4 9 15

The Miscellany News

Volume CXLVII | Issue 18

April 9, 2015

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

NY Times columnist brings civil rights debate to campus Chris Pompetzki Guest Reporter

O

Emily Lavieri-Scull/The Miscellany News

n Thursday, April 2, Vassar hosted New York Times Op-ed columnist Charles Blow for a lecture entitled “Civil Rights Today,” which sought to critically examine the current relationship between minority communities and law enforcement.

Blow earned his first praises for his infographics on the Sept. 11 attacks and on the Iraq War as an art and graphics editor for The New York Times. After leaving to work for National Geographic for a short time, he returned to the Times in 2008 and began to write as an Op-ed columnist, focusing on politics, public opinion and social justice today.

The event, which was proposed

by Associate Professor of English, Urban Studies and American Studies Tyrone Simpson and sponsored by the Dialogue and Engagement

Across Differences Fund, was largely motivated by the recent tragedies in Ferguson, Staten Island and Cleveland, and other events that have highlighted racial and social inequality in the United States. “Through courageous and unflinching commentary, Mr. Blow explores the experiences of the forgotten and the invisible in the hopes that the nation can earn its healing through more caretaking and compassion,” explained Simpson.

Discussion revolved around complex issues imposed by the intersection of race, poverty, and criminal profiling. Blow’s lecture voiced the concentrated anger and dissatisfaction with what he sees as counterproductive police actions and strategies that result in the loss of innocent lives. He asserts that support for certain law enforcement strategies stem from flawed notions See BLOW on page 3

Acclaimed New York Times Op-ed columnist Charles Blow addressed the Vassar community about issues concerning institutional racism in America and the implications of concerning facts surrounding race in the American justice system.

Juniors create software Campaign calls VC to face privilege programming club Marie Solis

Contributing Editor

with additional reporting by

Eloy Bleifuss Prados Reporter

A

new student club is hoping to one day improve how students access online college resources on their computers and mobile devices.

Created by Jayce Rudig-Leathers ’16 and Tim Brown ’16, the organization VC++ launched as a collaborative community for student programmers or anyone else interested in software or mobile app development.

The name VC++ derives from a code

pun. If “VC” were a variable in a program, then “VC++” would mean “VC plus 1” or “VC increased.” At the same time, however, the joke is an earnest statement of the club’s wider goals: to enhance the everyday lives of Vassar community members through software and app development.

“We are bringing together the people who can build things with the people who have ideas to build things,” said co-founder Rudig-Leathers. AlSee VC++ on page 14

Palak Patel

Editor-in-Chief

C

heck your privilege. It’s a neat catchphrase thrown around as reminder that some of us were born with advantages others are systematically denied. It’s easy to say, but keeping our privileges and biases in check requires constant vigilance.

To the end of fostering an environment where students, faculty and staff work toward developing this social consciousness, the Bias Incident Re-

sponse Team (BIRT), the Campus Life and Diversity Office and the Campus Activities office launched Vassar’s second-annual Privilege Campaign last week. The installation of photo portraits on the second floor of the College Center has participants’ privileges literally written across their faces.

“We decided to change the location and make the portraits more visible.

The College Center second floor… is heavily traveled and we hope that the exposure leads people to engage,” wrote Associate Dean of the College for Campus Life and Diversity Ed Pittman in an emailed statement.

Students anticipate Chin’s poetic passion Saachi Jain

Guest Reporter

I

L

Staceyann Chin brings activism and personal history to spoken-word style poetry and will perform at Vassar.

The Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention Program and CARES will be hosting the artist on Wednesday, April 15.

Inside this issue

3

NEWS

Ingraham runs fastest 400 in nation Winnie Yeates

courtesy of Staceyann Chin

n her book, “Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam,” Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz said of Staceyann Chin, “To watch Chin perform is to watch the very essence of poetry manifested: her performances are imperfect, volatile and beautiful. Chin’s poetry is passionate and well-written, sure; but it’s her ability to communicate that passion in performance that is unparalleled. She becomes the poetry.”

On Wednesday, April 15 at 6 p.m. in Rocky 300, the Sexual Assault & Violence Prevention Program (SAVP) and CARES brings this renowned poet, performer and activist to Vassar for a spoken word event as a part of the two-week Sexual Assault Awareness Program. The event is also co-sponsored by the LGBTQ and Women’s Centers.

Charlotte Strauss Swanson, the SAVP coordinator, said: “Our goal for Sexual Assault Awareness [Weeks] is to engage students in activism and dialogue to raise awareness around issues of sexual violence. In doing this work, it is important to us to highlight how diverse groups, such as LGBTQ communities and womSee CHIN on page 17

Though Pittman didn’t contribute a portrait this year, he emphasized the positive impact the campaign could have on campus. He continued, “I think that anytime the campus community can interact with questions of identity and one’s sense of who they are, it can be transformative.”

Last year, the Privilege Campaign was comprised solely of faculty and administrators, a focus that was meant to emphasize employees’ commitment to these initiatives which are typically student-driven. “Too often on campus, only students are asked to be vulneraSee PRIVILEGE on page 14

Faculty proposes new curriculum requirements

15 ARTS

Early photographs make a flash in the Loeb

18

Guest Reporter

ast year, the Vassar women’s track and field team sent two runners to the NCAA championships, with both returning from the event as All-Americans. The team also had 17 qualifying times for the ECAC championships, which also proved to be a program-best. Sophomore Molly Crowell said, “Last year was an excellent year for Vassar’s women’s track team. We made several notable appearances at elite levels and established ourselves as a force to be reckoned with in many different events. Coming off that, our goals this season definitely include carrying that momentum and making as big (or hopefully bigger!) of an impact as we did last year.”

The team has been working tirelessly to prepare for the 2015 season in an attempt to top their success in 2014. Crowell praised her team’s hard work: “I am extremely proud of the time and effort that every member of our team has been putting in in preparation for the 2015 season. Since we first gathered as a full team in January, I have seen everyone, without exceptions, determined to improve themselves in order to See TRACK on page 18

Men’s volleyball steps up to the net SPORTS for playoffs

The Miscellany News

Page 2

April 9, 2015

Editor-in-Chief

Zarrella dives into Bonaire culture, science Bianca Zarrella JYA Blogger

“B

on dia!!

In Bonaire, that’s how I would say hello to you during the daylight hours. It is literally translated “good day” in Papiamentu, the native language here. People here are extremely friendly, and love explaining their favorite spots on the island and teaching their language and culture. By far, the most frequently used word is dushi, which means an array of things. You could say, pasa dushi wikent, meaning “have a nice weekend.” But dushi can also be used to describe food as being delicious, and people as being good looking. In addition to Papiamentu, people here are usually fluent in Spanish, Dutch and English.

The island of Bonaire is beautiful. It’s a constant 85 degrees and sunny every day — even when it rains the sun is still out. And the academic program is busy; our day is schedule from about 8am to 8pm. We usually have a bit of class in the

morning and then a little more after lunch. But, some days we just skip the class part and scuba dive, snorkel, hike, or swim. Other days we go on day trips, and we have had overnights in Curacao and camped on the North part of Bonaire that is conservation land.

My most time consuming class at this point in the semester is my independent research experiment. Each student in my program came up with an individual research question to study throughout our time in Bonaire. I decided to investigate the filter feeding mechanism of marine sponges, which exposes them to water-borne toxins. This forces them to evolve immune systems effective in fighting these pathogens. Therefore, antibacterial properties of the sponge’s defense system are effective tools that can be used in medicinal therapies. By modeling sponges’ response to pathogens, advances can be made in human medicine.

My study analyzes how the pumping efficiency of the species Aplysina archeri and Aplysina la-

cunosa affects the antibacterial properties of the sponge. I measure the pumping efficiency of each sponge by using inhale-exhale water sampling (In-Ex), determined by comparing the turbidity of water before it enters and as it exits the sponge. I test the variation in antibacterial properties by assembling antibiotic assays from sponge extracts.

Sponges with high pumping efficiencies may have greater antibacterial properties because the increased filtering rates will expose the sponge to more pathogens. As a result, the sponge must produce effective resistances to the toxins in order to remain healthy. I’m still collecting my preliminary research, but I will be getting results soon.

When I’m not in the lab, my leisure time here on Bonaire has proven to be exciting and adventurous. I’ve done many activities here, such as windsurfing, hiking, and of course, scuba diving.

To read more about Bianca’s travels, visit farandaway.miscellanynews.org.

Interested in a career in journalism?

Max Kutner ‘11

Editor-in-Chief of Jezebel

Documentary filmmaker, staff writer at Newsweek

Courtesy of Kelly Stout

maxwellkutner.com

emmacarmichael.com

Emma Carmichael ‘10

Kelly Stout ‘10 A-Issue Editor at The New Yorker

smashdawg.com

jasminestout.net

Jasmine Brown ‘10

Jeremy Kaplan ‘96

Associate Producer at ABC News

Editor-in-Chief of Digital Trends

Join The Miscellany News and five alumni for a panel on reporting after Vassar on Friday, April 10 at 6 P.M. in New England 206.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Palak Patel

Senior Editor Noble Ingram

Contributing Editors Bethan Johnson Meaghan Hughes Marie Solis

News Opinions Arts Humor & Satire Sports Photography Online Social Media Copy

Rhys Johnson Joshua Sherman Emma Rosenthal Chris Gonzalez Zach Rippe Erik Quinson Samantha Pianello Gwendolyn Frenzel Maddy Vogel Ashley Pecorelli

Crossword Editors Collin Knopp-Schwyn York Chen Alycia Beattie Assistant Features Julia Cunningham Claire Standaert Assistant Design Sarah Dolan Assistant Social Media Hannah Nice Assistant Copy Anika Lanser Reporters Amreen Bhasin Eloy Bleifuss Prados Emily Hoffman Ashley Hoyle Charles Lyons-Burt Connor McIllwain Yifan Wang Columnists Sophia Burns Delaney Fischer Sam Hammer Penina Remler Sarah Sandler Emily Sayer Design Sixing Xu Photography Cassady Bergevin Alec Ferretti Emily Lavieri-Scull Copy Hallie Ayres Claire Baker Antigone Delton Christa Guild Macall McQueen Alessandra Muccio Kelsey Quinn Jessica Roden Emma Roellke Sophia Slater Rebecca Weir Laura Wigginton

LETTERS POLICY The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers.

Letters to the Editor should not exceed 350 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue. Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu.

April 9, 2015

NEWS

Page 3

Charles Blow highlights racial bias in US justice system in urban communities. “In other words, there are more than two young Black women for every young Black male in Ferguson.” Blow explained. “While the problem of the missing African-American men is especially severe in Ferguson, young Black men are absent in most U.S. cities. All of this informs the statistics.”

In an article entitled “Flash Point Ferguson,” Blow assessed the critical role events in Ferguson now play in a larger movement. However, isolated incidents of violence associated with protesters, he argued, have caused some to question the pace of progress. He wrote, “Violence is weakness masquerading as strength. It is a crude statement of depravity voiced by the unethical and impolitic. It reduces humanity rather than lifts it.”

Blow continued, “The violent must find no asylum in the assembly of the righteous. We can and must stand up to injustice and against vigilante justice simultaneously” (The New York Times, “Flash Point Ferguson,” 03.16.15).

However, the majority of Blow’s lecture was focused on law enforcement’s relationship with minority communities. As issues of civil rights boil to the surface in the form of police shootings, Blow’s lecture emphasized how bias compromises the criminal justice system.

“This is not to say that things like economic equality or access or systemic exclusion have fallen way, or to discount the phenomenal success of the gay rights movement, another civil rights issue,” Blow said. “But rather, the interaction between communities of color and the police and the justice system have crystallized a

courtesy of Vassar College Media Relations

BLOW continued from page 1 of racial pathologies that cut across society.

Victims of the policies Blow covered included teenagers Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, and adult Eric Garner. According to Blow, tragic realizations of the distrust between law enforcement and minority communities must weigh on the public’s conscience.

Blow asserted, “There is no way, in this country, to discuss crime statistics without including in that discussion the myriad of ways in which those statistics are informed and influenced by the systemic effects of racial description.” Reference was made to racial profiling measures like the stop-and-frisk program in New York City, which Blow characterized as an example of a counterproductive law enforcement policy that disproportionately affects minorities.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, America accounts for 22 percent of the world’s prison population and 2.2 percent of the entire population, figures that Blow suggested indicate fundamental flaws with the American justice system (Newsweek, “Report: America’s Prison Population is Growing Again,” 12.22.14).

In his lecture, Blow examined the implications of these numbers. “There has been an explosion in the incarceration rate in the U.S. in the last few decades,” he commented. “That trend has disproportionately ensnared young, Black men sucking hundreds of thousands of marriage aged men out of the community.”

Census data also provides quantitative evidence for a demographic trend whereby certain genders are disproportionately represented

One of today’s leading voices for social justice in the United States, acclaimed New York Times journalist Charles Blow spoke directly with students on April 2 about issues of intersectional justice. sentiment and galvanized a generation.”

Blow’s appearance on campus has been praised by many students who view him as a modern icon for civil rights and opinions writing. “Charles Blow is an incredibly skilled orator; probably the best that I have had the pleasure of hearing in person,” wrote Lena Jo-

sephs ’16, who attended the event, in an emailed statement.

Josephs continued, “[His] informational take on institutional racism in the States was very impactful. Vassar should keep emphasizing social justice in campus events to educate students on problems occurring closer to home.”

Faculty committee proposes restructuring of curriculum Rhys Johnson

O

News Editor

n March 6 and 7, the College’s Committee on Curricular Policies (CCP) presented draft proposals to the faculty that would change the existing academic policies regarding the course load and graduation requirements for all Vassar students from the Class of 2020 onward.

If the proposals are accepted by the faculty and put into action as they currently stand, three primary changes will be made to Vassar’s academic rules and regulations, including changes to distribution requirements, the creation of an Intensive Mentored Exploration (IME) requirement and the revision of the existing policy concerning student course loads.

The idea for the first of the potential changes, affecting the distribution requirement system, reportedly came about during the May 2014 Dean’s Retreat, “Conversing About the Curriculum.” According to the first draft proposal itself, faculty members at the Dean’s Retreat showed great interest in changing the College’s course distribution requirements to offer a broader educational experience to future students.

The CCP’s proposal would seek to actualize these faculty discussions by mandating that students take at least three courses in four of the five curricular divisions: arts, foreign languages and literatures, social sciences, natural sciences and multidisciplinary studies. One of those three courses would have to be above the 100 level, and the requirements would have to be fulfilled before the start of students’ junior year.

Exceptions to the policy would be handled by the Committee on Leaves and Privileges.

The proposal’s rationale explains, “The primary motive for these changes is to ensure that all students realize breadth of study across the curriculum. Many faculty consider our current unit-based stipulations (half outside the field of concentration and 1/4 outside the division of concentration) inadequate to ensure a level of curricular exploration that nurtures students’ ‘intellectual curiosity, creativity, respectful debate and engaged citizenship.’” The concluding quote makes reference to the Vassar College Mission Statement.

The current policy forbids students from taking more than 50 percent of their classes or 17 of 34 units in a single field of concentration, which the new proposal would not change, and that at least one fourth of the 34 units needed to graduate be in one or more of the curricular divisions outside the division of their concentration.

If adopted, the CCP’s proposed changes may demand that students approach their academic plans, especially as freshmen and sophomores, differently. According to the draft, only 40 per-

cent of students in the classes of 2012 and 2013 would have met the proposed requirements, suggesting that it would have had a significant impact on at least 60 percent of those students’ class choices.

The CCP also suggested in their drafted language that such a change to students’ distribution requirements could assist in spreading out class enrollments more evenly, giving increases to departments with low enrollment and decreases to overcrowded departments.

The authors maintain, however, that the exact effects of the changes cannot be confidently foreseen as yet, owing to the unpredictability of which departments and classes students would choose to register for to fulfill such requirements in the future.

The second proposal requested the creation of a mandatory Intensive Mentored Exploration (IME), which would require that all students participate in either an individually mentored project with a faculty member in the department of their IME or a small seminar class with a strong emphasis on professor-student mentoring of a similar nature.

“Before spring break, all juniors would be asked to indicate 1) if double majors, the major in which they will complete the IME; 2) for a seminar-style IME, the course they intend to complete to fulfill the requirement; 3) for individual or small-group collaborative projects, at least three broad areas of interest,” the draft’s language reads.

A campus-wide IME system would be overseen by the IME Subcommittee on Curricular Policies and endorsed by the CCP, who assert that the IME’s style of “integrative learning” promotes engagement with diverse perspectives, the development of intellectual self-confidence in students and the provision of more academic opportunities for student-faculty interaction.

“The basic concept is to require every student to do something in their senior year that is intensively mentored, that they’re passionate about, where they are taking a great deal of initiative,” explained Dean of the Faculty Jonathan Chenette at a Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meeting on April 5. “Like a thesis but with a much broader range of possibilities.”

The third proposal concerned the revision of students’ course load limits. The proposed language reads, “The normal course load in each student’s program is 4 or 4.5 units per semester.

Permission from the Committee on Leaves and Privileges is required if the student wishes to take more than or less than 3.5 units.”

The current course load limit before special permission from the Committee on Leaves and Privileges would be required stands currently

at 5.0 units, though many students choose to exceed that number. With a narrower window for students between minimum and maximum required course load, along with plans to grant fewer exceptions to that rule than to the current one, the CCP has posited that this policy would impact class enrollment pressures to the effect of having 70 fewer students on campus.

“The fact that students can take five or six courses right now does put more pressure on faculty and takes more of their time,” Chenette later remarked, in an interview. “It conceivably closes out an opportunity for another student to take whatever class because some people could be taking it as their fifth or sixth class. [This] should make opportunities more widely available for a broader number of students.”

The CCP also asserts that this alteration would bring Vassar more closely in line with the U.S. Department of Education’s definition of a standard credit hour as is used for federal financial aid purposes. Purportedly, it would allow fewer sections to need to be run for certain classes or departments, freeing up faculty time and resources to facilitate the implementation of new programs like the IME system.

Although the suggestion of an IME requirement was reportedly met with tepidly positive responses after copies of the three curricular proposals had been distributed via email by members of the VSA to the student body, the other two proposals have sparked both concerns and criticism from many students.

“It didn’t seem like very many people felt terribly strongly about [the IME proposal], but no one disapproved,” commented Class of 2017 President Jonathan Nichols during the VSA Council meeting on April 5. “I got a lot of negative feedback on [the other] proposals.”

Many students have labeled the proposals unnecessarily stringent and intellectually stifling. Class of 2018 President Rebecca Pober remarked, “Vassar prides itself on being a free curriculum...It seems like [these proposals] are trying to require more breadth but allowing less time for students to do that.”

She went on to say, “If you’re saying that Vassar has a free curriculum but students read the website and see all these requirements, then it’s not really that free...We’re already exploring.

That’s the reason why we came to Vassar.”

Others have voiced similar concerns that new regulations such as these would be not only unfairly rigid for students, but against the spirit of liberal arts and Vassar’s reputation for academic self-determination. Class of 2015 President Zoe Fullerton commented, “The biggest concern that I got from [the Class of 2015] was that this goes against what Vassar and a liberal arts ed-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ucation means. From a personal perspective, I was pre-med, and there are a lot of requirements that are imposed upon pre-med individuals already. Because of the way Vassar works, I was able to change my major during junior year, but that was not something I would have been able to do with all of these requirements.”

The CCP’s proposals have also been met with indignation from some at the fact that students’ long-standing request for the creation of a social consciousness requirement has made little progress while other ideas such as these have already entered their drafting stage.

Despite heavy criticism, many have defended the CCP’s recommendations. VSA VP for Academics Logan Hill ’16 wrote in an emailed statement, “Most of the really valid critiques I’ve seen have been about the process of implementing the proposals, while those dealing with the rationales underpinning the proposals have honestly been a bit weak. I think it’s important to ensure that any new requirements can reasonably be accomplished by every Vassar student across the curriculum. However, the criticisms of the proposals’ rationales have largely centered on the ways they impinge on Vassar’s ‘open curriculum’ and students’ ‘freedom.’ I don’t think it’s reasonable or practical to allow a student to decide carte blanche what they want to take on their own.”

“Breadth and depth ought be balanced out, and requirements are one way to help accomplish that,” Hill continued. “I don’t think eight or nine units outside one’s major division or having to focus more deeply on 4 to 4.5 units each semester impinges seriously on anyone’s academic freedom, and I’m certain Vassar students will continue to do really amazing and creative things with Vassar’s still open curriculum.”

Chenette, who currently chairs the CCP, also stood by the committee’s ideas. “The point people need to remember is that we already have lots of requirements here. The major requirements that everyone has to do could equally be challenged as being paternalistic,” argued Chenette. “It’s a matter of degree. We could end up with a situation, depending on how the distribution requirement proposal goes, for instance, where in fact the total number of courses required outside your division could be lower than it is currently.”

The CCP maintains that the changes are far from finalized, and could yet take entirely different forms from the current drafts or could be rejected entirely. Until such decisions are made, however, the CCP encourages students to direct questions, comments and concerns regarding the proposals at any of their members in the coming months.

NEWS

Page 4

April 9, 2015

Alum reflects on life after prison at Green Haven reunion Emily Hoffman Reporter

O

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

n Saturday, April 4, Vassar hosted the 16th Annual Green Haven Reunion, at which keynote speaker Jeffrey Smith addressed dozens of formerly-incarcerated people, students and other community members.

Smith was the first formerly-incarcerated person to graduate from Vassar College, receiving his undergraduate degree in the Class of 1974. Years later, after graduating from a joint-degree program in policy at Princeton and law at Yale, Smith became the first formerly-incarcerated person to gain admission to the New York State Bar, after which he quickly became an accredited lawyer.

He is currently a partner in a midtown Manhattan law firm–Wolf, Haldenstein, Adler, Freeman & Herz LLP–where he represents investors in class-action lawsuits to “sue corporate America.” Additionally, Smith sits as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Osborne Association.

Smith had been arrested in 1969 for selling marijuana to undercover agents and was sentenced to seven to 15 years in prison. Because of community support, however, he was granted early parole after four years at Green Haven.

