Misc 11.14.19

The Miscellany News

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CLII | Issue 10

November 14, 2019

Maude Charge dismissal delayed for Julissa and Jamelia takes Mug Aena Khan

News Editor

Abby Tarwater Arts Editor

’ve had a great time tonight sharing my secrets with strangers,” quipped Columbia student and rising pop star Maude Latour before closing her Mug performance with the syrupy song “Superfruit” on Nov. 7. Each and every artsy Vassar student in the 15-person crowd couldn’t help but emphatically jump and scream along to Maude’s movie-sized stories of orange juice, cracked iPhones and death. Latour is a rare breed of a performer, possessing a unique ability to make any unfamiliar venue feel like her own living room; to make a crowd full of strangers feel like her oldest friends.

Both watching Latour onstage and interacting with her one-onone induce a striking feeling of intimacy. After her ViCE Weekly-sponsored performance, Latour encouraged the audience to come chat, greeting attendees with a hug and a multicolored shooting star sticker (“Stickers are my favorite thing in the world,” she See LATOUR on page 5

Courtesy of Grace Rousell

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[TW: This article contains descriptions of police brutality.]

Approximately 933 students from the City of Poughkeepsie attend Poughkeepsie Middle School.

On March 11, 2019, then 15-year-old Jamelia Barnett and 12-year-old Julissa Dawkins, sisters enrolled at the school at the time, were outside when a fight broke out among several students. Dawkins, who has asthma, went to the aid of one girl in need of an inhaler when Poughkeepsie police officers arrived to break up the then-defunct quarrel.

Although neither Barnett nor

Dawkins were involved in the fight, as multiple witnesses corroborated, an officer later identified as Kevin VanWagner proceeded to arrest Dawkins without reading aloud her charge or Miranda rights. When Dawkins resisted, VanWagner charged her with resisting arrest and threw her to the ground—a deposition filed by the family described how VanWagner pinned Dawkins with his body. In a 17-second video clip that circulated on social media around the time of the incident, Barnett is shown running to her sister’s aid, only to be slammed to the ground by another Teenage sisters Julissa Dawkins and Jamelia Barnett spoke at a BSUSee POLICE on page 3 hosted panel about their violent experiences with Poughkeepsie police.

Vassar 2020: a campus under construction Lucy Leonard Copy Editor

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n uphill trek to Health Services. A new admissions building on the north side. A completely carbon neutral campus.

These and various other proposed changes compose the latest iteration of the College’s five to seven year plan, which President Elizabeth Bradley and Dean of the College Carlos Alamo-Pastrana unveiled at the VSA’s weekly senate

meeting on Sunday, Nov. 3. Over a year of groundwork from a 20-person Planning and Priorities Committee, supplied with input from four World Cafés, has culminated in a plan to push Vassar into the next decade.

The plan hopes to prioritize academic excellence, campus community and culture, and Vassar’s role in the world, and lists 32 goals in areas ranging from financial aid to mental health to career develop-

ment. “It is not uncommon for the College to establish long-time goals such as these,” revealed Dean of Strategic Planning and Academic Resources Marianne Begemann in an email interview. “Especially,” she added, “when there is a new president involved.” If the time has come for President Bradley to create her legacy, it will not be anything less than concrete—perhaps literally, as the plan delineates a number of building projects that will make for

a very different campus by the time it’s implemented.

The Admissions House is set for a relocation within five to seven years. Citing concerns about Kautz Admissions House’s size and out-of-the-way positioning, President Bradley said, “The plan is to move—maybe not the building, though we’ve talked about moving it—or putting the office on North Campus,” (Twitter, @miscelSee RENOVATIONS on page 4

Workshop aims to ‘undo’ racism Brewers become Jedi Tiffany Tumble Copy Staffer

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s I wind through the corridors of Thompson Memorial Library, I wonder if preparing for a workshop that has the goal of undoing racism is possible. It seemed unlikely we could learn to change a concept so deeply root-

ed into the foundations of America. To be completely honest, I’d be happy if I simply took away a quick-and-easy half-credit for my transcript. However, during my research prior to the workshop of The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), I became increasingly fascinated by

Tiffany Trumble/The Miscellany News

The Undoing Racism workshop, held in the Class of 1951 Reading Room, examined racism at Vassar and in the United States at large.

Inside this issue

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Wanna be massively disappointed?

HUMOR Watch ‘The Last Airbender’!

the idea of bringing together all ages, races and positions in life to discuss such a loaded topic as institutional racism, and where we stand in relation to it.

PISAB, an organization founded in 1980 by Ronald Chisom and Dr. Jim Dunn, has spent the last few decades traveling the United States to educate communities on how to “undo” the causes of racism. On Oct. 24 through Oct. 25, Vassar College, in collaboration with PISAB, hosted a workshop in the library’s Class of 1951 Reading Room. Students, faculty and members of the Dutchess County community were invited to learn about continued colonization and the systems created to maintain white supremacy. As we entered, we congregated into pockets of comfort—choosing to stay close to people we knew, people our age or just sitting as far away as possible from the instructors. The chairs were arranged in a loose circle, the back tables overflowing with breakfast bagels, pastries and coffee. The participants willingly gave up their personal space to ensure everyone had a seat and felt included.

See WORKSHOP on page 8

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OPINIONS

With Trump masquerading as a Republican, GOPers must realign

Alessandra Fable, Jackie Molloy Guest Reporters

W

hen the average layman first hears about the sport of fencing, I would bet that most would conjure up their favorite scene from Star Wars.

They’d daydream in streaks of red, green and blue slashing across the screen, as Luke Skywalker and the evil Darth Vader battle it out.

Sophomore epee Rosie Parker initially thought the same thing.

“I started fencing when I was six years old since I thought it would be like Star Wars and I wanted to be a Jedi,” recalled Parker. “I quickly found out it’s nothing like Star Wars, but I fell in love with the intensity and strategy that goes into each bout.”

Parker and the Vassar fencing team hosted the Vassar invitational this past weekend, winning in dominant fashion, as the men’s team posted a 7-1 match record while the women won six of seven, only falling to Drew University. After traveling to the Big One Invitational last weekend in Northampton, Massachusetts, the team very much welcomed defending their home (planet). “The most exciting part of hosting an

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invitational is not having to wake up before 5 a.m. to drive to another school,” joked Parker. For many student-athletes, this added prep time certainly makes a difference.

Playing where you practice also bodes well for the players. As junior sabre Nico Dinelli further explained, “There is something to be said about competing in the same place where one practices.

I always feel more grounded and focused at home matches; the familiarity of the environment—everything from the texture of the floor to the brightness of the lighting—definitely helps soothe competition nerves.”

The squad’s success at last weekend’s invitational builds on the team’s prior victories, including those at the Big One, where the women’s and men’s teams posted two top-10 finishers each in both epee and foil. The contrast of the individual achievements highlighted in the Big One and the overall team win in the Vassar Invitational showcases one of the interesting dynamics of fencing: the constant dichotomy between playing for your team and playing for yourself. Similar to track and field, See FENCING on page 15

Bomani Jones: We can’t just SPORTS stick to sports

Page 2

The Miscellany News

November 14, 2019

Best of The Brewer’s Table...

The Miscellany News’ subsidiary online magazine at vclive.miscellanynews.org Editor-in-Chief Mack Liederman

Senior Editors

Frankie Knuckles Jessica Moss

Contributing Editors Isabel Braham Leah Cates Sasha Gopalakrishnan

It’s getting cold outside, and you may be on the hunt for some winter gear. Before you click “purchase,” think again: In “If You Wear a Canada Goose Jacket, I Won’t Talk to You,” Opinions Editor and resident legal expert at The Brewer’s Table Jonas Trostle ’21 takes us on a whirlwind journey through the realm of “expressive conduct.” Giving us a quick definition of the term, Trostle explains, “It is just something that you do with the purpose of sending a message. Kneeling during an anthem is expressive conduct. So is boycotting companies that you disagree with. It’s legally protected speech, meaning the government can’t punish you for it.” How does this relate to your future outerwear shopping spree? Trostle illuminates: “At this point in your life you’ve probably seen all types of coats: big coats, little coats, smooth coats, rough coats, coats with furry hoods, coats with no hoods at all, brown coats, red coats, coats with buttons, coats that people wear inside other coats, etc. Each coat says something about its owner.” So, your choice of coat is an act of expressive conduct. Trostle argues that banning Canada Goose jackets because they promote “poverty-shaming,” for instance, would not be a smart policy decision because it infringes on one’s right to expressive conduct. However, he favors a more practical justification for allowing expressive Canada Goose conduct: “I—like most of the student body, I should hope—am a busy person. I’m anti-social, and constantly exhausted. I don’t want to deal with anything I don’t have to, and if I’m likely to have an unpleasant interaction with someone I would much prefer to avoid that interaction entirely. This is where expensive coats are really useful. If I see a Canada Goose insignia, I’m not going to waste my time and energy by trying to engage with that person.” Scan the QR code to check out the rest of Trostle’s stance over at The Brewer’s Table, vclive.miscellanynews.org.

News Aena Khan Olivia Watson Features Duncan Aronson Opinions Jonas Trostle Arts Abby Tarwater Humor Francisco Andrade Sports Teddy Chmyz Design Lilly Tipton Copy Lucy Leonard Social Media Natalie Bober Photo Yvette Hu Managing Robert Pinataro Online Mohamad Safadieh Graphics Juliette Pope Video Production Alexis Cerritos Audio Alex Barnard Emerita Laurel Hennen Vigil Assistant News Tiana Headley Assistant Opinions Abram Gregory Assistant Arts Dean Kopitsky Taylor Stewart Assistant Design Mohtad Allawala Assistant Copy Jacqueline Gill Phoebe Jacoby Caitlin Patterson Reporters Delila Ames Jonah Frere-Holmes Rayan El Amine Columnists Rohan Dutta Lindsay Craig XinRui Ong Copy Jason Han Amanda Herring Tiffany Trumble Crossword Frank

Correction (11.09.2019): A news Article titled “A tale of two districts: history of Poughkeepsie schools” incorrectly described the demographics of Poughkeepsie. In fact, majority white and higher-income neighborhoods are in the South, and majority Black and lower-income neighborhoods are in the North, not the inverse, as was stated in the article.

CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only accept corrections for any misquotes, misrepresentations or factual errors for an article within the semester it is printed.

Juliette Pope/The Miscellany News

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages. The staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board.

November 14, 2019

NEWS

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Multidisciplinary programs find new home in renovation Lucy Brewster Guest Reporter

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he fourteen multidisciplinary programs Vassar offers may get an academic space to call their own in a surprising new location: Baldwin. “Hopefully, a building move will shed the spotlight on multidisciplinary programs,” commented Leah Cates ’20 [full disclosure: Cates is a Contributing Editor for The Miscellany News], the academic intern for the Women’s Studies Program. “Not only in the short term, but also in the long term if the space is appealing, original and practical, and fosters collaboration among the program.”

The multidisciplinary programs at Vassar are perhaps one of the school’s best living examples of how collaborative and complex a classic liberal arts education can be. Majors such as Urban Studies, Africana Studies and International Studies combine resources and professors from various disciplines to create a unique major that, according to the Vassar Catalogue, focuses on a “single problem or series of problems that cannot be approached by one discipline alone.”

Students who choose multidisciplinary subjects cite the program’s flexibility and variety as reasons for loving their majors.

Since 2013, the Old Laundry Building has provided classroom and office space for multidisciplinary professors and students.

Since these programs have become increasingly popular and recognized as necessary disciplines, their home base could be upgraded, turning Baldwin into a Center for Multidisciplinary Study. According to Dean of Strategic Planning and Academic Re-

sources Marianne Begemann, “The Center for Multidisciplinary Study will provide upto-date teaching and office space not only for the Multidisciplinary Programs but also for other multidisciplinary initiatives and pedagogies.”

Baldwin House opened in 1940 as an infirmary for the College, and has housed Health Services ever since. A building not known for its architectural beauty, it may be a surprising pick for some students as the site for an upcoming renovation. Yet Professor Director of Urban Studies and Tatlock Chair of Multidisciplinary Programs Tobias Armbrost sees promise in the building: “Under the dust, Baldwin is actually a quite beautiful building that holds so much potential for a range of spaces for all sorts of programs.”

Students involved in planning are also excited about what the space could bring. “The classroom and lounge layout might be cool in Baldwin,” explained Cates. “You walk in, and you immediately see the lounge area, which has the potential to be welcoming and friendly, and then the classrooms branch off of that.” While an architect has not yet been selected, the renovation will be an adaptive reuse of the building, meaning that it will be converted into an academic space while maintaining its history and integrity.

If Baldwin becomes a new academic building, what will happen to Health Services? According to Begemann, another significant renovation, currently in its infancy stage of design, is the Integrated Health Wellness, Recreation and Athletics facility.

The new facility would include a renovated health services center as well as the coun-

seling center, which currently resides in Metcalf. The new structure would also include upgraded athletic facilities.

While the architectural plans have not been officially designed, students and faculty alike are excited about a building that can foster multidisciplinary community. In the spirit of the multidisciplinary programs themselves, the planning process for their future home base is collaborative and inclusive. Armbrost is a leader in the planning and design of the space, but he is not calling the shots alone: “My main role and concern in this process is to bring the many voices of students, faculty and administrative assistants from the multidisciplinary programs into the early stages of the planning process.”

In an effort to hear more ideas about what students and faculty want from this future space, administration and faculty alike have been organizing collaborative meetings to sketch out potential designs this semester.

Sophie Kaplan-Bucciarelli ’20, the academic intern for the Urban Studies department, has been actively involved in the discussion: “[I] think it’s a real step in the right direction with regards to bringing more transparency to Vassar’s planning processes.” In the past, there has been student pushback against renovations that the College has rolled out. For example, with another upcoming construction project, the Inn and Institute, the administration received backlash from students regarding both its purpose and environmental impact. The designs for the Inn & Institute were revised to be carbon neutral on site after a student petition and

extended student input to the administration (The Miscellany News, “The I&I will be carbon neutral. Here’s what that means,” 08.03.2019). With this backdrop, the success of this renovation could set a precedent for collaboration with student leadership in future projects the College embarks on.

A new space could be a game changer for the popularity of multidisciplinary programs. While some multidisciplinary majors, like Environmental Studies and International Studies, are popular, others, like Women’s Studies, only had two majors in this year’s entire senior class. Cates is one of these majors, and described her desire for some multidisciplinary programs to be appreciated: “People tend to forget about the multidisciplinary programs or just consider those disciplines as potential correlates.”

Beyond shedding light on the multidisciplinary programs themselves, this project signals the College’s commitment to expanding the liberal arts and social sciences in a time when there is an emphasis on investment in STEM. The last major project for an academic space was the building of the Bridge for Laboratory Sciences, which opened in winter 2016.

