The Miscellany News, Volume CXLVII, Issue 6 (Oct. 31, 2013)

The Miscellany News

Volume CXLVII | Issue 6

October 31, 2013

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Feminism adapts to digital world Local children see the magic of science at VC O Elizabeth Dean and Debbie Altman GuEst rEpOrtErs

n October 24, 2013, the ALANA Center hosted an event titled “A Discussion of Race and Digital Feminism.” The ALANA Center is a place on campus for events, resources, and support for Vassar’s many students of color. It is located near the Old Laundry Building and provides space for events hosted by its many students groups and employees. The program also drew on the expertise of members of the Women’s Center here at Vassar. It was led

by ALANA Center Program Intern Brittani Skyers-White ’16, a women’s studies major. Skyers-White wrote in an emailed statement, “ [I] wanted to promote discussion about using digital media as [a] means to discuss feminism and issues of inclusivity in mainstream feminism.”

Skyers-White continued, “The majority of people on campus are involved in some sort of social media and use social media to prompt discussion about social justice issues; it seems fitting to talk openly about inclusivity. The reason I want-

ed to talk specifically about digital feminism was because of the Hugo Schwyzer controversy (a person who touts himself as a ‘male feminist’ and openly admitted via Twitter purposefully putting down feminists of color).”

She continued, “Though that controversy is a more blatant example of female-identified persons of color not being included in feminist conversation, it’s extremely important to realize who and what issues are being represented repeatedly See DIGITAL on page 4

Eloy Bleifuss Prados

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assistant FEaturEs EditOr

agic is scientifically impossible. But can science sometimes be magical? The Chemistry Department tested this hypothesis last week in a “Magic Show” where Vassar student volunteers performed fun and flashy chemistry experiments for children.

Held annually to celebrate the National Foundation for Science’s Chemistry Week, the event on Oct. 23 in Sanders Auditorium hoped to instill in the young children a lifelong interest in chemistry.

Lab Technician and organizer

Jenn Jackson described the magic show as having one simple goal: “To show kids that science is fun and exciting.”

She introduced the show telling the invited class from Whimpfheimer Nursery School and Toddler Centerthat they were about to witness what she said were “A few things we can do with chemistry that seem a lot like magic.”

The magic tricks themselves were less acts of misdirection or deception than demonstrations of straightforward but dramatic chemical processes, the type of experiSee MAGIC on page 6

RSL reestablishes the Library Quiet Room Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

Women’s studies major Brittani Skyers-White ‘16 hosted an event on Thursday, October 24 in the ALANA Center. The event included a discussion of the intersectionality of race, gender, class and feminism online.

Noble Ingram and Palak Patel nEWs EditOr and dEsiGn EditOr

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n Sunday, Oct. 27, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL) hosted the first event of a series of events in the Quiet Room of the library called “Soul Sundays.” At 8 p.m., several students gathered on the third floor of the Library for an hour of contemplative practices including meditation, poetry, song and interactive activities that fostered thought and discussion.

The main voice behind this pro-

gram’s conception was RSL intern Gabe Dunsmith ’15. He came together with Director of the RSL Office Sam Speers in order to provide an opportunity for students to be introduced to contemplative practices in a space that is not often used for this purpose.

The first Soul Sunday meeting involved an introduction to contemplative practices. The night began with a silent meditation practice and then moved to a discussion about a See SOULon page 4

Field hockey earns its Soulful Solange to serenade Vassar first ever playoff spot W Jack Owen arts EditOr

Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

Chris Brown spOrts EditOr

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ith a winning record of 11 wins and only five losses, this year marks the first time in history that the Vassar College field hockey team has made it to post season play. In a momentous season for the Vassar Brewer women, the team will seek to move on in the

playoffs and claim their first Liberty League title in the program’s history. And their most recent win against Scranton University only bolsters the team’s standings in the league.

Field hockey has been dominate during home conference games, winning three out of three of them, See HOCKEY on page 20

Inside this issue

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Students should share costs of dorm OPINIONS damages

17 ARTS

McQueen’s 12 Years reveals horrors of 19th-century South

courtesy of Carlton Jordan

Senior halfback Rachel Waldman led the team on the defensive end vs the University of Scranton. The Vassar team defeated Scranton in overtime 2-1.

ith her velvety voice, inventive lyrics, funky dance moves and impossibly cool style, it is no wonder that Solange Knowles is one of the most anticipated performers to hit Vassar in years. Her most recent EP, “True,” has been met with nearly universal critical acclaim, spawning hits such as “Losing You,” and “Lovers in the Parking Lot,” and her performances and music videos have been highly praised.

Knowles, brought by ViCE Music and the Council of Black Seniors, will perform in the Chapel on Friday at 8 p.m. with special guest Iman Omari.

Knowles’ visit to Vassar is part of a series of sporadic college concerts.

“I had her on the back of my mind for a while, but when her agency approached us about her having availability in our area, it just made it that much more of a reality,” wrote ViCE Music Director Maya Toler ’16 in an emailed statement.

“Solange is known by many as her sister, Beyoncé’s antithesis. However, in the last few years she has been coming into her own and making a name for herself as more than the talented little sis.”

Since her musical debut as the lead vocalist of the Proud Family theme song in 2001 and debut album Solo Star, Knowles has worked to establish her own musical style and voice.

A prolific songwriter—she began See SOLANGE on page 16

Fashion icon and eclectic musician Solange Knowles will grace the Chapel stage on Friday at 8 p.m. for ViCE’s annual fall concert, opened by guest Iman Omar.

18 SPORTS

NFL should focus on issues at home, not across the pond

The Miscellany News

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October 31, 2013

Independent bookstores a dying breed Emily Dowling

main CirClE BlOGGEr

Bethan Johnson

Senior Editors

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Chris Gonzalez Steven Williams

Contributing Editors Ruth Bolster Adam Buchsbaum Jessica Tarantine

News Noble Ingram Features Aja Saalfeld Opinions Angela Della Croce Joshua Sherman Humor & Satire Lily Doyle Arts Jack Owen Sports Christopher Brown Tina Caso Photography Cassady Bergevin Spencer Davis Design Palak Patel Online Alessandra Seiter

photo credit: Lily Choi

rowing up, I was always enchanted by bookstores. At my local bookstore, I would wander through the seemingly endless shelves, searching through the battered copies of used books and the shiny new bestsellers. I would pull out a novel and curl up on the floor between the shelves to read the first few pages, hoping each time that I had discovered the perfect purchase.

Now, bookstores continue to remind me of the endless possibilities of the literary world, displaying all of the incredible new books that are being published today as well as classic and unforgettable works that were written decades or even centuries ago.

Unfortunately, bookstores—both local and larger corporate establishments—have been in trouble for some time now due to the rising popularity of eBooks and online stores such as Amazon, where consumers can purchase titles from the comfort and convenience of their homes. Borders, which had been the second-largest bookseller in the nation, filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and was forced to close all of its locations, while Barnes & Noble started to close locations earlier this year to save money. Many local, independent, and used book stores across the country have also had to shut down, leaving behind empty shelves and deserted storefronts. In 2011, a Buzzfeed staffer captured these mass closures in a post entitled “25 Depressing Portraits of Closed Bookstores,” accompanied by an equally bleak caption: “Sad. See you in another life, bookstores.” As these stores close, we lose vital community centers that fostered a love of literature.

Read about the best bookstores around the globe, and other blogs, on the Main Circle blog at miscellanynews.com

Editor-in-Chief

As electronic bookstores like Amazon, and large chain stores like Barnes and Noble flood the market with cheap editions, small local bookstores have slowly been closing. However, their communal value and beauty can still be found around the world.

Want to stay up-to-date on Vassar news? Follow The Miscellany News on Twitter and keep up in 140 characters or less!

Crossword Editor Assistant Features Assistant Arts Assistant Sports Assistant Photo

Jack Mullan Eloy Bleifuss Prados Margaret Yap Luka Laden Jacob Heydorn Gorski Jiajing Sun Assistant Online Youngeun “Ellis” Kim Victoria Bachurska Business Manager David Rosenkranz Reporters Emma Daniels Emily Hoffman Anna Iovine Maggie Jeffers Columnists Natasha Bertrand Zach Rippe Max Rook Lily Sloss Eli J. Vargas I Design Bethany Terry Kelly Yu Online Rachel Dorn Copy Alex Bue Elizabeth Dean Sophie Kosmacher Christian Lewis Tori Madway Macall McQueen Ashley Pecorelli Marya Pasciuto Camilla Pfeiffer Emma Roellke Rebecca Weir LETTERS POLICY The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers.

Letters to the Editor should not exceed 450 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue. Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu.

The Miscellany News does not expressly endorse any of the opinions of the columnists featured within the pages of the paper, except for the staff editorial.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

October 31, 2013

NEWS

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SAVP identifies warning signs of unhealthy relationships Emily Hoffman and Anna Iovine rEpOrtErs

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Spencer Davis/The Miscellany News

n Friday, Oct. 25, the Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention Program (SAVP) held a seminar entitled “How Healthy is Your Relationship?” The seminar focused on the signs of an unhealthy relationship and of dating abuse.

“October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this event is part of a series of events that we have had—and are continuing to have throughout the year—to raise awareness about and hopefully prevent dating and domestic violence,” said the Coordinator of the SAVP Program Elizabeth Schrock.

One of the fundamental tenants of the SAVP Program is addressing dating abuse and sexual assault. Their website tells students, “The Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention Committee at Vassar College is dedicated to addressing and promoting a cultural shift in the norms associated with sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking on campus.”

Schrock gave the presentation, beginning with two surveys on relationships. The first questions asked were about different aspects of a relationship and how comfortable people felt with each aspect. This included safety, emotional security and support, commitment, compatible life goals and values, knowing and accepting each other, and sexual fulfillment and fidelity, among many others. Participants were asked to indicate how strongly their relationship fulfilled these important characteristics of a healthy relationship.

The next survey went on to discuss warning signs of abuse and participants were asked to indicate how many of these signs they had seen in their own relationship or a friend’s. These signs that a partner may show included: checking one’s cell phone or email without permission, constantly putting someone down, extreme jealousy or insecurity, explosive temper, isolating one from family or friends, physically hurting, threatening, or stalking someone.

After the seminar, Schrock said, “I hope that attendees were able to consider the many facets of a healthy relationship and think about their own or their peers’ relationships and how some might differ in strength in other areas.”

During the presentation, Schrock pointed out that 21 percent of US college students ex-

Friday, October 25, Coordinator of the SAVP Elizabeth Schrock helped facilitate a seminar pinpointing key warning signs of relationship violence that can occur on college campuses. perience dating/domestic violence during their years at college, while 13 percent of female students are stalked at college. In order to try and combat these statistics, she urged the participants to help a friend in an abusive relationship, or may in the future.

According to the website loveisrespect.org, nearly 1.5 million high school students nationwide experience physical abuse from a dating partner in a single year. Additionally, one in three adolescents in the U.S. is a victim of physical, sexual, emotional or verbal abuse from a dating partner, a figure that far exceeds rates of other types of youth violence. Relationship and dating abuse has become an increasingly relevant issue to the youth of the country and this is true of students at Vassar as well.

Additionally, the website details the consequences and implications of relationship abuse.

As the website explains, “Violent relationships in adolescence can have serious ramifications by putting the victims at higher risk for substance abuse, eating disorders, risky sexual behavior and further domestic violence.”

Furthermore, it says, “Being physically or

sexually abused makes teen girls six times more likely to become pregnant and twice as likely to get a STI.” According to Schrock, individuals in these situations might have a different point of view than a friend; they may be unwilling to confront or admit to the situation and believe that the relationship is “normal.” Individuals in these relationships are likely to have a negative self-view perpetuated by their partner. This negative self-esteem may lower their relationship expectations and self-esteem so much that they fear leaving the relationship. Schrock noted that the best thing to do for a friend experiencing this type of relationships is to listen and offer your support while trying to convince your friend that this kind of relationship or behavior is not normal.

Furthermore, the SAVP Program Coordinator said that if your friend is willing to confront the problem, it is key that they seek help from a campus counseling center and, if they break up with their abusive partner, for example, that you continue to be supportive of them after the relationship has ended. Lastly, it is crucial that

you not contact their friend’s abuser directly or post things about them online. This will only worsen the situation and potentially cause more harm and danger to the friend and to yourself while furthering the negative feelings that exist between the abuser and the abused.

“I really enjoyed the discussions that we had around how to help a friend in an unhealthy relationship, and how that might be similar to or different from how to help a friend in an abusive relationship; these types of discussions indicate that students deeply care and want to help their friends that might be in a difficult or risky situations,” Schrock said. “Of course, I always wish I could engage more students in these types of discussions!”

Concerning what participants learned, Schrock said, “I also hope that they were able to consider some of the warning signs that may be present in a relationship that indicate that it is unhealthy, such as jealousy and not valuing the other partners independence, or moving towards abusive, such as one partner having all of the control in the relationship, isolating their partner from their support networks, or making threats of future harm to themselves or others if they don’t get their way.”

“I also hope that students were able to think about various ways to support their friends that might be in relationships that are unhealthy or abusive without shaming them,” Schrock noted. Future events sponsored by the SAVP for Domestic Violence Awareness Month include Bystander Intervention Training and “Violence from Margin to Center,” a panel discussing violence issues faced by oppressed groups. “[The bystander intervention workshop] will focus more on how to intervene if you see someone in a risky situation, which could include dating and domestic violence,” explained Schrock.

She also called attention to the empty tables that are on display this month in the College Center and All Campus Dining Center. This is to commemorate victims of domestic abuse.

SAVP events occur throughout the school year; all their events and information are posted on savp.vassar.edu/calendar. Further tips and advice can be accessed at loveisrespect. org, a website that addresses abusive relationships in depth.

Speaker Dye addresses role of sugar in Cuban economy Maggie Jeffers GuEst rEpOrtEr

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n October 25, Professor of Economics at Barnard College and affiliate member of Columbia University’s Department of History and Institute of Latin American Studies Alan Dye gave a talk in Rockefeller Hall. The lecture, entitled “Where are All the Yankees? Ownership and Entrepreneurship in Cuban Sugar, 1898-1921,” focused on the often overlooked roles that local entrepreneurs have played in building Cuba’s sugar industry. The event’s audience was comprised mostly of community members, many of whom asked questions or provided insight of their own throughout the talk.

Dye came prepared with a Power Point presentation that he actively referenced to frequently over the hour and a half talk he delivered. The earliest slides contained quotes from historians about the economic situation in Cuba specifically relating to the sugar industry and its effect on Cuban markets and international trade policy.

After reading these quotes aloud, Dye began to explain why he felt that they weren’t completely accurate. He argued that the speakers seemed to associate Cuba’s fate too much with swift invasion, and paid too much attention to US intervention post-1959, simplifying a much more complicated situation. He said, “The picture may be much less black and white.”

Dye went on to examine the personal efforts of planters in Cuba, specifically during the crucial years at the beginning of the twentieth century. He introduced a measure of investment that he had used to gather evidence; he called it “mill-level grinding capacity,” and, after explaining a few of its caveats, showed the room a graph comparing Cuba’s with the US’ around the 1920s.

Dye then proceeded to show that the rela-

tionship between the two countries’ levels of investment at the time were, by this more inclusive measure, surprisingly, not what many thought they were. He later even suggested that locals had an advantage when it came to building sugar mills, as sugar production is a complicated process that relies on multiple parties coming together and requires many pieces.

Dye argued those with the lay of the land would have been better suited to be constructing the necessary structures for sugar production and trade.

The lecture concluded with Dye defining an entrepreneur as an individual or organization that undergoes a period of significant expansion and is able to “identify an opportunity and has finance” then calling attention back to his original questions and reiterating his fundamental points.

Philip Durniak ’14 attended the lecture due to his academic connection to the topic. He wrote in an emailed statement, “I was first introduced to the topic of Latin American economic development in professor Sarah Pearlman’s class on the subject last semester. I found the topic to be interesting as it helps to understand the disparity between the US and Latin America and when professor Pearlman invited me to the lecture I was intrigued to learn more about the topic.”

Durniak also disclosed that while the talk did not necessarily broaden his understanding of the Cuban economy as a whole, it did give him insight into specifics that he hadn’t been aware of. He explained, “As far as the Cuban economy as a whole, I feel that my understanding was not expanded all that much. (Unless this [was] discussed at the beginning of the talk, which I missed). However, concerning the specific topic of the talk, the sugar industry, I learned a significant amount. I was previously unaware of the interplay between US and Cuban investors as well as the rise of the sugar conglomerates

in the country. It was also interesting to see the mill transactions at the micro scale; I had not anticipated to see such complicated and well thought oust transactions occurring.”

Assistant Professor of Economics, who also teaches in the Latin American and Latino/a Studies, and organizer of the event Sarah Pearlman also shared her thoughts on the talk’s accomplishments in an emailed statement. She wrote, “I think the event was a success in that the talk was very interesting. Professor Dye is clearly an expert on the topic and did a great job of explaining it to an audience of non-specialists in the sugar industry or Cuba during this time period.”

Pearlman went further highlighting some more of the strengths of the lecture. She said, “[Dye] did a nice job of making the talk accessible to economists and non-economists, and even those who feel uncomfortable with data and empirical analysis could have come away learning something about the history of the Cuban sugar industry.”

Audience members agreed with Dye’s argument to varying degrees.

Durniak, for one, was skeptical. He wrote, “I initially felt that the speaker made a compelling argument for that the Cuban sugar industry was not characterized by massive and sudden US involvement in the early 20th century and that instead domestic parties were in fact that main sources of development.”

He continued, “While the data agrees with the idea that US intervention was not as significant as the dominate discourses state, the questions raised about colonial capital make me hesitant to assume that domestic Cuban investors were the main source of capital. Because Cuba was recently independent it stands to reason that the main players in the sugar industry derived their money from Spain and continued to use Spanish connections to expand the in-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

dustry as opposed to purely domestic players and capital.”

Assistant Professor of Economics Ergys Islamaj was more convinced. He wrote in an emailed statement, “The speaker presented hard data and evidence in a very clear and concise way.”

Islamaj continued, “The data supported the argument that local entrepreneurs were largely involved in production in the sugar industry during the boom years and that foreign investors did NOT buy their businesses at fire sales prices.”

Pearlman, too, was persuaded by Dye’s evidence, and commended the in-depth and involved research that he did in order to obtain it. She wrote, “I thought Alan’s evidence on the role that local entrepreneurs played in developing the sugar industry from 1898 to the early 1920s was quite compelling. He has numerous stories of local owners of sugar mills who not only renovated their own mills, but also used the proceeds from mill sales to start more modern establishments.”

She added, “Arriving at these conclusions clearly required a lot of painstaking work in terms of calculating the capacity of all of these sugar mills and figuring out who the mill owners were at different points in time. Sometimes these efforts can be under-appreciated, but Alan clearly went to a lot of work to try and tell this story.”

Still, the lecture left Pearlman with some lingering unanswered questions. “Did local owners still play an important role in the technological upgrading of the industry after 1920?” she wondered.

However, not all of the questions she had were meant to be answered; in fact, some were raised purposefully. Pearlman stated, “It would be interesting to see what happened to the industry over the next several decades.”

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Outside the Bubble Marijuana legalization increases in popularity

Chinese reporter confesses to taking bribes

A newspaper reporter from Southern China issued a public apology for taking bribes to submit false stories on one of China’s biggest machinery companies, Zoomlion. The reporter, Chen Yongzhou, admitted to submitting papers written by others for large sums of money, “citing a payment of about $80,000 in one instance.” (NBC News, “In stunning about-face, China paper issues public apology as reporter ‘confesses to bribery,” 10.27.13) Chen’s articles in The New Express newspaper accused Zoomlion on financial irregularities, which the company denied. Chen stated that, “In this case I’ve caused damages to Zoomlion and also the whole news media industry and its ability to earn the public’s trust.” (BBC, “China Reporter Chen Yongzhou ‘confesses’ on TV,” 10.26.13).

With heightened control over the media from the government, correspondents have commented that this was a bold move for the newspaper to print “Again: Please Release Him” on the front page. (BBC, “China Paper in Second Front Page Plea Over Journalist,” 10.24.13). These pleas from the newspaper garnered the public’s sympathy and created widespread attention for the scandal.

Many people are doubtful of Chen’s confession as many human rights activists believe “public confessions in China are often forced and violate the accused’s right to due process” (Reuters, “Detained Chinese Reporter Confesses to Taking Bribes,” 10.26.13).

