Misc.10.29.2020

The Miscellany News October 29, 2020

miscellanynews.org

Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866 Volume 154 | Issue 9

Admin and professors temper grading policy Alex Wilson Reporter

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his past March, the decision to close campus due to the spread of COVID-19 prompted a speedy foray into online learning, and with it a frenzied introduction to the many pitfalls of the virtual classroom. While many students, including those catalyzed by Nobody Fails VC—a student group pushing for a campus-wide nofail policy—pressed the administration to craft accommodating grading policies, administrators and individual faculty members implemented varying ranges of accomodations.

Last semester, in the words of Registrar Colleen Mallet, was an upheaval. Thus, students were allowed to exercise the Non-Recorded Option (NRO), which reverts a student’s grade in a course to pass/fail if the grade falls below a threshold of the student’s choice.

NROs from the semester would not count towards the maximum of four that students are allowed.

Students could also withdraw from all their courses (taking a leave of absence) up until the last day of classes.

For this year, administrators faced the challenge of adjusting to the new normal. This shift included crafting grading policies re-

flective of both newfound stability and the pervasive uncertainty of a pandemic-stricken world. Mallet believes that, compared to last semester, everybody was going into things a little more prepared.

“So we would return to normal grading…while still realizing that there are a lot of challenges this semester,” she explained.

So what exactly has changed?

Students can still withdraw from all courses until the last day of classes or withdraw from individual courses until the last day of exams. Students are not required to maintain 3.5 units after their withdrawal. Courses can also be NROed up until the last day of classes (the NRO deadline used to be the end of the first six weeks). Now, however, NROs will again count toward the maximum of four over the course of a student’s time at Vassar. And while a decision has yet to be made by the Committee on Curricular Policies, Mallet cautions not to count on a note on our transcripts similar to that from last semester, which explained that “unusual” grading and enrollment patterns reflect the conditions of a global health emergency.

One of the biggest policy changes, however, has taken place within the Economics Department—generally known around See GRADES on page 3

Above, Dutchess residents and Vassar students line up to vote at the Boardman Road Branch Library. Lucille Brewster.

Dutchess residents vote early Lucille Brewster

Assistant News Editor

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ven on a rainy Monday afternoon, a long line of voters wove around the Boardman Road Branch Library, the Dutchess County early voting site Vassar is shuttling students to this week.

Voters waited about two hours to cast their ballots. Huddled in raincoats and sweaters, the energy among voters was palpable.

Sydney Boyum ’24 shared that this was the first election he was

eligible to vote in since turning 18.

“I am fired up.” he said. “I was frustrated last election when I was too young to vote, so I am excited to now.”

Boyum expressed his intent to vote for Democratic Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Leanna Tang ’21, also voting in-person on Monday, was also ineligible to vote in 2016 and is excited to vote for the Biden-Harris ticket. Both Boyum and Tang explained that they chose to vote

in person instead of by mail because they wanted to confirm their ballots would be counted, as they were hesitant about sending in absentee ballots close to election day.

Dutchess county residents voting on Monday expressed their feelings about the gravity of the presidential election this year.

Michelle Brenner, a voter from Poughkeepsie supporting the Biden-Harris ticket, shared, “These are very troubled times.

I never thought we’d be where See VOTING on page 9

Inside this issue

10 HUMOR

This week’s horoscopes have a slightly spooky bent.

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OPINIONS

A columnist critiques Amy Coney Barrett’s judicial philosophy.

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NEWS

Check out our guide to who’s who on the local ballot.

Theater troupes struggle

Decades-long Plant of the Week exhibition continues Monika Sweeney Reporter

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Helen Johnson Columnist

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tudent theater is an integral part of campus life at Vassar.

The sheer number of orgs that produce theater—seven—means that in some semesters, there is a show going up almost every weekend. The student theater world is a vibrant and busy community, and it is difficult to go through four years at Vassar without encountering it in some capacity.

Founded in 1865, just four years after the founding of the college, The Philaletheis Society is the oldest student theater group on campus and the oldest campus organization. In addition to The Philaletheis Society (often shortened to Philaletheis or just Phil), there are six other student theater orgs on campus. Future Waitstaff of America (FWA), Merely Players and Unbound are the other producing orgs, meaning they produce the shows proposed by individual students and hold auditions open to the student body.

Idlewild Theatre Ensemble, Shakespeare Troupe and Woodshed Theatre Ensemble are the See Theater on page 9

Plant biology laboratory technician Taylor Conte has selected a new plant to display in the Bridge building each week since her arrival to Vassar last fall, continuing a long-running tradition. Monika Sweeney/The Miscellany News.

hether you are cutting through the Bridge to get to Central Receiving, stopping there to grab a cup of coffee or planning to peer off the balcony and watch students do tricks on their skateboards, you should take some time to stop and smell the roses.

Since her arrival at Vassar as the plant biology laboratory technician and greenhouse and phytotron manager for the Biology Department, Taylor Conte has meticulously set up a Plant of the Week exhibition each week since her arrival at Vassar last fall. “I love that [the project] strips away the intrinsic appropriation that once was heavily associated with plant collecting,” said Conte. She continued, “It showcases how valuable each individual species is to the world around it.”

Students have begun to take notice. Allison Deutsch ’23 said, “It can be so hard to find little things to make us smile during this really stressful semester, but Plant of the Week is such a lovely way to remember the little and glorious things along the way.” Kyra HoffSee Plant on page 8

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October 29, 2020

COVID19 AT VASSAR 11,981 Total Tests Administered

THE MISCELLANY NEWS OCTOBER 29TH DATA VIA VASSAR TOGETHER

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MANAGING EDITOR SENIOR EDITORS

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Total Student Cases to Date

Aena Khan Ted Chmyz Taylor Stewart Abby Tarwater Duncan Aronson Jessica Moss Holly Schulman

Tiana Headley Olivia Watson Lucille Brewster ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR Janet Song FEATURES EDITOR Jonas Trostle OPINIONS EDITOR Sawyer Bush ASSISTANT OPINIONS EDITOR Meghan Hayfield ARTS EDITOR Nina Ajemian ASSISTANT ARTS EDITORS Leila Raines Isabella Migani HUMOR EDITOR Madi Donat ASSISTANT HUMOR EDITOR Alex Eisert SPORTS EDITORS Dean Kopitsky Natalie Bober SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR Alison Carranza ASSISTANT SOCIAL MEDIA Sherry Liao ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS Grace Rousell Jacqueline Gill COPY EDITORS Phoebe Jacoby Caitlin Patterson Juliette Pope GRAPHICS EDITOR VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER Alexis Cerritos Alex Barnard AUDIO EDITOR Mrin Somani ASSISTANT AUDIO EDITOR Ben Scharf LIVE EVENTS CHAIRPERSON Emma Tanner BUSINESS MANAGER Logan Hyde ASSISANT BUSINESS MANAGER NEWS EDITORS

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Total Employee Cases to Date

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Total Active Cases

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COLUMNISTS

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Lucy Leonard

For daily updates on Vassar's testing and cases, visit https://www.vassar.ed u/together/dashboard

CROSSWORD

Sara Lawle Monika Sweeneyr Annabelle Wang Alex Wilson Francisco Andrade Madison Caress Doug Cobb Rohan Dutta Nicholas Gorman Helen Johnson Xin Rui Ong Arlene Chen Glenna Gomez Jason Han Bryn Marling Sashinka Poor Melissa Roybal Mia Stein Frank

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

The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages. Staff editorials are the only articles that reflect the opinion of a two-thirds majority of the Editorial Board.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

October 29, 2020

NEWS

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With no official policy, many professors grade leniently Continued from Grades on page 1 campus for its rigor and exceptionally stringent grading policies. Perhaps the most infamous of these policies is the standard that reserves “A” grades in core courses to the top third of the class.

Now, that policy has been removed—and not just for this semester, but for good.

Economics Chair Sarah Pearlman explained that, essentially, the policy was an implicit grading standard made explicit.

She continued, “While we didn’t notice

“Shaping assignments and course expectations around the whole person is paramount.” any noticeable changes in grades in classes, that did not align with students’ perceptions of the policy. Student perceptions of the policy seemed as if it was quite binding, and that it was leading instructors to give few-

er As and A-s than they otherwise would.”

According to Pearlman, in some cases the policy actually pushed students up into the “A” range. Therefore, she cautioned that economics students are unlikely to see significant changes once this policy is removed, although it will provide instructors with added flexibility.

Despite a lack of concrete grading policy changes in other academic departments, many departments and individual faculty members have expressed a willingness to make accommodations that address the mental health hurdles students may be facing this semester. As 71 percent of university students are experiencing increased stress and anxiety due to COVID-19 and 82 percent have indicated increased concerns regarding academic performance, more and more professors are moving toward added flexibility in grading.

Professor and Chair of Political Science Fubing Su said that there has not been a collective effort to mandate grading policy changes within the department. Rather, he explained, “All faculty are encouraged to adjust their teaching to accommodate students’ needs in case of difficult personal and family conditions during this time. Political science department [sic] does not have special grading changes but encourages faculty members to be attentive to students’ needs.”

At the end of the day, he says that the hope is for professors to be able to address any individual issues that may arise.

Alex Wilson/The Miscellany News.

Other instructors echoed their commitment to this case-by-case model. While speaking to a desire on the part of both students and faculty for grading adjustments, several professors emphasized their dedication to ensuring flexibility in the classroom.

Some students want to see more in the way of change. Charlie Jones ’21, a leader of Nobody Fails VC, believes that change did not go far enough in the spring, and wishes that these conversations on grading were continued into this academic year. They explained, “When the pressure is put on professors and students without universal protections, there necessarily will be cases where students who are already dispropor-

tionately impacted by the pandemic will suffer greater consequences academically.” Citing the imperative to consider intersecting racial and class inequities, they lamented a lack of compassion from administrators.

According to the Vassar Student Association’s (VSA) Chair of Academics Susannah Karron ’21, this is a learning experience for us all—the encouragement of feedback will hopefully allow for the eventual improvement of Vassar’s academic experience.

“Shaping assignments and course expectations around the whole person is paramount. The administration is definitely encouraging faculty to take these considerations into account,” she explained.

Campus mental health deteriorates amid midterms, isolation Lucille Brewster

Assistant News Editor

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o say this past year has been stressful would be an understatement.

The mental health of students has been particularly strained due to anxiety about midterms, the upcoming election, the impending winter months, and the ongoing pandemic. COVID-19 distancing guidelines have transformed social spaces and disrupted many coping strategies upon which students depend. While the Counseling Center and Office of Residential Life have created opportunities for students to seek help during the pandemic, many students feel their academic workloads have not been adjusted for the compounding stressors this year has brought.

Vassar’s mental health professionals have seen first-hand the impact COVID-19 has had on students’ emotional wellbeing.

“Although Vassar students are very resilient, students are struggling with increases in anxiety and dysthymic mood, and feelings of boredom and loneliness, similar to the general population,” explained Director of Psychological Services Wendy Freedman. Director of Health Promotion and Education Andrea Pesavento also expressed concern about students being isolated. “Students do not have the same opportunities to meet, gather and socialize in large groups in person,” she commented. “This limits the possibilities to meet new friends and peers that potentially creates a different level of connection.”

For students facing mental health challenges, the Counseling Center is offering teletherapy programming. Freedman explained that while she and other counselors were nervous about switching to a telecounseling platform, virtual meetings have not prevented students from successfully using their services. “Some students seem to be less inhibited in their sessions and are finding themselves engaging in

deeper work,” she shared. The Campus Activities Office provides unoccupied rooms for students with privacy concerns to use for teletherapy.

One student, who asked to remain anonymous, shared that teletherapy through the Counseling Center has been beneficial. “I have been able to see my therapist biweekly via Zoom, and I appreciate the time that I spend with her,” the student said. While the student wishes they could meet every week and for longer sessions than 45 minutes, they understand Vassar has limited resources.

Students have pointed to their academic assignments as a common source of stress.

While many professors adjusted their syllabuses last semester after going remote, most students have found their current workload to be similar to any other semester. “It’s very hard for me to simultaneously work on my OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and anxiety symptoms while feeling overwhelmed with school work,” commented Lucie Bisbee ’22.

Nicholas Weiner ’22 shared that doing classes virtually has made his ADHD symptoms more pronounced. “Zoom classes have made it incredibly difficult to concentrate,” he explained. While some of his professors have significantly decreased workloads, the lack of October break and heavy workloads in other classes have made this semester stressful. “Ideally, I feel that the administration would give professors more specific suggestions to moderate workload,” he said.

Freedman has noticed many students putting undue pressure on themselves to be as motivated as they would be during usual semesters. “Vassar students are high achieving and often expect themselves to perform at their typical level, even though they are in the midst of navigating incredibly difficult circumstances,” she said. She reminds students to be self-com-

passionate and acknowledge the unique difficulties this semester presents.

Vassar Student Association (VSA) Senators recently designed a survey to garner responses on the discrepancy many students feel between what’s expected of them academically this semester and their psychological bandwidth. “Many of us and our friends have been experiencing burnout, stress and other difficult mental health challenges this semester,”commented VSA Senator Xan Wolstenholme-Britt ’22. He added that the anonymous survey, sent out to students on Sunday, Oct. 25, will be used to help the VSA draft a letter to Vassar faculty encouraging them to better accommodate students’ anxieties and create a healthier academic environment.

