The Miscellany News November 5, 2020
miscellanynews.org
Vassar College’s student newspaper of record since 1866 Volume 154 | Issue 10
With presidential race still uncalled, New York’s Election Day hints at possible winners and historic voter turnout A
Top row, left to right: Kyle Van De Water, Rep. Antonio Delgado, County Court Judge Peter Forman, Jessica Segal. Bottom row, left to right: Sen. Sue Serino, Karen Smythe, Chele Farley, Rep. Sean Maloney. Aena Khan/The Miscellany News.
Inside this issue
8
Katie Gebbia
“The Queen’s Gambit” depicts addiction, loss and teenage girlhood.
15
OPINIONS
StuMu among orgs hit hardest by COVID regulations.
16 SPORTS
The time of athletes “sticking to sports” is over, argues Sports Editor Alex Eisert.
ocrats prefer absentee and early voting. It will take a week or more for Dutchess County’s more than 29,096 absentee ballots to be tabulated. Board of Elections officials expect to receive more by the Nov. 10 deadline for mail-in ballots. While Election Day doesn’t mark the end, the night might hint at who comes out on top in some key races. NY-19 Congressional District Incumbent Democrat Antonio Delgado has declared victory against challenger Republican Kyle Van De Water to represent New York’s 19th Congressional District. Results began pouring in at 9 p.m. on Nov. 3. Delgado started off the night pulling in a large lead over Van De Water with nearly 70 percent of the votes, and Van De Water closer to 30 percent, with 18 percent of the votes reported. The race tightened in the early hours of the morning, but Delgado maintained the majority. At noon on Wednesday, Delgado declared victory, but results are not See Elections on page 4
Vassar Campus theater returns with ‘The Aliens’ students form union T Guest Columnist
ARTS
s Americans crowded around television sets and computer screens on Nov. 3, tensions were high. Despite hopes of a conclusive end to an anxiety-ridden election season, New Yorkers and many across the country will have to wait days or weeks to see the final outcomes of local, state and congressional races. The presidential election is similarly up in the air, with neither President Donald Trump nor Joe Biden receiving the required 270 electoral electoral votes. This is in large part due to the deluge of mail-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. For now, Election Day is only one piece of the process. New York Board of Elections officials released the tallies of some 2.5 million early voting ballots when polls closed at 9 p.m. Election Day results were updated through the night. Of the 33,432 ballots cast across Dutchess between Oct. 27 and Nov. 1, 54 percent were from Democrats and 20.3 percent from Republicans. Voters turned out in record numbers, but mail-in ballots could turn the tide of some races. Republicans are more likely to vote on Election Day, while Dem-
Lucille Brewster News Editor
When Vassar canceled in-person classes last spring due to COVID-19, decisions such as whether student employees would be paid, whether students who needed housing could stay on campus and whether campus services such as Metcalf would be available were up in the air. Students organized several campaigns and petitions to voice their concerns to the Vassar administration. The College ultimately did provide on-campus housing to students and offered various forms of support to students both on and off campus. Yet a petition for a Universal Pass grading system, signed by half of the Vassar community, was not enough to persuade administration to implement the policy. For Vassar Student Association (VSA) Senator Joe Mangan ’23, the College’s response to COVID-19 was a realization that Vassar students have no tangible leverage with the college leadership and Board of Trustees. “The fact of the matter is that there’s not much the VSA could have done if the administration See VSU on page 5
he setting is the quiet back patio of a coffee shop, somewhere in rural Vermont. Three young men, KJ, Jasper and Evan, sit among the folding chairs and picnic tables, talking and smoking while the early July nights blend into one another and their lives unfold before the audience. This is “The Aliens,” written by
Annie Baker and recently directed by Louis Blachman ’23. “I’ve been directing in my head forever—I used to put on plays with my friends on play-dates— but I’ve never had the resources or actors to until now,” Blachman wrote in an emailed statement. This past summer, he directed two virtual plays and fell in love with the process. Now, Blachman has taken on perhaps
the most challenging project in his budding career: directing a pandemic production When asked why he chose this show for his in-person directorial debut, Blachman shared, “I felt shattered after reading it for the first time. It feels like such a miniature epic—so little happens and yet everything happens.” See Theater on page 6
Krakower appointed to Town Board Jessica Moss
Contributing Editor
I
n the run-up to Election Day, Town of Poughkeepsie government officials had to make a decision without direct voter input: who to appoint to the Town Board seat vacated by Democratic Ward Five Councilperson Matt Woolever. The appointee would hold the position until Dec. 31, 2021. On Oct. 21, the Town Board voted 4-2 along party lines to appoint Stephan Krakower, a Republican who previously served as Ward 5 Councilperson for some 14 years. On Oct. 25, the Town of Poughkeepsie Democratic Committee released a statement which described the move as “a travesty and a violation of the civic rights of the voters of Ward 5.” Woolever vacated his post on Aug. 31, 2020 when he and his
family moved to Hyde Park. He was first elected to the seat in 2017, and was reelected in 2019 with 824 votes to his opponent’s 749. Krakower was first elected to the Town Board in 2000 and served consecutive two-year terms until he vacated his post in March 2015 after being appointed to the Town of Poughkeepsie Justice Court, which has two seats. He served as Town Justice from 2015 to 2019. He ran for reelection in November 2019, but lost by just nine votes. During the Oct. 21 proceedings, Town Supervisor Jon Jay Baisley noted that although Krakower lost the judgeship, he was elected to represent Ward 5 on the Town Board every time he ran, sometimes by a large margin: In 2009, for instance, he won 756 votes to Above, a map of the Town of Poughkeepsie Wards. his Democratic opponent’s 532. Courtesy of Dutchess County Board of Elections. See Board on page 3
Page 2
November 5, 2020
COVID19 AT VASSAR 13,148 Total Tests Administered
THE MISCELLANY NEWS NOVEMBER 4TH 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 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 Alexis Cerritos VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER 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
03
Total Employee Cases to Date
03
Total Active Cases
REPORTERS
COLUMNISTS
GRAPHIC DESIGNER COPY STAFF
38
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 Sandro Luis Lopez 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
November 5, 2020
NEWS
Page 3
Town Board appointment raises questions about partisanship Continued from Board on page 1 He ran unopposed in 2011 and 2013. The Board’s two Democratic members, Sixth Ward Councilperson Ann Shershin and Third Ward Councilperson Jessica Lopez, voted against the motion because they believed the seat should be filled by another Democrat to reflect how Ward 5 voted in the 2019 election cycle. Lopez noted, “Stephan ran in a race for judge, not for this Fifth Ward seat, and the Fifth Ward did vote in favor of his Democratic colleague. So not only did the Fifth Ward vote pretty decisively for a Democrat to fill the Fifth Ward council seat, but also for Stephan Krakower specifically not to get his judge seat again.” Republican members of the Board countered that the appointment was not a matter of partisan political gain, but of experience relative to the Democratic applicant, Christopher Parks. Parks, who has lived in Dutchess County since 1983 and in Ward 5 since 1999, has a Ph.D from University of California Berkeley in Physical Chemistry. He previously worked for IBM and volunteered for the Howland Cultural Center. Parks was invited to apply by the Town of Poughkeepsie Democratic Committee, and emphasized that his skill set would complement the Board. “There is urgent importance for the judiciary and public officials at all levels getting educated on what scientific societies such as the National Academy of Sciences have concluded about public issues,” Parks described in a later interview with The Miscellany News. Woolever shares an educational background in Chemistry. There are no requirements for serving on the Town Board other than being an adult who lives in the Ward they represent. Republican members of the Board stated they were looking for someone with more governmental experience specifically. Ward 2 Councilperson Bill Carlos said in the Oct. 21 meeting, “When we’re making this kind of an appointment, we are voting to put somebody else in charge of the representation of 8,000 [or] 9,000 people. So when Stephan’s name came on, I knew that because he had done the job that he’s got the experience to be able to do it.” Ward 1 Councilperson Jeff Renihan also noted, “Some will say it’s about party affiliation. It has nothing to do with it. I looked at, faithfully, the resume itself.” Baisley, who joined the Board as Councilman of Ward 1 in 2003, cited a longstanding professional relationship with Krakower as one reason he voted in favor of his appointment: “I have a very good working comfort zone with him, and that makes a big difference to me.” During his time on the Board, Krakower took an interest in balancing the Town’s budget, which is the highest in the county. He and the Board spearheaded the move from medical insurance being fully covered for Town employees—including Board members, who are paid $9,000 per year—to paying a portion out of pocket. (The Town Supervisor makes just under $70,000, as the position is full-time.) He also worked to overhaul the Town’s computer system to a software that connects across departments. Today, he is involved in the Town as a local soccer coach and through his private law practice at The Krakower Law Firm, PLLC. His two children, ages nine and 13, attend the Spackenkill School District, from which Krakower graduated. “I grew up with the people who live here, the people who moved in and out,” Krakower said. “They’re my friends, family neighbors. I’ve always taken [office] as an opportunity to help, not Democrats or Republicans, but to help people.”