For now, students involved in the planning process remain excited about spreading the word to other multidisciplinary majors and faculty. “That’s a large part of what makes this project so exciting to me,” explained Kaplan-Bucciarelli, “Students are being invited to participate in the visioning and creation of a building that will outlast their time at Vassar and continue to work for students far into the future.”

Poughkeepsie sisters detail experience with police brutality POLICE continued from page 1 officer. Her body flew through the air before she hit the ground and lost consciousness.

When Barnett awoke, she and Dawkins were in the back of a police car en route to the Poughkeepsie Police Department.

Barnett and Dawkins, alongside their mother Melissa Johnson, spoke at a panel sponsored by Vassar College’s Black Student Union (BSU) on Nov. 7, 2019, to discuss what ensued after the girls’ arrests. They were accompanied by their attorney William Wagstaff III, who represents them in the juvenile delinquency case from the City of Poughkeepsie and the civil rights case filed by the family against the police officers in the Southern District of New York.

Other panelists included Dutchess County legislator Giancarlo Llaverias and NYCLU Lower Hudson Valley Director Shannon Wong, who emphasized the importance of communicating with county executives and engaging with local groups such as the New Jim Crow Action Group (NJAN) and the NYCLU. According to Barnett, the sisters were separated upon their arrival to the Poughkeepsie Police Department. Though she was menstruating at the time and unable to adjust her sanitary napkin after being slammed to the ground, Barnett waited for hours while handcuffed in a room full of white, male police officers. She recalled, “I was on a white coach, and I slid off the couch onto the floor...they came and started screaming, ‘She’s hiding weapons, she’s hiding drugs, search her.’” As the officers surrounded her, she recalled yelling “I can’t breathe.” Barnett and Dawkins were both questioned by the police about their names and addresses—though Dawkins provided some information, Barnett was denied access to water or information about her sister

because of her silence.

Johnson, who was at work at the time, received various social media updates on Facebook from students alerting her to the fact that her daughters had been arrested at the school. She recalled: “The first thing I asked was ‘What did they do?’” Barnett and Dawkins were held at the police station for several hours until their mother could leave work.

Johnson went into the Department to see the sergeant on shift after the girls were released. She questioned the Department’s decision to forcefully arrest two teenage girls, one of whom had not been charged, and the sergeant asked whether Johnson would want him arrested if he held a gun to her head and pulled the trigger at that moment. Johnson reinforced what various witnesses stated—that her daughters did nothing wrong—and then asked what the sergeant would have done if it were his children in their place. “The officer said his kids would never be in that position—that’s because his kids didn’t grow up in our neighborhood,” she said, referring to the fact that most Poughkeepsie police officers live outside the city. The officers involved–VanWagner and John Williams–remain on-duty and active in a policing organization entitled the Poughkeepsie Police Benevolent Association (City of Poughkeepsie PBA, Executive Board). The Poughkeepsie Police Department declined to comment for this article.

The BSU panel occurred several months after Toivo Asheeke, a postdoctoral fellow in Vassar’s Sociology Department, heard of what happened at the family’s first town hall in spring 2019. At the panel, he stated the importance of supporting Black people across the country—not just those educated at elite institutions such as Vassar, but also those who face police brutality like in

Jamelia and Julissa’s case. BSU’s Chair of Political Education Chelsea Quayenortey ’22, who worked with the family to organize the event, also learned of what happened around the same time: “[It] was around finals and the family didn’t have a lawyer so it wasn’t really a case. When we came back to campus, they had a lawyer [Wagstaff] and the girls’ mother held a community meeting at a church...to talk about their plans to sue the Poughkeepsie police department.”

In a phone interview, Wagstaff credited Asheeke with serving as the point of contact between the family and organizations at Vassar like BSU and Gradient. He recalled Asheeke’s encouragement of the family’s journey to raise awareness of police brutality in the community at large, including at Vassar and Marist Colleges. Wagstaff, who specializes in civil rights and represents the family pro-bono, learned of Johnson’s case after a call from a former client and current member of Rockland County’s Black Lives Matter chapter.

The story of Jamelia Barnett and Julissa Dawkins is not unique in the City of Poughkeepsie, nor is it an isolated incident of police brutality in the United States. Wagstaff, a native of the Bronx suburb Mount Vernon, described the debilitating impact of police violence on Black and Brown people in Poughkeepsie: “People have given up. This is how things are—the police are crooked…this is probably the most disheartening thing. There is no fight. The few people who are willing to say something are older.”

Barnett now attends Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, while Dawkins and their younger sister Jizelle Dawkins now attend Haviland Middle School—both schools are located in Hyde Park, outside the City of Poughkeepsie. Johnson made the conscious decision to switch her daughters’ schools

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

after the 2018-19 academic year due to the trauma associated with their old district.

However, Jizelle described the environment of her new middle school: “Racist—there are not a lot of Black kids there. People say it’s a good school because there are ‘better people there,’ ... But that’s because in Poughkeepsie, there are a lot of Black kids and there aren’t a lot of Black kids in Hyde Park.”

A classmate of Barnett at FDR High School assaulted her with a rock to the eye, which resulted in her absence for several days.

The efforts of community organizing between Vassar’s BSU, NJAN and the Johnson family culminated in a rally at the Dutchess Family Courthouse on Nov. 13, 2019. The purpose of this hearing would potentially have dropped the juvenile delinquency case against Barnett and Dawkins. Specifically, Wagstaff asserted that a hearing on June 20 had been adjourned without the consent of the counselor, thus violating Barnett and Dawkins’ right to a fair and speedy trial as stipulated by family court law. The court also recorded a request from the defense for Discovery hearing, in which the two parties would exchange information, on a proposed Oct. 8 hearing that Wagstaff refuted filing.

Wagstaff shared,“Should there be subsequent court appearances, the people’s willingness to pack the courts would be appreciated.” He also reiterated Llaverias’ point, imploring residents to send letters to the county executive asking him to direct the county attorney’s office to dismiss the case.

On Wednesday, there was a small victory when the court lifted required meetings with the girls’ Probation Officer and acknowledged their academic accomplishments after switching schools. However, as transcripts from the aforementioned dates have yet to be reviewed, the judge delayed reviewing the motion to dismiss to Dec. 3.

NEWS

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November 14, 2019

Plan outlines how campus will change over next five years priorities of Vassar’s donors determine its completion.

Although the Inn and Institute building— the construction of which depends upon the destruction of Williams faculty housing—was not heavily covered at the VSA presentation, it is part of the overall plan, as shown at last May’s Board of Trustees meeting. President Bradley devoted more time to covering a possible solution to the faculty housing deficit: a new apartment complex to be constructed near the field space

by Crafted Kup. Poughkeepsie community leaders consulted by the Planning and Priorities Committee last spring showed considerable eagerness for building off-campus faculty housing with a local developer, ranking it second only to developing infrastructure within the City of Poughkeepsie. This development is set to be completed in year one, although VSA President and member of the Planning Priorities Committee Carlos Eduardo Espina ’20 remarked, “The five to seven year plan was last year’s project, and now we’re implementing it, so this is kind of Year One.” Espina also mentioned that new lighting on campus would be one of the earliest-implemented parts of the plan, and that students should expect to see these changes as early as December.

The longest-term construction project in the works is what Espina calls “a complete redo” of Walker Field House. Improving what Alamo-Pastrana called “the worst-maintained building on campus” (Twitter, @miscellanynews, 11.03.19) received more enthusiasm than any other project presented in the World Cafés. “We’ve radically re-thought what goes into Walker,” Alamo-Pastrana said. “How can we integrate athletics with wellness of mind?” Walker’s renovations are pushed up against the seventh year mark of the five to seven year plan, with a presentation by President Bradley showing that it may extend into an eight or nine year project.

So much infrastructure growth in so short a timeframe concerned members of Vassar SEED, a campus activism group dedicated to sustainability and environmental justice.

Member Melissa Hoffmann ’21, who attended the recent VSA meeting, criticized elements that received little student approval,

Courtesy of Vassar Athletics

RENOVATIONS continued from page 1 lanynews, 11.03.19) the latter of which would entail construction of a new building. The prospect of a new admissions building received some of the least enthusiasm from the 100-plus students and faculty who attended last year’s World Cafés, where they could provide feedback for the different aspects of the plan. Attendees ranked revamping admissions close to the bottom of the proposed renovations, according to the Committee’s online data. Nonetheless, this development is set to move forward, and newly appointed Dean of Admissions Sonya Smith welcomes the change. “The limitations of space are impacting our ability to serve our guests well,” she shared over email. Alamo-Pastrana also noted, “It’ll reduce traffic in the middle of campus. It’s not walkable right now since there’s all this admissions traffic in the center,” (Twitter, @miscellanynews, 11.03.19).

Per the plan, Baldwin Hall, home to Vassar’s clinic since 1940, will be converted into the Center for Multidisciplinary Programs.

A new health and wellness facility will likely be built in the Athletics and Fitness Center as a replacement. Director of Health Services at Baldwin Irena Balawajder spoke on her willingness to leave Baldwin behind: “We are very excited at the prospect of moving into a health and wellness building that meets the needs of a modern medical facility.” She continued, “Since the multidisciplinary programs have not had a permanent home for a long time, it is not unreasonable for them to move into Baldwin after a renovation.”

This element of the plan has not existed for very long; during the World Cafés, the revitalization of the multidisciplinary programs’ space was presented as a renovation for the Old Laundry Building, where they are currently housed. Such a renovation received a great deal of support from Café attendees, as shown through data compiled and presented on the Committee’s website, but by May, when President Bradley presented the plan to the Board of Trustees, it was scrapped in favor of converting Baldwin. Balawajder noted that Health Services gave the Priorities and Planning Committee feedback during the process, potentially influencing such a change. Baldwin’s conversion is three to four years out, and, like all facets of the plan, the

The most intensive part of the five to seven year plan is a complete reconstruction of Walker Field House (pictured above). This plan also includes renovating faculty housing. like the Inn and Institute and new admissions building: “It just feels like sort of a very elitist project to me.” President Bradley said that the College would have the chance to make the new admissions building “completely green,” (Twitter, @miscellanynews, 11.03.19) but Hoffmann is quick to remember the past. “[Clean energy] is supposed to be a priority, considering our green building guidelines, but some of the buildings we’ve improved have higher electricity usage than they should be having, like Davison in 2008.”

Not everything conceived in a building’s planning stage ends up coming to fruition, and this is precisely what worries Hoffmann.

“The Bridge was supposed to be super-high in terms of energy-efficiency standards, but it isn’t,” she said. Although Hoffmann was pleased that students were represented on the Priorities and Planning Committee in the form of the VSA president and vice president, she considered that these leaders were asked represent everyone on campus, and that student representatives from more specific groups like SEED might better at represent specific issues like carbon neutrality.

Carbon neutrality is indeed part of the five to seven year plan—President Bradley and the Committee hope to achieve it by 2030. “A lot of [the plan] came from campus climate surveys,” said Espina. The Inn and Institute and new Admissions building are set to run on geothermal energy. Although prominent campus voices like SEED’s might suggest otherwise, carbon neutrality was actually one of the least popular aspects of the plan among students and faculty. A fossil

fuel-free central heating plan for buildings new and old was ranked 49th per the World Café results, by far the lowest-ranked element to make it into the final plan. In general, the make-up of the five to seven year plan does not seem to have been solely based on majority opinion of either students and faculty or Committee members. One of the most popular suggestions among students and faculty was a revamping of the College Center, but this received limited approval among Committee members, and does not appear in the plan as it stands. Another suggestion popular among students and faculty was making Main House more accessible to people with disabilities, which received approval from less than half of the Committee, but did end up making its way into the final plan. “[The five to seven year plan] is an inclusive process that represented voices from across campus constituencies,” said Begemann, who also sits on the Committee.

Despite being in the “final touches” stage before rollout, as Espina put it, the five to seven year plan is currently just that—a plan.

“We sail close to the wind on our finances,” admitted President Bradley. The success of the proposed construction ventures depends upon donor support; nothing is set in stone. “There will still be plenty of opportunities for students to weigh in on and provide feedback on how some of these things take shape,” said Alamo-Pastrana. As such, current students, whether they support or oppose aspects of the plan, will be encouraged to construct a 2020s Vassar that fits their values.

Vassar becomes historical backdrop for HBO mini-series Olivia Watson News Editior

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his past summer, HBO filmed its upcoming six-part mini-series “I Know This Much Is True” on Vassar’s campus.

Based on the book by Wally Lamb, the mini-series—set to be released in 2020— revolves around twins played by Mark Ruffalo who go through the journeys of breaking one’s soul and rebuilding oneself while navigating relationships with others. The series discusses, in the words of the series’ Assistant Location Manager Nicholas Pray, “the American legacy” and how one generation relates to the next.

According to Pray, Vassar became the location for several scenes after Marist declined the production company’s request to film.

As an unexpected benefit, Vassar’s unique architecture allowed the production team to recreate the ambience of different eras during which the plot is situated.

Pray explained: “It reminded us of this kind of old-school look with Noyes Hall. It had that post-modern Jetsons Lounge that we needed for the ’60s and ’70s.” Pray also indicated that some architecture reflected

the aesthetics of the Vietnam War era.

Producer Jeff Bernstein elaborated on the need to portray different historical settings, saying, “We shot two different time periods there. We shot the 1990s and the 1960s and Vassar allowed us to have both looks.”

“It reminded us of this kind of old-school look with Noyes Hall. It had that post-modern Jetsons Lounge that we needed for the ’60s and ’70s.”

According to Pray, Vassar’s campus was just one of 25 locations on which filming took place. On campus, the production company worked on many different sites, with some requiring rearrangements to render them appropriate for filming.

“Rocky Hall, which was our main office location, will be Juliette Lewis’ office in the show,” Pray said. He also indicated that As-

sociate Professor of Philosophy Barry Lam relocated his Hi-Phi Nation recording operation, usually found in Rocky 407, to accommodate filming. After having toured all buildings on campus, the team also decided to film on the Main Residential Quad.

One unique feature that filming at Vassar offered was the opportunity to have a genuine Italian manuscript appear in the film, which was necessary to the plot of the series. “We needed a college that both the twins went to, but also where one could find somewhere where an Italian manuscript could be interpreted,” described Pray.

The production company expressed gratitude to Vassar for providing them with room to serve their crew, security and parking space for their 12 trucks and 60 crew cars.

According to Vassar’s Associate Vice President for Communications Gladwyn Lopez, who worked as the liaison between Vassar and the production company, Vassar receives many applications for various film projects on campus, and reviews them to make a final selection.

“I think [filming on campus] has always been done, in terms of opportunities. More

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

recently it has become more prevalent.

It’s decided on a case by case basis. When possible, we look to always incorporate an education component for students,” Lopez explained.

Vassar benefits from these partnerships with production companies, since they have much to offer film students. “We worked with one of the film professors to try and have production members come to a class, and there were opportunities to cast students as extras, and for them to learn the behind-the-scenes process. We work with [the production company] to try and get students involved with that. We are still looking to develop this further,” Lopez related.