First-years, who are tackling an unprecedentedly challenging transition to college, rely on the Office of Residential Life to direct them to mental health resources if needed. House Teams have been trained with the expectation that students would be dealing with unique mental health challenges.

“In ResLife, our professional staff and the House Teams have been encouraged to incorporate the existence of [COVID-19] on a person’s mental health into our daily interactions,” said Director of Residential Education Michael Drucker. Drucker emphasized that Student Fellows are especially vital to the first year experience.

“Our Student Fellows have been trained to perform more frequent, more in-depth check-ins with the first-years knowing the kind of barrier COVID safety guidelines can, unfortunately, create for social bonds,” he explained.

Despite safety barriers to human connection, plenty of college programming is available for interested students. “In addition to individual and group counseling, the Counseling Service is offering

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

a virtual walk-in-clinic, workshops, conversation hours, and support spaces,” said Freedman. The Counseling Center opened a new virtual “walk-in” clinic where students can have a 30 minute same day consultation with a counselor. Appointments can be scheduled by emailing counseling@vassar.edu. They also launched a new interactive tool called Therapy Assistance Online (TAO). This platform offers practical strategies and advice for students dealing with anxiety, depression and other mental health concerns. There are also conversation hours hosted by the Counseling Center in Collaboration with other offices in the college.

The Office of Health Promotion and Education is hosting in-person events outdoors and conversations over Zoom in hopes that this can foster community among students. The Spook-tacular on Oct. 31 will offer trick-or-treating and walks around campus. The Social Distancing Workshop will be on Nov. 10, and will give students a chance to discuss the psychological toll of social distancing and learn healthy strategies to combat feelings of loneliness.

As the on-campus part of the semester comes to a close, the Vassar community is reminded that these mental health challenges will not dissipate suddenly.

“I don’t think we have collectively and communally taken enough time to meaningfully process the societal-level of grief we’ve experienced due to COVID, and that’s partly because it isn’t over yet,” explained Drucker.

Yet even though the semester has felt demanding, many students remain hopeful.

“I am grateful for the creative ways we’ve been able to connect with each other on campus,” shared Bisbee. “I just keep reminding myself it won’t be this way forever.”

NEWS

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October 29, 2020

Who’s on the ballot? Four races to watch As Election Day nears, early voting is underway across New York. October has brought record-breaking turnout nationwide as voters flock to the polls for this historic election. Still thinking about who to vote for? Want to know the races to watch this election season?

Here’s the Misc Voter Guide on four key local, state and congressional races.

the creation of tax cuts in “opportunity zones.”

In 2018, Delgado won the district with only 51.4 percent of the vote, but in 2020, the race is looking less competitive. The race is considered ‘likely Democratic’ by Cook Political Report and FiveThirtyEight.

— Carolyn Patterson

NY-19 Congressional District Republican Kyle Van De Water is challenging freshman incumbent Antonio Delgado. Delgado defeated Republican incumbent John Faso in 2018, becoming the first Democrat to represent the district since 2010. Since being elected to Congress, Delgado has introduced the Medicare-X Choice Act, which would create opt-in public health insurance.

Delgado currently serves on the House Committees on Small Business, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Agriculture.

Delgado was raised in Schenectady, New York, and went on to become a Rhodes Scholar and attend Harvard Law School. After law school, Delgado worked in the music industry and as an attorney at New York law firm Akin Gump. Delgado has focused his campaign for reelection on protecting affordable health care, passing a second stimulus package and supporting farmers.

Van De Water is an Army veteran and works as an attorney at Corbally, Gartland & Rappleyea, LLP in Poughkeepsie.

He has focused his campaign on simplifying the tax code, protecting gun rights and supporting American manufacturing. Van De Water has also stated that he supports encouraging development in high-unemployment areas through

Dutchess County Court Judge Republican incumbent Peter Forman is challenged by Democractic newcomer Jessica Segal. Forman, now seeking a second 10-year term, is a 20-year judicial veteran in Dutchess County. He’s served in four local courts: Family, Supreme, Surrogate and County. He’s also presided over the county’s drug courts for 15 years. The Drug Court program diverts non-violent offenders struggling with substance abuse away from incarceration and into treatment and monitoring programs. If elected, the 65-year-old would serve five years, as state law requires county court judges to retire at 70.

Segal has 20 years of experience as a prosecutor, civil litigator and defense attorney. The former Dutchess Senior Assistant District Attorney spent 17 years with the DA’s office. She’s now a criminal defense lawyer at a private firm.

Segal also teaches criminal law and procedure at Dutchess Community College and is a part-time Assistant DA in Putnam County. If elected, the 47-year-old would be the second woman to hold the position in Dutchess history.

More than 200 of Forman’s judicial rulings have been reviewed by appellate courts, of which 93 percent were affirmed. He’s had roughly five cases overturned between 2014 and 2020 for error or misconduct.

Forman has been endorsed by Republican County Executive Marc Molinaro, City of Poughkeepsie Councilmember Yvonne Flowers and several police associations. Both candidates have been rated “Highly Qualified” by the Dutchess County Bar Association.

— Tiana Headley State Senate District 41 Three-term Republican State Senator Sue Serino is once again facing a steep challenge from Democratic businesswoman Karen Smythe in the increasingly competitive 41st District. During her six years in Albany, Serino has emerged as a centrist leader on education reform and sexual violence prevention. On fiscal issues, Serino has consistently voiced her insistence on small government.

Since Democrats took control of the Senate, she has made her criticism of Democratic leadership in Albany—specifically, the state’s coronavirus response—a central part of her campaign.

Smythe previously worked as a marketing executive and spent 16 years running her family’s union construction business, C.B. Strain & Son., in Poughkeepsie. She has leveraged her knowhow of small business leadership as an asset, especially as the Hudson Valley works to rebuild a regional economy that was decimated by the pandemic.

Smythe has focused her campaign on reproductive rights, racial justice, and climate equity and has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood, EMILY’s List, The Sierra Club and Hudson Valley Stonewall Democrats.

Two years ago, in Smythe’s first-ever campaign, she came only 0.6 points away from unseating Serino, drawing statewide attention to the district, which

has long been a GOP stronghold. Serino has committed to serving no more than four two-year terms, meaning that if she keeps her seat, this would likely be her final term in the Senate.

— Alex Wilson NY-18 Congressional District Incumbent Democrat Rep. Sean Maloney is facing a challenge this year from Republican Chele Farley. Maloney, who would be entering his fifth term if re-elected, is the first openly gay member of Congress from New York. Before entering Congress, he worked as a lawyer, political staffer and senior advisor under the Clinton presidential administration. He also founded a tech start up and served as an advisor under former New York Governor David Paterson.

While in office, Maloney has prioritized national security, the opioid crisis, environmental protections for clean water and veterans’ benefits. He sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Agriculture Committee. He is also the co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.

Farley is an investment banker and philanthropist. She is running on a platform of lowering taxes, passing more stringent immigration laws, improving environmental conservation and economic growth, and ending the “toxic culture” of Washington. She ran for Senate against Kirsten Gillibrand in 2018, but lost by a 34 percentage point margin.

Rep. Maloney is predicted to come out on top in this election. According to the Cook Political Report, the race is “likely Democrat.”

— Lucille Brewster

COVID-19 derails beloved ‘Halloweekend’ traditions Olivia Watson News Editor

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s COVID-19 restrictions have thwarted traditional Halloweekend celebrations, Vassar’s student body is gearing up to celebrate the holiday in a socially distant manner.

In previous years, Vassar students gathered for a Halloween rave in an outdoor tent. But with the campus regulations in response to the ongoing pandemic, those organizing this year’s Halloweekend have had to get creative.

The Vassar Student Association (VSA) has planned events for Halloweekend that include both virtual and in-person events, including movie nights, cookie decorating, comedy shows and late-night food service from local vendors. Most of the in-person events will take place in the outdoor classroom tents to facilitate social distancing.

VSA Chair of Programming and Directing Emily Chong ’21 shared that the VSA has planned events that adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines required by the College.

“We know this will not be the Halloweekend we have grown to love. However, our goal was to provide a variety of events so people would have places to go,” she explained.

Chong emphasized that while Halloweekend will differ from previous years, they are trying their best to still provide fun and safe programming.

“The planning process was hard because we really had to think about what events we could really put on, when also dealing with the disappointment of the pandemic derailing our usual festivities. However, other than that we are just trying our best to have something happen, even if it is on a smaller scale,” said Chong.

Big Night In (BNI)—an organization on campus that provides substance-free events on the weekends—will also host Halloween events which include a Harry Potter murder mystery, a spooktacular Just Dance party, a scavenger hunt and a virtual showing of the film “Hocus Pocus.” BNI President Isabella Perez ’21 shared that planning began months in advance, and they are taking many precautions to ensure adequate social distancing.

“We have been talking about what Halloweekend might look like since this summer, given the new guidelines, and how we might keep the spirit of the witching hour from past years while maintaining everyone’s safety. During this semester, we’ve really gotten a crash course in how to run virtual events and we’ve found ways to adapt some events into a virtual setting,” said Perez.

She continued, “Not all of our usual events can be safely adapted into ‘COVIDsafe’ events however, which is why, although board games and food-centered events like Cupcake Wars are a staple of the BNI event repertoire, we have decided not to have any in-person snacks at our events

Courtesy of Sandro Luis Lopez. or board games.” Students will also be provided individual supplies at arts and crafts events to prevent community spread.

Chong explained that in order to maintain social distancing, there will be capacity limits at events, many activities will require students prior sign-up and Safety and Security will monitor activities.

Director of Safety and Security Arlene Sabo shared that there will be extra staff patrolling during Halloweekend. Some staff members will be assigned to monitor specific events. She mentioned that a few community members have expressed concerns about social distancing during

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Halloweekend, but that so far, the vast majority of students have followed the social distancing rules on campus.

BNI is also providing additional security for their events. “We will have a BNI member monitoring the entrance so that attendees are admitted only when the previous group has left the space and who can direct attendees to the elevator for those who need it to access the space,” explained Perez.

This upcoming Halloween will include extra precautions and regulations. Despite these challenges, campus organizations are trying their best to provide worthwhile and safe alternatives for students.

October 29, 2020

ARTS

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The modern woman in Wright’s “Pride and Prejudice” Tabby Hannam

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Guest Columnist

t is a truth universally acknowledged that a homesick British girl in possession of a Netflix subscription must be in want of a sprinkling of Austen. Or the “Great British Bake Off” (GBBO), I’m not fussy. Whilst I could wax lyrical about GBBO (and I’m sure many Vassar students could too; I’ve been surprised by how many Americans avidly watch our scrumptious TV show), this film review is concerned with all things “Pride and Prejudice” (2005).

Before moving to the U.S. to study abroad, I confidently (and a bit foolishly) stated that I wouldn’t get homesick.

How could I when I’d just spent the last six months at home in the British countryside? I was dying to leave and finally begin the adventure that I had fought so hard to preserve in the midst of the global pandemic. So, thanks to the exasperating Netflix auto-play feature, when the haunting love theme “Dawn” burst from my laptop speakers, I was surprised by the intense pang of homesickness that hit

me.

From the moment you hear the first chirps of the early spring dawn chorus against the black screen, you are enveloped in a genteel society that is exquisitely English and Austen-esque. The essence of the Regency period, with all its refined and poised designs, is captured in the tentative opening strains of composer Dario Marianelli’s “Dawn.” However, this grandeur that is perhaps alienating for present day viewers is rapidly disrupted by shrieks of laughter from Lydia and Kitty, the two youngest Bennet daughters. The lively, high-spirited personalities of the sisters intertwine at the breakfast table; the comfortable chaos of many hands reaching over each other for food forms a lasting image that seers into the mind of the audience long after the dialogue has vanished into the ether.

Elizabeth Bennet has always been adored because of her candor, but Knightley brings an edge of intelligence and ferocity to the character that intensifies the passion on screen. The cinematography accentuates Knightley’s frank expression

throughout the film; Lizzie’s face is a canvas for her undisguised emotions, simultaneously revealing her youthful pride and belief in her own self-worth. It is this quiet dignity that endears Austen’s fiery character to the contemporary audience: She is every inch the modern woman because she prioritizes her happiness over satisfying social customs (and her overbearing mother).

While the narrative is slow-moving in comparison to action-packed blockbusters that have taken the world by storm, there is something refreshing for the soul in unwinding and taking a long, honest gaze at the surrounding world. Indeed, the cinematographic influence even pervades the natural environment: the trees and early flush of the sun against the wooded skyline, the ducks waddling amongst the Bennet’s laundry and the torrential downpour which leads both Mr. Darcy and Lizzie to unwittingly take shelter under the same neoclassical temple.