China has a history of corruption within the media, usually through speech limitation or censorship by the government. There is a combination of “monitoring of news content, legal restrictions on journalists, and financial incentives for self-censorship” (Freedom House, “Speak No Evil: Mass Media Control in Contemporary China”).

Media censorship is enforced by the Communist Party. By essentially erasing incriminating information that may affect how the people view the government and the corruption, many thing that the governement hopes to ensure their power.

However, the Chinese people are well aware of the corruption and censorship. With this type of doubt on the government, the public has been supporting Chen and his freedom, as many believe he was forced to “confess” to his articles and has been wrongly jailed. The New Express has yet to comment on his confession.

—Shelia Hu, Guest Reporter

October 31, 2013

‘Soul Sunday’ a space for contemplation SOUL continued from page 1 diagram called the “Contemplative Practices Tree” which detailed different practices for contemplation. Tanenbaum Inter-religious Fellow, Adah Hetko, explained the tree diagram.

“The roots are awareness and community and connection. He is sort of using this as a model for planning soul Sundays. I think the idea is that you can take these practices and apply them to your life,” she said.

The collection of exercises that took place on Sunday were a result of much discussion and brainstorming from many the interns in the RSL office. Starting from the beginning, planning for Soul Sundays was a collaborative effort. According to Dunsmith, even the decision of what to call the program came out of serious discussion among several individuals in the RSL office.

Many noted the feeling of the room as an integral part of the experience. As one RSL intern, Arisa Gereda ’16, reflected, “As an RSL intern, I really, really loved the environment that the first Soul Sunday created. The Quiet Room is such an awesome and important safe space for students that is hardly used to its full potential.”

Adah Hetko echoed the emphasis on the quiet room in the program’s conception. “It was an underutilized space. Budhasangha meets there and different things during the week, but most of the time it is just this empty space,” she said.

Dunsmith also spoke to the choice to locate the program in the quite room. “There was a sense for a lot of people in the Religious and Spiritual Life Office that they wanted to reestablish the Quite Room as a space for contemplation. It’s not actually a space for working.”

She continued, “So [Dunsmith], who is this incredible organizer and visionary and super creative and has a lot of energy and he totally blew us out of the water with this totally complete plan of having this program once a week for people who might be committed to a certain contemplative practice or totally new to these practices, like a sampler plate and a way to start off the week.”

Something else that typified the event was the communal and group-minded approach to a practice that can often take place in solitude.

At the event, many expressed excitement at the opportunity to practice contemplation in a group space that allowed for exchange of ideas. Dunsmith agree with this idea.

“Last night we had some discussion and I think it’s nice to have some discussion about

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

Studies show that marijuana is a very popular illicit recreational drug, with nearly 17 million Americans age 12 and older reporting use in the past month in the United States. Although only two states, Colorado and Washington, have legalized the recreational use of cannabis there are many states that have made exceptions for medical cannabis and decriminalized cannabis use, including California and Oregon. According to Gallup polling recently, a surge in support for legalization of marijuana in the United States was seen through telephone interviews performed this past month. 58 percent of interviewed participants favored legalization, a large difference from the 12 percent who favored it when the same question was asked in 1969. (Gallup, “For First Time, Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana,” 10.22.13) On the White House website, the government states all the dangers of the drug and how legalizing the drug will only decrease prices. The website stated that although the government still has a firm position against this legalization, the Obama Administration has commented that as long as Colorado and Washington apply strict policies for sale and distribution, their newly implemented policies will not be challenged. California was the first state to legalize the use of medical marijuana under the California Senate Bill 420. Researchers found that marijuana has become a substitute for alcohol for younger people there and that although still unsafe, driving high is less dangerous that driving drunk. A professor of UCLA commented, “If it turns out that cannabis and alcohol are substitutes, then by my scoring system, legalizing cannabis is obviously a good idea. Alcohol is so much more of a problem than cannabis ever has been.” (NY Times, “Few Problems with Cannabis for California,” 10.26.13).

The cities with strict regulations on their stores have had few problems with regarding distribution. With the increasing support for legalization for marijuana, more states may vote to legalize marijuana in the coming months.

NEWS

Gabe Dunsmith ’15, an intern for Religous and Spiritual Life (RSL), leads Soul Sunday in the library quiet room. Students learn contemplative practices in this relaxing environment. bringing how to you feel about certain exercises upfront and learning from others. You can weave your own thoughts about certain practices with other peoples’ thoughts,” he said.

Gereda was pleased with the turn-out for the first event, given it took place before major advertising for Soul Sundays had happened. She said, “The turn-out was also very encouraging, and I hope that, because there will be a variety of themes and activities every week, this sense of community and contemplative support will continue to grow with future Soul Sundays.”

Dunsmith echoed this positive evaluation of the evening. “I was very pleased. One of the things that was so nice about it was that everyone was bringing a different experience to it. Not everyone is going to be involved in contemplative practices before coming and I think that’s really beautiful because it’s sharing the experience and the desire to get involved in contemplative practices.”

Gereda also spoke to the ways in which the event appealed to students who had less experience with the kinds of contemplative practices that the program was trying to promote.

As she said, “The contemplative exercises in the first Soul Sunday were very welcoming and inclusive of all different levels of medita-

tion experience, and, as someone who struggles with meditation I felt very comfortable with the group and the interesting practices.”

Asked to address students who had little to no experience with contemplative practices, Dunsmith said, “Your curiosity is the most wonderful thing about this. If you’re interested, then it can be a practice to step away a little from our hectic daily lives, from the work that we need to be doing in class, and realize that we don’t always have to be working.”

He went on, “We spend so much time feeling like we have to be rushing back and forth and [Soul Sunday] can be a space to bring your awareness a little more into yourself.”

Hetko expressed optimism in planning Soul Sundays for the future. She said, “I’m hoping that it spreads, not necessarily in numbers of people attending individual programs, but more that it changes the culture of the quiet room and that people feel more excited about going there on their own.”

She continued, I’m really excited for all of them, but I’ve had the chance to be at a meditation led by Jordan Funk. I’m really excited for more people to get to experience that.

Next week, Elana [Fruchtman] will be leading different sorts of sitting meditation, she spent a semester in India at a Buddhist monastery and I’m looking forward to that.”

Discussion focuses on society, technology DIGITAL continued from page 1

on feminist blogs/websites.” She opened the discussion with the trending Twitter tag #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, meant to highlight issues of diversity in current feminist efforts.

After showing a brief video by Shelby Knox of Change.org, in which Knox discussed her theory of the “Fourth Wave of Feminism,” Skyers-White and the 15 attendees discussed the role of media in feminism and diversity in past and current feminist efforts.

The attendees included a representative from the Women’s Center, Tanvi Jaluka ’17, who was invited by Skyers-White to add depth to the discussion. According to Jaluka, “Feminist discourse and dialogue has branched out to the internet...I think it’s important that this discussion also focused on how women of color play into this new dynamic.”

Topics of the discussion ranged from the possible classism of blogs that required internet access to read, to the distinction of being a “Latina Feminist,” to the struggle of feminist efforts in India and the lack of inclusion of transgender people in mainstream feminism.

One attendee, Naa Kuorkor A. Nikoi ’17, said, “Over all I really enjoyed the discussion and the company of the people who attended the meeting. I thought it was very thought-provoking.”

She added, “I was very interested [in the event] as soon as I heard about it because digital interface is so ubiquitous in this day and age, and feminism is something I have always been very interested in but have nev-

er had enough opportunity to talk to other people about. I was drawn to the knowledge that there would be a lot of people who knew a lot about feminism and could educate me in the areas that I was (and still am) unfamiliar with.” Nikoi is considering majoring in women’s studies.

According to Skyers-White, the discussion’s scope limited its possibilities: “I think the most challenging aspect [of the event] was trying to have a conversation about such a broad topic in an hour. Of course, I wasn’t expecting come to some ‘a-ha’ moment where every issue of inclusivity was solved in the span of one hour, but it seemed that with every comment that was made, there were a million other issues we could have started talking about.”

Jaluka agreed that she wished for more time, saying, “I think even though there was only short time we had to discuss this issue, Brittani facilitated a thorough discussion.

There was a brief discussion of digital feminism in the global context. It would have been interesting to talk more about how the internet has empowered and also marginalized women in other countries.”

Nikoi also pointed out the rather homogeneity of voices and experiences in attendance, saying, “I’d say the main thing that was missing from the discussion was opposition. In any kind of educated discussion it is necessary to be presented with a diversity of opinions.

While there were some areas that were debated, I don’t think I saw anyone who just disagreed, which, I think, is a necessary aspect of

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

learning through discussion.”

However, the overall event was deemed a success. Skyers-White said, “It was a great experience! The people that showed up or just showed support in general were wonderful and really helped in facilitating meaningful discussion. Because we had people bringing different experiences into the conversation it was fulfilling, even though the conversation lasted for only an hour.” She continued, “I really felt there was a positive reaction. Much more so than I was expecting. I had people telling me that they were very interested in the topic, which was encouraging.”

Nikoi agreed, “The whole discussion was everything I had hoped for and more. I really liked how people were drawing on both aspects of their own lives and articles...that they had seen on the internet or on TV. I think it was also a really good way of identifying the individuals in this community that I hadn’t met but share the same...opinions as me...I’m really glad the ALANA center and Brittani Skyers-White created this event and I hope they can do this many more times over the course of the year.”

Jaluka recommends that students interested in women’s and diversity issues like Nikoi try attending any events hosted by the Women’s Center and the ALANA center if they’re interested in feminism and specifically its intersection with women of color.” As she said, “Both centers are great spaces for anyone to come visit anytime and learn more about these topics.”

October 31, 2013

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Recent graduates traverse the globe with Peace Corps Kelsey Quinn

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courtesy of thinkprogress

fter graduation, Vassar students scatter in all different directions. Some begin careers, some continue their educations in graduate school and some do a bit of soul-searching.

Some Vassar graduates choose to enter the Peace Corps, an organization run by the U.S. government that aims to promote worldwide cooperation, health, education and understanding of different cultures. Many Vassar alumnae/i have found their paths through the Peace Corps organization.

Deciding to apply to the Peace Corps is a commitment. The application lasts six to nine months. Once accepted, a volunteer enters a two-year service contract. Those desiring to keep volunteering, can re-enlist after the their contract, or otherwise return home.

Former Vassar students who have joined Peace Corps have, since graduation, garnered a set of different experiences. The Peace Corps sends volunteers all around the world to serve the global population in a number of ways.

For example, Peter Satin ’10, started his service in Honduras and spent 11 months there before the post was shut down. Beginning Feb. 2011 , he served as a health educator with focus on maternal health and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Satin held support groups for those who were HIV-positive as well as classes on prevention and general health.

While there, he was a part of an international workshop on family health topics for those affected by HIV. Participants from all over Central America took part and many soon incorporated the group’s activities into their work.

Peter decided to re-enlist and ended up in Cambodia, where he is currently focused on water and sanitation, noncommunicable diseases and young adult health. Since he has been there, he has written a curriculum for water, sanitation and hygiene for Peace Corps volunteers to use, and it has become the basis for training in Cambodia. Non-governmental organizations in Pakistan and India have also incorporated it.

Hannah Beswick’s ’09 international studies major at Vassar led her to Peace Corps because

Several Vassar students join the Peace Corps after graduation. They have traveled to nations across the globe, working in a variety of fields ranging from HIV/AIDS prevention to water and sanitation. of her interest in foreign cultures. From 2010 to 2012 she served in rural Morocco as a Youth Development volunteer. While there, she did a wide variety of things to help the community in which she was stationed.

The project, however, she considers to be her most successful and rewarding was a sixmonth health initiative that she ran for the women of the town. Through this, she was able to introduce women to various health topics by bringing in experts from neighboring towns and encouraging both exercise and interactions amongst the women.

Another Vassar alumna, Claire Mocha ’09, began serving as a Healthy Schools volunteer in Guatemala six months after graduating from Vassar. This job involved working with teachers in rural schools to develop lesson plans and helping them with activities to promote healthy habits to students.

From 2002 to 2004, Josh Morton ’01 was stationed in Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic.

There he taught English to students at a high school and wrote project grants to improve

the school’s infrastructure. The place in which Morton lived was closed to foreigners until the year before he arrived because the lake off of the peninsula was the primary place where Soviet nuclear submarine technology was tested.

Many of these volunteers had to learn to adapt to their new locations; the Peace Corps prepares volunteers by helping them learn the language spoken within the community and training them for what they can expect once there.

After the training period, however, volunteers are essentially on their own, and in some cases volunteers’ success is completely dependent on their own independent work ethic and their ability to build relationships with the locals.

According to Morton, when it comes down to it, Peace Corps is undeniably difficult, more difficult than anyone can probably imagine without doing it. It’s a challenge that some are cut out for and some are not.

Morton said that about 30 percent of his group went home before the two-year contract

was up for a variety of reasons.

Satin noted what kind of person would be best suited for an experience with the Peace Corps. In an emailed statement he wrote, “If you’re the kind of person that likes challenges, can handle being confused a majority of the time, and doesn’t mind being alone, you might do well in the Peace Corps. Or you might not.

It’s hard to say.”

Peace Corps requires a level of flexibility.

One must be willing to adapt to unfamiliar perspectives, cultures, lifestyles and challenges. Often, it requires learning on the go and being able to navigate through uncomfortable situations.

But, according to Morton, the experience can be rewarding one. Morton values the lifetime friends and memories he’s made because of Peace Corps and realizes that his experience permanently changed the way he views and lives life.

In an emailed statement he wrote, “I don’t think a lot of people are aware of how much of the experience is actually internal, and that the volunteer changes and grows as much as, if not more than, the host country in which he or she is trying to effect positive change.”

For Mocha Peace Corps was an opportunity to find an unexpected place to feel at home.

She had such a positive Peace Corps experience that she still lives in Guatemala even though she finished with Peace Corps almost two years ago.

On her experience with voolunteering, Mocha wrote in an emailed statement, “Peace Corps is not easy, and it’s not for everyone— you need to be able to depend on yourself, keep yourself busy, and keep an open mind.

The people I knew who really thrived were those who could create their own structure, keep themselves occupied, and keep a sense of humor and curiosity.”

She continued, noting a positive part of the Peace Corps experience overall, “Ultimately, most people I knew found it an incredibly rewarding experience and learned a ton about themselves and the world around them.”

For those potentially interested in joining Peace Corps, there will be an information session on Thursday, Nov. 7 hosted by the Peace Corps’s regional recruiter Douglas Miller.

JYStay gives juniors refreshing perspective on student life Logan Keane

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professor ratios may be replaced by someone reading out of a textbook to an auditorium of students. And being a junior, I’ve been around some of these professors for three years already. Being on campus allows me to explore developing a strong academic relationship with my favorites from the Math and English Departments. Befriending professors has been a topic that I always thought people were lying about, but being on campus junior year and doing nothing out of the ordinary with this time makes it seem like becoming closer with faculty is a realistic option.

I know that quite a few of my classmates are enthused with their abroad experiences thus far and are seeing amazing sights as well as discovering the nuances of different languages; my narrative is not attempting to invalidate any of those amazing moments. And perhaps this validating JYStay experience is only felt by my friend group, but I hope that every junior out there isn’t living a sorrowful junior narrative. Sophomores: junior year abroad might be prove interesting, but don’t forget that there is always an awesome JYStay option.

courtesy of Vassar College

hen I talk about junior year with my fellow upperclassmen and graduated friends, they often lament about how isolating their personal experiences were if their friends’ plans did not match their’s when it came to studying abroad. I have been made privy to countless accounts of how go-to UpC friends have a reputation of abandonment when enticed by the potential of traveling abroad and I have been witness to many retellings of horror stories regarding the theme of being the only junior in a given course.

This is not my narrative as a junior, nor is it the narrative of most of my friends and fellow members of the Class of 2015. The difference here seems to be that everyone I am close to in my year is JYStaying. Given the tales of woe from other people’s experiences, I know just how lucky an occurrence this is.

As Vassar students, none of us are the same, so naturally, we all have our own varied reasons for JYStaying. I, personally, had too many fears about what being abroad would be like.

One of my closest friends was far too indecisive about which country she wanted to go to; another was struggling through the application process and came to the conclusion that it would be easiest to just forget going abroad all together. A few others soon discovered that their own plans for their time at Vassar was far too overbooked to include a semester abroad. Two of my friends are science majors, which only adds to the stresses of trying to complete all of a major’s distribution requirements in time for graduation.

My experience of remaining on campus throughout my junior year has, so far, seemed to be the perfect way to make my junior year just feel normal. Every other year has some outstanding marker. Coming in as a freshman,

everything is new and shiny. As a sophomore, I was with other members of the class of 2015 in trying to navigate our way in the House environment without the structure of a fellow group or a mandated student advisor in our student fellow. Next year I’ll be a senior, living in senior housing and I know that there are an entire set of new experiences that go along with that.

If I had gone abroad then that would have be the defining moment of my junior year and would have overshadowed the great lessons that junior year can provide. JYStaying allows me to experience one year of just being a student, which is highly underrated.

There are many benefits to going abroad, I won’t deny that. But I would recommend trying out just being a student, an experience that serves as a calming effect in the chaos that is college. There are no negative expectations such as Freshfolk Fifteen, Sophomore Slump, or Senioritis to frame my JYStay experience and so there’s no pressure to meet or beat those expectations. I don’t have to worry about finding a group of friends because I’ve already done that over the past two years.

Additionally, I’m not worried about my living situation in regards to those friends because single rooms are amazing and we can leave the problems involved with living together for next year.

Just being a plain-old student has allowed me to develop a comfortable social routine that I can happily repeat weekly. I don’t have to worry about being the outcast junior in any of my classes either because it seems that most people in my academic circles aren’t going abroad either.

And I’m very glad that many of my fellow juniors are staying on campus to fill those classes; Vassar classes are amazing. If I were abroad, I fear that my fifteen students to one

While hundreds of students chose to spend at least part of their junior year abroad, some students, like English major Logan Keane ’15, feel that participating in JYStay has worked out just as well.

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October 31, 2013

Brunch, not breakfast, the most important meal of the day Aja Saalfeld

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courtesy of cookbakenibble

e’ve all been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day—and that could not possibly be further from the truth. I don’t know who started telling these lies to schoolchildren, but they clearly have never had a proper brunch, because if they had, they would understand that brunch clearly surpasses all other meals in every conceivable way. Brunch serves a unique purpose in making day-drinking socially acceptable as well as giving people a much-needed excuse to squeeze another meal in-between the not-actually-most-importantmeal-of-the-day and lunch, the unpopular and slightly smelly cousin of the extended family of meals, or to forgo these two meals altogether in favor of a significantly better option.

I have been working on perfecting the perfect brunch spread for quite a while now. It’s been an enjoyable process, since I’ve gotten to eat frightening amounts of food to come to my conclusions, and I’ve come to some pretty delicious conclusions.

Every brunch needs a the right mix of sweet dishes, savory dishes and alcohol—or bubbly virgin drinks for those who don’t imbibe—and I think I’ve hit that perfect combination.

Last year, my ex-fellow group and friends would occasionally make Sunday brunches to celebrate important things, such as not completely caving under midterm-related stress or going through an entire week without eating something potentially life-threatening at the Deece, and they were always enjoyable and evolving. Nutella often starred center stage, and I firmly believe that adding Nutella could only serve to make a better brunch.

Not all of our brunches were even close to my ideal, but the ideal brunch needs an egg dish, a meat dish or vegetarian alternative, fresh fruit, something sweet, coffee, tea, juice, an alcoholic beverage or a virgin alternative and perfect timing. All of that makes for one intense morning for cooking—and it is a morning of work, because having something that complex ready in time for proper brunch time is something that needs to get an early start.

Perfect brunches don’t just happen; for me, they have always been a group effort. One person flips crepes, someone else preps the frit-

tata, another chops fruit. If I want to get sentimental, I’d even say these brunches helped to bring my friend group together, but that’s a little schmaltzy even for me.

Basing each part of the brunch on a specific archetype makes each iteration of said brunch a potential for new combinations. An egg dish could be anything from a frittata to a soufflé, and meats could be bacon or steak. It’s all about changing up the format while still keeping the end result recognizable as a brunch. Too great a focus on the eggs or meat makes for a brunch that leans too far toward the breakfast end of the spectrum, while getting stuck on the booze or on things such as finger sandwiches drags brunch firmly into lunch territory. And who cares about lunch? Certainly not this woman, which is why I do brunches.

