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater at 4 p.m. The show will be comprised of seven pieces, all choreographed and performed completely by students.

What makes this semester’s show especially unique is the fact that the performances will be followed by a dialogue with the faculty and students involved. According to Isabella Kosimacher, VRDT company member and assistant to the director, “Even if people have never seen dance, that can totally get into it because you are getting to hear from the choreographers and dancers about their experiences.” Although the performance happens ever year, Kosimacher explained, “This one in particular is different because there is going to be discussion with the audience where the audience can ask questions about the choreographers.”

Members of Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre, above, rehearse in Kenyon Hall for their “First Showings” performance, premiering on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at 4 p.m. in the Frances Daly Fergusson Dance Theater.

In addition to the interactive element of the “First Showings,” audiences will also be able to relate to the pieces simply because they highlight common human emotions and overarching themes. Kosimacher attested to this, explaining, “Any audience can get something out of the movement even if they have never seen dance before.” Some dances illustrate the intricate relationships present between friends and the frictions that oftentimes ensue. Others

are driven almost completely by their music, evoking uplifting, dramatic and even sexy atmospheres on stage. One thing is for sure: The performances will all be diverse. Not one is the same as another.

Director of VRDT and Professor of Dance John Meehan attested to the assortment of performances afforded by eclectic musical choices: “There will be a variety of music including Dave Brubek, Rubblebucket, Carmina

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Burana of Carl Orff, “Palladio” by Karl Jenkins, “Coming Home” by Hadara, “All of the Lights (Interlude)” by Kanye West, “Optimist” by Zoe Keating, a mix of “Doomsday” by Murray Gold, “Blackdown” by Patrick Wolf.” Several of the performances will feature props on stage. One ballet piece will incorporate ballet bars on the dance floor, while another will bring a modern spin with video projections.

Because Dance is not a major at Vassar, student choreographers represent a huge range of departments and backgrounds. This makes for performances incredibly comprehensive, as they are all inspired by different passions and areas of study. According to Kosimacher, “Being in VRDT is an incredibly experience because it is a group of extremely talented dancers, but they all go to Vassar, so they’re pursuing other things and bringing their interests and experiences to the dancing.”

The dance backgrounds of VRDT dancers also contribute to the company’s ability to present such extensive and fascinating shows.

According to VRDT Artistic Advisor and Professor of Dance Jeanne Periolat Czula, “They hail from every corner of dance from competitive Irish step dance to die hard ballet dancers to jazz specialists and on through dancers who were in every musical comedy produces in their high school or hometown.”

Later in November VRDT will present “Final Showings” which is a performance of the completed pieces of the student works that will be seen in “First Showings.” To reserve tickets for the performance, go to dancetix@ vassar.edu.

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September 29, 2011

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Vassar’s own icons explored in course Series looks at sexuality in I Hispanic film Emma Daniels Reporter

Charlacia Dent

Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News

n most architecture classes at Vassar, the buildings studied are a car, train or even plane ride away from campus. But one class this semester, a seminar in architectural history entitled The Vassar Campus breaks that mold; the buildings studied are the ones surrounding every Vassar student. They’re the buildings where we eat, sleep, party and study.

Professor of Art Nicholas Adams teaches the weekly, twohour-long class. Although this year marks the third time Adams has taught the class in some way, shape or form, this particular seminar stands apart.

The department thought it would be appropriate to provide the class because of the College’s sesquicentennial, and for the same reason Adams has altered the class’s focus from the last time he co-taught the course with Paul Bayard, the architect responsible for the renovation of the Vassar Art Library in 2009.

The class is now focused on the entire campus, instead of just the modern buildings on site.

The class consists of seven se-

The Vassar Campus is an art history seminar that explores architecture found on campus, such as Rockefeller Hall, pictured above. Taught by Professor of Art Nicholas Adams, the course is sesquicentennial-inspired. nior art majors and functions to teach those students about their soon to be alma mater, while also acknowledging their futures as art historians. The class not only provides them with easy, convenient access to the vast array of primary sources that the College has about Vassar’s buildings, but

also provides guidance in their study of these materials.

Madeline Zappala ’12, a student in the class (Disclaimer: Madline Zappala is a Photography Editor for The Miscellany News) discussed the course’s dual focus, in particular the fact that the seminar is not impor-

tant to her and her classmates solely because of their personal connection to Vassar.

Zappala said, “The class’s purpose is to utilize our proximity to and familiarity with the campus as a tool to greater understand the implications of See SEMINAR on page 17

Shiva shapes student theater legacy Adam Buchsbaum

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Arts Editor

Courtesy of Michael Nighttime

efore the Shiva there was only coal, and the coal powered the College. “It was a dingy old space,” said William Miller, a former senior lecturer in drama. “It was a mess. It was filthy.”

Students fought with academic departments and each other to get spaces for performances. They searched high and low for places: Rockefeller Hall 200 or 300, Taylor Hall— anywhere plausible, students went. Nowhere did an exclusively student performed or solely student-run theater space exist on campus.

“Really the only place you could do student theater was in the Aula,” said current Technical Director of the Shiva Theater Kevin Fulton ’12. “They didn’t have many tools. You didn’t really have any lighting instruments.”

Students needed a space.

“My students said they were being cheated,” Miller explained.

“They would ask me if I could help, and I couldn’t.” School policy dictated that no faculty members could get involved in student theater. “I wanted to... give the kids—excuse me, the students—a place where they could explore theater in all kinds of different ways.”

The College evaluated its spaces to see what was in use or not. The power plant came up, and in 1973 the Powerhouse Theater opened. But it was not until September 1994 that the Shiva would open, under a different name: the Coal Bin Theater. Students certainly enjoyed the newfound freedom from faculty influence. The school changed its policy and Miller became a consultant for the space, occasionally helping students with technical work and safety issues. The Shiva family came along, and donated money

to the Coal Bin Theater. Miller and students upgraded the Coal Bin into the Shiva that we know it as today.

Only five students currently compose the entire Shiva staff: Manager Molly Shoemaker ’12, Assistant Manager Michael Kaluzny ’14, Technical Director Kevin Fulton ’12 and Assistant Technical Directors Andrew Rovner ’13 and Elizabeth McMorris ’14.

“We facilitate shows being put on,” Fulton said. “Basically, our job is to make sure the space is available and filled. And help out in any way possible.”

The staff makes sure to train any organizations using the space, both in how it operates and how to safely do tech work.

The managerial staff essentially handles anything outside of tech, like paperwork, meetings, reservations and more.

The whole operation is selfsufficient at this point, with very little faculty involvement. Only Miller is involved, and even then he plans to stop his time at Vassar after this academic year.

The experienced teach the new members, who become experienced themselves in turn. The cycle continues year in and year out, and the Shiva continues to work well as a studentrun theater.

Fulton oversees the tech on a larger scale. He keeps tabs on the space in general, ensures the tools are working, fixes problems and otherwise maintains its safety. “I’ll usually come in once or twice week to check in on the designs—make sure they’re safe and that everything’s running smoothly.”

Under him are the two assistant tech directors, Rovner and McMorris. “They are the frontend of tech,” he explained.

“They do nightly checks. They come in, make sure everyone’s doing alright, make sure the tech’s running smoothly, help

The Shiva staff, above, prepares for the semi-annual Shiva Rave. Formerly known as the Coal Bin Theater, the Shiva is entirely student-run. out if people ask. They’re really experienced with doing lighting, sound, set constructing— everything.”

Its staff members devote much time to the Shiva’s operation and upkeep. They meet once a week just as a staff, and at another time every week with the organizations. At their meetings they go over any important decisions together.

