The Miscellany News
Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866
April 23, 2020
miscellanynews.org
Volume 153 | Issue 10
Legacy of activism: Asian American Studies courses offered Fall 2020 Nicole Kormendi and Sylvia Peng Guest Columnists
Do my eyes deceive me? I look again. In the weird Ask Banner font that makes everything look like a screenplay reads “AMST/ASIA 185 Intro to Asian American Studies.” My first instinct is to call Nicole. “Yoooo,” I tell her, “they are offering an intro class for ASAM.” Sitting by the desk in my home on Long Island, I begin to tear up a bit. I feel silly, but so happy.
Top, wall art from a 2006 Critical Ethnic Studies Coalition demonstration. Bottom, a showcase of the student-run Asian American Studies class Fugitivity in the Academy from December, 2019. Courtesy of VASAM Working Group.
Laying on the bed of my Fort Lee home, I get off FaceTime with Syl and my chest swells. I’ll be done with college in two weeks. Pre-registration is now a part of my past, but still I click through the course catalog to the AMST/ASIA 185 class. I already know about the offering—Sylvia and I had read over the postdoc job listing, skimmed through candidate CVs and attended interview luncheons—but still, part of me expected it to fall through. Maybe I’ve grown accustomed to Vassar disappointing us. Seeing “Asian American Studies” plastered across an official Vassar site led to feelings I’m unaccustomed to: I hold them close, prod at them gently.
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hen we were first-years, neither one of us knew Asian American (ASAM) studies existed. We saw no courses offered on the subject at Vassar. It hadn’t even crossed our minds that our histories as Asian Americans were worthy of academic study. When VASAM—the Vassar Asian American Studies Working Group—was first established in November of 2017 by students from the Asian Students’ Alliance executive board and the two of us, we based our advocacy upon seeing ourselves represented in our courses and one of our professor’s convictions that the ASAM studies was worth fighting for. In the months to come, we combed through Vassar’s archives, met with professors and spoke with alums who had previously pushed for ASAM studies. All of this information foretold the many obstacles to be encountered. Through this process, we became absorbed in a history that lay beyond anything we could’ve imagined at the onset. Stories of student activism, collective voice, institutional disregard and broken promises surfaced all around us. We learned that Asian American studies (or more broadly, Critical Ethnic Studies) had its roots in the late-1960s Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) movement, See VASAM on page 7
Professors’ Fiona Apple’s surprise album holds up to hype perspectives on student strike Y Abby Tarwater
Guest Columnist
Annabelle Wang Guest Reporter
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n Monday, April 20, student group Nobody Fails Vassar College (NFVC) launched a round of strikes on classes and other online gathering spaces. NFVC’s main mission is to persuade Vassar’s administration to institute either a Universal Pass (UP) or Double A (A/A-) system for the Spring 2020 semester to better accommodate students who have been most disadvantaged by the ongoing global pandemic. Currently, the College has adopted a Universal NRO policy for the semester that allows students to choose between their desired minimum letter grade and a PA (pass) grade. Any student may withdraw from a course at any point, up to and including the day after the conclusion of final exams. Additionally, under this grading scheme, faculty can adjust their individual grading practices as they see fit. The administration states that the current Universal NRO policy will guarantee that no students fail and ensure that there are no forced withdrawals or opt-in incompletes. However, See STRIKE on page 6
[TW: This article mentions assault and rape.] ou’ve probably heard the buzz about Fiona Apple’s “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” by now. Since its unexpected release on Friday, April 17, the record has garnered unprecedented critical acclaim. It holds a weighted average score of 100 out of 100 on review aggrega-
tor website Metacritic, making it the highest rated non-retrospective album in the website’s history; it also received a perfect score from Pitchfork, the first in nearly 10 years. Critics and general audiences alike have already deemed the album the definitive musical statement of the COVID-19 pandemic, of the #MeToo era and of Apple’s career. Apple hasn’t attracted this
much attention in decades. Since 1996, when she achieved household name status at age 18 thanks to her Grammy-winning album “Tidal,” she has experienced a gradual decline in mainstream popularity—partly because of her controversially candid interviews and infamously abrasive acceptance speeches, but also due to her ever-expanding sonic experimentation. Yet the artist’s un-
willingness or, rather, inability to conform to the music industry’s constantly shifting expectations of women transformed her career path from that of a burgeoning pop star into that of a revered cult figure. Her meticulous artistic process has produced a slight yet magnificent output of records, each subversive, harrowing and unique. To many, “Fetch the Bolt See Fiona Apple on page 6
April 27: How to use your lungs Allison Deutsch
Guest Columnist
[TW: This article describes illness of a family member and discusses death.] ith some homework, it’s easy enough: Just hand it in. Use your compulsory—no, compulsive—daily survey of the news to help you write your papers. Learn from a Cuomo powerpoint that the chances of your sister dying while working in a medical intensive care unit is greatly increased because it is now part of a COVID-19-only hospital, as desigated by the State. Use your big heart to research the worst cases before realizing there’s little you can do to help. Rally the neighborhood to drop extra personal protective equipment at your doorstep, but watch her get sick anyway.
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Use your anxiety to wash your hands. Use your misery to watch your neighbors forego social distancing. For more than a week, listen to your sister’s cough when you fall asleep. Listen to her coughing when you wake up. Try to leave trays outside of her door, but realize all too quickly that she’s too weak to get out of bed. Masks and gloves for all of us, then, as we feed her. Use your naive expectations of what college would be like to cry. Cry over the relatively inconsequential stuff, mostly because it’s easier to worry about. Cry for the seniors completing their theses without a library, without a graduation. Cry for the juniors without a JYA. Cry for the sophomores who left campus just as they declared their majors. Cry for the See How To on page 7
Ciara Murray-Jordan/The Miscellany News.
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April 23, 2020
Vassar, booked: What literary referenc
THE MISCELLANY NEWS
Alex Eisert Columnist
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CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only accept corrections for any misquotes, misrepresentations or factual errors for an article within the semester it is printed. The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages.