One among many Krakower’s appointment is not the first time conversations about partisanship and representation have come to the fore at the Town and County level. Krakower was originally appointed as Town Justice in April 2015 after the retirement of former Justice Paul L. Banner, also a Republican, whose term was to expire on Dec. 31. The Town Board’s motion to appoint Krakower passed 5-1. “I found it a good opportunity to do something different...to figure out what justice means for each human being,” Krakower shared in an interview. Shershin, the lone Democrat on the Board at that time, was the sole nay vote. To fill Krakower’s unexpired Town Board position, the Board appointed Joe Lepore, also a Republican, who previously served on the Planning Board. During the April 8, 2015 proceedings, Shershin commented, “I’ve been approached by some constituents that were concerned that there was a mad rush to fill this seat and they would have rather seen a more open process.” Then-Town Supervisor Todd Tancredi replied that the need for Ward 5 representation was immediate. The motion to appoint Lepore carried 5-1, with Shershin again alone in opposition. Lepore was immediately sworn in, maintaining the Republican majority on the Board. That November, Krakower ran to retain his Town Justice seat and received the highest number of votes of the three candidates. He sat on the bench with Paul O. Sullivan, also a Republican, for a four year term. Lepore ran unopposed for the Ward 5 seat in Nov. 2015, but lost to Woolever, who earned 795 votes to Lepore’s 700, in Nov. 2017. In January 2017, the Town Board unanimously appointed Renihan to finish Baisley’s unexpired Ward 1 councilship. Baisley vacated the seat when he ran unopposed for Town Supervisor in 2016 to complete Tancredi’s term, which was to end in Dec. 2017. Renihan, who serves as a volunteer firefighter and Fire Chief, had never served in government before. The Town Association offers classes and webinars for new elected officials. These Board trainings, which the Town fully finances, occur throughout the year. In both 2015 and 2020, local Democratic representatives pointed to what they believe to be a lack of transparency in the Town Board appointment process. The Democratic Committee’s Facebook statement, for one, states that the vacancy should have been advertised on the town website. Democratic Minority Leader of the Dutchess County Legislature and Vassar College Professor of History Rebecca Edwards similarly stated in an email correspondence, “Most residents of Ward 5 never knew there was a vacancy at all, much less that they could put in their names for consideration. That denies the public an opportunity to consider serving, and it gives the appearance of inside dealing.” The Town Board usually conducts searches to fill vacancies in-house, announcing vacancies at Town Board meetings and leaving the search up to the party committees, according to Baisley. The Board generally receives two to three applications. The procedure on how to fill vacant seats is not codified anywhere at the Town level. To Baisley, state-level guidelines are enough. He said in an interview with The Miscellany News, “I don’t think we should be told ‘who.’” Edwards noted that the Poughkeepsie Common Council conducted an open search for an applicant to fill a vacated Dutchess County Legislature seat, for which they interviewed 10 candidates. She and Lopez are examining the appointing guidelines
in neighboring municipalities, perhaps to add to Poughkeepsie’s Town Code. “Are we ever going to see a world where a Republican majority appoints a Democrat or vice versa? Maybe not,” elaborated Lopez. “However, I do think there should be a better process in place.” Neighboring towns, such as the Town of Clayton, post vacancies as well. Lopez further suggested that the Town advertise vacancies on social media, its website or in email blasts: “We send out emails about Halloween parades. Why can’t we send out emails about vacancies? Not only would that spur interest in applications, but more public input. More residents might come forward and say what they would like to see.” Though there are few Town laws on how to appoint, Democratic representatives believe that the Republican majority set a precedent to maintain the party affiliation of the seat, which is reflected in their previous appointments’ outcomes and reasoning. On Oct. 17, 2018, the Town Board appointed Thomas Keith, a Republican who served on Spackenkill’s school board, to fill the vacated District 5 Legislature seat held by Republican Kenneth Roman. At the time, Woolever, Shershin and Lopez all favored Pam Kingsley, who ran against Roman for the seat. Lopez and Woolever argued that local politicians aren’t interchangeable simply by party affiliation, and that Kingsley had connected with voters in her candidacy; Shershin said Kingsley’s long-time attendance at legislature meetings meant she would be more prepared to “hit the ground running.” Carlson said, “In respect to the 1400 people who voted for him in that position, I think it’s incumbent upon us to try to at least match what Ken did in the legislature with the same kind of a person.” The vote was 4-3 along party lines. Keith remains in office today. According to Baisley, the Town Board works to keep partisanship out of the government. “We don’t use the party line,” he said. “At this level, the only people you have to answer to are the residents.” Like Baisley, Lopez and Krakower noted that the Town Board is unanimous on most decisions. According to Lopez, though, some issues do break down along party lines. Lopez pointed to a recent example: She put forth a resolution to regulate contracts with individuals who have made large campaign contributions, which was voted down. Environmental policy, infrastructure and finance are other areas that Lopez cited as often breaking down along party lines. These issues are also discussed in committees, which contain a maximum of three members. The Town Supervisor, a position that has been held by Republicans since 2010, decides who sits on what committee—though, as Renihan noted, he willingly stepped down from the finance com-
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
mittee to make room for Lopez, who wished to bring Democratic representation. “The sentiment being echoed by the Republicans is fantastic, and it’s one I try to live and die by,” Lopez stated. “However I don’t think it’s fair to pick and choose when to decide that that is our method on the Town Board.” Tipping the balance Of its population of 44,062, the Town of Poughkeepsie has a total of 26,692 registered voters, including 10,962 Democrats, 6,345 Republicans and 7,391 affiliated with neither party. The Town Board of seven has five Republicans and two Democrats. “It’s similar to the county, where there’s a preponderance of Democrats, but people running things have tended to be Republicans,” said Chair of the Town of Poughkeepsie Democratic Committee Kelly Lappan. This holds historically: In 2009, the Town Supervisor Patricia Myers was the only Democrat elected to the Board. In 2011, 2013 and 2015, Shershin was the only Democrat elected; in all three elections, five of the six elected Board Republicans ran unopposed. However, the balance tipped with Woolever’s and Lopez’s victories in 2017 and 2019, shifting the Board balance to 4-3 with a Republican majority, at least until Krakower’s appointment shifted the composition to 5-2. Lappan commented, “If the Republicans wanted to say even though there are more registered Democrats, they don’t seem engaged enough to come out and vote...I get that. But that happened already in Ward 5 several times recently, and those people voted for a Democrat.” The race for Ward 4 was also tight, with Cifone barely getting an edge—he won the seat by just 21 votes. Lappan says the Democratic Committee hopes to bring more Democrats to office through a good slate of campaigns and candidates. “People are getting energized, I think, and so I’m hoping the energy from this year will carry over to next year,” Lappan remarked. The Republican Committee could not be reached for comment. The next Town Board general election is slated for November 2021. Krakower stated he “fully intends on running”; Parks, too, is considering his options. For now, Krakower hopes to increase the Town’s recreational opportunities, which he believes are increasingly necessary with the ongoing pandemic. “We want to provide things that allow kids to have good healthy recreation and normalcy in their lives ... We’re looking for positive development that’ll add good jobs,” he described. Considerations of the future aside, the current Town Board is eager to govern together. “It’s over,” said Baisley. “They might’ve gotten a push from their party, we might’ve gotten a push from our party. It’s over. It’s time to go to work.” For his part, Krakower said, “There are
Above, Ward 5 Councilperson Stephan Krakower.
NEWS
Page 4
November 5, 2020
With some mail-in ballots uncounted, Delgado, Maloney, Serino declare victory; county court race leans in Forman’s favor Continued from Elections on page 1 yet confirmed. In a press release from his campaign, Delgado celebrated his success. “The people of New York’s 19th Congressional District have made their voices heard and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to serve again,” said Rep. Delgado. He continued, “With all election districts reporting, I am leading by over 7,000 votes and the data shows that our margin of victory will grow once absentee ballots are accounted for.” Delgado, who is completing his first term, won the race from then-freshman Rep. John Faso (R-NY) in 2018 with a 51.4 percent majority. His platform focused on increasing access to health care, expanding internet access into rural areas, defending agricultural rights and delivering pandemic relief to local businesses. Delgado is a graduate of Colgate University and Harvard Law School as well as a Rhodes Scholar. His challenger, Kyle Van De Water, a 40-year-old Poughkeepsie native, ran on a platform to create more jobs, reopen local businesses, support local farmers and defend the 2nd Amendment. He is an alumnus of University of Massachusetts Amherst with an ROTC scholarship and attended Albany Law School. He was an active duty member of the United States Army and received a bronze star for his service in 2011. Delgado and Van De Water clashed during their debate on Oct. 12 on topics such as a national mask mandate, the appointment of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and health care. Van De Water tried to paint Delgado as a pawn of the far left, whereas Delgado defended his record, and pointed out that he is one of only three House Members that managed to pass two or more bills in 2019. — Olivia Watson NY-18 Congressional District Incumbent Democratic Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney declared victory in the race to represent New York’s 18th district, defeating Republican challenger Chele Farley. As of Wednesday, Maloney leads with 50.78 percent of the vote. Although absentee ballots have yet to be counted, Maloney indicated that he expects his lead to grow as more votes come in. After winning reelection, Maloney released a statement thanking his supporters and his opponents and encouraging his constituents to unite over shared interests, saying “It is time to put partisan politics aside because there is so much work to do.” Although the 18th district is not a Democratic stronghold, Maloney’s reelection does not come as a significant surprise. Prior to Tuesday night, FiveThirtyEight rated the race as “Solidly Democratic,” as did Cook Political Report. A poll released on Oct. 19 showed Maloney beating Farley by 18 percentage points, further bolstering confidence in Maloney’s chances. Maloney had also surpassed Farley in fundraising numbers. As of Oct. 14, Maloney had raised $2,409,184 and spent $1,350,913, while Farley had raised $1,137,799 and spent $900,594. Farley has a background in the financial services industry and has worked as a managing director at Mistral Capital International, a private equity firm. She has
focused her campaign on strengthening restrictions on immigration, lowering taxes and improving the “toxic culture” of Washington, D.C. Farley has placed a particularly strong emphasis on ensuring that taxes paid by New Yorkers are redirected back into the state. She also criticized Maloney for co-sponsoring the “Green New Deal,” accusing Maloney of moving too far to the left. She’d previously challenged Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in 2018, a race Farley lost by 34 percentage points. Maloney was first elected to Congress in 2012, after defeating incumbent Republican Nan Hayworth. Prior to serving in Congress, Maloney worked as a senior advisor in the Clinton administration and created a high-tech start up. During Maloney’s tenure in Congress, he has primarily focused on issues of national security, ensuring clean drinking water, and protecting benefits for veterans. His reelection campaign focused heavily on protecting local farmers, as well as addressing the opioid epidemic and combatting gridlock in Congress. Maloney is also the first openly gay member of Congress from New York, and serves as the co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. In 2019, Maloney introduced the Equality Act, which would extend the federal civil rights protections, such as those included in the Civil Rights Act, to members of the LGBTQ community. The Equality Act passed the House with 276 votes, but has yet to be taken up in the Senate. New York’s 18th district encompasses the cities of Newburgh, Beacon and Poughkeepsie, including Vassar’s campus. After going to Obama in 2012, the 18th district flipped in 2016, with Trump winning it narrowly by 1.9 percentage points. However, registered Democrats still outnumber registered Republicans. As of Feb. 21, 2020, there are 165,990 registered Democrats and 135,370 registered Republicans within the district. Maloney’s victory signals that Democrats are maintaining their advantage in the 18th district. In his statement on reelection, Maloney pledged to build on his past work in Congress, stating, “I will work every day to deliver the relief Hudson Valley families and our communities need. I also look forward to continuing my work rebuilding our infrastructure, supporting our veterans and military families, and expanding access to health care.” Maloney currently sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the House Agriculture Committee. He has authored over 40 bills during his time in Congress, with a heavy focus on agriculture and protecting local Hudson Valley farmers. Maloney has also emphasized his focus on passing a second coronavirus relief bill and protecting the Affordable Care Act. The likelihood of such legislation passing both chambers of Congress depends heavily on which party controls the Senate, where majority control remains unclear on Wednesday morning. If Republicans maintain control of the Senate, House Democrats are likely to face continued opposition in advancing legislation. However, Maloney’s win demonstrates the ongoing strength of the House Democratic caucus after a 2018 “blue wave.” — Carolyn Patterson
State Senate District 41 2020 has been the year of reckoning for GOP Senator Sue Serino. After watching her previous 11-point margin erode to just 0.6 points in her 2018 battle against Democratic businesswoman Karen Smythe, Serino was one of the State Senate’s most vulnerable Republicans going into this year’s rematch. On election night, Smythe briefly surged ahead of Serino, before falling 16 points behind in votes cast on election day. Smythe’s campaign initially expressed hope that the 30,000 outstanding absentee ballots—where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 3 to 1—would propel her to victory. But by Wednesday afternoon, Smythe announced that she had conceded the race to Serino, saying that even with the large number of outstanding absentee ballots, “I do not see a different outcome.” After a year of nationwide Republicans’ attacks on racial and reproductive rights, as well as COVID-19’s decimation of the Hudson Valley’s regional economy, this year’s stakes were higher than ever. While Smythe campaigned on the need for sweeping social justice reform, small-business leadership experience, and opposition to Trump’s Republican party, Serino sought to moderate her small-government stances with relatively receptive positions on racial justice movements and cast stones at the state’s Democratic-led COVID-19 response, which she painted as dangerously flawed. With Democrats in full control of the state government—a change from 2018—Serino likely suffered less from Smythe’s claims of GOP mismanagement. SD-41 has conventionally been a GOP stronghold—only one Democrat has held the seat since Franklin Delano Roosevelt stepped down in 1913. But since Trump took office, Republicans’ margins within the district and throughout the region have suffered. The loss of SD-4 would have been one of the final dominoes to fall in the Democratic takeover of Hudson Valley politics. Currently serving as the ranking member of the senate’s Aging and Social Services committees, we can expect that Serino will focus this next term on continuing her work to improve elder care across the state, prevent sexual violence, and push for education reform. During her first race for the seat in 2014, Serino committed to serving no more than four two-year terms in the chamber. If she sticks to her promise, this will be her last term in the senate. If Serino stays out of the race in 2022, SD-41 may again face a reckoning as the GOP defends a seat that will no longer offer an incumbency advantage. On Tuesday night, Smythe reminded supporters that “No matter what happens, we will all wake up in the morning and we will have more things to do.” Serino’s campaign could not be reached for comment. — Alex Wilson Dutchess County Court Judge Dutchess County Court Judge Peter Forman’s slogan for reelection maintained a promise of stability amidst the pandemic: “You have a lot on your plate right now. The last thing you need is to worry about your county court judge.” For her part, Democrat Jessica Segal reminded constituents on