As for the final ingredient, perfect timing, I’m a firm believer that the perfect brunches happen either on lazy—well, lazy for the people not actually preparing the meal—Sundays around noon, or as near to spontaneously as possible on weekdays where skipping work or class with a few good friends is the only option that seems like a remotely viable plan for the day.

Brunches are just as much about the timing, ambiance and atmosphere as they are about having the perfect collection of food. In fact, a brunch made with less than fantastic ingredients, or one in which the eggs are burned and the champagne is flat, can still be a fantastic experience provided that one is with a good group of people. A Sunday brunch is nothing without a group of amazing people to share in it.

And after everything is cooked, there is still the quasi-formality of starting the meal. For me, it’s only when all the coffee has been poured, I’ve cracked open the bottle of champagne—or seltzer—and the entirety of the Jewett kitchen has been completely covered in brunch-related mess that I can sit down, or, as is often the case, stand up because all of the chairs are rickety and falling apart, to eat my favorite weekend food.

I haven’t gotten to have any brunches yet this year, though we have one planned for just after Thanksgiving. Junior year is busy and people are busy with actually preparing to enter the real world, whatever that is. But I can hope that even in the real world there will still be brunches with good friends.

Brunch Basics Egg dish: Mushroom and cheddar frittata Meat dish: Maple syrup and brown sugar crusted turkey bacon Sweet dish: Crepes with Nutella Bread: Nutella stuffed French toast with bananas Fruit: Fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries Beverages: Coffee, tea, orange juice and mimosas

Majors use knowledge of chemistry for magic tricks ing off the chemistry that goes into creating rayon, a synthetic fabric often found in clothes and upholstery.

Quist began by mixing two different chemicals in a wide beaker. Then, inserting a glass rod into the beaker, she began to collect a clump of thin blue filaments, winding it up slowly throughout the show until it resembled a slimy ball of yarn.

Afterwards, she talked about the science behind the experiment that she had left out during the show. She explained, “You add two really nasty organic compounds and the densities are different so they separate out and at

the interface.” This interface, she elaborated, is the space between the two molecules where bonding occurs.

The method Quist used to produce a tangle of these strands is the same basic one industrial rayon-manufactures employ on a much larger scale.

“I’m sure they have a much more efficient process than hand-winding it, but it’s basically the exact same stuff,” she added.

The most dramatic trick belonged to Bien Zheng ’17 who performed a trick called “Foam Tower.” Zheng added two compounds to a beaker propped up over a small kiddie pool.

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

MAGIC continued from page 1 ments you might encounter in a high school chemistry lab performed as an example of a certain chemical reaction.

Assisting Jackson was a group of seven freshman volunteers from the Chemistry 125 Chemical Principles class who performed the actual tricks for the audience of children.

In preparation for the show, the students had met out of class to practice the tricks, all of which were brief and lasting no more than three minutes or so. With the lab work prep and calculations all already taken care of, the students said the magic show was a way to enjoy chemistry without the rigor of a class lab-setting.

It was a chance for Ellen Quist ’17 to play around a little. “Let’s do something that looks really cool and has zero practical purpose in the real world,” she said.

The chemistry student performing his or her trick—seven tricks, one for each student— would say a few words, not making mention of any specific or technical language that would go over the head of a child between the ages of four and eight. The tone remained less like an education in chemistry and more an initiation into science.

Several of the experiments or presentations were dressed up with a Halloween theme, owing to the show’s proximity to Halloween weekend and a desire to keep the material exciting for the young children.

The demonstrations were also given Halloween-themed names. Student volunteers referred to chemical solutions as “potions” and their experiments as that of creating a “crystal ball” or a “candy fountain.”

In reality, these demonstrations are examples of chemical processes that can be found in everyday life.

Quist, whose trick opened the show, show-

On Oct. 23, Vassar College’s Chemistry Department hosteed a Magic Show for children from the Whimpfeimer Nursery School and the Infant and Todddler Center to celebrate Chemistry Week.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

A thick foam erupted, overfilling the mouth of the beaker and forming a mound about twoor-so feet high. Another favorite among the crowd was the experiment titled “Changing Colors” performed by Morgan Strunsky ’17.

“Hey, everybody! Safety first,” was the first thing Strunsky said, putting on his safety goggles. Strunsky first poured one colorless liquid into a jar. He then added another colorless liquid to the jar and began stirring the chemicals.

After a few seconds the cloudy white mixture turned bright blue. The color then reverted back to white, but only to suddenly turn blue again. And back and forth and back and forth it went, alternating between colors four to five times.

Jackson, who decided which experiments made it into the show, said he had to rule a few out. Some were impractical. Others incited concerns about safety.

“Previously we have exploded pumpkins and done light saber tubes,” said Jackson The magic show was only half of the programming the Chemistry Department organizes during National Chemistry Week. The night before the show, Vassar, inviting students from Marist College and the United States Military Academy at West Point, as well as from among its own campus, held a chemistry scholastic trivia bowl.

Volunteer Jason Storch ‘17 believed that the magic show offered the children a glimpse of where an interest in chemistry can take them.

“Because you look at this fun stuff and you say, “Oh, hey, I want to do that someday,” and you eventually might,” said Strock, adding, “You do science and this is the type of stuff you get to do.”

The magic show was followed by a snack in Mudd Chemistry Building of oreo-flavored ice cream, which was prepared using frozen nitrogen.

October 31, 2013

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Internship proves grassroots organizing not for faint of heart Steven Williams sEniOr EditOr

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Steven Williams/The Miscellany News

any people have summers filled with experiences that solidify their concepts of what they want to do with the rest of their lives. It may be working with environmental organizations or a tech start-up that makes you say “I could be here a long time.” Perhaps, however, the more important experiences we have are those in which we discover what we don’t want to do with out lives. My summer was an example of the latter.

After having been turned down for what seemed like an absurd number of internships—sometimes I was even told that I almost had the job which makes it all the more painful—I received a phone call late in the game. It was from Organizing for Action (OFA). Excited that someone finally read an application of mine and didn’t throw it in the trash, I quickly read up on their agenda, called them back for an interview, and took the job. I was daunted, but undeniably excited.

As I discovered in my research, OFA is President Barak Obama’s issue-driven non-profit.

That meant that we were not allowed to endorse specific politicians, we could only handle issues. Specifically we focused on three major ones: combating climate change, gun violence prevention and trying to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

More peripherally we focused on other Democratic issues like women’s rights, spreading the word on the Affordable Care Act and fighting for marriage equality.

My first day of work was one of the most grueling experiences of my life. I made an hour drive down to Long Beach, where I found myself at a trade union building. As an organization low on funds at the regional level, we were meeting at the best possible free building. By best possible, I mean to say that we had to have a line of fans circling the room so that wouldn’t drown in our own sweat. But, in spite of it all, we were definitely more than thankful to our benefactors.

The day ahead of me was essentially a 10hour workshop, with a break for lunch and a few other measly ones. Leading the meeting was the head of OFA California, a head honcho in her own right, along with a few other higher-ups in the organization.

Our first job was to socialize into the OFA fold. This was not a difficult task as everyone there, by nature answering the internship ad and making it through the interview process, were dedicated to the political agenda of President Obama and the Democratic leadership.

Furthermore, in this first meeting we learned about our roles in the organization.

One of the most interesting aspects of this workshop and the experience as a whole was seeing the makeup of other Summer Fellows besides myself. I came in expecting only other college students looking to fill their summers.

What I found was radically different.

Yes, there were some people like me, people in High School and College eager to gain organizing and leadership experience. But what I wasn’t expecting was the number of middle-aged and elderly people. Existing in any college bubble, especially Vassar’s, leads us to be conditioned to the idea that our peers are of the same age and background. But here I was sitting at a table with people two, three, even four-times my age.

It seems trite to say that our elders are founts of insight, but I found that to be anecdotally true. Seeing these people filled with zeal made me hope for my future, and wish that I would still be involved with causes that I was willing to exert such energy for (not in a political context, but generally).

Grassroots organizing, as I learned, is composed of a lot arduous work. Undoubtedly rewarding, yet difficult, and, at times, repetitive.

On less exciting days, I would stay at home and make phone calls to Democrats and non-Democrats alike. Sometimes, on the good days, I would encounter lovely individuals who were interested in our cause, and wanted to help us out in any way possible. These were the times

Organizing for Action, an issues driven non-profit, recruits volunteers across the country. The Summer Fellows program offers people from all walks of life an opportunity to engage in political organizing that convinced me that I could keep going.

Other times, however—as anyone who has had to make countless phone calls for a job surely knows—I was met with indifference, or worse, outright hostility. From this I learned the important lesson of not taking everyone seriously. Sometimes, after a rough call, you’ve just got to hang up the phone, snuggle with your cat, and remind yourself that ‘I’ll never have to encounter these people again.’ Also, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of having a cat.

One of the more exciting experiences I was visiting a local Congressman’s offices. While he wasn’t there, we were able to have a frank discussion with one of his legislative aides.

Times like this, I was reminding of the humanity behind the politician. I must admit, some of the conversation was over my head, but I enjoyed it all the same.

All in all, I had an experience of growth, but as I alluded to earlier, I realized that this was not the life for me. Politics is a rough game, at all levels, including grassroots. Some people are truly driven when it comes to organizing, and I have all the respect in the world for them. But I am not one of those people.

I thrive when I am doing something where I can see results day in and day out. However, I am enormously thankful for the opportunity, which helped discover what I’m good at, and more importantly, what I’m not good at.

Student strives for meaningful activism in imperfect Seattle Sara Cooley

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his summer, my roommate and I packed our bags and moved to Seattle, Washington to try our luck in the so-called real world.

Home of Starbucks, the Duck Bus and the infamous Pike’s Place Fish Toss, Seattle in the summer is a sunny, thriving metropolis caught between Puget Sound and the majestic Cas-

cades. It had called to us from a list of possible cities for our internship—New York City? Too expensive. LA? Too hot. Portland? Too grunge.

Seattle was perfect.

Seattle was, in fact, not perfect. This was my first experience living in a city of any mentionable size, and the glamour quickly wore off, leaving behind all the inescapable social issues compounded by so-called activists too

courtesy of Sara Cooley

Sara Cooley ’15 spent her summer interning for a socialist feminist activist organization with another friend in Seattle, Washington. There, she learned the importance of having a “solid activist community.”

dazzled by their precious forests to notice the problems of the people they passed everyday on the street.

Out of sheer luck, we were able to find cheap housing with the friend of a friend of a family friend, and ended up staying with a family of four in the suburbs, alternating between entertaining and avoiding the nineyear-old girl who had a knack for bullying us into jumping on the trampoline for hours upon hours on end with her and her childish energy on our rare days off.

When we couldn’t catch the bus, we crossed our fingers that our car wouldn’t break down on the freeway. We both took jobs as canvassers—one of the absolute best temporary jobs for broke college students, especially if you don’t mind exorbitantly high stress, unpaid overtime, absurd work hours and feeling comfortable manipulating people to give money to a cause you don’t even believe in yourself.

Capitalist bargains, right?

But it put food on the table. The real reason we were in Seattle was for our internship with a socialist feminist activist organization.

This was the real stuff, the stuff that is so important. This was the on-the-ground activism we had been searching for. We were eager for rallies, protests, hard-hitting, nitty-gritty, fight-the-man activism, the perfect opportunity to put our hard-earned Vassar theory into practice.

We were not disappointed on that front.

There were plenty of opportunities to take to the streets. What we were not prepared for was the total monotony of life as an activist between the rallies.

Here at Vassar, where the social problems never cease and life feels like an endless cycle of sleeping through class—organizing and attending as many meetings as physically possible, sobbing over SayAnything, repeat—life in the real world of activism was agonizingly slow.

We were facing much of the same issues that we face here, like struggling to network, soliciting funds and collaboration, organizing

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

and delegating and executing the behind-thescenes logistics to make the inevitable and unavoidable meetings run more smoothly and efficiently.

But for the first time, we were forced to rely on playing by the rules of others. We took for granted the ease with which our orgs at Vassar are able to accomplish our goals. If we need to make a statement, we have the solidarity. If we need money, it overflows. If we need to meet a deadline, we have dozens of people of power just a quick email away.

The activist community here is disappointingly small, and I will sigh as loudly as the next person at the lack of new faces in most social justice-based programming on campus.

But our community is strong, and when push comes to shove, we are here for each other, whether we can immediately recognize each other or not.

These things were not so simple for us in Seattle. As much as we were gaining from our internship, we found ourselves facing much of the same ignorance that leads to micro-aggressions from our peers that we faced from mainstream liberal media.

A frustrating amount of our energy was spent educating the very activists from whom we were supposed to be learning. The rest was spent on the streets. There were definitely plenty of times when we felt completely overwhelmed, and times when we were just a small few pushing against the tide of several thousand and expecting, hoping, begging anyone to stop and take just a single moment from their fast-paced lives to stop and consider our plight.

There were days when we struggled to get out of bed and face another day of it, and days when we would rather stay up all night than fall into the trap of the false security that accompanies sleep. We helped each other. If there is one thing that I learned from my Seattle summer that has helped me exponentially in my life both inside and outside the bubble, it is the irreplaceable benefit of a solid activist community, no matter how small.

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October 31, 2013

Walking tours guide students, locals through VC history Nicole Javorsky GuEst rEpOrtEr

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he buildings on Vassar’s campus can tell an observer a lot about the college’s history, believes Dean Emeritus of the College and Professor Emeritus of English Colton Johnson.

Free walking tours of the Vassar campus offer the opportunity to learn about the history of the college through its architecture. Held on three Saturdays this fall—Oct. 27, Nov. 3 and Nov. 10— and open for free to the public, the tours depict the college’s development since its founding.

According to the Vassar Historian website, the College’s tradition of recording and discussing its story traces back to the importance founder Matthew Vassar placed on preserving history. At the end of the college’s second year,

Matthew Vassar gave each of his trustees a copy of Vassar College and Its Founder by historian Benson Lossing.

Johnsoncontinues to share the history of the institution in his current capacity as the Vassar College Historian. He is the second official Vassar College historian, following Elizabeth Adams Daniels ’41. Johnson has been leading the walking tours for at least a 12 years.

He lead the tour the past weekend, and will do so again the in the next weeks. Associate Professor of Chemistry and Vassar alumnus Chris Smart ’83 will takeover, leading the walking tours for Nov. 10.

One of Johnson’s favorite parts of leading the tour is “the range of people who come on the walks.” According to Johnson, the participants

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

Walking Tours at Vassar occur on three different Saturdays throughout the autumn months. Open to both College members and local community, these tours reveal tidbits about Vassar’s history.

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range from visitors to the area and local residents to alumnae/i, parents, staff and students.

Johnson said, “They often offer interesting lore or reactions that enliven the conversation. I also enjoy helping them see how the evolution of the campus buildings really does reflect the life and growth of the college.”

The tour illustrates both the constants and variables in Vassar’s history because of Vassar’s commitment to “adaptive reuse” of buildings.

Relatively few buildings in the college’s history have been knocked down.

Swift Hall, formerly Vassar’s first infirmary, now houses the History Department. According to the History Department’s website, students had even nicknamed the building “Swift Recovery” when it functioned as an infirmary in the early 1900s. Even the “coal pocket” for the steam plant transformed into the current ALANA Center and the Shiva Theatre.

According to Johnson, the Kautz Admission House was formerly the Good Fellowship House, and the electric generating station became the Powerhouse Theatre, while the old Buildings and Grounds office became the new home to the Center for Information Services.

The Good Fellowship House was actually the club house for the employees of the Vassar housekeeping department.

The Good Fellowship Club, says the Vassar Encyclopedia online, was formed to “help the maids develop skills for self-governance in the club house.”

“A thoughtful tour of the buildings...allows one to understand much about Vassar’s history and its development over the years, and that’s my goal,” Johnson said.

Two of the buildings shown on the tour, Main Building and the Judith Loeb Chiara ’49 Center at the Maria Mitchell Observatory, are National Historic Monuments. Maria Mitchell, an astronomer, was the first faculty member that Vassar hired. Johnson said that the astronomical clock bought for Mitchell “has been restored and is

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

still ticking” upstairs in the observatory.

Several other buildings featured on the walking tour include the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library, the Vassar Chapel, the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film and Ely Hall.

After entering the Thompson Memorial Library, the people on the tours will learn about the story of the Lady Elena Lucretia Cornaro-Piscopia displayed on the library’s great window. The stained glass celebrates the conferring of the first Doctorate to a woman in 1678 from the University of Padua.

While both the library and chapel showcase gothic architecture, Vogelstein captures the modern styles present of the campus. Said Johnson, the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film is actually built ontop an older structure: the former Calisthenium and Riding Academy building.

The walking tour also includes buildings in the science quad. During this section of the tour, the current construction project and new changes to the science quad were explained as well.

Finally, the tour covers President Taylor’s accomplishments during his 29 years. The impact his tenure had on Vassar, and the extent to which the school has commemorated is visible by all the different structures around campus sharing his name. These structures include the President’s House (the first tribute to Taylor in 1895), Taylor Gate, and Taylor Hall.

Johnson tells the visitors on his tours that the Vassar campus includes over a thousand acres.

The residential dorms on campus, Kenyon, Blodgett and Wimpfheimer are among the only buildings not shown on the tour.

Founded by the Johnson and Daniels, the current and former Vassar Historians, the walking tours originated as part of Family Weekend, and occasionally for other campus events. Later the Communications Office asked Johnson to hold public walking tours on several Saturdays during the spring and fall.

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October 31, 2013

OPINIONS

Page 9

THE MISCELLANY NEWS STAFF EDITORIAL

Dormitory damages the responsibility of entire campus

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alloween Weekend is to fall term what Founder’s Day is to Spring: a peak in both substance-related demand on Vassar’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and vandalism of campus property. EMS responded to 11 calls this past Saturday, five of which resulted in hospitalization. These statistics display consistency with the past few years: last Halloweekend there were 12 calls, and 10 the year before last.

Oftentimes with intoxication comes outlandish and alarming stories—this year, among other incidents, five windows in the residence area of Main were destroyed, a pumpkin was thrown inside a residence hall, and a tree was placed in the Davison MPR. Though every campus disturbance carries with it consequences both to students and facilities, incidents of vandalism also affect the student body directly through the dorm fees residents are expected to pay at year’s end.

Under the current system, Main residents will have to pay for all damages that resulted from this past weekend that are not traced back to specific students. We at The Miscellany News view the means of distributing damage fees as a policy that requires changing.

We hope to see a new system which distributes the charges to the entire body of students with card access equally.

In light of recent revelry, it is more apparent than ever that the current structure of dorm damage payments, in which the cost of dorm repairs is disbursed amongst its residents, is unfair. It is the case that every stu-

dent at Vassar, expect those on leave of absence or abroad, have unlimited card access to all houses at all hours—a privilege rare amongst colleges and universities alike. We feel that it is absurd to charge Main residents exclusively for a window that may have been broken by any member of the campus community, to name one recent example.

Therefore, The Miscellany News advocates that all fees incurred for damage to any dorm be distributed amongst the entirety of that portion of the student body granted card access to the residential houses. This would include town students and residents of the Town Houses (THs), Terrace Apartments (TAs) and South Commons.

Total dorm damages from the last academic year totaled $6,390.69. By virtue of unlimited 24 hour card access, any Vassar student could have caused the various instances of damage; there is no guarantee that damage in any given house was caused by a resident of that house. Yet, Main residents paid $6 and Jewett residents paid $8.50, while Strong, Ferry and Lathrop residents paid no fees. Under the new system of distribution, each student would have paid roughly $2.66, assuming 2400 students were eligible for payment.

We feel this new system would be more equitable because it is fundamentally unfair to have students pay more for dorm damages simply because they live in a house that hosts an all campus event.

Of course, some arguments can be made against this system. One might argue that this

position would erode intra-house solidarity, namely that, at present, residents have a strong incentive to create a culture that discourages vandalism. This may be true in a sense: residents of particular houses would no longer bear sole responsibility for protecting their dorm from the actions of the student body. But it is our position that this loss is for a greater benefit, namely campus-wide solidarity; in this way, we feel students will be more likely to create a campus-wide culture against vandalism. Under this system, an instance of vandalism is not just perpetrated against a house, it would be perpetrated against the entire Vassar community. This fact is not readily apparent in the current system and the changes we suggest will emphasis the far reaching effects of vandalism.

Moreover, if the damage fee is truly to pay for damages and not punitive, campus-wide card access seems to indicate full responsibility from all students for all spaces. This position of equity is similar to that taken by the Office of Residential Life, which charges the same room fee for dorm rooms of all differnt sizes, be they a Jewett corner double or a suite in Main. In that sense, we merely advocate for consistency.