The intense veneration of nature in “Pride and Prejudice” is highly relevant,

Lizzie’s desire to walk across the fields to Netherfield instead of taking the carriage is all the more compelling in the aftermath of lockdown, which saw many of us confined to our apartments in formerly bustling metropolitan areas. Even among the breath-taking fall colours of Vassar’s campus, it is easy to get swept up in online classes, midterm assignments, org meetings and calls with friends and family back home. “Pride and Prejudice” offers a window into the mellow British countryside that is so lovingly commemorated in the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge. The snapshot of Lizzie Bennet on a cliff’s edge, bathed in a golden glow, has become a sought-after location in the Peak District. The film has taken on a life of its own in the imagination of its ardent audience.

In a world where we are constantly moving forward, rushing about in our daily lives, “Pride and Prejudice” (2005) reminds us of the enduring importance of family and appreciating the fecundity of the natural world. In my mind, it is the perfect film for a lonely pandemic day.

Alison Carranza/The Miscellany News.

MISC POP-UP SHOW 10/24

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October 29, 2020

Truth, honor, redemption: Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashōmon” Aena Khan

Managing Editor

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n a sleepy university theater in northern Texas 35 years ago, my father watched director Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashōmon” ( 羅生門) for the first time. A psychothriller defined by its visual surrealism and nonlinear storyline, the 1950 film draws inspiration from the short stories of Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (芥 川 龍之介) and centers around a trial to determine who murdered a samurai in a forest. It became prominent for dividing Japanese critics while garnering Kurosawa acclaim among international audiences. By the time my father, then a newly arrived film student in the United States, saw it, “Rashōmon” was lauded as a cinematic classic.

My father suggested I watch it as a “lawyer in training” (Dear reader, I have somehow made it halfway through undergrad and would be pleasantly surprised if I make it to and through law school).

Months into self-imposed isolation and after the breaking point of police brutality in the United States, the increasingly abstract promise of justice sounded more appealing than ever. However, the film’s ending purposefully eludes traditional resolution and the trial’s conflicting narratives inspired an eponymously named effect. Instead, Kurosawa tests the concepts of justice, truth and redemption, while incorporating variables like gender, that humans still struggle to reconcile.

The film opens to rain falling upon the city of Rashōmon’s gate in eighth-century Japan. Beneath the gate’s dilapidated gable-and-hip roofs, its once-graceful wooden structure having collapsed completely in some places, a woodcutter and a priest seek refuge from the rain. They are then joined by a commoner who inquires about their solemn dispositions while building a fire from loose wooden panels. The two men then recount disturbing testimonies they heard earlier that day at a trial to determine who murdered a samurai whose body the woodcutter discovered in the nearby forest three days earlier.

At the trial, the main witnesses are Tajōmaru (多襄丸), a notorious bandit who appeared only after being captured; the samurai’s wife; and the samurai himself (albeit through a medium). The only common detail between the three was what ironically contributed to the differing reports: Tajōmaru’s rape of the wife.

A brutish figure prone to breaking out in sadistic laughter, the bandit professes to first noticing the wife after she rode through the woods in a dress of white, the samurai at her side. He remarks, “I

caught a glimpse and then she was gone …

At that moment I decided to capture her, even if I had to kill her man.” The bandit alleges that though he did not want to kill the samurai, they engaged in a duel after Tajōmaru violated the wife. She refutes this point, testifying that the bandit ran away after the attack and that her husband killed himself out of shame. The samurai claims that his wife agreed to run away with her attacker and asked him to kill her husband to preserve her honor. After Tajōmaru refused, they fled separately and left the samurai to take his own life.

Though it was not explicitly depicted, I was surprised by the repeated references to sexual harassment in a 70-year-old film.

However, Tajōmaru is not indicted for the rape—his only confirmed crime—and the wife receives no sympathy from her husband. In her account, the wife notes, “Even now, when I think of his eyes, my blood turns cold in my veins. What I saw in them was neither anger, nor sorrow, but a cold light, a look of loathing.” Her tarnished honor victimizes the samurai, emboldening him to protect his masculinity and leading to his demise.

Conversely, by confessing to a duel that may not have taken place, Tajōmaru establishes that his concerns lie with machismo rather than morality. To preserve his honor and appear as the samurai’s equal, he brags at one point, “[The samurai] fought very well. We crossed swords 23 times…No one had ever crossed swords with me more than 20 times.”

Either way, the samurai’s demise becomes a symptom of the situation rather than an individual event. Heteropatriarchal norms deflect much of the blame from Tajōmaru to the wife—who is never identified by a title independent of her marital status—and her alleged complicity.

Each witness offers a different account of the samurai’s demise, leading the woodcutter and priest to cynicism. The woodcutter asserts that the bandit, wife and samurai are all lying to preserve what is left of their honor. The commoner, amused by the events, remarks, “It’s human to lie.

Most of the time we can’t even be honest with ourselves.” He then confronts the woodcutter lying for about his role in the crime—his conviction at each testimony’s falsehood meant that he must have witnessed the murder. Downpour continues to fall around the city gate, an allegory for the darkened state of the world, as the commoner’s interest in exposing man’s flaws emphasizes the priest’s anxieties with the state of the human condition.

When the woodcutter relents, he ad-

Tajōmaru and the wife in “Rashōmon.”

mits to lying about discovering the body to avoid becoming involved in the trial and engages in the very self-preservation he denounced the witnesses for. He claims that the samurai told his wife to kill herself for the dishonor she had brought upon them. She retorted that both men were cowards, particularly her husband for failing to defend her, and challenged them to duel one another.

In the end, under the cover of the foliage, Tajōmaru hesitated before stabbing the man. Afterward, the woodcutter took the wife’s pearl dagger and sold it for cash.

As a man who viewed truth and honor as inextricably linked, the priest abandons composure and openly questions what would become of civilization after the woodcutter’s moral transgressions. Kurosawa masterfully uses the priest as a guide for the film’s arc, which is deeply rooted in Japanese philosophy.

The film’s reliance on conflicting narratives and moral ambiguity challenges the concept of absolute truth. A monk named Kūkai (空海), who lived during the 8th and 9th centuries, reconciled Japanese Buddhism with Chinese Confucian and Daoist influences on the subject. Kūkai wrote that one’s mindset is directly related to one’s actions and based his ideas on the premise of a unified mind and body, or “bodymind.” He also drew upon Shingon Buddhism’s esoteric teachings (密 教) to present truth as a link between an individual’s bodymind, thoughts, words and deeds. Consequently, he believed that weaknesses in conflicting narratives or an individual’s perception of reality ought to be evaluated rather than dismissed, for they can reveal the mindset that produced them.

Although he was not invoked at any point in “Rashōmon,” Kūkai became a giant among Japanese philosophers and may have influenced the film’s resolution. Though the woodcutter’s narrative appears the least biased, he too seeks self-preservation and is impeachable. For this, he is denounced by the priest and ridiculed by the commoner for being no better than the witnesses.

The tone of the final scene shifts when the three men hear an infant, a symbol of innocence, crying behind splintering wood panels. The commoner reaches the baby first and takes its protective amulet and kimono, against the woodcutter and priest’s objections. He states that the parents could not have cared about the child much if they abandoned it, before leaving the two men with the child. The woodcutter reaches for the child and explains that as he has six children of his own, another one would not make much of a difference.

Though the film does not provide an answer to the samurai’s murder, it speaks to the main witnesses’ different mindsets.

The bandit was driven by animal instincts and lacked moral restraint; the wife and samurai were failed by the social order they previously relied on; and the woodcutter, though a selfless man, had become hindered by worldly limitations. At the film’s end, as rain lifts from Rashōmon and the two men go their different ways, it is only the woodcutter who redeems himself.

In my life, I’ve seen society increasingly normalize conflicting narratives and misleading truths as the byproducts of free and fair speech. Upon finishing the film, I was tempted to come away with the conclusion that when we cannot truly determine all the details of a situation, it is impossible to give any one account greater val-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ue. To do so would suggest inherent bias.

However, giving conflicting narratives equal weight relies on the assumption that every individual is capable of presenting a reasonable argument. It seems to me that whenever this society questions a narrative, it is often to quell the author’s threat to underlying hierarchies on the basis of gender or social status. This has stood true for women coming forth after being sexually assaulted or Black and Brown people protesting our radically unjust criminal system. Just as the woodcutter seeks to avoid becoming involved with the trial and the wife’s rape legally remained an act of irrelivent blasphemy, there are thousands whose narratives provide necessary context that may never be presented at an institutional level.

I do not mean to suggest that we engage in censorship in cases of conflicting views— quite the opposite. However, we must be mindful of unequal power dynamics present in our system of free speech. HBO Max temporarily removed the 1939 film “Gone with the Wind” for glorifying the Antebellum South and Confederacy while perpetuating stereotypes of the “grateful slave.”

It will return sometime within the next few weeks, alongside discussions from African-American scholars on the film’s historical context. In an op-ed for the LA Times that ultimately sparked HBO’s decision, screenwriter John Ridley called on the company to reintroduce the film “along with other films that give a more broad-based and complete picture of what slavery and the Confederacy truly were.”

Just as Kurosawa does in “Rashōmon,“ Ridley asserts that we should be weary of initial narratives presented as fact. By featuring additional narratives, we allow our society to reflect upon historically prevalent mindsets that gave rise to stories like “Gone with the Wind.”

In another incident, the New York Times’ Opinions Editor resigned over his negligence after a Deputy Editor published an article from Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) calling for the militarization of American police. Cotton said that his words were taken out of context and that he called for military use only as a backup, despite having written that a show of force was “necessary to uphold the rule of law.”

Conservative journalists called the paper’s decision to pull the article censorship and a distortion by the liberal media, even after columnist Michelle Goldberg outlined its various misleading statements and potentially violent ramifications for Black people. Here, “Rashōmon” provides another invaluable lesson: Though we do not know who murdered the samurai, narrative ambiguity pairs well with the film’s ending. The characters’ testimonies, which serve to reveal the origins of their bodyminds, are more representative of the characters themselves than their undisclosed fates. Similarly, there is no point in debating Cotton’s words—the actions inspired by his bodymind and the potential ramifications of his suggestions are self-evident.

One’s actions may leave room for moral ambiguity and apologetic rationalizations, but they cannot conceal the initial mindset behind one’s actions. Mindset extends beyond what we consider intent to the material ramifications inflicted upon the bodymind. In the end, “Rashōmon” provides the promise of redemption in a world where conflicting narratives and unimpeachable individuals abound. And though it will require immense labor, I hope we may find redemption.

ARTS

October 29, 2020

Liam Miyar-Mullan Class of 2022 “The Pessimist’s Song”

O, this drab eternity we call life! & everyday with drear pleasure ends, Is quite as fatal as the surgeon’s knife, O, this drab eternity.

As the surgeon unto his tissue mends, Precious sleep does unto this endless strife, Where & why in dreams are our souls sent?

If I die, dear surgeon, do not revive!

To labor on earth’s doomed, infertile sands, Of our unskilled Maker’s jejune design, O, this drab eternity.

“The Optimist’s Song”

On my pilgrim heart, do not prey nor pry, For it is Love, the old, old Love of yore, That wayward wanders, no dull anchor tied, On my pilgrim heart. & Love needs no warrant to knock down my door, For Beauty alone, through crafty design, Is its vein, its vessel, its Grecian urn.

Nor scope like vultures when True Love must die, Like the Milky, to twinkle is its form, & moody elegies I will inscribe, On my pilgrim heart.

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“mentally i’m here” by Rachael Hahn ’21 I often think of creating playlists as my way of keeping a journal. This is because, time and time again, I have proven to myself that I am completely incapable of keeping a written diary. Thinking about that level of commitment makes me sweat; the longest I’ve lasted is maybe three weeks. I log, I rant and I scribble with a fervor one only experiences whilst dancing to Beethoven Virus on DDR. Then, bam: radio silence. While this problem doesn’t keep me up at night, I do wonder if there will come a day when my half-baked notebooks will end up in the hands of a stranger, as my plan to hide a time capsule in a random patch of dirt remains in the works. They’ll open it up, read my ramblings, and suddenly be left hanging, wondering if I did indeed end up liking the new cashew yogurt I bought.

I know if it were me, I’d probably assume that the writer died. A morbid thought, I know—but I digress.

The title of this playlist is “mentally i’m here.” And, like many ideas I’ve conjured in my life, this playlist’s name came about thanks to a meme. If you’re a Twitter user like me, then you definitely know which meme I’m talking about. And no, not even living under a rock like the true meme lord Patrick Star himself is an excuse.

The songs are in no particular order, and often I let Spotify shuffle through the list as I do homework or nap on my bedroom floor. As I write this piece, the playlist is opening with “Somewhere” by Surf Mesa and Gus Dapperton. This is a melancholic farewell, with buzzy synth trembling at the edges of Dapperton’s voice. It’s the song that plays in the background as you swipe through texts shared with your soon-to-be ex-situationship—and it’s the kind of song that warns you of an imminent ending you’re not quite sure who to blame for.

Next comes “Dreamland,” a euphoric whirlwind fresh off of Glass Animals’ newest album of the same name.

Unsurprisingly, I always find myself wanting to float off into nowhere when I listen to this song; it sounds the way I imagine becoming a ghost might feel. I love that this track envelops your senses like a warm blanket—but while comforting, it’s undoubtedly sullen and leaves you wanting to self-reflect for days on end.