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
the last early voting day that “the status quo just isn’t working anymore.” After a controversial campaign trail, the race is still any candidate’s game with thousands of absentee ballots in the fold. For now, the race leans in the incumbent’s favor. Segal kicked off Election Night with a 45.01 point lead. Forman quickly gained on the newcomer, securing and rounding out Tuesday with a 7.47 point margin after all county districts reported their votes. Segal is not letting up just yet. “We are still in this! With just 8,299 votes separating me and my opponent, and more than 27,000 absentee ballots yet to be counted, we are very much in this race!” said Segal in a statement. As of Wednesday, Dutchess Board of Elections received 15,021 absentee ballots from registered Democrats, 5,410 from Republicans and 1,214 from Independents. They are still processing double votes (those who voted in person and absentee), according to Democratic Commissioner Elizabeth Soto. This wouldn’t be the first time the two must wait for official tallies. A court battle over the fate of 105 ballots in the June Independence Party primary stretched results into an eight-week waiting game. The incumbent brought the lawsuit before New York Supreme Court Judge Paul Marx to allege ballot irregularities and contest the constitutional backing of the absentee ballots. In the end, Forman clinched the Independence Party line by 25 votes. The primary has inspired Segal to take precautions in the event of a repeat scenario. “We have already spoken with an attorney in anticipation of a lawsuit similar to what we faced in the primary. I am ready to fight for your votes,” she said. With 20 years of judicial experience in the county, many have come to respect Forman’s judgement. He’s served in four local courts: Family, Supreme, Surrogate and County. He’s also spent 15 years diverting non-violent offenders struggling with substance abuse away from incarceration and into treatment and monitoring programs. But if Dutchess does reelect Forman, the 65-year-old would only serve half of his 10 year term, as New York county court judges must retire at 70. If Segal wins, Dutchess could jumpstart the newcomer’s judicial career and make history, as she would be the second woman to grace the bench since 1991. Segal brings 20 years of experience as a prosecutor, civil litigator and defense attorney to the race. The former Dutchess Senior Assistant District Attorney spent 17 years with the DA’s office and is now a part-time Assistant DA in Putnam County. Compassion, empathy and a spotless trial record became hallmarks of the 47-yearold’s bid for the court. While 93 percent of Forman’s rulings have been affirmed by appellate courts, Segal touts this as a glaring distinction between her and the justice. She’s never had a case or trial overturned for error or misconduct. As the votes are counted, Segal remains confident in the electoral process: “Please know that I will fight with everything I have to make sure that every ballot is counted and that your voices are heard, no matter the outcome.” Forman could not be reached for comment. — Tiana Headley
November 5, 2020
NEWS
Page 5
Vassar Student Union hopes to guard, advance student rights Continued from VSU on page 1 had chosen to ignore the Keep Vassar Open petition: Sending a strongly-worded statement to President Bradley is often the most power the VSA can exercise,” he stated. The lack of student bargaining power inspired Mangan and other student organizers to begin campaigning for a Vassar Student Union (VSU). Organizers name socialist theory and workers unions as models for a VSU. While it’s still in the early stages of development, students envision a VSU as a body that works alongside the VSA while not replacing it. Mangan described a VSU as an extension of the VSA: “Basically what folks who are organizing the student union are asking for: a new body that works alongside VSA to better represent students—like a House of Representatives, but with less hierarchy, more representation, and more direct democracy.” Christopher Unruh ’23, another student organizing the campaign for a VSU, added, “The member base of VSU feels that VSA does a great job of organizing campus life… However, we feel that VSA has not been able to adequately represent students for the issues that most directly affect us such
as divestment, grading systems, inaccessibility for students with disabilities and food insecurity existing on campus among other issues.” Organizers emphasized that the VSU would aim to be a space that represents student workers, international students, ALANA Center organizations and other marginalized groups in Vassar’s community. Many students increasingly express the feeling that the college’s administration and Board of Trustees have failed the Vassar community in consequential decisions about equity on campus. “Vassar consistently works to silence student protestors and activists fighting to dismantle a system that gives no power to students,” explained Melissa Hoffman ’21, another organizer of the VSU campaign. In 2016, the Vassar College Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign organized a sit-in outside the president’s office. Four hundred protesters sat in for multiple days demanding Vassar divest from fossil fuels, and 91 percent of students voted to divest from fossil fuels completely in a student referendum. The momentum built by this student activism, however, was halted when the Board of Trustees decided not to divest after a day of deliberation. While President Elizabeth Bradley, Dean
“Students have practically no representation on the Board of Trustees, besides one student representative that is unable to vote.”
Carlos Alamo-Pastrana, and other administrators are figures who regularly interact with the student body, the Board of Trustees can appear far more elusive. The Board has attracted scrutiny from students, with many feeling its members have no accountability to the student body. “Imagine if there was a government somewhere in the world where all the most important decisions were made by 30 wealthy individuals, most of whom are CEO of this-or-that corporation, with virtually zero representation for the public—there would be widespread outcry,” explained Mangan. Unruh concurred, adding, “Students have practically no representation on the Board of Trustees, besides one student representative that is unable to vote. Effectively, decisions are made by the administration and Board of Trustees with next to no real influence from the student body.” Dean of the College Carlos Alamo-Pastrana offered a different characterization of the Board of Trustees and administration’s response to student organizing. Alamo-Pastrana said that in his experience, he has seen the Board of Trustees be open to considering concerns from students. He added that Vassar’s administration is always dedicated to meeting student needs, saying that he and other administrators frequently meet with VSA and student organizations to hear concerns and brainstorm solutions. Yet he acknowledged moments of contention between students and administration, specifically when it came to solutions students have called for. “There is a distinction...between hearing and evaluating concerns, and agreeing on the solutions,” he explained. “So there may be times where the Board and/or the administration listen to students, but disagree on the best path forward,” he added.
VSU organizers aim to gain substantial student representation in Board of Trustees decisions, but to achieve that, they need influence. Still, organizers aren’t deterred by the fact that administration is unlikely to let a group of students override the Board of Trustees. “Rather than asking the administration to give us power, we are instead building power among students and then demanding administration to respect it,” said Mangan. “We are tired of power coming from the top-down, and are instead building power from the bottom-up.”. Alamo-Pastrana explained that the administration did not have many details about VSU plans, but saw it as a movement largely independent from administrative oversight. “This is really a decision for students to make for themselves,” he commented. The VSU member base has begun hosting meetings to gather student input. Moreover, they explained that the organization would lack a traditional hierarchical structure. Unruh explained that they have found a huge amount of student interest in a VSU, with 50 students signing up to join the campaign within the first two days of the sign-up form being made available. “There is so much amazing energy in our meetings,” explained Unruh. “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with and interact with so many amazing people that want to work as a collective to build real democracy on our campus.” Organizers are excited by the possibilities of a Vassar Student Union. “For myself, I envision fighting for a student union leading to ideas about university abolition, restructuring the way knowledge is produced, used, and shared, and eventually creating a university that is student and faculty run,” said Hoffman.
Spring semester plans replicate fall protocols with new additions Tiana Headley News Editor
After weeks of deliberation, Vassar has announced its plans for the upcoming spring semester. Arrival and the remaining semester will look much like they did in the fall, albeit with some changes, such as a weeklong break period. The College will begin a staggered move-in schedule between Feb. 3 and 5, continuing for two weeks as students get tested and self-quarantine. Some approved students may arrive before Feb. 3. Classes begin Feb. 17. Move-in dates will be released by the end of November. “The College tried to balance the public health concerns with what we heard students most wanted,” said President Elizabeth Bradley in an emailed state-
ment. “The result is we are delaying a few weeks, but we will start on campus rather than remotely because students told us they did not want to start remotely.” Students must present evidence of a negative FDA-authorized COVID-19 test to Health Service, taken within seven days prior to their arrival. Those arriving from states on New York’s travel advisory list will be subject to a COVID-19 monitoring period per the state’s guidelines during the campus’ collective quarantine. All other campus guidelines from the fall apply, including social distancing, remaining on campus, curbside delivery only and interval testing. Classes will stretch to May 24, with study period running between May 25 and 27. Final exams end on June 1. Commencement is set to follow on June 6,
“The College tried to balance the public health concerns with what we heard students most wanted. The result is we are delaying a few weeks, but we will start on campus rather than remotely because students told us they did not want to start remotely.”
“We hope that having a time period free of classes will support students in the upcoming semester.” with a decision on the feasibility of an in-person event based on state guidance to come. All parts of the plan, including campus phases, are subject to change according to local, state and federal directives. The College had previously presented four possible plans. Plan A entailed students returning in late January and potentially beginning some classes exclusively on Zoom until warmer weather arrived. Plan B included students studying remotely until the end of February, with in-person classes running from early March to May. Plan C would have had students move in mid-to late-February, with classes starting in-person March 1. Graduation would have taken place by midJune. A fourth plan entailed a mid-February move-in launch, with classes starting in late February and then concluding in time for graduation on May 31. After discussion and feedback among the VassarTogether committee, students, faculty, administrators and staff, and a faculty vote per Vassar’s Governance rules, the new plan balances concerns about outdoor classes during cold weather, mental health and summer opportunities.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
“The later start date was selected in order to minimize the effect of the colder weather on our strategy of holding outdoor classes, as well as our sensitivity to the mental health effects of losing the outdoors as a resource during the coldest months,” a Friday statement from President Elizabeth Bradley reads. “We balanced that consideration, however, with the need to consider student and faculty plans for the summer, particularly internships, summer jobs, and faculty research.” The inclusion of a shortened, on-campus spring break responds to student feedback on strained mental health and burnout without an October Break. “We hope that having a time period free of classes will support students in the upcoming semester,” said Bradley. While the new plan doesn’t attend to all concerns and circumstances among the student body, Bradley expressed that it is meant to prioritize student and community safety. “The calendar may not satisfy every request, but given that we are in a pandemic, this calendar is the one the faculty thought was the most appropriate,” she said.
ARTS
Page 6
November 5, 2020
‘The Aliens’ brings back student storytelling and community Continued from Theater on page 1 This saturation of action and emotion, coupled with the show’s small cast, offered the perfect opportunity for Blachman to create an intimate setting despite restrictive COVID-19 precautions. In a note about the show included in the playbill, dramaturge Amanda Greisman ’24 also mentioned that Blachman chose this particular play for its emphasis on human connection. The plot develops around the intertwining lives of KJ (Ethan Clark ’23), Jasper (Ronan Sidoti ’23) and Evan (Bryan Smith ’21) as they try to find their place in the world amidst lost opportunities, substance abuse and the occasional strumming of an old guitarAccording to Griesman, their relationships are raw and real: “They’re so familiar, it’s easy to forget that they’re characters in a play set in a fictional town not so far removed from our own little bubble.” The cast conveys this collective familiarity alongside individual character quirks— sometimes painful, sometimes personable—that together evoke powerful empathy from their audience. If Blachman’s vision was human connection, Clark, Sidoti and Smith brought it into razor-sharp focus. “The Aliens” is a play unlike any previous productions put together by Vassar theater-makers. As intended by the playwright herself, “At least a third—if not half—of this play is silence.” Usually, any extended period of silence on a stage is a red flag—maybe a flubbed line or a missed cue. Yet Baker’s work, artfully captured by the cast and crew, is purposeful, dynamic and emotionally charged. In her note about the show, Griesman described the silence as “bursting with all the words we cannot say.” When sitting in the audience, the frequent moments of quiet are reflective and deeply moving. The COVID-19 precautions only strengthen the production’s uniqueness. Under normal circumstances, performances are a space for the actors and production team to work closely together, bonding as an ensemble to create art.