He was the first person to graduate with a college degree from a New York State prison, an associate degree from Dutchess Community College in 1972. He had applied to Vassar earlier and was admitted because of his stellar record. He left Green Haven on a Friday afternoon and moved into a dorm at Vassar on a Sunday morning in late August 1972. He graduated in 1974 and also met his wife there.

The Green Haven Prison Program, around which Saturday’s event was organized and focused, began in 1979 at the Pre-Release Center at Green Haven in New York. Then-Professor of Religion and Africana Studies Lawrence Mamiya taught courses that dealt with the concept of institutional racism in the United States and began to bring his classes each semester to Green Haven Correctional Facility.

After meeting with a group of men from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) at Green Haven, the director of the Pre-Release Center invited Mamiya and other students to plan a formal program with the men at the Center. These dialogues between Vassar students and those incarcerated at Green Haven began and end-

ed up continuing to be a thriving program at Vassar.

According to Mamiya, during these visits it was obvious to students that the prisons were highly segregated. He commented, “Most of the incarcerated persons are Black or Latino and the officers and administrators are white.

I usually didn’t have to say much since the students were able to see and experience institutional racism for themselves.”

The reunion events first began in 1999, once the Green Haven Prison Program had been in existence for 20 years; some of the men who had been released were invited to Vassar to meet and spend time with students. These reunions continued as a tradition ever since.

The Vassar Prison Initiative (VPI) has been integral in the planning process of the event through fundraising, contracting speakers, sending out invitations and catering. VPI President Sean Larner ’15 spoke of the importance of the reunion not only for the formerly incarcerated people who attend, but for the Vassar community as well.

He remarked, “The Green Haven Reunion is a powerful platform, where student and community activism blends in real tangible ways.

In a lot of cases students are faced with a glaring disconnect between lofty ideals talked about in class and, simultaneously, an inability to recognize and reckon with oppression occurring in real time.”

At this year’s reunion, Smith talked about the Osborne Association and their dedication to helping people readjust to society after release. Smith talked much about his own experience with reentry after release and remarked on the simplicity of transferring into an institution like Vassar.

He commented, “College was a lot like prison. It provided you with a place to sleep, a schedule and grown-ups telling you what to do and when to do it.”

“It made the transition much easier because it’s the lack of those things that trip people up when they come out of prison. Of course there was a lot more freedom at Vassar,” he went on to say.

Smith stressed that, if formal schooling is unavailable, the importance of the original 24/7 institution, family, not be neglected. He claimed that the biggest priority today when dealing with the criminal justice system would be to decrease the reliance on punishment and

On April 4, dozens of formerly-incarcerated people and other members of the Vassar community assembled in the Aula to hear keynote speaker Jeffrey Smith discuss issues of mass-incarceration today. to educate people on crime and how to move on after incarceration.

Smith also touched on issues that are very sensitive to many today, including institutional racism and police brutality in America. He noted that the United States currently has the highest percentage of people in prison and that, on average, one in four black men in America between the ages of 16 and 40 will at some point be confronted with the reality of being subjected in some way to the American justice system.

He asserted, “America has a problem with cops; they think they are heroes, not just people.” Furthermore, he went on to speak to the popular debate as to whether or not police officers should be required by law to wear body cameras while on duty.

Smith explained, “The average person out there wants to believe that the police are keeping them safe and they want to believe it so badly that they disregard evidence until it hits them in the face. Body cameras can provide this evidence.”

Attendants were pleased overall with the event and its implications. Current Chairperson of the National Action Network NYC

Chapter Second Chance Committee Victor Pate, also a formerly-incarcerated person, has been attending the reunion for seven years. He said that he thought the reunion was particularly valuable for its ability to unite formerly incarcerated persons around common goals and give them a space in which to discuss themselves as a group. “[The annual reunion] allowed the community to have continuum in strategies and to measure, compare and share what is working and what is not in efforts for reform. It is also a great opportunity to establish new networks,” Pate said.

The annual event bears significant meaning to many of those who participate as a chance to meet, talk to and engage with individuals with similar experiences. Larner remarked, “The Green Haven Reunion is, essentially, a brain trust. Some of the most dedicated, brilliant formerly incarcerated activists—doing the groundwork for a larger movement—attend and participate every year. This is Larry Mamiya’s legacy. A lifetime of hard, oftentimes unrewarded work. Now we, as the next generation of changemakers, have an opportunity to step up and continue this legacy.”

Outside the Bubble Somali Terrorists Attack University in Kenya

Early on the morning of Thursday, April 2, a group of Somali militants stormed Garissa University College in Kenya and killed 147 students. The militant group, al-Shabaab, claimed responsibility immediately after the attack and called it an “operation against the infidels” (The New York Times, “Somali militants kill 147 at Kenyan University,” 04.02.15). The group reportedly separated Muslim and Christian students while storming the dormitories, only killing the Christians as a clear execution of violent religious extremism.

Al-Shabaab was formed in 2004 as an Islamic military group with intentions to create an Islamic state in Somalia. The group is the militant wing of a bigger network of Islamic militant tribes, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU).

The ICU had taken control of most of southern Somalia in 2006, using guerrilla warfare against the Somali Federal Government (“Al-Shabaab,” National Counterterrorism Group).

This attack, however, is not al-Shabaab’s first attack in Kenya. While there has been an extended history of conflict, the frequency of al-Shabaab’s attacks in Kenya increased in 2008, pushing the Kenya Defense Forces to invade Somalia in 2011. This invasion in turn caused alShabaab to retaliate with more killings, creating a vicious cycle. In September 2014, the group attacked the Westgate mall, a luxury shopping center in Nairobi, killing at least 61 civilians.

In November 2014, members of al-Shabaab stopped a bus and forced passengers to recite verses from the Quran on threat of death, ultimately killing 28 people. In December 2014, the group massacred 36 non-Muslims and dumped the bodies of the victims into a local quarry (CNN, “Al-Shabaab’s long, bloody history with

Kenya,” 04.03.15).

Soon after the attack at Garissa University, an al-Shabaab spokesperson, Ali Mohamoud Raghe, released an audio statement saying they chose to attack the school because of its Christian attendance: “The school was educating many Christian students in a Muslim land under colony,” Raghe remarked. “[They] plan to spread their Christianity and infidelity” (The Washington Post, “Al-Shabaab attacks Kenyan university, killing at least 147,” 04.02.15).

It was later revealed that one of the four gunmen from the recent university attack was the son of a Kenyan government official. Abdirahim Mohammed Abdullahi was a law-school graduate, whom his father reported to be missing one year earlier and feared he had gone to Somalia to join the terrorist group. The news that one of the gunmen that is responsible for this attack was, in fact, himself a Kenyan came to many as an indicator of the difficulty of preventing future attacks. Many of the militants in al-Shabaab still report to be Kenyan citizens (The Daily News, “One of the gunmen in Kenya university massacre that killed 148 identified as son of government official,” 04.05.15).

In response to the attack, Kenya sent warplanes to bomb al-Shabaab campsites in Somalia. However, al-Shabaab claimed that the bombs missed their camp, instead hitting neighboring farmland. Many of the perpetrators of the attacks, however, have yet to be found.

California Governor Presents Mandatory Water Restrictions

On April 1, California Governor Jerry Brown ordered state water usage restrictions in California in response to the serious drought the state has been facing for the past four years.

This is the first time in history that a water restriction has been placed in this state.

Brown ordered a mandatory 25 percent cut in water consumption, after the voluntary 25 percent cut made last year failed to make any changes in water consumption. The State Water Resources Control Board is responsible for imposing this change in the 400 water supply agencies that supply water to 90 percent of California residents. The individual water agencies need to come up with restrictions and following through to make sure the cut is being respected by residents, including penalties for not complying (The New York Times, “California imposes first mandatory water restrictions to deal with drought,” 01.01.15).

Brown declared a State of Emergency last January due to severe drought conditions, and ordered the restrictions over a year later. Last week’s executive order stated that the restriction will be put into practice on Feb. 28, 2016. Part of the order states that the Department of Water Resources will closely work with local agencies to ameliorate the state’s current water situation.

“50 million square feet of lawns and ornamental turf with drought tolerant landscapes [will be replaced],” reported the California Executive Department (Executive Department, State of California, “Executive Order B-29-15”). In addition, the California Energy Commission will implement a statewide appliance rebate program where families will be given reimbursements for replacing inefficient household devices.

Due to rapid population growth, an increase in motor vehicles on California roads and a thriving economy, water usage has surged beyond its sustainable limits, particularly in areas like Palm Springs, where daily water usage is 201 gallons—double the state average (USA Today, “Facing drought in an oasis of golf courses and

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

lakes,” 04.06.15).

Besides increase in use of water in residential life, most of the water in California goes to agriculture, a sector that consumes 80 percent of state water. Currently many California farms have “senior water rights,” which are applied to old farms that received their land permits before 1914 and allow them to buy water at a fraction of the price. Gov. Brown addressed this system, calling it archaic and asserting that it will be up to further examination if the drought continues (ABC News, “California Gov. Jerry Brown defends farms’ water use, warns changes may come,” 04.05.15).

The Sierra Snowpack, which supplies nearly one-third of the state’s water supplies, hit a record low level this year, meeting only 5 percent of normal measurements. The snowpack levels have been decreasing every year for the past four years, at 171 percent of normal in 2011, 52 percent in 2012, 42 percent in 2013, and 25 percent of 2014 (The Wall Street Journal, “5 things to know about California’s drought,” 01.01.15).

Because of the past year’s low snowpack levels, reservoirs, which catch the melted snow each spring, are now about half empty. Problematically, however, water usage usually goes up during summertime, and the next rainy season will be in the fall.

At the moment, the Water Resources Control Board is still in the process of translating the order into applicable regulations for California residents to follow. Because the 25 percent reduction is the total for all 400 water supply agencies, it is not necessary for each of the agencies to reduce use by 25 percent as long as the collected reduction is met by the beginning of next year.

– Shelia Hu, Guest Reporter

April 9, 2015

FEATURES

Page 5

For senior MEDS major, grass is always greener inside a box

Julia Cunningham

Assistant Features Editor

A

Courtesy of Sasha Zwiebel

Pictured above is a sketch of senior media studies major Sasha Zwiebel’s thesis. To be displayed on Joss Beach on April 17, the cube will be lined wall-to-wall with artificial grass to create a sensory experience. was really struggling with how to make a small, immersive space that’s covered with something that’s relatively cheap but still feels really textural and immersive,” she said. “So then I ended up having to build my own structure, which I think will actually be the most beautiful and successful way of doing it.”

Cost was another hurdle Zwiebel had to overcome. There were fears that the type of materials and the amount would be too expensive to be a part of her project. Her determination, however, won out in the end. “So I just spent one day, I had a class later, and I had other homework to do but I was just like, I’m going to call every single artificial grass company in the United States until I get a donation,” Zwiebel said. Of the eight companies that she called, SYNLawn was the one that ultimately donated the artificial grass that she needed.

SYNLawn is an artificial grass company with a focus on developing products that promote environmental sustainability and ecologically responsible production. In an emailed statement, a SYNLawn representative wrote that their products have an extended lifespan, reduce one’s carbon footprint, conserve water and use renewable and recycled materials in manufacturing, making it a “green” medium in more ways than one. They went on to say, “At SYNLawn New York, we take great pride in our communities and in educating new generations about the environmental responsibility of SYNLawn as a sustainable and beautiful alternative in landscape applications. We were happy to assist Sasha Zwiebel in her design project at Vassar College. She has a very bright future.”

Zwiebel has worked on larger projects like this before both in and out of academic settings.

“I was in sculpture, so I made a lot of bigger projects, and also my dad’s going to help me a lot.

He’s done a lot of construction and architecture, and also growing up with him as my dad, he’s always taught me how to cut wood and made me interested in building since I was little.”

The location of her project is very specific.

“The aesthetic restriction is that it’s at an angle, and I only want you to be able to see sky out of it,” Zwiebel said, referring to the window at the top of her structure. “It needs to have enough space between it and a building and trees to get that angle up and over anything. Joss Beach is going to be wide enough and long enough.” She added, “And also, it’s too close to graduation to put it on Chapel Hill lawn because they’re really particular about the grass because it would make the grass a little bit brown underneath.”

Without any difficulty with the weather, Zwiebel hopes to keep her installment up for at least a week or two. Her final thesis is due the following Friday, April 24. For the writing aspect, she is creating a taxonomy of different spaces artists, designers and architects that have designed the same sort of miniature immersive spaces as what she is trying to create. This component is also where she will delve more deeply into her thought process and the research she has done for her project.

“I’ve been struggling to write the paper. It’s been a long task for me. I’ve started three different papers,” Zwiebel said. “Each one has some sort of substance, but nothing that I felt

got at what I was doing, so I kind of reversed that process, and went for what images do I like, and then, what works have inspired me to create this installation, and other works that I think are something that new in a trend that I’m seeing.”

One of her main inspirations, Zwiebel mentioned, is Diller Scofidio, an architecture firm that does experimental work in New York City, In her own experience, Zwiebel has been able to expand her exposure to different areas of design in different parts of the world. One of her advisors came out of their meeting in London during Zwiebel’s junior year abroad experience at the Vassar Media Studies Program at Goldsmiths. “I didn’t do what everyone else does.

Goldsmith’s has a really good design program, so I went into their design program, and it was every day 10 to 5 classes and really intense, but really practical. It taught me a lot about design thinking and taught me that I really wanted to go into design thinking and design.”

Zwiebel added that the Media Studies major itself has been instrumental in changing her approach to looking at the world. “It’s made me think critically about every material that I’ve come in contact with all the time,” she said.

Within the major, she added, “I guess I would say my focus has been urban studies, and I have a studio art correlate. But I’ve taken mainly studio art, art history, media studies and art classes.”

Her path towards finding her major, even, took her in many different directions. “I had no idea what media studies was.” Laughing, she said, “I don’t know if I do, still. I came in as studio art, but found I wanted something a little bit more theoretical. And then I went to cog sci and I was really interested in creativity and the brain. And then found I didn’t really seem to connect with a lot of people there, and was in this Media Studies class that made a lot of sense for me.”

“I just really understood a lot of the theory.

And as an artist, I’ve always been real interested in materials I use, so it was really nicely informing the art that I make, and really made me think

courtesy of Sasha Zwiebel

mid the brown landscape the unrelenting snow left in its wake, there will soon be a paradise of greenery. Since winter break, Sasha Zwiebel ’15 has been working on plans to create an immersive sensory experience for her media studies senior thesis project. Standing just taller than eye-level and equally wide, Zwiebel’s installment—lined wall-to-wall with artificial grass—will be finished by next Friday, April 17.

The structure will be made with wood and, from the front, will resemble a simple cube with a narrow window four feet below the top.

From the side, however, Zwiebel’s plans reveal a sloped roof, with another window on the top of the slope. Pointing at the window four feet from the top, Zwiebel said, “You enter in this slit, and you’re already almost vertical, you kind of have to crawl into the space. And once you get in, you’re pretty much immediately hit with this diagonal.”

The bottom half of the structure is just the base, so, once on the inside, visitors will be a few feet off the ground. “So you have to kind of, crawl up into it and then up on this diagonal, the idea is that you turn around and you look up and the whole interior is covered in grass,” Zwiebel said. In total, her project is filled with 250 square feet of artificial grass on the floor, ceiling and walls, donated by SYNLawn.

“This is about four feet high, so if you were lying down you couldn’t really reach the ceiling necessarily, but your legs you probably could,” she said about the part of the structure that the viewer is actually inside. “You could sit up in it, definitely, but you couldn’t stand up. I’m sure people will probably end up standing up through [the window in the roof], but you’re not really getting the effect of the grass if you do that.” She added, “But it might be fun.”

Zwiebel’s inspiration for this project came from fond memories of her childhood. “It’s really about that immersive experience, and it’s just about the feeling of the grass around you, and just completely being immersed in grass,” She explained. “For me it brings up different memories of lying on grass hills and feeling both kind of safe by the earth around me but also expansive looking out into the sky.”

As for the sensory experience of her project, she added that she considers herself a naturally observant person and was inspired by her parents’ interests. She said, “I’ve always been interested in material. Where my dad loves to build and my mom’s in fashion, so I’ve always been touching material.” The idea for her project, she explained, is that the artificial grass is not just a texture, it’s also visual, with the bright green grass and the sky out at eye-level.

As for what she hopes other people will experience, she said, “I’m not necessarily trying to make it a capsule of my own memory, but more a capsule of an experience of laying on the ground and looking up at the sky and feeling totally encapsulated by grass.” The project is very open to different interpretations, both physical and emotional. “I feel like it might feel a little claustrophobic in there, which it’ll be interesting to see how it will feel when its open in two weeks,” Zwiebel added.

“For me, I’m a media studies major, so I’m really interested in the nature of media and how one particular medium effects you sensorily,” Zwiebel went on to say. “In my thesis, I’m studying a lot of different designs that are about this trend in design and art towards creative works that are effective and sensory that provoke different emotional resonance.”

As an example, she pointed at the upholstered chairs in the Retreat. “Instead of just designing this chair as a nice pattern—even though this is a completely ugly pattern—it looks nice and it’s cheap.” Rather, Zwiebel would hope to design something that would feel good for someone to sit on.

Though Zwiebel has strong opinions about these everyday experiences, the process of creating an all-immersive structure for her thesis did not follow a clear path. When Zwiebel first came back to school after winter break, her professor rejected her first three project ideas.

Slowly, she said, she began to come up with the idea that she would create some space covered in a material.

Zwiebel wanted to use the Collaboratory for her piece, but the artificial grass ended up causing a problem: It was too heavy. “So then I

about every material that I use and every form that I create.” She added, “And it’s also just a super expansive, weird field that you can just do whatever you want in.”

Zwiebel has received guidance from Professor of Art Harry Roseman, and Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies Lisa Brawley for her media studies major.

Roseman wrote of Sasha in an emailed statement, “Sasha was in my sculpture class last term so I already had been impressed with the relationship between her ideas and her ability to follow through. I think it is very difficult to pull off a combined visual and written thesis. Often the visual aspect becomes an illustration for the ideas in the written thesis. The art becomes extracted from the art. And even if the student is trying for something they don’t wish to name as art, the work can become an explained teaching aid as opposed to something that can stand as a work on its own.”

He went on to write, “Sasha’s ideas for this project went through a number of iterations.

My co-advisor, Lisa Brawley and I met with Sasha a number of times together as well as separately. As of this writing the structure has been planned but has not as yet been constructed.

It is going to be a very ambitious and difficult work to build. I am optimistic that Sasha can pull this off.”

As for the piece that Zwiebel plans to build, he wrote, “I would say that this is a very well thought through project. It sits somewhere between sculpture and architecture. Remember that this is not a functional structure in the way that we think of function, as having a specific pragmatic use. Thus an answer to the second part of this question is rather elusive: ‘..Do you think that the types of work that Sasha is doing can translate well into the real world?’ She is making a concrete interactive object that will be out in a world, Vassar is in some ways, as you imply, not the ‘real’ world, but in other respects it is. I don’t mean to be disingenuous in answering this question. If we are talking about this issue in a monetary fashion or in a critical context, these are two very different questions.”

He continued, “I think Sasha’s project has conceptually evolved to the point that it will be a work that is experiential in a way that makes the viewer/participant have an experience that is visceral as well as intellectually thoughtful. If she allows the work to stand on its own then I think she will have reached her goal in exploring experiential design/space.” He added, “The written thesis is where she can explain her thought process and talk about her research. I am very much looking forward to this work’s realization—which says a lot.”

Brawley was in London with Zwiebel when she went abroad. “She’s helped me a lot with the theoretical background and forming the paper side of it. And Harry Roseman is my sculpture professor,” Zwiebel said.

She went on, “So he’s been really helpful with critically looking at this piece and thinking about, is this actually a piece of art with integrity or is it just something to prove my thesis. This isn’t just to prove what you’re writing about.

This is a piece of art in itself. Which I think it is now, hopefully that will be successful.”

Zwiebel said she hoped to create an all-immersive structure that would be engaging for others. The experience of being inside the cube, she said, should be like that of lying in the grass and looking at the sky.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

FEATURES

Page 6

April 9, 2015

Fagin rejected from Mars One, but still shooting for stars Sarah Sandler Reporter

M

Alec Ferretti/The Miscellany News

ax Fagin’s ’10 dreams have always been out of this world.

Fagin has wanted to be an astronaut since he was twelve, and last year he got close to making it a reality: selected from a pool of 200,000 candidates, he became one of 1,058 members of the Phase Two Shortlist to travel to Mars.

And stay there.

The Mars One Program is hoping to establish a permanent colony on the red planet.

This past Friday afternoon, VC Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) brought Fagin back to give a lecture on his graduate school experience at Purdue University, working at various space-related companies and being a Mars One candidate. Though Fagin wasn’t one of the 100 finalists in the last round, his interest in and drive to go to space is still thriving.

Researchers and engineers aren’t close to making the habitation of Mars safe for humans, Fagin admitted: “Nowhere near it.” Even worse, there have been reports that the Mars One Program is a sham. A finalist divulged that he made it to the final stage of the application process without any psychological or psychometric testing, only conducting a 10-minute interview via Skype. The program even encouraged candidates to talk to press for money—and encouraged them to donate a percentage of it to Mars One. Their end game?

A reality show (“Mars One Program Is Probably One Big Sham.” Moviepilot.com. 03.19.2015.).

Nonetheless, Fagin said that when researchers do manage to perfect their plan for travel to Mars, he maintained, “It will be glorious.”

Fagin opened and closed his lecture with the overarching idea that space exploration is necessary for the survival of the human race. Since space travel, engineering and physics can be difficult to grasp for those of us who aren’t experts in these fields, he broke down this thinking for audience members.

Zach Nasipak ’15, one of the co-founders of VC

Last year, Max Fagin ’10 was selected to be a finalist for the Mars One Program, an endeavor to establish a permanent colony on Mars. He didn’t make the top-100 list of finalists, but he’s still reaching for the stars.

SEDS, explained, “At VC SEDS, we look to promote education about space exploration while also helping students gain connections with the space industry. By bringing in [Fagin], we were able to fulfill both of these goals.”