“It’s definitely a team. Everyone has their specialty areas and responsibilities,” Fulton said. “But even if there’s a tech decision that needs to be made, Kevin would bring it up in a meeting.”

The assistant tech directors have to check the space at 1 a.m. every day and close up the space, and come in periodically throughout the week. Managing too is a busy role: “We’re in

pretty much constant contact throughout the week,” Kaluzny said.

Both Fulton and Kaluzny are clearly proud of their studentrun effort. “What matters most to me is student-created theater,” Fulton said. “Having students directing, producing, all of that—we learn a whole lot more from it.”

Kaluzny echoed his sentiment. “For me as somebody who does exclusively student theater—I don’t work with the department at all—it’s really important that there is at least one space on campus where that is only for student theater,” Kaluzny said.

“I think it’s one of the best things about Vassar. We have the student-run theater. It’s just such a wonderful part of our community,” Fulton said.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

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Assistant Arts Editor

his Wednesday the Hispanic Studies Department hosted a screening of Unconscious, a Spanish film that playfully questions sexual taboos through the dizzy, erotic lens of Freudian comedy. The film is a part of a six-week series entitled “Sexuality and Gender in Contemporary Spanish Film” organized by Professor of Hispanic Studies Danny Barreto.

According to Barreto, “Only the tools of psychoanalysis could reveal the hidden truths in this family drama set in Barcelona at the turn of the century.” He added, “Unconscious leads viewers into the world of sex, desire and perversion hidden behind the chaste veneer of high sociey. It’s a detective mystery, and psychoanalysis has to be used to unravel this story because people didn’t talk about it publicly.”

The film series coincides with the Hispanic Studies course Spain on the Verge: Post/Modern National, Sexual and Gender Indentities, also taught

by Barreto. In the course, students analyze literature and films in order to bring Iberian representations of sexuality and gender into a wider, all-campus focus.

Ariel Montrose ’14, a student enrolled in the Hispanic Studies course, explained, “I’ve always wanted to understand my identity better as a Latino female.

When Danny Barreto told me about the course, I was so passionate about it and I told myself that I needed to take this course.”

Tapping into this ethos shared by students like Montrose, Baretto decided to make screenings open to the whole student body: “I wanted to screen publicly because gender and sexuality are topics that are frequently discussed on campus. However, contemporary ideas of sexuality and gender are different in Spain than they are in the U.S.” he explained, adding, “At the turn of the century it was harder for women in Spain to have a public life, and they were almost always bound to their private spheres.”

Baretto and his students have deeply interrogated these issues concerning gender expectations and the female identity throughout the course. One of the main focuses has been to look at contemporary issues in Spain and place them into a historical context. Through this students have been able to grapple with the changing societies and better understand how things have both changed and remained the same over time.

So far, the class has studied a wide range of themes: issues of racism and immigration, the prostitution of Latin American women, independence movements in Spain and transitions in democracy.

They have also explored consumerism in the early 19th century, ideals of femininity, the relationship between politics and gender in the early 19th century and political satire. “We look at what people tend to talk about as new phenomenom,” Barreto mentioned, attesting to the ill-founded habit of individuals to place historical issues exclusively in the present.

Last week, the department screened the film 20 centimeters, a musical comedy about a transgender woman working as a prostitute to save money that she hopes to use towards her sex reassignment surgery. The narcoleptic woman, who desperately wants to become a transexual, dreams up elaborate fantasies of herself in music numbers where she is the star. “The film was awesome. It was really interesting to see how the woman struggled in society to affirm her identity,” said Montrose.

There are four more films left in the series, the next being Flowers from another World, a film that deals with the plight of three women who are at a socioecomonic crisis with their three separate worlds. The three women become united when they attend a huge bachelor party in their rural Spanish neighborhood.

According to the department, “[The series] offers a glimpse into the complexities of gender and sexuality at the beginning of the 21st century in Spain and how these issues are related to class, race, place, history and language.” As the semester progresses the course will also touch on men and Spain’s exploitation of males in the context of sexuality and gender.

As such provocative issues continue to be topics of heated debate and controversy within our community and society, the film series helps to keep these dialogues open and encourages creative and critical thinking.

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Renowned jazz vocalist shares skills

Poet Sherwood makes quotidian colorful Shruti Manian

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Assistant Arts Editor

hen Daniel Sherwood ’13 was six years old, he wrote a poem composed of rhyming couplets for his mother on Mother’s Day. Fastforwarding many years later, during his freshman year at Vassar, Sherwood’s poetic talents were showcased in in various magazines like Helicon and the Anthology of College Writing.

But for Sherwood his path to writing poetry wasn’t quite as straightforward as that. For most of high school, he wrote short stories.

It was only during his freshman year in college that he re-discovered his love for poetry.

“I found that I could write a poem. I found it easier to give my poems a voice that finished the piece and made it more cohesive. Writing poetry just came naturally to me,” said Sherwood.

Sherwood’s eclectic taste in poetry reflects in his own style of writing as well. A self-confessed lover of modern poetry, Sherwood’s favorite poets include Billy Collins and Robert Frost. “I like that Billy Collins writes about simple and ordinary things. He has this sick humor in his poetry that I try to incorporate into my own work,” explained Sherwood.

According to Sherwood, poems can stem in two ways. Either a basic idea or concept manifests or a collection of phrases and sounds come together. “Often I would keep hearing phrases in my head and I’d keep writing them down, but usually my poems are a result of ideas I have,” said Sherwood.

Sherwood recently attended the lecture given by Robert Pinsky, in honor of what would have been Elizabeth Bishop’s 100th birthday.

According to Pinsky, “Poems aren’t written from ideas, they’re written from sounds.” This philosophy made Sherwood more conscious of how he writes his poems. But he underscores the importance of an idea to the conceptualization of a poem. “I am more aware of how I write my poems now. But ideas are important because you can’t say something with just sounds.

You can’t convey meaning if you just throw together a bunch of syllables,” he explained, adding, “You need both idea and sounds to create a piece,” he explained. Sherwood’s poems are eccentric and fantastical, nearing the realm of the other-worldly. One of the most striking features about Sherwood’s poetry is that he likes to write about people and also often draws on his own experiences. “Sometimes I tell stories of things that have happened to me. And they are funny, embellished versions, sometimes

Campus Canvas The Kenyon Bride

Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News

ELLING continued from page 1 refine his technical skills. He first became interested in jazz while a student at Gustavus Adolphus, in light of his exposure to artists like Dave Brubeck, Dexter Gordon, Herbie Hancock and Ella Fitzgerald.

After graduating in 1989, Elling enrolled at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he studied for a Master’s Degree in philosophy of religion. Speers, a graduate and former employee of the Divinity School, peripherally knew Elling during the latter’s tenure as a student. The creativity and strength of character that has defined Elling as a musician also defined him as a divinity student, Speers explained. Elling became more and more serious about his prospects as a professional musician while he was still a divinity student, and he ultimately had to make a decision about continuing to train as a theologian or changing paths to become a musician. Elling chose the latter option and left the Divinity School just one credit short of graduating.

But Speers insists that Elling remains a theologian in his musical pursuits. That desire to explore the depths of the human spirit is central to both theology and art. Accordingly, Speers argues that Elling does not differentiate between “sacred” and “secular” music, since all music, for Elling, is infused with profound expressions of spirituality. In an interview with Fear No Art Chicago, Elling explained, “The music served the life of the spirit and the spirit informed the life of the music. I think the two are interchangeable for me.”

Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Music Department Kathryn Libin pointed out in an emailed statement that jazz is becoming an increasingly important part of the music curriculum. Student interest in jazz, moreover, seems to grow year after year as more students join the jazz ensemble and jazz combos.