With restrictions like masks and social distancing, this intimate setting is no longer possible, at least physically. The play itself was performed outside at the bottom of Commencement Hill on Oct. 25 and 28, with socially-distanced folding chairs set up like an outdoor amphitheater 12 feet from the “stage.” According to stage manager Tamar Wolfson ’23, setting up sound in their performance space was an unusual complication: “I think that we found a good balance so that the actors could be heard, but sound travels in a tricky way outside, especially when competing with the occasional gaggle of geese flying overhead.” Wolfson mentioned that the venue posed its own set of challenges. As night descended on the outdoor stage, the late October air made the outdoor theater damp and chilly, and the team had to turn on artificial lights for the second act. The stage manager noted that they had to reschedule three of the five shows due to inclement weather last week. To their credit, though, the actors brought the story to life so vividly that it was easy to forget the cold and get lost in their world. The team also faced novel challenges on the administrative side of production. First came the approval process. “Because much of student theater is on hiatus this semester, I knew I would have to take it on myself to make the project happen, even if that meant many emails to President Bradley,” Blachman explained in his email. After much rejection and nearly scrapping the project altogether, the Raymond House Team pulled through to secure approval, thanks to two cast members living in Raymond. The entire “Aliens” team is incredibly grateful for the organization’s support throughout the process. Wolfston also noted the importance of communication with administration as production logistics developed: “We had to be flexible and adapt our plan a lot as we learned more about the resources and spaces available to us, as well as the restriction[s] that we needed to follow.” To respect these guidelines, chairs were set up six feet apart and the audience was
limited to 17, with a waitlist. Actors stayed in masks whenever moving around the stage and could only unmask when more than six feet apart. Conveniently, actors Sidoti and Clark were already registered as a pod, so they were the only exceptions to the distancing rule. Additionally, props and set surfaces were sanitized before each performance and during intermission to minimize any communal contact. These precautions were also managed by Erin Mee ’24 (props & set/sound), Sophia Dulco ’23 (production consultant) and Mila Fox ’23 (safety & logistics/lighting). And yet, despite all these hurdles, “The Aliens” is remarkably compelling. The acting is stirring and the outdoor ambience at dusk is delightfully surreal. In addition to the touching relationships created during the two 50-minute acts, the entire team strove to make the audience feel included throughout the experience. Piping hot tea and hand warmers were passed out during intermission, during
which crew and audience members alike mingled at safe distances. Blachman shared, “The sheer commitment of the actors and creative team has been beyond inspiring.” Sitting in the audience with a steaming mug, surrounded by those with such a commitment to the arts, this inspiration and love for theater was palpable. In the director’s note, Blachman wrote, “The goal behind this project is to bring together a group of strangers for two hours to experience the communal telling of a story…For the next few hours, I ask that we just breathe together. Let’s just breathe.” Even behind a mask, “The Aliens” is a breath of fresh air, and a reminder that although we may struggle, we are not alone. The final three productions of “The Aliens” will take place Nov. 5 at 4 p.m., Nov. 6 at 5:30 p.m., and Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. Anyone who wishes to register and be put on the waitlist can access it through this link.
Bryan Smith, Louis Blachman, Mila Fox, Ethan Clark, Ronan Sidoti, Erin Mee and Tamar Wolfson. Courtesy of Katie Gebbia.
Raf Simons fails to bring something new to Spring/Summer ’21 Massimo Tarridas Columnist
Raf Simons has an obsession with youth culture. Usually it’s the culture of his own youth – to be specific, the post-punk and New Wave scene in Europe in the ’80s– but for his Spring Summer 2021 collection, it’s the youth of the ’60s and early ’70s. The flared cut on nearly all the pants, the midcentury psychedelia fonts and patterns, Beatles haircuts for men, long straight hippie hair for women, big pins with slogans like “Midnight Wild Flower Souls” and “Question Everything.” Aptly titled “Teenage Dreams,” Simons explores the era’s idealism and how the contrivances, failures and sociopolitical factors of then mirror those of now. However, though Simons may have set those lofty goals for himself, the message doesn’t quite land because he is still working with many of the same aesthetics as before. Simons is trying to translate his austere Belgian design language onto zany ’60s Americana, and the result is as conflicting as it sounds. That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of looks that are beautiful or interesting or evocative, because there are. The motif of the suit jacket with the sleeves bunched up to
reveal a hallucinogenic undershirt is a great metaphor for the kind of vast re-incorporation into sober society that Woodstock attendees had to experience. The same goes for the tight transparent plastic suit vests that reveal rebellious denim and twill jackets fitted underneath. The set design is gorgeous and elaborately decorated, an interpretation of “Alice in Wonderland” inside a warehouse. Other pieces that stood out included the fascinating hoodie-skirt-cape combinations. And even though I know I have a penchant for all or mostly black looks, it must be said that the way the final leg of the show is shrouded in darkness is a poignant end to something called “Teenage Dreams.” But even with a new focus, a new topic, Simons can’t help but interject his masturbatory love for Joy Division: We cannot even get to the second look here without a slim cut long sleeve t-shirt emblazoned several times over with the word “Disorder.” Fitting for the moment, but not interesting. The graphics are played with in a clean, distinctly Peter Saville-esque style, the same that they’ve been since the beginning of Simons’ work. The patchwork imagery is classic, applied in an identically esoteric way as he did for his seminal Autumn Winter “Riot! Riot!
Riot!” show back in 2001. The turtlenecks are stamped on the left side of the neck with a cursive “R,” as they were a little less than a decade ago. The overarching problem with “Teenage Dreams” is that it does very little in the way of actually dreaming outside the narrow comfort zone that Simons has made for himself. Fundamental to youth culture in the ’60s were experimentation and progression, neither of which Simons has ideologically ascribed to. All he has done is mimic the movement’s aesthetic conclusions. Many people in the fashion industry demand a new theme and narrative every six months—this is not what I am demanding. To compare, Rick Owens sits staunchly in his gothic kingdom, but with every collection there is at least one new concept or technique applied, and his influences change. Indeed, many of Owens’ avant-garde darkwear contemporaries do nothing but produce within their own bubble. However, the difference between these and the stale nature of Simons’ “Teenage Dreams” is that the concept presented in the former is futuristic and experimental, while the latter has been thoroughly digested, regurgitated and commonly sold for half a century at this point. In an interview with The Cut, Simons
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
said that “the nature of a revolution in fashion is that it comes from someone we don’t know.” It is interesting that he should be so aware of this fact, and yet continue to pretend as though it is appropriate to open his show with a t-shirt that literally reads “Welcome Home Children Of The Revolution.” If this is irony, there’s no hint of it. And the possibility that he may be trying to draw a connection between the Black Lives Matter protests and the civil rights movement of the ’60s is so obvious, and so commercialized, that it borders on being offensive. Were he to strip every blatant reference to the ’60s, it would stop being annoying—but it would also stop being interesting. This is a problem that I’ve always had with Simons’ work, which is that if you take away his ability to shove another person’s art into his own, I’m not sure that it means much: a jacket, a sweater, a t-shirt. Perhaps their cut is slightly oversized, but nonetheless they’re simple patterns. Again, taken on their own, much of this is a solid mixture of highly wearable and highly fashionable; if I were to be gifted any of these pieces I would wear them. But as a whole artistic effort, it leaves a lot to be desired, because the pretenses of the presentation simply aren’t fulfilled.
November 5, 2020
ARTS
Page 7
Frost’s ‘Dead Ends,’ a slice of life intoned with high school sadness Taylor Stewart Senior Editor
I
lana Frost ’22 recorded her first full-length album, Dead Ends, over quarantine. The songs themselves, however, are far more remote. They were written in the first half of college and churn with high school angst. The product is a lucid chapter of a life, sung sweetly but often expressing the kind heartbreak, sadness and spite that can’t be communicated in a conversation. The Miscellany News sat down with Frost to talk alt-pop, lyric naturalism and the role of sentimental solo acts in Vassar’s music scene. [This interview has been edited for length and clarity.] The Misc: Did you write this album by yourself? Ilana Frost (IF): Yes. The Misc: How do you approach writing? Is it an intuitive process or do you have to develop your lyrics over time? IF: It’s different every time—but if I want to sit down and write a song, I can, but it probably won’t be that good, when I’m forcing it and not feeling it or anything. I feel like the best ones usually come from some intense feeling or moment, happy or sad. A lot of songs would be written after an argument or after a party or something specific, and it would just come out that way. Sometimes I would just think of something before I go to sleep and I would write it down, or I’ll randomly record a voice memo. The Misc: What is your musical background? Did you start making your own music as a musician with a music education or were you an avid listener? IF: Both. I started playing piano when I was 5, and I was really into viola for a while, then I started playing guitar when I was 13 or 14. I took voice lessons for a few years. I was definitely musically trained, but I’m not a big music theory person and I never really liked that aspect, I always just liked playing by ear and writing my own stuff rather than playing other people’s stuff. Like, when I was younger, I would go to the talent show and play the song I wrote on viola or piano. I didn’t write pop songs until later on, so the first things I ever wrote were classical pieces. The Misc: Are your tastes regarding your own discography and your “everyday” music different? Do you make music you would listen to in your everyday life? IF: I would say now, definitely yes. Exactly yes. But when I was first starting to write pop songs, they weren’t very good yet, so at that point I would’ve said no, like, Oh, I think this is good for me. Obviously since I was 11, I’ve become a better writer. But now, I would only put out a song that I would listen to—something that hasn’t been said a lot. I draw a lot from two of my favorite artists [Julia Michals and Sasha Sloan]. The Misc: Your music sounded very familiar because it was so euphonic and pleasant to the ear, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint who you were channeling. Who are some of your older influences, people who are past their peak at this moment? IF: Not really, to be honest. When I was 12 or 13, there was no one that I knew of writing songs about mental health. Just in the last five, seven years, I feel like it became a thing with so many artists. That’s the first thing I wrote about because that’s what I needed to write about. I feel like I didn’t really know who my influences were when I started writing because I wasn’t really looking to anyone. Now, I see those people in the industry and I’m obsessed with them. And I’m generally more inspired by newer artists, I’m not one of those people who listens to a bunch of classic, sophisticated music. I’m just really into this new style of underground pop artists, like pop artists who ar-
en’t necessarily on the radio but have a pretty solid following on Spotify. The Misc: This could apply to indie pop or top 50, but do you think this genre or genres are flourishing right now? That’s definitely something I’m perceiving. I feel like it’s something that lost momentum around the time we were in elementary school, and then with figures like Marina and the Diamonds and Lana del Rey, indie pop or alt-pop started to reemerge. IF: I think that’s true, and I always talk about how much I love and respect pop as a genre, and how it’s not respected. For a lot of reasons—partially sexism I think. But I think what’s unique about [pop] is that it’s very direct, it’s very powerful, it’s about a certain topic. If you’re listening to a rock song, an indie song, it might be unclear what the message is (they’re both great genres). With a pop song, there’s always an extremely clear message, whether it’s about love or heartbreak or struggling. It’s very direct and it makes people feel something. But with indie pop you can do more. Like with a pop song on the radio, you can’t swear a ton and, still, a topic like mental health might not get played on the radio. With indie pop on streaming services, you can have the direct message but also swear and be a little freer with the structure and talk about whatever you want to talk about. The Misc: How do you approach production as an indie artist or as someone who releases their own music? IF: Not all me. I’m not a producer and I hate producing, but it’s about half and half on the album between me and two other people I worked with. I don’t think people realize how much of a whole different skill set it is. In pop, especially, you’ve got to have tons of equipment and tons of knowledge about the program you’re using. People go to college for this. Of course there are a lot of self-taught ones too, but the top people have spent years and years learning and mastering that. So while it’s cool that it’s becoming more accessible to a lot of people, if you’re a musician you’re not necessarily a producer. I always feel like I should stick to my strengths and I know what my weaknesses are, and I want to do whatever’s best for the song. Sometimes I’m like, I should really hand this song over to someone who knows what they’re doing. With “NYC,” for example, I knew exactly how I wanted it to sound but I knew I couldn’t create that sound, so I decided to work with someone. One of them, we connected on Instagram. The other—I did a lot of research to try to find a female producer. The Misc: A lot if not all of these songs are highly personal, and you mentioned how a lot of these would come about by basically transcribing your own experiences right after this inspiring event occurred. Of course, this can be a confessional and vulnerable process. I would be scared to put something like this out there. Have you tempered the fear of putting your feelings out there over time? Do you care at all? IF: I really don’t care that much about what most people think. What is hard is my family hearing it because they don’t like it. They do not like the lyrics of my songs, so whenever I put stuff out, I’m mostly worried about what they’re going to say. People I don’t know or my friends—I don’t know why, but I don’t care. I am pretty open just in general, outside of songwriting. If I’m close friends with someone, they probably know about a lot of the stuff I talk about in my songs. To me, that’s the whole point of songwriting: to be as personal as you can. Why put it out if it’s half-assed or isn’t totally honest? I feel like it’s the only place you can be