Our position can be better understood when contrasted with special cases. In THs, TAs, South Commons, off-campus housing, and individual students’ rooms, damage charges are the responsibility of the residents alone. Students in these housing styles largely have control over who enters their homes;

residents in Davison, for example, have no discretion over who enters their common areas. In some cases, a non-Vassar student could even enter the space without permission, because students routinely open doors for others. Similarly, if a public space is damaged and the culprit is found then that culprit bears responsibility. It is only in cases where anyone in the campus community has access to a space and blame cannot be adequately assigned that communal fees would be utilized.

We believe that students will feel more accountable for their actions when visiting other dorms if there is a communal charge for damages across campus, and therefore respect other people’s living spaces and the custodial and maintenance staff who keep our homes clean and safe. This culture of campus responsibility should, in our view, supercede the understandable desire for house-based community.

Cultivating a culture of responsibility across the student body through a communal charge would encourage students to not only respect their own living spaces, but the living spaces of others as well. In turn, distributing the fees campus wide would lower damage fees per person. As members of the student body, we at The Miscellany News believe the responsible and respectful action is for every student to bear the burden affecting every student.

—The Staff Editorial represents the opinion of at least 2/3 of the Editorial Board.

Progress in HIV research Judicial Board essential to garners minute publicity student conduct processes Delany Fischer

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GuEst COlumnist

wo and a half years ago, a baby was born in Mississippi with HIV. The baby, who received the virus from her mother, is now HIV-free according to blood tests. How did this happen? 30 hours after birth, the baby was given three high doses of antiretroviral drugs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and remained on the drugs for a total of 15 months. A CNN report states that now, the child is no longer on antiretroviral drugs and is the first child to be “functionally cured” of HIV. A “functional cure” is when the presence of the virus is so small, lifelong treatment is not necessary and standard clinical tests cannot detect the virus in the blood. (CNN, “Mississippi toddler still HIV free”, 10/24/13) So what exactly does this mean for the future? Does this mean we have found the cure for HIV? Some researchers are saying yes. According to the same CNN article, Dr. Deborah Persaud, a virologist who works at Johns Hopkin’s Children Center, believes that the early treatment of the baby was the cause of the cure and believes it can be replicated with other patients. Dr. Hannah Gay, a pediatric specialist at the University of Mississippi Medical Center who worked with the child agrees, saying, “We are hoping that future studies will show that very early institution of effective therapy will result in this same outcome consistently.”

However, others are not as convinced. In a report by ABC news, Dr. Mark Kline, a pediatric HIV and AIDS specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, scolds the term functional cure. It appears as though he (and ABC news) believes the term “remission” is more appropriate, for the virus could still return and cause and infection. (ABC News, “Doctors No Longer Say HIV Baby ‘Cured’”, 10/24/13) Kline is also concerned with the drugs given to the child due to their potentially toxic effects.

He pointed out that “these drugs carry the risk of liver inflammation, allergic reactions, and bone marrow suppression, which can predispose the patient to other infections,” The hard part about administering the drug is deciding if the side effects are worse than hav-

ing HIV itself, and that’s a tough call to make when one has no idea how these drugs could affect an infant in their later life.

Kline and many others, such as Dr. Myron Cohen, Director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, just want the world to be cautious of these results. They believe these results may be projecting a sense of false hope. Kline makes this clear when he explained that it possible that the child was one of a handful of patients who were born with HIV and somehow able to control the virus on their own.

So can we really say that a cure has been found for HIV? Not quite yet. But it is promising to know that studies are constantly being conducted to try and find this cure and that we are making some progress.

A real question I have though is about why nobody at Vassar is talking about this. I mean I asked a few people if they had heard about this case and a few people said, “oh yeah, I saw a headline for it somewhere but I didn’t, like, read it,” while others looked at me with a blank stare like I was a crazy person and had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe one of the reasons that many people at Vassar have no idea is because of how this progress is still not a cure that works for everyone, and therefore is something we can’t really call a cure.

It seems since a total cure is still not in sight, we’re not keeping our eyes out on the research.

For example, in 2012, two men who had HIV and cancer received a combination of treatments that resulted in them being HIVfree. Strangely even I don’t remember reading about this in the headlines. Has society become so overcome with only absolutes in science (particularly medicine) that we ignore anything that might signal progress unless it is the potential for an outright cure? Or, in reality, is this progress really not even worth discussing? To each their own, I suppose.

At the end of the day, a baby in Mississippi who had HIV is now HIV-fee and is not currently on antiretroviral drugs. To me, that’s at least worth mentioning.

—Delaney Fischer ’15 is a neuroscience major.

Evan Seltzer

GuEst COlumnist

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ow does our Judicial System work? Is it an oligarchic committee of administrators that arbitrarily chooses which students to sanction? Or is it more of a “Wizard of Oz” type of deal, where a mysterious man behind a curtain dictates each of our destinies?

Well that was my poor attempt to open this piece on the Judicial System with some humor.

For those of you who don’t know, my name is Evan Seltzer and I am the Chairman of the Judicial Board. I am writing to shed some light on the Board and discuss some interesting aspects of how we operate. Hopefully you’ll spare me a few minutes to learn a bit about the Judicial Board and the overall Judicial System of Vassar.

To begin, I’d like to say that the Judicial Board has just launched its first website. If you go to the Vassar Student Association (VSA) website, the link to our site is on the top-right corner of the page. It addresses the more technical information that no one wants to read in a college newspaper editorial. We have everything there from FAQs to the Governing Documents of the Judicial Board.

For now, let’s briefly outline what the Board actually looks like. We’re made up of four representatives for each class and a chairperson elected by the entire school. We serve on three different types of panels: Academic, Student Conduct, and College Regulations. The first regards issues of academic integrity, the second involves moderately severe infractions and the last deals with more serious violations. Every Friday we have weekly Student Conduct Panels, with the other two types of hearings occurring less often.

Student Conduct Panels, which are cases involving infractions such as underage drinking or smoking indoors, are now entirely heard by students. Vassar Administration determined that it would be best for the Judicial System to operate on a more peer-to-peer basis. As such, we are happy to announce that Student Misconduct cases will almost always be paneled exclusively by representatives of the Judicial Board. Both Vassar Administration and the Board feel this is a strong step forward in

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the direction of having a more inclusive judicial system, one where the student community determines the type of environment we live in.

Did you know that there is no correlation between the rate of sanctioning among professors and that among Judicial Board Reps?

While many think professors and students tend to vote along “age lines,” the reality is that it seldom occurs. We pride ourselves on this incongruence; it demonstrates the unbiased nature of judicial hearings. In fact, it must be made known that the Board takes all possible measures to eliminate bias in the hearings.

Student Representatives are informed of the alleged violations and the names of the respondents before getting picked to serve. Should there be a conflict of interest, or a conflict of past actions, then Representatives are asked to recuse themselves. I can proudly say that I have yet to hear of an situation where there has been a conflict of interest once a hearing has begun, a statistic I intend to maintain.

Finally, I’d like to announce that the Board has undergone a overhaul in how we determine which Representatives serve on panels. Historically, the Board has acted as a de facto pool of potential panelists, with the Chairperson requesting volunteers for a particular panel. Yet this model engenders great disparity in turnout among Representatives throughout the year.

We now operate more methodically to ensure that there are equitable attendance rates. As previously mentioned, we completely systematized Student Conduct Panels. Additionally, we’ve begun to document every Representative’s personal attendance. While this may all sound administrative and mundane, its significance cannot be underestimated. Our Judicial Board will be operating more efficiently while minimizing the key concerns that students have expressed in the past.

Still, neither the Judicial Board nor the Judicial System is perfect. We are always looking for ways to improve. If you ever have any suggestions then please email any Representative on the Board. We are your Representatives, elected to serve. It is our job to listen!

—Evan Seltzer ‘14 is chair of the Judicial Board.

OPINIONS

Page 10

October 31, 2013

Anger can be Unending exposure to information cathartic for hurting ability for us to concentrate the oppressed W Lily Elbaum Columnist

Aja Saalfeld

Features Editor

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here is something that needs to be made clear—oppressed people hating their oppressors is not hate speech. It’s not violence, and it does not cause any real harm. The entire point of oppression is that oppressed people are incapable of oppressing their oppressors.

So, what would, for example, heterophobia look like? I’m not sure. It is so far beyond the realm of reality that it is almost impossible to conceptualize. Perhaps it would look like the oppression that queer people face in diverse ways, from micro-aggressions to murder, or perhaps it would take on an entirely new and thus far unimagined form. Regardless of what form heterophobia would take if it actually were a form of oppression, it does not exist now, and there is no reasonable stretch of the imagination in which straight people suddenly begin experiencing horrific oppression that rivals what queer people already experience.

For many queer people, as well as a wide variety of other oppressed people, expressing distaste, and even hatred, for their oppressors is a form of catharsis, especially at Vassar where micro- and macro-aggressions abound.

We experience real and profound discrimination on a regular basis; even micro-aggressions are a reminder that our lives are inherently less valuable than our straight peers. We are often reminded that we are at a disturbingly high risk of experiencing violent crime as a result of not conforming to a heteronormative ideal.

So, speaking out, even hyperbolically, is cathartic. “I hate straight/white/male people!” I shout into my pillow, I say to my friends over coffee, I whine about passive aggressively on my blog. And it feels good, at least a bit. It is good to articulate what is causing someone harm, even if those words do not sprout legs and run off to dismantle the patriarchy. Queer survival and queer self-care are important, too. Many of us realize that we will not live to see the change we are working for, and so taking care of ourselves is essential. We are, ultimately, working not for us, but for others, always and taking a little time to kvetch about men, or straight people, when not actively working toward change can be deeply comforting and useful for many people.

It is also essential to realize that a couple of oppressed people hating their oppressors ultimately does no tangible harm to those oppressors. What could it possibly do to them?

No one is obligated to like their oppressors, or gently hold their hands while singing ‘kumbaya’ and hoping that everything will resolve itself. It won’t. We might all just be humans, but some of us are oppressed, and some of us are oppressors, and that is something that is impossible to avoid in our interactions with each other. And since we are all human, we all must strive to acknowledge our varied privileges and watch we navigate spaces in which we have privileges.

Oppressed people complaining about their oppressors is not an instance for said oppressors to make their voices heard with traditional rallying cries such as “Not all [member oppressor groups] are like that.” Entering a space dedicated to an oppressed group is something that should only be undertaken if one has been invited into that space, and, yes, conversations between queer people regarding queerness are spaces dedicated to oppressed groups, and, no, straight people are not welcome in those spaces without absolute permission.

Ultimately, queer spaces are essential to queer survival. To remove these spaces, or to attempt to turn these spaces into ones wherein straight people are allowed to speak over the very people that space is dedicated to serving commits an act of queer erasure and, ultimately, an act of violence. Every micro-aggression, every cry of “But we’re not all like that,” every instance of oppressors turning the anger of the oppressed into a discussion of why their feelings are important, furthers the violence and oppression that queer people experience. It doesn’t matter if one did not personally pull the trigger—performing acts that encourage other people to do so nets the same result.

e hear and read all the time that people’s attention spans are shrinking with each generation; with so many products designed for instant gratification, this is hardly surprising. Apps for smart phones and tablets are designed for quick bursts of playing or using—when one is standing in line, riding the bus, waiting for someone, etc.

Websites are designed to capture your attention for a brief moment as you scan through web pages, skim articles and breeze through lists. Everything is designed for instant results.

At first, it’s hard to notice the effect on yourself. It becomes harder to sit down and read a book. Waiting for ten minutes feels like an eternity. There’s a need to always have something to do or look at.

It’s a struggle to focus on one project for long periods of time. We’re all guilty of multi-tasking, and there is nothing wrong with it in moderation. But when you have fifteen tabs open in your browser, only a couple of which are related to the project you’re supposed to be working on, suddenly multi-tasking turns into procrastination and then into wasted time. And there are other consequences to consider too.

I realized recently, as I had those fifteen tabs open and was looking at news websites, checking the weather and doing some online shopping, that it was hard to just sit and read an article. It was an article that I’d chosen to read, it was on an important and relevant topic, and it was poignant.

Yet, I could only get a third of the way

through before I got bored, scrolled down, realized how long it was and stopped reading.

We’re all guilty of this. It’s hard to commit.

Particularly as college students, it’s hard to commit to spending your time doing a single task when there are so many other things you need and/or want to do.

I got to thinking about the time when there were only five channels on TV, and cable wasn’t even a glimmer in the inventor’s mind.

Coverage of the Vietnam War dominated the news during the 1970s, and many people tuned in each night to watch the evening news and find out what had happened that day. I realize that things have changed, and our perspective has widened, but there are still horrible, tragic wars raging today, and many people are just simply not interested.

Sure, we’ll read part of an article on the topic, but most of the time, it’s lost somewhere in the depths of our minds, waiting to be dragged out when someone initiates a discussion of politics or global issues over coffee or tea late at night.

Thinking in particular of the war in Syria, I read an article on the BBC website which talked about a recent outbreak of polio. Polio. The living conditions are so poor, and so many people have become refugees, that children aren’t getting essential vaccinations and diseases which have become practically unknown in the United States and the West are breaking out in large numbers.

Remember that funny sounding set of shots you had to get when you were a baby for measles and the mumps? Well, measles is spreading in Syria as well. It is estimated that approximately 500,000 children have not re-

ceived the vaccine for polio. And yet, before the American Civil War, 95 percent of children had been immunized.

But did you hear about any of this? Probably not. More likely, you heard that Lou Reed died, posted a brief message in memory of him on your social networking sites, and moved on to looking at pictures of cats. Who is to blame for this?

Is it the media, for encouraging the spread of news more palatable for the public, which will be received better? Or is it the population, who has not learned how to seek out this information? One could argue, why should it have to be sought out? Shouldn’t things like this be front-page news?

Well perhaps, but people get tired of news of war, famine, plague and of disaster. People know that things are bad; why would they want to hear about it all the time? What about the good deeds, the heroes, and the salvation of humanity?

Our perception has become distorted by our attention span. We can tolerate short bursts of depressing news. We will read about war, but only if it is in a concise, uncomplicated form.

At the same time, a hilarious cat video which has 26 million views on YouTube may be only thirteen seconds long, but you won’t watch it more than a couple times.

It gets boring. Our ability to gain satisfaction from long-term projects has diminished.

We want something new, something original, something distracting. We need gratification, and we need it now.

—Lily Elbaum ’16 is a prospective independent major.

Social advertising endangers e-identity Joshua Sherman Opinions Editor

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couple weeks ago Google released a new set of terms and conditions for its network of websites. For anyone wondering just what this document is, a “terms and conditions” is a long list of legalese that details all the things a company can or cannot do by you using its products. In the case of Google, their terms and conditions often entail things related to what kind of advertising they will use, how they will use your content, and so on. Google’s latest revision to its terms and conditions and how it chooses to use your content may concern you.

According to these new terms, Google noted that “your Profile name and photo may appear in Google products” to be used within advertising placed on Google’s websites.

(Google “Terms of Service update” 10.11.13) This vague legalese is basically Google telling us that it will be using our names, photos, and other information to promote advertisements placed by its clients. If you ever write a positive review or statement about, for example, Southwest Airlines, Google may very well use this comment in an advertisement for Southwest’s products on one of its websites, like YouTube.

This concept of utilizing our content is far from new. Facebook is already known to use the names, photos, and content of its 1 billion-plus users to promote products Facebook offers or to use with advertisements placed on its website.

“This concept of utilizing our content is far from new.”

You may have seen this before, often in the form of a small ad on the top right with a picture of you or your friend’s profile. Often it will point out that you have been playing a new game like Candy Crush, or that you’ve recently visited a certain restaurant. These

“social ads” then try to convince you or your friends to visit or like a certain page because your friends like or visit that place as well.

Your very likeness is being used to encourage the sale of products you may use, but have perhaps never endorsed.

Now this all may sound disturbing, but in reality you can actually prevent Facebook and Google from using your personal identity to promote their products or advertisements placed on their websites. Both Facebook and Google currently offer rather obscure processes where you can “opt-out” from this social advertising by visiting discretely-placed pages in the settings section of these websites.

Thankfully you can find out where these pages are hidden through a simple web search.

This sort of opt-out however is not across the board. Right now, both Google and Facebook only intend on stopping your name and image from being used on certain types of promoted content. In Google’s case, even if you opt-out they’ll still use your likeness to promote search results, noting if you have given a website a “+1,” the Google version of a Facebook “like.” The same is true for Facebook and its “Sponsored Stories,” where Facebook will still use the “Your friend likes Southwest Airlines” if you have liked Southwest Airlines and your friend sees an advertisement for Southwest on their timeline.

Google and Facebook have not given very indepth responses as to why they offer no complete opt-out, but this speaks to the necessity of social advertising on the social platforms these websites provide.

What we’re seeing here is a philosophical debate about advertising that has been going on for decades. In the 1960s, advertising moguls like David Ogilvy were famous for the “editorial style” of their magazine advertisements, which featured articles written to promote a certain product, as opposed to the flashy, colorful advertisements we’re used to today. Today that “editorial style” has taken the form of social advertising, which tries to use your likeness in an attempt to endorse products and establish an authority that your friends and family will use to make their buying decisions.

What’s interesting about this “social advertising” is that instead of just being edito-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

rialized and convincing, it uses the agency of people like you and me to endorse a product.

If we weren’t just random people on the internet, this would be just like your favorite athlete on a box of Wheaties. The only two differences are that we are only endorsing products to our friends and family, and that we are not getting paid for these endorsements.

“What we’re seeing here is a debate about advertising that has been going on for decades.”

Both of these aspects are touchy. For one, many people would not be comfortable converting a “like” on Facebook to an endorsement to our most close friends and family.

Sure, it may be the internet and sure, our friends and family may take it with a grain of salt, but from a philosophical standpoint the fact remains that Facebook and Google, among many other websites, are intentionally converting what we personally decide into decisions that are vocalized in the name of products and services we are not personally endorsing. There is an immense difference in language between saying “I like Wheaties” and “you should buy Wheaties.” Even more so, profiting from this without our consent or commission is unethical to say the least.

What’s happening here is the emergence of a new generation in advertising. The standards set by industry firms like the Internet Architecture Board are long dead and being replaced by these new forms of social advertising. We, as users, should definitely be concerned. Even though we use many of these website’s products free of charge, this in no way should be a sacrifice of agency in our right to endorse or not to endorse. We, as users, need to remain vigilant to this activity, or it may very well become the standard for every website and end any potential for us to maintain our agency.

—Joshua Sherman ’16 is an English major.

October 31, 2013

OPINIONS

Page 11

YouTube a combatant against deceptive advertising of cosmetics companies Angela Della Croce

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OpiniOns EditOr

t’s hard to believe that YouTube—a staple website in the eyes of many—emerged a mere eight years ago. The site was originally supposed to be a video version of an online dating service, and it was only after one of the founders had great difficulty finding a video clip of Janet Jackson’s 2004 Super Bowl incident that the idea for a video sharing site materialized. Early postings were mostly comprised of personal video blogs, original short films, videos of various songs and instructional videos. Now, less than a decade later, video sharing via YouTube has exploded, both in quantity and breadth.

As of 2012, 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, over four billion videos are viewed every single day, and it is localized across 54 different languages. Hundreds of millions of unique viewers visit YouTube every month as well. I turn to YouTube when I don’t understand a particular concept, when I want to listen to music, watch people partake in embarrassing and therefore humorous acts, etc. But most frequently, YouTube is my go-to destination for product reviews.

Prior to almost any purchase of a cosmetic or hair-care product, I look towards videos that evaluate the product in order to see if it’s really all that it says it is. This has become a pretty common and reliable way of ensuring that you’re getting your money’s worth; if you don’t do this yourself, you most likely know someone who does.

There are certainly reviewers on the website who are sponsored or endorsed to speak highly of a certain product, but, as of now, the majority of them are average people, looking for promising cosmetics and willing to share what they found have worked or not worked for them. YouTube has essentially become a vital part of my—and several other’s—decision-making process when it comes to shopping for cosmetics.

Thus, has YouTube, initially a website for video posting and sharing, become a limiting force against the brigade of false advertising in the beauty industry?

According to its website, the FDA can shut

down a cosmetics company for making misleading claims or putting its customers at risk, and the agency requires that the product’s ingredients to be listed, but that’s essentially it.

It has no premarket approval method to test its claims and/or safety like it does for drugs.

“Thus, has YouTube...become a limiting force against the brigade of false advertising in the beauty industry?”