Libin believes that there is nothing more inspiring for students of jazz than to hear accomplished jazz artists perform right in front of them: “We want students to experience the intensity and passion and engagement of these musicians, and to want to go try this for themselves, and to become savvy and committed audience members,” Libin wrote.

This year jazz students will be particularly lucky because they will have the chance to take a master class with Elling, hosted by Vassar’s Director of Jazz and Wind Ensembles James Osborn. The class, which will be held a few hours before Elling’s Oct. 1 performance, should give students further insights into how they can grow as musicians. “The personal connection between the students and a great artist at a master class can provide years of inspiration for all that are present,” explained Osborn, adding, “Students can take away performance-enhancing tips, career ideas and other musical and non-musical thoughts from these classes.”

Speers, Libin and Osborn all predict that Elling’s performance will resonate strongly with all those who attend. As Speers pointed out, Elling is a perfect fit for Vassar because of his daring. He takes risks, challenges his audiences and himself, and in so doing achieves a level of artistic integrity that Vassar students will surely admire.

But the Vassar community may also identify with Elling because of his acuity to politics and current events and the way he incorporates that awareness into his music. Speers recalls a scat that Elling once performed during the Gulf War, in which he put to music the words of a New York Times op-ed piece by Maureen Dowd. This is consistent, Speers believes, with Elling’s remarkable ability to give musical voice to great poets and writers­—to see the inherent musicality of their own work­­—as well as his ability to connect with audiences in profoundly original ways. And indeed, there should be no doubt that Elling will connect profoundly with his audience on Oct. 1.

September 29, 2011

Daniel Sherwood ’13, above, has had his poetry published in the Anthology of College Writing. The math major draws inspiration from his two favorite modern poets, Robert Frost and Billy Collins. even completely ridiculous,” he said.

A perfect example that showcases Sherwood’s unique creative streak is his most recent poem. Titled “Kenyon Bride,” Sherwood was inspired to write this piece by an email that the Dean of the College Chris Roelke recently sent out. The email informed students of how the Kenyon bridge was under water and couldn’t be used. “But you see, Dean Roelke forgot to add the ‘g’ in bridge, so basically the Kenyon ‘bride’ was under water,” elaborated Sherwood. With something as simple as that acting as the trigger for an idea, Sherwood began writing his piece. The poem goes on to chronicle how the dead Kenyon Bride cannot be buried because of the rain and the narrator takes her to a bathtub in Lathrop and keeps her there.

Another poem that brings out Sherwood’s humor is ‘It’s Just Art, Sir.” Published in Helicon, the poem was inspired by Sherwood’s visit to the Metropolian Museum of Art in New York City. “I was looking at a cityscape and there was a man who was discussing the sexuality of the painting. And I found this imposition of sexuality funny and decided to write about it,” said Sherwood.

Another quirky penchant that Sherwood

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

has is his fondness for the city of Budapest.

Having been there once in his life for just two days, something about the city appealed to his deeper instincts. “Writers tend to romanticize places they like. That’s kind of what I do. In my mind it is always raining in Budapest and everything is made out of salt!” explained Sherwood.

But Sherwood breaks the stereotype of a poet and displays an analytical and logical disposition that matches his creative side. Surprisingly, Sherwood is in fact a math major, with an education certification and a correlate in creative writing. Sherwood even went to a high school that focused on the sciences. “I like math because it is like solving a puzzle. In so many ways so is poetry. You create a puzzle for the reader and make it as unexpected as possible,” he said. Sherwood insists that his diverse interests complement each other and his love for what he is doing keeps him going and helps maintain the balance.

Sherwood plans to be a math teacher, but hopes to continue writing on the side. “I have this idea that I want to learn to draw and then I can write children’s stories,” he explained. “I like telling stories and entertaining, and that’ s what my poems help me do.”

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Diagnosing my Dementia

When the Kenyon bride died she worries my musings meander it had been raining for weeks, so hard dampens evenings with discussions of slush thirty-seven successive gravediggers washed away. Instead shrouding something deeper darker dearer to my dear Cappy had her propped up in Lathrop in the tub, so when she started to leak, there would be she says she wishes a place for it to drain. i might offer my coat when she’s cold We were advised to avoid the south annex, not hungry i say maybe she’s cold but I liked to fill the bath halfway and stew with her from eating only cereal this morning skin soft and saturated with my sweat and her grime, she says do you love me? i say we kiss sometimes sloughing between my fingers. because it’s so beautiful this time of year I began bringing tape and a stapler.

I would confide in the Kenyon bride, but she shoulders seminal meads they left her veil on, so at times I would lift lace and peel doles darling-dears back her eyelids to be sure she’d not fallen asleep. darlings don’t make marshes of menemsha The Kenyon bride was a rude little corpse.

One night when I was particularly The idea for “The Kenyon Bride” came from an email Chris Roellke sent out during Hurripoetic, I said, “This room feels soggy cane Irene. He meant to say the Kenyon bridge was completely underwater, but missed the g in like the weather outside.” “bridge.” It was such a minor typo, but from it this wild creepy story started unraveling in my head.

And the Kenyon bride replied, I` n “diagnosing my dementia” I tried to capture the sort of logic my grandfather used before he “You’ve the tub halfway full.” died. You’d try to have a conversation with him and all of his sentences would follow rules of grammar, but the connections between the words just didn’t make sense. I remember one time my grandmother was trying to talk to him about what he wanted for dinner, and he went to the closet, got his coat, and put it over her shoulders—it struck me as a really sweet and terrible gesture.­ —Daniel Sherwood ’13

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

September 29, 2011

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Drive reaches levels of top-gear intensity Erik Lorenzsonn Senior Editor

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rive positively drips with tension, but not for excess of action—Fast and the Furious this is not, despite the misleading flavor of the punchy title. Instead of huckstering cheap flair, Nicholas Refn’s opus unsettles you with its conflicting extremes. Gentle scenes of boy-meets-girl romance, saturated in a warm saffron filter, intersect with the grizzly violence of point-blank shotgun executions and slit throats. Quiet, nocturnal car rides down desolate avenues of Los Angeles, bathed in the glow of traffic lights and neon signs, are disrupted by burning-rubber chase scenes that roar with urgency. The protagonist’s strong and silent gaze, brimming with understated emotion, is replaced in the film’s second act with a shaken and sweaty look of anxiety. These violent contrasts are downright jarring, and leave your heart pounding long after the end credits roll.

The tension wrought by Drive is overwhelming, but also refreshing; movies that literally leave you breathless are few and far between. Refn’s thriller is also refreshing in that it trims away all convolution and pretense from its plot. The film’s unnamed protagonist (Ryan Gosling) drives—and drives exceptionally well at that. He mixes horsepower with smarts as a getaway driver for mobsters and crooks, although he also makes money as a stunt car driver by day.

The driver subscribes to an existential life in the vein of Hemingway, only he is a habitué of gloomy backstreets instead of musty Cuban bars. He cruises the night in a Chevy Malibu, separated from the world by dashboard and windshield, content with an existence lacking greater meaning. But his routine is thrown out of sync when he makes a connection with Irene, the button-nosed girl next door (Carey Mulligan), and her son. Before romance can blossom, Irene’s husband

returns home from jail, hounded by a vicious creditor from the mob. The driver decides to help the hubby repay his debt, leading to a tragic chain of events. Soon his quiet life behind the wheel has descended into bloody chaos as he tries to extricate himself and Irene from the nightmarish predicament.

It’s a stretch, but perhaps the most compelling explanation for what makes Drive tick inadvertently came from the mouth of former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky during last Saturday’s Curtis Lecture. In the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, said Pinsky, there exist two extremes: isolation and “the overwhelming mass.” Drive is a far cry from “A Cold Spring,” but it nevertheless shares these extremes with the work of Bishop. The driver’s life is steeped in existential isolation, but as he gets in deep with both Irene and the mob he encounters a world of overwhelming emotion and violence.