Lopez shared that, for a previous filming project, a Vassar film student was able to gain experience in the field by working with the production company and shooting some scenes in her dorm room.

This project is not a unique experience for Vassar; many other production companies have filmed on campus. While students leave their college home during breaks, Vassar’s stately architecture remains to provide a backdrop for other projects.

November 14, 2019

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Steven Gray films implore immediate environmental action XinRui Ong Columnist

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Courtesy of Vassar SEED via Facebook

rom New York to Hong Kong, nonviolent civil disobedience movements grapple with the limitations of authoritative policies. By strategically choosing which street to block, the position from which to drop down a banner; by turning public spaces into theatrical spaces, where splashes of fake blood and symbolic hanging on gallows alludes to how humans are killing themselves; Extinction Rebellion (XR), a global environmental movement, employs nonviolent civil disobedience to sculpt public spaces into heated, urgent calls for climate justice movements.

On Nov. 8, members of Students for Equitable Environmental Decisions (SEED), along with Assistant Professor of Political Science Claire Sagan, invited media messenger Steven Gray and activist Alexia Oldini of Extinction Rebellion NYC (XR NYC). They showcased and discussed their six minute compilation documentary of four major XR NYC events. Their films are posted on the internet soon after their protests to raise awareness among environmental activists around the world.

One of the XR protests took place outside Times Square and called out the New York Times’ limited coverage of the global climate emergency. An hourglass within a circle, boldly printed on a monolithic green flag, waved through the streets of NYC, disrupting the cacophony of the bustling city in order to demand direct attention on severe climate catastrophes such as Hurricane Dorian.

XR protesters also gathered outside the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The elegant venue for music and dance was interrupted by an intriguing act by the members of the Red Brigade, a street performance troupe created by Doug Francisco, founder of Invisible Circus from the U.K. The performers were fully veiled in red shawls, with contrasting white paint and black eyeliner heightening the melancholy on their faces. Their performance, originating from the U.K., symbolizes unity—from the crimson red of the blood all

species share on earth, to the coordinated movements and gestures which enact a sense of symphony. The Red Brigade’s visually captivating performance produces nervousness and panic. A member of XR claimed that the performace’s significance is that “it allows the people who watch it the space to feel the emotional depth of what is happening to our world now” (Twitter, @XR_NYC, 10.03.2019). Other acts of defiance included overtaking a billboard on Brooklyn Express Highway with an “ACT NOW” banner. A demonstration on Wall Street occurred during October Rebellion Week demanding a construction of the Citizen Assembly, where citizens will have a louder say on issues of national importance.

Activist documentaries tend to be unpleasant to watch—but the messages are not meant to be joyous. From jarring juxtapositions of nature and industry to shots of facial expressions warped by rage, Gray’s film is a compilation of essential moments from the four active protests. It combines aesthetics with content to raise awareness and convey messages that demand legislative actions towards the climate emergency.

A montage film of organically constructed civil disobedience suggests our ability to rise up and challenge citizens’ limited abilities to change the status quo of our environment. The film featured protestors resisting the police, demanding legislative action to reach net zero carbon emissions and breaking the boundaries of partisanship to form an apolitical organization inclusive of all members in the environmental movement. Demonstrating their unity, the protestors lied on the ground against each other, collectively refusing to be detained by the cops. Gray’s ideologically packed, eye-catching compilation film cut straight to the chase. Because of the capacities of social media-focused film to garner tens of thousands of views online, visual media has evolved into one of the most effective ways of spreading political messages.

While visual media messages allow ac-

On Friday, Nov. 8, Students for Equitable Environmental Decisions (SEED) hosted a presentation and Q&A with renowned director Steven Gray. His activist documentaries capture the civil disobedience demonstrations of Extinction Rebellion NYC. tivists to unite around common goals, they also add context to debates that would otherwise go unknown. Gray believes an apolitical approach to climate change—an understanding that the issue affects everyone on the planet regardless of party affiliation—should be approached holistically. While online media facilitates powerful images of political scenarios to be discussed and debated, its constant flow of content only provides spaces for quick glances between swipes instead of a dedicated involvement. We sacrifice depth of understanding for accessibility.

Participation often occurs in public spaces. Unlike in online environments, protests in public spaces are much more risky and restrictive. In mid-October, the Metropolitan Police decided to ban all XR movements in London, and cleared all XR London protests on Trafalgar Square. Yet London’s ban sparked backlash against the authority that police exert on the citizens they are meant to protect. Citizens question the police’s inconsistent definition of “peaceful,” as they often arrest nonviolent

protesters. The ban heightened the rage and unease in London toward the complacency of the government, as well as the caught citizens’ attention on XR’s environmental goal.

Gray added that it is no easier to come together in NYC, where the NYPD are way more forceful and directly arrested protestors who are just involved in non-violence.

This triggers a two pronged question: How can concerned citizens confront the police? And how can they confront them nonviolently so that the movement survives in the long run (The Guardian, “Police ban Extinction Rebellion protests from whole of London,” 2019)?

During his talk, Gray mentioned that if 3.5 percent of the population could come together to participate in civil disobedience, there is a strong possibility of creating radical revolutionary change. Gray thinks that there is hope for our future.

Amidst the environmental catastrophe facing all of us, Gray’s film aims to gather the dedicated few necessary to make a large revolutionary change.

Columbia student Maude Latour redefines pop genre LATOUR continued from page 1 exclaimed). When I spoke with Maude before her set, she immediately welcomed me into her world, spilling details about her recent breakup, disastrous midterm

season and love of Citi Bike.

Latour’s candidness is unique in the modern age, in which women in the music industry are expected more than ever to be poised, polished and elusive. But her

Courtesy of Justin Higuchi via Flickr

20-year-old pop musician Maude Latour’s Nov. 7 performance in the Mug exhibited her infectiously catchy songwriting and refreshingly candid stage presence. Latour balances her blossoming music career with a philosophy and business double major.

gift for open communication is not a mere stage gimmick—Latour appears similarly unfiltered in her personal life, particularly on her Instagram. Rather than using the infamously performative platform to construct a perfect pop star persona, she instead openly engages with her audience, encouraging her fans to DM their deepest, darkest secrets while also sharing her own struggles. Latour stated that genuine communication is integral to her personal and professional philosophies. She uses her artistic platform to make both herself and her audience feel less alone.

The lack of separation between Latour’s stage presence and genuine self challenges traditional notions of the female pop star—a completely contrived, invariably beautiful, over-the-top performer. But Maude is part of a new, young generation of women in pop who are redefining the genre’s vapid reputation. Her work challenges the notion that music cannot be both deep and bubbly, both poetic and uplifting. The lyrics on songs such as “Ride My Bike” and “Shoot and Run” transform life’s mundane and depressing moments into colorful, larger-than-life vignettes.

“I don’t have that many sad songs,” she mused. “But my songs do have more grav-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ity than their sound [initially] comes off as, which is pop. But I think that’s what people want.”

Latuour’s impetus for creating pop music is similarly unorthodox. Pop has historically been the antithesis of genres such as alternative and indie, the latter of which are thought of as less fame-oriented, more authentic musicianship. Given pop music’s association with wealth and glamour, it’s difficult to believe that such a young musician in the genre could be content with an under-the-radar career.

Yet when Latour insisted fame is not central to her artistry, it comes across as profoundly sincere. “I’m always doing [music] for songwriting and for emoting … It was always just about having fun, always,” she declared.

Latour defies easy categorization—she’s not the typical moody, pompous student musician, nor is she a one-dimensional pop princess. But listening to Maude Latour makes the music industry’s labels seem meaningless and limiting. At the end of our interview, I reflected to Maude that her core message seemed to be simply to “be yourself.” She laughed, “I’ve been trying to find a 21st-century, non-cliche way to say exactly that.”

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November 14, 2019

Baba Kazi Oliver drum circle harnesses hope, healing Taylor Stewart

Assistant Arts Editor

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Yvette Hu/The Misecllany News

was shivering and a little miserable. I shook out my umbrella, heaved the Chapel door open and was greeted by a grinning man. He held his hand out for a high five. The light in the foyer was goldish and inviting and Baba Kazi Oliver’s smile, equally as warm, did not waver for the next two hours.

Braving the rain this past Thursday, Baba Kazi Oliver hosted a drumming circle in the Chapel tower foyer. He introduced himself as African drummer extraordinaire. “I didn’t give myself that title,” he explained. “It was given to me over the years.”

Ever since he was a child, Kazi Oliver has been rhythmically inclined, tapping on any surface he could get his hands on—tables, his sisters. At seven years old, he enrolled in an African drumming class in Trenton, New Jersey. It was there that he took up his passion. In his adulthood he lost 10 years to addiction, which “diverted from [his] purpose in life.” The musician has been sober for 26 years and counting, and has gone on to teach across the Hudson Valley. He is also a passionate performer. Some of his more notable shows include SummerStage in Central Park, the Apollo, Clearwater Festival and ABC’s “The View.” Although these achievements earned him the most exposure, he particularly swelled with pride at the memory of teaching music in Guinea.

Ever smiling, Oliver said, “I just share love with everyone I can.” His work history also attests to an interactive and, above all, philanthropic approach to performance. When we spoke, he offered me a thick binder brimming with photos and newspaper clippings.

In one picture a dog was sniffing his drum as he played. He laughed that he even teaches dogs. One article showed him conducting drum therapy sessions for HIV/AIDS patients in Peekskill. If the drumming circle at the Chapel was such a performance, Oliver’s

sessions are certainly charged with loving feeling. At the beginning of the event, he conducted an “orientation,” cataloguing the percussion section: the dunun, sangban and kenkeni. He also described the proper geometry of hand-drumming posture and advised that drummer and instrument should form a pyramid and triangle. Traditionally, there would be dancers in the middle of a circle like ours.

“It’s like they’re dancing on clouds because the drums are so powerful,” he mused.

During the briefing, he asked all of our names; when I told him mine was Taylor, he looked incredulous for a long moment and hugged me, delighted. That is his son’s name. There were only seven people, a mix of students and older community members (as well as a family of drums and bells) in the foyer, increasing the intimacy. Throughout the session, Oliver also asked us again and again to repeat certain mantras through call and response, mostly meditations on compassion, youth, technical foundation. As he assigned each participant a couple of instruments, his eyes were wide and flitted across the room, and he scuttled around, reconfiguring drums and people. It seemed he was already composing music in his head. “Keep the family tight,” he mumbled as he bid us to scoot closer together.

Only now was it time to make music.

Our teacher separated the hand-drummers from those with sticks, assigned each group a rhythm and allowed each musician to rehearse their part before we jumped into song. Once we got into it and the mistakes melted into the music, disparate rhythms swelled and combined to sound like a single lively unit. Oliver improvised with voice and his own drum, varying our percussion piece.

I forgot about the reservations I had when I arrived and focused only on getting my part right—suddenly, I was surrounded by vibration and sound. After, we stood in a line and played bells, and even sang.

African drummer extraordinaire Babi Kazi Oliver led a drum cricle in the Chapel tower foyer on Thursday, Nov. 7. Oliver takes an interactive and philanthropic approach to performance; he remarked, “I just share love with everyone I can.”

Sharon Parkinson, who works at the Office of Alumnae/i Affairs & Development, also attended a Kazi Oliver drumming circle for the first time that day. She shared afterward, “I liked the art of storytelling and the positive messages [Oliver] incorporated because that’s what made it special.” He could have just taught us the species of drum and certain rhythmic patterns, but instead, he facilitated a group therapy of sorts by engaging each one of us, by providing his own life story and consequent lessons about pace of life, family and the like. He aspires to write a memoir and record a CD. The performer definitely has more than enough material, as he shared fun facts unabashedly—how he played with Pete Seeger in 2001, when a fire at the Paramount Theater destroyed some 30 drums (he still has one left, with just a little char on it).

And, if he were to write a memoir, he could impart much wisdom about rhythms of living. We live too fast nowadays, Oliver chided, and especially young people, who have a lot on their plate. The drumming circle did not cohere with the rest of my day, or the rest of my life here at Vassar; it formed a little world of its own. The pace and warmth were remarkably different. Oliver was patient with us and accommodated our mistakes—in fact, he built off them. In the Chapel, under Oliver’s instruction, I was away from any place I knew and, however clichéd this may sound, away from my worries. I was too devoted to the songs, too aware of the way the percussion made my chest feel, to harbor stress. Oliver has shown, through himself and his students, that healing can be achieved through music.

Author Aleksandar Hemon exemplifies honest writing Leila Raines

Guest Reporter

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he warm Spitzer Auditorium provided a cozy escape from the crisp autumn evening outside, where the chilly November wind and the night sky had blanketed the campus in a sheet of darkness. As students, faculty and local residents filed into the brightly lit room on Nov. 6, copies of distinguished author Aleksandar Hemon’s novels were unloaded onto the table set up at the front of the auditorium, right next to the podium at which Hemon himself was set to give the 2019 Gifford Lecture.

The Gifford Fund for Visiting Writers was established by former students and faculty as a response to the retirement of William Gifford, a beloved creative writing professor in the Department of English.

The fund and its corresponding lecture honor Gifford by bringing established authors to campus to teach students more about their craft and the importance of honest writing.

Hemon was born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia and later came to the United States for a temporary exchange program for journalists in 1992. However, he was unable to return to Sarajevo due to the outbreak of the Bosnian War, and was granted political asylum in the United States. Although his experience with writing started in Bosnia, he continued as he moved permanently to the United States. Upon arriving in the States, he meticulously studied the English language to continue his writ-

ing career. His efforts paid off in his numerous award-winning novels, including “Nowhere Man,” “The Lazarus Project,” and “Love and Obstacles.”

Hemon’s writing features the authenticity that encompasses the purpose of the Gifford Fund. Professor of English Amitava Kumar emphasized this point in his introduction to the lecture, sharing one impactful quote that reveals the grittiness of Hemon’s writing: “This is how history works: everything begins far away and long ago, with armies moving, women weeping, children orphaned, burning cities scalding the skies; everything ends in my body, with my writing about it.”

In his reverential introduction, Kumar praised the editorial Hemon wrote for the New York Times last month about Peter Handke, an author who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature. In the article, Hemon discussed the controversy behind Handke’s unsympathetic views on the Yugoslav Wars and the campaign of ethnic cleansing that the president of Serbia administered in Bosnia. “Any survivor of genocide will tell you that disbelieving or dismissing their experience is a continuation of genocide. A genocide denier is an apologist for the next genocide,” Hemon wrote in his piece, titled “The Bob Dylan of Genocide Apologists.” Kumar then reflected, “Where Handke’s writing now represents a forgetting of history, Hemon’s struggle has been in the domain of memory, the struggle to remember.”