Thus cosmetics are not approved by the government before they end up in the aisles of Target, Ulta or Nordstrom. Companies can basically promise whatever they please with the use of their product, with personal assessments of the product as the common method of approval.

And though companies are supposed to accurately portray their merchandise, this rarely occurs. Over-the-top advertising is so common, we’ve normalized it. In fact, we hail a product simply when it actually does what it says it does. What we usually are presented with are beautiful, flawless models with immaculate skin and hair—CGI technology at its finest. Adjacent to this unrealistic figure who probably does not even have the product on, are usually series of “proven” statements that claim your skin, hair, or body will be comparable to the perfect model’s with the use of their product.

Indeed, you can take a bottle of the cheapest, most chemical-ridden shampoo, and the product’s sponsor will guarantee you with the most thick, luscious, strong hair you’ve never had. No wonder product reviews have become so prevalent!

Though there have been several other sources for reviews prior to the emergence of YouTube, they have been written evaluations (at least the ones that I’ve seen). I prefer video reviews, like the ones on YouTube, for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, they allow the reviewer to be much more in-depth in their assessment. Writing a lengthy, detailed review is tedious and time-consuming, so most decide to be more concise and leave out details. Videos make it much easier to fully explain one’s reaction to the product, including tips and tricks, the application process, etc. The viewer is also able to see the product on the person as opposed to in the bottle, which can be misleading.

Another perk is actually seeing the reviewer.

Just by viewing the video, people can at least get a feel for their level of expertise or if they are endorsed by the cosmetic company. Expertise and product biases can be completely hidden in written reviews; YouTube videos have certainly increased transparency in terms of where these evaluations are coming from.

YouTubers can also offer direct comparisons of similar products, can broaden the scope of the products reviewed and can make the reviewing process more interactive by accepting questions or concerns.

All in all, it’s a pretty good check on the claims made by cosmetic and hair-care companies. YouTube has also expanded the breadth of products that can be reviewed. There are videos on people’s assessments of websites, art supplies, textbooks and much more. YouTube has thus effectively created an inclusive space where the online community can easily communicate about what actually works and doesn’t work, making for less information asymmetry and thus more well-informed decisions.

With this resource, we can depend less on the supposed claims of the products we buy, crossing our fingers and hoping they work, and rely more on the evaluations of those who you know have actually tried it.

Technological innovations are so highly regarded in today’s culture, and its pervasiveness is one reason why. It can affect seemingly unrelated aspects of our society, like consumer choices in this case, allowing individuals to really know what they are buying and what to expect out of their purchase.

Word

on the street

What is the worst thing you’ve ever gotten trick or treating?

“Toothpaste.”

—Holger Moustakas ’14

“Cheap can of beer.”

—Maya Hawkins ’16

“Toothbrush.”

—Gabe O’Connor ‘16

—Angela Della Croce ’15 is an economics major

Broken Congress

Mira Singer ‘14

“Sidewalk chalk.”

—Ethan Cohen ’16

“Dentures.”

—Emma Matters ’14

“A penny.”

—Cindi Bonacum ’16 We at The Miscellany News are always looking for unique perspectives and content from our readers in both written and media form. If you ever have a unique perspective you’d like to contribute in the form of a letter, opinions article, or a political cartoon, feel free to e-mail us at misc@vassar.edu where we will consider your content for inclusion in an upcoming edition. Readers are also welcome to submit pieces in response to cartoons published in our Opinions section. If you have any questions about the process then please do not hesitate to contact one our Opinions Editors, Angella Della Croce ’15 or Joshua Sherman ’16.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Lily Doyle Humor & Satire Editor Spencer Davis, Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

October 31, 2013

Obamacare rollout remains promising despite glitches Natasha Bertrand Columnist

T

he shutdown ended and the shutout began, leaving Americans with no one to be angry with for virtually twenty-four hours before glitches in the Affordable Care Act website left them unable to apply for the health insurance many of them had been waiting their entire lives to even be eligible for. This handed Republicans more fuel for the fire they had started weeks earlier, closing the government in an attempt to smoke Obamacare out of Capitol Hill for good.

The problematic rollout of the Affordable Care Act website, while anticlimactic, has been nothing more than an unexpected inconvenience, exaggerated by those searching for reasons to discredit the new health care system as a whole. The government predicts the website will be up and running by the end of November, hopefully restoring the administration’s allegedly damaged credibility and laying this frustration to rest once and for all.

Perhaps the most upsetting part about the website’s unglamorous debut, however, has been how quickly it has caused Americans to lose sight of the bigger picture; if anything, it is the nation’s shortsightedness and utter lack of perspective—not a few software bugs in an inaugural online insurance exchange—that will result in the downfall of Obamacare.

Nothing represents such myopia quite like the Republican Party, which has been quick to conclude that the botched website must be indicative of the defectiveness of Obamacare as a whole; anyone with an iota of common sense, however, would recognize that this is a logical fallacy.

Contrary to what the GOP would lead you to believe, the website for the program has noth-

ing to do with the actual healthcare program.

The program itself aims to extend health care to the 51 million Americans without it, subsidizing the insurance costs of low-income applicants and prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage to those with preexisting conditions. Because the program itself mandates that every U.S. citizen become insured by 2016, the website was designed merely as a tool to facilitate this process, giving people easy-to-compare choices of health care coverage in the hopes of lessening the blow of the individual mandate.

Healthcare.gov is one of the biggest IT projects ever initiated by the federal government.

When the first set of federal rules for the Affordable Care Act was released to the public, director of exchange technology at Leavitt Partners, Dan Schuyler is a main consultant on the development of the marketplaces and said in a statement to Politico that “Three and a half years is not enough time to do this.” (Politico, “Understanding Obamacare,” 9.27.13)

“Healthcare.gov is one of the biggest IT projects ever initiated by the federal government.”

Moreover, it is a project that the government has had to carry out largely on its own, as only sixteen states and the District of Columbia have chosen to operate and oversee their own insurance marketplaces; seven more are sharing the work with the federal government. The rest of the states—predominantly red—have

chosen to sit out, leaving the feds to manage the unveiling of a brand new health care system without any help from more than half of the states in the union. In a report for Time Magazine, Kate Pickert confirmed that “Twenty-seven states declined to set up exchanges or cooperate with the federal government to run them. And many are finding other ways to prevent the law from working as it had intended to.” (Time, ‘The Unfulfilled Promise of Obamacare,” 10.14.13) A more accurate generalization, then, would be to say that the botched website is indicative of the defectiveness not of Obamacare, but of the Republican Party and its go-to political strategy of taking the federal government hostage for ransom—in this case, refusing to participate in the rollout of the new program in the hopes that the feds will be overwhelmed and Obamacare will implode.

And yet, in the spirit of hypocrisy that seems to be embodied by the GOP these days, Republicans have been the first to feign ¨shock and sadness¨ that more Americans will not be able to access this program due to its disastrous online rollout. After four years of whining about the Affordable Care Act, offering no alternative in its place, Republicans are suddenly concerned about the health of their constituents.

One congressman, Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) shouted down from atop his high horse that, “This lie is way beyond an awful computer program. This lie affects the health and well-being of every American.” (CNN, “What We Learned–and Didn’t–from Obamacare Website Hearing,” 10.24.13) Others have, unsurprisingly, resorted to fear mongering: “The rollout of Obamacare is nothing short of a debacle and the American people are now fearful of their healthcare,” said Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the House Majority Lead-

er. “I mean, they’re downright scared about what’s going to happen with their healthcare next year.” (LA Times, “Democrats Disturbed

by Obamacare Rollout—and GOP Criticism,” 10.23.13) To say that the Republicans have made a mountain out of a molehill would be an understatement. They have made Mount Everest out of a grassy knoll, and they expect Americans to climb it with them.

“To say the Republicans have made a mountain out a molehill would be an understantement.”

The good news, thus far, is that we have largely refused to make this ascent and lose our grounding. So far 700,000 Americans have signed up for insurance through the website, and the numbers are continuing to grow. Meanwhile, members of Congress never have, and never will, experience life in the United States without health insurance—so why let them speak for us?

Instead of these individuals speaking for us, let the newly insured Americans speak. After a lifetime of being denied access to doctors and medical care for being either too sick or too poor, many of these Americans will assure you themselves that the Affordable Care Act is well worth the wait.

—Natasha Bertrand is a political science & philosophy double major.

The Miscellany Crossword

by Jack Mullan, Crossword Editor

ACROSS 1 Recess or Equus 5 Brokerage giant with the tagline “Talk to Chuck” 11 It’s all the rage 14 Prefix with plane 15 Beethoven’s third 16 Wolfed down 17 Kelly Clarkson, for one 18 College student’s mid−day antidote 19 *”Friends” star, ’85 21 *New York Congressman, ’80 24 Tobias Funke’s daughter on “Arrested Development” 25 Japanese software brand 26 Adherent: Suffix 27 E.P.A. targets 29 ___−Caps (movie snacks)

30 Cool shade 31 Biblical pronoun 34 Biblical subj.

36 Cream pastry 41 Sega’s Hedgehog 43 TV input option: Abbr.

45 Stockpile 46 Queen of Soul 48 Out of sight, for short 50 Curiosity Rover org.

51 B&B’s 53 Groceries holder 55 Stretch across 56 Take a stab at 57 Average guy 60 Champing at the bit 63 *Survivor winner and Grassroot Soccer founder, ’96 66 *Oscar−adorned demi−goddess, ’71 68 Lamenting expression: Var. 69 “Back ___ hour” 70 Start to fix?

71 Bologna’s home

Answers to last week’s puzzle

73 Land with chinchillas 74 Possible vote by a 5−down 75 Chinatown offering 76 Old Pontiac model

DOWN 1 Duos 2 Shown to one’s seat 3 Solid as ___ 4 The sun, in sunnyside up 5 One of 100 in Congress 6 11−across 7 Neighbors of the Navajo 8 Cheesehead’s state: Abbr.

9 Comic strip cry 10 *Writer−Director of “The Squid and the Whale” fame, ’91 11 Toll cost 12 Small step 13 Like morning grass 20 Alternative hip hop group ___ Racist 22 Bygone Knick sensation Jeremy 23 Alphabetic trio 28 Pool tool 29 Clubs or hearts 30 The connection that all of the starred−clues have to Vassar 31 Org. doing pat−downs 32 Vert.’s opposite 33 Cyclops eye count 35 Video game sports co.

37 Like a Hail Mary pass 38 Battery option

39 1040 collectors: Abbr.

40 500 mg., say 42 *CBS National News correspondent, ’1977 44 11 on a clock 47 Santa ___ 49 Presidential first name 52 Philadelphia−to− Poughkeepsie

dir.

54 Objectivist heroine to Paul Ryan 55 Witness 56 Vietnam War name 57 Tommy Lee or James Earl 58 Midwest flight destination

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

59 Boredom 60 “Around the Horn” network 61 Gilette razor 62 “50 Shades of ___” 64 Contact info: Abbr.

65 Closes one’s fly 67 It follows “Around the Horn”

72 Talk radio home

HUMOR & SATIRE

October 31, 2013

Page 13

OPINIONS

Breaking News From the desk of Lily Doyle, Humor & Satire Editor 90% of campus “pretty sure” Fall Concert is Beyonce, students both excited and confused by ticket prices Reporter should probably know Actual and imagined Yelp when to keep things to himself reviews of Vassar College Eliot Marcus

Guest Reporter

T

his is my first time writing for the humor section, and I’ve decided to use this opportunity as a safe space to get some things off my chest. As senior year rolls on I continue to embarrass myself on a weekly basis. Like most of you, my list of embarrassing moments began with a freshman year Mug night, but no one wants to hear about that girl/guy from middle school’s Mug night or lost V-cards. No, we crave the type of stuff only whispered about in Noyes basement and subterranean wompwomp tunnels. The type of confessions that would make Roman abandon caps lock, and send whoever writes the Midnight Question into an existential crisis. So, without further ado here are a few of my darkest secrets.

1. Throughout my time at Vassar I have been an outspoken adversary of Twitter despite using hashtags in all of my texts and Facebook messages. One night I finally caved. I created a Twitter and shook with anticipation for my first career Tweet. At 3:07 a.m. on Saturday morning, I wrote “Joseph-Gordon-Levitt is unbelievably charismatic, #mancrush.” I deleted my Twitter three minutes later and never told anybody.

2. My parents have been Like-a-Littled more times than I have (1 to 0 for anyone keeping score at home). And to answer your question, yes my dad has a mustache that defies both time and space.

3. I have definitely spent more time sending Snapchats than writing my thesis. #SorryProfessorAntelyes #JustGotASmartPhone 4. One Friday night sophomore year I was feeling particularly joyous and I decided to purchase a Chipwhich from the vending machine in the Jewett basement. In my exuberant state I bought five and proceeded to hide them in obscure places around the quad. That night, while lying in bed, I shed a single tear imaging the joy of the strangers who would find them the next day.

5. I have never been on a date in my life that was not at Thai Spice. Sorry for partying.

6. Throughout my career at Vassar I have been telling fellow students that seniors throw secret parties at the Kiosk every Saturday night. I became so enveloped in the idea that I began telling even my closest friends I was at the Kiosk when they texted me on Saturday

nights.

7. Freshman year I was hanging out in Jewett with a friend when we decided to head to the Deece. At the last moment I checked my e-mail and saw something with the subject line “Free Pizza Lathrop Parlor 7 p.m.” It was already about 7:15 so my friend and I rushed over to Lathrop, burst in the door yelling “PIZZA PARTY!” and ran directly into Cappy engaged in conversation with about twenty students. We stayed for the next hour in silence and shame.

Utter, utter shame.

8. I didn’t access my Moodle page until November of freshman year because I somehow had it in my head that Moodle was a blog for this new thing called dub step.

9. I still have no idea what block my TH is in. When people ask me I just say B block and act condescending.

10. I’ve been to the gym to lift three times in my three plus years at Vassar. Each time I just end up showing up and gazing in admiration at how many people are more athletic and motivated than I am.

11. One year I had an Econ class in the basement of Blodgett Hall. On some unfortunate Monday morning I went to the bathroom and got lost for 35 minutes. When my professor asked me where I went I said I was on the phone with my parents and that there was a family emergency.

12. I miss the Deece.

13. I was eating at the Retreat one day when I heard rumors that Meryl Streep had blessed the fine dining establishment with her presence. Apparently she was sitting right behind me, but I never saw her because I was too invested in a How I Met Your Mother episode.

I missed the opportunity to meet one of the most decorated actresses of our time to find out whether Ted kissed Robin. This is my life.

14. I promised myself I would write this column without a Meryl Streep joke.

Wow, that felt good. Now comes the tough part. Will I wake up tomorrow with no friends?

Will a passing freshman take pity on me and give me a shout out on Like-a-Little? Is it possible that seniors actually throw kiosk parties, but I have never been invited? In one sentence can my fingers hit enough keys to make enough words to give me eight hundred in total so that Lily isn’t mad at me?

Joshua Multer

Guest Columnist

A

ctual Yelp reviews of Vassar College

5 Stars–A million people (4) thought Yelp was a place to write the entire story of their time at Vassar, which is great, but not the place for this; also who cares you’re not special unless you’re Meryl (P.S. Please be our speaker I wrote a song for you when I was 7).

3 Stars–“I’d give it four stars if the gossip server was still functioning and five stars if it gave me anything besides a nasty case of the clap.” A winner of the brutal honesty with a touch of humor award, my new hero, and not even under a pseudonym. From 2008.

3 Stars–Someone who took Yelp very literally and gave a scathing and ethnically profiling review of the Deece and the workers, spelled Wednesday “Wensendays” and also later thought Roman Czula’s name is Carl, and confusing the two of them is like confusing…. two things that really shouldn’t be confused because they are so different.

4 Stars–(About the Library) “It is like being in the church / library from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the one where he found the buried knight).” …okay. “Ahhh yeshhh Juniah, a clashic schene” said sarcastic Sean Connery.

5 Stars–“Kudos to this school! Admitted my daughter!” As lovely as that is, that isn’t a review, that’s just a “yay!” and an incidental occurrence. But really, I’m so happy for you. And for me, I go here too. Kudos all around!

3 Stars–“Lovely campus, right in Poughkeepsie, huge opportunity for polemics. Pretty girls, gorgeous dudes, wish you would speak up more in metaphysics.” (Lookin at you, probably one specific guy in “Ali B’s” class last year).

Unluckily, but as you would expect because it’s a college and not a sushi restaurant, Vassar college doesn’t have many Yelp reviews.

So without further ado, step into my sleep-deprived mind.

Fake Yelp Reviews of Vassar College 1 Star–“Damn iPhone app sent me to their dining center instead of the White House after showing Malia the Hudson River Valley. ….Maybe I should rate this GPS, I guess that’s

the real problem here” – a disgruntled and confused Barack Obama. The Deece does kind of look like the White House’s ugly stepsister.

1 comment in reply: “How do you like zat, Barry? Two can play at ze Handyhacking game after all, jaja! NSA stands for Naughty Stinking Arschlochen!” –Angela “Don’t Mess with the Merk” Merkel 5 Stars–“Yo, their president is a total fox, a real hot mama, so smart and a great cook” - Cappy’s husband Kent J. Kildahl trying and failing at the whole anonymous part of submissions.

4 stars–“OMG I heard they don’t have any RA’s and their mascot, is like, beer? Man I wish they’d let guys go here! No frats or football though, so whatever nerds.” 17-year-old Bro who read 5% of a cached version of the Vassar Wikipedia page.

3 stars–“As far as fast food/buffets go, not bad, though a little pricey for Robert and I. Where is that icon? It should say $$. I can’t figure out this website. A lot of college kids were around, seemed pretty hip, found out about it through word of mouth maybe, or one of those social networking websites do you think? We just wandered in! For some reason they still have what I’m guessing is their old sign from the fifties up, it says Retreat. I told Robert we should tell them it’s outdated but he said ‘Shut up Phyllis and eat your damn sweet potato fries I’m sure they know what they’re doing.’”

3 stars–“I’ve heard of it” – Jesus H(erbert) Christ 5 stars–“LOVED IT. All of them will eventually go to heaven. Bringing in veterans was a great idea. We love them gays. God bless.” A Westboro Baptist Church member who takes opposite day very seriously 2 stars–asdfjkl gei45or eri2uvnx pejk265sdl gkdff7;] – A cat in who sat on a keyboard and then figured out what the “submit” button does 5 stars–“It’s a paradise on earth” – those Norwegian guys Ylvis who sing about Fox sounds and Massachusetts (if you haven’t seen the new one, watch it, stop reading, this’ll still be here when you come back) 4 stars – “They’re bringing Solange Knowles for their fall concert this year. Did you guys know she has a sister who also sings? It’s crazy!

I think she’s married to Jay Z or something” – a massive idiot, who I can’t help but somehow respect.

Are you there God? It’s me, Lily, and I don’t understand how to put out a grease fire

by Lily Doyle, Humor & Satire Editor

I

’ve never been much for keeping a journal, but it’s supposed to be good for your “mental health” and “self-awareness.” At least, that’s what I read in Seventeen. It’s apparently also a good way to plan your outfit of the day, so you can get take those extra five minutes in the shower and piss off your neighbor who really needs to get in there because they have class at 10 and it’s 9:40. Too bad, neighbor, you shouldn’t have gotten Bacio’s last night and then refused to give me a garlic knot.

Anyways, I can’t really think of a better time or place to start a journal than right now—I’m 21; it was just Halloween weekend and why WOULDN’T I want it to be published for everyone on campus to read?

Friday, 10:46 a.m.: Wake up dressed in what could only be considered “business casual,” clutching my fellowship application. My pillow

is propped up, wearing glasses, and doing it’s pillow-y best to hold a clipboard. I have got to stop talking about my future when I’m at Billy Bobs. This drunk practicing isn’t getting anyone anywhere, and I think I’m starting to develop feelings for my pillow interviewer. I’ve always been attracted to figures of authority.

Friday, 1:00 p.m.: I walk halfway to the gym before realizing that my energy shouldn’t be confined by an indoor space. I make the positive lifetime decision to go to the Retreat, buy a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, and go back to my room (with the window open) so I could kind of think about Googling an ab workout video to do on my floor. I fall asleep.

Friday, 6:00 p.m.: I wake up from my “nap.”

Everything is dark. I’m not really sure what day it is, but luckily I am keeping this journal so I’m like 60 percent sure that it’s still Friday. I decide to go downstairs and make breakfast just in case

it’s actually the morning, and also because it’s the only thing I can cook.