totally honest, and that’s what I’ve always loved about it. The Misc: As we see in Taylor Swift’s most recent album, there’s definitely a way to be impersonal and super personal at the same time. Her songwriting remained confessional while she was playing characters. In your songwriting or even your mentality when you’re performing, do you ever assume the perspective of someone else? IF: In high school, I did write a musical. I would write songs for characters and stuff, which I found was way easier than to write for yourself. It would just come out so fast. I guess when you’re writing for yourself, you don’t actually know exactly what you’re writing about or how you’re feeling at first because you’re in it. But if you’re writing for a character, you know exactly from an outside perspective what’s going on, though I haven’t done that for my own songs because the theme of my music is how personal it is. The Misc: Is songmaking for you ever an outlet for your feelings or a way to analyze them? Does trying to allegorize or write a song about certain emotions or situations help you come to terms with them? IF: A hundred percent. It’s strange how it happens because you’re the one who wrote it, so looking back and listening to, like, “Dead Ends” and “Hotel Happy” especially capture exactly how I was feeling at the time. It is more clear in those songs than it would be in my own head. It’s like Yeah, that’s pretty much it. The Misc: If it’s a negative feeling associated with the song, does writing a song about it make the load lighter? IF: It is kind of a relief to have a song or multiple songs out at this point that express exactly how I feel often because you can’t really explain it to people in conversations, talking about mental health specifically. You can’t articulate some of the lyrics. You know that Okay, all of my friends, everyone who knows me is listening to this and they can just get it. In that sense, it’s mostly for myself but it’s also for others because I want others to understand it. The Misc: Would you describe this album as more a musical experiment or perhaps a diary or record of a certain period of your life? IF: It’s definitely a chapter of my life that I think is coming to a close but it’s hard to say in the middle of it, of life. The first song was written in the middle of freshman year. All the songs were written in the first half
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
of college, and then recorded over quarantine. It’s kind of about—I was really really sad, basically, before college. And then I got here and for a second I was like, Oh, it’s all better now. And then of course I realized it’s not. The title Dead Ends is about this period where things are close to good and close to happy and close to perfect, ideal, but then I run into these obstacles because I didn’t just run away from everything from before college. A lot of songs are about a different dead end I still run into, but college did improve a lot of things. The Misc: Do you anticipate your feelings toward this album changing in the future, as you grow up? IF: I don’t think so. It’s really really special and important to me, largely because of the content and the fact that it’s the first full-length project I’ve ever put out. It’s kind of the type of thing where I was like, I could die peacefully knowing this is out now. I just needed to get it out and have other people hear it, and I needed to explain myself and why sometimes I’m quiet or leave things early or anything. It’s kind of an explanation of my behaviors. The Misc: As an active member of Vassar’s music scene, have you made music explicitly to carve a niche for yourself in this scene? Or in any stage of song making, did you consider how to differentiate yourself from others in the ecosystem? IF: It was definitely more of an organic process, but I am very aware of Vassar’s music scene. [It’s] obviously male dominated and band dominated.... my songs would not work at the Halloween show, for example. I’ve been conscious [as a member of StuMu] of trying to make it inclusive and invite women and queer people and people of color and work with them and encourage them because I want to see more representation in the field. People who are not white men have interesting things to say in their songs. A solid third of my songs are either explicitly about feminism or reference it. That’s something I started thinking about more when I got here. I’m definitely aware that I’m not the typical act, and I do get kind of self-conscious about that and don’t want to perform in front of the guy bands who are like, Why is she talking about that? But Vassar’s music scene isn’t the whole world’s music scene. I know my music has a place in both. You can listen to Dead Ends on all major music platforms.
The album cover for Dead Ends. Courtesy of Ilana Frost.
ARTS
Page 8
November 5, 2020
‘The Queen’s Gambit’ is a brilliant, visually stunning success Olivia Diallo Reporter
“T
he Queen’s Gambit,” directed by Scott Frank, based on the novel of the same name, is an eight-part limited series that premiered on Netflix on Oct. 23. Enthralled by the “world in 64-spaces,” orphan Beth Hardon, portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy, enters the world of competitive chess, eventually becoming world champion. But Beth’s rise is not an easy one, as she experiences addiction and loss on her journey from the orphanage Methuen House to the world’s chess championships. The cadence of “The Queen’s Gambit” is thrillingly intense, much like that of a sports movie. Yet, just like the best sports movies, the most interesting storyline is not the game itself, but Beth’s coming of age. “The Queen’s Gambit” shines most brightly during its scenes of ordinary adolescence. The costuming designed by Gabriele Binder is cut from the cloth of “Mad Men,, not in the era as much as the way that Beth’s clothing choices illustrate her evolving class status and maturity through the series. Both Taylor-Joy and Moses Ingram, who plays fellow Methuen House orphan Jolene, achieve the difficult task of playing the same character from early adolescence to adulthood without cloying affect (Ingram portrays Jolene from pre-teenhood, no small feat). The assumed incongruity between adolescent girlhood and chess mastery creates friction for Beth; one embarrassing moment involves an interaction with an early competitor, who years later tells Beth that she “tells everyone [she] was there for two of [Beth’s] firsts,” referring to Beth’s first chess win and first menstrual period. Thankfully, the series does not lean into the implication that Beth’s brilliance bars her from experiencing life as a teenage girl. More interestingly, her particular set of experiences as a child-displaced make the trappings of teenage girlhood inaccessible to her. She doesn’t find saddle shoes beneath her, she simply can’t afford them.
Taylor-Joy also skillfully portrays the distinct loneliness of teenagehood. Even in solitary scenes, Taylor-Joy communicates her quiet emotional strain. It is a deeply relatable portrayal because Beth, like all teenagers, carries the acute pain of incongruity with her surroundings. Yet Beth doesn’t have to despise other teenage girls in order to be prodigious. Neither does she earn the right to her success by championing other women. The result is that Beth is refreshingly unlikable; too often do stories of talented girls focus more on their martyrdom than their achievements. Classic coming-of-age stories with female leads tend to execute this period of growth less gracefully. In “Mean Girls,” Cady Heron’s experiments in femininity and sexuality lay waste to her mathematical prowess. Or take the case of Cher from “Clueless,” whose self-actualization comes in the form of a relationship. Even in Greta Gerwig’s lauded “Ladybird,” Ladybird’s adolescent sexual exploration is marked by experiences of heartbreak with deceptive partners. Beth’s experiments with sexuality are not part of her self-destruction. Rather, in a warming final episode, all of her love interests come together to help her win her world championship match. Beth discovers her own sexuality with refreshingly little dramatic embellishment. She is self-possessed about her sexuality in ways that are customary for teenage boys in coming of age stories. Yet her development is not sidelined by her skill; tense moments alone with Beth’s various lovers are almost as intense as the chess matches. Part of adolescence is reckoning with the very real trauma imparted by family life, and Beth has this in abundance. Her mother (Chloe Pirrie) dies by suicide while crashing her car with young Beth (played by Isla Johnson) inside, and she later loses her second maternal figure, Alma (Marielle Heller). She grapples with addiction to “Xanzolam,” which appears to be a fictional benzodiazepine, and, later, alcohol. The viewer is meant to be-
lieve that this is the price Beth pays for her chess prowess. Even Beth herself buys into this theory, popping Xanzolam before matches in order to visualize her moves. Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp), the janitor who teaches Beth how to play chess, tells young Beth, “You’ve got your gift. And you’ve got what it costs.” Beth’s “cost,” which seems to mostly take the form of solitary intoxication in various hotel rooms, seems to be more a consequence of being drugged with tranquilizers as a child at Methuen House and a great deal of trauma and loss than an inherent quality. Beth is ultimately able to win against her greatest rival, Borgov (Marcin Dorociński), sober. There is no evidence of Borgov having his own “madness,” nor any of Beth’s male competitors (with the exception of Benny Watts, played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, whose gambling is alluded to once in the seventh episode). This discrepancy makes it difficult to believe that Beth’s addiction is a prerequisite for her success. Beth’s genius is portrayed as an inheritance from her mother, whose dissertation from Cornell is featured in a particularly poignant scene in which a young Beth watches her burning all of the pair’s worldly possessions in an oil drum fire. But the source of Beth’s addiction isn’t inheritance. She confides in Jolene that her mother never drank, and Jolene suggests that she might have been “just crazy.” The viewer is left wondering why Beth’s struggles with addiction are presented as a necessary part of her achievements while they appear to be hindering her success. Another aspect of “The Queen’s Gambit” that will likely puzzle viewers is the handling of race, which it does by largely avoiding it. There are attempts made to address the indelibly racialized atmosphere of the period, almost all provided by Jolene. There are moments that feel stereotypical and canned (what Black person uses “cracker” as a term of endearment?). But there are also moments of poignancy and even hilarity in Jolene’s observations that Ingram delivers with apolmb; In an
especially delicious moment, Jolene responds to Beth’s suggestion that Jolene is compromising her ability to be part of a radical Black movement while maintaining a relationship with her white boss, responding, dryly, “Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.” It is unfortunate that Jolene’s coming-of-age occurs out of frame and her journey from orphan to paralegal to activist is left unexplored, especially considering Ingram’s skill. Jolene is the relation who ultimately saves Beth from her addiction. And yet, it is not immediately apparent why Jolene wants to maintain a friendship with Beth. Throughout the series we see Jolene comforting Beth, even ultimately establishing a familial relationship between the two. Jolene is the first to welcome her to Methuen House and the one who holds her as she cries over the death of Mr. Shaibel. We see the two giggling and bonding together for brief moments, but the interactions between Young Beth and Young Jolene reflect the discrepancies between their circumstances. Beth is sometimes unkind towards Jolene, upon whom she depends for pills and street-smarts, and Beth is ultimately adopted while Jolene remains at Methuen House. So it is surprising when Jolene comes to rescue Beth from her addiction, doubly so when she offers Beth funds that she had saved for law school to fund Beth’s trip to Russia. The result is that the relationship feels more like an iteration of the “Magical Negro” trope than a mutually-fulfilling friendship. Sticking-points aside, the series is brilliant and exhilarating, a visually-stunning portrait of humanity and genius and their sometimes-competing presences in a young woman’s body. It manages to make chess thrilling, an especially impressive achievement because the gameplay is largely unintelligible to the uninitiated. The series soars because “The Queen’s Gambit” isn’t really about chess, it’s about Beth. The considerable skill of the actors and Frank make “The Queen’s Gambit” an excellent watch.