Alex Trunnell ‘17 (Full disclosure: Trunnell is a reporter for The Miscellany News), who is a member of SEDS, went on to say, “He is living, breathing proof that there is life after Vassar, and that is amazing.”

Because so many students have a hard time imagining what their lives and careers will be like in the real-world, it is beneficial to learn from someone like Fagin, who is, as Trunnell described, “Experienced, but still relatable.” Simon Patané ’15, the other co-founder of SEDS, added, “We want anyone from any major to be able to appreciate

ADVERTISEMENT

space exploration. Amongst other reasons, this is why we brought Max back: to grow an interdisciplinary love for space exploration at Vassar.”

With such a complicated and foreign topic such as space, Fagin was able to relate his interests to a more general and less experienced audience. Nasipak commented, “Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable on Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) in space exploration...but he also has a great grasp of the bigger picture, of the importance of space exploration to us as individuals and as a species.”

In his talk, Fagin began by giving the audience the hard truth. As he explained, “If we don’t get off this planet eventually, something is going to happen. Single-planet species are eventually due to extinction.”

Addspace Indoor Self Storage Summer, Semester and Yearly Storage Packages

Ask Us About Our Most Popular Deal On The Storage Locker!

Packages Include FREE Pick Up And Delivery!

We offer fast sign up on the internet. Just visit our website at ADDSPACE.COM and click on the Vassar link. It’s that easy!

YOU CAN ALSO RESERVE BY CALLING US AT 845-297-1500 MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

When explaining why humans are not yet living on Mars, Fagin enumerated the complications of EDL, stating, “We’ve sent thirteen rovers to the surface of Mars. Five of them have failed during this process—that’s how dangerous it is.” Specifics like these piqued Trunnell’s engagement: “Fagin captivated the audience with a brilliant blend of video, picture, and lecture presentation which blended together to create a visually stunning presentation.”

Nasipak added, “He really did a great job of explaining very technical, physics heavy problems in an understandable way.”

He continued, “He was clearly passionate about his work and it was great to hear his opinions of space exploration and to hear about what he sees as some of the biggest challenges facing the space industry, especially in terms of the exploration of Mars.”

For SEDS, Fagin serves as an exemplar of how to transition out of Vassar, aim for high goals and continue to utilize skills learned in the classroom.

Nasipak said, “I think he represents possibilities for all of us, since he has shown that, while some students might feel a little lost transitioning from a liberal arts education to a tech and engineering heavy industry, that it is completely achievable.”

Patané agreed, adding, “I think often physics and astronomy students are encouraged to pursue academic research careers, so [Fagin] represents how a Vassar education can propel you onwards in a career in an applied science, aerospace engineering.”

As for students of all majors, astronomy majors look to graduation with a mix of excitement and uncertainty. “Astronomy majors know that after Vassar, things seems scary,” Trunnell said. She went on to say, “Fagin is the perfect example of how this dream can become a reality and how these incredible jobs can actually be achieved.

Fagin knew his interests, and using his Vassar education, he is spending every day doing something he loves and working hard to change the world. Isn’t that every students’ dream?”

ADVERTISEMENT

April 9, 2015

FEATURES

Page 7

Posse students fight different kind of battle VC++ aims to enhance T campus tech Claire Standaert

Assistant Features Editor

welve years ago, in small desert towns in Afghanistan, Nicole Leadenham ’18 carried a rifle in her hands and a pistol strapped to her thigh. But in the corridors of Main Building at Vassar and in the classrooms in Kenyon and Blodgett this semester, she carries only a notebook and pen. With this in mind, life at Vassar now proves to be a different kind of battle—devoid of life-threatening situations, yet separate from the world she knew beforehand.

Leadenham is part of Vassar’s second Posse group. Collectively, the men and women in Vassar’s posse have served in the Army, Army National Guard, Navy and Marines. Many have seen combat and some even have prestigious medals to show for their courage, including the Purple Heart and Bronze medals. This is why you might sense the signs of maturity and complexity in them that military life does, to some extent, force upon the soldier.

Everyone in the Posse group has their own reason for having joined the military. For Leadenham, who served in the Army National Guard for eleven years, serving her country was her calling. She said, “The military was something I knew I wanted to do since eighth grade. I just didn’t know in what capacity.”

Leadenham was stationed in Afghanistan in 2003 and Iraq in 2009 and, like many soldiers, exudes confidence and strength. Unfortunately, however, part of what forced her to be a strong female soldier ended up being a contributing factor in her not fighting to remain a part of the military in the end. “It’s exhausting—having to constantly prove myself. That I am just as smart and can shoot just as well as the men.”

The combination of her tattooed arms, perfectly shaped eyebrows, black mascara and pierced nose all create the image of a feminine badass. In her first deployment, she was a gunner, so she was up in the turret with the men. She said, “The guys I was with were like my brothers. They were very defensive and protective over me.”

Leadenham told me something most might

consider disgusting, but for her it was amusing. Because the roads weren’t paved in Afghanistan, she explained, they were just dirt.

She chuckled, “So you’d go on missions and come back and be able to pull out these amazing dirt boogers. They were like the best thing ever.” She shrugged and nonchalantly said, “And we used to compare them.”

But like many soldiers, she sometimes experienced uncomfortable and dangerous situations overseas. She said, “It’s not something I like talking about.” She paused and shook her head as if trying to get an image out of her mind. “I’m still not okay with it.” I didn’t prod any further.

Once Leadenham leaves Vassar, she wants to go on to graduate school and work with veterans. “I want to help with the readjustment and PTSD and just kind of give back to people I feel who have given me so much just based on camaraderie and friendships I have. I think it’s easier, and I know it was for me, to talk to somebody who knew exactly what I’d been through. Someone who knows how I think and what I’ve been through.”

Unlike Leadenham, however, some Posse members didn’t join the military to fulfill a lifelong dream of being a soldier. For Antoine Robinson ’18, who has been in the Army National Guard for three and a half years, the military provided an escape from homelessness and helped him feed his daughter. He said, “Being in that situation, it’s debilitating.

It’s like being in prison in a way. You don’t want to be creative in that space.” But now, you can see Antoine walking around campus in his blue jacket, with ear buds in, sketchbook always by his side.

While homeless, Robinson said, “If I stayed with someone, I’d draw something for them…I drew money once to pay for food. I told them, ‘Hey, I drew this. I don’t have money but this is my currency.’” When I pointed out that he radiates individuality despite the theme of commonality in the military, Robinson said, “Most people who join the military are generally less about being intellectual or thinking of things outside the construct they are given.

And that isn’t a bad thing. It’s just there is a difference. I joined the military out of desperation. I didn’t feel this inherent need to serve my country…I question things that don’t make sense to me.”

Everyone in the Posse group has experienced a world that most Vassar students haven’t. In Robinson’s case, his early impoverished background gave him a different kind of experience. He said, “People need to understand that Vassar is a bubble. This place isn’t like the real world. It’s safe, comfortable. It’s a comfort zone. Unless you are aware of that, leaving here and going into the world can be a harsher experience.”

For the younger Vassar community, the experience of talking, eating and learning alongside the older veterans is to a certain extent elusive. This can be attributed to the general understanding that these veterans have experiences and memories that, unless you served in the military, you have no way of understanding or fully appreciating.

Robinson pointed out that for students here at Vassar, simply reading books and writing papers is not enough; there needs to be an actual experience of things. He said, “Experiencing things intellectually doesn’t do the world justice. It’s like painting light versus seeing light in real life. There is an intellectual experience of things and actual experience of things.”

When I asked him if that meant I was doomed to only see the painting of light and never actually see light for what it is, his response was unexpected. “It’s how you relate to the life you have been given and how you co-exist with the other lives around you. You don’t need to be a part of these experiences (war and poverty) to find the correlation with your life because the correlation is already there. It’s how you consume that and use it.”

Vassar students can learn from the older Posse students. Leadenham said, “Even though the age difference and traditional Vassar environment can be overwhelming at times, I feel like I’m in the right place in my life to bridge that gap.”

Initiative aims to spur social consciousness DANCE continued from page 1

ble and think about their identities and what they mean in our community, so it was great that in year one, we had over 20 employees participate.

In year two, the majority of participants were students, to start bringing student perspectives into the project,” commented Director for the LGBTQ Center and Women’s Center Judy Jarvis.

As a person in a position of power on campus, Carolina Gustafson ’15 thought it was particularly vital that she reckon with her privileges. “As VSA President, I felt it was incredibly important that all VSA Council members participate in the project given the great amount of privilege that comes with our positions, as well as the need to understand the effects of privilege in the roles we hold,” she wrote in an emailed statement.

The words across her forehead read, “My cisgender privilege means I do not need to be worried that people will misgender me or use the wrong pronouns...”

In order to participate, students and faculty first had to complete a workshop. “It was in-

credibly well-facilitated and I felt the internal introspection was nuanced and pushed all participants to truly look inside of themselves to examine what areas of their privilege they wanted to probe,” Gustafson wrote, noting it was her first time participating in the initiative. “I thought the whole process—from the workshop stage to the final product of producing the artist’s statement and statements to go on the picture—was very well thought-out and helped the participants really go deeper.”

VP for Student Life Hannah Matsunaga ’16 said that part of the power of the photos and text lies in how they implicate viewers. “No one has just one dimension to their identity,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “Some identities cause us to be marginalized and some identities give us power. Remembering that makes for better discussion of power and privilege.”

Class of 2018 President Rebecca Pober and VP for Operations Ramy Abbady ’16 were among other council members to participate in the campaign. While not everyone on the VSA submitted

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

In its second year, the Privilege Campaign featured portraits of students and faculty with text over their faces naming their privileges. They are currently displayed on the second floor of the College Center.

portraits, Gustafson reported that many attended the workshop. She said, “Many people shared with me that participating in the workshop has helped them to better understand the intersection of various forms of privilege and has hopefully helped them to be better leaders on campus.”

Tanenbaum Inter-Religious Fellow Adah Hetko said that participating in the Privilege Campaign for the last two years helped her situate her leadership position in a similar way. “Attending the campaign last year helped me to see those I work with differently (both through specific reflections that revealed details about their experiences and my appreciation for their openness), and, in turn, complicated how I see my role at Vassar,” she wrote in an emailed statement.”

Much of Hetko’s reflection on privilege dealt with her access to education. With parents and grandparents who have or have had prestigious careers, Hetko experience in academia is one that has been colored by this advantage. In her artist’s statement she writes, “Because of my education…I was privileged to have an easy transition to school, from kindergarten to college. And now, as a college graduate working in an academic context, I rarely have to adjust how I speak or write in order to fit in or make a particular impression.”

Hetko continued, “Through the campaign, understanding the role of privilege and lack of privilege in my life and in the lives of others at Vassar has become, very clearly, part of my job.”

Though Jarvis acknowledged that the campaign can be productive in spurring conversations and awareness surrounding issues of privilege and identity, it is in no way a cure-all. Vassar, she maintained, has a long way to go. “I certainly don’t think the Privilege Campaign is a panacea for the micro- and macroaggressions people experience on this campus,” Jarvis said, “but I think it’s one important step in supporting individuals’ self-reflection and increased awareness about their identities.”

She finished, “None of our identities are neutral, and the more we can see that, the more I think individuals’ behavior will change.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

VC++ continued from page 1

though not even a semester-old, the club has been attracting an average turnout of 25 to 30 students to their weekly meetings.

The seeds of VC++ arrived to Poughkeepsie from more than 4,000 miles away in Budapest. Both computer science majors, Rudig-Leathers and Brown spent the Fall 2014 semester in the Hungarian capital with the Aquincum Institute of Technology.

Rudig-Leathers described the program as a departure from what he was familiar with at Vassar.

“A lot of the classes are focused on more practical aspects of computer science,” he said. “As opposed to the Vassar CS department, which is maybe a little bit more theoretical, more liberal arts and geared more towards getting you into a grad school than professional development.”

Meanwhile, Brown described how, in conversations with his Budapest classmates, he began hearing more and more about the different programming clubs offered at other American colleges. He felt that the time was right for Vassar students to organize a community of their own. “People have done independent studies of mobile app development through the Computer Science department, but there’s never been an extracurricular club dedicated to exploring this topic,” wrote Brown.

Rudig-Leathers and Brown held VC++’s first meeting in January. Although the club’s participants are mostly computer science majors, no prior knowledge or experience in programming is required to join. Rudig-Leathers described education as one of the main pillars of VC++. They will be holding a basic crash course this Sunday on the programming language Java.

Urban studies and Chinese double major Joey More ’17, got involved with VC++ through sheer happenstance: He was working on homework in the Retreat when he heard Rudig-Leathers and Brown in some early discussions about VC++.

“I only overheard snippets of the conversation, but it caught my interest,” wrote More in an email.

“As soon as they were wrapping up their conversation, I leaned over and asked them if they were starting a programming org...I ended up as the first one on their mailing list!” More had taken the introductory computer science class as a freshman. He described VC++ as an occasionally challenging but always-supportive work environment. “There have been a few moments when talking about things that most people have learned in CS classes that I’ve felt a bit out of place, but everyone has been very welcoming and willing to explain, so I have no doubt that I’ll be able to catch up,” wrote More.

Rudig-Leathers would like to see VC++ one day tackle the College’s labyrinthine AskBanner website. Students depend on the system on everything from registering for courses to getting their paychecks on time. But according to Rudig-Leathers, “A lot of those web apps that Vassar students use all the time that are really sort of un-user-friendly.

Have you ever tried to fill out a time sheet on your phone?” he asked. “It’s hellish.”

But any work involving AskBanner is tentative, requiring partnering with the College. VC++ did say, however, that they could see themselves working with different student organizations to enhance their website or with an individual who came to them with an exciting idea for an app.

Brown emphasized the necessity of collaboration in any programming job. Members of VC++ often split up into several different small groups, each tacking a different aspect of a large-scale project.

“The vast majority of programming that happens in the industry is done in small teams. Since most of our computer science coursework is assigned to be done individually, we’re trying to give people a taste of what programming ‘in the real world’ is like.”

Whenever topic of mobile apps do make the news, it’s most often in the case of a multi-million dollar acquisition by a major tech company. The founders of VC++ say they don’t share the same Silicon Valley philosophy where final objective is always monetization. “I don’t want to be the founder of Snapchat on my gravestone—that’s all I did with my life,” said Rudig-Leathers. “Personally, to me it’s important to work on something that I care about.”

He would like to see VC++ pursue projects that help the majority of Vassar students, adding, “Even if it’s not helping every single Vassar student, if they’re making it just to make something, they’re building for fun that’s still in the scope of the club.”

FEATURES

Page 8

April 9, 2015

Fultz reveals meta crossword secrets in student seminar Megan Forster Guest Reporter

W

Curriculum planning and an hour of class each week is a commitment for any involved student on campus. Hill said they think a main attraction to the seminars, for both facilitators and students, is that they allow students to be arbiters of their own education, sharing their passions and specializations with fellow students.

Hill said, “Vassar has taught me knowledge and education ought to be collaborative processes, and student seminars let Vassar students do that.”

Fultz had previously heard about the seminars but never took one in his previous years at Vassar. As a senior, he said he realized in the fall that he could share his hobby with others and hopefully grow a community interested in meta puzzles at Vassar during his last semester.

Vassar students, of course, are already lovers of all things meta.

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

ith fall 2015 pre-registration opening soon and new distribution requirement proposals sparking campus-wide debate, many students have academics at Vassar on their mind. However, some students are not only preparing to choose classes, but to teach their own.

Every year, the VSA invites students to apply to teach student seminars. Existing on and off, and now annually since 1969, the student seminars provide a space for students to share subject matter with their peers they might not typically encounter in the course catalog.

In the past, topics have ranged from “The Art of Drag” and lessons in rock, paper, scissors strategy—both offered in 2012—to the perennial course on songwriting.

VP for Academics Logan Hill ’16, the point-person in charge of putting the student seminars together this year, said the application process was less about weeding out bad student seminars and more about making sure that the subject matter is appropriate and has educational potential. The final product is a list of 10 diverse student seminars, dabbling in food, art, music, dance, dialogue and other skills and hobbies beyond the Vassar curriculum.

Hill explained, “We try to just get a feel for why the individual wants to teach the seminar and what experience they have in the field.”

The application process itself required a short course description outlining what the seminar hopes to accomplish, as well as the necessary budget, space and equipment needs. And finally, applicants had to provide a comprehensive syllabus for the classes just like professors.

This year, students are teaching salsa dancing, step, “A Basic Introduction to Vietnamese Food” and ridge, to name a few.

Tyler Fultz ’15 is running a seminar entitled “A Puzzle within a Puzzle,” which he describes as an exploration in solving meta

crosswords. These are puzzles that “require additional steps once the crossword grid is filled to reach an intended final answer cryptically sought by the crossword constructor,” as Fultz puts it in his course description.

Though affinities for crossword puzzles abound on campus—a reason why many students might reach for a copy of The Miscellany News, for example—Fultz said meta puzzles remain lesser known.

He said, “I was introduced to these puzzles by teachers in high school who also frequented these puzzle sites, but I, until very recently, knew of no other Vassar students who knew what these puzzles were.”

“I chose this topic because I am part of the meta crossword community and solve at least one meta per week,” added Fultz.

He stressed that no prior knowledge is needed and that the seminar will be very hands-on.

Tyler Fultz ’15 will be teaching a student seminar this semester that seeks to uncover the hidden joys of crossword puzzles. Other student seminars include courses about cooking, art and dance.

Student seminars maintain the classic liberal arts classroom environment the campus is familiar with: a space that’s small, intimate and interactive.

The only major difference is flexibility: While professors are not usually sympathetic to scheduling conflicts, or, say, attempts to avoid 9 a.m. classes at all costs, student seminars meet at a time that works best for all participants, usually in an available student space on campus.

As with many VSA endeavors, funding is provided for the student seminars. Five dollars are available for up to 12 students for each seminar. Beyond that, instructors are allowed to charge a fee of three dollars per person to cover costs of the course.

A small but valuable investment for the VSA, student seminars stand as an additional example of Vassar’s Mission Statement, according to Hill, and also make the learning process less hierarchical with students transferring specialized knowledge on to their peers.

They said, “They take us away from the idea that knowledge is something simply delivered from professor to student and allows students to be more presently involved in their own educations.”

Fultz added, “I think student seminars are uniquely able to fill the gaps at Vassar in conversations and topics that students are interested in but have few outlets for exploring here.”

Not unlike other academic endeavors at Vassar, the seminars aim to leave students more knowledgeable than before, with a passion or want to apply what they gleaned from the experience to their life.

By organizing the seminars, Hill said they hope students have fun while learning from their peers and that the instructors feel rewarded as they get to share something they are passionate about.

Fultz said, “I am just glad to finally have others to bounce ideas and strategies off of that I hope will continue to communicate beyond the course.”

Wake up, smell the dessert with creme brûlée French toast Penina Remler columnist

T

Courtesy of ilovememphis via Flickr

he slogan, “If you have a good breakfast, you will have a good day,” proves itself to be true in the case of creme brûlée French Toast. The sweet dish is the perfect way to ease into your day, and the perfect excuse to eat something impossibly sweet first thing in the morning. Until, of course, the last bite is gone and you have to face the music—and trust me, the last bite will be gone sooner than you expect.

The first time I heard of this innovative dish, I couldn’t wrap my head around combining a classic breakfast dish with a post-dinner dessert, but somehow the two make a winning partnership. Just thinking about the vanilla custard filling and crunchy caramelized coat will leave you craving this inventive breakfast recipe at any hour of the day. You may even think about it guiltily when you crack into the caramel crust of a true creme brûlée.

As this dish takes original French toast to a whole other level, it requires a few steps that go beyond the traditional dip-bread-into-egg-batter regime. Indeed, the secret to creme brûlée French toast is in its extensive preparation, specifically soaking the bread in homemade custard the night before to guarantee perfectly saturated slices. (The true test is sleeping through the night knowing this breakfast treat is waiting for you.) The more damp and saturated the bread is, the easier it will be to transport within the baking pan.

The creme brûlée aspect of this recipe comes to life in the form of a vanilla custard which replaces the traditional French toast batter. The custard for the bread requires eggs, milk, cream, rum, vanilla, nutmeg and salt. In a bowl, combine these ingredients together and distribute the slices of bread onto a baking sheet (11 by 17 inches).

Pour the mix over the bread, making sure that each slice is completely covered before covering the pan with plastic wrap and letting

it soak overnight in the refrigerator.

It’s important to leave enough time in the morning to not only prepare this recipe but also be able to enjoy it. Unlike classic French toast, which cooks quickly over a frying pan, this edition is a bit more timely due to the fact that it is baked in an oven: Perfect for a leisurely Sunday morning or for a long and luxurious brunch with friends or family.

After soaking the bread overnight, be careful not to break up the completely soaked slices as you move them to a baking pan and sprinkle the slices with brown sugar. At the same time, you may want to sizzle up some bacon to accompany the caramel flavor with savory, salty strips of bacon—you can never go wrong with a marriage of sweet and savory.

Before baking, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. At the same time, whisk together brown sugar and butter and pour this combination onto an additional baking sheet which will bake alongside the bread. If necessary, use a spatula to spread this mixture so that it cooks as an even layer.

The bread will bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the tops of each slice appear to be a golden-brown and the separate sugar mix begins to bubble. To ensure the richest texture for your bread, you may want to add in additional egg yolks and cream along with supplementary spices and sugars.

Many people choose to cook their French toast with challah bread or a sliced baguette and, unlike most circumstances, you will not need to worry about the bread being slightly stale. (In fact, this helps to maximize the absorption.)

Finally, it is time to serve your masterpiece. Coat the slices of baked bread with your crunchy sugar concoction and the brown sugar side facing up.

For those with a severe sweet tooth, maple syrup can be provided on the side, though many fans of this recipe will contest to the fact that it is just as tasty on its own.