Friday, 6:02 p.m.: I accidentally start a miniature grease fire in my house.

Friday, 6:03 p.m.: I yell obscenities loudly while I pull up Luis Inoa’s school-wide e-mail on how to prevent dorm fires. Apparently you are supposed to smother them? Does that apply to grease? I’m starting to think I should eat something other than entire packs of bacon, because I have the sneaking suspicion that had something to do with the origin of this raging fire. Also, I’ve been worried about my cholesterol lately, you know? It’s a serious health problem and.... wait, why has the fire alarm not gone off yet? I just used the adjective “raging.” Isn’t that when the alarm should kick in?

Friday, 6:03 p.m.: I decide I should stop journaling about this grease fire.

Friday, 6:05 p.m.: Apparently you CAN

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

smother a grease fire. Unfortunately, I owe my house mate a new sweater.

Friday, 9:00 p.m.: Less than 15 of my friends come over. That’s right, I took the party class.

We also are eating a loaf of bread made into sandwiches for every beer we drink. You’d think Vassar would be a little more concerned about our carb intake, but I guess not.

Friday, 11:00 p.m.: Less than 15 of my friends are now asleep on various surfaces of my house.

One of them is crying alone in the corner about her unrequited love for Bob Brigham, declaring that even though her pickup attempt in their meeting didn’t go as planned today, she would redouble her efforts tomorrow. Nothing says romance like “Ending Deadly Conflict.”

Friday, 1:00 a.m.: I fall asleep on the ground holding an ice cold Natty Ice to my grease fire burns. Senior year is everything I dreamed it would be.

ARTS

Page 14

October 31, 2013

Phil. divorces The Crucible from its McCarthyist tradition Zoe Kurtz

GuEst rEpOrtEr

F

courtesy of Mackenzie Cole and Christopher Flynn

or those of you who have not had enough spookiness after Halloweekend, The Crucible is opening on October 31. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible details historically and fictionally the events of the Salem Witch Trials, which took place in Massachusetts from 1692-1693 and resulted in the execution of 14 women and five men.

The play is most famously known as an allegory for McCarthyism—a period of heightened hysteria and fear of communists in 1950s America—a parallel that the director, Justin Myhre ’14, and the assistant director, Corinne Hastings ’14, explored in their production. The hysteria and subsequent false accusations that arose closely parallel the hangings of supposed witches in Salem in the late 17th century.

The play features actors from all classes, and stars Molly Senack ’14 as Abigail Williams, the play’s 17 year old antagonist who ignites suspicions of witchcraft among the town’s women with the ultimate goal of killing her lover’s wife, and Benjamin Olneck-Brown ’15, who plays John Proctor, Abigail’s lover when she works for him as a servant. The show also includes many people, both in the cast and in the production team, who are not drama majors.

The cast has been steadfastly rehearsing for this production, and has been rehearsing recently for three to four hours a day, and seven hours last Sunday. Olneck-Brown joked, “We haven’t seen the sun in a week.” This prompted Myhre’s response, “It’s character work.”

The cast and crew is preparing their debut with blood, shadows and fog by dry ice.

Olneck-Brown said, “It’s been a very intense rehearsal process because we have done it all in five weeks which for a show like this is a relatively short time.” The directors have also changed the casting slightly in comparison to the original version .

Instead of having 20 cast members, their version only has 10, which means most actors

Philaletheis’ The Crucible will open in the Mug on October 31. The production deviates from typical interpretations that focus on its paralells to McCarthyism. Tickets are available at the Info Desk. are double casted. Despite the double-casting and long rehearsal hours, Myhre expressed that preparation for the show is going smoothly. Myhre said, “[Rehearsals have] been going well. We are having a lot of fun. The whole idea behind the production is taking a classic American text, finding its bones and flipping it on its head.”

Myhre and Hastings flipped The Crucible on its head in more ways than just compressing the cast. They also played with the length by focusing less on the allegory. Originally, the play ran around 2 hours and 35 minutes; their version runs around 2 hours and 10 minutes.

They highlighted the more universal elements of the play instead of the allegorical events.

Myhre chose this play in particular after having been exposed to it in high school.

“I’ve loved The Crucible since I read it in high school. I wanted to do it now because it’s my senior year,” he said. Hastings jumped on board because she was excited to take on the challenge. “The Crucible is crazy and problematic, but that’s why turning it on its head has been so much fun,” she said.

The cast feels that though the play is 60 years old, it deals with issues still pertinent today. “When we delved more into the core truths of the play, everyone had something to say,” Senack said. “By [reducing] the allegory of specific events in the 1950s, you can realize how prevalent the issues still are.” Myhre agreed, saying, “It’s always going to be a classic in America because it’s really about truth.”

Olneck-Brown then said, “The play questions goodness in a person, hypocrisy, and whether

salvation is possible or redemption is possible.

It’s also interesting to look at it in a 21st century post-Civil Rights Movement and post 2nd wave feminism time.” Hastings added, “You still root for the lead even though he is somewhat of a questionably bad person. John Proctor is great in a terrible way.”

As one might guess, playing such dynamic characters in such a complex time can be challenging. When asked about his struggles as an actor, Olneck-Brown responded, “It’s been so rewarding to have the opportunity to delve into such a complex and nuanced character, but also a challenge because there are a lot of things that John Proctor does that make me uncomfortable. The only thing I can do is to portray those as honestly as I can. It is a balance between that and stating when I feel uncomfortable.” Senack, who plays Abigail Williams—a suspected “good” character—has a similar struggle.

She said, “Everything’s a kind of balancing act. The point of the show is that there is no clear-cut line between good and bad . Even good characters are intensely flawed. It’s finding the part of morality born out of insecurity versus fundamental beliefs. Once the allegory is taken out, you have to still play the themes without that.”

Even with a downplayed version of the specific figurative events of the Salem Witch Trials, The Crucible still strives to challenge everyone’s belief systems.

The production will be performed in the Mug October 31 at 11 p.m., November 1 at 5 p.m. and November 2 at 8 p.m. Tickets are now available at the Information Desk. The directors chose the Mug because of its dark ambiance, and believe its spooky atmosphere is perfect for this production.

“It is reminiscent of hell,” said Hastings.

Myhre added, “It is a cool space because it is so intimate; the audience is submerged in the action. There is no fourth wall between the audience and the action, so there is no voyeurism in the experience.”

‘Not Anonymous’ draws on new voices, personal stories Samantha Kohl GuEst rEpOrtEr

U

courtesy of Sierra Garcia

nbound, Vassar’s own experimental, non-hierarchical group, will be holding true to its goal of producing inventive student theater through a new production entitled “Not Anonymous.”

The group will perform “Not Anonymous” at the Susan Stein Shiva Theater on Friday, November 1 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, November 2 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“Not Anonymous” is a collaborative performance piece that brings together a multiplicity of art forms and comments on a broad spectrum of issues that plague society and the individual today.

Kelly Schuster ’15 explained what prompted the creation of “Not Anonymous.” “I really wanted a space to talk about gender or to talk about race or sexuality or class—to talk about all of these things. And to talk from our own voices and not to use the voice of someone else,” she explained.

But “Not Anonymous” is not necessarily definable, and that is what makes it unique to most other art forms. The piece will be performed by 10 artists and will consist of a little bit of a mix of mediums, from visual art, monologues and dance to stand up, theatrical pieces and song.

“Not Anonymous” is ultimately a theater piece entwined with elements of many different art forms.

The idea for “Not Anonymous” began with Schuster, Penny Puksic ’15, Sierra Garcia ’15, Shivani Dave ’15 and Taylor Dalton ’15. The future members of Unbound were then working on “The Vagina Monologues” last semester when they found some aspects of the show to be problematic.

“For me,” said Schuster, “I felt both empowered by it and yet frustrated [by “The Vagina Monologues] because I was saying someone else’s words, and there is a bit of an exclusionary nature in that show. It is for a specific identity that is not very representative but claims to be very representative.”

Experimental group Unbound will open their original production Not Anonymous on Friday, November 1. The play explores students’ personal experiences and identities through monolgues.

The need for a fully inclusive performance piece became necessary for the group of students, and thus “Not Anonymous” started to take shape.

“I also felt really nurtured by the cast and I really wanted a space to talk about gender or to talk about race or sexuality or class—to talk about all of these things. And to talk about them from our own voices and not to use someone else’s words,” elaborated Schuster.

The problem for the group was the non-original nature that comes with scripted works of theater. Unbound’s goal in creating “Not Anonymous” was to act as themselves.

“We wanted to not be another character but to be ourselves. That was a space which we wanted and that we wanted for others as well,” said Schuster.

“We wanted it to be a new thing, and we didn’t want it to be a reaction to [‘The Vagina Monologues’],”added Schuster. The group sought to create a performance piece that goes beyond typical drama and touches upon subjects that are emotional and real.

Unbound decided to name their piece “Not Anonymous” to portray a sense of going behind the mask and seeing a performer as themself instead of as a role which they are playing.

“The experience [of working on “The Vagina Monologues”] itself prompted a lot of questions, which we then wanted to explore,” added Dave, “And we wanted to explore [those questions] through people’s own individual stories.”

Revved up and energized by their experi-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ences working in “The Vagina Monologues”, the group sought to completely open up “Not Anonymous” to all members of the Vassar community. They reached out to a multitude of clubs and associations on campus in order to find a diverse group of performers and artists seeking to express themselves in a space that was completely new here at Vassar.

“We wanted to make sure we had representation from people who hadn’t necessarily been in a show before. We wanted to create a safe space for people to share their stories,” said Dave.

And by reaching out to many different campus groups, Unbound was able to open up auditions beyond the usual scope of drama kids or theater connoisseurs who tend to audition for theatrical pieces. The inclusionary character of the audition process was just one facet that makes “Not Anonymous” a unique production.

While auditions were being held for the collaborative piece, the organizers of “Not Anonymous” did not necessarily have a concrete idea of how the piece would pan out, but that was the entire point of creating it in the first place.

“Auditions drove this,” said Luksic. What the group was looking for was something they had not necessarily seen before and something that did not exclude any identity. They sought to address “the -isms”, as Schuster put it, which includes racism, sexism, classism and more.

“We wanted the cast, whom we eventually chose, to create the piece about what they needed to speak about or what they needed to speak to,” said Garcia.

After the audition process, Unbound ended up with a group of 10 artists, or as they asserted, 10 real people on campus speaking real truths. “The majority of our performers have never taken part in theater,” added Dave. “[They’re] all artists, but they range in their media of choice,” explained Schuster.

Tickets will be available all week long and sold at the Information Desk in the College Center.

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Page 15

Organist discovers camaraderie in Camerata community Matthew McCardwell GuEst rEpOrtEr

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ust seven weeks ago, Patrick Walker ’16 started his position as conductor of the student-run Baroque orchestra and choir, Vassar Camerata. Walker worked as an assistant to former conductor Michael Hoffman ’13 last year and stepped into the conductor role this fall.

However, being a Hyde Park resident and son of Professor of Earth Science and Geography Jeffrey R. Walker, he began taking music lessons during his senior year of high school before taking music classes at Vassar. “My first music class was Music Theory 105. I felt that before coming here I knew I wanted to do music, but taking that class solidified it,” said Walker.

Walker found his knack for conducting through his musical family.

“The whole family does traditional Celtic music on the side,” Walker said. “My brother plays the trumpet and my younger sister plays the cello. My older brother was my inspiration to do classical music, he got my entire family into it. We started going to concerts he was in for choir.” From there, Walker began attending other concerts at the college. “I loved the orchestra concerts,” said Walker.

This love of classical music led Walker to the organ. His father sang in A Cappella Festiva, a community-based choir that is conducted by Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities Christine Howlett. Through this connection, Walker met his first organ teacher, Eric Hepp.

As Walker explored his options for a career with the organ, he realized that his calling was to become both a conductor and an organist.

With this drive, he started focusing on conducting. Walker said, “As I got more involved in classical music I decided to join the choir—A Cappella Festiva)—to understand how the choir was run.”

When Walker arrived on campus he contin-

ued working with Howlett through the Vassar College Choir, which he remains a member of, and he joined Camerata to explore playing the organ in a group setting.

Walker said, “I wanted to be in a group because it can get very lonely as organist.” In addition, he began taking lessons with Adjunct Artist in Music Gail Archer.

This fall, Walker stepped into the position of conductor for Camerata, combining his experiences with conducting, playing the organ and working with the choir. He is directing the orchestra of the group that performs music written between 800 and 1800 C.E. This experience has been very informative for Walker as he has explored conducting.

“The more you learn, the harder it gets,” he said. “You think the conductor comes at the beginning of a concert–after all the musicians have warmed up–conducts the concert, bows and exits. But it’s a lot more work.”

Walker has found conducting both challenging and exciting. “The beginning was very exciting but more work than I was expecting.

It’s a lot of fun because we don’t have to worry about how hard the music is; they can play anything,” he said.

Currently, the group has not decided what they are going to perform in their concert.

“Right now we haven’t pinned down what we’re going to do in our concert. So we are reading different pieces and seeing what we like. It has been a lot of fun to try out different things,” Walker said.

In addition, Walker has had to work with a relatively small budget and as a student organization rather than affiliate of Vassar’s music department, both which have lead to several challenges.

“The one drawback to that is that I have had trouble finding music. We don’t have a very big budget. So I have been trying to find free sheet music as best I can. The issue with that is you get a piece that has misprints and then you have to deal with that,” said Walker.

Patrick Walker ’16 began his musical in his senior year of high school. Now, only a few years later, he is working at the conductor for Vassar’s student-run Baroque orchestra and choir, Camerata.

“Plus the piece must have parts for the orchestra. We also have issues finding room in Skinner that we can practice in because as a student group we have priority under all of the faculty members. We wind up rehearsing around 9 at night...But it’s very rewarding, especially considering the quality of players I have,” he said.

Still, Walker believes conducting Camerata has been extremely rewarding, introducing him to new musicians to collaborate with. “I am blessed to have such great musicians to work with. Some are better than me, so it’s a two-way relationship. I learn something from them and them from me.”

“The only bad thing I can say about Vassar is that there are too many good opportunities.

Sometimes I’m sorry I can’t take all of them.

Especially with music, I feel like so many opportunities have come my way like conducting Camerata.”

In addition to this work, Walker conducted a piece for Mahagonny, the student-run modern orchestra and choir. He is also in charge of music for the Vassar Catholic Community and performs solo pieces at the student recitals from his work with Archer.

Outside of music, Walker is on the crew team and wants to participate in downhill ski racing this winter. He will also be playing organ with Mahagonny this year and will be competing in the Concerto Contest on the organ .

For now, Walker will continue working with Vassar Camerata in anticipation of his first concert of the semester in mid-December, during study week.

Claflin Lecturer finds the ‘true essence’ of subjects Isabella DeLeo GuEst COlumnist

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rtwork lives an infinity of lives. And each life is determined by the limits or limitlessness of the viewer, the seer with ubiquitous eyes. On November 5, artist Arlene Shechet will give a lecture entitled “Working Over Time” in Taylor Hall. She has received the John S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship Award, three New York Foundation for the Arts awards, among other accolades and grants. A clay-based sculptor, she has established herself as an avant-garde artist of the moment. She often crafts aggressive pieces that challenge traditional notions of gender and form.

According to the organizer of the event, Professor of Art Harry Roseman, “[Shechet] takes on issues and materials that we are familiar with, rethinking them so that they become unfamiliar and assume new aspects… [her] formal vocabulary and the way in which she contextualizes her objects in their relationship to gravity and the bases they sit on are in dialogue with the sculpture while at the same time are a coherent part of the complete work.”

In my view, the work of Arlene Shechet succeeds because she wields painting and ceramic so abstract that the story of the piece must be determined entirely by the viewer. She gives us a seismograph of color and form. From her art, we get wild movement. The outline of hands reaches out, of figures embracing, of tides rising and receding. She crafts hints: ceramic and painting suggesting human form with the open-endedness of a question mark, allowing the viewer to give the art his or her own completion.

Shechet breathes humor into her forms, reinterpreting ancient art. In her collection, “Breaking The Mold,” she created a series of ceramic vases and plates painted to look like melting fine china, inverting inside of itself. She also pokes fun at the Greek ideal of beauty—the male nude in her collection “Tough Puff.” But perhaps the most relatable of her work to my fellow Vassar students is “A Night Out,” an amorphous and

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

somewhat drained purple form that I relate to the campus-wide headache on the last dusk of Halloweekend.

As a classically trained sculptor, she questions the limits and nature of the medium. To her, there is no need to depict forms as they appear in the perceptive-reality; she attempts to portray the essence of things. I think of Picasso when he said, “art is a lie that tells the truth.” Even so, she gives us mere shadows and glimpses, encouraging the viewer to piece together meaning. This democratic ideal is particularly pertinent in one of her earlier works, “Out of The Blue,” which depicts a series of glass blue knots in various stages of untying along the walls of the room. The knots are different lengths and are punctuated by the blank canvas of the white wall. She has painted the floor blue and has drawn the image of an anchor.

Perhaps the knots and anchor become transcendental in a Whitmanesque sense, urging the viewer to unfurl restricting ties and fill in the knots’ negative space with a personal narrative. The piece should not be observed passively.

Rather, the viewer is meant to experience it by walking around the room in tune with the other footsteps like a sort of pilgrimage. She unites together the process of making art and the experience of appreciating it.

Shechet was asked to deliver the Claflin lecture partly because of her constant pursuit to see art and her world anew, questioning canonical works and accepted ideas. “Her body of work is the kind of endeavor that speaks to experimentation, upending expectations and looking at aspects of the world in new ways. It also represents the kind of mindset that we encourage in all of our students at Vassar to embrace,” said Roseman.

To her, artwork is never an end within itself. It is a perpetual reworking, an inverting and subverting to create something that has never been seen before. Anyone can probably relate to Shechet’s love of inquiry and personal impetus to try what has not yet been tried. It is this curiosity and willingness to fail that enables the fullest flowering of the individual’s potential.

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October 31, 2013

Fall dramas succeed when taking risks Knowles blazes own C musical path Max Rook Columnist

SOLANGE continued from page 1 writing songs at age nine—she has written some of her superstar sister’s biggest hits, such as “Get Me Bodied” and “Upgrade U” from Beyoncé’s second solo album, B’Day. She has performed on the stages of Glastonbury, Made in America, Pitchfork Musical Festival and Jimmy Fallon.

Knowles is heavily influenced by The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas and The Marvelettes, along with other MoTown girl groups. She also cites her mother, Tina Knowles, as a big influence, and Beyoncé as a powerful inspiration. Solange has managed to come more into her own style as she has gotten older. In reference to Solo Star, she expressed to The Scotsman that she had little control over the artistic direction of her first album.

“Even at that age I had very diverse taste in music, but I didn’t necessarily have control on the record,” she said (“Solange Knowles interview-Soul sister, 10.21.08). “I didn’t understand about having an identity.

There was none. One song was jazz, another was reggae… when you’re 14, everyone else is older and more seasoned and you trust their decisions” (Solange Knowles Interview-Soul sister, 10.21.08).

Solange’s eclectic taste and inspirations are best exemplified on True and Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams.

“She’s genre-less, which I think makes her perfect for Vassar,” wrote Toler. “Everyone can find something about her music that they gravitate towards.”

Knowles mixes various musical styles, including R&B, hip hop, indie, funk and neo soul. She has also been described as a fashion icon, famous for her bold hairstyles, busy patterns and flashy suits.

Nathan Muscato ’14, a big fan of Knowles, spoke to her versatile music and daring fashion choices. “[Knowles] has a really fresh sound that builds on old school Motown influences, equally suited to dancing with friends or lazy afternoons alone,” wrote Muscato in an emailed statement.

Knowles, also a model, is renowned for her hipster-inspired fashion mixed with retro elements displayed in her music videos and public appearances.

“She’s got a phenomenal personal style.

Yes, she’s Beyoncé’s sister, but her sound and voice are absolutely her own and I think well-suited to the sort of smart, hip, indie-pop aesthetic that the Vassar crowd appreciates,” Muscato added.

Muscato also expressed admiration for Knowles’ personal conviction and artistry in her work. “Her path to success in the music industry is very unconventional and admirable. She writes all her own stuff, and she will release her next album through her own label.”

Toler asserted that Vassar students can look forward to Knowles’ opening act, Iman Omari, as well. Also an artist with a style that spans genres, Omari will bring west coast sounds, with a fusion of jazz, hip-hop, R&B and soul.

“The opener Iman Omari is someone who [Knowles] really wanted to open for her, so his set should be a good transition into hers,” wrote Toler.