The Miscellany News is looking for submissions for Through The Lens, a photo series that showcases photographs from the eyes of Vassar students. Photos can be submitted to Janet Song (jsong@vassar.edu). MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
FEATURES
November 5, 2020
Page 9
Love in the pandemic: Vassar couples battle distance Janet Song
Features Editor
W
here have the Vassar couples gone? Gone are the sights of them cuddling inside Deece booths and making out in the library’s 24 hour section—sometimes I can barely remember eavesdropping on conversations in the bathroom about the hookups that happened at a party last night or hearing the mysterious loud noises coming from a shower stall as I brush my teeth and pretend not to notice. But while I sometimes recoil at the sight of The Vassar Couple, I admit that I miss them. With fewer chances to interact with students on campus, I’ve wondered how couples can manage to find love and stay in love during the pandemic. And so I’ve turned to the experts: three Vassar students currently in relationships who have offered their own experiences of, and even advice about, love during COVID-19. For couples that met pre-pandemic, distance became a major challenge when students were sent home last year. For Christopher Unruh ’23, who started dating his girlfriend Shanya in fall 2019, the campus shutdown meant he and his girlfriend would be 2000 miles apart from each other, with no chance to visit in-person for the remainder of the year. Instead, they relied mainly on FaceTime to communicate. “Although I am appreciative that we live in a world where we can see each other’s face, albeit over a screen,” expressed Unruh, “it’s much harder to communicate and really connect on an emotional level due to the distance and the impersonal atmosphere that is involved in that format.” The hindrance that distance poses has made Unruh extremely grateful for finding love prior to the COVID-19 period. “I was already dating and didn’t need to bother to try and date during a pandemic, which is probably a thousand times harder than normal,” Unruh said. “I didn’t really try and seek out a relationship pre-pandemic. It all just sorta happened, and I’m thankful it did.” Meanwhile, the drawbacks of long distance relationships seemed especially difficult for couples who convened just at the beginning of the pandemic. Itamar Ben-Porath ’21 fondly reminisced how they met their partner, Morgan Stephens ’23, in the
middle of last year’s spring break. They recalled, “We first met each other properly pretty early on in the spring semester last year. I knew their roommate by way of VJU [Vassar Jewish Union], and since my best friend was studying abroad, I had a lot of spare time and was looking to make new friends, so I ended up spending a lot of time in their social circles. We met at the Deece, just hanging out with mutual friends.” Although they saw each other often, it took a while for Ben-Porath to catch feelings. One evening at a drag show, however, had them considering making moves. “We’re both disabled, so we had seats reserved for us. [My partner] asked their roommate, who’s a member of VC Royalty, to seat us next to each other,” explained Ben-Porath. “But we only really hit it off over spring break after the world had already ended. Starting on March 14, we would FaceTime for hours every night. In that time I got to know them really well, and I found that they were cute, and funny and had a million crafts-related talents, and their own set of mannerisms, and I just felt like we connected incredibly well with one another. About a week and some later, the penny dropped for me.” Ben-Porath admitted to being a bit surprised after establishing mutual feelings with their partner because of the timing of their relationship. But the couple has managed to circumvent the struggles of long distance relationships through texting and FaceTime. “I saw someone joking a while back that because everyone was either long-distance or living together 24/7 in the pandemic, we all get to have a taste of what it’s like to be lesbians, and so far it’s pretty amazing,” Ben-Porath joked. They added, “Because we didn’t meet in person for a while, we also got to have some conversations about consent and expectations before we actually did anything, which I think ended up being really healthy.” While digital networks serve as the main forms of connection and communication for Vassar couples, the need for in-person connection has led students to break social distancing protocol. One anonymous student told me, “Obviously we had to accept the risk of breaking social distancing pretty
much from the outset. We weren’t going to wait for the administration to give the green light, you know?” Although the student claimed they only broke social distancing in private and have used the pod system with their partner, they expressed frustration in how they appeared in public with their partner. “The thing is, we still need to appear to social distance in public, which creates this uncomfortably performative dynamic of being worried about other people seeing affection in public. The fact that Vassar has adopted the model of having students rat each other out for standing too close together hasn’t helped matters in that regard.” For this anonymous student, virtual connections through platforms such as Zoom cannot compensate for the touch starvation that all students—dating or not—may feel. “Just having someone who’s implicitly okay with physical affection fills a need that was really starting to gnaw at me during the months between leaving in the spring and returning in the fall,” the student explained. The student also pointed out changes in the Vassar dating scene since the pandemic. “Vassar had an extremely ‘casual’ dating scene, so to speak—only a few of my friends at any given time were in relationships,” they explained. Prior to COVID-19, Vassar seemed to be more of a hookup culture, but the decrease of opportunities to meet new people has changed what students are looking for in relationships. “I can’t speak too much to the overall trends, but a few of my friends who I wouldn’t generally think of as being the type for monogamy have mentioned going on dates/being in steady relationships,” the student said. Ben-Porath expressed a similar sentiment, adding the need for closeness in distanced times. “At this point, I doubt people are getting together much at all,” they said. “It’s also a lot more intimate if you are with someone, though; there’s a lot of trust involved, which can be stressful but also valuable, and it definitely encourages a lot more closeness to your own small circle.” In terms of maintaining relationships— digital or in-person—an important component is communication and honesty, as Unruh emphasized. “If [you’re] trying to date,
Above are Christopher Unrich ’.23 and his girlfriend Shanya Galbokke Hewage ’23, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Courtesy of Christopher Unruh. be clear about intentions and what you are comfortable with in regards to seeing each other in the pandemic,” Unruh advised. Recalling his struggles with the campus shutdown, he added, “Having to be [in a long distance relationship] for so long is just hard and never fun. But I also realized that you just need to go with the flow—be honest, open and communicative—and it will all work out if you make sure it does.” Unruh has since then united with his girlfriend on campus this semester, where they try to spend time together by watching movies or going on walks together. And for those trying to find love in the pandemic? “Don’t be afraid of starting long-distance/remote and seeing how it goes,” Ben-Porath encouraged. “It’s a little weird conceptually, but so worth it if you can get a good one.” As the College approaches the final weeks of on-campus learning, who knows what will become of The Vassar Couple? Restrictions have since then lifted—students can dine in the Deece through reservations, are allowed to see people in pods and can interact with each other at more campus events. But you won’t find couples snogging each other on the food truck line for a while— you’ll just have to wait.
Creative chaos: Barefoot Monkeys adapt to COVID-19 Olivia Gross
Guest Columnist
F
lames whip through the air. The heat of unruly licks of fire reaches for the audience’s faces as they gasp and shout in awe. As campus life withered in March, so did the glowing embers of the Barefoot Monkeys (BM), Vassar’s circus and fire arts organization. After their 2020 spring show was canceled due to the College’s shutdown, the leaders of the organization were determined to put on their annual Fall Fire Show. Not surprisingly, BM has been Vassar’s only circus and fire arts troupe since its founding in the mid-1990s. BM members perform acrobatics, general circus arts like juggling and, of course, their signature fire arts. They can often be seen spinning poles lit on either end with flames on the quad. Typically, there are four shows per year—two indoor acrobatic shows and two outdoor fire shows. The 60-member organization meets twice per week, with varying combinations of members showing up to each practice. The practices serve as both rehearsals and a place for team members to play with circus equipment, play board games and enjoy each other’s presence. The Miscellany News sat down with the BM president Chelsea Sheldon ’22 and Vice President Spencer McGrath ’21. About ten yards away, a group of BM members played
Bananagrams on a blanket while several others absentmindedly spun hoola-hoops and long poles. Sheldon, unfazed by the antics of her org members, spoke about the Barefoot Monkeys in the era of COVID-19. Determined to lead a successful year for
“It was a very different feeling, but the intensity was the same.” -Chelsea Sheldon BM, she had sent a 23-page document to the administration about sanitizing equipment and adjusting safety protocols. “Fire shows are always a big safety commitment, and this year we had to also consider how we can keep both our small community but also the entire Vassar community safe,” Sheldon said. McGrath, when asked about the differences between this year’s performance and past ones, explained, “[Acrobatics were] not a possibility this year because it consists of so
many partner acts. We call the acrobats the Keepers of the Mat. This year, they are leading workshops and working on individual tricks.” Sheldon’s smile did not falter as she expressed how proud she was of the Fall Fire Show that took place on Oct. 13: “Overall, there were growing pains and things we are excited to change in the spring, but I am super happy that we got to have a show. The one thing that was a really big plus is that livestreaming is really valuable—we are going to keep doing that in future shows, even when we can have an audience. Our families could all watch it and we could even save the chat, which was a gift to watch back.” The virtual format also made the show more accessible, and many BM alumnae/i attended the virtual event—one of whom logged on all the way from France. When asked whether the virtual performance could capture the adrenaline of live moving flames for the audience, Sheldon shook her head. “I’d say there was less awe and more excitement,” she shared. However, she also noted, “Everyone who came was happy that we were able to do this. It was a very different feeling, but the intensity was the same.” McGrath chimed in, saying, “For the parents it was incredible—they usually don’t come, so there was the added factor of ‘I’ve never seen this before,’ which really
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
raised our enthusiasm for the night.” The club leaders then reflected on how being a part of this org has shaped their time at Vassar. Sheldon did not miss a beat and confessed, “I’m highly biased, but I love this org. It’s a really fun group of people who are excited to create art but also just coexist in the same space. I was lucky enough to get cornered at the org fair in my freshman year. I remember being blown away at my luck for stumbling upon this group. That mindset has continued. We are a group of people who love this creative chaos, and I am so grateful for it.” McGrath, nodding along to Sheldon’s remarks, expanded the discussion: “The dynamics have shifted over the past two years from having a majority of white members to the exec board having a large representation of POC members, and within the club we are having these discussions. If you are a chaotic being, and even if you aren’t, you will find your space here. And circus forces you to be comfortable in your own body, which has helped a lot of us.” The Miscellany News concluded the interview by asking Sheldon and McGrath the question that has been on everyone’s minds since they first saw the spinning flames at Vassar: No, they cannot make s’mores on the carcinogenic twirling flames. That’s an org for another time.