But soon the fog of this dreamland begins to part, and in its wake emerges the lively tune that is Barrie’s “Darjeeling.”

This charmer highlights the talents of the up-and-coming Brooklyn band, which definitely knows how to make you feel at peace the same way an actual cup of darjeeling does.

And as I hum along to the wispy vocals and warm synths, I kick back just a bit longer. There I sit, flourishing in the achievement that is writing a single word on the page of an assignment that requires 1,000.

While that bliss is short-lived, the music doesn’t fail to keep me going. It’s Charli XCX and Christine and the Queens who come barreling through my speakers next with “Gone,” a pulsing electropop collab whose firm drumbeat evokes the bounce of a rubber ball. The track always puts a smile on my face that stays as Voxtrot rushes in to switch things up with “Fast Asleep.” The (unfortunately) now-defunct band’s shining potential lives on in this spirited track, and the merciless drive of the drums compels you to sprint headfirst into the unknown.

While I won’t reveal the entire lineup of this playlist, I will take a second to share some well-deserved honorable mentions. Other superstars include “Answered By a Prayer” by Ducktails, “Dionne” by The Japanese House and “Fillmore County” by Vansire and FLOORCRY. That being said, all of the songs that are responsible for this one-hourand-20-minute dream ride are without a doubt near and dear to my heart. And so when I finally take a moment to reflect on this playlist and my reasons for creating it, I’m of course reminded of the exact moment in which I originally threw the ingredients together. Hence, my brief diary anecdote.

Dated Sept. 22, 2020, this particular entry was recorded in the midst of my falling asleep at home, with the daily routine of my experience as a remote student setting in, but not without difficulty. And as I lay there in bed, feeling especially tired and uncertain of every future tomorrow, I still somehow felt this little nudge of hope. And such hope is what allowed me to close my eyes with ease that night, welcoming the kind of sleep that would see me fly away into the clouds of my dreams.

Graphic by Juliette Pope/The Miscellany News.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

FEATURES

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October 29, 2020

The Vassar Daisy Chain: a link to centuries of history Merrick Rubinstein Guest Reporter

I

n terms of Vassar traditions, the Daisy Chain has had quite an impressive run—the event has been an inseparable part of commencement culture ever since 1894, pausing only once for World War I. But what is the Daisy Chain, and who are the Daisies?

Historically, Vassar sophomores would attempt to sabotage the annual senior class tree planting ceremony by stealing the tree before or after it was planted. As a formal apology, they would in turn participate in honoring the seniors during graduation. Fifteen sophomores, dressed uniformly in white, would be chosen by the senior class to escort the graduates to and from the ceremony. Together, the members carry an intricately-woven chain of daisies, handpicked from the surrounding Hudson Valley.

“Like many traditions, the Daisy Chain ceremony has evolved with the times.”

Like many traditions, the Daisy Chain ceremony has evolved with the times.

Namely, members of the Daisies were once exclusively women chosen on the

basis of conventional feminine beauty.

Over time, Vassar’s gradual gender inclusivity has allowed non-binary and male students to be integrated into the ceremony. “The Daisy Chain was strictly women for over 100 years, but this is now a dead tradition,” said Senior Co-Coordinator Gabby Costner ’21. “We have been taking a much more inclusive approach to Daisies in recent years regarding gender identity.” As an example, Senior Co-Coordinator Marisa Petticord ’21 said, “Graduation 2019 was the first time that Daisy Chain members could wear clothing other than dresses.” With the addition of more freedom in clothing options—arranged and paid for by the senior class—every member can feel comfortable regardless of their gender identity. Both coordinators hope this will open a door to further disintegration of the lingering gender roles embedded in the ceremony.

Today, all 15 members are chosen through a merit- and interest-based application process and interviewed by the senior coordinators. The tenet of one foot of Hudson Valley daisies per senior was also eventually restricted to 150 feet (if they didn’t cap it, the chain would now be 600+ feet long!) and outsourced for the sake of improving ecological sustainability in the valley.

The combination of the Daisies’ significance in Vassar culture and the opportunity for improvement to inclusivity and programming is what drew Costner and Petticord to their positions. Both Costner and Petticord reflected that their experience as Daisies their sophomore year was life-changing, and they sought to keep the momentum going.

The Daisies are also a fundraising-based

Courtesy of Marisa Petticord. organization, and all proceeds go towards the senior class budget of that year. Costner reflected on the challenge this year’s fundraising efforts have faced: “How can we raise money for the senior class in a safe and efficient way? And how do we have fun programming in the midst of the pandemic?”

After careful consideration, Costner and Petticord have decided to host a “Vassar Build-a-Bear” event, a teddy bear fundraiser currently scheduled for Nov. 15th. Costner added that announcements for the event are coming shortly, as well as programming for the spring semester.

Due to last semester’s virtual graduation, the sophomores chosen for the Daisies were not able to participate. The coordinators chose to stray from tradition

as a result, in order to address the effects of the cancellation. “Because being on the Daisy Chain was such an integral part of my time at Vassar, I wanted to make sure that [the Class of 2022] was not excluded from this amazing experience,” says Petticord. Thus, the application process was extended to both Class of 2022 and 2023 students, and the resulting group of Daisies is a combination of the two.

To learn more about the Daisies’ history, both Costner and Petticord urge students to both explore Vassar databases such as VC Encyclopedia and approach them directly. The pair are committed to not only preserving the Daisy Chain tradition, but to passing down their enthusiasm and experiences to their peers before their Vassar careers draw to a close.

Plant of the Week display delights, educates community Continued from Plant on page 1 man ’24 expressed a similar sentiment: “The Plant of the Week is such a great way to connect students with the environment in a fun way—I love learning something new every time I walk by!”

Conte’s inspiration for this project came from Field Station and Ecological Preserve Manager Keri VanCamp, who had been keeping this tradition alive prior to Conte’s arrival at Vassar.

The project was first started in the early 2000s by Cheryl Hearty, the Greenhouse Manager at the time. Before the Bridge was built, this exhibition took place in the Olmsted Lobby. VanCamp then continued this tradition on a semi-regular basis from 2006 to 2018. “I always felt it was a way to engage a broader audience in the amazing living teaching collection that lives in our greenhouse,” VanCamp commented. Upon hearing about the project, Conte fell in love with the idea and decided to start it up again. She is eager to continue working on Plant of the Week for the rest of her time at Vassar.

Displayed near the front entrance of the Bridge, the Plant of the Week’s current setup consists of the showcased plant on a pedestal with flyers nearby providing QR codes and a Plant of the Week write-up. The QR codes supply spectators with a Plant of the Week PDF containing in-depth info as well as some quick facts via Instagram. The write-up, which sits beneath the QR codes, delves into each plant’s rich background— covering the plant’s family, country of origin, growing conditions, physical description, taxonomy, ecology, range and research done with said vegetation. For example, last

week’s plant, the Muehlenbeckia platyclada, resembles a mass of tapeworms and has been discovered to have anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive properties.

These showcased plant paradigms are selected each week from the Vassar Biology Greenhouse, namely from the living museum collection. Many museum collections have foundations built upon “exotic” species, as Conte explained. As a result, many

“The Plant of the Week is a way of...aiding our community to learn more about the plants they perceive as beautiful.” of these species have been cultivated merely for their aesthetically pleasing appearance, which completely erases their rich histories.

Displaying an individual plant each week while simultaneously educating the Vassar community about its function, biology and use in today’s world brings back some of these forgotten histories. Conte noted, “The Plant of the Week is a way of displaying the collection while aiding our community to learn more about the plants they perceive

as beautiful. It provides reason to value the land each plant is endemic to.” Additionally, with this project, Conte aims to give students a chance to see the many opportunities within plant biology research that they could someday explore on their own.

When choosing which plant to display, Conte admits she is a bit biased toward flowering plants. “[These] can be extremely helpful for those wanting to learn proper identification,” said Conte. She also ensures that every plant she picks is able to survive outside the greenhouse’s rigidly regulated settings. So far, Conte has been the only person involved with this task, but she took care to note that she is open to any input from members of the Vassar community.

Despite not having a favorite plant, some of Conte’s most treasured greenery displayed this semester include Dracaena liberica; Ceropegia ampliata, known as the Bushman’s Pipe; Begonia “Tie Dye”; Anacampseros rufescens, whose flowers only open from the afternoon to early evening; Plumeria spp.; Muehlenbeckia platyclada; and Cereus repandus var. monstrosus, a mutant cactus. In terms of plants on display last year, some highlights were Ananas comosus var. microstachys, Cymbidium ensifolium x C. Enid Haupt, the tentacle-like Euphorbia esculenta, Huperzia phlegmaria, Lithops spp., Mammillaria plumosa, diskshaped Pilea peperomioides and Pinguicula moranensis.

Conte hopes that the Plant of the Week Exhibition will inspire those in our community and beyond to think more about plant life and specifically reflect upon the harmful effects one’s plant collection or backyard garden can have on the local flora and fau-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

na. “I hope it shows the value in ensuring all plants and the ecosystems they are a part of will be here for generations to come,” she shared. So next time you are in the Bridge, do not forget to take some time to stop and smell the roses—or if you were in there last week, the Muehlenbeckia platyclada.

Each Plant of the Week exhibition includes nearby flyers providing QR codes and a Plant of the Week writeup, both of which supply spectators with in-depth information about the week’s chosen vegetation.

Monika Sweeney/The Miscellany News

October 29, 2020

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COVID-19 puts future of Vassar student theater in limbo Continued from Theater on page 1 ensemble groups—they audition members to be a part of the group, and then the ensemble itself chooses, produces and acts in their shows. The proliferation of student theater shows every semester provides countless opportunities for students of various experience levels to direct, manage, produce or act in shows. Additionally, each org has its own focus on the type of theater it produces, ranging from classical plays to experimental productions to musical theater.

Then came COVID-19. Multiple student theater shows had been in production last semester when students left campus for spring break. Because students were never able to return to campus, those shows were either finished in a digital, remote format that looked nothing like what the teams behind them had originally envisioned, or they never went up at all. This semester, returning students find themselves on a quarantined campus, where personal interaction is severely limited and every aspect of the performing arts has been dramatically altered. Vassar theater as we knew it is simply not possible under the current conditions.

This week I spoke with the president of The Philaletheis Society, Delaney Sears ’21; the president of FWA, Jacob Ettkin ’21; and the president of Merely Players, Bailey Hancharik ’22, about how their orgs have adapted to life in the pandemic.

In a normal semester, these orgs would be accepting proposals, holding auditions and producing full-length shows. Philaletheis normally produces anywhere from one to three shows in a semester, and by this time in October, production would be well under way. Philaletheis also usually puts on the 10-minute play festival in December, which takes place in the Rose Parlor. FWA usually produces one to two musicals each semester, and between seven and 10 special events. These can include cabarets, fundraisers, movie nights and karaoke nights, as well as events catered to students interested in developing or writing their own works.

Merely Players has a regular programming of one full-length production a semester.

None of this is happening this semester.

“We are living in a world in which either participating in or going to theater is an inherently dangerous task,” Ettkin said. He added that musical theater is even more dangerous, because singing spreads aerosols even faster and farther than speaking.

For that reason, FWA is not producing any full-length or in-person shows this semester. Instead, they are focusing on a number of special events that Ettkin described as “high fun, low effort.” The goal is to have fun and build community without overwhelming its members. One of these events is Mystery Masquerade, which will be a virtual cabaret that explores the spooky side of musical theater. Ettkin said the cabaret will go live the day before Halloween.

Similarly to FWA, Philaletheis is not producing any full-length shows this semester.

Sears noted that all the theater orgs received information from the Student Activities Resource Center (SARC) about how they could go about producing live theater, but it involved a long list of restrictions; for example, the presence of a “safety monitor.”

They decided it wasn’t worth it. “Instead, we are not doing any plays or active theater.

We’re focusing more on community building and theater-based events, as opposed to performing. At least in Phil, we didn’t want the risk of doing live theater and none of us feel strongly about virtual theater. So we’ve been focusing more on doing streamings, and doing things to keep the theater community alive and in conversation until we can actually do live theater again,” Sears said. Philaletheis has been using their budget to stream professional filmed plays that people can watch from their rooms. “It’s definitely been more about keeping the community alive and having community events as opposed to making a play,” Sears added.

Merely Players is one of the few orgs trying to produce some form of theater this semester. As Hancharik noted, “We knew that in-person performance was probably not going to be a practical thing, especially for student theater. The Drama department’s doing it, but it’s under very controlled circumstances and with a lot of supervision. So we kind of knew that that was going to be out of the question.” But that didn’t stop them from getting creative: Instead of live theater, Merely is producing a 1920s-style radio play of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” Rehearsals are held over Zoom, and they intend to release the play in several installments over the course of the end of the semester, with the first installment tentatively scheduled for mid-November.

Hancharik noted that recording the play is a lot of trial and error, since nobody involved in the show has experience using recording equipment. Even so, they are excited to be making something creative. “We got together and we were like, we still want to use this opportunity, because I think one of the good things that has come out of these circumstances is people have figured out ways to become a lot more innovative with theater and art in general,” Hancharik shared.