Overall, Vassar students have shown great enthusiasm for ViCE’s upcoming fall concert.

“Generally, the [student] response has been great. We sold about 700 tickets in only 3 days of sales, so I think the numbers speak for themselves,” wrote Toler. “I think students always appreciate it when a relatively big name comes to campus.”

Tickets are $15 at the door for students, and $25 at the door for the public. “The concert’s going to be one to remember,” wrote Toler.

“Students can expect [Knowles’] contagious energy and an all around great, inviting show.”

ontinuing from last week’s coverage of fall’s new comedies, this week I’ll be looking at the season’s new dramas. Like last week, I’m skipping over shows that have already been canceled or will likely be axed soon. I’ve also skipped the spin-offs that have debuted. In short, if you like Once Upon a Time or The Vampire Diaries, you’ll probably enjoy their spin-offs Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and The Originals, respectively.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC, Tues., 8:00 p.m.)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was probably the most anticipated, and advertised, show of the fall, being the latest expansion of Marvel’s cinematic universe begun in films like Iron Man, Captain America and The Avengers. Clark Gregg reprises his role as Agent Coulson from those movies, here leading a team of younger agents who jetset around the world dealing with super-powered threats.

The problem with that premise is that this isn’t a show about superheroes. It’s a show about cops who are superhero-adjacent. In the first few episodes, there have been a couple of fun nods to the movies, but TV shows just don’t have the budget to showcase impressive superheroics. Instead, Agents is a light, banter-filled procedural that wouldn’t feel out of place alongside shows like White Collar and Suits on USA. Gregg is solid as a character who has already proven to be likable, but the rest of the cast has been forgettable so far.

Joss Whedon directed the pilot and is still involved somehow, which suggests there is room for improvement, but for now it is a solid, if unambitious, show.

The Blacklist (NBC, Mon., 10:00 p.m.)

At this point, networks can’t really launch a new show in one of the standard procedural genres—be it about cops, lawyers or doctors—

without some kind of gimmick. The Blacklist’s gimmick is its strongest aspect, but it isn’t enough to elevate the blandness around it. James Spader plays Raymond “Redd” Reddington, one of the most wanted criminals in the world, who suddenly turns himself in to the FBI and begins working with them to take down fellow criminals. Spader is basically playing a variation on the Hannibal Lecter archetype, albeit one who never does anything so bad he loses the audience’s sympathy, and he is a delight in the role, which allows him to be gleefully weird in that way only Spader can. Unfortunately, the rest of the show takes itself deadly seriously, creating a bizarre contrast between the campy fun of the Spader’s scenes and the dull slog when he isn’t on screen. Maybe with enough time, the rest of the show will adjust to Spader’s energy, but for now, it simply isn’t worth the time.

Dracula (NBC, Fri., 10:00 p.m.)

A new take on a classic story, Dracula continues the recent trend of horror on the small screen. Inexplicably, it sets the story in 1896’s London, with our titular vampire posing as an American energy mogul, attempting to root out the comically evil Order of the Dragon. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays Dracula, and he does a fine job, although the show mostly requires him to be handsome and vaguely creepy. There are a few moments in the pilot where the show embraces its horror side, including an impressive fight scene, but most of the running time is devoted to Dracula’s cover story. Apparently the writers find his economic battle to seize control of the city’s energy network more interesting than seeing him suck someone’s blood. Unfortunately, the period drama aspect of the show is staid and boring, especially in contrast to the hints of excitement that peek through in the horror-twinged moments. I hope that the show’s writers will find a way to effectively merge the two narratives, but for now it feels like they really wanted to tell a story about alternative

energy in the 19th century, and Dracula is just window-dressing.

Reign (CW, Thurs., 9:00 p.m.)

Reign is a teenage soap opera about Mary, Queen of Scots. As teen soaps go, it’s a fairly good one. As a historical drama, it’s rather odd. Mary, played by Adelaide Kane, returns to France after an attempt on her life, which includes seeing her betrothed, Francis, who just happens to be the heir to the French throne. Her return is complicated by Francis’ resistance, and by Mary’s attraction to the king’s bastard son Bash. In many ways, Reign is a typical CW show with love triangles, contemporary music and even hints of magical elements. Those tropes mesh quite well with the historical setting. Betrothals and political intrigue are surprisingly effective engines for creating the type of angst this style of show traffics in. It’s hard to say how long the historical setting will retain its novelty, but for now, Reign is a fun twist on a played-out genre.

Sleepy Hollow (FOX, Mon., 9:00 p.m.)

Sleepy Hollow has one of the strangest premises I’ve ever seen for a TV show. Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) is a soldier in the Revolutionary War who is injured in battle, put into some sort of magical coma and wakes up 200 years later in the present day, when the town of Sleepy Hollow is being attacked by various monsters. He teams up with a local cop (Nicole Beharie), and together they fight against enemies including Death, a demon named Moloch and a magical plague that originated in the lost colony of Roanoake.

This is a supremely weird show, and somehow, it manages to be incredibly entertaining. A large part of its success can be attributed to the two leads, who already have great chemistry, but the writers have also managed to balance the inherent wackiness of the concept with the right level of seriousness. I’m shocked to find myself saying this, but Sleepy Hollow is the best new show of the season.

Jonze’s Her personifies the inanimate Harris Gurny

Guest Columnist

Her Spike Jonze Warner Bros. Pictures

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hink about how many hours a day you spend glued to your computer or your phone; we are attached to technology to the extent that our gizmos aren’t mere objects, but rather friends that define our existence. Even so, the film industry has yet to fully address modernity’s dependence on technology. In this way, the witty and deeply moving film Her— about much more than a man’s romance with a Scarlett Johansson-voiced computer—ushers cinema into the 21st century. Finally, in Her, we have a film that beautifully echoes our society’s anxieties about our beloved devices.

Sensitive lonely-boy Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) lives in a utopian future very similar to our present. He works for beatifulhandwittenletters.com, where he writes heartfelt “handwritten letters” for other people (handwriting generated by a computer).

Depressed, he wanders around a clean Los Angeles and at night unwinds to immersive video games in his futuristic apartment.

One of the comical highlights of the film is a gnomish potty-mouthed video game character who yells expletives at Theodore. As he divorces his wife Catherine (Rooney Mara), Theodore buys “Operating System 1” (OS), the first artificially intelligent computer. OS has a human-like curiosity and emotional capabilities. In order to generate a compatible OS, the computer asks Theodore: “Are you social or anti-social?” and “what is your relationship with your mother like?” Almost immediately, Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) is born. What transpires is the oddest meet-cute in movie history.

Originally meant as an organizer, Samantha has insightful thoughts and a bubbly personality that attracts Theodore. He finds his ideal love in Samantha. “I love the way you look at

the world” he divulges. Soon, Samantha and Theodore are staying up all night, revealing their deepest feelings and eventually going on dates to the beach and to an amusement park.

The endlessly inventive director Spike Jonze imbues Her with humanity and passion amidst an inherently inhuman story. The film’s greatest success is in making a computer an emotional entity; she’s more real than most romantic leads in contemporary rom-coms. The concept of a love story between a man and a machine is plainly outlandish. But for such a blatantly absurd idea, Jonze is able to make us feel such depths for a completely synthetic character. Despite a fairly satirical concept, the love that grows between this man and his computer seems extremely normal.

Perhaps what makes Samantha seem so real is her vivacious personality. Samantha is the perfect girlfriend: she’s there when desired, she reads your emails and she contains endless insight. Just like the film itself, Samantha radiates vitality, humor, profundity and passion.

Although the film focuses mainly on Theodore’s plight, Samantha’s individuality never takes a backseat. Because it turns the inhuman into human, Her is more about what it means to be human than about technological wonder.

Spike Jonze reveals master showmanship in his creation of a utopian future. His early works, Being John Malkovich and Where the Wild Things Are are equally mind-boggling.

The most inventive filmmaker working today, Jonze continues to display the creative strain found in all his works. He envisions the future to be a perfect world where people live in sleek high-rises and wear high-waisted pants and tweed jackets. This utopian vision is also found in the film’s aesthetic; cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema presents a colorful future, with sunlight peeking out of every corner of the frame. The impressionistic use of light evokes a sense of passion that substitutes for Samantha’s lack of a body.

At the film’s heart, though, Samantha’s form is irrelevant; the film is really about a conventional relationship and the human emotions felt along with it. As Theodore’s best friend

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

(Amy Adams) explains, “falling in love is a crazy thing to do. It’s kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity.” Theodore’s, and by extension Samantha’s, search for love becomes the film’s emotional center. Complications in their relationship brew to the surface with further awareness of their differences. An elegy of modern love, Her’s emotional mastery stems from the fact that it’s much more romantic than other romance films, although Her can’t manifest that romance through physicality.

Her attempts to make a point of the lack of human connection inherent to city life. The film pays careful attention to the city-dwellers lying in the background, but these extras never get too close since they’re too busy talking to their own Operating Systems. The soulful vibe of a city is intoxicating, but it’s also lonely. In the era of technology, humanity’s persistent need to connect to something is satisfied through machines rather than through humans—especially in a city where interactions between people are inconsequential, fleeting and impersonal. The only genuine internal connection we can have is with our screens.

Her delineates how we connect to things external to ourselves—not just to technology but also to each other.

When the film was over, I wandered outside in a daze, towards the cold New York City night, with strangers and streetlights buzzing all over. I looked around at the hordes of people passing by me at the speed of light. Most of them were too busy staring at their phones to pick their heads up and wonder about the pedestrians who meander by for a transient moment. I realized that we, as a society, have replaced human connection with technological connection. And, a few minutes later when my own phone died, I felt cut off from the rest of the world, all while being surrounded by the crowds of the Upper West Side. Maybe the concept behind Her isn’t so ludicrous; instead, it just might be prophetic.

Her had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival. The film will be released in theaters on December 18 and will open for a wider release on January 10.

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October 31, 2013

Page 17

12 Years tackles the dark realities of slavery Margaret Yap

assistant arts EditOr

12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen Fox Searchlight Pictures

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t is a well-known belief that history tends to repeat itself, for better or for worse. So how, you might ask, can we stop from remaking the mistakes of the past? Well, for a start, we can educate ourselves. How do we do this? We read firsthand accounts of history’s horrors, especially those that took place in our own countries. But what if we forget to do this? What if the material is not constantly surrounding us and describing the past, and conveying how white Americans are implicated in the system of privilege their ancestors established? Well, then, we can only hope that someone will remind us. One stain in the history of the United States happened not as long ago as many of us would believe: the chattel slavery of millions forced to work in the Southern and border states until the Emancipation Proclamation and the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment in the mid1800s.

Unfortunately, the horrors of this time period are often watered down when taught to American teenagers, and the consumption of popular anti-Tom literature such as Gone with the Wind only perpetuates the notion that slavery could not have been all that bad.

Steve McQueen’s American-British film 12 Years a Slave is here to set the record straight.

The movie is based on the 1853 bestseller and autobiography of the same name by Solomon Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the film), a free and literate African American of Saratoga, New York who was drugged and kidnapped in Washington, D.C. in 1841. He was made to work on plantations in Louisiana as a slave until, twelve years later, a white abolitionist and Canadian carpenter, Samuel Bass (Brad Pitt), agreed to write to Northup’s wife,

Campus Canvas

who contacted the men who freed him and sent him home.

The film is remarkably faithful to the book, having been shot mostly in New Orleans. It spares no feelings as it tells the R-rated story of how Northup is torn from earning a living playing the violin and is sold first to cotton planter and Baptist preacher William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), then slave owner John Tibeats (Paul Dano) and lastly the savage plantation owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). The film runs for approximately two hours and fifteen minutes and succeeds where many movies fail in wasting very little time.

The movie’s brilliance lies in its refusal to shy away from the gritty reality of slave life in the nineteenth-century American South, featuring graphic showings of rape, hangings, humiliation, whippings, malnutrition, disease and despair.

Where other movies fade to black when a master approaches his slave with a whip, 12 Years a Slave makes its audience sit through scenes of sexual abuse, beatings and attempts at suffocation, several of which last for many minutes. This forces the film’s viewer into a constant state of anticipation and anxiety, broken by relief only at the film’s end.

Of course, without talented actors, even such explicit sequences might fail to break through the layers of insensitivity constant television exposure has built into American minds. Luckily, 12 Years a Slave has no such problem. The work of its talented lead actor, Ejiofor, known by some for his portrayal of Peter in the 2003 film Love Actually, could have been surpassed by very few.

Praise is to be given to Dano and Fassbender as well for their success in demonstrating the lengths to which men can go when placed in positions of power. Cumberbatch, though his southern accent does slip at times, convincingly plays his role as a less violent slave owner who nonetheless is too scared to help a man who claims he once was free. The depiction of such a character reminds the audience that sometimes even good intentions cannot

overcome fear.

But let us not limit acclaim to men. Lupita Nyong’o, who won a New Hollywood Award for her portrayal of the slave Patsey, is responsible for causing a large portion of the film’s heartbreak. Patsey’s frequent rape by Epps, hard labor in the cotton fields and whipping scene (her crime is only wanting a bit of soap) can easily move audiences to tears. The girl, driven to the point of asking Northup to assist her with suicide, is not freed at the film’s end and is thus an important reminder that the majority of slaves at this time were born and died as the supposed property of other human beings.

Sarah Paulson is to be commended also for her portrayal of Epps’ wife, Mary, who demands slaves wake up in the night to dance for her entertainment and mocks them by giving them food she bakes. The character suggests that even those who may be viewed as possessions themselves—such as women in 19th century North America—can also be cruel toward others.

There is very little about this film that could be improved upon. One suggestion I would make would be the limitation of lengthy closeups of Ejiofor’s expressions. The pain of Northup’s situation in the film is revealed through his attempts at escape and his pleas to white men to deliver written messages to his family, asking for their help in freeing him. And while the depictions of heartbreak on Ejiofor’s face are certainly moving at most times, extended clips of them runs the risk, again, of desensitizing the film’s white audience members to Northup’s suffering through overexposure to that of Ejiofor.

Nevertheless, this small blip in the film’s camera work does not detract majorly from its powerful message. The movie, universally praised by even the toughest of critics, has been nominated for and has won many awards. It is a gripping tale of struggle and survival that is still playing in theaters, and though no one could label it easy viewing, it is a must-see for anyone old enough to appreciate it.

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

submit to misc@vassar.edu

Excuse me, What would you have a World Series for?

“Harry Potter trivia.”

—Sarah Ragan ’17

“Socks on waxed floors.”

—Andrew Perratore ’16

“Knitting.”

—Charlotte Candau ’14

“How well you throw out garbage.”

—Aaron Kim ’16

“Baked Lays.”

—Alex Moulton ’16

“These are photos of my housemates I took when I was doing their senior portraits

by Sunset Lake. They are my favorites because I think they show them in ways I don’t get to see everyday living with them. As seniors, we’re all so busy going in and out of classes and rehearsals and morning practices and the library that we barely get a chance to breathe. But here, I see them demonstrating (from left to right): a sublime serenity, a quiet confidence and a bold vulnerability. They probably won’t submit these to the yearbook, but I’ve been petitioning to blow up these photos and put them up in our house.”

—Matthew Ortile ’14

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Cupcakes.”

—Emily Denn ’14

Jack Owen, Arts Editor Cassady Bergevin, Photo Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

NFL should place focus on home turf Eli J Vargas I Columnist

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he NFL has had a presence in London since 2007 in the “International Series” where a game was hosted at London’s Wembley Stadium during the NFL regular season. This year, two games have been played there, while next year there will be three games played. Due to the novelty of American Football, the games have been successful in drawing mostly sellout crowds. All of this fanfare has brought up the possible expansion or relocation of an NFL team to the United Kingdom. For NFL fans this must be an exciting idea, but to me it as a preposterous attempt by the NFL to make more money.

This interest in expanding the NFL just makes me think. A team from LA or Seattle playing a team in London—how does that even make any sense? Why would teams agree to this? It would be unfair for either team to fly that long. The New England Patriots are the closest team to London, and that is still a seven hour plane ride.

Getting a team to London would seem artificial as well because moving an American franchise overseas would be more of a novelty rather than having a home grown team that has a connection with London. It would be difficult to lure freeagents to London because they would be distanced from their families. This would result in uncompetitive teams, and the London-based team would turn to the NFL draft to become competitive, and it would be unfair to force athletes that have just come from college to move all the way to London, to be paid rookie-level salaries.

A more viable option would be to have an NFL team based in Mexico City because at least Mexico City has a central time zone similar to that of other teams. But hey, I have an even better idea!

How about Los Angeles? It doesn’t make sense that London should be a source of interest for an NFL team if the second largest city in the US still doesn’t have a team. The city of Los Angeles has been pining for an NFL team since 1995, when the Raiders and Rams left to go to Oakland and St. Louis. Los Angeles has multiple stadium projects that have been approved by the city and happen to be shovel-ready, and all they need is for an NFL team to commit to relocation. If there happens to be any lingering questions about whether or not the city of Los Angeles would have enough fans to make a team’s relocation viable, why not have some of these exhibition games in Los Angeles, rather than the brutal plane flight which is London?

This goes to show that the NFL’s priorities are out of order. They are trying to expand their economic reach in Europe through London, while ignoring the fact that the logistics of having a team in London would not lead to competitive games.

Money has been the driving force behind the NFL decisions and always has been. The idea of having a team in London is intriguing, but when you begin to think about the fact that once the novelty of an NFL team wears off from having an underperforming team it will no longer be a viable option.

Why should London want to support players who have no ties to England or Europe at all? Players would be strangers to them, and there is no way London could produce its own NFL players because football is not a significant sport there.

The UK already has plenty of professional rugby teams that they are devoted to, and are familiar with, that supply them with their fair share of monstrous tackles and smashing bodies. So what would draw people to the NFL, other than the novelty of it? To me, the NFL discussing expanding to the UK seems to be intrusive and disrespectful to the already exciting and established sport of Rugby. Just because rugby is not one of the most popular sports in the US doesn’t mean that the NFL would be able to draw crowds from established rugby teams.

There are more pressing matters than simply making money, like the safety of employees. What the NFL should worry about more than expanding its sales reach is the safety of its players, especially concerning helmets and concussions. This is true now more than ever. But this is what should be expected from a business. They only care about maximizing profits and not the people who actually do all of the work.

October 31, 2013

Islanders’ new home lacks old charm Zach Rippe Columnist

I

n 2012, the lowly and unpopular New Jersey Nets decided to pack up and head to the brand new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, thus becoming the “Brooklyn Nets.”

They changed their team, their colors, and evidently their coolness factor as well.

Once an unpopular and seemingly hopeless franchise, the Nets have been revitalized and look to contend for the Eastern Conference title in the NBA this season (although having a billionaire owner who is willing to throw money at you doesn’t hurt either).

Over in Long Island, there is another team from another sport looking to make the switch as well. The New York Islanders entered the league in 1972 and had a first season much like other expansion teams’ first seasons. They went 12-60-6 that year, yet quickly rose to prominence later that decade as they made the playoffs several times. Perhaps the high point in the history of the Islanders occurred in the early ’80s, as between 1979-1983 they won four straight Stanley Cup Titles.

However, things did not get much better from there, and the Islanders haven’t won a playoff series since 1993. This season, the Islanders have been fairly competitive so far, however, it seems as if the team’s success has nothing to do with this move.

So why exactly are the Islanders moving? The real problem is The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the arena they have been playing in since their inception.

Many consider the Nassau Coliseum to be run down and in dire need of renovation. It is currently the second oldest hockey arena in the NHL, the first being Madison Square Garden. The first attempt at renovating the Coliseum came in 2004, yet despite Nassau County approving the construction with a 16-2 vote, approval from the town that houses the Coliseum was never granted to the team.

In 2011, there was a proposal to replace the arena, but Nassau County rejected this proposal by a 57-43 percent margin. Thus, last

October, when the Islanders realized their lease of the building would be up after the 2014-2015 season, they announced their move to the Barclays Center.

“The real problem is The Nassau Veterens Memorial Coliseum, the arena they have been playing in since their inception. ” Let me be the first to say, I love the Barclay’s Center. I am a Nets fan who was thrilled with the move of my team; it gave them a new identity, broadened their fanbase, and actually helped attract players from other teams. The Nets became something they never were: cool. The arena itself is sleek and gorgeous. I have been there for a Nets game and two concerts and have enjoyed my experiences tremendously. That being said, this is not the right move for the Islanders. The Nets and Islanders were in extremely different situations.

The Nets moved mostly because they desperately needed to change their image.