Consider the poignant juxtaposition of the driver fine-tuning equipment in his workshop with Irene heralding her husband’s return with a welcome-home soirée. Both characters approach their respective tasks with a happy face—or in the driver’s case, stoic reserve—but their true feelings are betrayed by, of all things, the synth-pop ballad playing at the party. The haunting lament of unrequited love—“Under Your Spell” by Desire—crescendos from background music into an overwhelming surge of noise. The music links the driver with Irene, revealing the despair beneath their charade of equanimity, a convergence of isolation with an overwhelming undercurrent of emotion.

Scenes of overwhelming emotion are eclipsed by scenes of overwhelming viscera.

Heads are stomped into pulpy bits, eyes are popped by forks, throats are gouged by shards of glass and wrists are slashed into ribbon. The bloodiness is exceptionally discomforting because of the absence of styliza-

tion. Films like Kill Bill and 300 were graphic, but the impact of the violence was muted thanks to filters, extravagant choreography and cartoony effects. Even Saving Private Ryan, renowned for the disturbing realism of its D-Day invasion, subtly borrowed the aesthetic of 1940s news reel footage. Drive accentuates some scenes with filters—again, the golden hue for the driver and Irene’s budding romance—but for a large part plays down stylistic accoutrements. This augments the nausea effects of the violence.

The action is raw, but this is not to say that Drive lacks a distinct aesthetic. Far from it— it actually immerses itself in an outré retro80s zeitgeist. Bubblegum pink graffiti lettering that looks like it was lifted from a Prince album cover is used for the title screen and credits. The show-stealing soundtrack is imbued with sexy synthesizer-infused tracks that recall The Human League, Cyndi Lauper and Brian Eno. The music adds considerable emotional dimension to the film, from Kavinsky’s atmospheric “Nightcall” during the opening credits to College’s sad-yet-sweet “A Real Hero,” accompanying the inchoate moments of the driver and Irene’s relationship.

The 80s vibe is strange because the film derives so much inspiration from the ’60s and ’70s. The adrenaline-packed chase scenes pay homage to no-frills action classics like 1968’s Bullit, and perhaps 1971’s The French Connection as well. Even Gosling’s protagonist seems modeled after Clint Eastwood’s typecasted laconic badass from the early ’70s.

The counterintuitive style is representative of the film as a whole—all bets are off when it comes to Drive. It is a movie that defies appraisal, balancing extremes in a manner that appalls, excites, frustrates and intrigues. Only one thing is for certain: It is a cinematic experience that is not easily forgotten.

Grabowski inspires through storytelling

Courtesy of Vassar College

GRABOWSKI continued from page 14 ‘As soon as we’re allowed to do it we’ll do it.’

I didn’t know it would take so long! It was really an amazing experience working on that here. Kind of a journey home for me,” he added.

Grabowski joined the Vassar faculty by chance. A friend and former classmate of his was working at Vassar’s Drama Department, and he would frequently come up to visit her on weekends. “It just so happened that I was in the right place at the right time to be someone’s temporary replacement,” he explained.

Grabowski joined the Vassar faculty as a temporary director of theater in 1994. “The idea of having a job for a whole year was a great solution,” he added. “I needed to create a circumstance where I could have a freelance directing job and a steady career.”

One year turned into two, and Grabowski gained the position full time, directing more than 25 productions in the College’s experimental theater. In addition to being director of theater and chair of drama, he teaches The Art of Acting: Classics and The Experimental Theater this semester. Next semester he will be teaching one of the department’s intro courses, Introduction to Theater Making.

According to drama major Nicole Wood ’12, what makes Grabowski such an effective director is his ability to communicate messages through his stories: “During rehearsal for ‘Metamorphoses,’ he would come up to us individually and begin telling a story, usually an anecdote or piece of history,” she explained, adding, “I realized that storytelling is Chris’s signature way of delivering character notes. He masterfully selects stories that reflect what he wants for the scene and tailors them to speak to each actor, inspiring the crucial spark that ignites a scene.”

Grabowski continues work extensively outside of Vassar. “Because Vassar’s breaks

Professor of Drama, Chair of the Drama Department and Director of Theater Chris Grabowsk, above, worked with notable alumnae/i such as Meryl Streep ’71 for the “Vassar Voices” performance. are so generous I can still work on my professional career while at the same time working here,” he expounded. And the list of projects seems endless.

He is a guest artist for the Academy of Classical Acting, a collaboration between George Washington University and the Shakespeare Theater of Washington. “I go down to D.C. and direct one of their final projects,” he explained. “[It’s] usually a Jacobean tragedy; one of those bloody, bloody tragedies,” he added with a laugh. He has directed projects for The Julliard School, New York University Graduate Acting Program and the Portland Stage Company.

He is also currently directing and co-wrote the “Vassar Voices” sesquicentennial project, which celebrates the words of Vassar commu-

nity members over the years, including those of Matthew Vassar himself. “Vassar Voices” is a currently touring company performing dramatized readings of Vassar documents in a narrative meant to illustrate first-hand accounts of life at Vassar.

Grabowski has worked with many notable alumnae/i through “Vassar Voices,” including Meryl Streep ’71 and Lisa Kudrow ’85, who performed with the company at their Lincoln Center stop.

Grabowski will be taking much deserved leave next year, which will allow him to further his own education. “I’m gonna see a bunch of theater and go to Europe!” Grabrowski said excitedly. “I’m almost certain I’ll direct something too.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Students read architecture, history of Vassar campus SEMINAR continued from page 15 the architectural and design decisions made.”

Carrie Hojnicki (Disclaimer: Carrie Hojnicki is a Contributing Editor for The Miscellany News), a senior art history major with a focus in architecture, expanded on this point. ‘The buildings at Vassar haven’t been studied extensively before because they are not master works, so it’s exciting because more so than in any other class we are able to come up with our own conclusions about what the building is for,” she said.

A typical class thus involves a lot of both observation and work with primary sources. “We try to identify an issue or a problem in each class, investigate within the classroom and then go and look at it and look at the sources,” said Adams.

One class consisted of discussing how women’s colleges went about constructing their main buildings, then going to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center archives and looking at the original plans for Main building. Of course, that class session concluded with the ultimate primary source—a stroll over to the building itself, where the class examined the decisions that were ultimately made when the structure was erected.

The students and Adams specifically discussed Matthew Vassar’s reasoning behind switching directions in regards to the design of Main building. Thomas Tefft, a prominent Rhode Island architect known for his work designing educational buildings, designed the original plans for Main.

After his untimely death, though, Vassar decided to hire James Renwick to design new plans, and as anyone who has ever been to Vassar can reiterate, he designed a building more reminiscent of a palace than a school, with its grandeur presence, ornament and Second Empire style. The course addresses how educating philosophies relate to both architecture and landscape, this being a prime example.

“We spent our two hours that day investigating why Vassar decided to go from an up-to-date educational specialist with a highly practical and efficient plan to an architect with a grandiose, over-scaled central building,” said Adams.

Hojnicki hinted at the reasoning being because of the time period Main in which was built.

“The buildings on campus are important because of their link to Vassar but also because they are part of larger architectural movements,” Hojnicki said. “Each was created for a particular reason, at a particular time.”

Other class sessions addressed this theme; one class was spent talking about the dorms. Adams specifically mentioned that they discussed Jewett. “From my perspective, it is the most interesting dorm,” Adams said, “it’s out of place within its context—it looks like a New York hotel—but there are definitely reasons for it.”