Still, there remains a sense of loss and sadness at not being able to make in-person theater. Hancharik explained the loss of community and relationship-building that happens when they produce a show: “Because Merely has a more specific type of theater that we do—it’s more restricted thematically by the fact that it’s all classical or classically inspired—it tends to appeal to a smaller group of people, but then those people who are involved are very passionate about it. We usually build a very tight-knit community around our productions.” She noted that, although they were trying to build that closeness with the cast of the radio play, it just isn’t the same.

Sears noted that it has been hard to stay focused and driven under the current circumstances. “Whenever we have a meet-

ing, you can tell that everyone just doesn’t really have motivation to be there. And that’s not because we don’t want to, it’s because this isn’t what we signed up to do,” Sears said.

Ettkin said that he simply longs for actual theater. “I’m really, really just missing the idea of everyone, let’s gather in a rehearsal room, let’s make some art together. Our weekly meetings over Zoom bring me much joy, and it is so nice to see people’s faces and talk about theater, but I still miss the in-person experience a lot.”

There are personal connections made and relationships built when you interact with people on stage, and this is lost, even for those making virtual theater. Sears echoed this sentiment, and noted that the entire theater world is experiencing this right now. “We are kind of a microcosm of the greater theater community. Until theater as a whole can come back, we’re going to be kind of floating in a limbo. As much as you can do virtual readings and Zoom readings, it’s never the same.”

There may also be some long-term effects for the student theater orgs if they are not able to produce in-person shows for an extended period of time. Sears expressed worry that the longer they are not able to make theater, the more students who have been involved in the theater-making process at Vassar will have graduated. “Depending on how long this goes on, if we’re not able to do live, in-person theater like we used to be able to for a few years, then nobody on campus will have seen how those processes work. Student theater will probably be very different, if it comes back at all.” She said that people learn theater by getting involved, and that Vassar student theater is very much a learning space where older students teach younger students various aspects of production like lighting, sound design and stage managing. Once they are able to return to in-person theater, there may be very few students on campus who have those skills.

But there may also be a positive side to the lull in student productions. Hancharik said, “If anything, [the pandemic is] just reinforcing our determination to produce something every semester. I kind of hope that, from an artistic standpoint, these limitations on what we can and can’t do right now will help us learn more ways in which we can be creative…We’re being forced to think outside the box, and it really shows if we can do something really unique now, certainly we can do some very unique things in normal circumstances.” This creativity could have a lasting impact on student theater and possibly expand approaches to theater making, even post-pandemic.

Ettkin also views this as a potential opportunity to make change in the Vassar student theater world. He said that the process of putting on a show is stressful, and the institutional support from the orgs isn’t always sufficient. “In some ways, I think it could be a really lovely opportunity to... make this a healthier system as a whole if

Above is a pre-pandemic Vassar student theater production.

Helen Johnson/The Miscellany News. we can do kind of a soft reset.” But he also recognized the potential for some aspects of student theater to fall through the cracks: “I think there’s going to be some identity loss as well, for sure.”

There is a lot of uncertainty as to what the future of student theater at Vassar will look like. Ettkin noted that, although everyone would love to go back to producing full-length shows as soon as possible, it might not be realistic. “We’re really trying to figure out what lines we need to take... to start making in-person theater again, in any form. On the one hand it’s really exciting, and I miss that form a lot. I’m also terrified at the thought that theater [will be] the reason that students on this campus have to leave. And I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

In the meantime, the orgs are doing what they can. Sears expressed feeling the loss acutely, since this is her last year at Vassar and she might not ever be able to produce a show as president of Philaletheis. “As seniors especially, it’s hard to be optimistic about it.” It’s not just the presidents of the orgs—senior actors, producers and directors across campus are missing what might be their last opportunity for theater at Vassar.

And theater makers of all class years are deprived of the close relationships formed between cast members, the opportunity to hone their craft, the rush of being on stage and the chance to bring a script to life.

But there are optimistic sentiments as well. “I am viewing student theater right now as: I think whatever theater we can put together is an awesome opportunity,” Ettkin said. “It’s going to force people to get creative in ways that I think will be deeply rewarding and also deeply challenging.”

Even though they are facing unprecedented circumstances and do not know the next time they will be able to produce in-person theater, Hancharik said, “We definitely will find a way to keep producing art. That’s not going to stop.”

Despite rain, students and residents stand for hours to vote Continued from Voting on page 1 we are today as a country.” While this is not her first time voting, Brenner emphasized the feeling that this presidential election would be the most consequential of her lifetime.

“Every election is important,” she said.

“Yet as a woman, this one feels particularly important.”

David Loesch, a resident of Stormville,

NY casting his ballot for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, said that he did not vote in 2016, but felt that he needed to vote this year.

“It’s an honor to be able to vote—really a duty,” he explained. “I am not happy with the direction this country has been going in.”

The turnout for the 2020 election has been breaking records nationally. Early

voting began on Saturday, Oct. 24 for New Yorkers, and voters are flocking to the polls.

Dutchess Board of Elections poll worker Pat Bracone explained that people were coming in nonstop on Monday. “Today is nothing compared to Sunday,” he commented, referring to high turnout the previous day.

Director of Community Engaged

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Learning Lisa Kaul, who is organizing the in-person voting shuttles, explained over email to students that people had been waiting in line for hours to vote over the weekend.

After voting, students were picked up by the Vassar shuttle and received an apple cider doughnut and a “Vassar Votes” face mask, a souvenir that encapsulates 2020.

HUMOR

Page 10

October 29, 2020

Breaking News

From the desk of Izzy Migani, Humor Editor

Students spot Humor Editor yelling at trees as concerns mount for editor’s sanity Dr. G’s Love Advice: Vassar’s best unusual hookup spots Dear Dr. G, My roommate is worried that if I bring a “special friend” into our double that he’ll be listed as a close contact soon after. Can you give me some suggestions of spaces on campus that I can use to set the mood just right without pissing off my roommate?

-Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places Dear Looking, Even before COVID-19, Vassar students have always been interested in testing the bounds of where they can hook up. Some more conventional options include the Mug, outside of Ferry and the shower of your TA, while more adventurous options are Rocky Hall, in the car of a stranger in the TH parking lot and in that one gender neutral bathroom on the first floor of the library that has a locking door. This question is now more critical than ever, and lucky for you, I have personally researched which locations can best put you in the mood.

One of the first questions you must consider is to what degree you are comfortable with public play. For those who lean into a hookup in plain view, I recommend making use of the outdoor green spaces on campus. For example, the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve (VFEP) has countless semi-secluded paths and locations that present the perfect angles for any sexual position, and it comes with the added risk

that you may be discovered by an Intro Biology class just looking for bugs. Hooking up at the VFEP comes with the added sensuality of exploring every inch of your partner’s body after the encounter for the recommended tick-check. Better yet, if you’re more of a night owl, the small garden under the Bridge has a winding path with about chest height grass, perfect for doing the nasty in only somewhat seclusion in the night hours. Plus, for some, doing it just behind the Chapel is just the rush you need to make your COVID sex dreams come true.

On the other hand, many prospective hookups, as well as yourself, may be somewhat averse to public sex. This is understandable, and lends itself to a host of indoor locations, especially as the weather gets more brisk this fall. The first recommendation is for most of the girls and gays, who have the goal of hooking up in each dorm but have been held up at Strong House for years. Fortune favors the bold; reach out to your close friend in Strong and ask to borrow their room for the night, and finally make your geographic sex life complete by finishing your sexual dorm scavenger hunt (or, just have sex with your close friend from Strong…?). Just across the quad, you can head to the basement of Raymond just below the Annex and discover the perpetually unlocked “HELTER SKELTER” door,

which also checks the box of setting the mood for your spooky Halloween shenanigans (maybe a ghost will join in!). If you’re looking for something a bit more academic, you can go to the first floor bathroom of the Bridge—but be careful, you don’t want to run into any Gen Chem or Orgo students post-lab looking for the perfect cry spot (keep an eye out for the followup of best cry spots on campus). I know many of you may be thinking that the roof of Kenyon may be a good option, but personally I’m afraid of heights, and this portion of the list is all indoors, so I suggest you move a few meters to the right of the open window to a Kenyon dance studio. What could be more alluring

than a wide open room full of mirrors—perfect for getting every angle for your OnlyFans? Finally, I wanted to include an actually accessible option, which is the lecture room on the first-floor of New England. Bonus points for the doors all having windows and the risk of being caught increasing by at least 200 percent.

Listen, I get it. Sometimes, we just aren’t that adventurous, and I, too, feel most at home in my good ol’ Twin XL. Just remember that your hookup is only for tonight, but your roommate will talk sh*t about your hookup with you in two weeks when you realize she was a jerk, so make sure to keep your priorities straight.

Pictured above is the outside of Ferry House, one of Dr. G’s highly-recommended (although more conventional) Vassar hookup locations. Via residentiallife.vassar.edu.

HORROR-OSCOPES Madi Donat

Astral Projector

ARIES

Mar 21 | Apr 19

It isn’t safe to sit in the dark. Let the light in, slowly so as not to disturb anyone—or anything. Then again, maybe it’s better not knowing. Your brain may wander, but at least you don’t have to face it.

TAURUS

Apr 20 | May 20

Can you hear it, that ghost of an old song drifting through faraway speakers? Walk towards the sound. It was someone’s favorite tune once. Now they are long gone. But maybe they still want someone to dance with.

GEMINI

May 21 | Jun 20

The view from your window may seem…different. The once-familiar silhouettes of trees and buildings now undulate and shiver with the fall of night.

Can you really trust what you see? Is that a face, peering in?

CANCER

Jun 21 | Jul 22

Listen to the walls. Can you hear a presence inside, ready to make itself known? Does it laugh, softly, when you turn out the light? How long before you can admit to yourself that maybe it’s hungry?

LEO

Jul 23 | Aug 22

Run. The woods teem with creatures who shouldn’t be disturbed. Run until you think your legs will give out, until you know nothing but running. Run until you stop feeling their hot breath on the back of your neck.

VIRGO

Aug 23 | Sep 22

Pay close attention to the creaking of the floorboards. Of course, there’s nothing that can harm you, not just yet anyway. Lock your doors just in case, though. Is there a place you can hide, far from the light?

LIBRA

Sep 23 | Oct 22

You can never really tell who’s changed until they reveal themselves to you.

Watch out for odd behavior from those closest to you this week. They might be your friends, but the beast inside may not agree.

SCORPIO

Oct 23 | Nov 21

The road stretches endless in front of you. Sometimes it feels you ended up exactly where you were. The stones shift under your uneasy steps. Keep going, no matter where you end up—or how long you have to walk.

SAGITTARIUS

Nov 22 | Dec 21

No one will find you in here, safe from the terrors of the outside world. But why, then, does it feel like the walls are closing in? And what’s that clawing, that hacking at the locked door? What could come of this?

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

CAPRICORN

Dec 22 | Jan 19

You’re the only one special enough to hear their cries––the spirits trust you.

Listen to what they say, what they tell you to do. You just want what’s best for them. You only want what’s best. And they’ll do anything to get it.

AQUARIUS

Jan 20 | Feb 18

Open your door to a mysterious stranger who stands soaking from the rain.

Let them into your home, tell them how to get from one place to another.

Turn around to see them gone. Or did they never exist in the first place?

PISCES

Feb 19 | Mar 20

It grips at you in the dead of night, this relentless dread. You can’t explain why it makes the back of your neck tingle.

Too frightened to move, you lie stockstill. Who is with you? Or is it fear itself and nothing more?

HUMOR

October 29, 2020

Page 11

Student creates dummy to trick professor on Zoom Blair Webber

E

Definitely Not A Dummy

ven for students currently on-campus, many classes are taught virtually. It’s safer for groups to meet over Zoom than in person, but the strangeness of video chatting makes class exhausting for students and professors alike. Sometimes students just do not have the bandwidth to attend class, and figuring out how to skip without accruing unexcused absences is a fine line to walk.

One student believes he has the key to taking necessary rest days without being marked absent. Drawing inspiration from the cinematic masterpiece “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” Terrence Williams ’23 built a semi-realistic dummy he puts in front of the camera to make it look as if he’s simply fallen asleep rather than skipped class entirely.

Williams shared, “I had the idea when I was re-re-rewatching “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” I thought, ‘oh please, I could make a dummy like that,’ and then I realized, ‘I could make a dummy like that.’”

Williams explained that with this great power comes great responsibility: “I only use it when it’s an emergency. I care about school a lot and I don’t mean to skip classes, just sometimes I can’t stare at zoom.” He continued, “So, I only use it when I need

to skip class for my mental health, which these days is roughly twice a week per class.”

The sleeping dummy has not gone unnoticed by Williams’s professors.

“It’s a little bit rude,” Introduction to Cognitive Science Professor Elric Piaget (no relation to Jean Piaget) said, “but at least the dummy is wearing a shirt. I had one student show up shirtless with the camera angled down so the frame was mostly just his nipples. Is this really what I get for asking people to turn on their cameras?”