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hat comes to mind when you hear the word “Vassar?” For me and many other students, the words “home,” “community” and other fuzzy descriptors pop up as we anxiously long for our return to campus. But what about the general public? Do most people even know Vassar exists? As shown by the recent SNL diss of Vassar students (skip to 1:51), Vassar remains a part of pop culture discourse in some circles, largely as a locus of poking fun at young female activists. Evidence I collected my senior year of high school supports this; I noticed that upon revealing my commitment to Vassar in 2018, the response I received would be one of: “Oh that’s a good school!” or “Isn’t that an allgirls school?” or “Never heard of it!” So, if people do know about Vassar, they are likely to associate it with its history as a women’s college. My anecdotal evidence is further bolstered by Google’s Ngram viewer, a tool that searches for the frequency of a word or phrase in a collection, or corpus, of books. For each year, the corpus keeps track of every book published and reports frequency as the percentage of all n-grams, or phrases of a certain length, that match the target word or phrase among those published books. The phrase “Vassar College” is a bigram, or two-part phrase, and it would be compared to other bigrams, such as “Harvard University” and “Yale University.” (See Figure 1.) Despite this linguistic similarity between the school names, Harvard and Yale are of course very different institutions from Vassar. Accordingly, compared to Harvard and Yale, Vassar appears much less frequently in books, and by extension in popular discourse. This explains the lack of name recognition I observed; Vassar is simply referenced less. But let’s take it a step further; perhaps Vassar’s lower recognition numbers are due to its size relative to Harvard and Yale. For one, Vassar has no graduate students and a smaller undergrad population, so fewer people have written about Vassar because they did not have their own experience to draw from (in the case of writing a memoir or novel). In addition, fewer undergrads also means fewer theses, and grad students won’t be contributing theses or other academic works either—not to discount Vassar undergrads (such as myself!) picking up some of the slack by taking a portion of the research opportunities that grad students would have at another school, but they can’t do it all alone. Perhaps a better benchmark against which to measure Vassar’s name recognition would be drawn from comparison to some schools of similar size and prestige. How does Vassar compare with some of its peer institutions, namely Amherst and Williams? (See Figure 2.) In short: More favorably, but it’s still less frequently referenced, especially early on in these schools’ histories. But why even this discrepancy? And what made Vassar begin to catch up? From 1861 through 1909, by yearly average frequency, Vassar occurred
less than half as often (around .00000018% of bigrams) as Williams (around .00000046%) and Amherst (around .00000044%). This is not too surprising, given that Vassar had just been founded while Williams (1793) and Amherst (1821) were already established. From 1910 through 1968, Vassar (up to 0.00000030%) saw an increased frequency while Williams (.00000040%) and Amherst (.00000037%) saw declines, possibly as a result of other new institutions eating into their airtime. I chose 1910 as a cutoff because not only was Vassar becoming more established, but also the 1910s began to see popular support for first-wave feminism. This is relevant because Williams and Amherst started off as all-male colleges, while Vassar was initially all-female. First-wave feminism largely emphasized suffrage, but the movement certainly helped establish women’s education initiatives such as the beginnings of The Seven Sisters college consortium, which included Vassar in its original four-college iteration in 1915. So, Vassar was in a much different place as an institution and in the world beginning in 1910. Despite this, it still saw lower frequencies, perhaps because the feminist movement still had a ways to go. Regardless of a slight uptick from the previous period, women never published more than 20 percent of all English-language books between 1910 and 1968, making it less likely that Vassar alumnae would have a platform to mention their alma mater and have it counted in the corpus. Furthermore, a significant percentage of books published by women were fiction. Vassar alumnae writing fiction may be less likely to mention their alma mater than if they were to write a memoir or nonfiction academic paper. This percentage declined between 1910 and 1968 compared to the previous period, but it still represented a large chunk. I chose 1968 as my next cutoff because the next year, Vassar went coed and began working towards having over 2000 students, a goal that it achieved by 1971. 1971 also saw a student body that was 40 percent male. 1971’s gender demographics were comparable to those of campus today, as well as Williams’ and Amherst’s student populations. Williams followed suit and went coed in 1970, while Amherst did so in 1975. I do not think it is a coincidence that around this time, the three schools start to appear in the corpus at almost indistinguishable frequencies, and continue to do so for the rest of the years in my study. From 1969 through 2008, the yearly average frequencies for Amherst and Williams each were 0.00000022% and .00000018% for Vassar. Why is Vassar still behind, even though its student population (2450) is now higher than both Williams (2150) and Amherst (1855)? One reason might be that its student body is still just over 40 percent male, while Amherst and Williams hover around 50 percent. While fiction books represent a much smaller portion now, the percent of all books published by
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
women is still less than 45 percent, and it was much lower than that at the beginning of this period, in the 1970s. Here’s another question the data from this period raised: Why did all of these colleges see declines in frequency? My theory is that while these colleges had populations that only grew slightly during this period, many other schools saw ballooning enrollment, and our country’s population as a whole grew, so more books were being published in general. Remember, the n-gram graph measures relative frequency, so while the raw number of “Vassar” mentions has been growing, it has been growing at a slower rate relative to that of other bigrams (especially other, bigger schools). Frequency is calculated as mentions (labeled as “count”) divided by total number of bigrams. Figure 3 plots the raw numbers of mentions, raw meaning without being divided by the total number of bigrams, for each of these colleges. For comparison’s sake, Figure 4 also includes Rutgers University, which has a bigram name and a huge and ever-growing student population. As evidenced by one of the responses I often received my senior year when telling people I would be attending Vassar, many still associate the college with its former all-female status. You can find the most common words to appear after “Vassar” by searching “Vassar*” on the n-gram viewer. The sixth and seventh most common words are “girl” and “girls,” ahead of the more gender-neutral “students,” which is the ninth most common (“boys” is nowhere to be found at all). After spikes in usage in the early 1960s, both “girl” and “girls” in association with “Vassar” began to decline, probably as a result of Vassar going coed in 1969. However, more in line with the “Isn’t that an all-girls school?” response I had often received, this trend was reversed at the very end of the dataset, where the words experienced a resurgence. In the last year of the dataset, 2008, “girl” saw its highest frequency since 1992. 2007-2008 saw the highest two-year frequency for “girls” since 1992-1993. At the same time, the usage of “students” remained stagnant. On the other hand, “Miscellany” is the fifth most common word to appear after “Vassar,” and it too experienced a resurgence at the end of the dataset, seeing its highest two-year frequency in 2007-2008 since 1993-1994! (See Figure 5.) The last answer that I often received, “Oh, that’s a good school!” is the one I think best represents what my experience at Vassar has actually been like. As I dream of walking the well-paved paths and marveling at the beauty of the campus with my friends again, I hope that we all can continue to associate fuzzy feelings with our school and find comfort in the fact that we will return someday soon. Vassar is so much more than just the butt of a joke poking fun at young female activists—let us all work to show our appreciation from afar by standing up for it while we’re among non-students. And for those of us hard at work on memoirs, perhaps consider including the advent of Vassar boys.
availa
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April 23, 2020
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ces reveal to us about popular attitudes towards our school
Figure 3.
Figure 1. A comparison of mentions of the three schools from 1861 (the year Vassar was founded) to 2008 (the last year able in the corpus). Frequency is a yearly relative measurement examining how often each school name occurred in all books predominantly in English published in any country.
s by Alex Eisert/The Miscellany News.
Figure 4.
Figure 5.
Figure 2.
Click to check out professors’ open lectures The Misc has invited Vassar professors to submit any materials they may have accumulated while teaching online this semester to make them available for public viewing. We hope to provide a space for students and community members alike to explore Vassar’s educational offerings—or perhaps to simply spend an afternoon learning something new. The collection currently includes subjects ranging from Art History to Astronomy to Computer Science to Philosophy and more. Some are general and some more specialized, but all combine education with entertainment for those of us looking for productive ways to spend time. We may not be able to loiter outside a classroom and catch snatches of an interesting discussion during this time, but professors have generously opened up their digital classrooms to us. Please enjoy browsing, and reach out to misc@vassar.edu if you wish to submit.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
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April 23, 2020
With college campuses across the country and the world ceasing in-person operations due to coronavirus, we wanted to see how students at other higher education institutions chara student-athletes to theater majors. The Vassar community will note many commonalities in all of our experiences: the formation of new digital gathering spaces, questions over grad munity, academic life and grading policy.