Kumar ended his introduction with a statement connecting Hemon’s work with the Gifford Fund, saying, “[Hemon’s] has been a strong, eloquent voice against white supremacy—he practices what Gifford would call ‘honest writing.’” The audience would then experience Hemon’s honest writing as he began to read aloud excerpts from a couple of his books.

Hemon started with multiple excerpts from his latest book—“This Does Not Belong to You.” The novel is a collection of Hemon’s childhood memories: fragments of observations and experiences he witnessed growing up in Bosnia. As he began to read, the steady rhythm of his voice guided anticipated listeners through these tales. The audience hung onto every powerful word. At one point, while reading an excerpt about a bully he had encountered, Hemon left the room in awed silence as he recounted, “[W]e learned that to win a fight you have to be willing to destroy your opponent totally, that you must never consider his body, worry about his pain.

Do not start a fight unless you can destroy the opponent; do not start a war unless you are willing to commit genocide.” Later in the same excerpt, when describing the boy being bullied, he wrote, “After a while, the wounds would heal, the pain would fade, and he’d find himself destroying some other kid, perhaps even me. This is the way of the world.”

Hemon then read a short story titled “Good Living” from another one of his

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

earlier books, “Love and Obstacles.” The excerpt featured a Bosnian narrator who sold magazine subscriptions door-to-door in Chicago. The authenticity of his words was clear in numerous moments of the story; for instance, when the narrator describes his job at the beginning, Hemon read, “I was desperate at the time, what with the war displacement, so I shamelessly exploited any smidgen of pity I could detect from lonely housewives and grumpy retirees whose doors I knocked at. Many of them were excited by my very presence, as I was living evidence of the American Dream.”

The lecture concluded with a question-and-answer segment, giving the audience the opportunity to directly participate in the event. One of the questions centered around Hermon’s writing influences, especially when he had to learn to write in English. “[W]hen I got to the United States, and realized that I had to be here for a very long time, as I have, I decided I would have to write in English…I gave myself an arbitrary deadline to enable myself to write in English,” he said. “[T]he way I thought I could accomplish that was by reading, which I think is how you do that in any language. So, I started to read a lot.”

As the lecture came to a close, people filed out of their seats and eagerly crowded around the table with Hemon’s compelling novels—supplied by Three Arts Bookstore—waiting to get a signed copy for themselves.

ARTS

November 14, 2019

Campus Canvas

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Page 7 submit to misc@@vassar.edu

This week’s Campus Canvas showcases works by three executive board members of PHOCUS, Vassar’s student photography organization. Their photographs were displayed in the Loeb exhibit “Light in Phocus” from Nov. 7-11. The event marked the first time in Vassar history that student work has been exhibited in Loeb for longer than a Thursday Late Night.

Ella Baum Class of 2020

Excuse me, What is the most Vassar thing about you?

“Either being gay, or trying to convert everyone to my major.”

— Margaret Bigler ’22

“Not wearing makeup.”

—Annabell Su ’21

Emma Brodsky Class of 2020

Cassie Jain Class of 2020

PHOCUS presents power of photography Carissa Clough Guest Reporter

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ozens of student artworks decorated the iconic glass entryway to the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center this past weekend, drawing visitors into the heart of the museum. These pictures, whose creators come from all class years, constituted the exhibition “Light In Phocus.” Following the namesake of the exhibit, many of the featured photographs played with the light and shadows of our world. The subjects ranged from the photographers themselves to strangers, from colorful portraits to black and white stills, from foreign places to bedrooms. “Light in Phocus” was on display in the Loeb glass walkway from Nov. 7 to Nov. 10, making it the first time in Vassar history that student work has hung in the Loeb for longer than a Thursday Late Night.

“Light in Phocus” complements the current special exhibition “Shape of Light,” which presents selections from an array of approximately 4,500 photographs. The display highlights the history of photography from the mid-19th century to the present, showcasing the importance and diversity of the art form. “Light in Phocus” seeks to continue the tradition by allying it with Vassar culture.

“Light in Phocus” not only represents the power of photography in the art world and to Vassar students, but also speaks to the flourishing culture of photography on campus despite a dearth of formal photography courses offered. As a student organization, Phocus seeks to fill the gaps and provide students with a space to grow their art form. To compensate for the lack of ac-

ademic space, Phocus provides access to a dark room, brings in lecturers, organizes workshops and spreads education for aspiring photographers. “We tend to fill a lot of the gaps,” Emma Brodsky ’20 explains.

The student exhibition was curated and organized by Phocus (Vassar’s photography student organization) executive board members: Ella Baum ’20, Brodsky and Cassie Jain ’20. Phocus photographers were asked to leaf through their work and find pieces that accompanied the selections displayed in the main “Shape of Light” exhibit. An artist statement supplemented each photograph, or set of photographs, and verbalized how each photographer interpreted the “Shape of Light” exhibit and how their pieces fit in conversation with the selected works—an intimate touch highlighting how personal photography can be as a field.

The exhibition itself presented a wide range of photographic techniques from Vassar students. In addition to diverse subject matter, each wall panel evinced a different story explored through the varying color palettes and experimentation with light. Baum spoke more on photography’s vast possibilities; she stated, “The camera allows the seer and the artists such an uninhibited relationship to the world: You’re showing other people your vision—the way you interact with the world. And it’s so personal…no two people can look at the same thing and take the same photograph.” As a collection, the photographs provided an intimate glimpse into the vibrant and varying experiences of Vassar’s student body.

Every photographer that submitted pieces had at least one of their works displayed,

“Probably my laptop case.”

— Will Riley ’22

regardless of experience level. The curators recognized this exhibition as a chance for aspiring Vassar photographers to showcase their art in a professional and extolled way.

“We wanted to put up strong work, but also make it democratic because it’s such an amazing opportunity for people to exhibit in the Loeb,” Baum explained. Phocus member Alex Garza ’23 gushed about the experience: “I have never had my photography displayed in an exhibit before, so I was exhilarated to have a platform to show my art.”

“The camera allows the seer and the artists such an uninhibited relationship to the world: You’re showing other people your vision.”

— Ella Baum ’20 “Light in Phocus” is a manifestation of Phocus’ ongoing collaboration with campus in efforts to make photography more accessible and widespread. Jain proudly reflected upon the result: “We all know we’re doing something that’s a space that needs to be filled, but it’s nice to have a higher organization validate and recognize us.” “Light in Phocus” broke down photography’s institutional barriers by proving that all photography is worth sharing, from amateur snapshots to world renowned artworks.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“The fact that I get Express breakfast every single morning, and that I wear skin tight jeans.”

— Jason Jin ’22

“My identity.”

— Spencer D McGrath ’21

“Probably the way I dress.”

— Margaret Edgecombe ’22

Francisco Andrade, Humor & Satire Yvette Hu, Photography

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November 14, 2019

Innovative office hours greet students, reinvent learning Rohan Dutta Columnist

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Rohan Dutta/The Miscellany News Professor of Hispanic Studies Andrew Bush and a student share a laugh in the Retreat.

Bush finds that students open up easily in this alternative setting, usually over coffee.

Courtesy of Vassar College via Twitter

ven in the worst of times, when course material is confusing and you’ve missed several classes and your paper is (long) overdue, or you need general life advice, Vassar students can attend office hours.

Typically, they are held in a professor’s actual office, but some professors opt to hold their student-designated time at more unusual times and in more eccentric locations.

One such professor is Professor of Hispanic Studies Andrew Bush, who meets with students in the Retreat. He noted that adjusting the timing of office hours makes them easier to attend. “When I had my regular, three posted office hours in the office …I spent so much time making appointments that really boggled me,” Bush said.

“I found it’s so much easier, just, I’m going to be [at the Retreat] Thursdays for at least three hours, [and] most people don’t have all three of those hours taken up with other things.”

For similar reasons, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Ben Morin changed how many sessions he is available to sit down with students in the center-stage seats of the Gordon Commons from the standard two to four. “During my first year

teaching [at Vassar], I had students who flat out wrote ‘I couldn’t attend your office hours because that’s when I ate,’” Morin explained. “And so I was like, ‘Screw it, I’ll go to where you eat and we’ll do office hours.’”

Longer and more frequent office hours do increase students’ access to the professors, but more saliently, their choices of space shifts the traditional student-teacher power dynamics in positive ways. Bush noted that students may associate a teacher’s office with disciplinary action and fear. Director of International Studies Tim Koechlin stated over email that a traditional academic setting frames the student as a protégé receiving wisdom from their mentor. Lastly, Morin described how faculty ownership of the course and office space is disempowering.

By taking his office hours to a student space, Morin hopes to remove whatever power structures may make students uncomfortable and thereby, in his words, “remove every barrier of entry to education [he] can.”

Bush observed that the relaxed atmosphere allows students to open up quicker.

“In the office, what typically would happen is someone would sit there and we’d chat for a long time, and then in the last 30 seconds... they would finally say what’s on their mind.” said Bush. “What I find in the Retreat is that

Four times a week, Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Ben Morin brings office hours straight to his students at the main stage seats within Gordon Commons. usually happens in the first 30 seconds.”

Morin’s office hours attract former students, and he defers to these more experienced students to answer other students’ queries, giving students even more agency in the space. This is unlike the typical phenomenon of students lining up one by one, in competition for the same time.

The closer relations fostered between students and professors by less stuffy, more collaborative locations can aid learning.

Some students respond particularly well to the different environment. As Koechlin stated, “I feel like the Retreat facilitates a sense that we are having an exchange in which each of us is likely to learn something from (and with) the other.”

Some students respond particularly well to the office hours different temporal and spatial dimensions environments. Nick Weiner ’22, a student of Professor Bush, said,“I feel like at a lot of hours there’s this pressure to be productive and be fast and get out as soon as you can so you’re not taking up too much of the professor’s time, but I don’t really feel that pressure [at the Retreat].” On pedagogy in general, Nhan Nguyen ’22 added,“Learning is easier when you know your teacher as a person. It makes

you more eager for the work.”

However, not all students would prefer to run into their professors while they’re drowning themselves in coffee at the Retreat or dislocating their jaw into a Beyond Burger in the Deece. For some, there are concerns over the public nature of the space; Brandon Jones ’23 said, “I’d be less inclined to go to office hours at the Deece because there would be more people around and office hours are meant to be more private.”

Others might be concerned about how productive they would be in a space filled with their friends, and much more noise than an office.

Office hours in eateries may be inappropriate depending on the instructor or subject at hand. Bush asserted, “It works for me, I don’t think that means if everybody should do this, that it would meet the goals of all of my colleagues.” Supporting this viewpoint, Koechlin also noted, “Of course, my magnificent, generous colleagues (and I) regularly have rich ‘conversations’ with our students in our offices.” While there is no objective determination of the best way to conduct office hours, modifying their format can make them even better for students and professors alike.

Workshop participants discuss labels, deep roots of racism WORKSHOP continued from page 1 After loading up on coffee and bagels, we established a covenant for participation. To name a few of the agreed upon rules: All in attendance would be respectful, all would participate, and all would listen to understand, not to respond. We all quickly agreed and jumped right into the workshop.

The instructors began by asking us whether or not we perceive Vassar has a problem with racism among students on campus, and if the institution as a whole is neglecting their duty to address it. Hands rose tentatively in the air, eyes glanced sideways, whispers crept their way around the room. In that moment we understood that the workshop would be more personal than detached, and the silence smoldered as we came to terms with this harsh reality.

The three instructors from PISAB worked together at intervals to encourage the telling of stories that urged us to understand others and their battles—to truly understand how racism lingers so inconspicuously today. We focused on whether or not someone is considered Black, even if their closest black relative has multiple “greats” before their familial title. A question that stood out in particular was

what we like most about socially-assigned labels, answers to which varied from voluptuous body parts to comfort when interacting with the police. This lead to discussions of police brutality, the inability to feel comfortable when you walk into a store, and whether or not you’ll be asked to leave when you sit down at a restaurant.

Another conversation took the shape of labels given to us and how they may not be the ones we would give ourselves. Most in attendance did not seem to question their assigned labels, while those of mixed races took longer responding.

We looked into each other’s souls as we discussed hardships and shared truths.

For some spotting racism is easy, while for others it comes to light that racism is not always this blatant use of the n-word or making someone sit in the back of the bus. It’s oppression. It’s a lack of opportunities. Racism is thinking you are being progressive by allowing a Black child into your predominantly white school, but not wanting your white child to attend a predominantly Black school.

Interestingly, the instructors did not focus on the possibility of dismantling race in an attempt to establish equality. PISAB defines racism as “racial prejudice + power.” With this in mind, there were no inter-

jections when the instructors stated, “All white people are racist.”

Sitting in this imperfect circle, each participant motionless in their seats, the words reverberate around the room. Can this controversial statement initiate the beginning of change?

Professor of Hispanic Studies Eva Woods Peiró attended an Undoing Racism workshop last February and then again over fall break. She currently spearheads an independent study program with seven Vassar students, all of whom also attended the workshop and are passionate about the work PISAB is trying to accomplish.

“Sometimes us white people become desensitized to terms like ‘structural racism,’ as we use it in academia but it doesn’t seem to resonate with our daily, domestic or even social/professional lives,” Woods explained in an email interview. “By going systematically through the ways in which systems are built upon racist thinking throughout the history of the United States, the workshop allows us to see how complicit our personal notions of home, comfort, safety, well-being and morality are integrally connected to our privileged position vis-a-vis structural racism.”

Woods also elaborated on the value of the workshop’s hermeneutical structure:

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“What is truly remarkable is how the circle of sharing, which in both workshops was composed of quite diverse individuals, does not shame or call out, but calls forth people to heal from racism, which dehumanizes all of us.” Finally, Woods explained the main crux of the workshop, including it’s goals and main takeaways for attendees: “So how can I not be racist?” she asked. “By dismantling racism, and making that a part of my everyday practice. By undoing racism, I can try to regain the humanity that I have lost by allowing a system of dehumanization to exist, and even thrive.”

PISAB travels all over the United States, leaving the participants at each stop with more questions than answers. After all, how does one really go about undoing racism when it has shaped all of America, demographically, economically, ideologically and culturally? Is it even possible?

But maybe that’s the point: to start asking questions instead of assuming our lack of compliance somehow abdicates us from working towards a more equitable society. But the answer we come away certain about is that, to be active participants in undoing racism, we must open a dialogue with ourselves, and with each other. Here.

Now.

November 14, 2019

FEATURES

Page 9

Stone Wave Yoga provides an oasis of self-care in Arlington Lily Conroy

Guest Columnist

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Tiffany Trumble/The Miscellany News

n the day I moved into Vassar, my family and I grabbed a cup of coffee at the Crafted Kup. My mom, who’s been a yoga instructor for seven years, saw a sign over the coffee shop’s storefront for Stone Wave Yoga, which had just opened over the summer. She thought that having access to yoga could help in my transition to college, so she encouraged me to visit the studio. Halfway into the semester, I unexpectedly found myself following her advice. I didn’t go for class, though, but instead to talk to studio owner Liz Glover Wilson. I wanted to learn more about her business as a component of the Arlington community, but also hear her insights on yoga as a method of self-care.