When asked about how he thinks his professors react to the sleeping dummy, Williams said, “Well, it’s nicer than what Ferris did. I leave my mic on mute, so I don’t interrupt the class with snoring sounds. Although I do have them playing in the background in case my professor unmutes me to try to wake me up.”

Certain professors have reached out to Williams to ask about his constant sleeping.

“One professor described in an email he sent me after one class how he had screamed at me for 30 minutes trying to get me to wake up. After that, I was sure to make it look like my earbuds had fallen out so that it seems like I couldn’t hear them,” Williams shared.

Williams has run into other problems using the dummy.

“I can’t be in the picture when I log onto

Zoom otherwise everyone notices the difference, but if it’s just the dummy in the frame when I log on then everyone is like ‘how did this dude log on while he was sleeping?’”

When pressed for more detail on what exactly Williams gets out of letting everyone think he’s asleep in class, he offered this: “OK, it definitely started as just a way to avoid unexcused absences when I was feeling burnt out, but honestly it’s become more about the power. It feels good to fool my professors like that—like they think I’m there but I’m really not at all. It’s a trip.”

The Misc also managed to contact Introduction to Sociology Professor Merle Eills, who shared his take on the student’s incessant sleeping: “Williams? Who is that? Oh, he’s in my Intro to Soc class? That explains it—I haven’t been on that Zoom call since the second class. I made a pre-recorded video of the first five minutes of each lecture but then I made it look like I freeze every few frames as if my WiFi’s spotty so no one really notices when I just end the Zoom call entirely and tell them to read the Moodle.”

80’s classic “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” was the inspiration for Terrence Williams’ ’23 dummy-based Zoom attendance scheme. Via Alarmy Atock Photo.

B’s corner by b Gomez

FROG AND TOAD ARE FRENEMIES

by Julianna + Olivia

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

OPINIONS

Page 12

October 29, 2020

Mask wearing should continue after the pandemic Jonas Trostle

Opinions Editor

I

don’t think I’ll stop wearing my mask even when this pandemic is over.

The United States is currently in its third wave, with a higher number of new cases per day than the first wave in March and April and the second wave in July. Over 80,000 new cases were recorded in a single day this month, and there’s no sign of this trend stopping anytime soon. With luck, a vaccine will be widely available in the summer of 2021, but that’s little consolation to the 700 or so people who will die each day in the interim.

Even after a vaccine is produced and distributed to the vast majority of the population, there’s no reason we should abandon the public health measures we’ve taken during the pandemic. Masks and proper physical distancing are some of the cheapest and most effective ways to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, ongoing pandemic or not.

While everyday physical distancing may be out of the question, hopefully we as a society fully embrace the idea that those who are sick should stay home and limit their physical interactions as best as they can. Masks, on the other hand, should be a staple of our wardrobes no matter how we feel healthwise. Take the flu, the common cold or some yet undiscovered superbug—all would be mitigated and their damage reduced by just wearing a mask.

With COVID-19 staring us dead in the face for almost a year now, it’s easy to forget that the flu, while not at all of the same magnitude as COVID-19, still kills thousands of people every year. Even if we move past the current pandemic, the reality of deaths from communicable diseases is not going away. Worse, unless the vaccine developed for COVID-19 has

an effectiveness rate in the mid to high 90s, cold and flu season could morph into coronavirus and flu season. There is a real possibility that COVID-19 is not fully eliminated and becomes an illness that reemerges every year for the rest of our lives. Masks can be uncomfortable, but, like it or not, they may become the new normal for years to come.

I say “like it or not,” but I am clearly in the former category and not the latter.

Wearing a mask is like leaving everyone else a little note that says, “I care about you and your health.” Of course, this is true for most masks, but not all. Choosing to wear a mask which has a vent in it is a stupid, selfish decision. The efficacy of a mask is not based on how well it protects the wearer, but how it protects everyone else. If one person is wearing a mask and nobody else is, the masked person has very little protection; the point is not to stop viruses from getting in, but to stop them from getting out. Wearing a mask with a valve or a vent does very little to protect the wearer, and does even less to protect bystanders. Not all masks are created equal, and for this reason it’s important to understand that a good mask is one that protects others.

Valves and vents aren’t the only type of mask to be avoided. N95 are some of the safest masks available for both the wearer and those around them, and that’s precisely the reason that Joe-on-the-street should not be wearing them. For those who have regular attention spans, you may not remember that around 150 or so news cycles ago, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) were rampant. That was in the first wave. We’ve had another wave of COVID-19 in the interim. We’re once again experiencing record level numbers. A major part of

these PPE shortages was a lack of available N95 masks. Doctors and nurses and medical professionals of all stripes need these masks much more than anyone else. Wearing an N95 mask as a non-medical worker displays at best a surprising level of ignorance about a pandemic that has been raging for most of a year, or at worst a malignant selfishness that reflects a complete lack of regard for the safety of the medical workers who may have to save your life one day.

Wearing a mask is better for everyone’s health inside and outside of a pandemic, and it’s an easy way to tell other people that you care about them, but there is another reason that I plan to wear a mask

well after COVID-19 has lost the status of pandemic. As I write this, over 220,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.

Worldwide, 1.15 million. When this is over, I imagine a lot of people want to go back to normal. There is no back to normal, not for the 1.5 million who have died, not for their loved ones. For those that died, let my mask be a commemoration. For those that sacrificed, let my mask be a reminder that their sacrifice was not in vain. And for those who could have done more and chose not to, from Donald Trump to the traveler who refuses to wear a mask, let my mask remind them of their failures and the consequences of their actions.

Courtesy of NurseTogether via Wikimedia Commons.

Amy Coney Barrett’s originalism threatens future of civil rights Henry Mitchell

T

Guest Columnist

he Republican Party’s push to confirm Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court just days before the Nov. 3 presidential election succeeded, as she was confirmed in a 52-48 vote Monday night. With Mitch McConnell and other Republican senators in lockstep, Democrats were virtually powerless to stop the hypocritical power grab.

Senate Democrats, likely hoping to avoid a repeat of the contentious Brett Kavanaugh hearings—which generated backlash from conservatives—frequently opted to criticize the rushed confirmation process rather than Barrett’s qualifications. When they did question her, they often focused on her stances on specific issues such as abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act. Those concerns are certainly valid.

However, they don’t fully capture the truly concerning thing about Judge Barrett, which extends beyond her opinion on individual cases. In reality, it is her judicial philosophy of originalism that constitutes the greatest threat to the civil rights of marginalized groups.

Originalism is a judicial philosophy which holds that the Constitution should be interpreted exactly as it would have been at the time it was ratified. In their decisions, originalists frequently cite 18th century dictionaries as evidence for how certain words in the document would

have been interpreted by Americans in the 1790s.

There are several extremely obvious problems with this method. The first is that it is often extremely difficult to actually discern the original meaning of many parts of the Constitution. In a discussion at the University of Arizona Law School, Justice Stephen Breyer was very candid about this issue. He revealed that often, “When I look at that history and say, ‘What did they really intend to do then about that?’

I haven’t a clue.”

In fact, ambiguity in the Constitution was likely the intention of the Framers.

Louisiana State University law professor Ken Levy argues that “Because they used flexible, open-ended language like ‘cruel and unusual’ without explaining exactly what they meant, it seems clear that they were deliberately inviting future generations to interpret and reinterpret these words.”

The ambiguity of the Constitution is not even the most concerning issue with the originalist philosophy. What is more troubling is its belief that the Constitution is unchanging and the values of the original ratifiers must remain unless altered by a constitutional amendment. Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Barrett’s mentor and fellow proponent of originalism, argued that this philosophy protects democracy by preventing unelected justices from substituting their views for those of the people.

The problem with Scalia’s analysis is that his view of American society is a myth. The Constitution was not ratified by a democratic society, but rather one built on discrimination. In the early years of the republic, only six percent of Americans had the right to vote. Many of the Framers were slave owners and nearly all held despicable views about race and gender that most 21st-century Americans would abhor. Originalists would ignore the fact that America has evolved and favor the views of 18th-century white supremacists over those of 21st-century society.

The landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education is a good example of the terrible consequences an originalist philosophy can have. As legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky notes, “The same Congress that voted to ratify the 14th Amendment, which assures equal protection of the laws, also voted to segregate the District of Columbia public schools.” If the Supreme Court had followed an originalist philosophy, it would have been forced to rule that enforced segregation was constitutional.

Unsurprisingly, originalists have dissented in virtually every major civil rights case in recent years. In landmark cases such as United States v. Virginia, Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges, originalists like Scalia were unfailingly opposed to extending rights to marginalized groups.

Fortunately, until recently, originalism

The opinions expressed above do not represent those of The Miscellany News as a whole.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

has been a fringe ideology on the court, and cases such as Obergefell were decided in favor of extending constitutional rights. However, Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination creates a critical mass of originalists on the court that could threaten the rights of countless Americans.

Originalists often claim that theirs is the only unbiased judicial philosophy, arguing that considering anything other than the original meaning of the Constitution would bring a judge’s own opinions into play. This could not be farther from the truth.

At best, originalism is an abdication of responsibility. It allows judges to ignore the fact that their decisions have real consequences. When stripping rights from millions of Americans, they can claim that they disagree with the result but had no choice.

At worst, originalism is a violent and dangerous ideology which substitutes the values of a modern society for those of 18th-century slave owners. It will always lead justices to oppose civil rights, because the Framers opposed civil rights.

As many Americans call for a more progressive and inclusive nation, originalists will likely continue to be a major roadblock to achieving reform. It is important to be aware of this threat to constitutional rights, as any Democratic administration will struggle to make progress with a Supreme Court that is unrepresentative of the views of modern society.

OPINIONS

October 29, 2020

Page 13

Trump and Co. flaunt indifference despite 225,000 deaths Sawyer Bush

P

Assistant Opnions Editor

resident Donald Trump and his circle have endlessly demonstrated their deadly indifference to the coronavirus, which has now claimed the lives of over 225,000 Americans. Despite polls indicating Trump’s stance of downplaying the virus is not to his benefit, with 57 percent of voters trusting Biden on COVID-19 as opposed to only 40 percent trusting Trump, he continues to reject science and his top infectious-disease experts, ignore guidelines and host events that are the perfect environment for spreading the virus.

Mark Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff, nonchalantly stated in a CNN interview, “We’re not going to control the pandemic.” The White House has made it clear that they are going to continue hosting high-risk rallies and events despite the suggestions of epidemiological experts.

So why does a president who is losing in nearly every poll, including ones on confidence in handling the pandemic, continue to demonstrate his indifference towards the most deadly virus this country has seen since the pandemic of 1918?

At first, you might guess that he flaunts the insignificance of this virus to appease a mask-hating, regulation-fearing voter base. If this is his strategy, it is not a very strong one, as appealing to only 40 percent of the population is not a reliable

pathway to victory.

So why is a currently trailing candidate flaunting a losing mindset? Why is he continuing to act like the death of nearly a quarter of a million Americans (and more every day) is nothing to be concerned over? The real reason for Trump’s ignoring all the red flags indicating the severity of this situation is that he is a self-obsessed, arrogant narcissist who doesn’t value any life that doesn’t benefit his own agenda. At this point in the virus’ progress, to admit its severity would be to admit his failure to protect the nation from it. Even now that he has himself contracted the virus and survived it, its risks seem to have had no real impact on his psyche.

Trump and his circle have sought to carry on business as usual as if we were not all living through the greatest pandemic since 1918 and the greatest economic depression since the Great Depression of the 1930s. We can simply look back a few months and compare the party conventions back in August to see the stark contrast between how Democrats and how the now Trumpian Republicans are handling this dark time in our history.

At the DNC, the Democrats put together an event that followed all COVID-19 guidelines, a mostly virtual experience centered around finding unity in a time of so much uncertainty. They focused on what we as a country need to do in order to rise out of this situation stronger and

September 20, 2012 ACROSS 1. Like 60% of the world’s people 6. Votes in favor 10. It can be fashionable 14. Yeshiva instructor 15. Oft tickled Sesame Street resident 16. Airs 17. *A Spanish mirage of the shore?

19. Work on ___ (sunbathe) 20. Impudence 21. Final word of the Pledge of Allegiance 22 .Imports and exports 23. From ____ Z 24. Abu Dhabi’s home: Abbr.

26. *A second string player’s career summary?

32. Super Smash Brothers’ fight 33. Power or Gator suffix 34. Baby newts 37. What the police may act on 38. Student’s dream grade...or a hint to the answers of the starred clues 40. Pajamas’ rear opening 41. LA Lakers’ new passing star 42. R2 D2, e.g.

Answer to last week’s puzzle

more united. They presented a case for Joe Biden as someone with empathy, who has lost family members of his own and can relate to those who have now lost loved ones to the virus because of Donald Trump’s failure to act. They presented Joe Biden as someone to unite us out of this troubling moment in our nation’s history.

“The White House has made it clear that they are going to continue hosting high-risk rallies and events despite the suggestions of epidemiological experts.”

The RNC presented a very different image. This event had no focus on any substantial policy platforms or plans to lead us out of this pandemic, but was instead a celebration of Trump with superlatives like “A visionary,” “The richest man in the world” and “The guardian of Amer-

ica.” Trump and the party that stands in lockstep with him have no plan to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump stands in office for the attention, for the compliments from his spineless Republican colleagues and for the worshipping from his legion of devout supporters.