ONLINE COMMUNITY Kettering is kind of a special breed. Being an extremely small STEM school, a vast majority of the students enjoy online gaming, so Kettering created an online gaming league through a Discord server that a majority of the student body has joined. There they compete on teams and play against other schools. My sorority has weekly Zoom meetings, and many clubs on campus have followed suit with that as well, and mental health and study habits are a major topic at the moment. Actually, mental health has been the biggest push from Kettering so far. There have been a lot of virtual outreach groups from our counselors and staff on campus for that. Another community we have formed is a Reddit page where we just make fun of the university president. —Emerald Dewey, Kettering University
ACADEM
The campus itself has a Facebook and there’s also a newspaper people follow and those are mostly just campus news and updates from the university president and local community news. I mostly talk to my friends through our own group chats on Snapchat. We’re pretty much in constant contact on there. People who have had birthdays have also had parties over Zoom so we can all see each other face to face on occasion. Overall [the college online community] seems pretty neutral to me. I haven’t really paid attention to anything going on since I’ve been kind of distancing myself from social media during this whole quarantine. But people are generally nice. There are a few rude commenters sometimes, but they don’t really get acknowledged. — Cassandra Thompson, Central Michigan University (CMU)
Campus life in general would be represented by things like the subreddit or the Purdue Facebook page. I’m surprised, but they’ve had a lot less content than usual, I think. Maybe more participation, but a lot less content. Specifically because the Purdue subreddit usually has memes out of things that have happened on campus or news out of things that have happened on campus or discussions about things that happened on campus. Every time there’s a new update there’s a flurry of activity, people trying to decode exactly what it means for them. But on the whole, I’ve actually seen a lot less content ... This crisis has, I think, emotionally hit people involved in the performing arts very hard. Because you can’t. You just can’t ... It’s really hard when the entire premise of your organization is based around an activity that involves people getting together and doing something. News came down that choir was going to get canceled and at our last rehearsal our director was like, ‘Okay. We can’t be here together, singing, but I’m going to have this meeting up every week, come in whenever you want, literally stop in and let’s just talk.’ We have a choir of about 60 people. Maybe five people will show up. It is hard to do the things that don’t seem essential. It is hard to be socially distant but not be socially isolated. It’s so easy to sit in your box and do your math homework. — Anonymous, Purdue
Umich Memes for Wolverteens is pretty good in these trying times. It’s pretty big. I think you have to be invited to join, but it’s not rigorous. Lots of quarantine memes, but all in a way that ties back to the University. At least they’re supposed to. Quality varies but it’s good for a chuckle. — Max Clark, University of Michigan (U of M)
Some students who still live in Troy (my school’s city) have been posing on their Instagram stories about local restaurants and eateries that are still open for takeout. One of these students offered to get groceries or deliver other necessities to people in the area (also through IG stories). I haven’t seen much else but I haven’t been looking very carefully. We kinda just try to support each other online as best as we can. One kid sent a survey in an old freshmen group chat asking people how they were doing. A lot of platforms regarding RPI are a little toxic because people really really don’t like the administration and love to talk about it. We have subreddits, a school-wide Discord server, Discord servers affiliated with different clubs, an “overheard at RPI” Facebook group (for out-of-context quotes and such that people have heard on campus). There’s a lot. We’re a tech school and people all have their preferences for online platforms. When people talk about the administration, it isn’t exactly pleasant conversation, but most other topics seem to be much tamer. — Anonymous, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
We have a whole photo page called “at home 2020” and it’s like a virtual gallery where anyone is allowed to submit any work they have made in response to this shutdown or the virus or anything and you’re allowed to talk about what the work you made means [to you]. Everyone is really supportive and positive actually… It’s really nice to see, too, [because] a lot of people at SVA are really anxious about [the virus] and I think it’s nice of them to see support and someone to relate to at this time. We have a whole WhatsApp group with over 200 SVA people in it that started out with how upset we were about our graduation getting canceled. And that’s where people were kinda mad about the lack of outreach over many things … It took what felt like decades to get some second semester money back … And then we didn’t even get much money back either. — Kate Brennan, School of Visual Arts
Students at Stony Brook began to post on Instagram and Snapchat, encouraging students to stay indoors and help flatten the curve. There were also petitions going around in chats to ensure that grading would not become an issue during this time, and instead students would be able to focus on themselves and their families. The social media environment is generally positive, with people coming together and offering support to those who are infected with the virus or who have lost loved ones due to it. There is a lot of support on the SBU Reddit, where students answer each other’s questions about various topics, such as what counseling services are available. — Hirooj H, Stony Brook University (SBU)
[I’ve seen] activism related to people volunteering with organizations to make PPE, or fundraising. I myself am a part of the Medical Supply Drive, which is an organization coordinating outreach to local businesses and donors to secure PPE for our frontline healthcare workers all over the world. Many of my classmates are using social media to inform others to stay home and social distance. I feel that the general attitude was that we were all shocked when we heard the March 10 news. However, most of us then expected that classes would be suspended sooner with the rising number of cases, so even though there was some shock when three days later we were told to leave, it wasn’t comparable to the initial news which hit hard. I think students at that point expected it and were just trying to figure out how they could safely leave, instead of concentrating on more of the emotions that accompany such a sudden event like this. — Priya Mukhi, Cornell University
I know of a lot of people doing Zoom calls just to hang out. My swim team had a full-team call a couple times just to talk to people. I’ve done that with the group of friends I’ve made from my dorm. There are a couple of game things that people do, like Jackbox Games. I’ve heard of people doing that to hang out with friends and do something together. It’s mostly friend groups getting together. There’s also a thing for student-athletes called an Irish Strong Town Hall. Normally, athletes gather and listen to peers who have gone through something tough, also discussing mental health and how we can improve that among Notre Dame athletes. There was one last night over Zoom. There’s also a Notre Dame Christian athletes group that I’m a part of. We still have a weekly Zoom call. — Erin Isola, Notre Dame
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
The student body at RPI is already administration for our summer sem allegedly people got even angrier wh that it would be held online. It’s a ma between students’ sophomore and ju dents despise. It’s been a thing for at —Anonymous, RPI
We actually were cut short a week [compared to a standard semester], so it’s even crazier. I have midterms on Friday and I’ve been in class for eight days. Or will have been in class for eight days on Friday rather. It’s wild, but I guess I’m kind of used to the curveballs like that after two years with Kettering. — Emerald Dewey, Kettering University
Two classes that I have to do a lot of work for haven’t changed much. They’re lecture style, so I watch the lectures online ... It’s not that different. I had a couple other classes that were purely experiential, where I had to do hours. Those basically just ended. One was an internship at an early childhood development center on campus. I’m a psychology major and I’m interested in working in childhood development with developmental delays. I wanted a general internship to get experience with younger children. That just ended because I couldn’t go back to the preschool, obviously. My other one is a class where I’m with a girl who’s diagnosed with autism and I shadow the type of therapy she gets. I can’t be with her anymore either. There were some textbooks and worksheets for that class that I finished up, but in terms of doing hours, that was done. — Erin Isola, Notre Dame
I dent job w is ac who few unfo larg the prof info in fi 500 He s in 27 hold time he d P onli and depa majo strai few com tech of cl betw dow and time —
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The online platform is pretty disorg on Canvas so there was no problem wit comes from varying platforms used fo classes used Zoom, Blue Jeans and Can different platforms has been weird but es do not make us turn our cameras o which helps many students feel more share their living situation with their e altered exams to make them easier. O final term paper and changed it to an access to, so we have plenty of time to w things “open note” so students aren’t g notes and class resources to do well on t — Ellington Poston, U of M
April 23, 2020
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acterize the new life online. We reached out to friends and acquaintances to hear their stories. The tales are varied, from large public universities to small private colleges, from ding policies, struggles to be productive during a pandemic and navigating college life without a campus. We’ve arranged their responses according to three themes: online com-
MIC LIFE
y upset/angry with the mester Arch program, and hen the school announced andatory summer semester unior years that most stuleast a few years.
think the university leadership—actually Presit Mitch Daniels, I think, has done a pretty good with this thing … Where things get complicated ctually with individual professors, or sometimes ole departments, though that’s rare ... But, the professors that are handling this very poorly, ortunately are the ones that are in charge of very ge classes that a lot of freshmen take. For instance, introductory engineering classes. There was a fessor in the engineering department who—this ormation is from me talking to a friend who’s first-year engineering—teaches this class of, like, students a section because it’s a massive major. said something like, ‘I haven’t recorded this class 7 years and I’m not going to start now.’ So he was ding live lectures, but you had to tune in at that e or you missed the content. He posted slides, but didn’t post lecture notes at all. Professors have done their best to create spaces ine where students can have discussions boards things like that ... There are a few courses, a few artments—a friend of mine who’s an animation jor, actually, said that one of their professors just ight-up has a Discord for the class. There are a classes and a few professors, usually in the more mputer science-centric majors, who are using hnology a lot more effectively—shocker. In terms lass participation, it’s gone way down. Discourse ween students about academics has gone way wn. Just because it’s so easy to just stay in your box get your stuff done. I fall into that trap all the e. — Anonymous, Purdue
Class is way easier to tell to fuck off. In son lecture for my history class was super ict about phones but when we went digital, layed Pokemon in another tab the whole me and did not learn as much (kinda on me t still). — Max Clark, U of M
ganized. All of our classes were already th switching to online, but the problem or each class for watching lectures. My nvas conferences. Juggling between the t not unmanageable. Luckily, our classon to attend class and get participation, e comfortable since they do not have to entire class. Most of my professors have One of my professors even canceled our n exam that he has given us two weeks work on it. Other professors have made getting in trouble for using their online their exams.
