The Miscellany News miscellanynews.org
Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866 Volume 154 | Issue 3
September 17, 2020
For over 200 Vassar workers, in-person is often the only option Tiana Headley News Editor
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Vassar employee Shanna Treasure. Courtesy of Grace Rousell.
First-years face social obstacles Sara Lawler Reporter
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mid hybrid classes, social distancing guidelines, remote learning and many other changes to campus life, the Vassar College Class of 2024 is having a different first-year experience than they may have imagined. First-years did not get the traditional college drop-off. Parent information sessions were replaced by mandatory novel coronavirus testing. Orientation did not entail hours of sitting in the sweltering chapel or endless tours around campus. Rather, most of orientation was conducted via Zoom and focused more on delivering necessary logistical and safety information. Some first-years who chose to study remotely are now experiencing the transition to college life entirely from home. Despite these changes, Eve Dorfman, a first-year who chose to come to campus, felt like the orientation process was thorough, stating, “I definitely got all the information I needed despite not being able to do in-person sessions.” Annabelle Wang ’23, a student fellow, said, “The virtual org fair was a great way for my fellowees to begin their integration into the Vassar community.” See First-years on page 3
very weekday, Shanna Treasure walks from her Town of Poughkeepsie home to her job as a Vassar custodial worker. While students, faculty and administrators sheltered in place through the remaining spring semester, she had to walk into work, albeit with two to three-day work weeks and personal protective equipment as the College managed on-campus density. This continued into the summer as she and the College’s other maintenance, custodial, grounds and dining employees were furloughed for an average of three days per week between May 18 and July 31. While campus workers received full pay in the spring, now they had to apply for state unemployment for the days they did not work. This was to offset the predicted economic fallout of the pandemic. With the start of the fall
semester, Treasure and her coworkers are needed now more than ever. Many criticize colleges like Vassar for reopening in the midst of a global health crisis far from over. But some students and professors at these schools had a choice: work from home or brave going to campus amid a pandemic. For many custodians, food staff and grounds workers—the backbone of a functioning college campus—the nature of their work hinges on their presence. As colleges and universities rolled out their reopening plans, administrators emphasized enhanced cleaning protocols. Custodial staff, who already perform a vital service, were more crucial than ever. Non-academic campus workers across the country have protested these reopenings without union protection while relying on students and faculty to champion their concerns about workers’ safety. A
group of faculty, graduate students and other university workers filed a class-action lawsuit against the University of North Carolina system, claiming that they were not provided a safe work environment due to the systems’ reopening plans. Many campus workers unions are pushing for hazard pay or paid leave in collective bargaining rounds. Local Service Employees International Union (SEIU) chapter Vice President Cathy Bradford shared that Vassar has not offered workers hazard pay. Associate Vice President for Human Resources Ruth Spencer said Vassar worked to accommodate employees in other ways in the early weeks of the pandemic. “We instead significantly reduced schedules of employees whose jobs required them to continue working on campus—a step intended to both keep employees "whole" and reduce population See Workers on page 3
Professors navigate online teaching
Annabelle Wang Guest Reporter
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his past summer, Vassar students and faculty alike considered how the COVID-19 pandemic would affect teaching in the fall semester. While students faced the difficult decision to either return to campus for in-person classes or learn remotely, faculty weighed the pros and cons of fully remote teaching. About 40 percent of Vassar faculty have opted to teach remotely this semester. Each professor’s individual decision to elect fully online instruction was heavily informed by a variety of factors. For the entire Japanese Department, the decision to be remote for the semester was greatly impacted by pedagogical concerns. According to Professor of Chinese and Japanese PeiPei Qiu, in-person classes were not
well-suited for language learning classes during the pandemic. Qiu shared, “Observation of the positioning of the mouth and culturally specific forms of facial expression is extremely important for language learning. Wearing a mask creates a major obstacle for such observations.” She continued, “The social distancing required in [the] classroom makes the oral practice very difficult…When 15 or 20 students are practicing a dialogue six feet apart from each other, everyone needs to raise their voice, which makes it very hard to hear, especially when everyone is wearing a mask.” In addition to pedagogical worries, Qiu and the rest of the Japanese and Chinese Department faculty were also concerned about providing equal and equitable access for all students. “We also felt
Juliette Pope/The Miscellany News. that teaching online could allow every student to participate fully as all our classes have students who are taking courses remotely in the fall semester,” Qiu said. Many other remote professors have echoed this sentiment. Professor of French and Francophone Studies Vinay Swamy mentioned the difficulty of student inclusivity with a hybrid model: “I felt like a hybrid classroom would be a lot harder to
deal with—and I think a lot of my colleagues are discovering that— because you have some students online and some students in person.” He continued, “I felt like it would be better...to have all my students [on] the same platform.” Along with emphasizing equity through shared accessibility, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Benjamin Lotto expressed concerns about other See Teaching on page 4
Women's sports set pandemic-era precedent Doug Cobb Columnist
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n my last article, I discussed the varying levels of success that the NBA, MLB and NHL experienced in returning to play during the pandemic, and expressed skepticism at the NFL’s ability to succeed without a bubble strategy. My main takeaway was that the most effective way to ensure a safe season is to create a bubble and to show
little to no tolerance for people who refuse to follow the rules surrounding COVID-19 safety. It turns out there is more evidence to support those takeaways in some less-discussed leagues: the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Professional women’s sports leagues often play second fiddle to men’s leagues for a variety of
reasons, many stemming from the fact that women’s access to more equal opportunity in sports is a recent development. Firstly, women’s leagues were established long after professional men’s leagues. The NWSL debuted in 2012 and the WNBA in 1997, while leagues like the MLB (1903) and NBA (1949) have been around for many more decades. This head start for the men’s leagues makes it much
harder for women’s leagues to emerge and gain popularity. I also believe one of the main reasons that women’s sports leagues are not as popular as men’s is a lack of resources allocated to them. But one sport that bucks this popularity trend is soccer, where the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) is quite popular amongst American fans, and is undoubtedly the See Bubble on page 15
Inside this issue
3-4 NEWS
This week's News section takes a look at how the day-to-day lives of various members of the college community have been altered by Vassar's COVID-19 policies. Read on to learn how those on and off campus, from first-years to professors to custodial workers, are experiencing Vassar's most unusual semester.