He added, “These are things that students— and I, for that matter—pass by every day without thinking about. This class is an opportunity to find out what the story is behind a Vassar building and what issues were raised in making of buildings. You see familiar places through new eyes.”

Another sesquicenntial-inspired class in the Art Deparment too explores the Vassar campus itself. A freshman writing seminar by Professor of Art Susan Kuretsky entitled Celebrating Vassar’s Art Museum (1861-2011): A Sesquicentennial Course, it focuses solely on the College’s resident art course. The course delves into its origins, evolution and collection. It will also go beyond history to discuss the current, modern operations of the Art Center, including approaches to the study of art and current dilemmas in the museum realm, such as the repatriation of works to their country of origin.

Hojnicki sees her particular class in a positive light, not wanting to discount it because it is about the Vassar campus. “It’s easy to put it off as just a sesquicentennial class. In my opinion it should be offered every couple of years, though, because between Special Collections and the Art Center, we have such good resources to do investigative work, which is a really important part of art history.”

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September 29, 2011

Athletes embrace challenge of multi-season sports Nicolette Harley

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Guest Reporter

Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News Dana Harris/The Miscellany News

olf, tennis, rowing and rugby may appear to have little in common, but they actually share one key characteristic. Teams in these four sports all compete in both the fall and the spring.

One of the most obvious obstacles this special brand of Brewers face is maintaining physical fitness in between the two seasons. For instance, in the winter months, practices for golf are unofficial, but the team still meets with the athletic trainers to develop workout regimens. Although the practices are not required, most of the team will choose to go together to complete the informal workouts.

Winter training is the opposite for rowers; it can in fact be more intense because of “barely getting time off,” says sophomore rower Ji Kim. “It’s so rough.” In addition, because the Hudson River freezes over, rowers are forced to stay inside. Their training differs between seasons in that, for the fall season, the team practices mainly on the water, focusing on endurance pieces while spring is spent working on short bursts, according to Kim. In between these seasons, the team spends most of its time in the Kenyon erg and weight rooms preparing for the upcoming spring season.

For rugby, unlike rowing, “[The] winter season and winter break are a good time to recuperate, to recover and to get back in the weight room in prep for spring season,” says Myles Jarrett ’15. “Athletes tend to lose weight during the season and winter weight lifting is a chance to gain back mass.”

Others embrace the recess as a time to rest. Coming from a high school team in California that went “full steam ahead even in the winter,” golfer Celynne Balatbat ’13 is used to participating in a yearround sport. She admits she gets “more of a break because there’s a real winter” at Vassar.

Several Vassar sports teams—including men’s rugby, top, and women’s tennis, bottom—compete in both the fall and spring seasons. One of the biggest obstacles these athletes face is maintaining physcial fitness in between the two seasons.

Still, Jarrett doesn’t see much of a difference in training overall between the two seasons for rugby.

“Training is training,” he says. “We all work hard for each other and for the team. Weather fluctuates but it doesn’t make a difference because we all push each other 150 percent.”

Balatbat, like Jarrett, agrees that the bonds her team shares are strong because of how much time

they spend together. “Golf ’s pretty small and we’re pretty close,” says Balatbat.

Jarrett feels “the rugby team is among the [closest] on campus, particularly the alumnae/i. They are very active and no doubt this is in part to our full-year season.”

Though Kim does feel there is more bonding because of how long the team is together, she does think

the two-season sports could appear intimidating and act as a “deterrent with its longer commitment than other sports.”

Sophomore tennis player Wilson Platt, on the other hand, thinks that there isn’t much of a distinction between one-season sports and the multiple-season ones. “It’s not much different because really everyone plays year round,” he said,

referring to practices held in the off-season.

The change for Platt comes in the mental game. There is a “different mentality that every time you come back [from breaks], you’re coming back to sports. You always have to be on your game.”

Going into tennis this year “definitely feels weird because the season ends this weekend and then it’s over —but not really,” Platt said.

The team will still have practice five days a week for about an hour.

For Platt, he feels “a little daunted” at a two-season year because he “never had the chance to keep going.” Though challenged by the double seasons, Platt muses that this “could be huge in terms of my game, so that’s exciting.”

“It’s funny,” said Kim. “We train so hard, especially going into the spring season, because we may have four regattas and 10-minute races and that’s what you kill yourself over for three months.”

Although the seasons at first glance seem similar, the balance between the fall and the spring differ drastically. Each tennis team plays almost exclusively in tournaments during its fall season, with just a handful of matches against only one opposing team. The spring season consists primarily of individual matches against other schools; these matches determine NCAA championship qualification. The rugby team, on the other hand, plays their more meaningful conference matches taking place in the fall and nonconference games concentrated in the spring.

While some dual-season athletes sense different challenges than their one-season peers, others don’t consider the experience to be significantly more difficult.

Though year-round sports may seem intimidating, the bonds the teams form by being together for two seasons aids in the success of the teams. The payoff is well worth the effort.

Rivera’s record only a symbol of his baseball legacy Sam Scarritt-Selman Guest Columnist

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hen New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera became baseball’s all-time leader in career saves on Tuesday Sept. 20 against the Minnesota Twins, it felt like a non-event. There was no grand ceremony—Rivera calmly waved to the crowd and embraced his teammates.

The episode lacked the resonance of other milestones like a 3000th hit, a 500th home run or a 300th win. Those are achievements that, by numerical significance alone, give cause for celebration, even coronation. Yet there seemed something utterly unremarkable about the way Rivera’s 602nd save was received. The accomplishment itself proved nothing. It was, for all practical purposes, meaningless because the record was little more than a confirmation of something we already knew.

Rivera is probably the greatest relief pitcher we will ever see. The statistical body of work that the Panamanian pitcher has compiled over the course of his 17 years is, on paper alone, without comparison—he is the all-time leader in career saves, postseason saves and games finished, struck out 1,110 batters, and has a 2.21 earned run average (as of Sept. 27). However, statistical metrics are never really sufficient to tell the complete story of one’s accomplishments, and citation of those statistical accolades fails to demonstrate why Rivera is so special, why he has indelibly changed the way the position is perceived, and why, for nearly two decades, his presence alone has afforded the New York Yankees the privilege of only having to play eight innings of baseball. The greatness of Rivera is not measured so much as it is witnessed and impressed upon you.

To watch Rivera pitch in person is to bare witness to a spectacle. Before he even enters the game, a palpable excitement descends upon the crowd of Yankee Stadium. This is the energy of expectancy, because, at this point, we know what’s about to unfold. Then, the intro to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” plays over the loud speakers, and as the song builds dynamically, so too does the tension in the Stadium. For a while, there was a movement to refer to Rivera as “The Sandman,” but that nickname never stuck quite like “Mo,” partly because “The Sandman” is tacky and somewhat immodest, but mainly because “Mo” is simple, memorable and, really, perfect. When the music finally approaches its crescendo, the suspense is nearly unbearable. Then, on cue, in enters Mo. The stadium erupts, its roar an honest catharsis, as he makes his jog from the bullpen to the mound: he has arrived. This is an electric moment that has occurred hundreds of times over the years, and yet each time feels unique, organic and special.

Baseball is a capricious sport ruled by unforgiving odds, thereby forcing the ballplayer to constantly confront unknown and mysterious variables, none more upfront and important than what pitch is coming next. With all of the permutations of spin, velocity and location, the act of simply hitting a baseball thrown by a professional pitcher intending to confuse constitutes a miracle of guesswork and hand-eye coordination. The players who stick around in the lead are the ballplayers who appreciate that reality and who don’t take their success for granted. Rivera has made a career of making hitters look particularly helpless. Yet Rivera’s dominance is all the more remarkable

because he has remained pretty much unhittable for 17 years, while almost exclusively throwing one pitch.