I found a sandwich board on the corner of Raymond and Lagrange Avenues which directed me to the second floor of an office building. Signs for the studio led me down a carpeted hallway until I found a door bearing Wilson’s definition of a “stone wave”: “a place of beauty, strength, and fluidity.” I visited on a Friday, one of the days on which Stone Wave offers Bikram yoga and pilates classes in a heated studio, so the room was still warm from an earlier class. Wilson and I sat on the floor in front of the mirrored studio wall to talk, and she seemed happy to share her passion for the practice that has helped her find peace.

When she was in her early 20s, Wilson started taking Bikram yoga classes in New York City. Initially, the practice mainly appealed to her because of its physical benefits. Later, she began to explore other aspects of yoga, developing an interest in

breathing methods, meditation and the selfcare involved in the practice. By her late 30s, she was practicing yoga while working in a corporate job and living in the East Village. Then her younger sister Esther died in a car accident at age 37, and Wilson’s outlook changed. “I was numb for a while, but then I started to wake up,”she recounted. “I felt really strongly that I had no more time to waste and I had to do the things that I felt [I should] do.”

Her shift in perspective eventually led her to move to the Hudson Valley and pursue her passion. She opened her first Stone Wave Yoga studio in Gardiner and has since expanded her business. Throughout our conversation, she cited intuition as a force driving her decisions, at one point telling me that this force would eventually help me pick a major. This instinct also led her to open up her studio in Arlington. One night early in 2019, she went for a walk around the area while waiting to pick up a pizza on Collegeview Avenue. She saw a storefront for rent and called the real estate company on the spot. She didn’t end up renting that space, but the company referred her to a rental around the corner. After only three weeks she signed a contract for the space that would become her new studio. The studio has been open since July, and so far Wilson feels her instincts have steered her right: She loves the new branch and is working to integrate it into the Arlington community.

When discussing her goal for her practice, Wilson emphasized inclusion. Coming from the city, she’d left a culture where yoga students were often boxed into a model-like

The term “stone wave” is defined on the door to the Stone Wave Yoga studio, located on Raymond Avenue above Crafted Kup. Studio owner Liz Glover Wilson hopes to provide an inclusive yoga practice that emphasizes the journey over the aesthetics. body type and lifestyle, and she didn’t want to propagate this expectation for her students. “Yoga is not actually about the aesthetics,” she said. “It’s actually not about the poses, it’s about your journey when you’re in the poses.” Yoga, Wilson believes, should be a space in which people can be totally themselves, no matter their level of fitness or experience. Her studio offers a variety of walk-in classes each week in different styles to appeal to a broad audience of potential students.

She hopes that Vassar students will ex-

plore the practice for themselves, both for the physical and mental benefits. Wilson compares yoga to an oasis, and hopes that more community members will discover these moments of peace for themselves. “I know for myself when I was in university... the pranayama, the breathwork, the importance of the time alone on the mat, is really important to the success of your college experience,” she told me. She hopes that yoga will provide her students with a peaceful place to decompress and find moments of rest.

Recipe Spotlight: Pumpkin pancakes pack a spicy punch Tamika Whitenack Guest Columnist

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he crisp air and crunch of dead leaves beneath our feet signal the robust arrival of autumn and the holidays to come, but the outdoor environment is not the only indication of the changing seasons. Overtaking the senses with fragrant aromas, warmth and the sweet taste of spices, the powerful pumpkin flavor palette is an equally definitive symbol of the season’s atmosphere.

Pumpkin spice lattes grace the chalkboards of every café, pumpkin-inspired sweets and

treats line the aisles of grocery stores and pumpkin decorations adorn front porches and school classrooms alike. What is it about the pumpkin that makes it so enticing, comforting and resonant with our feelings for this special time of year: the deep days of autumn marked by waning sunlight and the approaching winter festivities?

Perhaps part of pumpkin’s prominence in the United States’ seasonal splendor is its locality. Although believed to have originated in Central America, pumpkins have long been grown as a crop in the United States

Courtesy of Tamika Whitenack

Pumpkin, perhaps the most loved of all gourds, is a favorite among autumn enthusiasts everywhere. Pumpkin pairs well with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves to form pumpkin spice, which enhances the flavor of victuals ranging from pancakes to lattes.

(PBS, “History of Pumpkins and Recipe Round-Up” 10.25.2014). In the age of globalized food systems, we often forget that our food comes from our surrounding environment. Pumpkins offer an opportunity to reconnect with agricultural roots: Many families in the United States take an annual trip to the pumpkin patch each fall in order to select a hearty specimen for jack-o’-lanterns or pie from the tapestry of green vines and orange globes scattered over the ground.

As we appreciate the nostalgia induced by pumpkin picking, it is important to undercut this warm, fuzzy feeling and consider the prevalence of squash in the diets and livelihoods of Indigenous peoples. Pumpkin was a crucial food source for Native inhabitants of North America due to its thick flesh and its function as one of the “three sisters”— the agroecological strategy of planting corn, beans and squash together to optimize growth and soil fertility (The Old Farmer’s Almanac, “The Three Sisters: Corn, Beans, And Squash,” 10.17.2019).

For many, the tantalizing blend of spices that often accompanies any pumpkin-based product is the true signal of the season.

Generally consisting of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves, the magical blend commercially sold as “pumpkin pie spice” tickles one’s tastebuds with a balance of sweet and spicy, inciting feelings of warmth and coziness (The Washington Post, “The origins of pumpkin spice and how it became the flavor of fall,” 09.15.2016). The versatility of this winning combo boasts success in commercial ventures, such as the wildly popular pumpkin spice latte, and in humble home kitchens—I personally adore filling the house with the smell of pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins and, of course, pumpkin pie!

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

llllllll Ingredients llllllll • • • • • • • • •

• • •

1 cup whole wheat flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk 1 egg 1/2 cup oil 1 cup pumpkin puree 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or your own blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger or allspice) 2 tablespoons sugar (optional) 1/2 cup add-ins, such as nuts or chocolate chips (optional) Butter for the pan

llllllll Directions llllllll 1.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir well.

2. Combine the oil, egg and buttermilk in a bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir just until incorporated.

3. Add the pumpkin puree and any other add-ins, and stir. Batter will be thick!

4. Put a nonstick skillet or griddle on the stove over medium low or medium heat. Melt a little butter on the pan.

5. When butter is melted, scoop out pancake batter onto pan. Allow to cook until browned and holding a pancake shape (about three minutes) and then flip and cook until other side is brown.

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 10

November 14, 2019

Momus, Goddess of Satire, helps us find HOROSCOPES ourselves (hint: Don’t get the bangs) Madi Donat

Astral Projector

ARIES | March 21 | April 19

Try to be less confrontational this week. Write an essay about why you hate someone. If they still don’t take the hint, only then try leaving that dead bird in front of their door. Only then, though.

TAURUS | April 20 | May 20

“The vibes are off” is not an excuse.

When are the vibes not off? If you want the vibes on, just take a meditation class. They are literally free of charge.

GEMINI | May 21 | June 20 Mercury retrograde has you caught off guard. Communication is harder than usual. No one is laughing at your jokes! Maybe get better jokes. Find a new stand-up special to recycle material from.

Emotions are running high right now.

Did you try those Thai noodle bowls they had at the Retreat? They put raw green chiles in them with reckless abandon; it’s an excuse to cry in public.

LEO | July 23 | August 22 You’re feeling good! Pick up a new hobby. Have you tried bocce? Reclaim it from the old white men! It will be very empowering. Plus, the balls are heavy, in case you ever need a weapon.

D

ear Momus,

...where am I?

Sincerely, Lost and Afraid Dear Lost, Where to begin? Well, you are at a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, NY, a town nestled in the scenic Hudson Valley. No need to be afraid, as great alumnae/i have walked this very path, including Jane Fonda, Jackie Kennedy, Meryl Streep and, of course, Ivanna Guerra.

This is the Vassar College.

Now that I think of it, perhaps that is why you are asking me this question? Did you take a funny brownie before you submitted this question?

College students tend to do that a little too often to calm the nerves.

But while you are in a really pensive state, I urge you to ask some real questions. It is not where you are that mat-

ters, but who you are. Have you given that some thought?

Explain yourself. But before you explain, figure out who “yourself” really is. Look within. College is quite a time to find yourself and to make mistakes while you are at it.

Explore and keep an open mind—just make sure not to get bangs.

However, this only applies if you are a student. If you are not, I suggest you see yourself off campus the way you came in. And, please, do not go into people’s homes—we’ve had quite enough of that. You’ve probably gathered from this response that we college students are having a difficult enough time already with our identity crises alone. If you do not trespass, I really recommend taking a tour and stopping by the Juliet to purchase yourself some Vassar merch!

Stay off the drugs, Momus

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

CANCER | June 21 | July 22

By Ivanna Guerra (Speaker for the Goddess)

Momus, who knows and sees all, can help you find yourself when you are lost. If you seek her guidance, look to the North Star.

VIRGO | August 23 | September 22 You don’t have to work so hard to make people like you all the time. And face it, you don’t even want everyone to like you.

Some people are business majors. Not here, but somewhere. Be vigilant.

LIBRA | September 23 | October 22

Mercury retrograde means weird dreams! Are they prophecies? Probably not. Except for the one about the erotic tentacles. That one you should pay attention to.

Vassar Bitch Chronicles Emily Lesorogol ’22

SCORPIO | October 23 | November 21 Your professor probably doesn’t hate you, but just to be sure: Do they give you good feedback? How confused were they when you said you would “die for them”? Assess. Evaluate. Conclude.

SAGITTARIUS

November 22 | December 21 Be ready for luck in love! “Luck” meaning someone who validates your restlessness and makes you one (1) playlist before dropping you. But isn’t love really about the journey, not the destination?

CAPRICORN

December 22 | January 19 Friends are more emotional than usual recently, so try to acknowledge your own feelings. Familiar? Things happen, and your brain releases chemicals to make emotions? We’ll try again next week.

AQUARIUS

January 20 | February 18 Go to a party! Flaunt your art piece of a personality by displaying all of the socially acceptable quirks that will make the A24 girls like you! Yes, you like Sufjan Stevens! Making friends is easy!

PISCES | February 19 | March 20 I’ll keep this short: You literally won’t know if your crush likes you unless you talk to them. With your mouth, using words. “Knowing glances” isn’t a UN-recognized language yet.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

November 14, 2019

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 11

Breaking News

From the desk of Francisco Andrade, Humor & Satire Editor

Pre-reg, high draw numbers have us asking: Where are they keeping those extra two thousand students?

Citation minutiae: one persnickety editor’s torment Leah Cates

Fastidious Footnoter

O

n a snowy Poughkeepsie night many moons ago, I curled up on a cozy, crumb-caked couch cushion in the Jewett MPR, feeling pretty darn pleased with myself. After months of hanging my coat and backpack on those preschool hooks in the corner of Special Collections, hoarding photos of pages from Vassar’s 1864 to 1874 handbooks on my phone, waiting for office hours in lines that overflowed into Swift 101 and re-rereading “A Few Matters of Form and Style, compiled by James Merrell,” I had just completed my term paper for History 160. There might have been moderate asthenopia from painstakingly translating the Vassar Lady Principal’s tiny, faded, scrunched, 19th-century longhand into modern English, but there would be no all-nighter. Now I just had to review my footnotes.

And then, my evening began to implode.

With 10 works cited, 50 quotes and 59 footnotes, there seemed to be inexhaustible opportunities for error which, when viewed as a whole by the meticulous eye of a professor, had the potential to drop my grade down from an A to an A-, an A- to a B+, a B- to a C+...

Worse yet, what if I forgot a couple of footnotes or neglected a bibliographical citation altogether? What if I included just one “t” in Mary Harriott Norris’s name, or failed to mention that one of the quotes

on page nine was the words of Sarah Josepha Hale, as quoted in Linner, “Vassar: The Remarkable Growth of a Man and His College, 1855-1865,” 133, as opposed to coming from the mouth of Linner, “Vassar: The Remarkable Growth of a Man and His College, 1855-1865,” 133?1 Then I might find myself testifying before the Academic Panel, and not only about the Hale-Linner debacle, but also to assure the Panel that my failure to include “CT” after “New Haven” in listing the publisher for Barbara Miller Solomon’s “In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America” resulted not from a feeble attempt to prevent readers from finding the original text, but instead from the assumption that I did not have to clari2 fy the state when naming a major city.

This was not some isolated finals week meltdown. I am a detail-oriented, nitpicky, correct-your-text-message-grammar perfectionist, and citations create quite a kerfuffle. Being my persnickety self, I likewise obsess over my papers’ actual contents, but somehow the citations are inevitably my emotional undoing, and the object of an outsized portion of my paper-crafting efforts.

I once sat hunched over a round, red table in the chilly Main basement from 1:45 p.m. to 4:55 p.m. (the paper was due at 5), feverishly cross-checking my citations with the Chicago Manual of Style, Purdue Online writing lab, my own former papers

and sample papers, both those of strangers and students of previous years.

There was much to examine! For example, did the ibids have periods and then commas before the page numbers? Did I forget a period after “Ibid” in footnote 32?

If I forgot a period there, who’s to say I didn’t forget a period after “ed.”? Certainly not the Purdue OWL (“Whooo whooo forgot her period?”). As I sat shivering (why is that basement always so cold?), I proceeded to confirm that each quotation, paraphrase and footnote citation indeed corresponded with the information on the page listed. It turned out that Leon Stein’s “The Triangle Fire” was originally published in 1962, but the edition I had was published 3 in 2001.

I sprinted to drop off my paper with a throbbing head and blurring vision, and I have not since descended the spiral staircase to Main basement, for fear that it will spawn memories of red-ink-marred footnotes and crinkly pages stained with sweat from my frenzied hunt for the quote allegedly located on page 29. But at least the first comment the professor wrote on my paper was “Excellent footnote form, I 4 must say!”

Furthermore, it would appear that one can avert any potential citation catastrophe simply by referring to the online style guide for that professor’s preferred citation style or the Vassar library website.

But whenever I examine my sources with

a fine-toothed cursor, I inevitably find that at least a couple are rife with quirks that the aforementioned sources fail to address, rendering futile my citing with the assistance of those webcites—whoops, websites—and plunging me deeper into the purgatory of punctilious citation.

Foototes Of course in my actual paper, I italicized the title as opposed to putting it in quotes. However, in journalistic writing, book titles are placed in quotes and not italicized.

2 It turns out that one indeed only needs to reference the city, as opposed to the city and the state, in this instance, but in the grip of a 1 to 2:30 a.m. stretch of sleep deprivation, I experienced a most extreme bout of paranoia.