FEATURES
Page 10
November 5, 2020
An intern’s journal: Student’s travels within the rural Wuc Max Wu
Guest Columnist
M
y name is Max Wu, and I am a rising sophomore. Due to COVID-19’s international border restrictions, I decided that it would be more worthwhile for me to take a year-long leave of absence to do something productive rather than proceed with online classes. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to reach out to the head director and host of Shanghai Media Group, Chen Rong, pertaining to a documentary program under DongFang WeiShi Television called “We Are In Action” (direct translation). The program first caught my interest in 2018 when I interviewed Rong through a Dragon Television internship about her newly devised methods of poverty alleviation. Now, I had the opportunity to participate in them. Created by Shanghai Media Group (SMG) under Dragon Television Channel, “We Are In Action” is China’s first non-profit strategic poverty alleviation and public welfare assistance documentary program. It seeks to eradicate poverty by introducing new e-commerce and marketing models. For the past few months and the next foreseeable year, I have worked and will continue to work with this documentary program. As the only intern, my job covers a large field. I work with the production crew on writing scripts for starring actors (usually volunteer celebrities and Chen Rong herself), choosing scenes to film, deciding which local villagers to include on film and selecting specific local stories relating to the theme of poverty. At the same time, I travel to impoverished households to interview locals and analyze which locations are viable for filming with the show’s director and camera crew. As an added bonus, I’m an assistant to Chen Rong. I do research for her on
locally produced goods and specialty products that could potentially be sold on the domestic market to provide a steady source of income for impoverished households. In my spare time, I try to journal my experiences with every impoverished community I visit, in order to share my insights with my peers. Out of the six communities below the poverty line I’ve traveled to so far, Wuchuan County in Inner Mongolia was one that left the deepest impression on me. Wuchuan County is located in the middle of Inner Mongolia (an autonomous region in China), north of the capital Hohhot City, with a total area of 4,885 square kilometres. Wuchuan’s total population at the end of 2018 was 171,100. In China, a county usually consists of a main town—in this case “Wucuan”—and several smaller villages in the nearby vicinity. Never have I seen a collection of villages so dilapidated and loosely intertwined as those in Wuchuan County. The main town extended only six blocks in length and ten blocks in width, and consisted of mostly short buildings with half-tattered roofs. The hotel our production crew lodged in was undoubtedly the highest and most wellbuilt structure in town. For almost every day of my 15-day journey to Inner Mongolia, there was some kind of grand wedding being held in the ballroom right next to the dining hall at our hotel. Because the ballroom was relatively small and sat awkwardly in between two dining halls, I had to trespass into a different wedding for every meal. According to the front desk, only the “wealthiest” households of Wuchuan County could hold their weddings at this venue, and the 5,000 RMB (roughly $750) all inclusive fee was considered a once-in-a-lifetime luxury. As I ate my pre-made lunchbox meals with over 50 crew members sitting across from the
newly wedded couple’s friends and family, I felt an immeasurable amount of privilege. Back in Shanghai, most weddings afforded couples and their guests with enough privacy for the intimate occasion. But here in Wuchuan, this was all that was available: a ballroom with less than ten tables, a buffet with three hot and cold dishes and an old carpet for the bride to walk on. The view from my 10-square meter room was far from spectacular. There was nothing reminiscent of the great luscious grass plains of Hulunbuir and Baotou up north. I saw fields of dying yellow buckwheat and tall dry grass extending endlessly into the far distance, along with rows of makeshift construction ground housing for most of the town residents. After work, I would usually stroll along the streets at twilight to observe the living conditions and habits of locals. Due to high latitudes, the sun in Wuchuan sets much earlier than in southern China, and many stores would call it a day around 5 p.m. By 7:30 p.m., the only venues that were open in Wuchuan were the restaurants and public bathhouses, which charged 5 RMB (approximately $0.75) per one time entrance. By 9 p.m., everything closed. Dead silence filled the cold empty streets, disrupted from time to time only by an occasional stray cat cry or drunk person walking home under the half-lit street lamps. Unlike other communities below the poverty line, Wuchuan was not only deeply impoverished but also extremely unpicturesque, not to mention the other severe problems it had. According to a local food truck owner named Fu Gui, who travels between Hohhot City and Wuchuan, China’s yellow rat plague had begun to manifest within areas of Inner Mongolia and sanitation had become a top priority. Ironically, COVID-19 was the least
All photos courtesy of Max Wu.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
of their worries. “The plague will almost certainly kill you! Your nails will blacken and your flesh will rot. COVID-19 is child’s play compared to this,” Gui would often say. He would always wish me good luck as I finished the last bites of my breakfast and prepared for a full day of interviews with impoverished households. The night time in Wuchuan was harsh and unforgiving, but daylight brought forth an oddly nourishing strong summer sun beam that lit the broken streets. A brisk autumn breeze blew by as locals returned to their small family businesses to welcome a new day. I, along with the rest of the production crew, arrived in Wuchuan on Aug. 24 with an already well-devised agenda. My tasks, schedules and accommodation details throughout the 15-day journey had been planned by subsidiary scout groups that SMG sent ten days prior to our arrival. Even in Wuchuan, I was able to experience a kind of privilege only a large organization such as SMG could provide. Now that the logistics were settled, I made myself comfortable in my miniscule but cozy hotel room. The arrival day was never hectic. It’s perhaps the only day where no work was required; a day where I was able to unwind from the three hour flight from Shanghai, the one hour car ride from Hohhot City and the 45 minute walk to find a local Wuchuan cab to the hotel. As I lay on the small single bed overlooking the lifeless grass fields of Wuchuan County, I decided to map out the routes for the following days. The plan for the next few days was simple: move into nearby villages to interview impoverished households and conduct searches for viable filming locations. The chaotic layout of Wuchuan county made mapping nearly impossible. There was
November 5, 2020
FEATURES
Page 11
chuan county unveil the harsh realities of poverty in China only one main road connecting Wuchuan with Hohhot City, and the surrounding villages were scattered through rough terrain with improper road systems failing to interconnect them. The nearest village, which was only six kilometers away, would take us 45 minutes to venture to because the off road was so dangerous and unpredictable. Often surrounded by swampy marsh pits during the rainy season, these villages became isolated from the rest of Wuchuan, and journey by car became nearly impossible. Troubled and frustrated at Wuchuan’s harsh geography, I took a long afternoon nap to clear my mind and pass the time while waiting for the usual post-dinner debrief meetings “We Are In Action” mandates. On the first night, I overheard my roommate talking on the phone about one of our studio minivans that needed to be forcibly pulled out of the mud swamps by emergency service trucks. The prolonged cold climates and lack of natural resources also meant there were less industrial foundations, giving locals no choice but to work in agriculture. But after doing some research, I discovered that the registered poor households in Wuchuan County have already decreased by at least 6,064 households from 2014. On April 18, 2019, China had officially declared Wuchuan County “pulled” out of poverty, but this was not as simple as it sounds. Turns out, President Xi’s “Targeted Poverty Alleviation” strategy encourages local governments to keep track of every individual household’s progress to ensure that they receive an annual income of 2,300 RMB or more. The problem was that this amount was not nearly enough to promote sustainable development in small, dilapidated villages. By Aug. 25, the job had started. Waking up at 6 a.m. would eventually transition into a normal habit, but on the second morning I
was desperately tired upon seeing the early morning sunrise. I met my soon-to-be colleagues downstairs, in the same dining hall where we had dinner and town couples got married, for a quick breakfast before heading out to Zhengxingyuan village for a local tour. The village was something out of the ordinary. Wuchuan town might have looked run-down and tattered, but Zhengxingyuan village gave me the impression of a completely desolate ghost town. The crumbling dirt path led us into the main village hall, which was protected by dirt walls and outdated Chinese propaganda slogans. The hall itself was made out of a layered tin foil-like material supported on the side with crackling concrete. In the middle of the village hall, there was a flagpole with the classic five yellow stars of China at one corner. Next to the main building stood a mud structured bathroom with holes on the floor that led directly to a large fertilizer pit. Outside the village hall, the Zhengxingyuan village itself spanned 23 square kilometers with nine so-called neighborhoods; it was the biggest out of the eight villages under Wuchuan jurisdiction. A dirt path led from the main building into the far distance where each neighborhood—small clusters of mudhut buildings attached to patches of farmland behind—sat. Each household had a large iron fence barring the entrance to its main lawn and a small space inside for livestock. Yet out of the nine neighborhoods, only four of them were occupied. The younger generations from Zhengxingyuan have migrated to larger urban areas for better employment or education opportunities, leaving the elders to tend to family farms alone. As I toured around, I saw the remnants of a village with shattered hopeless dreams, and a few elder people buried in tragedy and emptiness. Despite being a dismal place to live, the
Zhengxingyuan village was well-suited to “We Are In Action’s” documentation purposes. It had all the elements needed to convey the ruinous story of local poverty. According to county officials, out of the permanent 188 households that reside in Zhengxingyuan, there are more than 138 low-income households containing more than 47 incapacitated people unable to work. These low-income families have just recently been lifted out of poverty, and yet their income is barely enough to sustain their families’ needs. Hence, the threat of relapsing back into a vicious cycle of poverty still haunts villagers. The naturally harsh climates meant that agricultural production was not only inefficient but also costly, creating more stress for the aging population. As a result of COVID-19, the four neighborhoods I visited and their inhabitants experienced a total 50 to 70 percent reduction in production and decrease in income over the course of 2020. All of this is compounded by the fact that the village and its people are neglected beyond measure, demotivating the existing working population to create income: the elders see no point in spending their retirement days working on infertile land while high costs prevent them from producing altogether—not to mention the physical insufficiency of housing, public infrastructure and roads within the village. From the outside, Zhengxingyuan truly looked like a battered village with no hopes of recovering, and that’s what production crew was searching for. The mornings in Wuchuan always passed swiftly. The cool and dewy atmosphere of dawn quickly gave way to the sweltering heat of midday. 12:30 p.m. was the unofficial but well acknowledged lunch time for us hungry workers who had spent the morning either scouting or partaking in crew
All photos courtesy of Max Wu.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
meetings for the upcoming documentary. Most of the time, I would eat the five RMBprepped lunchbox meals with my colleagues while standing anywhere that provided cover from the scorching Mongolian weather. Sometimes, I would eat alone under the shade of a canopy tree or inside the minivans, because it was the only time of the day I had to myself. The rest required interaction with colleagues: It is customary for Chinese workers to socialize with each other on the job, so small talk became expected throughout my day. But on day two, I decided to eat by myself while doing a little unsanctioned touring of Zhengxingyuan alone. I carried the meal in one hand while juggling a pair of cheap wooden chopsticks in the other, walking towards the fields behind the mudhuts. From a distance, my poor eyesight found no fault at the sight of the seemingly blooming vegetation, but as I got closer to the fields, it became clear that the patchy farmlands were filled with withering crops. Rows of sunflowers were collapsing on the crackling dirt ground, and those that were standing were hanging on to their last bits of life. Rotting potato plants piled up in a mush over on the corners of a farmer’s land, waiting to be disposed of or used as fertilizer. The only crop that looked “alive” was on the grainfield, but that was only because a billion dollar Shanghai-based agriculture corporation had bought the oat plants several years prior. It’s a sad scenario for any household, and I felt utterly powerless to help. Surely, what could’ve been done already has been. So what was our role? What was mine? While walking back to the main neighborhood, where the production crew was interviewing private households, I thought about these questions, hoping to find some kind of answer. To read the rest of Max Wu’s journal on miscellanynews.org, click here.
HUMOR
Page 12
November 5, 2020
Breaking News
From the desk of Izzy Migani, Humor Editor
Student threatens to pee on every government building they can find if Trump wins election A poem dedicated to Vassar’s pumpkin patch Vivian Phillips
Juliette Pope/The Miscellany News
Where did they come from? All out on the lawn
Cradled like babies In sweater clothed arms
Not to use in a soup Not to plant all its seeds
All without stems And suddenly gone
For a moment I thought I might be at the farm
Not to use as a doorstop Or feed to the geese
Like oversized acorns All scattered around
Cell phones held up To get shots with the squash
I lugged my pumpkin up Jewett And mourned my obliques
As if two produce trucks Suddenly just broke down
To us did the pumpkins, I wondered, brainwash?
All for it rot on my counter ‘Till I leave in three weeks
HOROSCOPES Madi Donat
Astral Projector
ARIES
Mar 21 | Apr 19
Would you be Godzilla? If, you know, you were given the opportunity and all of the technicalities and logistics were handled and all that. Is it preferable to whatever this kind of existence is?