GRADING POLICY
Before an official statement was made on COVID-19, there was a lot of talk of forming a protest on the school’s subreddit, which did end up happening. I can’t recall seeing much activism after the move to distance learning, but there are many complaints (and I think a petition or two) regarding the means by which lectures and testing are conducted. Many argue that some of the required software is invasive and against privacy policies while others are simply discontent with the quality of the programs. I can’t really say for all platforms, but Reddit and Discord are filled with complaints and an overall sense of uncertainty with the COVID-19 situation. Because of the sheer amount of discontent I see, I would argue that these platforms lean closer to toxicity. From my perspective, I think that these social media networks in particular are used as places to vent frustrations or ask questions about the many uncertainties of both the current and next semesters. These platforms prove to be great places to pool opinions and information, but also serve to embody the dissatisfaction felt towards the administration. —Anonymous, SBU
I didn’t want it changed because now I have to go through the process of requesting letter grades, since I’m applying to med school this year. Many students applying to grad schools that want this semester to count towards their GPA are having the same issue. — Amelia Gavulic, University of Michigan So the grading system here right now is the option to pass/fail any class and not have it count against you toward your degree. There is still a lot of concern around the idea of pass/failing as there are licensing exams, graduate school acceptance requirements and other factors that are not controlled by the school and it is unclear what procedures will be put into place regarding these requirements. One of the more commonly debated factors right now is the fairness of the changing policy to students that are suffering from financial hardship or simply being in a different location internationally. There are “rules” that exist on what professors can and can’t do such as participation credit and attendance credit, but it seems that despite trying to adhere to these rules while maintaining the integrity of the course grading system, professors are still facing push back from students. There has been frequent communication with UT leadership but the announcement of our president leaving his position has somewhat blurred the authoritative and leadership communication. This is a tough time right now and everyone is just trying to do their best. Everyone should be voicing their opinions and providing much needed feedback but I think the argumentative and attack-style rhetoric should be reserved for when we have more time to sort out the details. — John Lobel, UT Austin The P/NC option differs between majors, but the general idea is that above a certain threshold (such as a C), you can opt for a letter grade or a pass to appear on your transcript. This doesn’t apply to all programs uniformly nor universally, but is nonetheless helpful in providing students with options for their academic future. —Anonymous, SBU
[Kettering administrators] haven’t made a formal decision [about the grading policy]. I have a feeling after midterms there will be a petition that circulates fighting for a pass/fail system, although these are untrodden territories. Thankfully they do use a normal F to A grading scale when we are being graded so it makes GPA calculation a lot simpler. — Emerald Dewey, Kettering University
People wanted to close down classes, so there was a very big petition to do so, but the board/pres. ignored it and basically said, “Nah, it ain’t that bad.” The reason for the petition was because one of the first cases [of COVID-19] in the United States was on our campus. Our school is basically saying “Fuck you” to the students and isn’t doing shit. They’re still keeping the current grading system. — Sam C., Arizona State University
Honestly, I think that U of M has done a great job (at least from my experience and those of my friends) of making accommodations for students during this difficult transition. They have switched all of our classes to pass/fail and we can opt to get our grade on our transcripts if we would like. They have also extended our drop deadline, so if we want to drop a class, we have until the last day of class, which is April 21. Not only can we drop classes late, but if we drop the class, it won’t show up on our transcript, so we will not have the infamous W mark next to the dropped class. — Ellington Poston, University of Michigan We have a “pass/no credit” policy where it doesn’t affect your GPA. For this semester only, we can choose for every class (even for ones required for our major, which can’t usually be P/NC ) if we want to change it to P/NC. As many as we want. So we have the option to change every class to pass/no credit, but if we want some of our classes to still count towards our GPA, we have that option. — Anonymous, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
[The higher-up leadership] have given students at Purdue the option to make any of their classes this semester take a pass/fail grade instead of a letter grade. And you have until the beginning of May to decide. I know I’m going to take a few classes for pass/fail just because it’s really hard … I’ve missed assignments, I’ve missed other content, quizzes and things, just because I don’t have the structure of going to class and I fall behind. I know that there are professors at Purdue who will fail students. I know that there are many students who will fail classes this semester because of either the lack of structure or the lack of internet, or maybe, I don’t know, they live on the other side of the planet. A friend of mine lives in Taiwan and he went home during spring break. He told us, ‘I am quarantined in my house. We get groceries delivered. Someone comes into my house every five hours to check my temperature.’ Yeah, just, write an essay during that? But I know there are professors who will fail students. The president of Purdue has this idea of grit and the ability to persevere through hardship ... Most recently, in last year’s commencement speech given to freshmen during orientation was about the importance of mental health and all the things that come with that at a massively demanding, extremely challenging school environment. So students who are struggling should find a way to develop grit and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, which is a hilarious phrase. That kind of philosophy is unfortunately the culture in a lot of the more intense majors at Purdue ... There’s a belief that if you didn’t succeed, you didn’t try hard enough. And yes, it’s more complicated than that, there’s more nuance to it, but at its core, if you did not pass this challenge that we created for you, it is your fault for not trying hard enough or not seeking out the resources available. — Anonymous, Purdue
There was a movement to change to credit/no credit, and it actually worked. People can choose to do credit/no credit classes, and the deadline for withdrawal has been extended past finals, too ... I didn’t see a lot [of online discourse on the grading policy] but from what I could see it was pretty friendly, I didn’t see anyone dissenting really. It was mostly people in the comments talking about changes they would make to the plans students were talking about, or the final plan put forth by the university, but nothing crazy. — Cassandra Thompson, CMU
Notre Dame has a credit/no credit policy they’ve put into action this semester ... You can decide after you see your final grade—there’s a couple day window for you to look at your final grades and decide if you want the grade to be pass/fail or if you want to take the letter grade you can. It’s great for a lot of people, but if you want to get into grad school or med school or anything like that, it doesn’t really do anything for you ... What’s funny is that a lot of my athlete friends are the ones who are premed. They really have no opinions because they’re not going to use pass/fail anyway. Also, there’s a lot more of a culture of putting your head down and getting to work when you’re an athlete. You don’t really have time to think about things to complain about because every minute of every day is scheduled out so exactly that you just have to get through it all . — Erin Isola, Notre Dame
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April 23, 2020
In ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters,’ Apple favors candor over cordiality Continued from Fiona Apple on page 1 Cutters” is far from Apple’s first masterpiece. So why, after years of relative obscurity, are we finally listening to Fiona Apple again? “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” is a thrilling fusion of all of Apple’s most alluring qualities—of her electrifyingly brazen treatment of gaslighting and toxicity on “When the Pawn…” (1999), of her playful, irreverent instrumentation on “Extraordinary Machine” (2005), of her sparse, avant-garde exploration of heartbreak and loneliness on “The Idler Wheel...” (2012).
She was ahead of her time in all of these projects, writing about trauma and mental illness with a level of honesty that few artists had the courage—or, perhaps, the emotional introspection and lyrical prowess—to approach. Her self-examination challenges the listener, forcing them to confront their most painful moments with similar scrutiny. “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” delves even deeper into Apple’s wounds than her past work—but this record, in many ways, came at the perfect time. Maybe in the post-#MeToo world, the public is
more receptive to an album with themes of abuse at its core; maybe in the era of social distancing, Apple’s conveyance of loneliness and depression feel more comforting than intimidating. Apple’s past work always felt grounded in her own present moment—she generally avoided ruminating on the world at large or her own thorny past. In 2000, she told a reporter that she avoided writing about her own rape that occurred at age 12, stating, “It’s a boring pain. It’s such a fuckin’ old pain that, you know, there’s nothing poetic about it” (Q, “Hard Core Pawn,” 03.2000). “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” feels revelatory in that Apple broadens the temporal and political scope of her lyricism for the first time. After opening with the quintessentially aching “I Want You to Love Me,” Apple dives into her experience as a victim of middle-school bullying in “Shameika” and “Fetch the Bolt Cutters.” In the latter she reflects, “Sayin’ I’m not stylish enough and I cry too much and I listened because I hadn’t found my own voice yet/So all I could hear was the noise that people make when they don’t know shit/But I didn’t know that yet.” It may seem odd for Apple, at 42, to now write about 30-year-old memories. But we all know that the passage of time doesn’t render these wounds irrelevant. Childhood and adolescence are when we shape our self-image, making it a terrifying time to ruminate on—which is likely why few artists address the topic. The album’s title refers to Apple finally interrogating and freeing herself of these ghosts. And while Apple has never shied away from analyzing toxic relationships, such frank discussion of sexual assault is novel. In “Relay,” Apple revisits a lyric she wrote at age 15 about accountability and forgiveness: “Evil is a relay sport when the one who’s burned turns to pass the torch.” She completed the
song as a response to the Kavanaugh hearings, an event that she says allowed her to finally look at her own assault with anger and blame toward her assailant rather than herself and other women. Apple has an unparalleled gift for metaphor, but in this record’s case, the most arresting moments come when she is unflinchingly direct. This is exemplified on “Newspaper,” the album’s chilling centerpiece. Apple sings of her deep connection with the current girlfriend of an abusive partner: “I watch him walk over you, talk over you, be mean to you/And it makes me feel close to you.” But the most striking lyric is obvious. In “For Her,” written on behalf of a fellow victim of assault, she screams, “Good morning/You raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in.” These moments result in a record that is far from easy listening. As Apple previously stated, it’s difficult to say anything “poetic” about assault. But “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” does not shy away from ugliness. It’s for this reason that her latest release is already a cultural touchstone—not every moment is graceful or elegant, but it’s honest. It’s refreshing to hear an artist not cloud these devastating moments with beautiful instrumentation or vocals, but rather reflect their abhorrence. As with any album declared “perfect” by music critics, there’s naturally some pushback—and especially so with one this experimental and raw. I’m unsure if “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” is perfect, or any more so than Apple’s past records, but it is certainly essential. It’s especially essential to women and victims of abuse, many of whom have never heard their stories reflected this masterfully and sincerely. But we can all learn from Apple’s brave, unyielding contemplation of herself, of her relationships and of the world. Without such meditation, it’s impossible to be free.