Mo throws what is called the cut-fastball, or cutter. The mark of the cutter is the way it synthesizes the velocity of a fastball with the late-breaking movement of a slider. There is nothing intrinsically special about the cutter, but when it’s used effectively, it can be frustratingly beguiling. Rivera throws the cutter with such precision and nuanced creativity that even when hitters know what pitch is coming next, they still can’t hit it. He does this by slightly varying the pressure with which his fingers grip the ball, which allows him to control subtle aspects of the ball’s trajectory and movement. The net effect of Rivera’s mastery of this pitch is that a great deal of the batters he faces strike out, usually flailing aimlessly.

In fact, whenever a batter manages to get the better of Mo’s cutter, it feels like an insult to the game. It’s therefore fitting that when Rivera set his saves record this past week he did so by delivering his signature cutter right past a befuddled batter. When you face Mo, each swing is effectively a leap of faith.

Yankee Stadium is often called a cathedral. There, Rivera is responsible for delivering baseball salvation for the Yankee faithful.

Baseball is wont to describe itself in ecclesiastical terms. Perhaps this tendency is due to the need to import weight and gravitas to the tradition, but it undoubtedly represents purely aesthetic choices. At the same time, though, with Rivera, allusions to the supernatural are not altogether out of place. Rivera is a deeply religious man, and his spiritual convictions are relevant to our understanding of who he

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

is as an athlete.

I don’t pretend to know what it is that makes Rivera “Mo.” If history has proven anything, it’s that he possesses some hidden knowledge that we will never really grasp. However, here is my theory: I believe that he is motivated toward greatness not just by love of the game, but also by a sense of divine providence. Rivera once said, “I think the Good Lord is a Yankee fan,” and I cannot help but read that as signaling more than playful wit, mainly because I don’t think Mo would try to be clever about things as dear to him as God and baseball.

Rivera is not ignorant of his talents. I believe that this is a man who is in awe of his own capabilities, who feels humbled by and truly undeserving of the gift with which he was blessed. I believe that, before every game, he thinks to himself that it did not have to be him, that someone else could have just as easily been endowed with the ability to throw one pitch that no one can hit. I believe the respectful demeanor of modesty and courtesy that he projects on the baseball field is an extension both of his anxiety before fate and of his profound gratitude towards circumstance.

I believe that his fiercely competitive nature and tireless work ethic, which nearly all of his teammates go out of their way to compliment, is the product of a man trying his hardest to do right by what was afforded him. I believe that what drives him as player is a feeling of boundless indebtedness, because, when you’re lucky enough to be as phenomenally talented at anything as Rivera is at throwing the cut fastball, isn’t it anything less than a concerted effort to fulfill your potential an insult to the gift and the game?

September 29, 2011

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Coaches value continued relationships with alumnae/i Kristine Olson

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Assistant Sports Editor

Courtesy of the Vassar Quarterly

ach year, graduating student-athletes make the transition from Vassar to the real world, searching for jobs and embracing their adult lives. They leave their coaches and teammates looking ahead to another season of recruiting, initiating freshmen into the existing structure of the team and adapting to new talent and personality. But as Vassar athletic programs transform and develop beyond their former athletes, alumnae/i stay connected to varying degrees and in a variety of ways.

“I hear sporadically from swim/dive alumnae/i,” stated Lisl Prater-Lee, head coach of the swimming and diving team, in an emailed statement. “October 29 will be our first of what might be an annual event—[an] alumnae/i meet.” She added that, unlike other programs, swimming and diving does not hold an annual Founder’s Day alumnae/i event due to safety reasons and other priorities on that particular day. Prater-Lee shared, “[Alan Neuhauser ’09] is taking the reins on developing an alumnae/i group, and he has made great strides; he is also very much involved in making the alumnae/i meet happen.”

Prater-Lee admitted that, in the past, the program hasn’t put much focus on maintaining ties with former team members. Now however, she senses things have changed. “Our more recent [alumnae/i] will more than likely stay a little more linked to the current group,” she wrote.

As an alumnus, Neuhauser visits campus in order “to meet and re-familiarize himself with former teammates,” added Prater-Lee. Neuhauser isn’t the only swimming and diving alumnus to show a desire in reconnecting with the team. “More recent [alumnae/i] for swim/dive are maintaining interest when I or [Neuhauser] reach out so I do think they feel a slightly different, stronger connection than [alumnae/i] from 10- to 12-plus years ago,” Prater-Lee stated. In this period of development, she noted, “I know that some coaches have much stronger ties to [alumnae/i] and there are probably many reasons for this.”

A program with a strong alumnae/i base is

Vassar’s volleyball program, fronted by men’s (1997-2006, 2008-2009, 2011) and women’s volleyball Head Coach Jonathan Penn.

Last weekend, however, it was the alumnae/i who initiated the reunion of players and coach.

Penn attended the wedding of two former Vassar volleyball players, along with eight other former Brewers.

“Jeff [Barr] ’04 and Anita [Barr née Stavin] ’06, who just got married, are both doctors,” shared Penn with a smile. “Jeff is practicing in Westchester and Anita is finishing her residency,” he continued, “and the other eight [alumnae/i] are either becoming, or already are, doctors, lawyers and one’s a non-profit fundraiser.”

When it comes to his volleyball players, Penn stated, “we coaches are a bigger part of their lives than volleyball.” He continued, “They stay in each others’ lives and in mine.

The absolute best part of my job is the relationship I have with [alumnae/i].” Emails, calls and visits from alumnae/i are described as “a pretty constant parade,” according to Penn, who also stated “bragging on my [alumnae/i] is my favorite thing.” This is evidenced by his ability to recall the graduation years and current occupations of dozens of Vassar [alumnae/i] who once played volleyball under his tutelage.

Teachers, lawyers, doctors, “they’re doing everything,” he said like a proud father, adding with a laugh, “they’re a classic bunch of overachievers.” And that is how Penn perceives himself, as a father figure: “They’re an extension of my family. I call them my kids,” said Penn, noting that the sentiment extends both ways in the way his [alumnae/i] ask to see pictures of his kids and come over for dinner.

“It ties into our goal as a program,” explained Penn. “Our program is three fold: we develop the volleyball experience and players’ ability to compete; then there are academics, and the team culture is one in which academics are a natural priority; and then we want to deepen and broaden players’ experiences as Vassar students to include being responsible, productive citizens of the world.”

With 27 seasons of experience as a head

McKenzie Johnson ‘04, center, poses with her mother and volleyball Head Coach Jonathan Penn.

Alumnae/i of the volleyball team joined Penn last weekend at the wedding of two former players. coach (15 with the women and 12 with the men), Penn recalled what he calls a “tenuous beginning” as a one-year interim hire, but that he fell in love with the place and discovered that “Vassar student-athletes are different.” He continued, “I’ve really gotten to know them individually” and explained that, as a former Division I volleyball player from California, his only remaining connection with his former coach is based on their common career path.

What Penn finds most rewarding about his continued connection with alumnae/i are the different kinds of relationships that form with student-athletes after graduation. “Two of my guys are coaches now, and I get to see them as peers,” noted Penn. “I get to explore different parts of relationships when my players graduate, and it helps me develop as a coach because I become something more as a coach, even to my current players.”

In regards to alumnae/i events, Penn quickly

said, “they clamor for them,” however, “they’re a logistical nightmare because [the alumnae/i are] scattered to the four winds; it’s the nature of our recruiting nationwide,” explains Penn.

But with 15 years of coaching under his belt, Penn feels the program is on the “cusp of being able to change that.” He continued: “Last year’s team took me over 100 [alumnae/i], so we’re at a tipping point that we might be able to start sustaining semi-annual events.”