3 Once again, in the actual paper, I of course italicized the title as opposed to placing it in quotes.

4 This initially made me want to gently cut along the little black line separating my citations from the paper, mount them on some resume paper, frame it and hang my creation above my bed. Then I realized that I should probably be gunning for positive feedback regarding actual research and analytical skills as opposed to my ability to accurately cite the publisher of “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall” by italicizing the “of” in “Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press.”

1

‘The Last Airbender’: Shyamalan is trying his best, okay?

Madison Caress

Sympathetic Critic

I

In my insightful reviews, there is a common occurrence of movies directed, written and produced by a single person. These movies are just more impressive than others. “The Last Airbender” and “The Room” (dir. Tommy Wiseau) are just two movies that have had a profound impact on society, and they would never have gotten made if it weren’t for the two men that could be considered the greatest auteurs of the 21st century.

While “The Last Airbender” may have secured reviews that state it could be the “worst movie ever made” and ask the important question, “How did Shyamalan get it

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

so wrong?” the critics don’t understand that films are hard, okay? OKAY?! It takes a lot of effort and coordination to make a movie, let alone make a movie racially and artistically accurate to the source material. M. Night is trying his hardest. And he already wrote the script for “Stuart Little,” so I think we should give him a break! “The Last Airbender” really is very good—if you watch it with your eyes closed and with the sound muted. Because of effort, I give this film five Razzies out of five (which is how many it actually won). However, because Jesse McCartney didn’t end up in the film, Shyamalan is on thin ice.

Courtesy of Chris Hsia via Flickr

magine that you are M. Night Shyamalan, and one dark, scary night, an idea pops into your head. You know that this idea is ludicrous—how on earth could you possibly remake something that is already so beloved and acclaimed? You decide to do it anyway.

After all, you made “The Sixth Sense”! That was a good movie! You can do anything! If there’s anyone that can make a live-action version of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” it’s you. M. Night Syamalan, Is there anything you can’t do?

This, no doubt, was the exact thought process Shyamalan had when he woke up in a cold sweat the night after binging every episode of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” in a feverish haste. We’ve all been there, but only this man dared bring his obsession with a boy with a blue arrow on his head to the point of a live-action remake. Thank god Shyamalan was the one to take on this fierce duty. Any man that worked on the “Stuart Little” screenplay has my trust. He sure didn’t let me down either. “The Last Airbender” is a fresh, scathing criticism on what it means to make a “good movie” and proves that anyone can make a live-action version of a cartoon as long as they’re friends with Dev Patel and have a degree from NYU. Every aspect of “The Last Airbender” is iconic and perfectly made, but the casting and characters particularly stand out. While

the film does feature some actors you may have heard of, like Dev Patel and that-oneguy-from-“Twilight” Jackson Rathbone, it also features many other lesser known actors like Random White Kid as Water Nation Tribe Child and Tiny White Boy as a character from the animated show that was definitely not white in the original. Shyamalan did face backlash for having a largely white cast for a piece that consisted largely of Asian characters. His case is not helped, however, by the fact that Dev Patel’s character, Zuko, was almost played by Jesse McCartney. Shyamalan almost got lucky that McCartney’s tour schedule conflicted with the shooting schedule.

The plot itself is not changed drastically

by Shyamalan from the original, however he does take some liberties in how characters’ names are pronounced. In the TV show, the protagonist’s name is “Aang,” whereas in the movie, it is pronounced more like “Ong.” This could be because Shyamalan felt that he needed to spice things up, as a film about people that can bend elements is kinda boring on its own. On the subject of element bending, this film has fantastic graphics. If I would have seen the film in 3D, I would have almost definitely felt as if my eyebrows were going to get scorched off from the intense fire bending. Or, if they would have had the movie in 4D, I would been able to smell the arrogance of Shyamalan as he directs what he thinks is a good movie.

OPINIONS

Page 12

November 14, 2019

Quite Frankly The costs and benefits of single-sex schools Alice Woo

Frankie Knuckles

Senior Editor Quality Advice-Giver

Dear Frankie,

Sincerely, Keyboard Confrontationalist Dear Confrontationalist,

Q

uite frankly, tell them! When I saw this question in my submissions box, I assumed someone in one of my classes submitted it to hilariously roast me, so I feel qualified to speak for us chronically loud typists.

We’re already a little bit self-conscious about our loud-ass nails clickety-clacking on our loud-ass laptops, and we’d like to know if we suck at being cordial human beings in a classroom setting, especially because I’m pretty sure everyone whose keystrokes sound like boxes falling down a flight of stairs is already aware of that fact.

That said, when the fervor of a class and terror that everything out of the professor’s mouth might appear in a final paper prompt hits, keyboard courtesy is the first to go. A gentle reminder will most likely lower the volume—if not, maybe this unfortunately irritating quirk is beyond your classmate’s control.

So, how do you remind them? First of all, avoid being passive aggressive. It’s seldom the most effective way to get someone to alter their behavior. Instead, try to use your empathy: How would you feel if someone called out your classroom etiquette as unacceptable? What method of communication do you think would feel most gentle to you?

I suspect that the best answer here is a direct confrontation, most likely after class. Try your best to tailor your approach to what you think they’re most likely to receive, and also try your hardest not to sound like a total fuckwad. If you’re like me, you’ll end up saying “I’m sorry” at least three times in the course of this so-called “confrontation.”

Keep it simple. Say something like, “Hey, [classmate]. That class sure was a doozy! Also, hey, I was wondering if you could type a bit quieter? I have some trouble hearing the professor sometimes.”

Best wishes, Frankie P.S. If they don’t type quietly after that, maybe just work on tuning it out. Or just sit somewhere else.

Have questions? Want Frankie’s answers?

Scan the code to submit yours!

F

or years, I was staunchly against the concept of single-sex schooling on the basis of my rejection of the gender binary and the “gender differences” so often proliferated by stereotypes. Since the fallacy of “separate but equal” has been used to justify decades of racial oppression, I reasoned there is no way that the nefarious mantra could apply successfully to schooling. Any benefits of all-girls or all-boys schools were due solely to the increased resources available to those students, as the majority of sex-segregated schools are private or parochial. There can be no real benefit to deepening the divide between our harmful gender dichotomy, I thought. For that reason, I constantly disparaged the Catholic school where my mom teaches, refused to apply to any all-girls colleges and saw little reason for single-sex schools to exist in the first place.

It wasn’t until I read a piece by W.E.B. Du Bois titled “Does the Negro need Separate Schools?” that I considered how the benefits of single-sex schooling could mirror the benefits of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Du Bois argues that due to deeply embedded racial prejudice in America, there is no way that a Black student could receive proper education at a white institution—hard stop. While I in no way intend to compare the situation of Black folks in 1935 to that of womxn and girls in 2019, the idea that dominant identities prevent marginalized identities from succeeding applies in both cases. Stereotype threats certainly exist for girls in STEM, as Pohlke and Hyde mention in their review of the pros and cons of single-sex schooling (Child Development Perspectives, “The Debate Over Single-Sex Schooling,” 11.02.2016).

However, while Du Bois counterintuitively argues for racially segregated schooling, he does not argue for white-only institutions.

He instead asserts the need for spaces in which Black students feel at home for the duration of their schooling—something that is extremely difficult to achieve at historically white colleges. This is proven by demographics of yearly transfer and dropout rates at four-year colleges: In 2017, the dropout rate for Black and Latinx students remained nearly twice as high as the dropout rate for white students (National Center for Education Statistics, “Status Dropout Rates,” 05.2019).

The feminist lens adopted by many in the 1990s takes up this argument, and I too can see a benefit to all-girls schools. Environments with decreased sexual harassment or assault, no competition between genders and no men taking up too much space in classrooms and discussions would presumably lead to a better academic environment for girls.

However, I still struggle to see a good argument for all-boys schools. Just as any school that explicitly restricted its applicants to the dominant race (white) would be completely outrageous, I don’t see any reason why a dominant culture should have its needs tailored to, especially when no great academic advantage is derived from all-male schooling. Pohlke and Hyde mention some success with literacy for minority boys, but I speculate that this has to do with solidarity amongst minority identities— again proving the need for affinity spaces such as HBCUs and all-girls schools. When we look at the research regarding effects of same- and other-gender peer relationships, we see that as early as preschool, boys who were more frequently exposed to other-gen-

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I’m in a class with a student who takes notes on their computer. This particular individual seems to have a lack of awareness as to the excessive volume of their keystrokes. How do I ask my classmate to lower their typing volume without alienating them?

Guest Columnist

Sex-segregated schooling has fallen out of favor in modern times, but there can be tangible benefits for womxn and girls in single-sex schools. How to balance these costs and benefits remains an open question, and there might not be a good answer. der interactions achieved greater academic success and had higher effective readiness (Rubin et al., “Handbook of Peer Interactions, Relationships, and Groups,” 2018).

Girls do not show that positive interaction, instead exhibiting detrimental effects from friendships with boys. To me, this provides further evidence of the benefits of all-female schooling, and that boys benefit more from mixed-gender schooling.

Of course, I’m not arguing a paradox; if all girls are schooled together, then that leaves all the boys to be schooled together, and that makes no sense. Instead, I merely suggest the abolishment of all-boys high schools, and the continued encouragement of girls to participate in solidarity with their same-gender peers, just as HBCUs exist alongside many colleges which do not have explicit racial affiliation. Or just as Strong exists alongside the other co-ed dorms at Vassar! There is no need for a “whites only” college or a “males only” college because historically, that was all colleges.

Still, my opinion on this issue continues to waver. Recently, a friend pointed out a potential benefit to all-boys schools: Just as white people need to address racism amongst themselves, men should be taught to dismantle the patriarchy in spaces devoid of women. This could relieve womxn of the emotional and mental burden of educating men on how to be feminists. As social researcher Jackson Katz asserts in his TEDxTalk, sexual assault is a problem that men have the responsibility to solve, yet the forerunners of anti-assault movements are predominantly women (TED, “Violence against women—it’s a men’s issue,” 03.29.2012). If all-boys schools functioned as a place for boys to learn early on how to recognize their privilege, maintain positive friendships with each other and cultivate positive masculinity, I would be completely on board!

Sadly, that is not the reality of sex-segregated schooling. All-male schools leave boys ignorant of the female experience and entirely inept when it comes to taking up the responsibility of recognizing their own toxic masculinity. In typical “Lord of the Flies” fashion, boys’ schools create pockets of unchecked privilege and allow for “locker-room talk” behavior to breed. With neither the proper guidance from adults on dismantling patriarchy nor the social consequences that would occur due to the presence of women, toxic masculinity can run rampant. Moreover, when boys learn to view girls as utterly different from them, the

The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

stereotypes that traditionally define male/ female interactions flourish, at best manifesting as chivalry, and at worst as objectification.

In my experience, many parents and teachers will cite the supposed fact that adolescent boys should be schooled away from adolescent girls because their hormones will prevent education. Oh, God forbid our children are distracted by their hormones!

Catholic schools seem to uphold these heteronormative gender stereotypes particularly well, considering the different standards of uniform, behavior and sexual education implemented in girls’ versus boys’ schools.

Even as I argue for some benefits of single-sex schooling, I feel frustrated with the way sex-segregation can harm young people’s perceptions of their own and other genders. Aside from the severance between cisgender boys and girls, sex-segregated schooling excludes nonbinary and trans youth by completely invalidating their gender identity. I don’t know if there’s any version of sex-segregated schooling that allows for the gender spectrum; it feels inappropriate and equally invalidating of gender identity to place all trans youth in a separate school. To me, this would imply that a trans girl’s female identity is less valid than a cisgender girl’s female identity. However, I would also worry about the safety of a transmasculine student in an all boys’ school, considering trans youth are already at an extremely high risk for bullying based on their identities. I am unable to posit any realistic reforms to same-sex schooling because I just don’t think it can exist alongside the idea that gender is a spectrum rather than a dichotomy.

I challenge proponents of all-girls and all-boys schools to rethink their reasoning behind the system and moreover, to consider its effect on those whose gender identities do not align with anything as simple as “boy” or “girl.” If we approached girls-only schooling as a privilege afforded to a marginalized group rather than a necessary intervention to protect young people from members of the “opposite” sex, I think single-sex schooling would have some merit.

However, those benefits might be better implemented in after-school programs with targeted missions or in the establishment of affinity spaces at school.

Until I hear a better argument for boys’ and girls’ schools, I remain firm in my belief that single-sex schooling does more harm than good.

November 14, 2019

OPINIONS

Page 13

Letter to the Editor [Full disclosure: I am the current Chair of the Board of Elections and Appointments, but in this letter I write in my capacity as a constituent of the VSA and draw from my previous experiences within it.]

In the Oct. 17 edition of The Miscellany News, Opinions writer Abram Gregory raised some important questions about the VSA and student labor on campus.

I’d like to respond to, and examine, some of these issues, as well as highlight how the VSA has failed the student body over the years in a core aspect of self-governance.

Gregory notes, “[T]he only good justification for paying VSA executives is the fact that VSA executives do, in fact, serve the whole community.” Unfortunately, the VSA has not served the whole community ever since its website fell into disarray almost four years ago.

If you navigate to vsa.vassar.edu, you’ll see images and descriptions of last year’s Executive Board (EB). If you navigate to the orgs page, you’ll see an outdated list of org names and email addresses.

No info on org meeting times, no info about the org themselves. The Finance section? Outdated manuals and guides.

The constitution and bylaws are not updated, not even to reflect that the VSA chose to elevate the Chair of Health and Wellness position onto the EB. It’s Nov.

11 at the time of writing and the VSA has not communicated with us at all about its website, with the only news about it being a single tweet on Oct. 13 when the VSA VP said “We should be having updates on the VSA website soon” (Twitter, @[miscellanynews], 10.13.2019).

Like at any institution, you’ll find people who are running a variety of things for a variety of reasons. But at the end of the day, a service must be delivered to the student body. Their combined stipends of $18,900 are taken from the money each student pays into the Student Activities fee. It’s time we asked the VSA why it has not kept the most basic conduit of information to us—the website—operational.

Despite having many resources, such as several paid executives, a committee dedicated to operations and seven paid interns (including a website intern), the VSA has not updated us on progress on the website besides in brief passing at the Oct. 13 senate.

It’s troubling to think that there’s been no alarm at this significant problem. In order to understand the magnitude of this failure, it helps to go back in time when we had a functioning website: fall of 2016. Minutes of VSA meetings would be posted online, orgs could do most of their financial affairs online and the website contained more info about orgs than just their names and emails. Filing for

elections was built in. Since then, turnout and graduating seniors who did not pass on the institutional knowledge meant the website was no longer updated (it was ultimately discarded last year for a WordPress site). Consequently, most of the VSA’s data and minutes are stored in Google Drive. This temporary “solution” feeds into many problems with accessibility and transparency between the VSA and constituents. If students want to have a better idea of what was discussed in senate than the Misc’s tweets, they will have to go out of their way to email VSA executives. What happens if you don’t get a response? If you want to know what was discussed in the Finance Committee? In the Committee of Equity and Inclusion? All these minutes should be easily accessible to all of us.