The Ingredients 5 large eggs plus 2 yolks (or 6 whole eggs) 2 1/4 cups whole milk 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 loaf bread 1 cup packed light brown sugar 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

April 9, 2015

OPINIONS

Page 9

The Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Proposed curriculum changes detrimental to VC experience

A

t the VSA Council meeting on April 5, Dean of the Faculty Jonathan Chenette attended a forum in which he explained current proposals to change Vassar’s curriculum. The Committee on Curricular Policies has begun evaluating these three initiatives. These alterations take the form of three separate proposals that would affect students of the class of 2020 and subsequent class years. These proposals include: a requirement that students to take three courses in three of the four curricular divisions, one of which must be taken above the 100 level; a reduction in the maximum number of units per semester a student could take without permission from the Committee on Leaves and Privileges from 5 to 4.5 units; and the mandate that all students must complete a form of a capstone project, called an Intensive Mentored Exploration (IME), in their major fields prior to graduation. According to Dean Chenette, the Committee will likely decide whether to implement these proposals by the end of this semester.

We at The Miscellany News strongly oppose these proposed curricular changes.

Many students are drawn to Vassar by its open curriculum, where they will be able to take the classes they want to take. Several VSA members stated that their constituencies opposed the proposal related to required courses taken per division specifically because of this reason.

These changes take on a paternalistic edge that reduces the agency of students by telling them what type of classes they should be taking.

By regulating which classes students must take, the College would also be defining strict guidelines about the distribution of courses.

This opposes Vassar’s tradition of academic freedom, as reflected by the fact that only 40% of the Classes of 2012 and 2013 would have met these requirements. With the remaining 60% of students who would not have met the proposed requirements, it’s clear that the majority of students would be impacted by the proposed changes.

While the argument in favor of these proposals is one that purports to increase the depth of students’ academic exploration, it is not clear if this would be the ultimate result. Setting up specific distribution requirements could serve to reduce the college experience.

Furthermore, students forced to take classes in academic areas that do not interest them would not be likely to go beyond the basic requirements of the class.

One curricular change students have been advocating for which did not make it to the discussions was a social consciousness requirement. Many students have advocated for the addition of such a requirement. Although Chenette argued that students may intrinsically gain a form of social consciousness education, we at The Miscellany News feel this is insufficient.

If the faculty can create a committee to design a plan for the IME, an extensive student project that requires large amounts of professorial input and guidance, it seems plausible that a group of faculty and students could collaborate on a plan for a social justice requirement. Additionally, the Administration could call for its creation if they prioritized it.

We also find the decision to enforce these requirements to be contradictory to what

The LHC returns, bringing new excitement to physics Delaney Fischer Columnist

T

he Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful atom smasher, is a $10 billion particle accelerator located in Geneva, Switzerland. Its team, which included Vassar 2012 Commencement Speaker Sau Lan Wu ’63, led to the discovery of the Higgs Boson, an elementary particle also known as the God Particle. In Wu’s speech, she explained the findings, stating, “It is responsible for all masses, from electrons to humans to galaxies. Without this particle, there would be no atoms, no molecules, no cells and of course no humans.”

The particle is still being debated by physicists today, but has fulfilled 40 years of research that complete the Standard Model of particle physics, one of physics’ most important theories (The Verge, “LHC reboot: the world’s largest particle accelerator is now active,” 04.05.15). The reboot of the LHC may lead to some arguments regarding the God Particle being settled, along with new and exciting discoveries that are indirectly related to previous findings.

CERN is the world’s largest research organization and the group responsible for the reboot of the LHC. CERN is comprised of physicists and engineers that are hoping to unveil the mysteries of the universe. The LHC is a machine like none other that allows for scientists to recreate the conditions that existed within a billionth of a second after the Big Bang. This is made possible by colliding beams that are composed of high-energy protons or ions at very high speeds—at nearly the speed of light (Science & Technologies Facility Council, “Large Hadron Collider,” 2015). Researchers stress the importance of being able to replicate these conditions, for it has never been done before and would allow for an expansion of discovering heavy particles, including particles that are associated with dark matter.

Theoretical physicist Joe Lykken, who works at the Fermilab in Illinois, has been very optimistic about the reboot of the LHC, because during its two years of inactivity the LHC has been upgraded to handle an increased power level that would allow for the more advanced experiments.

Lykken stated, “The only question on everybody’s mind is, ‘Can you crank it up to higher energies?’...

That’s the biggest jump in energy we’re going to have during my lifetime. Our best possible sce-

nario is that we see supersymmetry, we see extra dimensions, we see evidence of dark matter, and it’s all tied together in some new theory that blows our mind” (NBC News, “Big Bang Beam: Large Hadron Collider Restarts After Two-Year Break,” 04.05.15).

And it doesn’t appear that Lykeen will be disappointed. On Sunday, April 5, it was confirmed that the machine was up and running. Researchers celebrated as beams of high-speed protons intersected in the collider’s 17-mile (27km) tunnel.

In science, there is often thought to be a competitive nature among researchers with pressure to be the first to publish and make novel discoveries. Interestingly, the LHC has brought many researchers together and has been considered one of the most cooperative science projects to date. The construction of the LHC involved 111 nations. This included designing, building and testing equipment and software (Science & Technologies Facility Council, Large Hadron Collider, 2015). Currently, the LHC is still considered a collaborative device and is utilized by thousands of researchers from around the world in varying ways, from participating in actual experiments to analyzing the data produced. CERN uses a world-wide network of computers for its analysis, which includes numerous topics. This means, for many obtaining a PhD in physics or engineering, the LHC will most likely assist in them achieving their doctorate.

Simon Patané ’15, a co-chair of both the physics and astronomy major committees who is going to be pursuing a graduate degree in engineering post-Vassar, stated that the LHC could affect a broader scope than we realize: “Even though it might not directly affect my own research at this time, you can never predict what sort of advances come from leading edge physics research, so this new upgrade could have an impact on all of society, even though it’s not clear to us right now.”

Overall, the reboot of the LHC brings excitement to the scientific community. The findings from this device could affect multiple fields in various ways. Although there is no way of knowing when a discovery will be made, Patané expects to see something remarkable in the next three to five years. In the mean time, physics research will continue on in different forms, trying to uncover the mysteries of our world.

administrators have told students about the opposition to the social consciousness requirement. In the past, students have been told that a social requirement would prove counter to Vassar’s commitment to a small number of graduation requirements.

During the VSA meeting, representatives stated that responding constituents expressed generally neutral opinions on the IME proposal.

We at The Miscellany News also believe that although the IME is a favorable plan for many students in different departments, the universal requirement of an IME for all students is unreasonable. While the IME works in some departments or programs, not all departments have the means to provide the amount of time and focus demanded. Academic departments are suffering from low staff numbers. To make these individual projects mandatory would be to put extra stress on each department to ensure they have faculty who can give their time to advise IMEs along with all of their other duties.

The reduction in credits is another impractical proposal, especially for students who would not be able to afford four years at Vassar. Many students need to utilize the 5-credit maximum to ensure that they can fulfill their college experience in four years or fewer, and decreasing the maximum number of credits would make this harder for students. The credit cutback also makes it significantly harder for students to have multiple majors and correlates. The suggested changes in curriculum would not only make it harder to pursue interests on campus, but also would affect students’ ability to study abroad with JYA. For example, added requirements

would make it notably more difficult for students to get transfer credits when studying abroad and harder to keep up with requirements while away.

Moreover, as a student observer at the Council meeting noted, the limitation may have negative impacts on students seeking graduate degrees, as specific fields demand higher numbers of coursework hours than this new mandate would allow.

We believe that these sweeping changes the Dean of the Faculty has proposed are not only unnecessary and impractical, but could also be detrimental to the Vassar experience. Students apply to our school because of the academic freedom the College offers, and the trust it puts in students to choose their own intellectual paths for four years. If these proposals came to fruition, it would effectively rewrite the academic culture at Vassar and reduce the freedom students get with their education here.

Instead of going forward with these proposals, the Dean of the Faculty should be taking heed to changes in curriculum for which many students have expressed that they want or need. Students have long been requesting a social consciousness requirement and more sections of popular classes. While we acknowledge the desire to compare ourselves to peer institutions can be constructive in some situations, it is important to maintain the aspects that make Vassar unique.

Vassar students are promised the opportunity to choose what they study in their time here, and such a promise must continue to be kept.

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

Letter to the Editor Noble Ingram, Senior Editor for The Miscellany News, emailed me a little over a week ago to ask me a few questions about Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post and my views on the media/journalism more broadly for an article that he and The Miscellany News Editor-in-Chief Palak Patel were writing for the April 2 Edition.

As the Editor-in-Chief of The Vassar Chronicle, Vassar’s journal of thought and politics, I was happy to oblige my colleagues. After thinking about Noble’s questions, I spent a good amount of time writing a concise response.

In my email to Noble and Palak, I expressed a strong distaste for The Huffington Post, which I described as being “empty on ... analysis,” heavy on “click-baity headlines” attached to unprofessional articles and “full of fluff pieces.” Noble asked me how I felt about The Huffington Post in terms of its ability to alter modes of political engagement. My response was that “they’re certainly shared a lot on Facebook and have really good Search Engine Optimization (SEO), if you want to call that ‘political engagement.’”

Though I never outrightly said in my statement “I hate The Huffington Post and equally despise Arianna Huffington,” that should have been quite clear from the statements I made. How, then, could the The Miscellany News note in its article that “Struver values the importance of [The Huffington Post], and journalism in general, in today’s mainstream media?”

To be clear, I value very little the “mainstream media.” Earlier in the same article in which I was misc-quoted, Palak and Noble quoted another section of my response, where I indicated that “Objectivity in the media forces journalists to mask their opinions as fact, and I think that’s extremely dangerous.” It’s pretty obvious that I was referring in that sentence to the mainstream media. More damningly for Palak and Noble, I wrote in my emailed statement that the “Huffington Post is reaffirming this myth of objectivity.” The contradiction between my own views and the article’s analysis is made abundantly clear from my email.

As a fellow writer and someone who values journalism as a tool for social progress, I do not take pleasure in publicly shaming the work of my colleagues. However, I also value honesty and transparency, and I cannot sit by as one of Vassar’s beloved institutions publishes blatant falsities.

I do not want to accuse Noble and Palak of de-

—Delaney Fischer ’15 is a neuroscience major.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

liberately twisting my words and misrepresenting my position to pad their article with concurring opinions. I also, however, find it difficult to believe that two experienced writers and editors either misunderstood or did not carefully read my email. Yet, everyone makes mistakes, and I believe that this mistake reveals structural and organizational problems at The Miscellany News, rather than malicious intent on the part of individuals.

This week the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism published a damning report on structural and operational problems at Rolling Stone. I think that many of the problems they traced have also plagued The Miscellany News for years. In 2013, Matthew Schultz, the Director of the Writing Center, chronicled the occasions on which writers for The Miscellany News used off the record comments, misattributed others’ statements to him, incorporated out of context quotations from his broader statements and outright fabricated quotations which they attributed to him. The problems that Dr. Schultz pointed out could have been fixed by stricter policies on attribution and quotation, but evidently the editorial staff did not see fit to implement changes in the wake of his criticism to “Write as if each and every reader is skeptical of each and every syllable in your reporting.”

If the current staff of The Miscellany News wishes to maintain their credibility as reporters and live up to the legacy left by their predecessors as some of the top student journalists in the world, The Miscellany News must thoroughly examine its evident culture of carelessness. The Editorial Board should adopt new standards on attribution and think about dedicating part of their copy-editing staff to fact-checking. The entire staff of The Miscellany News should be included in broader discussions about policies and practices that can better keep reporters and editors accountable to their sources. I am hurt by the disrespect my colleagues showed me, and I hope that they will retract or correct those portions of the article that misrepresented my views. I also hope that the staff of The Miscellany News uses this public embarrassment and condemnation of their flawed practices to reflect upon their problems and commit to fixing them.

—Zack Struver ’15

OPINIONS

Page 10

April 9, 2015

New curricular proposals too restrictive for students Joshua Sherman Opinions Editor

A

s students returned from restful breaks filled for the most part with much-needed time away from campus, campus leaders sent an email about an ongoing curricular proposal that looks to revisit the current academic structure at Vassar for the first time in 40 years. This proposal, from the Committee on Curricular Policies, was discussed in a forum with Dean of Faculty Jonathan Chenette at the April 5 Vassar Students Association (VSA) meeting. In this forum, Dean Chenette gave some greater depth into the proposal’s goals. After hearing Chenette’s insights and reading this proposal, it remains clear that too many unknowns exist for this project to be implemented in time for the Class of 2020.

Vassar’s new curricular proposal seems like a Trojan horse for a Gen Ed requirement.

To me, personally, these curricular proposals sound like we, as students, are being spoon-fed an approach to learning that will do nothing but set us up for failure. The proposal calls for students to take three classes in four out of five “curricular divisions” at Vassar, and implies that the faculty who have worked with this committee are not satisfied with the way students currently engage with academics over their four years and achieve a breadth of learning that could be argued a liberal arts education.

“Vassar’s new curricular proposal seems like a Trojan horse for a Gen Ed requirement.”

My sister goes to a state liberal arts college (SUNY Old Westbury) on Long Island, and this proposal sounds very similar to what

she’s told me her experiences have been. In order to graduate and demonstrate a depth of learning, she must take coursework in a number of “domains” as part of a general education requirement.

Old Westbury’s reasoning for this program, according to their website, is that, “...a general education requirement provides students with a broad multidisciplinary liberal arts education...” and it is not unlike that of Dean Chenette’s own rhetoric at Sunday’s meeting.

Chenette, meanwhile, said in Sunday’s meeting that the goal of these curricular changes is to encourage a depth of learning students may not otherwise seek during their time at Vassar, as well as to address the structural complexity that multidisciplinaries have created on Vassar’s academic org chart.

I am not saying that all students at Vassar achieve the depth of learning Vassar hopes for out of the current academic structure.

What I am denying is that Vassar needs such a specific, rigorous and hand-fed path for students to get an in-depth liberal arts education. All this will do is force students, much like my sister, into classes in which they have no interest except to meet one of 12 class requirements. I sure wouldn’t want to spend three out of my eight semesters completing nothing but requirements at Vassar, and neither should you.

In addition, the Class of 2020 may sound like a far-off spectacle, but these students will be selected by the Office of Admission in a matter of months, not years. In December, the Early Decision class of 2020 will be receiving their matriculation packets, and it is up to Vassar’s Committee on Curricular Policy to be certain of this project’s success before then; otherwise, it will need to delay this project’s implementation or revisit it entirely. Based on the questions asked at the forum, it seems the Committee on Curricular Policies has not yet considered all impacts of this radical change, such as how it will affect

students applying to graduate school. It’s far too soon to consider passing such a resolution, lest we want to pass it first and figure out how to make it work later.

“There’s no guarantee that faculty will get the resources needed for these changes.”

Here’s another great reason to doubt the success of these new curricular policies: There’s no guarantee that faculty will get the resources needed for these changes. I am not saying that there is some conspiracy among Vassar administrators to give us the worst possible education. Instead, I am noting that many departments remain understaffed, and another element of this curricular proposal—the Intensive Mentored Experience (IME)—will require far more faculty advisers to assist students as they craft their senior projects.

I actually do not have many qualms with the idea of an IME, but I do have qualms if it means that more faculty will be advising students and subsequently offer even fewer classes. There’s no guarantee this will or will not affect class availability, and the curricular proposal does say it will work to improve staffing, but why not improve staffing in the status quo rather than introduce a more complex academic structure? It seems we’d have more to gain with adding staff within the status quo rather than implementing such a structured system instead.

I can only imagine what this will also do to a campus environment that has been, for me at least, cooperative in very unorthodox situations. When I made plans to go JYA last year, the Committee on Leaves and Privileg-

es was concerned about whether I’d fit in a media studies international program as an English major. If we suddenly had a slew of new requirements to worry about as sophomores when considering a JYA program, how could we possibly be expected to take a program that only gives one or two credits when we have to complete 12 other credits in order to meet the goals of this new curricular proposal? This goes along with a host of other concerns that culminate with something that sounds a whole lot like a general education program with a bit more creativity and a different name.

All in all, I find these new curricular proposals poorly thought-out in the context of what a Vassar education currently entails here. Maybe if we were part of an institution that had 10,000 or more students, such as SUNY Old Westbury, I could see the value in promoting a more structured and procedural approach to creating a liberal arts education.

I think if the faculty care more about a greater breadth of learning at Vassar, they ought to offer more classes that students have been requesting, as well as focus on more effective peer and faculty advising in the status quo in order to help students meander through their four years at Vassar. I think we know better as an institution and community. I also think that we are jumping headfirst into something very complicated and not very Vassar-like at all.

I know the idea is to get us interested in a very well-rounded academic experience, but I don’t think it has to be done in such a procedural and structural manner. I’m not against revisiting our curricular structure, but why bring in something so unlike any part of a Vassar experience? We’re trusted with so much else on this campus, from dorm access to unproctored exams—why not also trust us with an open educational experience?

—Joshua Sherman ’16 is an English major.

Vassar helps low-income students see parts unknown Sophia Burns Columnist

I

remember the day that permission slips were due for the annual eighth grade field trip to Washington, D.C. “I love this trip,” my social studies teacher said, “It’s often the first and last time in these kids’ lives that they’ll get to see D.C. It truly is special.” In a working-class suburb of Philadelphia, although only 150 miles away from the nation’s capital, this is unfortunately true—a lot of my classmates would never see Washington, D.C., New York City or much of anything outside of the metro area if not for these school field trips. For those in more isolated areas, naturally, this is more prevalent. Nonetheless, traveling, for a great deal of people, is a luxury for which the time and money just cannot be easily sacrificed.

When I got to Vassar and realized how well-traveled my new peers were, I was intimidated. Suddenly, it seemed like travel was yet another type of social capital, and while I still felt excited to finally have the chance to travel, I felt a little “uncultured” because I had not seen the world. Fortunately, Vassar has afforded me the chance to accomplish what was previously a lofty dream, which I believe has had incredibly positive effects. For low-income students, travel can inspire and present new interests while promoting self-discovery all in a new and exciting environment that, for some, may be like nothing they’ve previously seen.

In areas comprised of mainly working-class and middle-class people, young people are usually surrounded by peers who have had similarly limited exposure to the world around them, making it difficult for them to envision life anywhere else. Even if they want to, at this age, many are trying to make it through school, hold down a job, or usually both at the same time. For those who have had the opportunity to get out and attend a school with excellent financial aid, travel should be a priority and an opportunity to grasp.

During this time of freedom, especially

financial freedom, low-income students finally have the opportunity to work on themselves and be free of many of the at-home responsibilities that are both time-consuming and stressful. College, while academically rigorous, is largely a shocking respite for these students where so much of the basic necessities are provided for them, enabling them to take full advantage of educational and career-related opportunities. Vassar and its peers generously offer many opportunities for students to see different parts of the country and the world, which only enhances these effects for low-income students who, if not for their school and its financial assistance, may never have had that chance.

These opportunities are largely inspirational, as they allow students to experience things and places that they have only read about and seen pictures of with educational components which can broaden their worldview and maybe even spark an interest in a new area of study.

Participating in a college-sponsored trip, such as Vassar’s annual International Studies trip in the spring, can alleviate many of the worries that students may have, as things like museums and meals are often planned and sometimes even covered by financial aid. Then, students can then freely enjoy their experience without having to stress over paying for food or miss out on one of many special learning experiences.

“Vassar has afforded me the chance to accomplish what was previously a lofty dream” The structure of the trip allows for exploration as well as direction, so that less time is spent worrying about planning, logistics and foreign transportation, which can all be very overwhelming for someone who

has not done much traveling on their own.

Nevertheless, these programs still allow students to be independent, which is often very important to low-income students who are used to doing things for themselves, and to see and do things that interest them in their free time.

Being around other students from their college that they might already know is also helpful, especially if they do not speak the language and others do, as it can be easier to establish a support network and to be honest about their financial constraints when traveling with friends. This can be especially difficult, since more affluent students may be inclined to splurge when away while low-income students cannot.

By having friends and professors or leaders who are understanding of this and do not plan expensive outings, students can feel comfortable and included without endangering themselves financially. In these endeavors, accessibility is key, and, fortunately, colleges are making more of an effort to ensure that this is recognized and to do what they can to make the experience of traveling not just an opportunity, but one that can be enjoyed by the students who take part.

The benefits of travel for low-income students are absolutely innumerable, especially for those who have lived in isolated communities. While these communities can be diverse, it is important that these students, who are equally intelligent and curious, be exposed to and immersed in completely different cultures.

They will be especially receptive if they have never had such an experience before in their lives, and likely more open-minded when exploring or staying in underprivileged neighborhoods. Because they have had to provide for themselves, they will also be appreciative of these populations’ hardships and be more understanding of cultural norms that may be deemed “not clean enough” or “uncomfortable” by students who have lived in more privileged circumstances and do not see as direct a connection.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Therefore, they will be able to get more out of their experience because, chances are, they have lived in less comfortable conditions than those in which they are traveling.

And because they have not already “seen the world,” they will be able to approach these experiences with open hearts and a will to learn because, coming from their home communities, they know that traveling is a unique privilege. After traveling abroad, these students will be able to share their experiences with friends and family who may have never, and may never be able to travel, broadening their knowledge as well.

“The benefits of travel for low-income students are absolutely innumerable.”

As colleges begin to understand the benefits of extending full aid to low-income students, they must take into account the incredible benefits of going abroad for these students and make opportunities and funding known to them as accessible as possible.

By doing so, they can strengthen students’ experiences, which are already diverse and very significant in their lives. Because these low-income students are often very mature and independent, they are already very well-prepared to travel and eager to learn and experience.

For students from low-income personal backgrounds, these characteristics will enable them to apply their knowledge from abroad to their home and school communities in useful ways as well as inspire other, younger students of similar backgrounds that they, too, can achieve what may seem out of their reach.

—Sophia Burns ’18 is a student at Vassar College

OPINIONS

April 9, 2015

Page 11

Education shows life’s unseen prejudices Sarah Sandler Columnist

I

have been a student at Vassar for less than a year, and I am already noticing how my outlook on the world has changed during my time here. After about six months of being on campus, my brain has been trained to have an acute awareness of racism, sexism and other prejudices in the media and in everyday life, partly without my active involvement. While previously I understood these issues and felt uncomfortable or distressed in their presence, the things that provoked my attention had to be pretty overt and deliberate. Now, I find myself detecting offenses and wrongdoings that are much more hidden or even unintentional with both media and everyday occurrences alike.