In final week of classes, faculty weigh efficacy of student strike Continued from Strike on page 1 the students of NFVC assert the NRO policy still falls short; for one, they explain on their website, “The current “no-fail” option in place is for students to withdraw from a course at the very end of the semester. While this is technically not failing a class, it means that the student will not receive credit for their work during the semester.” NFVC maintains that this would disproportionately impact students who are lacking resources or are dealing with other compounding impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Due to these unforeseen obstacles brought on by the public health crisis, these disadvantaged students are more susceptible to failing classes and would then have to withdraw from their class and not receive credit for the coursework they completed. Thus, they are more likely to face detrimental costs, such as paying for an extra semester of tuition, taking classes elsewhere, graduating late or dropping out of college entirely. As alternatives, NFVC demands that the College implement a no fail system, such as a UP or A/A- grading system. UP would guarantee that every student passes all of their classes and does not receive a letter grade while A/A- would ensure that each student receives either an A or A- for all of their classes. NFVC asserts that UP or A/A- would be more equitable grading models than Universal NRO because they would alleviate some of the stress placed upon individuals facing issues of housing or food security, WiFi connection, illness within the family or any other vulnerabilities during this ongoing public health crisis by taking regimented grades off of the table. To advocate for this position, the founders of NFVC mobilized students to participate in organized action against the current grading system. In an email from NFVC to the student body, the organization provided po-
tential participants with two different strike approaches. They could either choose to not attend Zoom classes or attend Zoom classes without providing their video or audio and make their icon a strike graphic designed by NFVC. Professors have differing views of the NFVC strikes. It is important to note that many professors are not in a position to go on the record on this issue, given junior and contingent faculty members are less secure in their employment compared to tenured faculty. The professors who were willing to be quoted by The Miscellany News regarding the strikes are tenured faculty. Generally speaking, the professors with whom The Miscellany News spoke respect students’ right to strike. Some expressed the belief that the NFVC movement exemplifies the civic agency and passion of the Vassar student body and raises pertinent questions regarding the inherent inequities of academia. Professor of Religion Jonathon Kahn commended the members and supporters of NFVC for their advocacy: “I applaud the sentiment behind the strike. I certainly love that students are being active.” Additionally, in an emailed statement to The Miscellany News, Dean of the College Carlos Alamo wrote, “I’ve had positive interactions and conversations with the group about these issues and appreciate their continued engagement.” However, while there are educators who have applauded the spirit of NFVC, many are still reluctant to fully support their chosen method to achieve grade equity. Although Kahn supports a school-wide UP system and has instituted a Double A policy for his own classes, he is wary of the practicality behind the demonstrations. “Generally, strikes are for laborers against their employers and students do not constitute laborers in this situation. They’re not going to be hurting the institution in the way that a worker hurts
their employer by not producing the thing that the employer is trying to create,” he explained. “I get that there is a real desire to insist that assessment needs to be understood differently … I just, from a practical matter, don’t see how striking classes gets them to that end.” Some professors and faculty have even posited that the strikes may make an already difficult learning environment more challenging. In her discussions with faculty and the Dean of Studies class advisers, Associate Dean of Faculty Kathleen Susman noted the discomfort strikes may cause in a classroom setting. She stated, “The strike threats have intimidated particularly new faculty. Many faculty were very worried about the other students in their classes and the anxiety provoked in them by the threat of a strike or active disruptions in their classes.” Beyond the classroom, faculty have also been critical of the fervent dialogue on various social media platforms between Vassar community members. Professor and Chair of Economics Paul Ruud explained, “On several occasions, I discussed the policy and related activities with students. What struck my students most, and me in turn, was the character of a public argument among students on Facebook. I have not seen it. Apparently there was a lot of shaming. None of my students wanted to participate; I wouldn’t either.” As an alternative to the strikes, several professors have promoted tactics that encourage students and faculty to engage and converse with one another. Ruud, who is using the Universal NRO policy in his classes, is still tailoring his class to the particular demands of his students. He has done so through open communication between himself and his students: “My approach to grading is part of a broader attempt to respond to the difficulties my students and I
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
face. For example, I am covering the course material differently, going deeper on fewer topics, and I am asking my students to do smaller but more frequent assignments … We have been working together to figure out what seems to serve them best within the limits of what I can manage. In some individual cases, we have changed the course format to accommodate significant personal challenges.” While the NFVC coordinators have recognized and praised instructors who have been effectively communicating and accommodating their students, they also argue that the increased responsibility of professors to understand every individual’s particular situation can be difficult. On the NobodyFailsVC website, the organization’s members posit, “Not all students have been able to receive support, even after working with their professors and Dean of Studies. Not all students are in positions to firmly advocate for themselves ... When a student’s needs in these exceptional circumstances go beyond the scope of what a single professor is able to influence, having an overarching policy would be essential.” Ultimately, many faculty believe that no matter which grading policy prevails, there will always be some sort of disagreement. As expressed by Professor Kahn, “There’s complications any which way you go.” No single policy will apply equally to all members of the college community. As the grading debate proceeds, both educators and students alike continue to promote what they believe is best for the Vassar community, even if their solutions may not be the same. In his emailed statement, Dean Alamo shared, “While we may not always agree on tactics and approaches, we all share a profound desire to support all members of our community as much as possible during this difficult moment.”
April 23, 2020
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Life on PAUSE: How to use your extra time Continued from How To on page 1 first-years you didn’t get to meet yet. • Use your eyes to cry for the people you might never meet, or don’t; there’s no guidebook. She’s better now. She’s been cleared. We’re waiting on the results of her antibody test. Use your eyes to keep reading of reality, even though you want to look away. • Tomorrow, she’ll go back to work. It’s the same place that the news media keeps photographing, but the photos aren’t the whole truth. Your sister and her friends are very good doctors in an ill-equipped system. Use your curiosity to conduct little interviews before you realize you’re memorizing every word, perhaps because life is something forced upon us and not something we can choose. “The worst part is talking to the people who can’t see their families,” she said once, “or talking to two family members at once. They have to choose one. That’s your designated communicator. It’s too busy for anything else.” Some doctors ordered their own personal protective gear in the beginning. The windows to the cafeteria are covered in plastic because, your sister says, she understands now
that there are morgue trucks outside. Use your legs to go on a walk, which creates more distance between life and death. Use your nose to accidentally ingest a cough too close to you. Use your remaining energy to work on your finals. • You always knew your sister watched people die, but not like this. One day she came home from work as pale as a ghost. • Whine through tears today at dinner: “That’s why I feel guilty. I know there’s so much that is so much worse, but I miss my friends.” Use a healthy cough to clear your throat. Watch them shiver. Something inside stirs when you remember your mother’s work in New York City during the AIDS epidemic. It’s fascinating to watch these matriarchs interact: Both of them are heroes. They were heroes before their crises. They will be heroes after their ends. They have both been heroes in the middle. But use your head: heroism is a medical label, and reforms like hazard pay and reallocation are vials of the vaccine. Use Google Drive to upload your home-
work files. • Use your phone to make it easier: somewhere in the thick of this, there’s an alert that makes a sound unlike anything since Trump first tested one himself. And the news that your 60-something father has to run a COVID-19 unit in a specialty he hasn’t worked in since the 80s. See a lot of privilege in this. Realize that he’s not called in right away. Find comfort in his being home—for now. Watch him negotiate. Watch your family laugh at Trump’s suggestions. Find out, from your sister, that doctors use selfies instead of signatures to verify loss in the death certificate app. Use the tapping of your toes to count the hours between the laughs and your sister saying, “It was funny until it wasn’t.” Watch her pull up the messages from her coworkers. People are being admitted for having bathed in bleach. “Well, that was fast,” her friend said. People have too much faith in the sun. Use your lungs because they can’t. • Use your strength to “have some perspective,” as your sister says. “People are dying.” Love her so much that it stings.