They were losing and they would continue to lose. Their fanbase was abysmal to say the very least. They relocated not because they had to, but because management wanted to. And rightfully so. The Islanders’ case is much trickier. Although they have not been too successful in terms of wins and losses over the past years, their fanbase is rock solid. The fans look fondly upon the Coliseum.

They meet, tailgate, and cheer on their lovable team. In other words, there is a culture associated with the Coliseum.

There is also another glaring problem. Despite being a world class arena, the Barclays Center is not built for hockey. It just simply

was not intended to be played there. Most evident by this is the fact that a full NHLsized hockey rink does not fit inside the arena without having a large number of seats on one side of the arena removed. Various seats also have obstructed viewing of the game itself. This thus impacts the size of the arena, making it the second smallest venue for professional hockey in the NHL. The first test of this impending departure occurred just a month ago when the Islanders matched up against the Devils and lost 3-0 in a preseason contest in Brooklyn. Despite a few positive comments, the reaction of fans was mixed to negative. While some praised the lighting and the quality of the arena itself, they mainly were upset about having to watch their team there. This is something that is quite understandable. The Nassau Coliseum was part of the culture for Islanders fans. It was like their home rather than just a venue for their team. Things felt comfortable and familiar. Long time fans complained about the long and expensive commute (an obvious issue for those who may have lived five minutes away in the past) as well as the loss of nostalgia for the dedicated fans.

Some claimed it felt “fake” or more like a dream, while others simply didn’t want to see their team move. Luckily, this is merely a location change and not a complete re-branding like what was done for the Nets. Islanders fans will be pleased to know that their team will retain its original colors of orange, blue, and white, as well as the name “New York” rather than “Brooklyn” on their jerseys.

There will, however, be an alternate black and white jersey that the team will wear on certain occasions. Looking on the bright side, there is currently a plan in place for a renovation of the Nassau Coliseum. Approved unanimously on September 24 this year, this plan would reduce the arena’s size and make internal refurbishments to the space as a whole.

Perhaps there is hope yet?

Patriots manifest culture of arrogance Luka Ladan Columnist

I

t’s no secret that Tom Brady has struggled this season. And it’s no secret that this current collection of New England Patriots isn’t nearly as formidable as those of years past.

While the 6-2 overall record and AFC East division lead may point to business as usual, the team has some serious flaws – and they may yet surface at the worst possible moment, somewhere down the road.

At the moment, referring to those flaws as “chinks in the armor” is a grave understatement. It doesn’t do justice to the disappointment of the passing game and the shakiness of the start to this young regular season.

These Patriots are vulnerable, and it’s clear as day to those who’ve watched them play each and every Sunday.

But, it really shouldn’t be this way. Not with this quarterback, one of the few elite ones left behind the line and one of the best to ever play. Not with this coach, one of the most feared ones left roaming the sidelines and one of the most accomplished to ever coach. And not with this owner, one of the most respected ones left in the luxury suite and one of the best representatives of any sports franchise.

Onlookers talk about the “Patriot Way” way too much nowadays, but they’re the reason for its existence in the first place (if something like that ever did exist). Brady, Belichick, and Kraft are winners through and through. That word – “winner” – gets tossed around too often these days, but those three individuals have certainly earned that title over the years. And that is why this regular season has been so disappointing, despite the 6-2 start and early lead in a (weak) division.

It all starts with the “Patriot Way,” this overstated notion that the Patriots do things differently – a notion that New England places a greater emphasis on professionalism and humility than the other franchises leaguewide. The Patriot Way supposedly symboliz-

es a modern day utopia, in which Vince Wilfork sets the tone in the locker-room and Bill Belichick sets the tone in the press conference, while Tom Brady leads the huddle and the rest of the unit merely falls into place.

And the Patriot Way is an ideal model in theory, but one that’s impossible to fully implement in practice. That has been proven over the last year or so, in gut-wrenching fashion. Aaron Hernandez is embroiled in legal battles. Wes Welker jumped ship to join an already potent conference rival. Gone are the days of Tedy Bruschi, when the Patriots would simply go about their business and steer clear of public scrutiny – when the individual with character issues would be put in check by the revered leaders on the team.

Furthermore, the Patriot Way has bred a top-down culture of overconfidence, even a steady air of arrogance. And this arrogance from within the organization has crept into the fray slowly and gradually, at a snail’s pace. The consequences are clearer to me now than ever before, and they manifest themselves in different ways.

Nowadays, the Patriot Way represents something else entirely to Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft. It means that the bits and pieces don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. The individuals in the locker-room don’t really matter. The individuals answering the questions at the daily presser don’t really matter. The individuals in the huddle don’t really matter because the team trumps all.

The greater unit takes precedence, and so anybody from anywhere can be molded into a Patriot. Any wide receiver, no matter his foot speed and past production, can catch passes from Tom Brady. Why? Well, for one, because he’s Tom Brady – and guys like that don’t come around very often. And, secondly, because the New England Patriots matter, not the individual Patriot. At this moment, Belichick and Kraft believe that they can transform any player – no matter his skill set,

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

injury history, personal character, or whatever else – into a Patriot on the field and off.

Well, it’s just not true. It may work in some instances, but certainly not all. And so, what is Tom Brady left with this season? A few appalling revelations later, one of the most talented tight ends in recent memory faces incarceration. An ugly contract dispute later, one of the most reliable slot receivers in recent memory now catches passes from Peyton Manning.

Now that the dust has cleared, Belichick and Kraft invested in another tight end with otherworldly potential, but a downright brittle one with extensive injury problems. And the two pioneers replaced Wes Welker – undoubtedly their quarterback’s favorite target over the past half-decade – with Danny Amendola, who’s never even played a full season in the league and probably never will.

The other investments – Kenbrell Thompkins, Aaron Dobson, Josh Boyce, and whatever other inconsequential wide receiver earned a roster spot – are downright pathetic. Masters of the dropped ball, they bring nothing but sleepless nights for a battle-tested quarterback with only a few elite years left in him.

Peyton Manning doesn’t have to put up with rookie mistakes and dropped passes.

When blessed with talent, it is the duty of the front office to surround that talent with even more bits and pieces. It is an obligation to reap reward rather than revert to risk.

Unfortunately, that’s what the Patriot Way means now, as we inch nearer and nearer to the postseason – a coach’s decision to try out the risky investment, an owner’s decision to scrap reliability for the perennial question mark. The Patriot Way is the haughty belief that anybody can be changed, that anything can work in the right situation.

And it is unfortunate for Tom Brady, because the individual truly does matter. In football, you can only take so many risks until they begin to backfire.

SPORTS!

October 31, 2013

Page 19

Women’s vollyball loses hard fought match in five sets Amreen Bhasin rEpOrtEr

Men’s Swimming and Diving

Women’s Swimming and Diving

The Brewer women also competed at the Union College Relays on Saturday. They came in 5th overall. Highlights of the day included the 3x100 Yard Backstroke Relay team composed of three sophomores Marie Schmidt, Anna Kuo and Mariam Poumaleki. The team placed third overall. Freshman Julia Cunningham swam a split of 59.42 during her leg of the 3x100 Butterfly relay, just .26 shy of the school record in the 100 Yard Butterfly. The diving team of juniors Kelly Wilkinson and Karlin Gatton along with sophomores Alison Sagliocca and Maya Pruitt all competed in the diving relays on both the

Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

The Vassar College men’s swimming and diving team started off its season with a fourth place finish at the Union College Relays this Saturday afternoon October 26. The team was particularly pleased with their defeat of SUNY New Paltz whom they will face once again in late November. Top performances include two of the relay teams. The first was the 400 Yard Medley Relay that finished 3rd overall composed of junior Luc Amodio and freshmen Patrick Lai, Anthony Walker and Vincent Palladino. The 400 Freestyle relay team of Walker, sophomore Isiah Hale, Amodio and freshman Chris Cerutti also took 3rd. Senior John Nguyen was the sole diver for the men’s team. He took fourth place on the 1-meter board having taken all 11 dives by himself. The 300 Backstroke, 300 Breaststroke, 600 Yard Medley and 200 IM Relay teams all took 4th place. The men will next swim at the Alumni Meet, which will take place at Vassar College on November 2 at 10 a.m. They will compete against Skidmore College on November 9 in Saratoga Springs, NY at 1 p.m.

Junior Lauren Wiebe has an excellent performance vs the University of Scranton on Tuesday, Oct 29.

As the team moves towards postseason, the forward leads the team in goals with a total of twelve. one and the three meter boards. Wilkinson and Gatton combined their 11 dives for a 3rd place finish, and Sagliocca and Pruitt followed closely as the exhibition. The 400 Medley, 500 Freestyle Crescendo, 200 Freestyle and 600 Yard Medley 200 IM Relay all took 4th place. The women’s swimming team will also swim at the Alumni meet at Vassar College, and will compete against Skidmore College on November 9 at 1 p.m.

Women’s Soccer

The women’s soccer team went 1-1 week. The first game was a tough road against William Smith College, falling Freshman goalkeeper Stephanie Tapolsky

this loss 5-1. had

four saves for the Brewers while junior Chloe Wheeler managed to score the Brewers’ lone goal. The Brewers quickly rebounded from Wednesday night’s loss and came out strong on Saturday against Liberty League foe Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Freshman Emily Krebs notched the game-winning goal against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to propel the Brewers to a 1-0 win. On October 29, the women played at Bard College with a 5-1 win. Sophomore Kamaria Coley had a hat trick, while freshman Jordyn Matthews and junior Kelsey Dombs scored the other two goals.

Men’s Soccer

The men’s soccer team also faced Liberty

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League foe Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The men fell just short of the win and tied RPI 0-0. But the bright spot on the day was the performance of senior Goalkeeper Ryan Grimme.

Grimme was faced with 22 overall shots with 11 on goal. He made all 11 saves for the shutout setting not only a season high but also a collegiate career high 11 saves. Three of Grimme’s saves came during the overtime period. Sophomore Nathaniel Gunderson lead RPI with six shots, two on goal while junior co-captain Matt Koziol also had two out of his four shots on goal.

Junior Tom Wiechert had three shots with one on goal. Sophomore Cosmo Veneziale had two shots of his own. The Brewer offense fired 12 shots with three on goal against RPI’s Rob Dewald. Vassar received 16 fouls while RPI totaled 14 and both teams received yellow cards.

Women’s Volleyball

The Brewer women’s volleyball team traveled over to Connecticut College for a non-conference tri-match on October 26. The Brewers first faced host Connecticut College.

The matchup was marked with consistent and balanced hitting from Vassar. Freshman Gabby Miller had 12 kills and five digs, junior Taylor Mosley had 10 kills and seven digs, junior Clara Cardillo had 10 kills on 16 swings along with two blocks, Senior Jessie Ditmore had six kills and five digs, and sophomore Chloe Hallum had 29 digs. Senior Setter Rose Carmen had 35 assists and seven digs in the game. The Brewers fell to United States Coast Guard Academy in five during their second match. Vassar hit over .300 in each of the set wins. Mosley had 15 kills and 10 digs, Miller had 11 kills and 11 digs, Cardillo had 13 kills and no errors, junior hitter Marie Pitre had 10 kills, Ditmore had nine, Hallum had 22 digs and Carmen had 49 helpers, six digs and three service aces. Women’s Volleyball will compete against the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on November 2 at home.

SPORTS

Page 20

October 31, 2013

Mazzuca earns accolades early in career Field hockey advances to A postseason Tina Caso

spOrts EditOr

HOCKEY continued from page 1

Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

lfredo Mazzuca of men’s cross country, still a freshman with only six invitational competitions under his belt, had already earned four Liberty League Rookie of the Week accolades. Mazzuca, hailing from New Paltz, New York, became interested in running when he was in middle school and eventually chose to run cross country over playing soccer. During his high school career, his team went to State Championships four times, solidifying the idea that the team is everything when it comes to his sport.

“It really taught me to cooperate with my team, and through that I became more of a team player than an individualist. I focused more on making sure that the team succeeded over myself succeeding,” he said. “I think that that has really helped me become a better runner in itself.”

Mazzuca chose Vassar mainly for its academics. “I would like to say that I was recruited, but one of the bigger parts was academics.

I was looking for a school that was challenging, also very diverse in terms of what it offered. The coaches did get me interested just pointing out that Vassar is a great, competitive school in terms of academics and athletics,” he explained. “It ended up being my ideal school.”

Mazzuca’s goal coming into the program was simply to make the team better. “I really wanted to be part of that turning chapter where Vassar became more than just a ninth place finisher, thirteenth place finisher at Regionals,” he said. “I wanted to be part of that team that qualified for Nationals for the first time ever. That was also something that really inspired me to come here—there are already key runners on the team, and I think that they needed a few more people here and there to add depth to it, and that’s something I’m really proud of: to be part of that.”

Mazzuca has helped the team finish second of eleven teams at the annual Ron Stonitsch Invitational. He finished second overall in the 6k course with a time of 19:42:28—a time that was the best for Vassar men’s cross country in more than ten years, earning him his first

Freshman Alfredo Mazzuca of men’s cross country has earned four Liberty League Rookie of the Week accolades to date. The freshman has led the team to multiple successes in his career so far.

Liberty League Rookie of the Week title. At the Saratoga Invitational on Sept. 20, the men finished in sixth place out of fifteen teams despite missing some key players. In the 8k, Mazzuca led the team, finishing in second place overall. Next, at the Geneseo Invitational, Mazzuca finished fifth overall, beating his previous 8k personal best time at 25:42:4. Finally, at the Connecticut College Cross Country Invitational, he finished 10th place overall out of 247 runners in the 8k, making him the second fastest freshman of the day with a final time of 25:42.

Senior co-captain Sean Majer acknowledged that Mazzuca has been a huge asset to the team. “Fredo is incredibly ambitious and a solid addition to the program. He has certainly bolstered our lineup and helped make the team a much more formidable force in our region,” Majer wrote in an emailed statement. “[Mazzuca’s] performances at multiple races, in particular the Saratoga Invitational and

Geneseo Pre-Regionals, have made him stand out as a fierce competitor and certainly made him deserving of his recent accolades.”

Mazzuca acknowledged senior captains Majer and Lisle Schaeffer. “They’re definitely like father figures to me—just really always there for me. I trust them,” he said. “They’ve really pushed me to become a better runner. Seeing them and remembering that this is what its all about: going through these four years or three years and enjoying cross country reminds me why I’m here.”

With three years remaining on the cross country team, Mazzuca has a lot of goals for his Vassar athletic career. “I think my biggest aspiration is just making it to Nationals with my team. Knowing that we did it, finally, and hopefully we can. I think that we have a tight enough team that we can trust each other and we know that we can make it,” he said. “I think that we’re on the brink of success, so we have to see what happens from there.”

Bellavance a new face in Vassar athletics Jonathan Safir GuEst rEpOrtEr

A

thletic trainer Josh Bellavance is one of the many fresh faces in the Vassar College training staff. With two new athletic trainers this year, a junior student-athlete may suddenly walk into the training room and experience that sense of unfamiliarity that usually only happens to freshman. Bellavance comes to Vassar College after having worked extensively in a variety of settings. He received his undergraduate degree in Sports Medicine from Xavier University and Master’s in Human Performance from Ithaca College.

There are multiple reasons that Bellavance chose to work at Vassar. “I enjoy the feel and atmosphere of smaller schools. I enjoy getting to know and learn the heart of the communities

I’ve become a part of,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “I find the campus and surrounding areas to be quite beautiful — the architecture, landscaping, the blending of older structures contrasted against newer, more modern entities. Given Vassar’s prominent academic reputation, I was happy to accept a position where I knew the student-athletes would take an active interest in their health.” The individuality of expression for each student was also an attraction for Bellavance. “The freedom to express one’s individuality here at Vassar is amazing,” he explained. “I enjoy that about the Liberal Arts programs — you end up meeting so many different people from varying backgrounds that your own horizons become expanded.”

With Vassar’s sports programs on the rise,

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

New Athletic Trainer Josh Bellavance seeks to create a culture of care and motivation in the Vassar Athletics training rooms. Bellavance chose to work at Vassar for its academic reputation.

it was also a tremendous opportunity professionally. “Professionally speaking,” Bellavance wrote, “I chose Vassar because I have the unique opportunity of helping to create, establish and maintain a certain culture in the Sports Medicine department. Along with my colleagues, we’re trying to deliver the best possible care for the prevention, recognition, and treatment of injuries.” Bellavance wants to establish a culture, environment, and sense of pride in taking care of themselves and their bodies. He added, “Fostering an environment where student-athletes know, without pause, that there is an Athletic Trainer who has their optimal health in their best interest is important and isn’t always the easiest thing to accomplish. I also enjoy being surrounded by motivated individuals — people who are striving to become their very best and encouraging others to do the same.”

Working with such a motivated group of student-athletes inspires Bellavance every day, which is a major difference between working with high school and college-level athletes.

“Most athletes at Vassar have been great to work with thus far. They’re a motivated lot who demonstrate passion about what they do.

This doesn’t mean athletics only, I’ve noticed, but also their studies and interests on/off the field/court/pool,” he wrote. “The mindset between the two settings (high school and college) has a noticeable difference, but it’s more to do with knowing what you want out of the athletic/life experience and following a certain path.”

Becoming an Athletic Trainer is something Bellavance has known he has wanted to do for a long time. “I knew I wanted to be involved with athletics since I was in high school. I understood that I probably wasn’t ever going to become a professional athlete so the next best thing for me was combining my passion for the human body with my passion for athletics.

It was a wise decision on my part.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

pushing them towards the playoffs and giving them a chance at the title. One of the more crucial recent wins was against Scranton University, where the team took it 2-1. Senior player Tina Caso (Full disclosure: Caso currently serves as Sports Editor for The Miscellany News) made the two crucial goals during that match to give the Brewers the win. The win was the second victory of the season in overtime for the Brewers, who move to 2-3 when playing in the extra session. Vassar now has the second-most wins in a season with 11, two short of the school record of 13 in a campaign.

Another win was against the difficult rival team of Rampo College. The Brewers took the match 3-0. Sophomore midfielder Bianca Zarrella expressed her happiness with the team’s play, especially in the Ramapo match. “I felt that we definitely dominated the game. Our passing was stick-to-stick, so we were able to connect on many occasions and get the ball to cage. The block tackles of our defense were also commendable as we kept them out of our circle the entire game,” wrote Zarrella in an emailed statement. “This is a great improvement from last year where I realized we would play down to teams that we could have easily dominated, just like we dominated Ramapo.”

Going into post season, the team will strive to keep up their high level of play in order to go for the championship title. Senior forward Elisabeth Raskopf attributes the team’s excellent performance to their linear focus. “We earned a spot in post season play because we play our game, no matter what,” Raskopf expressed. “We rely on each other and work as a team regardless of how the other team plays. We have the best defensive unit in the League and I think that really gives the whole team the confidence to be aggressive on the offensive push and move forward with urgency. I fully expect us to continue working hard and stay focused on the next play, and the next game.”

Junior Dara Davis echoed what her teammate said, relaying that, “The team has won the last five games because we are a cohesive unit.

We communicate and understand each other’s movements on the field. We emphasize the fundamentals like stopping a ball, while other teams forget the significance of this. I have confidence in my team and the determination this team has is unsurpassable by any of our other competitors. We play to win and that’s it.”

One example of the Brewer’s pulling out a vital Liberty League match win was a recent match against Skidmore College. A ranked team in the league, Skidmore presented a daunting challenge to the team in order to remain eligible to move on to post season. However, the team pulled off a win, scoring two goals compared to Skidmore’s one. Although Skidmore took the early lead, Zarrella was able to tie up the game in the second half by scoring her third goal of the season. With around 5 minutes to play, Davis earned a long hit, and was able to pass the ball to Caso, who shot the ball into the back of the net, earning her seventh goal of the season and putting the Brewers in the lead for the first time in the game. Vassar maintained the lead and pulled off the victory. On the Skidmore match, Merritt said, “we really came out hard right from the start and all believed that we could win. They had an early goal but we fought back and didn’t let it affect us. Our defense was really solid the whole game and shut them down because Skidmore is known for their offense. Everyone fought to the end and didn’t let up for a second.”

As the team moves forward, they will play against New Paltz on October 31. Liberty League Championships will be held in Saratoga Springs, NY on November 6. Merritt described what needs to happen during post season for the team to be successful. “For post season we need to just focus on one game at a time. Now we have to focus on New Paltz before we can move on. We’re playing Skidmore again so we know it is going to be a hard fight but if we just play our game I’m sure we can win” Merritt said.