In my “Approaches to Media Studies” class this semester, our midterm project involved picking a “media artifact” (such as a movie, book or photo) and analyzing it using a perspective we had read about in our textbook.

These perspectives included queer, feminist, cultural, psychoanalytic analyses and more.

When I was presented with this assignment, the James Bond movies immediately came to mind. Having an older brother meant that when I was little, once in a while, we had to watch James Bond or “Star Wars” instead of my preferred movie, “The Princess Diaries.”

Although I did not want to admit that I enjoyed watching "Goldfinger” or “Tomorrow Never Dies,” I eventually came to like the James Bond series very much.

Having watched many of the Bond movies while I was under the age of about 10 or 11 years old, I took zero notice of the misogyny present in every film. Even when I saw the most recent Bond movie, “Skyfall,” which came out in 2012, for the first time, the rampant sexualization and belittlement of the female characters unfortunately went wholly unnoticed. However, when this assignment came up, it only took a few seconds to decide

By the Numbers

that the James Bond movies would be perfect, thanks to their being a breeding ground for sexist behaviors and images. I chose to analyze “Skyfall” because it doesn’t have the excuse of earlier Bond movies of being outdated or old-fashioned. Some of the aspects that really stood out to me include how most female characters are sexualized for Bond, and that the skills and careers of these females are often questioned and doubted. I was also pleasantly surprised when I was reminded that James Bond’s boss, M, is a woman. By the end of the movie, though, she dies and is replaced by a man instead.

“When I was presented with this assignment, the James Bond movies immediately came to mind.”

Magazines and similar media are another area in which I have recently found it more and more difficult to ignore the offensive or sexist messages. I don’t get any magazines sent to me at school, but I subscribe to at least five or six that I read when I am home over breaks. Most of these are health and fitness or fashion related, which foster many hazardous messages about a woman’s appearance or career.

While some publications do a good job of centering discussions of exercise and healthy eating around simply maintaining a healthy lifestyle and wellbeing, they cannot avoid veering to topics of working out to get a bikini body, using products to look younger or other tactics to help with pleasing a guy in bed. Previously, I didn’t find these types of articles to be questionable, but now I can’t manage to brush their harmful messages aside. The one magazine I know of that man-

ages to avoid topics that critique a woman more than helping her is Darling Magazine.

They are committed to refraining from retouching photos and feature topics such as ovarian and breast cancer prevention and learning a foreign language.

I also find myself picking up on sexist or heteronormative inclinations in my personal everyday life. Most students and faculty at Vassar are very aware of this issue and have adapted, but in my hometown or other places outside of campus, people are not so like-minded. More often than not, people do not purposefully say something sexist, but end up doing so just because these tendencies are ingrained into their mentality.

When I am among friends from high school over breaks, I am often shocked at how some people speak about feminism, sex, race and religion. I guess this used to go under the radar before, but being at Vassar has made me much more sensitive to being careful and especially mindful with these issues.

The only problem with becoming more conscious with sexism and heteronormativity in our lives is sometimes seeing an issue that isn’t really there. For example, this past week, I went to the lecture about modern civil rights with New York Times columnist Charles Blow, and he discussed the connection between black men in prison and single black mothers. My mind immediately went to think about heteronormativity, and I mentioned this thought to my friend after the lecture. She noticed this, too, but explained that the link isn’t the same in non-heterosexual relationships. Despite the possibility of becoming oversensitive, I am thankful that Vassar has already increased my awareness of these issues so much, as I think that is the first step toward trying to eliminating them and grow as a student.

Word on the street Where does the best delivery food come from in Poughkeepsie?

“I’m too broke for delivery.”

—Miranda Fetterman ’18

“Domino’s.

3 a.m. To the computer room, in the 24-hour space.”

— Lanbo Yang ’15

—Sarah Sandler ’18 is a student at Vassar College.

submit to misc@vassar.edu

VSA Fund Levels & Average Allocation $60,000.00

“Not Bacio’s.”

— Jake Brekelbaum ’17

$1,800.00

$1,600.00 $50,000.00 $1,400.00

$40,000.00

“TH70—Steve will cook.”

— Stevie Xie ’15

$1,200.00

$1,000.00 $30,000.00 $800.00

$20,000.00

$600.00

$400.00

“Lava Cakes from Domino’s.”

—Emma Redden ’15

$10,000.00 $200.00

$-

$-

Capital

Discretionary

Collaboration

Total allocated

Conference

Total Spent

Speakers

Community

Conciousness

Average Allocation

“Bacio’s.” ­­— Gordon Schmidt ’17

This chart displays the current fund allocations for all VSA Special Purpose Funds as of March 30. The Special Purpose Funds are available for Vassar Student Organizations to apply for additional funding, depending on the purpose. These funds are approved by the VSA Finance Committee on a case by case basis.

Included in this chart is the total amount allocated by the VSA at the beginning of the year, the current amount spent by VSA organizations, and the average allocation for each fund application. This information was provided by the VSA VP for Finance.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Chris Gonzalez, Humor & Satire Editor Sam Pianello, Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

April 9, 2015

Mental illness needs support, not scrutiny, after crash Emily Sayer Columnist

Editor’s Note: This article discusses suicide related to the Germanwings Flight 2525 crash.

A

s is the case for most of the decade’s globalized tragedies, mass paranoia and toxic scapegoat tactics are emerging as the gravest repercussions of the March 24 Germanwings Flight 2525 crash. Tabloids, investigators, prosecutors and regulatory boards are now publicly delving into the history of the plane’s co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who locked himself in the aircraft’s cockpit and steered it directly into the French Alps, killing the 150 passengers and crew members on board. In light of their efforts, the media have exposed Lubitz to be a suicidal time-bomb, a manic, depressed threat to society who somehow managed to conceal his mental state at the time of the incident from Germanwings’ parent company, Lufthansa.

It was discovered in the days following the tragedy that Lubitz had been attending psychotherapy to treat bouts of suicidal thoughts, and that on March 24 he was not cleared by his neurologists to go in to work. Of course, hysteria ensues. How can depression, the “silent killer,” be wrestled from the private sphere and how can it be dealt with? What precautions should be taken to monitor mental illness in the workplace with greater care?

Fueling this panic, former head of safety and security at United Airlines Bill Yantiss lately made the following statement in regards to the crash: “There probably are [members of] flight crews out there with the same mental state. The risk is out there, it could certainly happen again.”

“Misery Loves Gluttony”

These words, “it could certainly happen again,” are the foreboding cries of an imminent witch hunt. Yantiss and all others who are pointing fingers at mental illness as the root of mass murder are unwittingly stamping the majority of those diagnosed with depression or suicidal tendencies with a glaring warning label when, in reality, the percentage of individuals being treated for depression at risk of committing murder-suicide is restricted to an extremely small percentage and does not represent the behavior or inclinations of the community as a whole.

According to Director of Forensic Psychiatry at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University Dr. James L. Knoll, those liable to commit murder-suicide possess an important combination of idiosyncrasies that differentiate them from common depression cases; he states that becoming hyper-vigilant about mental illness in general is “a lowyield dead end,” and that “There’s something fundamentally different here, aside and apart from the depression, and that’s where we need to look.”

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Michael Stone lists “massive disgruntlement” and “paranoid traits” such as displays of rage, grandiosity, vengeance, narcissism or amorality as key determinants of a mass murderer. While the inner workings of Lubitz’s mind are likely to remain a mystery, the fragmented clues of his pre-crash mentality hint that his case was not one of typical depression, but that it mirrored many of the factors that have been found to play into the psychotic state of suicide-murderers. A flight attendant claiming to be Lubitz’s former girlfriend, for instance, said in an interview that he spoke of doing “...something

that will change the entire system and everyone will know my name and remember it,” implying a delusional need for fame and notoriety, and, in line with Dr. Stone’s theory on the role of disgruntlement in mass murders, that he was often consumed by fits of anger in which he would rattle off grievances about his job. Clearly, Lubitz was not suffering simply depression, but a dangerous strain of the mental illness that, though threatening to the public sphere, must not be conflated with the larger and more widespread diagnosis.

The Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA) estimates that approximately seven percent of the adult population, aged 18 and older, is diagnosed with depression each year—nearly 15 million Americans are affected by the disease, and a whopping 40 million are affected by a broader range of anxieties and mental illnesses. However, the ADAA records that only about one-third of these individuals receive treatment. With the villainization of depression as a large-scale public safety issue, health officials are beginning to worry that reactionary steps taken in the wake of the Flight 9525 crash will only strengthen the negative stigma surrounding mental illness, encouraging those in need of help to stay silent about their symptoms, and similarly, preventing them from willingly disclosing their condition to their employers. Director of policy and legal affairs at the National Alliance on Mental Illness Ron Honberg noted that, “These kind of stories reinforce the anxiety, the doubts, the concerns that people have that ‘I have to keep my symptoms concealed at all costs,’ and that doesn’t benefit anyone.”

Laws implemented in New York and Connecticut after the shootings in Newtown that

allow therapists greater lenience in breaching doctor-patient confidentiality indicate that similar regulatory codes may be established with the airlines in Germany, where companies do not have explicit access to employees’ medical records. This, of course, raises debate on the prioritization of a patient’s right to privacy­—at what level does it become necessary to unveil a worker’s mental condition or health struggles for the sake of the public good? In the field of aviation, the question is complicated by the fact that hundreds of lives are being entrusted to the care of a single or small set of professionals, and the worst-case scenario, as enacted by Andreas Lubitz on March 24, has such a high risk factor that despite the statistically tiny probability of a similar event occurring again in the near future, fear is driving officials and civilians alike to call for drastic change.

In the midst of the feverish search for answers and solutions, rationality remains crucial in addressing the problem of mental illness and corporate responsibility. While it is imperative for a company to be made aware of any serious threats to the public or its employees, the correct way to approach increased monitoring of depression or anxiety is not to equate the actions of psychotic mass murderers with the commonplace case of depression; the harmful stigmatization of these disorders must be eased from our society’s vocabulary, or else in the coming years will see an even higher number of patients resisting much-needed treatment and an increased ostracization of mentally-ill people.

—Emily Sayer ’18 is a student at Vassar College.

The Miscellany Crossword

by Collin Knopp−-Schwyn, York Chen and Alycia Beattie

ACROSS

51 Giant lumbering fool, à la Collin

36 Pretty big, I guess

56 Separate from

1 Gynecological smear

54 Within reach (2 words)

37 Oil cartel

57 “The ___ Gate” (1999, Johnny Depp)

4 Egyptian Christian

59 Royal ghost ball

39 Fire’s partner

58 Brunette 1-Down

8 Eye zit

63 Browned out, maybe?

42 Tokyo, formerly

59 Shia LaBeouf in “Disturbia”

12 Spherical Dutch cheese

64 Dead Ruth

43 Fried Southern vegetable

60 Horned mountain goat

14 Yellow anti-plumber

65 Brilliant display; panache

44 Desires

61 Where to find chicks

16 *cough cough*

68 Kate O’Mara on “Doctor Who”

49 Eggy booze

62 Vaudeville song

17 Top-notch, like steak sauce

69 Pale drinks

52 Cain’s lil bruh

64 Kick out

18 Jaunts, as a horse

70 Green plumber

53 Concentrate

66 In the past

19 Ridges in the road

71 Crafts’ friend

55 Her husband was Zeus

67 Tat exchange rate

20 The first thing a child does

72 MTV dating show (2005-8)

22 Purple anti-plumber

73 Chimney residue

24 Busy a f

74 “Hallowed be ___ name”

26 Street-racing themed energy drink 27 Job, or to give a job

DOWN

30 Gala or Granny Smith

1 Mushroom Kingdom Princess

35 “Dat butt, ___”

2 Like, like a lot

38 God honored in salat

3 Freak the fuck out, maybe

40 Police bust

4 Hundredweight, for short

41 Universe home to 14-, 22-, 59- and

5 Paddle

70-Across and 1- and 58-Down

6 Part of the bow above water

45 Slogged onward, on the slow march toward

7 Saturn’s largest moon

death

8 Draped dress

46 Furry coat

9 The life that chose me.

47 Pigpen

10 “Isn’t he just like, cold

48 Spying and scouting, for short

Bigfoot?”

50 Arctic bird

11 Green lights on campus

Answers to last week’s puzzle

13 Say hey 15 Norwegian capital 21 Shankar’s instrument of choice 23 Canada’s pants; Mexico’s hat 25 Chill 28 What you do to jacks?

29 Gold purity 31 “Semi-___” (Will Ferrell, 2008) 32 Averages on a golf course 33 Crooning cadence 34 Friend of Ed n Edd 35 Ruler from Saint Petersburg

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

April 9, 2015

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 13

Breaking News From the desk of Chris Gonzalez, Humor & Satire Editor Lacanian quote about ‘Mirror Stage’ literally jumps out of text, strikes impressionable student upside their head The Misc’s Guide to: Dos and A Week without a Phone: a Don’ts of your internship, life grueling, timeless endeavor Joshua Sherman

Vicarious Intern Guide

T

hey say April showers bring May flowers, but do you know what May flowers bring? That’s right: June part-time to full-time unpaid federal loopholes known as summer internships. As many of us prepare for another summer with record temperatures and record rent prices, I figured now’s a great time to share some advice I learned last year when meandering through my first internship. I’d like to help other Vassar students learn from my (many) mistakes as they prepare for their 12 weeks of hell.

“washing dishes.” But what people don’t realize is that having a job bringing your boss coffee is a blessing, not a curse. It gives you at least 15 minutes to get yourself some coffee, plus some time without worrying about your big project due at the end of the month. And (especially early on in your internship) pretending to do something that looks like actual work is key, since your boss hasn’t quite yet figured out what to do with you for 12 weeks. Plus, you get some quality time with your employer, allowing you to slip a resume or two under their nose while they sip double caramel lattes with soy milk. Even if they don’t glance at it, they may use it to mop up any coffee spills. See? Useful!

Smile, smile, smile!

My first piece of advice to interns is that a grin from ear to ear goes a long way with showing your gratefulness for having such a great opportunity to work at the multi-billion dollar establishment laboring you for 20 to 40 hours each week. Ideally, other interns and employees should notice and ask about your beaming smile, or point out you have something in your teeth. Either way, you’ll certainly be more memorable and only improve your chances at getting a call back for another opportunity to work for the company—or at least free dental advice.

Establish your dominance

Many people don’t know this, but getting a head start (and looking like prime hiring material) is to establish your dominance between yourself and the other interns. Doing this will not only make you look like upper management material, but also help you get a heads up about all the cool intern projects, intern events and other activities to take before your peers.

Ideally you’d turn the intern rat race into a sort of intern empire, with you ruling and managing over the other interns, their priorities, and your tasks. This is an especially good option for those considering a future in management consulting, or if you want to become a better Dungeons Master.

Fetch that coffee!

A lot of internships brag about offering “hands-on” experience as a “member of a real team,” but don’t mention you “running coffee around to your boss” or “burying the bodies” or

Lie your way to the top

There’s an old Yiddish saying: “To tell a half-truth is a whole lie.” What it REALLY should say is, “To tell a half-truth saves you a lot of hassle from your boss and gets you home half an hour earlier each day.” By the way, did I mention that you should tell your boss that you worked through lunch every day you go home early?

Don’t sweat the stress dreams

Okay, this one’s pretty self-explanatory. So you know those sort of wake-up-with-a-coldsweat-screaming moments when you have that dream where you forgot to put on those new cover sheets for your TPS reports? Imagining it happening for a week each time you go to sleep because your boss approached you that one time when you forgot to do it. Anyways, you’re going to end up making mistakes during your internship and the best you can do is just make it through those nightmares with some heavy liquor or a lot of new Zzzquil stuff Nyquil made without the cold medicine part.

Don’t forget about the TPS report cover sheets

Seriously, though.

Anyways, there’s a short look at some tips that could really get you through that first week, month or lifetime at your internship... unless you just sit at home all day and write listicles. But, hey, maybe this is in a way a lot like a listicle—does Buzzfeed still have any openings left?

Zander Bashaw Phony

M

y iPhone got sick in early March. It was just a normal day: we were spending time together, checking in at any spare moment, when, inexplicably, at lunchtime, I checked the time on my phone to see that my iPhone thought it was 2 a.m. From that day forward, I knew everything about my life would change.

They say “You don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone,” and now, no one understands that better than I do. For the following week, my life resembled that horrific “Let Her Go” song by Passenger: My voice was whiny, and I was repetitive (“my phone is fucked up”) and a living cliché. Of course, this cliché was that kids these days are too dependent on technology. Despite the fact that we’ve heard this a million times, this statement is actually pretty relevant.

So, my phone stopped keeping time; this meant several immediate things for my day-today life. Firstly, when I was alone, I would have no idea what time it was. If you spent any time with me that week (I can’t see why you would want to), then I would have barked at you every three minutes demanding to know what time it was. I actually tried in desperation to use my phone as a sundial once while walking across campus, but I calculated incorrectly, and arrived for my Art 106 mid-term five hours early. Of course, time issues meant that I needed a new reliable way to wake up in the morning.

Initially, I contacted ResLife about their inroom rooster policy, but I was sadly informed that wild and domesticated animals can only live in Raymond and Cushing. This meant that I had to return to the stone ages and set an alarm clock as my morning bell.

As the weeks went on, my phone only got worse. All time-based apps went to shit. I called T-Mobile and Apple, and they helped me through a series of resets that reduced my phone’s function to the point where it was merely a rectangular flashlight. I was a wreck—I had gone from 523rd best in the world at “Rat on a Jetski” to a feral creature, reduced to using clocks, making plans in person and connecting with the real world. I couldn’t Snapchat from the gym (#gunshow #somedaysoff), live-tweet the Deece or play Jelly Splash in my classes. What was a boy supposed to do?

It made me think about what it was like living in a world without cell phones. After all, Julius Caesar didn’t group text the Senators saying, “Dinner at the Imperial Palace at VI everyone is invited. Yes, and you, Brutus!” Jesus did not send Snapchats from the cross, or tweet “I’m back, bitches!” on Easter. Shouldn’t I be able to live in a world without my cell phone? Apparently not. According to WebMD, I was displaying many key signs of withdrawal, such as sweating, shaking, cravings, having hot-dogs for fingers and, at times, feeling nonexistent phones buzzing in my pocket.

I decided to go to Baldwin to see if I could get an iPatch to put on my shoulder to reduce the cravings, or perhaps iOS gum that I could chew.

Instead, they gave me a small plastic block the exact shape, size and weight of my old iPhone. I put a case over this iPhony and went about my daily life, comforted by its tender weight in my pocket and the way it felt in my hand, but knowing, as Drake did, that nothing was the same.

It would be nice to say that I got used to my predicament, decided I didn’t need my phone and wrote some poetry about the natural world or timeless beauty or some shit. However, though my phone was timeless, I saw no beauty in it, and in no time found myself at the Apple store in Grand Central. I was immediately thrust back into the iWorld I had been missing for the past weeks. As if to mock me, Apple employees darted around, holding iPads and iPhones and helping others with their phones.

I think the device to human ratio in that zone was 7:1.

One thing that was nice about the Apple people is they seemed to understand how much I had suffered without my iPhone. The Genius that helped replace my phone shuddered and hugged his iPad extra close as I recounted my story. He then proceeded to open up my new phone and drop it on the ground. People looked up from their clicking keyboards to see us both laughing and making sure the brand new phone was all right. Perhaps in the ephemeral moment of the dropped iPhone, I saw human connection as more important than Wi-Fi connection—but I’ve forgotten about all of that now. I can safely say I learned nothing from the experience, and I will return to playing Jelly Splash as soon as I finish typing this sentence.

Eau de Vassar: a Spring Fragrance Line

by Chris Gonzalez, Perfumer Founder’s Day Flushed

Mug Night Musk

Bell Ringing Blossom Bliss

April Showers

Extremely floral in brightness and hoppy in taste, this addictive blend doubles as a drink and a gender-neutral perfume. Alcohol content: nine percent from the beer, 95 percent from the Everclear base. Combine with jungle juice to stimulate the oils.

Sure to get your hormones raging, this fragrance is best described as Axe body spray watered down with a traumatic amount of genetalia sweat. Spritz generously in humid environments.

To recreate one of Vassar’s oldest traditions in bottled form, colorful permanent markers were melted down and stewed together with sawdust and rust. Warning: can only be worn if you have a friend group.

Monkey Show on the Quad

Cappy’s Office Hour

For the outdoorsy folk, this bouquet of flamboyant smoke is best worn at night, while shirtless. Bonus: Cascada’s “Everytime We Touch” roars at ear-shattering decibels every time you touch the bottle. Fire not included.

Have you ever said to yourself, “Hey! I could totally pretend an awkward, short window of time is adequate for accomplishing anything?”

For the time-insensitive, this rich conconction of mimosa-scented oils and stewed red roses stays on your skin for one whole hour.

Rain, one of nature’s beautiful fragrances, should be appreciated in all forms. In this fragrance, rainwater, puddles of mud and rain, the run-off from your illegally-parked car and moisture extracted from the fur fibers of every dog on Vassar’s campus join together in holy springtime matrimony. The dampness will stick with you all day!

Sunset Lake Mist

Fresh lake water is boiled together with raw sewage to spawn this pungent eau de toilette.

Best worn at high noon, when the sun is at its hottest. To apply, pour contents over head and allow the chunks to settle into your skin. Bonus: 1/2500 bottles comes with its own snapping turtle.

Last Chance

This aroma—a desperate harmony of sexual frustration, insomnia and IPAs—is modeled after the natural body odor produced by the Stressed-Out Second Semester Senior.

Late Night at the Loeb Aftershave

Perfect for all your evening needs, this baroque bottle contains a palette of aged cheddar, creamy feta and tuscan crackers. A thick paste, the aftershave must be smeared on your face and left to harden for the duration of your evening affair. The remains can be sculpted into any shape your heart desires.