With alumnae/i all over the country, and the world, Penn told a story about an alumna who moved to San Francisco after graduation and used her volleyball network to meet other alumnae/i in the area. “She has friends well out of her class range because of the connection of the program,” said Penn. “It’s always about the program; it comes down to being a part of a family,” he remarked, referring to his volleyball program, but with a broader connotation to the Vassar community in general.

The case for Jacoby Ellsbury Justin Verlander deserves for American League MVP ‘Most Valuable’ recognition Andy Sussman

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Guest Columnist

espite playing in Boston, one of the biggest baseball markets in the country, Jacoby Ellsbury has actually flown slightly under the radar this season. The Red Sox centerfielder has bounced back from a rocky 2010, when he was injured most of the season, to put up career-best power and defensive numbers. Yet, with the high-profile offseason acquisitions of Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford combined with Boston’s favorites, David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis, it is somewhat easy to overlook Ellsbury’s fantastic season and why he should be the American League MVP. To put it simply, Ellsbury is without a significant weakness. In the past, he was fast and an above-average defender, but did not hit for significant power. However, this season (as of Sept. 26) Ellsbury has 31 home runs in 156 games, whereas in the first 349 games of his career he hit only 20. Not only that, he also has 46 doubles and five triples, culminating in a .552 slugging percentage. In any context, these are excellent numbers, but consider that offense in baseball is at its lowest level since 1992, right before the so-called “steroid era” began. Consequently, Ellsbury ranks eighth in MLB in weighted on-base average, which combines a player’s on-base and slugging contributions to his team.

That’s only the beginning of Ellsbury’s immense impact on the Red Sox. He stole 38 bases out in 53 attempts and only grounded out into eight double plays all season, thus rating as an above-average baserunner. This is hardly surprising considering that Ellsbury’s fantastic speed has historically been his calling card.

As the primary leadoff hitter for the Red Sox, Ellsbury has given the team a great power hitter and a speed threat in over 700 plate appearances this season.

While Ellsbury’s hitting and baserunning by themselves give him an excellent case of winning the MVP, what sets him apart is his well above-average defense in centerfield, the but why most important position in the outfield.

Fangraphs, a highly touted website focusing on baseball statistics, rates Ellsbury as having prevented 16 more runs defensively than the average centerfielder, best among centerfielders in the major leagues. Even with a slightly belowaverage arm, Ellsbury uses his speed and instincts to get to a high percentage of baseballs in his direction, and he has yet to commit an error this entire season.

All of Ellsbury’s positive contributions give him a total WAR (wins above replacement) of 9.7, meaning that the Red Sox won about 10 more games than they would have been expected to with a replacement-level centerfielder playing everyday. No one else in baseball has a higher WAR than 8.4, and only seven other American Leaguers have a WAR of at least seven. Even if we say that the defensive metrics that Fangraphs use overestimate his value, he has still been the best player not only in the American League but also throughout baseball.

Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays has had a better offensive season than Ellsbury and had the best first half in all of baseball, but he has been unable to keep the same pace after the All-Star break and is not even remotely in the same class as a defender.

Detroit Tigers starter Justin Verlander has certainly pitched fantastically, and the New York Yankees’ Curtis Granderson and Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera had remarkable offensive seasons as well. No one, however, has played a more complete and consistent game than Ellsbury has for the Boston Red Sox. I hope the fans and the media will no longer overlook him when everyone steps back to appreciate the historic season that he has achieved.

Andy Marmer Sports Editor

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his year’s American League (AL) MVP is unquestioningly Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander. A quick review of his statistics should make it clear that he has been the best pitcher in the AL: As of Sept. 28, he leads the league in wins, strikeouts and earned run average (ERA). But, more than that, he’s been the best player and the one who has meant the most to his team for the entire season.

The biggest challenge to Verlander’s candidacy is his position—after all, as a starting pitcher, he has only played in 34 of his team’s 162 games; but even still the contribution to his team when he’s played is undeniable and why he deserves this award.

In games Verlander has started, the Tigers are 25-9 (a .735 winning percentage) while his personal record is even more impressive at 24-5 (.828). To put that number in perspective, no other Tigers pitcher has more than 14 wins, no other American League pitcher has more than 19 wins and no American League pitcher has won 24 games since 1990.

With regards to runs allowed, Verlander has been equally if not more impressive. His ERA of 2.40 does not begin to tell the full story of how dominant he has been. In 16 of his 34 starts, he gave up either zero or one run, while he allowed more than three runs in just six games. In eight of the nine games he pitched that the Tigers wound up losing, his team’s offense scored fewer than three runs.

Not only has Verlander kept runners from scoring, he’s prevented them from even reaching base. His 0.92 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) indicates that he has allowed less than one base runner per inning.

Verlander is the only AL starting pitcher with a WHIP less than one.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

More proof of Verlander’s dominance can be seen in his strikeout total. He has fanned an AL-leading 240 batters, an average of over seven per game. In 28 of the 34 games he’s pitched, he struck out six or more batters.

Verlander has pitched two of the best games of any pitcher in baseball this year. On June 14 against the Cleveland Indians, he allowed just two hits and one walk, while striking out 12 batters. He was also one of three pitchers this year to throw a no-hitter with his gem on May 7.

Although he has only played in 34 games, Verlander has been an important factor in all 34 games. He is the only AL pitcher this year to pitch at least six innings in each of his starts, which is no doubt one of the reasons he leads the league with 251 innings pitched.

Admittedly, it is rare for a pitcher to win the MVP award. After all, they have their own award, the Cy Young Award.

But it is not unprecedented. The last starting pitcher to win the MVP award was thenBoston Red Sox ace Roger Clemens in 1986.

(That year, Clemens notched a 24-4 record, the same number of wins as Verlander with one fewer loss). Clemens’ ERA in 1986 was 2.48, a mark just slightly worse than Verlander’s 2.40—Clemens threw three more innings than Verlander while giving up three more runs. Verlander has allowed fewer base runners per inning: Clemen’s WHIP was 0.97, compared to Verlander’s, which is 0.92.

In 1986, Clemens struck out 238 batters, compared to 240 for Verlander this year. All of this is to say that while pitchers don’t win the MVP often, Verlander is clearly better than the last starting pitcher to achieve the feat.

Verlander has led his team to the AL Central Division title. He should not be punished for his position; he is the best player in the league.

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September 29, 2011

Brewers begin successful fall Liberty League season Andy Marmer Sports Editor

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Kat Mehocic/The Miscellany News

his past weekend marked the start of Liberty League play for all four of Vassar’s fall teams. Over the course of six games, the women’s volleyball, women’s soccer, men’s soccer and field hockey teams combined to post a 4-2 conference record.

Field hockey started the weekend off with a bang, hosting then 0-4 Union College in both teams’ conference-opener on Friday, Sept. 23.

Last year, the two schools faced off in a thrilling contest, which, after 70 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime, was settled in penalty strokes—resulting in a 2-1 Union victory.

This year, the teams again proved to be evenly matched and the contest was yet again forced into an extra session.

Vassar began the scoring 10 minutes into the second half as Cami Felt ’14 was able to flick the ball over a downed keeper and into the back of the net. Just 11 minutes later, Union answered with a goal of their own, tying the contest at one and forcing overtime.

The stage was set for some late-game heroics as the sudden victory overtime period began and it was Felt again who answered the call. In the overtime seven vs. seven format, the game opened up, allowing both teams more scoring chances. Katy Hwang ’12 came racing down the right side and, although her shot was deflected, it ricocheted to Felt who was able to strike it out of the air and into the goal for the game-winner.