Use your free will to run to your bedroom. Let habit and not blurry, salted vision guide you after your family asks—or maybe you asked yourself, because you can’t remember who said it—why you hate being home so much. • You don’t hate it. You’ve never hated it. What you hate is the knowledge that there is so much and so little, but gravity still won’t let you visit the moon with an impressive-enough jump. Gravity still won’t let you! • In using our dreams, we can escape. Using our worries, we revert to living in a nightmare. • Use your mouth to say “I haven’t really reached REM since it started” over Zoom, and act like it’s a joke for your friends. But you’re grateful. You know yourself, and you know the dreams would be monstrous. Use your words to say that, in some ways, you’re grateful for the pause. • Use your hands to craft the perfect sourdough starter? • Use your words to say you’re grateful for the PAUSE?
Seniors reflect on historical fight for Critical Ethnic Studies Continued from Vasam on page 1 in which a coalition of radical students of color organized the longest student strike in U.S. history. In 1979, alongside the strikes of other students of color, the TWLF’s demands reached Vassar when Asian American students called for the introduction of an Asian American Studies program. In 1991, the Vassar Asian Students’ Alliance planned a protest day to advocate for ASAM studies, citing unfulfilled demands from 12 years prior. A letter released that year to the student body stated that “many Asian students are frustrated with the lack of concern on the part of administrators.” ASAM courses were offered sporadically following that movement, but professors who taught in the field were often contingent. Students advocated for Vassar to grant ASAM studies professors tenure. In 2006, the Dean of the Faculty ceded to the student-led Ethnic Studies Coalition’s demands for Vassar to “devote two tenure-track lines to each of Latino/a, Native American, and Asian American studies—six positions phased in over ten years.” The proposal “seem[ed] to [him] a reasonable and effective way to address these issues, consistent with some plans that had already been in the works.” In 2016, two tenure-track Asian American Studies faculty members should have been teaching at Vassar. The two of us were first-years back then, just entering a new institution, feeling out our potential academic pathways. Perhaps it is unsurprising for us to report that those two professors were never hired—there were a smattering of Asian American courses offered, but professors came and went, often leaving us with zero ASAM classes when they went on sabbatical. Instead, we spent our college career from sophomore year on replicating our predecessors’ work. We launched social and visual media campaigns, put out campus-wide petitions and surveys and sat through countless meetings with administrators, curricula committees, faculty members, trustees and department chairs. Upon realizing how drawn-out a process it was to strengthen course offerings under Vassar’s bureaucracy, we taught ourselves Asian American Studies. We organized panel presentations with Vassar Critical Ethnic Studies professors and workshops with ASAM Studies faculty from other institutions. In the fall of 2019 when once again no Asian
American Studies courses were offered, we created a weekly student-run, anti-institutional, un-credited class in Rocky 312, our fugitive space. Students exhibited their art, photography, critical theory, poetry, essays and presentations at an end-of-semester showcase. Our three years of activism have made us realize that our erasure is no natural state. It is the product of a fraught and centuries-long racialized history which has discouraged our environments (academic and otherwise) from investing in political and intellectual power for people of color. This history surfaces at Vassar when professors of color leave our predominantly white institutions for positions elsewhere, and when upon the graduation of vocal student activists, the institution ceases its performative support for Critical Ethnic Studies. Because of Vassar’s neglect, we endured being chided by our peers, professors and administrators for overreacting, for being self-indulgent and demanding too much. What exactly do you want to learn about? Isn’t that the same as Asian Studies? Are you sure there’s enough student interest? Is this a sufficiently rigorous discipline? Of course we were intimately aware of the systemic violence behind our own existences, but how
were we to fit it within Vassar’s academic imagination? Institutional inclusion relied on our ability to perform our own marginality and suffering.We turned our most intimate pain inside out as a tactical move and reduced our existence to a diversity token prized by the college to prove to everyone that we need ASAM studies, that our Asian American, student of color and broader Vassar community needs it. Tripping over our words, our tongues split, we labored to convey that Asian American studies is more than just us and our individual experiences. No more would our histories remain in the footnotes, margins and indexes of this nation’s narrative. We demanded a discipline that reckons with the legacies of war, empire, migration, diaspora, transnational relations and mundane life through the lens of the marginalized instead of the geopolitical perspective that founded the Asian studies and other regional studies. Yet the fear that ASAM studies was a self-centered venture still bubbled up as we made our demands. We swallowed our own doubt over and over again, stared down our absence and felt as small and illegitimate as we ever have. But we endured. In those difficult times, we held on tight to our community. We taught, supported,
Above, the student-run class on Environmental Justice and Asian America taught by Tamika Whitenack. Courtesy of VASAM Working Group
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
fed and cared for one another. Hunched over steaming bowls, we savored the hot-pot cooked with the one clean pot in Raymond’s kitchen. At 10 p.m. on weekday nights, we theorized and ranted to each other, tucked away in our dorms and apartments. Friday afternoons we sat cross-legged in the grass, reading radical Asian American activists’ work in our student-led class, feeling joyous and invigorated. Our community, the people who understand our feelings of isolation on a corporeal level, moved us towards healing and collective power. They generated the energy it took for us to secure ASAM course offerings. Today, we beam as we picture Asian American first-years filling out their pre-reg forms. They’ll file in to AMST/ASIA 185 on the first day and all the foundational ASAM material will be there for them, organized neatly into a 12-week sequence. They won’t have the scrounge for knowledge like we did. Still, we celebrate cautiously. This intro course is no end point in our struggle. Without tenure-track faculty lines, Vassar could easily tear down what we created, forcing a future generation of Asian American students to build it back up. We remember that Vassar, an institution established upon the exclusion of people of color, did not give us these classes; we fought for them. The urgency and timeliness of Critical Ethnic Studies has not wavered. Earlier this year, Vassar’s systemic and historical racism once again reared its head when news broke of the indigenous remains and collection of racist images held in Vassar’s possession. Now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, racially driven violence has left our siblings’ faces bashed in, reminding us that invisibility so readily morphs into hypervisibility at the convenience of white supremacy. Our de-politicized “model minority” status was always provisional, and our existence was always political. It still is. To those who will continue the fight for Critical Ethnic Studies: Remember that the struggle is rooted in anti-institutional movements. We exist not to be accepted by academia, but to transform it, to function both within and without it. Vassar will try to call you “niche,” flatten you, reduce you to a diversity quota. Know that you are anything but. Do not let your identity restrict your being; instead, make it your power.
OPINION
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April 23, 2020
April 23, 2020
‘Never-Biden’ stand down: Trump has to go Sawyer Bush Columnist
I
was worried this was going to happen. I was scared that as soon as progressives lost Bernie Sanders to the inevitability of electoral math we would fracture away from what is at stake: Donald Trump cannot remain in office for another four years. I am a supporter of both Warren and Sanders, and even fought back against the push for Sanders to drop out of the race before the odds against him were absolute. I too think the two-party system is one of the great flaws of this country. But now is not the time for a never-Biden movement. The disunity of progressives is the exact same mistake that gave us President Bush in 2000 when Al Gore clearly lost the election after Ralph Nader siphoned off progressive votes because progressives claimed that there was no difference between Al Gore, the democratic nominee, and Bush. And this lack of unity is exactly how we went wrong with President Trump in 2016. One of the key skills in making progress in politics is knowing when to push for change and when to acknowledge the necessity of compromise. Bernie Sanders himself acknowledges this necessary strategy. Despite going on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” in 2009 and expressing his severe disapproval of the Affordable Care Act for its “lack of ‘a strong public option’ to compete with private plans and control premiums,” Sanders voted for the bill two weeks later acknowledging that even if it wasn’t as much progress as he would like, it was still a step in the right direction. If Sanders acknowledges the necessity for this compromise, his devoted supporters should do so as well. As much as I fought for either Warren or Sanders to have become our Democratic nominee, the only option Democrats are left with is former Vice President Joe Biden.