Sex in the Orchard

Similar to the winter line’s Sex by an Open Fire and Standard Sex in Your Roommate’s Bed, the intensity of this scent increases with your arousal levels. Unlike the former two, however, Sex in the Orchard also reeks of wet grass and onlookers.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Senior Week and Graduation Day Combo

The scent of this velvety cologne drags on for approximately nine days longer than necessary.

Once the fragrance finally vanishes from your skin, liberally apply the sunscreen-infused body spray to your face and neck areas. Together, the olfactory experience culminates with a whiff of anticlimax.

Springtime at Vassar

Extracted from swampy ass cheeks splayed out in front of a fan. Wrapped in a daisy chain.

ARTS

Page 14

April 9, 2015

Dialogue celebrates bodies marginalized in dance world Yifan Wang Reporter

W

alking, talking, thinking…there’s virtually no everyday activity that doesn’t rely on the body to perform. For dancers, the body is an essential medium not just for day-to-day functions but also for artistic expression. Last Thursday, April 3, a dialogue was held among Vassar’s student dancers to explore the issue of body image. 40 to 50 people participated in the conversation and exchanged their experiences in the art of dancing.

The workshop started out with a personal testimony given by one of the organizers, Oriana Catton ’17 about her experiences as a dancer. She wrote in an emailed statement, “I wrote and presented a testimonial as an opening to the dialogue, talking about my own experience with body image (specifically, in relation to size and race) as a female who identifies as a dancer. I spoke about experiences from home and at Vassar that have hurt me, empowered me, made me question myself, and how I intend to engage with these issues now.”

Participants then broke up into smaller groups for exercises including group discussion, experience exchange and poster creation. Both at the beginning and end of the dialogue, there were small written activities that sought to foster individual reflection.

Presidents of Body Positive VC, a preliminary student organization committed to fostering body-positivity and body acceptance both at Vassar and in the surrounding community, Nate Wulff ’15 and Catton organized the dialogue together. Specifically, it was intended as an opportunity for dancers to voice their own opinions and experiences about their bodies and identities. “The dialogue was about identity and bodies in the dance community and how they shape us.”

Wulff said.

He continued, “Dancers spend most of their time looking in mirrors to judge themselves or receiving critiques and comments about their bodies—their size, shape, and strength, the in-

fluence of their ethnicity or race, the ways they conform to or break with gender stereotypes, or any number of other things. Yet, very few dance classes provide an outlet to express any discontent. An art form in which the body is the medium can become dangerous when the participants are given no agency. So, we wanted to give back some agency to the dancers.” Catton echoed Wulff in his stress of this significance. “It’s a discourse that is important and necessary to have.”

Wulff and Catton observed a lack of outlet for dancers to express the different experiences and challenges they face during the weekly Body Positive VC meetings. Student dancers have also approached them to share concerns and discomfort that they felt in dance classes or groups. These observations eventually inspired them to organize the dialogue.

Many of the dancers who participated in the dialogue also felt the necessity to address these issues. President of Vass Shakers, one of Vassar’s student run dance groups, Dylan Bolduc ’15 commented, “Body image in the dance community is a wide spread problem both here at Vassar and in the greater dance world, it is also a problem that is not widely discussed. This is an important conversation to start, and I think this was a great forum to do so.”

A ballet dancer, Karlin Gatton ’15, also appreciated the opportunity because it offered her a chance to talk about what she normally couldn’t.

“Conversations about race are pretty taboo in the ballet world, so I was glad the dialogue addressed racial and ethnic diversity as well as body type diversity,” she wrote in an email statement.

The dialogue drew a large audience and while specific interests differed, most participants decided to be part of the conversation because of their common passion in and dedication to dance. A member of Flypeople, Cayla Chambers ’15, decided to attend because of her long time interest in the topic of body image. “As a dancer and health intern in the Office of Health Education I’ve always been interested in health, nutrition and body image and how they influence the

way that I see myself as a dancer.

“I decided to attend the workshop because I’ve felt that a discussion about body image,” she continued, “especially as it pertains to dancers has been long overdue.”

Others participated in order to hear about and understand different perspectives. “I wanted to have the opportunity to hear from other dancers and people who specialize in other dance styles.

I think body image in dance is intrinsically linked to the dance style, so its always great to hear others perspectives.” Gatton explained.

The most significant goal for the two organizers of the dialogue was to ensure that participants from various backgrounds can feel safe and comfortable to talk about their personal experiences.

The large number of participants also posed new challenges. “I have never organized a dialogue on this scale...Facilitating a dialogue for upwards of forty people with no set follow-through provided a different challenge. Oriana and I had to decide how to establish a space for relatively safe sharing with mixed social groups.” Wulff explained.

In order to establish an open and inviting space, Wulff and Catton chose a specific location for the dialogue. “We held the dialogue in Dance Studio II in Kenyon in an attempt to reclaim the space from the critique and discomfort of silently accepting the negativity and stereotypes brought up in dance classes. But we also recognized that for many of the dancers, these studios were familiar and comforting, as well.” Wulff remarked.

The specific activities planned for the dialogue were also aimed at creating an environment conducive to honest conversation. “We established community norms to follow throughout the dialogue and Oriana shared a testimonial about her experience with body image, gender, and ethnicity. Both of those set a tone for the dialogue, recognizing the need to open and share vulnerably in a supportive setting.” Wulff explained.

These arrangements were highly appreciated by some of the participants. Cambers recounted, “My favorite part was breaking into small groups and discussing how our dance experiences as

they relate to body image have shaped us as dancers and individuals. It was really powerful to see the similarities and differences in each dancers experiences and moments, where we could connect across dance styles, experiences etc.…The format was really conducive to promoting genuine conversations and creating a safe space for each dancer to share their thoughts.”

She continued, “Honestly, the event went above and beyond my expectations! Body Positive did a wonderful job in bringing a sensitive issue to the dance community in a way that was positive and uplifting. In the future I think it would be interesting to bring the topic of body image to the dance faculty as well as a larger ongoing workshop or series.”

Gatton had a similarly positive experience with the conversation. “My favorite part of the workshop was how positive the discussion was.

Frequently, these conversations just turn into venting that while important is not very productive and generally does not leave participants wanting more,” said she.

Moreover, some saw it as a good form of collaboration among different dance groups. Bolduc commented, “Here at Vassar the different dance groups don’t often get to collaborate, so this was a great way to bring together a lot of people to discuss something we love (dance), but also acknowledge that there are parts of being a dancer that can be hard to deal with, such as the constant attention that is placed on one’s body.”

For the participants and the organizers alike, this dialogue is a first step at a more extensive and thorough discussion about body image and identity on campus. “I think this event is a great starting point for a lot of further conversations that need to be had on our campus and in the greater dance community.” Bolduc said.

Wulff concluded, “I think it provided a needed step to allow for a kind of healthy grieving—everyone could explain their pains and challenges—before we set out on a more challenging conversation about how to address issues more thoroughly.”

Unity in difference: international students’ devised play Emma Rosenthal Arts Editor

S

made Aftertaste perfect for me.”

The deeply personal themes of the play compelled the cast to not only self-reflect, but also look outside themselves to the greater community.

Gutierrez commented on this dichotomy in her experience with “‘Aftertaste,’” “[We’ve experienced] lots of collaborating and exploring. Also a lot of self-reflection in terms of finding balance between efficiency and fun freedom. [My favorite part has been] the unlikely ensemble, the weirdness, making theatre with minimal boundaries and being in it too deep...It is grounded on subjectivity, we speak no truths just our thoughts, or at least I do.”

Finally, both Sacristan-Benjet and Lim noted the straightforward as well as the dif-

ficult moments of creating a piece of theater as such and considered the experience as a whole. She wrote, “It’s been a fun process and we have really built a close relationship in the ensemble. Because the play is about our experiences, we have really shared intimate and personal moments with each other.”

Sacristan-Benjet continued, “However, it has also been very arduous to build an entire one hour and a half piece from scratch, in which we include everybody’s voice and also make it translatable for the non-international community in Vassar.”

On a final note, Lim expressed her admiration for and delight in her fellow cast members and the work they created together.

“They have created such beautiful and touching work,” said Lim.

Courtesy of Sheng Hui Lim

omething powerful happens when people use art to highlight unity as well as difference, an attribute which ten international Vassar students have been able to achieve through theater.

“Aftertaste,” a devised play, will be hitting the Kenyon Club Room from April 9-12.

Drama major and member of the ensemble Ariana Sacristan-Benjet ’18 gave a description of the show and offered her motive for joining the production. “‘Aftertaste’ is a devised theatre piece inspired by the experiences of the international students of Vassar College... I joined this project to have an opportunity to show the Vassar Community another perspective on life in this campus and to express my own experiences in an artistic form,” she said.

A co-creator of the idea for this production, Sofia Gutierrez ’18 gave her input to why she and other creators Sheng Hui Lim ’17 and Lily Wang ’18 decided to bring their idea to the Unbound devised theater ensemble for support. “We felt like making theatre of our own and our common identities as international students gave us ground to start from as three facilitators and then as an ensemble of ten...We all did a bit of everything, really in general we are all externalizing parts of ourselves into theatre.”

Each member of the “Aftertaste” ensemble participated in writing, directing and acting. One such member, Andrea Orejarena ’17, didn’t want to give too much away about the content of the final product, but spoke to some of the overall themes which spurred the idea for this play.

Orejarena confronted the challenges of carrying out this project. As she wrote in an emailed statement, “As we came together with the idea to convey multiculturalism, we were well aware that the topic itself is ineffable. However, this is also what made it a very exciting topic to explore.”

Orejarena continued, explaining the idea behind the name, “Our experience creating

the piece–and what we hope will be the experience of the audience–might be comparable to the experience of encountering a foreign taste: one that you can’t describe because you can’t distinguish a point of reference, therefore, you’re left only with the ‘aftertaste’.”

In terms of the execution of “Aftertaste,” each member of the ensemble worked with every aspect of the process to bring the devised piece to fruition. Sacristan-Benjet noted the pluralism not only of theatrical effort, but also of experience, “‘Aftertaste’ is a hierarchal ensemble, which means that we all participated in all the aspects of creation of the piece. ‘Aftertaste’ is a potpourri of everybody’s ideas, talents and experiences.”

Orejarena echoed her sentiment with a nod to the wide range of experiences each member held, despite all being international students at Vassar.

“The best part about working on this piece has been getting to know each others’ experiences as internationals. Certain stories and opinions excite us all as a group because these are shared moments where we couldn’t relate more. Other moments are exciting in a more intriguing way as we explore our differences,” said Orejarena.

Within the ensemble, there was also a range of experience in theater and performing arts, with students having come to the production with just a little experience to a great deal of background in drama. Gutierrez, a student with the latter background, commented on her involvement in the performing arts in relation to this play, “In high school, I did overall casual projects, I had mostly seen theatre rather than made it until now, or at least it feels like the first time I have been involved in a piece that is important to me.”

Sacristan-Benjet, who has had much more prior theatrical experience than others in the cast, was able to connect to the piece in her own way as well. She said, “I am a drama major and also have done theatre all my life. I have a lot of experience in experimental theatre and creating devised pieces which has

A group of Vassar students come together to create art based on their international backgrounds.

Their discussions of personal experience are translated into their devised theater piece, “Aftertaste.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ARTS

April 9, 2015

Page 15

Daguerreotypes bring shimmer to antique photography Emma Rosenthal Arts Editor

T

ADVERTISEMENT

courtesy of Vassar College Media Relations

his Friday, the walls of the Loeb will be shining with a rare and unusual collection of early photographs in “Through the Looking Glass: Daguerreotype Masterworks from the Dawn of Photography.”

Research Assistant of the exhibit Kristen Cnossen ’15 has been researching and working on bringing this exhibit to Vassar since this past summer, and her work culminates in the exhibit, which will last from April 10 to June 14. The daguerreotype is a very obscure form of art, and specifically of the subfield of photography, so Cnossen gave a description of the medium. “So what the daguerreotype is, is a polished silver plate that has imprinted on it an image from sunlight. And so what it does is it imprints a negative and a positive image onto this plate, which gives it this surreal movement,” she said.

She continued, “So, it’s like a mirror with an image on top and on the side of it, so when you move, you get this like different negative or positive and its very odd. There’s nothing quite like it...It was the first type of patent in photography.”

Emily Hargroves Fisher ‘57 and Richard B. Fisher Curator and Assistant Director for Strategic Planning, Mary Kay Lombino also spoke to the daguerreotype’s uniqueness when they were first developed. As she explained, “In many ways, daguerrotypes are the precursor to the ubiquitous iPhone images today. They were something small that you could carry around with [you], view repeatedly, and share with others. They were appealing for similar reasons, they were portable, small, shiny, beautifully designed, used the newest technology, and they were everywhere.”

Not only did these virtual multi-layered photographs have a distinctive look on their own, the artists who assembled them added a stylistic and practical aspect. “They put them in these leather bound cases that had these flaps on them. The U.S. was known for creating very

fancy cases. They ended up making these, like, plastic cases. They’re all beautiful with floral designs–quite lovely keepsakes,” noted Cnossen.

While the intricate and ornate production of these art forms would suggest a high-profile clientele, the actual subjects were the lower class of that time period, the early- to mid-19th century. Cnossen spoke to the novelty of this class of people being on the other end of the camera lens, “This is the first time that someone a little bit poorer might be able to get their image taken. So you see rural families, we get dresses, uniforms, not just the elite, we get images of daily life and this also starts occupational. So there’s this interesting desire to take the likeness of what a worker looks like; does a miner look different from a clam digger from a harvest taker?”

Cnossen continued, “In our show, there’s a lot of [daguerreotypes], with their tools and whatnot. You have portraits, like normal, with people wearing their Sunday bests. You have outdoor photographs, so taking pictures of your possessions, so like a barn or a cow.”

While upper class adults and children were better-documented around this time, the collection showed a new view into the culture and traditions of the working class. Cnossen, through her research, noticed interesting differences in the historical convention in the 1800’s: “Children are really interesting...they wore their mother’s clothing–even boys. They weren’t considered men yet. They were still children, they were still innocent, they...weren’t men yet, so they couldn’t wear men’s clothing. You could tell they were boys and not girls because of the parts in their hair. Women have straight [down the middle] parts and men had it on the sides...That was it.”

In a press release, Curator and Assistant Director for Strategic Planning at the Loeb MaryKay Lombino echoed Cnossen’s sentiment of originality, “We are thrilled to present our audience with such a large number and variety of daguerreotypes. Visitors to the exhibition not only will be afforded a glimpse of the past, but also

Daguerreotypes depict not only the elite classes of the 19th century, but also lower-class citizens.

The earliest form of photographs are encased in beautiful cases and will be displayed in the Loeb. will also see excellent examples from both sides of the Atlantic, a rarity for this material.”

The art form itself and its subjects aren’t the only idiosyncratic aspects of the show: The way this specific collection was accumulated is in itself uncommon. As Cnossen said, “When it comes to daguerreotypes, there are American ones and European ones, and they’re normally kept pretty separate because collectors are looking for different things. American daguerreotypes have a certain aspect to them that are different from European ones. No one [has] really mixed them.”

This distinction between daguerreotypes from different continents usually is stark and separate, but the curator specially blended the two. The show also blends different disciplines.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“The daguerrotypes are appealing in and of themselves but they also offer amazing opportunities for interdisciplinary study with departments such as art, film, history, women’s studies, drama, chemistry...” Lombino said.

As the opening of the exhibit approaches, the bigger vision is now grounded in reality, and Cnossen is excited to share her work with the viewers of the exhibition, “Everything was very well thought out and [Lombino] bounced ideas off of me in order to do that–in the layout as well.

I think the main thing is this idea of the first type of photography, mirror-like images, they kind of look like jewels in the cases. And seeing a piece of the nineteenth century that you can’t see in books, you can’t see in painting, you can’t see in art. It is real life.”

ADVERTISEMENT

ARTS

Page 16

April 9, 2015

French film Problematic writing inhibits spies’ comedy offers turns, surprises Sieu Nguyen

Guest Columnist

Kingsman Matthew Vaughn Marv Films

Charles Lyons-Burt Columnist

Clouds of Sils Maria Olivier Assayas CG Cinema

T

he chief preoccupation of the films of adventuresome French filmmaker Olivier Assayas is the proverbial passing of the baton.

His latest, sixteenth feature, “Clouds of Sils Maria,” is a flawed but poignant entry into this career-long thematic fixation. The film premiered at Cannes in 2014 and enjoyed a lengthy film festival run before making its theatrical debut in the U.S. “Clouds”’ narrative is a multigenerational waltz through half a century of regret and personal angst. Juliette Binoche plays Maria Enders, a renowned actress of stage and screen who is asked to accept a lifetime achievement prize for a colleague and friend, Wilhelm Melchior, who jumpstarted her career many years ago.

While en route to the ceremony, Maria’s assistant, Valentine (Kristen Stewart), receives word that Wilhelm has died. Maria is a complex figure, clearly talented, but intermittently childish, and Wilhelm’s death rattles her. She accepts the award on his behalf, and is subsequently offered a part in a revival of Melchior’s play and film, entitled “Maloja Snake.” The revival project is conceived by a hotshot European theater director, Klaus Diesterweg (Lars Eidinger), a pretentious creative force who wants to cast Maria.

It’s after this point, at the 35-minute mark, when a red-lettered title card appears denoting Part Two, and “Clouds of Sils Maria” becomes something altogether stranger. The film’s opening is well-performed, but it also threatens to devolve into a conventional procedure of insider celebrity dramas.

The second, and largest, section of the film is set almost entirely at the deceased Melchior’s home in the Swiss mountains. For a few months, Maria and Valentine run the actress’s lines during the daytime, drinking and smoking cigarettes at night. But Assayas does not hit the obvious notes; in the impressively acted rehearsal scenes between Binoche and Stewart’s characters, the writer/director opts not to intentionally confuse the audience as to whether or not the women are saying lines from the play or speaking their actual minds as we might expect. There is always a stable delineation between what is part of “Clouds of Sils Maria” and what is read from the fictional “Maloja Snake.”

Assayas’ film is indeed a genuine talkathon in which characters are constantly interpreting the art they consume and arguing about philosophical issues. Most of these conversations are revealing and retain a well-modulated level of self-awareness, but some of Assayas’ dialogue tips into the boldfaced. Assayas and company are usually able to skirt such explicitness, but in these moments, and perhaps in the outlining of the titular cloud-formation metaphor, the film’s vagueness is clarified too much. But what’s remarkable is how often the master filmmaker is able to defy such easy associations with his most glitzy cast list.

Like “Boarding Gate” before it, Assayas’ camera is tied to his leading ladies, and “Clouds of Sils Maria” provides a robust showcase for a few exceedingly talented female actors. The filmmaker brilliantly cuts from scene to scene (marked by fade-to-black ellipses) based on the shifting emotions—as Maria walks away from the camera and down a hallway talking on her cellphone early on, the scene dissolves. This expressionism is exemplified most stunningly in a mid-film sequence in which Valentine exhaustedly drives home on a steep, winding mountain road—as anguish and frustration cross Stewart’s face, her pains are felt by the daring use of overlaying images and a striking choice of music.

The film may overstate its thematic targets, but its naturalistic behavioral observations and way of attuning to its characters’ wandering souls gives it plenty of fodder for interest.

D

irected by Matthew Vaughn, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” is a mixture of action and comedy, sophistication and fatuity. With spectacular imagery, the film is an excellent choice for recreation; however, no exception to many “good-looking,” eye-pleasing blockbusters nowadays, its content could be far better-developed.

Kingsman is a secret intelligence agency for which Harry Hart works. During a mission in 1997, one of his comrades sacrificed himself to save the team. Haunted by guilt, Harry promises to help his family. Seventeen years later, Gary “Eggsy,” the comrade’s son, is living an aimless life as an underdog in the family and society.

Abused by his stepfather, and bullied by other kids, he meets Harry at his wit’s end. Harry successfully persuades Eggsy to apply for a vacancy in Kingsman. After a strenuous period of training and testing, Eggsy makes it to the final round, but he is beaten by Roxy, another candidate to whom he is close.

At the same time, a philanthropist named Valentine is having a conspiracy to cut down world population. He distributes free SIM cards and transmits signals to these cards, triggering a body mechanism to incite people’s belligerence. After failing Kingsman’s recruiting process, Eggsy discovers that Arthur, the head of the corporation, is also Valentine’s accomplice.

Along with Roxy and Merlin, a senior Kingsman, Eggsy leads a plan to destroy Valentine’s headquarter and his evil conspiracy.

Similar to many contemporary blockbusters, the visual of “Kingsman: The Secret Service” is beyond spectacular. Action-packed scenes

are full of energy, portraying the skills and competence of the agents persuasively. Since “Kingsman” promotes the new icon of the “gentleman agent,” the choreography of fight scenes appears elegant. Physical strength gives way to precision, bodily violence to gadgets. In the final scene, after Eggsy successfully suspends Valentine’s system, resulting in world leaders being killed, Vaughn uses the image of fireworks blowing up their heads to imply death.

Corresponding to the rhythm of the upbeat tune, this aesthetic choice suggests glory, adding a comedic flavor to the scene and masking the real horror of the disaster.

In this day and age, visual pleasure might be enough to help a film achieve high box office.

However, since I treasure sophistication in story writing and depth in character building, I do not feel fully satisfied watching “Kingsman.”

Firstly, I find the film’s overall message rather problematic. The motto “manner maketh man,” the emphasis on dress code and what separates a “real gentleman” from an ordinary one are all anti-liberal. The film adopts a pedagogical tone, attempting to “teach” boys how to behave. Is there any freedom if we are always obsessed with reaching a standard, becoming the superior? What I find pretty annoying is that it over-stresses the importance of the tailored suit. It resonates exactly with the most important thing society values nowadays – appearance.

The surface has its weight, but over-valuing it is quite superficial.

Another weakness in the plot of “Kingsman” is the development of “bad” characters. The contrast between good and evil seems very shallow. Valentine, despite being the leader of a big corporation and a great-scale plan (attempting to control the whole humankind), is portrayed as a foolish man. He doesn’t know what he is doing. He is simply “evil”; there is no justification behind it. It seems as if he just shows up on the screen to tell the audience, “I’m the bad guy.” All he does is laugh and freak out. Two-dimensional, he might be the most boring villain

I have seen in a while. His assistant, Gazelle, is absolutely more powerful and intelligent than him. I keep wondering why she hasn’t just overthrown her boss and assumed his position.

