The Miscellany News miscellanynews.org
Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866 Volume 154 | Issue 12
November 19, 2020
SNUG tackles gun violence in Poughkeepsie with community outreach Alex Wilson
Assistant News Editor
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SNUG team members and Poughkeepsie residents. Courtesy of Debra Long
n recent months, headlines reporting skyrocketing gun violence in New York City have dominated major news outlets and drawn public concern. But across the state, other cities, including the City of Poughkeepsie, are reckoning with similar upward trends. By the end of last week, Poughkeepsie had already seen three shootings since the beginning of November. On the night of Nov. 1, a 20-year-old Poughkeepsie resident was found with several gunshot wounds inside of a vehicle. Just three days later, a 27-year-old was shot in an attack that police believe was carried out by multiple shooters. Last Monday, Nov. 9, a 17-year-old with multiple gunshot wounds was rushed to Vassar Brothers Med-
ical Center where he underwent surgery. As the city battles this uptick in gun violence, Debra Long, Program Coordinator for Family Services SNUG, hopes to be a part of the solution. SNUG is one of many programs operated by Family Services, an organization that served 19,000 people last year within their program areas of Behavioral Health, Victim Services, Family Programs, Youth Services, Community Safety and Prevention. Long explained that SNUG (“guns” spelled backwards) is an organisation that focuses on reducing gun violence. “[SNUG] is an evidence based, street outreach program based on the Cure Violence model that was initiated in Chicago. This model treats gun violence like a disease by identifying its causes and interrupting
its transmission” she said. The Cure Violence model teaches that individuals can stop the cycle of violence by curbing their own violent practices and using their influence to change how their community views aggression. The model seeks to heal the damage caused by violence, change negative behaviors and empower them to help others leave aggressive patterns behind. The Cure Violence model has a track record of success—in the United States, cities that have implemented the model have seen up to a 73 percent reduction in shootings and killings. In Baltimore, it had a larger effect in reducing non-fatal shootings than any law enforcement activity. SNUG focuses primarily on youth between the ages of 14 and 24. “We work together as a team See SNUG on page 3
Joss murals Vassar reflects on unprecedented semester comfort, charm W Lucille Brewster News Editor
Yael Gelman
Guest Reporter
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ell, it’s kinda gross down there,” said Riley Kelly ’24. I had asked her about the basement in her house, Josselyn. As a first year living in Davison House, I had never ventured into the unknown realms of the other dorm basements. Was it really as bad as my friends had told me? Sneeze-inducing dust, unbearable heat and creepy hidden passageways—was it all true? James Nicholas ’23 recalled that the first time he went down there he was “scared as heck.” So when I was asked to write a piece on the beautiful murals in the Josselyn basement, I was thoroughly surprised. Much of the Joss basement was exactly what I expected. But after winding down a narrow staircase and shedding my jacket, I found myself staring down a dark hallway covered in colorful paint from the dusty cement floor all the way up to the low-hanging ceiling. The first thing I noticed? None of the artwork was signed. Although there were names and class years painted in some places (it was as if a group of friends wanted to leave their mark on See MURALS page 3
hen President Bradley shared in early summer that all students would be welcome back to campus in the fall, the news elicited a range of emotions. While many students were excited to return to campus after months of isolation, critics were dubious that Vassar could pull off a safe return to Poughkeepsie. Peer institutions, such as Bowdoin College and Kenyon College, opted to only allow first-years on campus to lower population density. Pomona College and Smith College did not welcome any students back to campus. While this semester was challenging and unprecedented, the Vassar community was able to avoid large COVID-19 outbreaks on campus. With a few days left before the majority of students
NEWS
While 41 students tested positive for COVID-19 this semester, there was no community spread and Vassar never had to go into any form of lockdown. “That we have been fortunate to keep our COVID-19 cases relatively low is a tribute to everyone on campus students, faculty and employees - who followed the College’s protocols, and moreover took to heart that ‘We precedes me’,” commented President Elizabeth Bradley in a written statement for this article. She also emphasized the important role of the VassarTogether team. Dean of the College Carlos Alamo-Pastrana concurred, explaining, “When we began this semester, we had no idea how successful any of the measures we put in place might be, but we are quite thankful that we have been able to keep the on-campus incidence of COVID-19 as low as we have.”
According to students and administrators, Vassar’s student culture played a part in preventing COVID-19 spikes. Lucy Kuhn ’22 explained that since much of Vassar’s social life and extracurricular activities are on campus, shifting to an island model in itself was not a huge change in students’ day to day lives. Inside campus boundaries, many students felt a responsibility to their peers to follow social distancing guidelines. “As a small school, I think accountability is a lot more real when you know the majority of the community on a personal level,” explained Kuhn. Safety measures such as mask wearing, social distancing and following testing schedules became part of everyday life this semester. For Alamo-Pastrana and other college administrators, it was important to design a system of accountSee REFLECT on page 4
New org revitalizes VC poetry community Leila Raines
Guest Reporter
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ndy Kasper ’23 and Sam Kass ’23 were hanging out in the Old Bookstore last year when the idea of forming a poetry-writing group blossomed from their latenight conversation. Almost one year later, Kasper and Kass are now the co-presidents and founders of Vassar Verse, a pre-organization that meets every Friday and provides a supportive space for
Inside this issue
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leave campus, the percentage of positive test results is .11 percent, which is noticeably lower than both the national rate of infection and the rate of infection in Dutchess County, which is 2.4 percent. Success in limiting the spread of COVID-19 on college campuses has not been universal. According to a New York Times survey, there have been over 252,000 cases and at least 80 deaths at 1,700 American colleges and universities. Marist College, also in Poughkeepsie, had to shift into a soft lockdown twice this semester as a result of large COVID-19 outbreaks. The first pause in October was the result of an off-campus party that led to 26 cases on campus. The college went on a second pause in early November after their COVID-19 dashboard showed 33 cases involving Marist students.
Senior Editor Olivia Watson breaks down how local hospitals are preparing for the second wave of COVID-19.
student poets to come together to discuss and write poetry with one another. The idea evolved from the two friends’ shared passion for poetry, as well as the realization that, although it seemed like there were a lot of writers in the Vassar community, there was no official poetry organization on campus They themselves longed for a community of writers, so they decided to start Vassar Verse.
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Allison Deutsch ’23 also noticed the lack of community for campus poets. Like Kasper and Kass, Deutsch had written a lot of poetry in high school, so when she first arrived at Vassar last year, she expected poetry to have a robust presence on campus. However, Deutsch soon realized that it was a lot harder to get involved with poetry in a communal sense than she had originally thought; there weren’t any official student
Columnist Helen Johnson explains how the 2020 election clouded her view of her Iowa hometown.
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poetry clubs for her to join, so she found herself longing for a sense of . “Poetry was so much of what got me through high school emotionally,” Deutsch shared in a Zoom interview. “I felt kind of lost not having that outlet. And so, when Sam Kass and Andy [Kasper] decided to start Vassar Verse, I was like, ‘Holy crap. That is what I need. That is what I need See VERSE on page 15
Features Editor Janet Song breaks down the best (and worst) bathrooms on campus.