Trump is not a man who fights for anyone but himself. So why should we be surprised that he continues to prance across the nation hosting events that have been linked to COVID-19 outbreaks? He continues to host rallies without social distancing and with his supporters mostly without masks. Instead of conceding that we are in the middle of a historic pandemic, he would rather project a sense of normalcy and ignore all the failures of his administration in handling the virus and the subsequent economic crash.

Some had hoped that following his positive coronavirus test and hospitalization, he would have a change of tone regarding the virus and the over 210,000 Americans dead at the time. But that is not something he is capable of. He does not value human life that does not benefit him. He has consistently demonstrated that he is incapable of empathizing.

Say what you want about Biden. He’s not my favorite either. But at least he is a decent human being who is capable of empathizing with others’ loss and suffering. Donald Trump knows no suffering, only greed and self satisfaction.

Throwback Miscellany Crossword

by Jack Mullan ’14

43. Kevin Durant’s asset 44. *A movie about political staffers on the campaign trail?

48. Utmost degree 49. Stadium cheer 50. The second largest national economy in the world 54. Link letters 55. Radio switch 59. Bar mitzvah or communion 60. *A Britney Spears song seeking love?

63. Hydroxyl compound 64. One of the Three Bears 65. Step on it 66. What 65-across can do to a car 67. Number two: Abbr.

68. Departs

28. Son of Lehi in Mormonism 29. Architect Alvar __ 30. Direct (to) 31. Company with a spokesduck 32. Superhero name ender 35. Dashboard dial, for short 36. Geom. solid: Abbr.

38. Help a criminal 39. Far from shabby 43. Norma __ 45. “CSI” evidence, often 46. Microsoft Word tab 47. Lille girl: Abbr.

DOWN 1. Bachelor of ___ 2. Poet Teasdale 3. Sacred bird of the pharaohs 4. Z is the last of them 5. An end to peace?

6. Shortest light 7. Israeli flier 8. SNL alum Poehler 9. “___ guy walks into a bar ...”

10. When repeated, a Jim Carrey flick 11. Wirehair of film 12. Odious one 13. Cousin of -ette or -trix 18. Way to go 22. Golfing instrument 23. One or Eleven, in blackjack 24. Pakistani tongue 25. Jonathan behind HBO’s “Bored to Death” 26. Gamma preceder 27. Girl in a “Paint Your Wagon” song The opinions expressed above do not represent those of The Miscellany News as a whole.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

50. Get louder, in mus.

51. “Get louder, in mus.” for example 52. Poem referencing “the darker brother” 53. Progressive policy advocates: Abbr.

54. Ones who might cry foul?

55. Visa alternative 56. ___ operandi 57. Social group you won’t find at Vassar 58. Gibson and Ott 60. College stat.

61. ___ in Icarus 62. Chimp

SPORTS

Page 14

October 29, 2020

‘Like playing on easy mode’: Cross Country during the pandemic Doug Cobb Columnist

I

think most of us expected the shutdown to last a few weeks, or maybe a month at most. We didn’t need to think about how to continue our lives during the pandemic, because we thought we could just press the pause button for a short period of time and then resume life as normal. But the weeks started to add up, and then the months. Somewhere along the way, we all started to realize that things weren’t going to go back to normal anytime soon.

I have written a lot about how professional sports leagues attempted to adapt to the pandemic, but today I want to discuss something a little more personal and closer to home: Vassar athletics. Specifically, my team, Vassar Cross Country.

Over the summer, the Vassar administration carefully crafted a plan for a return to campus this fall. Faculty and staff worked hard to ensure that it was executed smoothly. Part of the deal for students wishing to return was that we had to make some sacrifices for the safety of everyone on campus. Fall athletic competitions were one of these sacrifices. The bubble model implemented by Vassar did not allow for off-campus competition or practice, so we lost our season.

We could have just said, “That sucks, hopefully next season we get back to normal,” and left it at that, but we didn’t. The Vassar Cross Country team is an amazing group of people, and we love spending time with each other and training together. We are a Division III team, so there are no scholarships involved—we are all on the team because we want to be, not because we have to be. It was a crushing blow to miss out on our competitions this season, but we still kept training through the end of the summer and having team Zoom meetings with our coach, James McCowan, to figure out ways to come together. Fortunately for us, Vassar allowed teams to practice after a few weeks on campus, when all members had tested negative multiple times.

It was the greatest feeling to finally meet up with the team in person again before our first practice back in September, even though we had to wear masks and stay six feet apart at all times. We jumped right back into it, running hundreds of miles together and grinding out track workouts again (instead of running in a pack like usual, we would start one runner, wait a few seconds and then send the next one until everyone got going and

then we would repeat for the next rep).

Coach James planned some team time trials for later in the season, and we were all committed to making the most of what we had. We had to totally revamp the way we did things, but we were willing to do whatever it took to get back to running with each other.

It is annoying to have to pull up your mask and cut off some of your oxygen when your heart rate is off the charts. It sucks not having a locker room, not being able to have team dinners at the Deece, not being able to go off campus for long runs in the mountains or tempo runs on the rail trail, not being able to watch movies together or hang out at each other’s houses. Most of all, it sucks not to have meets.

But everyone has had to make compromises in every aspect of their lives to live in the age of COVID-19. Lots of people have had to go through worse and sacrifice more because of this virus, so as a team we decided to take advantage of every opportunity we had this season, even if it wasn’t always under the most ideal conditions.

One of the key moments early in the season was our team goals meeting. At the beginning of every season, we get together as a team and discuss what we want to accomplish. It could have been a disheartening meeting this year, seeing as we had no competitions to look forward to and we were living in very uncertain times.

But one of the things that was said at that meeting really stuck with me: “You can’t always wait around for the perfect conditions. They will never come, there will always be something standing in your way.”

This is true in all aspects of life, but these words resonate even more these days. In an ideal world, we would be training and having fun as a team together all season long until our regional championship meet, where we would run the race of our lives and finally qualify for the NCAA national championship. But as I always say, sports are a microcosm of life, and nothing ever goes exactly according to your big plan in life, so why should it in sports? That is not a reason to throw in the towel. If you spend your life putting things off until the perfect moment, you will never accomplish anything because that moment will never come. So we can’t go to nationals this year, but if we want to go next year we need to improve a lot as a team right now. We can’t afford to wait around until the virus goes away.

This season has been a huge opportunity to overcome obstacles and improve. If we can operate under these conditions, then

Via @vassarathletics on Instagram.

Juliette Pope/The Miscellany News. if and when the threat of COVID-19 is finally neutralized, it will be like playing on easy mode.

So we carried on with our training, enjoying every moment we could together along the way, and then as October finally rolled around, we started having our team time trials. One of the nice things about cross country is that you can compare times between people even if they aren’t running concurrently in the same meet.

To try and motivate us a little more for our time trials, Coach James set up some virtual meets with Bard College and the University of Rochester. The idea is that we run our race on our track as a team while the other colleges run their race on their track on the same day, and then we compile the results online. The standardized measurements of the tracks coupled with the easy-to-measure individual results provided us with advantages over other sports in holding virtual competitions.

Our first race was a 5K on the first Friday in October. We had the clock setup at the track as well as the starting gun and some members of the track team in the stands (safely distant) to cheer us on. Time trials usually suck—running is hard, especially trying to run a distance faster than you have ever run it before, and it is easy to give in to the pain and exhaustion and just quit on yourself when you are just racing the clock and not other people. But this

Via @vassarxctf on Instagram.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

one was different: it was under the almost blinding lights on a Friday night and there was excitement in the air. When I lined up at the start with my teammates after working our butts off together all season long, I was pumped to run my heart out and show them they could depend on me.

We all wanted to do well for ourselves, but we also wanted to push each other. We crushed it. Many of us ran personal bests and we all ran tough. We were really doing it—improving and accomplishing our goals in spite of the pandemic.

The next weekend we upped the distance to an 8K for men and a 6K for women. We crushed it again, and someone even set a new school record (shoutout to Jack Casalino ’22). But just like a real season, not every week went our way. Our most recent race, another 5K, was a tough one. Lots of soreness from recent workouts and stress from schoolwork weighed us down. A few people had standout performances, but overall we mostly slowed down and crossed the finish line feeling crappy. Yet, this also presented us with another opportunity: every season there is going to be a bad race or two, and one of the things that a great team has to do is find some value in grinding out a tough race, and not letting it discourage them.

We have one last virtual race coming up this season, and we are ready to turn the page and crush it one more time.

Our team-wide results from the virtual races were strong. In the first 5K, both the men and women defeated Bard handily.

In the 6K, our women’s team beat Rochester 26-31 (lower score wins in Cross Country) and in the 8K our men’s team narrowly lost 27-28 to Rochester. In our most recent 5K the men’s team got our revenge over Rochester with a 26-29 victory, and the women’s team came in second (44 points) out of three teams, beating St. Lawrence University (60 points) and losing to Rochester (26 points).

It has been a successful season so far, and I am very proud of us for carrying on despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. I am very grateful to be here and to be working towards my goals with my teammates. In the darkness of the pandemic, we have shown each other that we can still get it done. We are strong and we aren’t gonna let COVID-19 stop us.

October 29, 2020

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Why it’s so hard for me to hate the 2017 Houston Astros Jorge Adames Reyes

O

Guest Columnist

n Oct. 17, the Houston Astros were eliminated from the American League Championship Series in a winner-take-all Game 7 for a bid to play in the World Series. Opposite the Astros were the Tampa Bay Rays, a squad that posted a Major League best 40-20 record during the regular season, along with an American League (AL)-leading 3.50 team ERA. They began the series with a commanding 3-0 lead, but the Astros clawed their way back to tie it at three games apiece, looking to become the only team besides the 2004 Boston Red Sox to ever come back from such a deficit. Usually when there’s a team on the cusp of a historic feat in professional sports, many casual fans (or fans whose favorite teams have already been eliminated) are thrilled to root for the club on the verge of accomplishing the improbable right before their eyes. But that wasn’t the case for the Astros. Not by a longshot.

The truth of the matter is that most baseball fans would have loved to see the Astros swept in a 4-game series and sent home in embarrassing fashion. Why? Well, the Astros are a national pariah, disliked by almost everyone outside the city of Houston and even by some within. The reason for all the ill will towards the organization and the players is quite simple: They cheated. And contrary to what we all learn growing up, that “Cheaters never win,” the Astros did.

In 2017, they won the World Series on the back of one of the biggest sign stealing scandals in baseball history, although that only became public knowledge over two years later when former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers came forward with a controversial confession. News of the scandal prompted an MLB investigation into the matter that

culminated in over $5 million in fines for the club, the forfeiture of several draft picks and the suspension (and ultimate firing) of manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Luhnow in January 2020. Needless to say, the sports world did nothing short of calling for everyone involved in the scandal to be barred from baseball for life.

Now here is where I think it’s important to clarify that professional baseball is not and has never been immune to cheating.

There is a certain level of cheating that is so commonplace even today it’s often overlooked. Take pitchers using pine tar for example, who are sometimes seen on camera reaching for a spot of tar on their hats or shirts. They rub their fingers with the illegal substance to get a better grip and higher spin rate on the ball, but are only called out on it when the offense is especially egregious. Even sign-stealing has happened since baseball’s inception. But while this practice has previously been largely based on real-time inference (i.e., making connections between a catcher’s signs and what subsequent pitches are thrown through direct observation), what set the Astros’ operation apart and made it so troubling was their use of new video technology with a team of staff specifically devoted to the task.

Granted, the Astros’ use of technology was damning. But given how widespread cheating is in the game, I find myself in the one percent of people who are willing to consider forgiving them for their transgressions. Here’s another reason why. On September 20, 2017, the Astros beat the Chicago White Sox to improve to 93-58 on the season with an AL West division title already under their belt. That same day, Hurricane María made landfall in Puerto Rico.

I won’t delve into the well-documented ramifications of the hurricane since there’s

little I can add about how unbelievably devastating the storm was to the island, but I will say this: it was as if three and a half million people were plucked from our place in the world and tossed back to a simpler time. A time with no electricity. No internet. No cell service. Over these long months, my family and I became experts at many things—preparing canned foods, going to bed at 7 p.m., pushing water out of the house and making a game out of everything to keep our spirits up. It was so weird to see how school went from being the most important responsibility in my life to an awkward afterthought. This was my junior year of high school, a time when one is usually bogged down by the stress of things like standardized testing, AP courses and looking into potential universities. But with classes canceled indefinitely, it was as if none of that mattered anymore. With little or no connection to anybody outside our neighborhood for weeks on end, I felt like I had nothing to be excited about; no passion or interest to help me wake up in the morning.

This is where the Houston Astros come in. Now, I’m a die-hard Mets fan and I always will be, but they don’t often make postseason appearances. Growing up playing baseball in Puerto Rico myself, I’ve always had a soft spot for teams fielding some of the stellar talent the island has to offer.