The film also portrays people around the world as unbelievably stupid. Does Valentine’s plan, giving out a massive number of SIM cards, seem overtly suspicious? Why do such a huge number of people, from country to country, believe his plan without a single question raised?

I am also amazed by how many world leaders side with Valentine. How did they get elected in the first place, if all they care about is themselves and not the people? Although it is a comedy, the way “Kingsman” depicts the world is actually very depressing.

What irritates me most is the ending of the film. After his victory, Eggsy comes back to the princess and Vaughn alludes to a sexual affair between the two. First, this is cliché: the male hero returning to his woman after rescuing the world. Second, it is out of sync with the story; consistency is broken.

Eggsy has nurtured such a burning desire to defeat Valentine to revenge for Harry, but when he succeeds, there is no tribute to his mentor.

The storyline shifts abruptly to a different direction. Third, without doubt, it is sexist. Perhaps this detail serves to prove that Eggsy has “finally become a man”: the woman becomes the reward for the hero, the signifier for his manhood. The woman is merely an object, something to conquer and possess.

I have often been told by people not to criticize a comedy, since its sole purpose is to make us laugh. However, I believe the way we laugh actually reveals who we really are and what we really think. Condoning the problems of comedy films helps strengthen existing stereotypes and stigmas.

I do not attempt to deny the effort that has been put into “Kingsman”—I might not be able to make such a successful movie – but there are certain issues to be addressed. In this case, I choose to become a critical viewer.

Plain, pure production sets Baumbach apart Reid Antin

Guest Columnist

While We’re Young Noah Baumbach Scott Rudin Prods.

I

’d be hard-pressed to find a more apt comparison of the way different generations consume their media than the one to be found in a key moment that occurs in “While We’re Young.” In the scene, which takes up no more than ten seconds of a montage, we see Jamie (Adam Driver), typical young Brooklyn hipster, popping in a VHS of “The Howling” into a purposefully retro, old-school TV. Immediately cut to Josh (Ben Stiller), typical middle-aged Upper West Side intellectual, impersonally flipping through his Netflix queue.

The warmth of the analogue format being revitalized by the youth, versus the coldness of the digital format being accepted by the old, was a startling juxtaposition that I can’t remember being portrayed as eloquently in a film before this. The revelation that the old desperately try to keep up with the new, and that the young foolishly idealize the retro, was at first surprising for me, especially when one considers that Josh was Jamie’s age when VHS was simply the norm as opposed to the hip.

One would think that when Vassar alum Noah Baumbach ’91 compares the differences in older generations versus younger generations, as is the film’s central theme, the modes of film viewing for each party would be the opposite. And yet, it is a revelation that totally makes sense. Personally, I can recall how my own parents get giddy at the satisfaction of pressing play on a Netflix title (‘I guess streaming is where it’s at these days’), and scoff at how I lug my ’80s TV around (‘Admiral was a crappy brand then, and it’s a crappy brand now’). But then again, like Jamie, maybe I’m just a prisoner of nostalgia? If not, he would seem to be an accurate representation of our intentionally quaint generation.

In any case, throughout my joyous experience of viewing Baumbach’s latest outing, one that had me smiling from ear to ear for all of its breezy 94 minutes, I kept finding one spoton point and juxtaposition after another. This was truly quite a feat considering how easily he could have fallen back onto one-dimensional stereotypes, but refused to. In fact, this film, which could have easily fell into parody of curmudgeon-ism (to make up a word), proves instead to be Baumbach’s most insightful statement since “The Squid and the Whale.” The two work beautifully as companion pieces, if only to compare how much Brooklyn has changed in the last 30 years, from the poorman’s Manhattan of the ‘80s to the hotbed of popular culture of today.

Simmering beneath the surface, only to boil over in the film’s final minutes, Baumbach seems very concerned with how future generations will be raised in today’s digital culture, as evidenced by an ingenious comic sequence of a toddler fiddling around with an iPhone as if it were a stuffed animal. Wreaking havoc as it wields the frightening ability to call anybody in the world, accidentally search any topic it can type, incidentally holding more power in the palm of its hand than a toddler of any previous generation would be capable of having – in the subtlest of ways, at least to our middle-aged protagonists, the future seems frightening. Hasn’t it always?

Most interestingly, the script serves as a truthful, if perhaps unpleasant reveal of the down-and-dirty tactics that it takes to be successful in the film world, contrasting the ethical, relative failure that is Josh, with the sleazy but victorious Jamie. At the end of the day, it would seem that Baumbach’s message is that the most manipulative person will always win out unpunished, because that’s just the way the world works.

Technically, this is a film whose cinematography is purposefully unflashy yet pure in the way it showcases real life. Such a statement might seem a little insincere given the polished sheen that pervades the work, complete with its all-star cast, and especially in contrast to

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Baumbach’s previous down and dirty, spunky piece of independent filmmaking that was “Frances Ha.” And yet, he employs the same verite shooting style, staging some scenes right in the middle of a real-life New York crowd, some of which feature fairly unnoticeable, unrehearsed extras staring on at Ben Stiller (Baumbach justified said technique by referring to its gritty usage in “Midnight Cowboy”). Most strikingly, the last shot of the film is the title itself, spray-painted on a brick wall in graffiti, as the end credits roll. Random people cross the frame–some staring on, some walking right by it. To my eye, the totality of the film, symbolized by its title (in addition to just being a cool shot), encompasses the entirety of today’s zeitgeist represented by real life caught unawares, to reference a Vertov expression.

The televisual style also allows for the film’s many details to speak for themselves, especially in Jamie’s apartment littered with cool, retro artifacts like a “Rappin’ Rodney” LP (which Baumbach says is his own personal copy) to a “Rocky III” poster (which is hilariously later referenced in a jokey usage of “Eye of the Tiger”). The appropriation of these then-mediocre pieces of pop culture iconography from Josh’s youth into an ultra-hip persona for Jamie never ceases to cause one to question just how shallow the foundation for the hipster mindset really is (and, full disclosure, I wholly count myself as one of those youngsters who find such lame things awesome).

To quote Josh in his surprise at Jamie’s earnest sharing of “Eye of the Tiger,” he says, “I remember when this song was just considered bad...but it’s working.” When it works, it works.

In this way, the film reminds us that sometimes it takes the youth of tomorrow to rediscover the power of what is dismissed today.

In essence, this is a highly entertaining film with a lot of serious ideas about today to convey. I wouldn’t be surprised if 30 years from now, despite Baumbach’s obvious and endearing callbacks to ’70s cinema (Woody Allen in particular), this were held as one of the films that, for better or for worse, showed what life was like in 2015.

ARTS

April 9, 2015

Page 17

Poet-activist to confront racism, sexism Excuse me, CHIN continued from page 1 en of color, are disproportionately impacted by violence.”

After looking into a number of spoken word artists and political activists, SAVP and CARES ultimately decided that Chin was an ideal choice to get the message across for Sexual Assault Awareness Weeks: “We are excited to bring Staceyann Chin because her poetry raises critical questions about violence against women, body empowerment and the connectedness between multiple forms of oppression. As a lesbian woman of color who was born in Jamaica and later moved to the United States, Chin incorporates the intersectionalities of her identity into her poetry and feminist activism,” said Swanson.

She continued, “We also value spoken word as an art form that is expressive, empowering and deeply political and are excited about the opportunity to engage the Vassar community with this type of performance!”

Susie Martinez ’15, a SAVP intern and CARES listener, said: “I think that we don’t often hear about the stories of queer women of color, especially when it comes to talking about sexual assault, and how different identities navigate such a traumatic experience. I think it’s powerful to see yourself represented in areas such as creative art and spoken word, which is what makes bringing in Staceyann Chin feel right.”

Born in Jamaica, Staceyann Chin is of Chinese-Jamaican and Afro-Jamaican descent, and has been vocal about her struggles due to her race and sexuality and how those two intersect: “I think now what I work hard to do is to articulate the identities that are still under the attack of racism and sexism. I represent the women of Jamaica who are unable to travel across borders to speak about their identities and their lives. I talk about people who are poor, and I suppose I represent people who might come to Sweden, who might find themselves invisible, or might find that they come up against larger things than what they are able to deal with,” said Chin in a 2009 interview with Trikster.

She now lives in Brooklyn, New York, and in 2009 published a memoir, “The Other Side of Paradise,” which she describes in the same interview: “It talks about growing up in Jamaica, about what it was like living in such a gendered identity, about being a kid with a loud mouth,

Campus Canvas

about being abandoned.” When Chin first moved to New York, she associated the city with freedom: “I was lucky I came and found that thing I was looking for. I had no expectations. I only wanted to be alive, feel and experience new things. When you feel as if you’re trapped in a situation, I suppose freedom looks very good,” says Chin in an interview with The Root. However, it wasn’t everything she expected it to be: “What I’m learning to do these days is be present in the life that I have and make the life that I have better. I thought if I found James Baldwin’s New York from Another Country, I would be so happy. I found that it isn’t New York that has made it so, but me being conscious of the smaller things and to not expect too much of the bigger things. I never expected to be a writer or poet here, or for people to know my name. And I realized I would be equally happy if that never happened.”

She continued, “I was looking for something outside of myself to save me, but what I really needed to do was plot a path, follow it, and leave myself open for detours, unexpected pleasures and moments of failure.”

Today, Chin is confident in who she has become: “When I talk to my friends, they are not surprised that I became a writer or activist or loud-mouth talking about unspeakable things.

In my heart of hearts, I was always a little girl born without a doctor in a one-room hut in rural Jamaica. I was always trying to shake that as a reality, lie about it, accept it and neutralize it.

Today I know that it is a fact about me that is as irrevocable and unchanging as the color of my skin. I suppose what has surprised me most is that a country girl born with no doctor can become anybody.”

She has also published other books, such as “Wildcat Woman” and “Stories Surrounding My Coming.” Her poems have appeared in several anthologies, such as “Black Cool: One Thousand Streams of Blackness,” though she hasn’t published a book of poems yet, claiming that, “I haven’t put a published book of poems out because I think it takes a really long time to become a poet. And I don’t think I’m quite there yet. I’m still working on the craft of writing poems and what they might be if they were good poems. I articulate my identity within the work that I do, but I feel like some of it is still very clumsy in the craft.” Her work has also been published in The

New York Times and the Washington Post. She is a winner of many awards and accolades, such as the 1999 Chicago People of Color Slam and the 1998 Lambda Poetry Slam. She performed in and co-wrote Russell Simmons’ “Def Poetry Jam,” which was based on the HBO spoken word poetry television series. It opened on Broadway and ran until May 2003, winning a Tony award.

Chin was also featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “60 Minutes.”

Of all her TV and radio appearances, Chin says, “To me, when I look behind me, it seems like I haven’t been up to much. So when people say ‘oh, you’ve been up to so much, and I saw you in this and that’, it’s kind of like I’m doing the same thing every day...I’m just plotting along and trying to do my part in a process of changing the world and making it better.”

Aside from “Spoken Word with Staceyann Chin,” there are a number of other events coming up this month to raise awareness for sexual assault. Swanson said, “On April 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the Sanders’ Auditorium, we are hosting a screening and discussion of the recently released documentary, ‘The Hunting Ground.’

The film exposes the impact of sexual assault for students on college campuses and the lack of institutional and administrative response to the issue. On April 29, we will also be co-sponsoring an a cappella concert to raise awareness about violence against women. The proceeds will go to Family Services in Poughkeepsie. In collaboration with the Title IX office and the Office of Institutional Research, we will also be launching ‘The Vassar Sexual Assault Climate Survey’ to better assess the needs of students on campus in regards to these issues.” In addition, CARES will be having an art show from 5-7 p.m. in the Aula on April 14, and a speakout in the Faculty Parlor from 5-7 p.m. on April 16.

The organizers of the month’s events have high hopes for how they might contribute to sexual assault awareness: “We’re hoping that the event will raise awareness about issues related to sexual violence through the use of a creative art form and encourage meaningful dialogue amongst the audience,” said Swanson.

Martinez added, “Overall, we hope that the programming for this month will continue to raise awareness about sexual assault on campuses, including at Vassar.”

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

What is your most hated song?

“Let Me Take a Selfie by The Chainsmokers.” ­­— Michelle Yuan ’15

“Drunk in Love by Beyoncé.”

— Sam Blanchard ’18

“Friday by Rebecca Black.”

— Mija Lieberman ’16

submit to misc@vassar.edu

“Blank Space by Taylor Swift.”

— Jesslyn Mitchell’15

“Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson.”

— Ramy Abbady ’16

I completed this piece for my Drawing 103 midterm--it is a powdered graphite drawing of a mural that I would propose to place in the Mug. The mural examines the issue of sexual harassment and assault that occurs ever frequently in the Mug and how it often goes unnoticed by bystanders, as represented by the shadowy mass. The sexual interaction between the main figures is intentionally subtle; I used heightened values to emphasize the power dynamic between victim and perpetrator, the female’s face and identity cast in shadow juxtaposed against the male’s hands. The triple shadow following the female figure intimates the recurrence of such a situation with other victims, simultaneously underscoring their invisibility and silence. The composition replicates the actual Mug so that when placed in the location, it should read as an extension of the Mug’s real space, thus forcing viewers to directly and immediately engage with the subject matter at close range. Chairs are drawn both within the frame of the mural and outside the mural to show that they are both pictorial representations as well as actual chairs.

-Oriana Catton ’17

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“The Hokie Pokie.”

— Kyle DeAngelis ’15

Emma Rosenthal Humor & Satire Editor Sam Pianello, Photo Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

April 9, 2015

Mr. Consistent, Kriz bumps young Brewers up to top Amreen Bhasin Reporter

T

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

he Vassar College men’s volleyball team is set to begin competing in the playoffs of the United Volleyball Conference (UVC) on Friday, April 10 in Hoboken, N.J. at No. 1 Stevens Institute of Technology. This year’s postseason appearance marks the third showing in four years for the Brewers in the playoff tournament. The team opens up their postseason play against No. 3 Nazareth College. With three wins this weekend, the team would be able to punch their ticket to the NCAA tournament.

One strong member of this year’s team has been junior right side and captain, Reno Kriz.

Kriz has been a workhorse throughout his entire career. In 2014, he played in all 115 sets of the Brewers campaign, the most in Vassar history, and also led the team with 424 kills, the fifth-highest in Vassar history. This year he leads the team in kills again but as a part of a much more balanced attack, has recorded 259 kills in 89 sets. He ranks in the top 10 in the UVC in both kills and service aces this season.

Kriz is also a big reason why the Brewers were able to make the playoffs this year. Last week he had a strong impact in every game he played and was an important part of the Brewers 2-1 run that helped them into the playoffs.

Kriz averaged 3.12 kills and 1.62 digs per set last week as well as a team-best five-service aces to help pace the Brewers. During the Brewers’ four-set playoff spot clinching victory against Penn State-Behrend, Kriz produced 15 kills, 11 digs and three total blocks.

In an emailed statement, Kriz explained his role on the team and how crucial it really is. “I play on the right side. Since I am not one of the primary passers, my job is basically to always be ready to hit, especially on plays where we are out of system (when someone besides the setter is setting, or when the setter needs to chase down a bad pass).”

Despite a drop-off in his individual numbers this year, Kriz currently has the 8th most kills

in school history with 960 in his career. He’s just one kill away from 7th place, the 961 set by All-American Matt Elgin ’13 during his career at Vassar. But, Kriz’s job on the right side of the court remains integral to the team’s success and he has had a lot more support on the attack from his teammates than in years past.

Kriz explained how his own statistical dropoff actually represents this year’s more balanced, offensively talented team. “Last season, we really only had myself and Joe Pyne as consistent offensive options, with several players playing out of position and others being hurt, so I had a lot more opportunities. This season, while my individual numbers are down, we’ve done a good job spreading the ball around more on offense. With freshmen Matt Knigge and Jorge Rivera, sophomores Quinn Rutledge and Christian Lizana, and junior Erik Halberg really stepping up, I haven’t needed to take as many swings as last season, and that’s probably a big reason why we’ve been more successful this season.”

Kriz, a second-year captain, is part of a team that features just two seniors, two juniors, four sophomores and four freshmen. Despite the young team, the Brewers rebounded from a 1012 (3-8 UVC) record last season to an impressive 18-12 (3-5 UVC) record.

Kriz praised his team’s efforts this year and in the off season and recognized their potential for the future. “I’m very happy about the team’s performance this season. We’ve worked hard all year, with a lot of guys getting in the weight room. Even though we’ve had a couple games that we shouldn’t have lost, we are a very young team, so these inconsistencies will happen. What matters most is that we won the games that really mattered, which is a big step up from last year, where we always seemed to come up just short.”

A difficult game from last year’s season proved Kriz’s favorite during his career. “One of my favorite games was when we played Sacred Heart last season, a Division 1 opponent.

Junior captain Reno Kriz has been essential to the Brewers’ volleyball success over the past three years. Kriz has been a consistent force, ranking eighth in kills in school history.

We had played them in the fall, and they had just crushed us. In the rematch though, we actually managed to beat them in five sets, which was our first five-set win of the season. After all the five-set losses we had that year, it was just nice to have one game where it felt like everything finally came together, and we were able to close it out.”

Kriz has strong expectations for this weekend’s upcoming game. “Coming into this season, we wanted to make it back to our conference tournament, and at least win our first round game. We’ve done the first part of that, but I’d like to pull off at least one more upset this weekend. We’ve lost to Nazareth twice this season, but we’re ready, and I think we have a good shot at surprising them on Friday.”

One of Kriz’s most important roles this year

has been one of leadership. With Elgin’s graduation and so few seniors, Kriz’s role as captain has been necessary in helping to guide the underclassmen in their transition to Vassar and playing at a high level. He’s been integral to not just the on-court play during games, but also to helping keep the team strong and close. Kriz cites leadership as one of the goals he had coming into this season. “My individual goals were to get to 1,000 kills, and to find a way to better lead the team, since I felt like last season, not being used to a leadership role, I sort of struggled. I don’t think I’ll make my statistical goal. But, thanks to fellow captains [sophomore] Trey Cimorelli and [senior] Colin White-Dzuro, we’ve done a better job creating a better overall team atmosphere this season, which will hopefully carry over into next year.”

Quick like lightning, but VC women can strike twice TRACK continued from page 1

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

put their best foot forward on the line this year.

We are unsatisfied if we do not achieve what we set out to do on any given day at practice.

There is no one on our team this year that is willing to settle. It has been really encouraging watching everyone push themselves and each other to succeed, and I am super excited to see what we put down on the track as the season progresses.” The three team captains, seniors Nina Andersen, Heather Ingraham and Harper Cleves, with the help of seven other senior members of the team, will look to provide their squad with strong leadership throughout the season to keep to momentum rolling.

On March 20, Ingraham and freshman Karmen Hutchinson competed at the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational hosted by Coastal Carolina University. Ingraham ran the 100-meter dash in the Invitational, with a collegiate-best time of 12.55 with the addition of a 0.7 head wind, tying the school record previously set

by Ariel Bridges in 2014. Ingraham placed 27th overall in a field of primarily Division I runners, but she was still first among all other Division III competitors.

On the third day of the Invitational, Ingraham posted what was likely one of her best performances of all time. She ran the fastest 400-meter time in the nation with a time of 55.92, taking first place among all runners in the event. She elaborated, “I’m really proud of my opening time in the 400 at Myrtle Beach this year. It’s a faster time than I opened up with at this time last year, and it’s a really nice reassurance that I am on the right track for where I want to be at the end of the season.”

Hutchinson competed in the 100-meter hurdle event and posted a time of 17.56, the best Vassar time in the event since 2013. Hutchinson took home 33rd place among the field of runners that day.

Sophomores Alex Gittens and Lucy Balcezak teamed up with Ingraham on the third day of the Invitational. Gittens competed in the 200-meter, clocking a personal best time of 27.97 in addition to competing in the seeded section of the 400-meter event. Balcezak com-

Senior Heather Ingraham continued her dominance at the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational at Costal Carolina University. Ingraham ran the fasted 400 meter in the nation, dazzling the crowd. peted in the 800-meter race, posting a time of 2:26:71 for the Brewers.

While only a handful of Vassar runners competed at the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational, the team competed in its entirety on March 28, 2015 at the Monmouth University Season Opener at Monmouth Stadium. Ingraham was at it again, this time showing her extended speed and endurance by winning the 800-meter dash of the Opener with a time of 2:13:70. Later in the day, Vassar’s “A-team” for the 4x400 meter relay, comprised of freshman Eliana Tyler, Ingraham, Balcezak and Gittens, finished fifth overall with a time of 4:03:60.

Cleves also had a terrific performance at the Opener in the 1500-meter run with a personal best time of 5:01:73, finishing as the event’s top Division III runner. Gittens and senior Margaret Sowa competed in the 800-meter event, with Gittens running a 2:27:38, placing her in

14th place and just barely missing her personal best time. Sowa was right behind Gittens with a 2:29:37, finishing third in her heat. In the 200-meter dash, junior Mollie Schear ran a 27.54, which was third in her heat and 23rd overall, just missing her personal best. Crowell was .01 seconds behind Schear in the same event to finish 24th.

In their two most recent competitions, the Brewers had just as much success. Senior Cassidy Carpenter competed as the sole Vassar representative at the prestigious Sam Howell Invitational hosted by Princeton, N.J., while the rest of the squad headed to Ramapo College for the annual Roadrunner Invitational.

Carpenter competed in the 5000-meter run on April 3. She finished 31st out of a field of 46 competitors, most of whom were Division I runners, with a time of 18:29:34 and only barely missed a qualifying time for the ECAC Cham-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

pionships by four seconds.

Despite weather conditions that were colder than normal and unusually strong gusts of wind, the Brewers put up strong performances at the Roadrunner Invitational on April 4.

Vassar’s 4x100 meter relay team of sophomore Saparja Nag, Schear, Anderson and Ingraham won their heat with a time of 50.90. The time was unfortunately just off the ECAC Championship time of 50.30.