Now, as much as I resent the fact that he’s the last one standing, it is incontestable that we’re no longer talking about which nominee would be best; we’re talking about who here would be the least bad. At the very least, Biden is a step in the right direction (in this case, perhaps even a step away from the wrong direction). Even Sanders has announced his support for Biden, and has directly endorsed him. Sanders understands that at this point there is something greater at stake. The women of this country cannot afford another four years of President Trump. The working class of this country cannot afford another four years of President Trump. People of color of this country cannot afford another four years of President Trump. And just about every single person impacted by a progressive issue won in any Supreme Court case cannot afford another four years of Donald Trump. After three years, the president has managed to appoint two very conservative justices to the Supreme Court. Unless we get a Democrat into the White House in November, we very likely might lose another Supreme Court seat, turning the tide to six conservatives and three progressives in the Supreme Court, for sadly as much as we love her, there is a very real possibility that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may not be able to sit on the bench for another four years. The reproductive rights afforded by Roe v. Wade are on the line here. The Center for Reproductive Rights produced a report in 2017 which clearly states that if Roe v. Wade were overturned, 33 states would not permit legal access to safe abortions. If you dug just a little below the surface, you would see that the 2020 election is so much more than an ideological fight for the most progressive values; there is an incredibly harmful possibility of a Trump victory. We cannot afford to lose another seat on the Supreme Court, not if we would like to see the
HOROSCOPES
people of this country continue to maintain control over their reproductive rights and their own bodies. If we want to end the toxic regime of colorblind ideology in our courts that holds us back from remedying the racial injustices of our past, we must remove Donald Trump from the White House. Republicans have historically put emphasis on packing the courts with judges with conservative values, judges who believe that true racial equality equates to colorblindness. Democrats must focus on getting progressive-minded judges onto benches across the country in order to give people of color their long overdue equal status in our society. We lose all hope of doing this if we allow President Trump to reside in office for another four years and continue to install conservative judges and justices who assert that all in this country are similarly situated despite race and that we owe nothing to those we have subjugated and continue to subjugate. You ask me not to beg you to vote for Joe Biden. But that is exactly what I am going to do, not because I am particularly fond of his past or even in love with his policies, but because there is something so much greater at stake. Think about women across this country who would likely lose their right to an abortion and reproductive rights; people of color across this country who are continuously harmed by the colorblind regime of the court system; and those who have the most to fear from the novel coronavirus, from the elderly in nursing homes to all those with preexisting conditions. Empathize for just a minute: With all of these people in mind, I beg you, vote for Joe Biden. Let’s not repeat 2000. Let’s not repeat 2016. We cannot afford it. Let’s take on the two-party system, but not now. Millions of Americans less fortunate than yourself can no longer afford to have an incompetent tyrant in office.
Madi Donat
Astral Projector
ARIES
Mar 21 | Apr 19
Say what’s on your mind while it still feels raw and natural. Resist the urge to shrug your shoulders, to contort yourself into a lie, because since when have you not known what you wanted? TAURUS
Apr 20 | May 20
To see the world is a gift for another time. Focus on creating, in the way only human hands can. Our species is far from perfect, but we can make bread from dough and really, what else is there? GEMINI
May 21 | Jun 20
There is little else to do but open the windows and feel the air recklessly. Resist the urge to parse every thought flickering across your mind; naming your emotions is scary and thus the only thing that matters. CANCER
Jun 21 | Jul 22
It is a well-known fact that the wanting means nothing unless you say it. Opening yourself is difficult work, but it’s never done anyone good to be blinded with sunshine in the middle of a storm.
LEO
Jul 23 | Aug 22
Find someone to count breaths and days with. This too shall pass, and soon you will help someone up from the floor by taking their outstretched hand. Until then, find a space to exist safely together. VIRGO
Aug 23 | Sep 22
It’s simple: Sleep when you’re tired; eat when you’re hungry; take back what’s yours, even when the person who took it from you loves you very very very much. The list of rules for being a human is short. LIBRA
Sep 23 | Oct 22
A desire to be vulnerable is a virtue, but get too close to someone and you’ll end up entwined. Two hearts don’t fit in one body, so in what world will burrowing yourself into somebody’s chest save you? SCORPIO
Oct 23 | Nov 21
Can you stand it, the way the light falls? How it pulses and churns and refuses to settle? But then, wishing you could relish in the purple of twilight gets you nowhere. Open your eyes. You aren’t a vampire.
SAGITTARIUS
Nov 22 | Dec 21
Take tweezers to your thoughts and think before you speak. Learn freedom from confinement, and recognize that the mind is more open than the body ever can be, whether or not you find yourself in a box. CAPRICORN
Dec 22 | Jan 19
Yes, people have noticed that you’ve gotten quiet. Can you allow yourself enough energy to tell them why? When they tell you they love you, they mean it. Say it back, and loudly, if you can. AQUARIUS
Jan 20 | Feb 18
The first step is to find someone that listens, and the second is to realize that in listening, people learn how to know you. Everything you say and do gives parts of you away. Let them beyond your mind. PISCES Feb 19 | Mar 20 Nobody wants you off and away, so save your favorite daydream and give the others a rest. The world is already in color; your mind’s eye only curates what it already knows. Be obnoxiously present.
Opinions articles do not reflect the position of The Miscellany News as a whole, but solely those of the author.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Madeline Dean
Guest Columnist
I
n this primary election, like m others, moderate Democrats chos nominee. I understand why this m many progressives feel left behind— ever, Joe Biden himself has said he k he will have to earn progressive vote This article is not a case of mode imploring progressives to vote Bide no reason. This is me, a progressive suading you, another progressive, a the progressive case for voting for Bi I want to vote for someone more gressive than Biden. In this prima voted for Elizabeth Warren. I’m hop can again in 2024. However, that is i future, and right now, I’m respondi Alice Woo’s op-ed from two weeks ag which she tries to argue that progres shouldn’t vote for Joe Biden. And so, I am asking: Please, please vote fo Biden. Woo’s argument is based on a placed focus on comparing Biden Sanders. She focuses on his record. his record isn’t good! Sanders’ is m better! But the choice is no longe tween Sanders and Biden. It’s bet Biden and Trump, and it is hard t gue that Trump’s record is better or
Doug Cobb Columnist
[CW: This article mentions sexual assa magine if we could vote for a exciting, unflawed, very progre candidate this November. Unfortu ly we live in the real world. The r of our electoral system is that we pick between two options this Novem Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Let m clear: Joe Biden is not my first choi president. I wanted a more progre candidate (I was a Warren supporte fore she dropped out), and there’s n nying Joe Biden has a disturbing his he supported the Iraq War, and acco to recent allegations he sexually assa a former staffer, Tara Reade. But W is not on the ballot, and neither is B Sanders. If you care about the futu this country you must vote for Joe B Anyone who does not vote for Joe Bid proclaiming that they are perfectly with Donald Trump staying preside you choose to vote third party, or wri or not vote at all, then when future erations ask you “What did you do to Trump?” you will have to reply, “Not I decided to let him have a second ter Look, I get it. I think all progre should be disappointed with being f to vote for Biden, but we absolutely look at the bigger picture. We mus fy the party to stop the most dang president in recent history. There growing movement of progressives say they will refuse to vote for Bide it because they are hell bent on San or because they believe Biden is un love the uncompromising spirit bu is a big reason why Trump won in Progressives are far too unwilling to their nose and vote for a candidate isn’t their first pick. Whether or not liked Trump, conservatives all ove country voted for him because they w ed to get that Supreme Court nomina Many progressives did not do the sam Hillary Clinton.