In 2016, I fell in love with the World Series runs of the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians along with their flashy all-star Puerto Rican infielders Javier Báez (Cubs) and Franciso Lindor (Indians). Amidst my unnerving situation, it wasn’t entirely unprecedented that I found comfort with an Astros team that had several Puerto Ricans including veteran ex-Met Carlos Beltrán and 2015 AL Rookie of the Year Carlos

Correa. I became deeply involved with the team even with my minimal connection to the outside world. Sometimes that would mean waiting for my dad to come home from work, where he might have been able to connect to the internet, to tell me the results of the games from the night before.

Other times I’d get lucky and hear the results over the radio for a few seconds before they moved on to understandably more important material.

I think there’s something to be said for the power baseball has to uplift a community. Just take a few minutes and search for the crowds’ reaction to Mike Piazza’s home run after the Sept. 11 attacks, Dallas Braden’s perfect game on Mother’s Day in 2010 or Dee Gordon’s home run in 2016 after the sudden death of a teammate. Keeping up with the Astros became the focal point of my life during a time that I truly had no other interest to turn to.

And so for an island that had to endure up to 5,000 storm related deaths—there is no official count, making it even harder on so many grieving families—, seeing a few of our compatriots accomplishing something great provided a much-needed ray of hope.

Amid a new crisis that has seen at least another 800 Puerto Ricans die, I thought about how the Astros got me through the last one. I couldn’t in good faith root against them this time despite what had transpired in the intervening years. I understand why the Astros are by no means respected by the majority of baseball fans, and I’m hesitant to support the organization going forward, but they were exactly what I needed 3 years ago and are comforting even now. With Correa still around and starting catcher Martín Maldonado also hailing from the island, I won’t apologize for supporting them for the time being.

Addressing the violence within collegiate basketball Rayan El Amine Reporter

[CW: This article discusses racism and racially charged abuse.]

Wednesday night saw the end of a tumultuous summer for former Penn State Head Basketball Coach Pat Chambers. Allegations emerged in early July surrounding a January 2019 interaction with Rasir Bolton, a Black former Penn State basketball player, during which Chambers—in an effort to console Bolton—expressed that he wanted to “loosen the noose that’s around [his] neck;” Chambers resigned from his position last Wednesday, Oct. 21. For Bolton and his family, this should have been a moment of celebration, one that firmly placed the Penn State administration on the side of justice and not entertainment and wealth.

The reality, of course, was not so clear.

Chambers was not only afforded close to three months with access to his staff and offices to do damage control, or on a more sinister note, perhaps destroy evidence, but his abuse was also not really acknowledged by the institution at all.

Rather than Chambers undergoing diversity training, it was in fact Bolton who was sent to a—white—team psychologist, where he was “taught how to deal with Coach Chambers,” which served to delegitimize Bolton’s accusation despite the coach’s obvious history of discrimination. In fact, this all unfolded shortly after Chambers was suspended for one game; he had just shoved Bolton’s teammate and childhood

friend Myles Dread, another Black player, during a game.

A few months later and a full year before the allegations came to light, a degraded Bolton transferred to Iowa.

Yet the most brutal reality of all was Chambers’ actual resignation. Rather than the vicious removal of a racist tumor, Chambers was given the chance to resign on his own terms. The 47-year-old white millionaire announced his resignation via Twitter, where he did not mention Bolton and his family, but instead expressed,“This has been an incredibly difficult year for me and my family, and we are in need of a break to re-set [sic] and chart our path forward.”

Some excused Chambers’ initial “noose” comment as ignorant, that he was a man so steeped in whiteness he could not fathom Black trauma, even if it was a young Black man sitting right across from him.

I don’t believe Chambers should still be afforded that privilege—he is a white supremacist. How can he–as a man who has made a living coaching many young Black men–be so viscerally unaware of the consequences of his actions to the point of expressing his resignation as a consequence of an “incredibly difficult year”? How can he not acknowledge the countless Black individuals who continue to be slaughtered fighting for the end of their oppression, refuse to address the present global pandemic that continues to disproportionately affect young Black men and women and not even recognize the damage that his words

had on one Rasir Bolton and unquestionably many more like him?

Pat Chambers was not ignorant. He spent every day of his life surrounded by young Black men who looked to him for inspiration, and he made a living using those young men to elevate his status. His send-off should have been a brutal one; instead he got to leave on his own terms, and unintentionally exposed the racist reality that characterizes collegiate athletics.

Chambers is not unique in this kind of behavior. On the same day of Chambers’ resignation, C.J. Moore and Dana O’Neil of The Athletic released a detailed report that expressed how Greg Marshall, Wichita State’s current Head Basketball Coach, has spent the entirety of his career berating players with racist taunts and misogynistic language. Most notably, he told one of his Black players that he would “send him back to Africa” if he continued to struggle through practice, and often chose to call players derogatory terms for a vagina if they struggled through practice.

Unlike Chambers, Marshall continues to be Wichita State’s Head Coach, and in the midst of an investigation by the administration, it seems as if that will continue to be his position for the foreseeable future.

Marshall, unfortunately, is allowed to effectively be a racist, misogynoir, oppressive force to his players because he can hide behind the virtue-signaling ruse that is collegiate basketball. Even looking at Marshall’s response to these allegations makes this clear. Rather than expressing remorse

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

for his actions, he elevates them by saying that “Throughout my career as a coach, I have devoted myself to accessing and unleashing the greatness of my players.”

Beyond the ridiculous assertion that by telling a Black player you would send him back to Africa would somehow access his “greatness,” Marshall is actually not alone in this behavior either. Decades of destructive behavior at the collegiate level now means that within the confines of a practice facility, Division I basketball coaches–over 70 percent of whom are white in a sport where more than half of the players are Black–are given free reign to be as destructive and oppressive as they want.

The unfortunate truth is that Marshall and Chambers likely represent the majority of coaches, particularly at the Division I level, where decades of romanticizing violent white men like former Indiana Men’s Basketball coach Bobby Knight now means that racist beratings and violent language have somehow become the norm.

What’s more is that it doesn’t truly feel like change is on the horizon. While many coaches, particularly at liberal arts institutions, have taken a stand against institutional racism and are attempting to end the romanticization of this toxic masculinity, many administrations remain the same— largely white and uninformed. And until momentous change comes from the topdown, the most significant action remains exposing those violent white men who have made a living profiting off of Black bodies.

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October 29, 2020

Alum represents Vassar behind the scenes at the World Series Dean Kopitsky Sports Editor

I

dialed up Vassar alum Bobby Kinne ’18 on a dark and misty October evening.

Droplets of water gathered on my phone as we chatted about his journey to the Tampa Bay Rays, who were competing for a World Series title at the time. I mentioned I was walking the TH path from the baseball field.

“I know that walk well,” Kinne said. Kinne’s own path took him from Vassar to the majors—it’s a path few have seen through.

Kinne’s job as an advanced scout is to report on the holes in the Rays’ opponent’s strategies. These days, that means bridging a semantic gap from the front office to the dugout. Armchair critics look back at the palmy days of yesteryear and regard the modern with suspicion. “Launch angle” and “exit velocity” are the wonky vocabulary of this analytic obsessed era. Kinne’s role as the Rays’ resident “wide-eyed Moneyball kid” is to interpret the myriad of numbers and communicate them to the coaching staff so they can execute most efficiently on the field of play. In his own words, “What makes a good advance report are good players. It’s incumbent upon them to let their natural talent shine,” somewhat contradicting the cold binary of sabermetrics.

Kinne doesn’t try to compare his playing experience to the professionals in the locker room. He’s smart enough never to say to his professional colleagues, “Hey, this guy from Union has a similar fastball…and it was tough to hit buddy.” Still, everyone knows what it’s like to be overmatched in the batters box or battle a slump. “That’s pretty universal,” he observed. Those experiences help him empathize with players and accordingly, perform his job.

He is also the Rays’ video replay monitor.

When the team feels a play may have been ruled incorrectly, he helps make the deci-

sion whether or not to challenge it. Such a role is liable for little praise and heaps of derision. “If no one ever talks to you about it, it’s a good day,” Kine admitted. I asked if he knew about his professional doppelganger on the Dodgers. Aside from admitting to hearing stories, he couldn’t offer much, saying, “We like to work in the shadows.”

Kinne spoke to me on his day off. The night before, Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers handily beat the Rays in Game 5 of the World Series, pushing his team to the brink of elimination. This was surprising to few, as the Dodgers had the second-highest opening day payroll in baseball ($105.7 million to the Rays’ $28.7 million) and have some of the greatest players around—the five-tooled Mookie Betts, the now postseason-proficient Clayton Kershaw and burgeoning star Cody Bellinger. Wisdom says a low-spending team with a young roster should be happy just to iron the World Series insignia on their jerseys and dance with the Dodgers. Still, to be held so tenuously over the edge of elimination is a sickening pressure. The Rays hadn’t been to the World Series since 2008, and no one wanted to come up short after a month and a half of quarantine in Texas amid a season pillaged of normalcy by the pandemic.

Still, Kinne sounded roundly optimistic over the phone: “If someone said that you’d have two games to win the World Series, you’d take it at the start of the season.” Keeping a cool head—at the World Series or facing off against Skidmore on a weeknight— has served Kinne well during his baseball career. His story reads like an American prophecy; he went to a small high school in small Great Barrington, Massachusetts where his dad taught him to love the game of baseball. In 2015, he came to Vassar to play college ball, where he was a captain for two years. His coach for his last two years at Vassar, said, “he was always working to get

his teammates’ voices heard. In some ways, he was a liaison between the players and coaches,” a similar role to his position on the Rays.

Despite baseball’s reputation as rural, white and conservative in both its players and audience, Kinne found that the relative ethnic, economic and religious diversity of Vassar rounded him into a better person and prepared him for multilingual MLB locker rooms. “It forces you to grow and adapt as a human being,” he said. “That experience prepared me for being in the game of baseball, you go into a clubhouse with a better understanding of where you fit in.”

Kinne’s desk is in the clubhouse, which means he has a glimpse into that most intimate and well-protected layer of sport: the professional locker room. Although some may jest that Vassar and the Rays spend similarly, the incentive to secure generations of prosperity is the first difference that comes to mind between Kinne’s Brewers and the MLB Rays. “Players aren’t just playing to win a World Series, they’re playing to support their families,” Kinne observed.

Playing baseball for a chance to win generational wealth is more than a dream. It’s a hard-earned privilege. To this end, he explained, “I think there is a degree of weeding out of character.” For Kinne, computing the paper advantage is only half the battle: “I think the intangibles of a player’s makeup are vital…even in this Moneyball revolution.” At the professional level, Kinne has observed that when things are going badly, there isn’t panic. “There’s a shared understanding that everyone is giving their best effort,” he said. In the professional locker room, “The goal doesn’t need to be reiterated…people don’t need a pump up speech.”

I’m tempted to cache the inside baseball knowledge Kinne shared with me for insignificant arguments down the road. But what I will say is this: The Kershaw kids ride

their scooters to get morning coffee with dad, and in drunken, post-pennant-clinching glory, Randy Arozarena had a lot of fun dancing in his cowboy boots. Oh, and another thing: “They definitely know about Vassar baseball.”

The professionals take notice when Kinne wears Vassar gear. When he heads out for a run in the burgundy and grey, Rays General Manager Erik Neaner yells, “Vassar’s finest!” There are guys that are curious about the spectacle of Division III baseball (the last bastion of ameteur athletics, some say). While I’m sure Vassar would love to have a piece of Kinne’s World Series bonus, they’ll have to make due with the exposure inside the Rays locker room. On Tuesday, the Dodgers vanquished the Rays.

The Dodgers may have won the championship, and Kinne may have the coolest job off the diamond, but the real winner may be his dad, who still gets to watch his son take part in the sport that bonds them. Kinne recalled his final at bat as a Brewer in the spring of 2018. It was the playoffs, and Vassar wasn’t going to advance. He stepped into the batter’s box, soaking in his last moment at the plate. “Those final games are very emotional. For most guys and girls there’s nothing after that,” he thought out loud. It happens for every athlete. In one instant, a whole life comes to an end, leaving in its wake the frustration of losing a hard practiced skill. Kinne lived up to the moment.

He drew a walk, and when he was ceremonially called off the field, the Liberty League competitors he’d come to admire and respect gave him a standing ovation. “Seeing my dad and knowing that was special, but the thing is... it wasn’t the last time I stood on a baseball field, glove in my hand, and got to see my dad.” That’s the amazing thing about sports, we agreed. Kinne, nor any other strategist of the game, could draw it up better than that.

Check out the Misc’s music podcast ‘A Side B Side’ A Side B Side is a music centered podcast produced by the Miscellany News. Senior Editor Taylor Stewart and Sports Editor Dean Kopitsky discuss a wide range of topics, including album comparisons and music culture debates.

In this week’s episode of A Side B Side, Dean and Taylor discussed albums that they hate: “Uno! Dos! Tré!” by Green Day and “The Queen is Dead” by the Smiths, the latter of which prompts a lengthy discussion about how much they both hate Morrissey.

Available on Anchor and Spotify.

A Side B Side is a Miscellany News Production.

Edited by Mrin Somani and Alex Barnard.

Thank you to Fesliyan Studios for background music.

Logo by Sophia Kapur.