I believe that the website issue points to greater issues of self-governance and independence. It’s not enough for the VSA to offer abundant office hours. Students are not going to want to reach out if they don’t have an idea of what the VSA does. It’s the VSA’s responsibility to bring a vision of leadership and an active momentum for change to support us as we pursue our passions in our orgs. Instead of offering town halls, why don’t they just fix the website, or delegate the task to the administration?

Gregory highlights participation in

self-governance, which is a beautiful expression, encapsulating an idea that drives civilization and achievement.

The VSA is an important student body, and student leaders have a hard job, to say the least. I know this because I lived it. As Chair of Finance, I insisted on the website so much that I felt I couldn’t raise the topic anymore with my own EB. I know what it means to work additional hours without compensation. I also know what the unequal distribution of labor is like in the VSA, and the often thankless work that org leaders do for our campus.

The VSA should set up a committee to discuss labor on campus, if not at least respond to Gregory’s points.

I conclude with a request to the VSA executive board: (1) Resign if you think the website is a non-issue or if you think you’ve done enough progress on it, or (2) issue a statement to the student body that explains where you stand on the website and what steps you’ll take to make it a priority, including how you’ll actively improve larger issues surrounding transparency and accessibility. If the VSA is unwilling to do this work, then I ask President Bradley to express these concerns to the EB in her meetings with them.

Sincerely, Mendel Jiménez ’20

The Republican Party is dead and Donald Trump killed it Sawyer Bush

Guest Columnist

W

hat happened to the Grand Old Party? What happened to the conservative party of Senator John McCain? What happened to the party of “family values” and conservative morals? Well, the group of House Republicans who stormed the impeachment inquiry Wednesday, Oct. 23 cannot be called conservatives. They are not of the same Republican Party of which John McCain was a respected member even to his political rivals (Today, “Barack Obama pays touching tribute to former political opponent John McCain,” 08.26.2018).

To sum it up, that Republican Party has been dying off since the day Donald Trump was elected president in 2016.

Trump has effectively fractured “the party of Lincoln” into two: those who value their positions of power over the health of

their country (and frankly over the health of their party), and the “never-Trumpers.”

The former ally themselves with Trump in the hope that the president will give them cover for their worst behavior, and stand by and fight for them and, of course, their jobs. The latter merely wish for a return to normalcy; that is, a world where reasonable people can have policy disputes without resorting to personal attacks, and where people try their best to elevate the country instead of just lining their own pockets and hurting their political opponents.

The group of Republicans who stormed the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) during the impeachment inquiry did not wish to protect their country.

They sought to protect Trump’s presidency and thus, their own asses. These senators are not patriots, and they sure don’t deserve to be called Republicans. If they

Juliette Pope/The Miscellany News

Opinions writer Sawyer Bush says Republicans are now the party of lies and foreign interference in our elections, and Donald Trump is to blame. Trump and his followers betray the values and ideals that the Republican Party has aspired to since its inception.

were even either one of those things, they would never have walked into that room to defend Trump let alone have brought their cell phones, creating a risk of malicious foreign surveillance (CNN, “Everything you need to know about the secure room at the center of the impeachment inquiry,” 10.23.2019).

The Republican Party has always been the party of morals and values. It has always been a party about respecting the rule of law and law enforcement. How can a party aligned with these values support a president who has openly mocked the disabled, repeatedly made disgraceful sexist and racist remarks, been found to have paid hush money over an affair with a porn star and engaged in a quid pro quo exchange with a foreign government to gain dirt on an opponent? The simple answer is that you cannot while still calling yourself a Republican. Those who back President Trump are not members of the Republican Party but members of Trump’s Party. This is where we see a divide. There are some who see the threat that Donald Trump poses to the integrity of the Republican Party, and there are those who swear their loyalty to him.

But the line between the two has become all-too blurry. Take Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has until lately positioned himself as an ally of Trump, but has now taken a stance against Trump by refusing to back Trump’s lies about the infamous Zelensky call. Even McConnell, whose spineless attitude towards Trump earned him the moniker “Moscow Mitch,” now refuses to continue aligning himself with a man who degrades the title of Republican on a daily basis. As Seth Abramson said in a Newsweek article, “a law-and-order party cannot suddenly declare a war on law enforcement and coddle criminals in and out of government.

The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

A party of ‘family values’ cannot suddenly declare that anything goes—legally, morally, ethically, and spiritually—as long as the culprit has the ‘right’ views on immigration” (Newsweek, “Stop Calling It The Republican Party,” 10.30.2019).

Those who back President Trump are not members of the Republican Party but members of Trump’s Party.

Donald Trump is not a Republican. He never was a Republican. Donald Trump is not a man with any values except those that benefit his wallet or his ego. To those of you who voted for Trump because you thought he was a Republican who could finally bring some real change to Washington, I’m sorry to tell you, Donald Trump is not your man. The only change this man has brought has been for the worse and has made the United States an international laughingstock.

The traditional Republican Party’s future seems doomed. As I see it, there are two paths that lie ahead for the party: continue down the path of Donald Trump, or reject this path and return to core conservative beliefs that the party aspired to at its creation. Conservatives, I am speaking to you now. As long as Donald Trump calls himself a Republican and a portion of the party backs him as such, I implore that you cast aside such a title. You are a conservative, be proud of it if you want, but if Donald Trump is a Republican, you are not. Remain true to your values before the title of your party.

SPORTS

Page 14

November 14, 2019

A fan-casting of the impeachment inquiry with NBA actors Jonah Frere-Holmes Reporter

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s the great Vince Lombardi once said, “What the hell’s going on out there?”

The House inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Donald Trump is just the latest in a series of protracted and complex legal struggles that the American public has tried to make sense of during the 45th president’s tenure.

As with Robert Mueller’s investigation and testimony as to whether Trump colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, there is an abundance of text and chronological data to sift through, a large revolving door of characters involved and a passionate groundswell of public opinion on both sides of the accusation that Trump’s contact with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky constitutes an impeachable offense.

Trying to make sense of all the information at hand can be confusing and discouraging, so I decided to recast the impeachment issue in terms more accessible to some readers. Hence: The Impeachment Inquiry, NBA Edition. This is a character-based study; we (maybe just me) are interested in drawing comparisons between NBA players and personalities and the key actors in the Trump-Ukraine scandal.

We have no choice but to start at the eye of the storm: Trump himself. Choosing an NBA player to compare to a repugnant and dangerous man with the power and predilection to harm millions of innocent people felt cruel and inaccurate. So I chose Skip Bayless. A controversial sports pundit who is paid millions of dollars to be vicious and stupid, Bayless’ rants on national television and Twitter about LeBron James are inexplicable and petty. His assaults on the #WashedKing, as he calls LeBron, are reminiscent of the ad hominem missiles Trump launches at myriad journalists and Democrats. (Given that he’s a pundit, Bayless’ assholery should be qualified and the man himself cut some slack.)

The LeBron to Donald Trump’s Skip Bayless is none other than Speaker of the

House Nancy Pelosi. Aside from being frequent Twitter targets of the aforementioned antagonists, LeBron and Pelosi both frequently have their age and position of power brought up in conjunction. At the age of 34, LeBron is said to be slowing down. He’s no longer a top three player in the NBA, decry foolish droves of fans. Nancy Pelosi, at 79, is also said to be too old to hold the most powerful seat in the House of Representatives.

Republicans run congressional campaigns lambasting their Democratic opponents simply for voting with her.

This is white noise, though. Pelosi is still the speaker of the House, and as such it was she who officially commenced the impeachment inquiry. As of writing, LeBron’s Lakers sit atop the Western Conference. He leads the NBA in assists, and is averaging nearly 25 points and eight rebounds per game to boot. At the end of the day, he’s LeBron Fucking James. The conversation starts and ends with him. When it comes to impeachment proceedings, Pelosi is LeBron. (When it comes to basketball, Pelosi is not LeBron.)

How did the impeachment process even begin? A whistleblower from the ominously named “intelligence committee” (New York Times, “Inside Adam Schiff’s Impeachment Plan,” 11.05.2019) filed a complaint. The contents of this complaint were unknown, because Joseph Maguire, the Director of National Intelligence, refused to turn it over as the law demands. When Adam Schiff, the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, subpoenaed Maguire, the contents of the complaint were made public—and here we are. Schiff ushered in a whole new scenario for impeachment; calling him a trailblazer is facetious but not necessarily wrong. Unsurprisingly, he has drawn the wrath of Trump and his Republican supporters in Congress.

Trump refers to Schiff as “Little Adam Schitt.”

If you know who Schiff is, you either think he’s a brave public servant demanding that Trump be brought to justice, or you think he’s destroying democracy by leading a witch hunt to impeach the president. What if there were an NBA player as divisive as

Schiff—a hooper whose style of play polarized the basketball universe and raised the foundational question of what basketball should look like?

There is, and his name is James Harden.

Feasting exclusively on isolation possessions, nearly every time Harden has the ball, he either takes a step-back three or drives to the rim, at which point he a) takes a layup, b) draws a foul or c) finds an open teammate for a shot. He dances with his defender, using his elite change of speed and bulky frame to create a window of separation before launching a 27-foot flamethrower or muscling into the lane. While Harden works, his teammates stand and watch.

Old-school basketball fans are the Republicans of this scenario; they bemoan Harden’s iso-heavy style of play as selfish, unwatchable and hopeless. They point to the fact that his Rockets squad never beat the pass-happy Warriors, and cry out that he’s ruining the sport we all love. The impeachment-seeking Democrats are the Harden fans. They point out that he scores in isolation more efficiently than any other player ever, and more effectively than most teams do. His way is the right way. Any critics, they believe, are simply afraid of the future of basketball. So, James Harden is Adam Schiff.

The final comparison brings us to a recent bit of impeachment-related news. Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, made headlines on Nov. 5 when he reversed his earlier statement that there had been no quid pro quo between Trump and Zelensky (New York Times, “Sondland Updates Impeachment Testimony, Describing Ukraine Quid Pro Quo,” 11.05.2019).

Claiming that the testimony of two other witnesses in the House hearings refreshed his memory, in his new deposition Sondland recalled telling one of Zelensky’s aides that there had been a quid pro quo. This admission represents a major piece of evidence in the case for impeachment, if it comes from the most unlikely of sources.

Sondland was not supposed to be such a major player in this process. He made millions by building an Airbnb empire in the

Pacific Northwest, and was appointed an ambassador to the EU basically because he donated a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund. There is an NBA player who recently rose to unlikely prominence on basketball’s biggest stage. The Gordon Sondland of the NBA is Fred VanVleet.

Fred VanVleet stands six feet tall. He went undrafted in 2016 after a remarkable career at Wichita State, a perennial mid-major powerhouse that has graduated a Shocking (their mascot is the Shocker (this refers to the process of shocking, by which grain is arranged in sheaves)) number of NBA players. After a solid 2018-19 regular season backing up Kyle Lowry for the Toronto Raptors, VanVleet erupted in the Finals against the Warriors.

He stifled Stephen Curry, spearheading head coach Nick Nurse’s genius defensive scheme to guard the two-time MVP fullcourt and play him as physically as possible off the ball. VanVleet made clutch three-pointer after clutch three-pointer, including a moonshot in the fourth quarter of the clinching Game Six that felt like it was in the air for several years. I was dismayed when he didn’t win Finals MVP (He didn’t deserve it, but I go to war for little guys and Shocker alums. Fred VanVleet is my god).

So, an unlikely character plays a major role when it matters most, albeit for very different reasons. Fred VanVleet is Gordon Sondland.

A team with LeBron and Harden is hard to beat under any circumstances, try as the Skip Baylesses of the world might. The only time the two MVPs played together was for Team USA in the Summer Olympics, and they didn’t lose a game. That Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff can commandeer the House inquiry to the metaphorical gold medal of impeachment is no guarantee, though experts and I agree that Trump will be impeached by the House but not removed from office by the Senate.

Trump disagrees. He argues that it’s clear and obvious that there was no quid pro quo.

To use the title of Skip Bayless’ podcast and talk show, Trump’s innocence is, according to Trump, “Undisputed.” We’ll see.

Can GOATs drive cars? Lewis Hamilton proves as much Daniel Bonfiglio Guest Columnist

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ast Sunday, Nov. 3, Lewis Hamilton finished second in the United States Grand Prix to seal the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship. The championship is Hamilton’s sixth, five of which have come in the last six years, and he is now just one short of the great Michael Schumacher’s seven, a record most thought unbeatable only a few years ago. At 34 years of age, Hamilton still has enough time left to catch up to or even surpass Schumacher’s record. The time has come to ask the question: Is Lewis Hamilton the greatest racing driver of all time?

Everyone knew Hamilton was talented when he entered Formula 1 in 2007, but even his strongest proponents couldn’t have imagined what he would go on to accomplish. In his rookie season, paired with the reigning double world champion Fernando Alonso (the man who ended Shumacher’s historic run of five consecutive titles), Hamilton began the year with nine straight podiums, beat Alonso and finished second, missing the title by just one point.

Hamilton would win his first-ever title just the following year, but after a few slightly less successful years in a subpar car, though he still never finished lower than fifth, he switched teams to Mercedes in 2013.

The move turned out to be a stroke of genius, as Formula 1 transitioned to its turbo-hybrid engine era in 2014 and Mercedes found themselves with the fastest car on the grid. With his Mercedes teammate as his only serious challenger, Hamilton won the 2014 and 2015 championships easily, and after another rules change in 2017, he has yet to be beaten again.

Hamilton already holds the record for most pole positions, and he has won over half of all races since the 2014 hybrid era.

With 83 career victories, he should easily pass Schumacher’s record of 91 before his career is over. Whether he wins more championships remains to be seen, but most numbers already point to him as the greatest of all time. So is he?

Despite Hamilton’s success, there are other factors to consider, primarily his car.

His Mercedes has undoubtedly been the best car since 2014, and although Ferrari has been much closer of late, Mercedes has still won the constructor’s championship each year. Essentially, more often than not the only real competition Hamilton has to contend with is his teammate, whom he failed to beat when Nico Rosberg took the 2016 championship in Hamilton’s sister car.

Beyond Rosberg beating him to the title in 2016, Hamilton’s teammates have finished

directly behind him in the standings for three of his six championships. In contrast, Schumacher’s teammates only finished directly behind him twice in his seven championships, and no driver ever won a championship as his teammate. Essentially, it is impossible to argue that Hamilton’s dominant Mercedes car has not played a monumental role in his success.