I
OPINION
Page 9
My progressive case for Joe Biden
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passable. He had never held public office before becoming president. And the last three years have certainly not inspired hope in Trump’s policies—he’s threatened war with Iran (twice!), separated families at the border, shut down the government twice and instated a travel ban on 13 countries. The travel ban is something we don’t talk about enough. Citizens of those countries can’t travel or immigrate to the United States, restrictions which were in place before COVID-19 and likely will be afterward the pandemic. Yemen saw a 91 percent decrease in the number of visas offered because of the travel ban. The U.S. government says there are exceptions, such as visiting dying family members, but only 2 percent of these exceptions are ever granted. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is implicated in the ban as well. Trump implemented this ban via executive order, which means that a President Biden could (and has promised to) repeal this policy without any input from Congress. Woo’s original argument misconstrues Biden’s campaign and his ideology. Biden agrees with Sanders on raising the federal minimum wage to $15. He opposes war with Iran. And this is to say nothing of his
possible Supreme Court appointments, who are in office for life and have control over issues like abortion legality and same-sex marriage, both of which Biden supports. This is all to say: Voting for him is not just a symbolic gesture. Woo’s call to vote for the Green Party is similarly misguided, rooted in a deep misunderstanding of American politics. I doubt many who currently consider themselves to be Republicans—a party that “support[s] the development of all forms of energy that are marketable in a free economy without subsidies, including coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, and hydropower”—will ever vote for the Green Party. This in mind, an empowered Green Party will just suck votes away from the Democrats, offering more control to the Republicans. In America, any candidate needs to get the highest percentage of the vote in any given district to get a seat in Congress. For example, if the Green Party receives 20 percent of the vote, let’s say, and the Democrats get 35 percent, and the Republicans get 45 percent, then all of the seats will go to the Republicans, despite them not getting a majority. It is useful to think of American political parties as arms of the government
rather than true ideologically based parties. It is the Right and the Left, and yes, if you don’t support the Left you are supporting the Right. If you don’t support progress—even modest progress—you are supporting the way things are. It may be true that Biden will be unlikely to win because only 24 percent of the population strongly supports him. As a non-political scientist, I don’t feel like I should speculate on who will win (though plenty believe Biden will). But while Biden’s lack of a strong base of supporters may prove a liability in the upcoming election, it will make progressive policies easier to pass because Biden needs progressives’ support in a way that Trump does not. This will make him a better leader, and not just accountable to those who strongly support him. And if you don’t vote because of your dissatisfaction with the current political system, I would like to remind you that staying silent isn’t a form of exercising your voice. Not voting does not demonstrate dissatisfaction; it is giving up your power. Ultimately, the government is loyal to those keeping them in power, so not voting is surrendering control to whoever is currently in charge. As for those who say that the differ-
ence between a Biden and Trump administration will not affect them personally, I’m sorry. But I would implore you to think about other people. Think about immigrants who want a better life for themselves. Think about women in the South who could lose the right to end an unwanted pregnancy. Think about the middle-class families in Iran who lost everything once Trump put sanctions back in place. I am voting for Joe Biden because there is no question that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, and Trump has not put any restrictions into place to prevent that from happening again. At the same time, Republicans have purged college students and Black voters from registration rolls. All the while, Trump continues to inflict more violence on people in America and across the globe. Whatever damage a Biden administration does (and I don’t deny that there will be damage) will be reversible in the next election or two or three. But I fear that Trump intends to undermine the electoral system so that there is Republican domination over the country that can only be usurped by violence. And that is not something that I can support.
I live in the real world: Here, it’s Biden or bust
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No candidate will ever be perfect—Biden is certainly far from it—but we need to take victories wherever we can get them, no matter how small. And by victories, I don’t just mean elections, but also policy. I wanted Medicare for All, and that just isn’t on the table anymore, but I still have a responsibility to make sure Trump can’t stay in the White House. And even though it’s not as ideal as Bernie’s plan, Biden’s public option is better than giving Trump and the Republicans another four years to kill the Affordable Care Act. This isn’t just an ideological game. People’s lives are at stake here; thousands could die from lack of health care coverage alone. Clinton was far from perfect as well, but I would really prefer her calling the shots during the pandemic than whatever Trump is doing right now (inject disinfectant? sunlight? what?). Whatever choice you made in 2016 is behind us, but the gravity of the situation is now crystal clear after seeing four years of Trump. I know all of you Bernie supporters are ticked off, but we need you to swallow your pride and vote for Biden. Clinton lost the 2016 election because of three states (PA, WI, MI) with a combined margin of defeat of just 80,000 votes across those three states, which is far less than the more than 500,000 votes that went to Gary Johnson and Jill Stein in those three states. Extreme Bernie supporters love to hate the “Democratic establishment” and are always saying Bernie got screwed. He didn’t, he lost this primary fair and square. The people spoke, and whether you like it or not, they chose Biden. Biden was able to energize Black voters in a way that Bernie never could, and won southern states over Bernie easily. The primary is over. We now only have two choices and we need to do what is best for our country. I have been called “privileged” for being able to get behind a more centrist blue nominee despite my progressive values. To that I must point out: Anyone who decides to not vote for Biden because
he doesn’t perfectly match up with their progressive views is in an incredibly privileged position, not to mention making an incredibly selfish choice. Biden is not a great man, but at this point he’s the only thing left besides one of the absolute worst. Trump has blood on his hands. Trump has locked innocent children up in cages at the border. He refuses to condemn white supremacy. He has appointed a hotheaded Supreme Court justice who has been accused of rape. The list goes on and on. So if you still decide not to vote for Biden, then you are directly responsible for those children being held in inhumane conditions at the border and you have to answer for a president who still will not condemn neo-Nazis. And you are directly responsible for unnecessary deaths caused by a weak response to a pandemic. Trump’s response to the coronavirus has been outright unacceptable. As early as January Trump was receiving classified warnings about the threat of the virus from intelligence officials, but he ignored all health officials who told him to take action. On March 10, two months after the initial warnings, by which time the virus had already come to America, Trump said “Just stay calm. It will go away.” As of the writing of this article, he is still peddling misinformation and unsubstantiated treatments. Say what you will about Biden, but I am confident that he will surround himself with smart and capable people and he will not ignore his health officials. We could see another pandemic, or perhaps the one we’re currently in will flare up again, and having Trump in office will yet again put us all in danger. This leads me to one of the most important reasons we have to back Biden: appointments. If Biden becomes president, he gets to appoint Supreme Court justices, as well as a host of other positions in smaller courts, and the heads of organizations like the EPA, CIA and Depart-
ment of Education. The president’s influence stretches far beyond their policy decisions and trickles down into all parts of the government. Voting against Biden is not only selecting an evil president, but allowing for the entire government to be constructed by him. If you don’t vote for Biden, this all rests on your shoulders too. I am really tired of people only looking out for their own personal interests at the
Opinions articles do not reflect the position of The Miscellany News as a whole, but solely those of the author.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
ballot box. To be honest, I don’t give a damn what your political views are or who your top choice was—you have a responsibility to millions of Americans whose lives are being ruined by Trump to vote him out. The only way to do that given the reality we find ourselves in is to vote for Biden. Don’t make a decision you will regret this November—swallow your damn pride and vote for Joe Biden.
Photo courtesy of Jay Godwin. Edited by Frankie Knuckles/The Miscellany News.
Page 10
April 23, 2020
The Miscellany Crossword
“Green Things”
by Frank
ACROSS 1. green lemon 5. greed veggie paired with carrots 9. grows on a green lawn 14. usually highest cards in deck 15. ‘it will’ conjunction 16. permitted by law 17. attractive, neat, perky 18. a story 19. a proverb or short truth 20. a receipt 22. rid of illness 23. to apply force or make an effort 24. German for ‘stone’ 26. utilize 29. French title for addressing women 33. to be from Sudan 38. one who places 39. resting on, preposition
40. on or toward the left side of a ship 42. leavened bread from Western/South Asia, Myanmar, and the Caribbean 43. action of an animal to drink up, past tense 45. 12:00 p.m. + pattern of ocean waves 47. having to do with heat energy, prefix 48. endearment originally used between the guys 49. the protection or support of a particular person/organization 52. oust, overthrow, depose 57. manual escalator 60. ring of muscle surrounding an opening 63. Oil Capital of the World, formerly 64. to burn or scorch 65. name of world’s oldest dog 66. heavenly entity 67. ‘do ____ others as you would have them
do ____ you’ 68. green plant with no flowers and leafy fronds 69. facial hair on jaw 70. first garden, biblically 71. green amphibian
DOWN 1. gap or failure of judgement 2. hiking tool used in frozen conditions (two words) 3. Haggard, country singer 4. chemical compound responsible for aroma of apples, pears, bananas 5. underarm regions 6. ‘and others’ citation 7. an old US machinery manufacturer, ‘_____-Chalmers’ 8. hibernated
9. relating to the presence of large bodies of ice 10. needlessly repetitive 11. gelatin obtained from red seaweed 12. wise or intelligent 13. object used for riding down snowcovered hills 21. to startle, daze, stupefy 25. Latin for ‘buyer’ 27. ocean+pup 28. extrasensory perception, abbr 30. berries popularized by smoothie bowls 31. alcoholic beverage with honey 32. sea eagle 33. partner to pepper 34. half of this state is populated by Mormons 35. very good, a drug, or an idiot 36. someone who evaluates the value of homes 37. long period of time 41. to steal from 44. green gem 46. an object, person, place, or idea 50. a problem or an edition of a magazine 51. to pay money 53. mock or ridicule 54. to emit sound or express 55. vintage 56. forks tend to have 3 or 4 57. to poke violently with a sharp object 58. a melody or song 59. singular form of algae 61. loathe or abhor 62. metal associated with Tony Stark
Answers to previous puzzle
Womp Womp World by Frank
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