The victory is Vassar’s second in the Liberty League since 2005 and the team’s first since 2008. It also marks Head Coach Cara Dunn’s first conference victory.

Women’s volleyball competed in three Liberty League matches this past weekend, traveling to Bard College to face Liberty League newcomer Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Sept. 23, before returning home to host old stalwarts St. Lawrence and Clarkson Universities.

The Brewers made quick work of their new foes, disposing of RIT 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-20, 2518). Amy Bavosa ’12 headed the effort, leading the team in both kills (14) and digs (19). Five Brewers notched double-digit digs in the con-

test, while Chloe McGuire ’13 also notched 11 kills.

Riding the momentum from their first Liberty League win, the Brewers handled a feisty St. Lawrence squad 3-2 (25-13, 25-14, 22-25, 21-25, 15-11).

Although the Brewers jumped out to a big lead early—based on poor hitting by St. Lawrence, who recorded more errors than kills in each of the first two sets—the match went five sets, where Vassar held on. Seven different Brewers registered double-digit digs, while the offense was led by Jessie Ditmore ’14 (18 kills) and Bavosa (11). Hillary Koenigs ’13 recorded 43 set assists in the match—moving her career total to over 2,500 in the process.

Vassar, though, was unable to complete the weekend sweep, dropping their final contest to Clarkson University 3-1 (24-26, 16-25, 28-26, 2225). Bavosa again led the team with 15 kills.

After the weekend, Vassar stands in third place with a 2-1 conference record, while Clarkson leads the league with a 4-0 Liberty League record and a 17-0 record overall.

As the women’s volleyball team finished up their final contest of the weekend, two more Liberty League games kicked off for Vassar teams. The women’s soccer team hosted Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) at 2 p.m. on Sept. 24, while the men’s team visited RPI at the same time.

While the men’s contest proved to be a defensive struggle, the women’s game was anything but.

Sheeva Seyfi ’14 struck first for the Vassar women, just 1:43 into the contest, with her team-leading fifth goal of the year. She scored on sophomore Kylie Ladenberger’s second assist of the year. The Vassar lead was shortlived, though, as RPI answered just two and a half minutes later, evening the score at one.

That score also did not last long, after another two and a half minutes Ladenberger and Seyfi combined again, this time with their roles reversed.

With the Brewers leading 2-1, the game briefly settled down. RPI netted their second goal 21 minutes in, evening the game at two, where it would remain through halftime.

The Vassar’s women’s field hockey team defeated Union College 2-1 in a match on Sept. 23. The victory was the Brewers’ second in Liberty League games since 2005 and the team’s first since 2008.

Just as the women’s contest was calming down though, the men’s game 87 miles to the north was heating up. RPI scored the contest’s first goal off of a penalty kick 34 minutes into the contest. Vassar responded four minutes later as Tom Wiechert ’15 capitalized on a pass from Zander Mrlik ’13 to even the score.

Although the men’s game was tied, just two minutes later Vassar found their backs against the wall as goalkeeper Ryan Grimme ’14 was ejected after receiving a red card. With backup goalie Gary Clauss coming on, the Brewers were forced to play with 10 men against RPI’s side of 11. Like their female counterparts, the Vassar men’s soccer team went to halftime tied with RPI, in this instance at one apiece.

Coming out of halftime, the high-scoring affair in Poughkeepsie picked up right where the first half started. Alix Zongrone ’12 gave Vassar a 3-2 lead just six minutes after the restart, heading home a corner from Sarah Bourenane ’15. Still, as had happened all game, RPI evened

Jdaydani leads men’s rugby over Hofstra Jesse Hartman

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Guest Reporter

SCOREBOARD SEPTEMBER 23 FIELD HOCKEY UNION VASSAR VS COLLEGE

2 Madeleine Little/The Miscellany News

n Sunday, Sept. 18 the Vassar men’s rugby team marched onto the pitch against divisional foe Hofstra University. The Brewers, seeking to duplicate last year’s 36-7 victory over the Pride, came through in a big way. Vassar dropped Hofstra by a count of 64-0, earning their second win of the young season. The Brewers simultaneously achieved their second victory within their conference, the Metropolitan New York Rugby Union. While the team as a whole showed dominance, the play of No. 8 man Andrew Jdaydani ’14 was spectacular, leading to his designation by The Miscellany News as Vassar’s Athlete of the Week.

Jdaydani played football during his high school career at Bishop Alemany High School in Sylmar, Calif. near the Los Angeles area. With Vassar not having a football program, Jdaydani had a decision to make about continuing in athletics. He explained, “When I came here I had two options for different sports I wanted to try, since there’s no football here: lacrosse or rugby.” As to why he chose rugby, Jdaydani stated, “Rugby had the advantage [of] being a fall sport.” He continued, “I actually approached some players because I knew that I was interested in trying it out. I went to [a] few practices and...played a few B [team] games in the fall

and I really liked the sport a lot.

The team was great and I just got hooked.”

Jdaydani has come a long way from the B squad, and his stellar effort against Hofstra exemplifies that. He expressed satisfaction about the team’s play in the victory. “I thought we played a good game against Hofstra, all in all, as the score should indicate, although I think that we could have practiced our technical strategies a little more,” he said. Even so, Jdaydani was ecstatic about the result. “As a team I really liked how we played, we really came together well.” Jdaydani modestly described his play. “Personally, I thought I had a decent game,” he said. Although he had three tries in the game (and leads the team with four on the season), Jdaydani admits that there is always room for improvement. “I was really happy with the way I played, but there were times where I had penalties that allowed [Hofstra] to gain meters and conditioning, I think were the two fallbacks.” Jdaydani also highlighted some objectives for himself and the team. “I want to play a game without being tired, to be conditioned enough to go through the game and to just not be out of breath for the next play,” Jdaydani said. He also voiced interest in continuing to be a team leader, stating that he wished to “know the game better and to just make everyone around me a better player.”

the score just four minutes later.

With 10 minutes remaining in both contests, each Brewers squad appeared headed to overtime; however, in neither case did the extra period come to fruition, as goals were scored in the 83rd minute of both games.

With seven minutes and 49 seconds remaining, RPI took a decisive lead in the women’s contest. The final RPI goal gave them a 4-3 lead, which they held onto for the victory.

The men’s contest was also decided by one goal. With just seven minutes and 12 seconds remaining, Juliano Pereira ’14 converted the game-winning goal. The play began with a long throw in from Mrlik, and was flicked by Sam Erlichson-McCarthy ’12 to Pereira, who ultimately slotted it in the back of the net for the 2-1 victory.

This weekend the Brewers will look to build on last week’s successes. Men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball will all compete in Liberty League action, with seven conference games between the three teams.

Andrew Jdaydani ’14, above, helped the men’s rugby team triumph over Hofstra University Sept. 18, the team’s second conference win.

As for the team goals, Jdaydani stated, “make the playoffs, and hopefully win a [Metropolitan New York] championship.”

While Vassar has started well, Jdaydani remains grounded, commenting, “we’ve been doing well so far, but we have a couple of challenging games ahead of us.” As for the rest of the schedule, Jdaydani expressed excitement about a few of the upcoming matches.

“Marist [College] is always fun because of the cross-town rivalry, and Fairfield [University] should be a good game, too.”

The Brewers currently sport a 2-1 record and will host Fairfield this Saturday at 1 p.m.

Vassar next plays Seton Hall University on Sunday, Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. at the Vassar Farm, followed by the match against cross-town rival Marist on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 2 p.m.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

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SEPTEMBER 24 WOMEN’S RUGBY VASSAR VS RUTGERS

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SEPTEMBER 25 MEN’S RUGBY WILLIAM VASSAR AT PATERSON

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