But it is not just Schumacher people point to as Hamilton’s GOAT competition. Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian legend, has three titles to his name, and it was his record of pole positions that Hamilton recently surpassed. However, while both Hamilton and Schumacher had time on their side, Senna’s career was cut short after a fatal accident at San Marino in 1994, at the same 34 years of age that Hamilton is now. Senna was a humanitarian and charitable ambassador of the sport and his country, and was already a legend before his passing. Those who watched him claimed he possessed car control like no other. He drove with the ruthless passion that God himself had placed him on the earth to win, something he firmly believed. There is no stat to sway any Senna supporters from their belief in his GOAT status. In contrast, Hamilton’s dedication has often been questioned as he travels around the world promoting his

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

fashion line or hanging with celebrities, though his hobbies have seemingly had no effect on his racing results. His tendency to question strategies or race developments over the radio has also led many to label him as a whiner.

But any athlete with historic success, from Brady to Lebron to Serena, is divisive within their sport, and finds themself hated by a multitude of fans for different reasons.

Hamilton is no different, and as long as he continues winning at his current clip, how could anyone question his dedication or care that he has a passion for fashion? Perhaps Schumacher never had as dominant a car as Hamilton, and Mercedes really is exceptionally good, but nobody plays down Brady’s super bowls because he happens to play for the greatest coach. Hamilton may not inspire the way Senna did, but Hamilton now has six titles to his name at the same point Senna had three, and the best perrace winning percentage since the 1960s, when the sport was markedly different.

With Ferrari strong in the second half of 2019, and another big rules change looming in 2021, Mercedes’ days of dominance are surely numbered, and Hamilton’s greatest challenges are likely yet to come if he wants all to call him the GOAT. But he doesn’t have to do much more to get my vote.

November 14, 2019

SPORTS

Page 15

We all know Bo: making ESPN’s most honest personality Mack Liederman Editor-in-Chief

Let me begin with a touch of honesty: I was late for this interview.

An unnaturally early 10 a.m. breakfast at the Deece made for a leisurely, carb-filled meal drowned in orange juice, followed by a brisk stroll past Lathrop and Strong, which became a speed walk past PB’s house, and, rounding the corner to the front gates of the Bridge building, turned into a dead sprint towards the timeworn doors of Skinner Hall.

“Mack!” a familiar voice shouted from behind me, as Assistant Professor of Music Justin Patch flagged this intrepid reporter down from the parking lot. Accompanying him was none other than the subject of my big interview—ESPN sports journalist Bomani Jones—observing the scene from a safe distance, as if it were another sports folly primed for his critique.

The act of interviewing is one that requires, at first, a disarmament of the interview subject, the pseudo-manufacturing of familiarity between two newly acquainted parties. When done correctly, an interview smoothly shifts the power dynamic, as the interviewee goes from withholding to sharing. Yet throughout this give-and-take, the interviewer keeps their stance at a respectable distance, invoking an aura of professionalism and put-togetherness. This particular interview, however, presented an odd challenge for me, first as a fan of Jones, and second as someone painfully aware that Jones’ journalistic background leveled him clued in to any technique I could throw his way. My sprint toward Skinner left me dead in the water.

But Bo didn’t seem to care. The expression on his face remained deadpan as he extended his lanky arm for a handshake. The separation between seasoned vet and wide-eyed reporter was palpable as Patch showed us up to

his office. Bomani stopped unceremoniously to snap a photo of a sign: “Bomani Jones, Thekla, Room 400, Lectures will take place at 12 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30.”

As we sat down in the office, Bomani leaned back in Patch’s chair, relaxed and ready to answer any questions. In fact, here was a dude whose whole job description was answering questions. When working under the umbrella of an elite four-lettered media company, preparedness is a skill that must become second-nature; a pundit must play back their mental tape recorder, standing in front of a camera with total confidence in their ability to speak eloquently about anything they’re asked, and at any time.

This goal of professional thought provoking, of spawning an audience reaction, of realigning the direction of a dialogue, is one that Jones, only 39 years old, has mastered. So much so that, in 2016, Jones sent shockwaves through sports media without even speaking.

On the morning talk show “Mike & Mike,” Bomani donned a “Cleveland Caucausians” t-shirt, an inversion of the racist iconography of the Cleveland Indians.

While most famous people are often reduced to their greatest hits, my task was to wind back Bomani’s career in sports media to his first big break: “What was it like to work in such close proximity of Papi on TV? Was it sweaty? Did he smell?”

From his humble beginnings starting up a radio show with a buddy at Clark Atlanta University, Bomani would go on to host callin radio shows out of Raleigh, NC, before eventually cracking into guest appearances on ESPN shows. That big break would come in the form of a large loud man and his affable father, on the highly questionable show “Highly Questionable.” Beginning in 2012, Bomani assumed space as the even-kiltered straight-talker to Dan Le Batard’s bombastic,

sensationalist persona, and as the counterpunch to Le Batard’s father, Papi, positioned in between them like a lost puppy offering up young-spirited goofiness. All three sat crammed together at a kitchen table.

“You smell the cigar smoke off of Dan more than you smell the old man,” Bomani responded, sustaining his deadpan. “The thing is, it looks tighter than it is. Like, the table itself is tight like the one we all gotta use at home … I don’t know if intimate is the right way to put it, but there’s something about doing that show doesn’t quite feel like you’re doing a television show.”

Jones’ penchant for projecting an authenticity, a casual relatability and warmth, even through the often-inauthentic channels of televised mediation, is what has come to define his space in sports media. When sports fans conjure up their idea of a “personality,” what likely comes to mind is the bombastic, over-the-top preaching of Stephen A. Smith; the shape-shifting, Boston douchebaggery of Bill Simmons; the clown-car chumminess of Shaq, Chuck and the rest of the gang. Bomani, on the other hand, has built his persona, has built his career, around personal honesty.

And not too many folks get to make a career out of being themselves.

“Me on TV is pretty much me everywhere,” Bomani said. “When I first started doing this I already had the approach of ‘I’m going to do this, I’m just gonna give you me, and if it works it works.’”

In his lecture later that day in Taylor Hall 102, Bomani answered questions from Vassar students the way he would if they were posed by one of his colleagues on television. Should college athletes be paid? “Nobody had the argument why not. I have never heard the argument that someone that works should not be paid.” Why aren’t Black people represented more in baseball? “Do Black people even feel

like playing baseball?”

Bomani whipped through takes as easily as you could flip through channels, doubling as an opinions machine with an on and off switch. In his lecture, Jones touched upon a range of topics, presenting himself as a consumer of all knowledge, as someone simply interested in being interested.

But if you had to ask me how to myopically define Bomani’s work, or even just his lecture, I wouldn’t label it sports. In fact, Jones’ array of baseline knowledge, his self-education in culture, Black society and sociology, is what has shaped and informed his understanding of sports in the first place.

In an era where the mantra of “sticking to sports” has been weaponized to delegitimize the voices of Black athletes, legitimize unsavory sports business practices with authoritarian regimes and strip sports media outlets like Deadspin of their heart and soul, Bomani offers a breath of fresh air. He spoke of sports as inextricably linked to life, as an outlet to “reflect where we are,” as a medium we project our values and experiences onto.

Bomani offers commentary that transcends genre, that speaks to greater society.

He remains unbothered by the reaction, lying back in his chair with his deadpan glare. In person, he appears to recede into his mind, preparing his next take for television—a natural introvert, professionally extroverted.

“There’s nothing that I can say in person that I can’t say on TV,” Bomani reiterated.

Sports media—and journalism in general—needs more candid truth-tellers, more realness in opinion and forthfrontedness in positionality, as a means of piercing through the safe disguise of writing and speaking with “objectivity.” For my part, as the wideeyed reporter in this scenario, the best I can do is bookend this piece with my own touch of honesty.

Brewer fencers defend home piste at Vassar Invitational

Courtesy of Noah Siderhurst

Despite some of the difficulties the differences in weapon might bring to the team dynamic, sword speciality is a prideful component of fencing. Each person seems to have a story behind why they picked their chosen sword, adding a personalized touch to a fencer’s story. For Parker, she originally began with foil, but switched to epee after needing a change of pace. “Because there is no right of way, meaning if two people hit at the same time then both people get points, there is a lot more room for developing a unique and personal style of fencing in epee,” detailed Parker. Brandt-Ogman first chose the sport of fencing after his parents encouraged him since he enjoyed swords when he was younger. He now specializes in foil, but at one point tried saber, until it got in the way of his foil career. Dinelli started fencing after watching her brother partake in the sport, and was initially content with just watching. But, in search of someone to practice with, her brother asked Dinelli to try it, and now she credits him with the start of her fencing career: “Because of him, I begrudgingly agreed to pick up a saber, and I haven’t wanted to put it down since.”

Dinelli and her close-knit teammates will next pick up their swords this Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Matt Lampell Hudson River Invite, concluding a back-to-back home stand. If you are available, you can make a trip down to Walker Field House to witness the squad for yourself, even if it is just to live out your own real-life Star Wars fantasy. Just remember to picture Vassar as the ones wielding the green lightsabers.

Courtesy of Nicoletta Dinelli

FENCING continued from page 1 swimming and squash, fencers compete independently, but their scores contribute to the overall team score. At the same time, individual members can advance to further competitions while their team does not, undoubtedly causing some fencers to set individual goals beyond just helping their team.

For fencing, individualization is heightened further by the three different swords used: epee, sabre and foil. Vassar’s team contains fencers in all three groups, splintering the team further. However, team cohesion and support still very much exists within the Vassar squad and across swords. “When you are fencing, it’s just you and your opponent on the strip, and in this sense it’s individual. When fencing on a team, however, your teammates are also there, on the side of the strip, ready to shout words of encouragement and give you pointers, water or whatever it is that you need,” clarified Dinelli. A supportive environment surely plays an integral role in the success of all who dawn the white armor for Vassar, as Dinelli continued, “I wouldn’t love collegiate fencing as much as I do if it were not a team sport. The team aspect allows for a support system that just doesn’t exist at other levels where every fencer is for themselves.” Still, eventually competing against your teammates in tournament brackets is not a lot of fun. Junior foil Adlai Brandt-Ogman added, “[Teammates are] the people you rely on. That’s why it becomes sad whenever you have to compete with them during the Big One, NCAA regionals and non-college tournaments.”

Last weekend, the Vassar fencing teams hosted their first tournament of the season: the Vassar Invitational. Both of Vassar’s fencing teams outsparred nearly all opponents, as the women’s team won six of seven matches and the men took seven of their eight.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 16 Swimming & Diving

SPORTS

Vassar College vs. RPI

November 14, 2019 Field Hockey

Vassar College 0, Rochester 1 November 9, 2019

November 9, 2019

The Brewers were unable to triumph over RIT on Saturday, as the men’s team fell 106-189 and the women’s team lost by a single measly point, 149-150.

While the women’s team especially will be disappointed to have lost an entire meet by a single stroke in some race, or half a splash of a diver’s leap, throughout the day, both teams had some outstanding performances. In total, Vassar racers reached the wall first in 12 separate races, along with many other top three performances both in the pool and on the high-dive.

Vassar field hockey was unable to repeat as Liberty League Champions, as they suffered a 1-0 defeat against Rochester in the championship game on Saturday.

The Brewers were on the back foot throughout the contest, as they only managed one shot to Rochester’s 15. Despite this, Vassar’s trademark defensive consistency kept them in the contest, as first-year goalkeeper Jules Smith posted seven saves. Rochester finally broke through late in the third quarter, then Vassar’s attempts at a comeback fell short in the fourth.

Women’s Soccer

Vassar College 1, Williams Smith 4

Women’s Rugby

Vassar College 32, Marist 14

November 10, 2019

November 9, 2019

Vassar lost the Liberty League Championship finals Sunday, as the thirdseeded Brewers fell 4-1 to the top seed (and winners of the last 13 Liberty League tournaments) No. 2 William Smith. The day before, the Brewers earned their way to the finals with a 1-0 win over second-seeded RIT, as senior midfielder Savannah Cutler scored the decisive goal. The next day however, Vassar was outmatched by the powerhouse Herons, as they were more than doubled in shots, shots on goal and corners taken through the match. Vassar will hope to rebound as they face another Liberty League foe, St. Lawrence, this Friday, Nov. 15.

All photos courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

“Conspiracy Theories”

Vassar defeated Marist in the Tri-State Conference Championship game on Saturday, securing themselves a spot in the next round of national playoffs and taking home the conference title in the process. Marist hung around through the first half, as Vassar headed into the break up 17-14. The Brewers turned it on in the second, not allowing another point and rattling off 15 of their own.

Junior prop Meg Martin led the way on offense for Vassar, scoring 22 points on her own. The reigning NCAA-champs will look to keep rolling as they host the University of Vermont for their Round of 32 matchup this Saturday, Nov. 16.

The Miscellany Crossword

by Frank

ACROSS

l. a fantasy story with a moral lesson 6. common dog name 10. conspiracy that Earth isn’t round 14. arctic lumberjack tool 15. transitional phrase like ‘therefore’ 16. basic monetary unit of Turkey, plural 17. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, abbr 18. lonely and abandoned (literary adj) 19. live backwards 20. Bush did 22. river formerly known as Yaik, forms part of boundary between Europe and Asia 23. plural of locus 24. the action of exiting, formal 26. inventory of offered meals 30. Pennywise movie, plural 31. turf 32. domesticated bovine, plural 33. location of the fiddler 35. to imply 39. the goldilocks spot between beef and beefiest 41. to remain apart from others

Answer to last week’s puzzle

43. a young cod prepared for cooking 44. delivered 46. Titanium-Gold Alloy Man 47. on the ---, to do something often 49. originally called, given before maiden name 50. stops, but the t is silent 51. French for ‘cake’ 54. to impale 56. regrets or laments 57. conspiracy concerning triangles and secret world orders 63. not moving 64. borrowing money 65. measure of the purity of gold 66. of rodents and men 67. white romantic bird, not swan 68. president of Lebanon from 1998 to 2007 69. a destination we allegedly never arrived at 70. drove too fast 71. an ‘area’ of possibilities

28. contraction of never 29. unpredicted events 34. made small adjustments to for precision 36. starchy plant, bubble tea flavor 37. A spinning toy, A rotating plaything 38. fingers and toes usually come in groups of 40. what one gets when a lightbulb turns on 42. water vapor 45. to take away one’s freedom

DOWN

1. FN-2187, Wolfhard, Balor, Cole 2. ah-sah-EE 3. Mr. Legume 4. delicate fabric or shoe-tie 5. to forcibly remove, often an academic punishment 6. choosers 7. a condition or provision 8. like onions, not cakes 9. metric units for 2000 lbs 10. French flower insignia or symbol 11. French for ‘book’ 12. plural of 60 down 13. signals that one is lying or bluffing 21. longest river in France 25. dancer with distinctive boots 26. crime families or large violent crowds 27. an accomplished professional, abbr

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

48. associations of craftsmen or merchants 51. fairy tale brothers 52. sound component 53. telecommunications company, abbr 55. someone who rides a motorcycle 58. a repetition or shape that begins where it ends 59. given at birth and first meeting 60. operatic solo 61. of great height 62. an object