Ingraham continued her success by finishing second in the 100-meter dash preliminaries, qualifying for the ECAC meet and breaking the school record with a time of 12.37. She went on to take third in the finals of the event later that day with a time of 12.66. Ingraham also ran the 200-meter race late that day, taking second with a time of 25.56, producing yet another ECAC qualifying time.

The 3000-meter steeplechase saw two standout runs, junior Ava Farrell finished second overall with a time of 11:43:29, a time that qualified her for the ECAC Championships.

Sophomore Laura MacDonald also debuted in the event, positing a time of 12:11: 16, finishing fourth in the event.

Finally, in the 4x800 meter relay, the team comprised of senior Taylor Quinn, senior Nicole Woodworth, Cleves and Balcezak finished in second place with a time of 9:54:11 and earned a spot at the ECAC Championships.

The women’s track team is looking to do big things again this year. Tyler said, “Our team goals are to get as many people as possible to Liberty Leagues and ECACs. We’ve been training really hard through the winter, both outside and in the bays. We’ve now moved to the track, which is exciting, and we are continuing to put in the work there and in the weight room. Thus far, I’m most proud of the strong starts that many of my team members have had and the hard training we have put in, and I’m most excited to get more racing experience at this level and to race in some warmer weather.”

Keep your eyes peeled for the Women’s Track and Field Team this year. Their next performance is the Silfen Invitational on April 11, hosted by Connecticut College.

April 9, 2015

SPORTS

Page 19

Too much hype mars young college athletes Ins and outs among sport L fanatics Samuel Hammer Columnist

ast year’s draft class received heaps of praise for being the strongest class since 2003 when stars such as LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony were drafted. This season it turns out that besides Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and arguably Nikola Mirotic (who is actually twenty four-years-old and spent several seasons playing professionally in Spain before getting drafted) the class has not been particularly impressive. With the 2015 NCAA tournament in full gear, fans are already clamoring for their teams to select the likes of Duke’s Justise Winslow, Kentucky’s Trey Lyles and Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker.

The problem with getting too excited over players who are stars in the NCAA Tournament is that the college game is drastically different than that of the NBA. NBA competition is bigger, stronger, faster and better in general.

Defenses and offenses are run in a different fashion since the courts are wider and there is a Defensive 3-Second violation in the NBA (which means NBA teams cannot play a zone defense where they leave a center or forward right under the hoop, NBA teams generally end up playing man-to-man defense). The NBA schedule is also more rigorous since there are 82 regular season games, which are all 48 rather than 40 minutes long as in college.

Psychologically, players who have grown accustomed to being the best player on the court for most of their lives have to come to grips with the fact that they are no longer in such a position. A first-round draft pick was probably the best player on his high school team, if not his entire state, and the best player on his college team. When bad NBA teams such as the Sacramento Kings draft college stars like Nik Stauskas (eighth overall draft pick in 2014 from University of Michigan), these players are expected to contribute immediately to the success of their team, even if they might require

several years to develop. Stauskas was a star for Michigan during their NCAA Tournament run to the Elite Eight last year. The dictionary definition of “hype” is extravagant or intense publicity or promotion. Hype can apply to all sorts of things such as upcoming movies or music, new products and especially to athletics. The fans and media seem to always be searching for the next great team or player and tend to build up their expectations to unreasonable levels.

For many people about there, this Cleveland Cavaliers season will be a bust if the team does not at least make the NBA Finals. Football fans, especially those who support the Cleveland Browns, let the hype get the best of them when the team drafted former Texas A&M phenom with the 22nd pick of the 2014 NFL draft. In the few games that he has played in, Johnny Manziel has looked terrible, and he is currently spending time in rehabilitation for his alcohol and drug addictions.

“The fans and media seem to always be searching for the next great team or player...”

The case of Johnny Manziel is a classic example of a young college athlete failing to live up to the expectations set by the media and fans when he reaches the professional level.

Hype is no less prevalent in basketball, where players are able to enter the NBA as soon as they are one year removed from high school.

It is commonplace these days for the first round of the NBA draft to be filled with 18 and 19-year-old athletes who are not even able to purchase alcohol legally. These young men are then expected to quickly transition from one season of Division I basketball to the rigors of playing an 82 game NBA schedule against the

best players in the world. Players who managed to stay under the radar during the regular season are now the center of attention due to the wild popularity surrounding the NCAA Tournament. A couple of great performances during the postseason can greatly enhance an athlete’s draft stock, along with the expectations of fans and team personnel executives around the league.

Players such as Johnny Flynn, Adam Morrison and Shabazz Napier have all had lackluster professional basketball careers after having outstanding performances in the NCAA Tournament that brought them into the national spotlight. In the NCAA Tournament last year, Shabazz Napier put up an incredible performance and managed to lead the UConn Huskies in an improbable run to the finals where they managed to defeat a star-studded Kentucky University Wildcats team. Napier, who at the time was a senior, received praise from various media members, coaches and even celebrities including LeBron James who tweeted “My favorite player in the draft! #Napier.”

Many observers praised Napier’s veteran leadership and his “will to win.” The funny thing about labeling an athlete with characteristics such as the “will to win” or the “it” factor is that they are completely meaningless. Napier now comes off the bench for a bad Miami Heat team where he averages around five points and is shooting poorly. What happened to his “will to win?” Stauskas is currently playing about fifteen minutes per game for a terrible Sacramento Kings team. In those fifteen minutes, he is averaging 4.3 points and shooting a mediocre 36.4% from the floor. Despite being selected within the first ten picks of what was supposed to be a historically talented draft, Stauskas is making minor contributions on a struggling Kings team with little hope for the future.

The media and fans really need to learn to temper their expectations about Tournament stars coming into the draft. Too much hype will just leave you disappointed.

Athletes’ tweets replace journalistic feats Robert Carpenter guest columnist

A

s the literary and journalism worlds prepare for the April 20 announcement of this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners, it is fair to say that the media award season is in full swing.

The Pulitzer Prize will recognize excellence in journalism in categories ranging from commentary to breaking news reporting and every aspect of journalism in between. Where does sports journalism play into this mix of awards and acknowledgments?

Well, most of the time, it doesn’t.

Even though sports reporting is consistently one of the most popular sections in newspapers and news websites alike, the Pulitzer Prize does not offer a specific category to acknowledge excellence in the area.

Instead, sports journalists fight it out with the rest of the press mainly in the broad categories of commentary and feature writing. But this restrictive process hasn’t completely kept sports journalists from accepting the prize at Columbia University, and some of the industry’s talent have received the award and been acknowledged as finalists.

“Sports reporting is consistently one of the most popular sections in newspapers and news websites alike...”

This includes excellent writers such as The New York Times’ Dave Anderson and The Los Angeles Times’ Jim Murray who won the prize for commentary in 1990 and 1981 respectively. Most recently, The New York Times’ John Branch won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for Feature Writing for his articles on the potential brain damage caused by fighting in hockey, and ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser was a finalist for commentary in 1997. The Pulitzer Prize symbolizes the top of the journalistic world, but it rarely acknowledges one of the industry’s strongest

foundations: sports.

Of course there are other prizes that acknowledge the best and brightest of sports media, including the Red Smith Award given

by Associated Press Sports Editors every year to a writer who made “major contributions to sports journalism.”

Last month, the award was given to Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe whose forty-year career stretched from covering the Boston Celtics in the seventies to appearing weekly on ESPN’s “Around the Horn.” Undeniably, Ryan’s impressive career deserves recognition, but as the sports writing legend continues to contribute from his quasi-retirement, he stands as a relic of a quickly fading age of newspaper sports writing. The new age of sports fans turns to the web for stories and updates, not the newspaper.

This new Internet-based audience has made it easier and easier for sensationalized and half-cooked stories to steal readers’ attention, making it critical for awards such as the Pulitzer to acknowledge and direct the consumers towards credible and excellent journalism. In my opinion, the purpose of prizes in media is not just to acknowledge good work by writers and producers, but is also to highlight quality in a forum increasingly cluttered by a host of shoddy products.

At the moment, the future of sports journalism can appear bleak. Quantity is valued over quality and long reads artfully detailing how games felt while they happened have become increasingly obsolete.

Meanwhile, bite-sized article updates that are jammed full of statistics instead of prose and directed at a fantasy sports-crazed market have risen in prominence. The sports journalism landscape is changing faster than a Russell Westbrook fast break, and yet the awards for industry have barely changed since Larry Bird was a rookie.

I fear that as the barrier between fans and players dissolves, the need for sports journalists to bridge the gap will hurt the industry and the quality of the product. Already, Twitter and other social networking sites have allowed ath-

letes to easily connect with their fans, enabling players to take control of their public perception. Furthermore, a considerable amount of distrust seems to be developing between sports media and athletes. This distrust is visible in a multitude of episodes ranging from Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks answering all questions at his Super Bowl press conference by saying, “I am just here so I won’t get fined,” to Russell Westbrook telling a reporter asking him routine post game questions, “I just don’t like you,” to his fellow Oklahoma City Thunder star forward Kevin Durant telling reporters, “Y’all not my friends.”

Between these three recent events it is easy to deduce that there is a growing disconnect between athletes and reporters who in the past were on good terms. Even though sports journalists need input from athletes to write compelling pieces, athletes do not need reporters to do their jobs.

“The sports journalism landscape is changing faster than a Russell Westbrook fast break...”

Nowadays athletes even write directly to their audiences and fans, completely removing the need for a journalist middleman. This can be seen in Derek Jeter’s The Players Tribune where a myriad of high-profile athletes have written pieces since the site launched last year or in Richard Sherman’s series of articles in Sports Illustrated. Even LeBron James tried his hand in writing when he announced his decision to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers late last summer.

At present, sports journalism could use a much needed boost. A viable annual award that would acknowledge the best creative minds in sports writing would lend credibility to an industry that is losing trust from players and readers alike.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Elaina Peterkin Guest Columnist

W

hat is it about sports that causes fanaticism and devotion from athletes and players alike? People are so willing to buy the jerseys, the tickets, to self-educate on stats and player information, and devote their time and energy to a sport with an amount of loyalty that is quite uncommon. It’s a strangely universal practice regardless of the usual limiting factors, such as race, class, etc. Within the participation of sports and observing sports there is some deep seeded social aspect, sports have a unique way of bringing people together.

Moreover, there can be no denying the strong connection between sports and identity—whether it be the on-field feeling of belonging in team situations or the sense of camaraderie that occurs during watching sports in a group. This is what is known as the social identity theory developed by Henri Tajfel. In his theory, Tajfel explains that as individuals, we derive our identity from the groups we belong to and further our sense of belonging in the social world. Through this we are able to enhance our self image by raising the status of our group and discriminating against other groups. More specifically, through social categorizing there are in-groups and out-groups.

The groups an individual is a member of are the in-groups and other groups are the outgroups. This occurs in stages, with the first being categorization. In the categorization stage individuals place people into groups as a way of better understanding the social environment.

By placing people into categories, it is easier for an individual to find the groups in which they belong. This is second stage—social identification in which the individual adapts to the identity of the in-group. With this comes emotional significance and a bond closely linked to group membership. The third and final stage is social comparison, this stage involves the comparison of the in-group to the out-groups in order to maintain self-esteem. The in-group must compare favorably to out-groups which causes not only hostility, but competing identities; hostility is more likely if the comparison is unfavorable one way or the other.

Through the social identity theory an individual that is strongly connected to their in-group will always see it in a positive light, even after failure of some form. However, if an individual is only loosely connected to the ingroup they will continue by use of BIRGing and CORFing (Basking in Reflected Glory and Cutting Off Reflected Failure). In general, these behaviors can be easily observed in athletes and sports fans: For example, team rivalries can get intense and quite often the loss of an important game results in reckless behavior. More often than not, however, sports provide a context for bonding in spite of the normal bounds of separation—it has the ability to bridge the gaps of time and culture. There is nothing quite like joining fellow enthusiasts in watching a game or playing with a team of people that share your passion. But this also has negative aspects such as deindividuation. As I mentioned earlier a team’s poor performance in a game can cause sports fans to engage in reckless behavior, this can be seen as an act of deindividuation in which self-awareness is impaired, individuals are more responsive to social and situational forces and tend be more aggressive. Further, sports can act as tool for unification at higher levels, for example the World Cup and Olympics create a strong sense of unity on a national level and aid in forming a national identity.

Many countries are defined by their sports almost as much as their politics, economy, and geography. Politicians have recognized this and often use international sporting events as a breeding ground for foreign diplomacy. The scope of power sports holds surpasses that of many other organized events. Its influence on identity reflects this and must be remembered as a useful agent for stronger social interactions. Sports are critical in a large aspect of everyday life and should be credited as such, but it’s dangers should also be acknowledged.

SPORTS

Page 20

April 9, 2015

No time to re-lax, women’s lacrosse continue busy season Ashley Hoyle Reporter

V

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

C women’s lacrosse is currently split even in its standings. The women have an overall record of 4-4 since starting their season with an opener on March 15 in Bradenton, Fla. where they trounced Keene State 16-10 in the Spring Fling Lacrosse Tournament. This came after the Liberty League preseason coaches’ poll was released, slating the Brewers for fourth place. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was picked for first, clocking in with 76 points, Union College a close second at 71 and William Smith College was placed third with 69 points.

Vassar was allotted 54 points to clinch their spot in fourth.

VC women’s lacrosse had a solid 2014 season, coming out of the spring with an 11-5 record and making it all the way to the semifinals of the Liberty League Championships, where they fell to RPI. So far this season, the women have played in eight contests, splitting wins and losses evenly. Starting on March 11, the women played a formidable Farleigh Dickinson University-Florham Campus Team at Marist College and fell 6-12. During their trip to Florida after their victory over Keene State, the Brewers saw Stevenson University and took a close loss by a margin of 7-9. Still in Bradenton, the women played Western Connecticut State, taking a win with a score of 20-12. Then in late March, the Brewers saw Union College and William Smith College at home on Weinberg field, losing 9-11 and winning 9-8 respectively.

The women then saw RPI in Troy, N.Y., where they won 11-8 and in the same weekend they lost 6-11 to Skidmore in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Next on their schedule is RPI on April 10, to be played in Rochester, N.Y. The Brewers have a lot of lofty goals for the 2015 season. Senior Leigh Baldwin has plans for 2015 on a personal and team level, “My goal is to make a positive impact every time I step on the field, and to push my teammates

Senior Leigh Anne Baldwin, sophomore Julia Trudell and junior Isabelle Goldstein celebrate a goal with their teammates at Keene State in Florida, where the team competed against two other teams. to reach their full potential. As a team, we are aiming to take home a Liberty League championship this season, and hoping to host playoffs on our home turf as the #1 seat.” The same goes for senior Kate Pula who said, “My goal is to consistently play at the highest level for every game. For the team we want to keep improving throughout the season as a team and go all the way to the league championship.” Senior captain Katherine Stegmann has very specific ideas about how her final season as a Brewer will play out. “Our main goals for the season are to beat RPI, get to the playoffs and face Union once again. We lost to them in the last seconds of overtime in a game we worked really hard for, so we’d love to match up against them again and get a [little] revenge. (And we beat RPI yesterday for the first time in their

first league loss in many years so that’s goal one accomplished!)” she said. And more broad and outcome focused is Dara Davis, another senior captain, who said, “Our main goal is to win the Liberty League championship.”

In order to achieve these wide-reaching goals, each player has a specific course of action. Baldwin believes in the team’s ability to work hard, “We will achieve these goals by bringing a determined work ethic to every practice, and by playing with heart and hustle against even our toughest opponents. We will also need to improve and adapt our style of play to each team we face as the season moves on, in order to capitalize on their weaknesses and strengthen our own.” Pula believes the key to success is through mental training. “Personally getting psyched for every game and pa-

tiently focusing during the games. As a team we have the skills and potential there and every game we keeping improving. The key is to never limit ourselves and always see room for improvement.”

Some concerns have arisen, however, about the team’s confidence, which could present an obstacle on the road to a Liberty League title.

Said Pula, “Our weaknesses is not always having confidence in our abilities.” There is consensus across the board as Baldwin put it, “We lack confidence at times, which interferes with our ability to play to our fullest potential.”

Stegmann has observed the same phenomenon, saying “Our greatest weakness as a team is our mental game. Sometimes we get caught in our heads when we play which can affect our confidence on the field but as the season moves on and we build more momentum that will definitely wane.”

Another obstacle the Brewers are facing this season is injury. “Our biggest obstacle to overcome is the large number of injuries we’re experiencing. Two of our lead scorers are out with concussions at the moment (Izzy Goldstein and my fellow captain Dara Davis), while a lot of our other girls have nagging injuries that hopefully don’t manifest into serious issues. But despite this bad luck our team has absolutely stepped up to the challenge and continues to do amazing things out there on the field as they did against William Smith and RPI,” Stegmann observed.

But, at the end of the day, the ladies still have their eyes locked on the Liberty League title. Said Stegmann, “I’m so excited to make a playoff run this year. Our seniors have worked relentlessly for 4 years alongside each other at this school and we’re ready to make our third playoff appearance the best one yet.” And that is the sentiment across the board: they have to win, but moreover, they have to win for each other. Davis claimed, “We are an unbelievably close team and they will be my friends throughout my life.”

Ruggers slaughter cross river rivals in double header Erik Quinson Sprots Editor

Women’s Rugby

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

The Vassar women had a double header on Saturday, April 4, first playing against SUNY New Paltz in the morning and then SUNY Oneonta in the afternoon. The Brewers fielded a team mixed between rookies and experienced players. Despite their lack of experience, all the freshmen players contributed to a resounding victory over New Paltz of 68-0.

After a break to watch the Vassar men play, the women took to the field once more against Oneonta, fielding a slightly different 15, but retaining a good mix of experienced and new players. The first half left the Brewers down 17-5, and after another try within the first five minutes of the second half, it looked for sure as though the day was going to be a mixed bag.

But no, the women rallied and after an exceptional 35 minutes of play, the women ended the game victorious, 32-24. The women will travel to Stony Brook University next Saturday, April 11, to compete in the Tri-State Conference 7s tournament.

Brewers traveled to Bard College to what was to become a very successful day for the men’s lacrosse team. Although the teams traded goals early in the first half, it was the Brewers who were to take the lead, ending the first half at 7-5.

Bard would come no closer than that in the remaining half. Vassar’s own junior Noah Parson had a stellar performance, scoring five goals in the match up, making a huge contribution to the Vassar victory of 17-8.

On Saturday, April 8, the Brewers hosted St. Lawrence University in what turned into a bit of rout for the Brewers. Although things were looking up after the first quarter, with the Brewers leading 3-2, the second quarter saw the Saints score eight goals, while the Brewer could only manage two. The second half started poorly for the Brewers who conceded six unanswered goals, and although the Brewers were able to find the net four more times, it was not enough, and the Saints came marching in at 20-9. The Brewers will play Drew University on Tuesday, April 7, and have a Liberty League match up against Rochester Institute of Technology away on Saturday, April 11.

Junior pitcher Jonathan Hong pitched well for the Brewers’ walk-off win against RPI on Sunday, April 5. He threw a strong seven innings, giving up two earned runs, while striking out four on the day.

Men’s Track Men’s Rugby

The Vassar men played SUNY New Paltz at the Farm on Saturday, April 4. It was a blustery day that made kicking and throwing difficult.

Despite Vassar’s dominance at the scrum and almost complete possession of the ball, the Brewers found themselves tied at the half, 5-5.

However, an early try from senior winger Jesse Myhill in the second half set the tone for the rest of the game and with freshman George Sheppard scoring his first “A” side try the win was ensured. The men finished the contest with a respectable lead of 29-5. The men will host the Tri State Conference 7s tournament next Sunday, April 12.

Men’s Lacrosse

The Vassar men also had two Liberty League games last week. On Wednesday, April 1, the

Men’s Baseball

On Friday, April 3, senior Andrew Terenzi and freshman Michael Scarlett travelled to the Sam Howell Invitational at Princeton University. Terenzi ran well posting a 1:57.06 in the 800m edging out division 1 runners from Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Iona. Scarlett also had a good run out, posting a 15:29.40 in the 5000m.

The team travelled to the Ramapo Invitational at Ramapo College.

The 4x100 m relay opened the day for the Brewers, posting an impressive 43.69. Freshmen Philip Brown and Noah Trueblood ran in the 1500 m. Brown came 11th out of 72, while Trueblood was just five places and seconds behind him at 16th. The 4x800 m team did well on the day, posting a time of 8:15.98 and coming second in their heat. Freshman Joel Johnson ran the 100 m in 11.35 and placed 15th out of 63. The team will run again on Saturday, April 11 at the Silfen Invitational.

After weeks of postponements, the men’s baseball team was finally able to play their first games of the season. The men lost to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in both double-header matches on Friday, April 3, 2-8 in the first and 0-18 in the second. RPI had 30 hits on the afternoon. Freshman Eric Strickland and junior Cory Wuenschell had the lone RBIs on the day for Vassar. Strickland knocked in senior left fielder Kyle Casey with a single in the third inning.

Wuenschell smacked a double down the right field line in the fourth, scoring junior Brooks English. The men returned to play the Engineers Sunday, April 5, winning the first game 4-3, but took their eye off the ball on the second and conceded the game 1-8. The day’s first game ended with a thrilling walk-off victory for Vassar. The Brewers fell behind 3-1 in the fourth, but fought back in the seventh with an RBI from Strick-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

land. Strickland then scored himself on a wild pitch later in the inning to tie things up. Freshman shortstop Matt Hernandez stepped up to the plate in the eighth and drove a single up the middle to score junior Dakota Sagnelli and win the game. The men will be back on Wednesday, April 8 to play Skidmore College at Skidmore.

Men’s Volleyball

The men’s volleyball team had a very successful week, first playing Bard College, beating the visitors in straight sets on Wednesday, April 1. The Brewers then hosted The Sage Colleges and York College on Saturday, April 4. The Brewers beat both visiting teams in straight sets.

The Sage Colleges fell, 25-12, 25-22, 25-18. While York College fared even worse, losing 25-17, 25-5, 25-9. The Brewers will be back in action at Nazareth College on April 10 for the UVC Championships.