TAURUS
Apr 20 | May 20
Animal fact: Oysters have hearts. They must; all animals do. A mushroom is not an animal, rather it occupies the unusual in-between land of fungi. I like to think a mushroom has a heart, too. GEMINI
May 21 | Jun 20
Humans love patterns. Do you like finding colors, or shapes, or simply counting? How old were you when you started using these repetitions as a way to stay grounded? Is it childish to start again? You decide.
CANCER
Jun 21 | Jul 22
You are different than you were 10 years ago, 10 seconds even. Instead of being mad at all of the yous you’ve been, take their young, invisible hands as if to say: It will be okay, because I am still here.
LEO
Jul 23 | Aug 22
There are things we are all too afraid to start. Nothing has to be perfect because nothing you’ve ever liked has been perfect. The act of creation in itself is divine. What will you do with the magic of your hands? VIRGO
Aug 23 | Sep 22
Google Earth will let you drive down every country road that has been named and photographed. To get lost on Google Earth has no real-world consequences; you can simply close the tab.
LIBRA
Sep 23 | Oct 22
When I grate garlic to cook (because I cannot yet mince garlic properly), its scent will linger on my fingertips for days. Who lingers in your mind? Who has their unshakable extract bound to the skin of your thoughts? SCORPIO
Oct 23 | Nov 21
Sometimes we cannot plan ahead. Sometimes we cannot even plan day to day. Instead we must take the minutes as they come. After this minute there will always be another one. And on and on for longer than you think. SAGITTARIUS
Nov 22 | Dec 21
You are not a seasonal squash (I’d assume)—while your DNA is actually strikingly similar, the differences between you are far too many to even be comparable. You are simply you, and nothing (no one) else.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
CAPRICORN
Dec 22 | Jan 19
I exist for me and you for you. Your thoughts, your actions, your emotions are your own. The pressure to be a public figure may be enticing, but know that nothing is more rewarding than keeping a few secrets. AQUARIUS
Jan 20 | Feb 18
What are you looking for? Have you found it? Have you gone after it? Longing for something better is inevitable, but the grass is only ever one shade of green. It’s a grand thing to strive, but a grander thing to rest. PISCES
Feb 19 | Mar 20
What in the past cannot be reconciled in the now? What (barring everything) was so fantastic that it cannot be brought to life again? Time may not be a line, but for us it goes only one way. Take the journey forward.
November 5, 2020
HUMOR
Page 13
Dr. G: Worried my hookup is sleeping around Dear Dr. G, I am worried that my hookup buddy for the semester might be sleeping around. How do I ask him about it in a cute, sexy, flirty way? -Serious, but like not THAT serious
What is the best way to prep for a test? (Wrong answers only)
“Sleeping.” — Izzy McClements ’20
“Don’t.” — Elizabeth Cook ’23
“Eat sugar.” — Margaret Bigler ’22
Dear Serious, Practicing #SafeSix means wearing a mask, social distancing and sticking your d*ck (or d*gits) in only one person at a time. I know PB is all about “We precedes Me,” but she certainly does not mean in the bedroom; in that case, the fewer the better. Assuming you’ve DTR’d (Defined the Relationship) with your fall semester friend with benefits, then you have some valid concerns about having sex with a super-spreader if you think they’re having #SafeSix with six other people. Your first mission should be to confirm your hypothesis. Now, I understand that for many of us who have taken a research methods course, you may think that the way to do this is to confirm it with an experiment; perhaps your first instinct would be to add your boo on FindMyFriends, FaceTime them randomly throughout the day or ask your friend they are in a class with to keep an eye out. But I think we have all been through far too many SAVP trainings to think that any of this is healthy behavior. Come on folx! Nicole Wong ’15 would be disappointed! My expert
advice is to ask them directly if you’re exclusive; you can never DTR too much. I think you might have a more pleasant conversation if you ask them over a dine-in Deece meal in Zone B (not Zone A though, the vibes are bad on that side, I will not explain why). Another option is convincing them to buy you a Crafted latte on a Sunday before you write the essay you put off all weekend. My personal favorite is to ask them to talk while you’re tipsy on a Friday night, then schedule to meet and chat Saturday morning, effectively burying the lead and throwing your concerns to your future self. Either way, always chat in a clear way, use an “I” statement, make sure you’re sober and in an okay mood… If you need more advice, drop in on your student fellow at an absolutely random time and throw this question to them. So, what do you do if, and I quote, “these hoes ain’t loyal”? My first recommendation is to schedule a COVID-19 test on Vassar’s favorite app: Healow. Under reason for visit, instead of writing “COVID-19 test” or something like that, instead you should write, “I’ve been very naughty ;)”. I promise you that if you write this, they will totally get the message and give you the earliest possible testing spot, probably even bypassing the student-athlete testing times. Next, I want to quell a totally normal feeling; you might want to go on a “hot-girl semester” binge and find one, two, maybe
five more hookups this week. I promise you, this will not make you feel better. If anything, it’ll cause you to wake up with a cough next week and have to make the walk of shame to the Aula to get yet another nasopharynx swab (but hey, some people like that, so to each their own I guess). Finally, we need to make a clear distinction between slut-shaming and being a risk during a pandemic. Remember, you’re not pissed off at them because they had sex with other people, you’re mad at them because there’s no way for you to get tested often enough for both of you to have multiple partners. We have a budget here, and you can’t spend all your time in the Aula and the bedroom. Rest assured, time and time again, open communication has saved the day for many young lovers, and it’s much better than just sitting around and feeling weird about it (trust me, I know). It is always better to have loved and broken up than loved and then like, just one day you stop texting and then bump into each other on the day you decided to stuff your hair into a hat because you slept through your 9:30 a.m. Who knows? Maybe your exclusivity discussion will end up going a different direction than you think. If you’re lucky, you might be one of the few who gets to try out a throuple in undergrad! After all, Vassar loves research and experimentation, so have some fun.
FROG AND TOAD ARE FRENEMIES by Julianna + Olivia
“Upside down.” — Laila Barcenas-Meade ’22
“Coffee at 2 a.m.” — Annie Xu ’22
B’s corner by b Gomez
“ Drugs.” — Jeremy Sass ’22
Madi Donat, Assistant Humor Editor Grace Rousell, Assistant Photo Editor Banner design by Frankie Knuckles/The Miscellany News.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
OPINIONS
Page 14
November 5, 2020
Election, buildup and aftermath beset with tension Sanya Malhotra Guest Columnist
With COVID-19 cases on the rise, Americans all across the country headed to voting booths while an unprecedented number of people chose mail-in ballots due to the current health and safety risks. Pre-election voting this year surpassed two-thirds of all ballots cast during the 2016 presidential election. This amounts to more than 91.6 million Americans, a number symbolic of increased political engagement, especially among young people and left-leaning voters, and the United States’ highest voter turnout since 1908. However, problems have amassed around the issue of mail-in ballots. Millions of mail-in ballots are at risk in battleground states due to recent slowdowns in mail deliveries. This could potentially mean these votes will not arrive in time to be tallied for the final election vote count. At the same time, Republicans in states across the country have been challenging individual ballots. For example, in Nevada, the Trump campaign filed a lawsuit seeking images of the signature of every voter in order to ensure it matched the one on file. One case even reached the Supreme Court, with the Republican Party of Pennsylvania attempting to block a three-day extension for receiving absentee ballots. A similar case
came to the Supreme Court from North Carolina, but the Court refused to intervene, with both conservative and liberal justices affirming the right for the state to interpret its own constitution in terms of the voting count. Judges in both state and federal courts have been skeptical of GOP lawsuits that claim the need to limit mailin balloting in order to decrease the possibility of voter fraud. President Trump’s rhetoric concerning the unreliability of absentee ballots and encouragement of states to stop counting ballots at a certain point have clearly enabled his base to prescribe to this mindset. Concerns of voter intimidation, specifically by far-right extremists, manifested in visibly armed observers at polling booths, tenants threatening to increase rents based on the election outcome and general chanting and intrusive behavior toward voters at polling stations. Do these cases have a place in court? The Justice Department responds that voter intimidation is “amorphous and largely subjective in nature,” making it very difficult to prosecute. As of yet, it is simply another dimension to the already volatile political scene in America. These tensions in the voting arena are a sign of the times. The presidential election of 2020 comes at a breaking point of American politics, in which the citizen-
ry is divided across party lines despite having endured so much collectively. Just this year, the United States has been ravaged with a pandemic that has cost 233,000 lives, seen protests against police brutality by the Black Lives Matter movement, and experienced record-setting wildfires spanning millions of acres on the West Coast. Many people are looking for change in times where the country does not seem to be at the forefront but rather held back by obsolete rhetoric, an oil-based economy rather than one veering to clean-energy and the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a beacon of evangelical far-right values. Whether voters make their decisions based on a candidate’s character, record or political views, Trump and Biden, for the most part, lean on opposite poles. Whether citizens call it a vote for change or a return to normalcy, the two candidates resonate with a wide variety of individuals across the country. As of Nov. 1 pre-election polling, Biden led Trump in four key battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Biden was seen to have a stronger position on the electoral map than any presidential candidate since at least 2008. However, the significance of Trump’s base can be seen in these battleground states. He holds a 60 to 34 percent lead over Biden
The Miscellany Crossword
“Pickup Lines” by Reese Collins
Because you make ____ happy.” 59. Binds again 62. “Are you my ________? Because I have this feeling in my stomach that makes me want to take you out.” 66. Have on 67. Pain’s opposite 68. Mets’ Pete (2019 Rookie of the Year) 69. Sets up 70. Dream spot
DOWN 1. Pampering place 2. Dadaist Jean 3. A female deer 4. Big island city 5. Turn of phrase 6. Sax symbol 7. Unit of work 8. Aspect 9. Highest point in orbit 10. All out of whack 11. Consume 12. “___-la-la” 13. Popeye’s Olive 15. Pet doc 20. Pulverized tobacco 21. German cry
ACROSS 1. Unhappy 4. “Take a ____!” 8. Screenplay direction 14. Supplier 16. Beehive locale 17. “Are you a banana? Because I find you ________.” 18. On the waterfront 19. Cel denizen 20. Blue hedgehog company 21. Tennis body 24. “Are you a bank loan? Because you have __________.” 29. Bedlam 32. Wildebeest
33. Sea eagles 34. Tea type 36. 32-Across’s cont. 38. “____ pinch of salt” 39. “Do you have a Band-Aid? Because I scraped my knee _____________.” 42. First King Robert? 43. Haha alternative 44. Force to 46. Battle of the _____ 48. ___ Alamos 50. 50s Ford 51. “Do you have an inhaler? Because you take my __________!” 54. Harris and Norton 55. Comparative word 56. “Do you work at a Japanese restaurant?
among white people without a college degree, while Biden leads among college-educated white voters and people of color. In recent decades, working class white voters have shifted from the political left to more right-leaning views, resulting in increased support for Donald J. Trump. Despite polling anticipating Biden having a 3-point lead in Florida, he lost the state to Trump by over 3.4 percentage points. Only 86 percent of votes are in for Arizona, but Fox News has called the state for Biden. Several news outlets have called Wisconsin for Biden, though the Trump campaign is demanding a recount. Pennsylvania, with 81 percent of its votes counted, is seeing an eight-point lead for Trump, though the remaining ballots are expected to favor Biden. Biden currently has 237 electoral votes to Trump’s 214. As of now, the final results are anticipated at earliest Friday. Other swing states that went to Trump include North Carolina and Ohio, while Michigan is leaning toward Biden and Georgia still a tossup. The election is—perhaps unexpectedly, based on polling—still divided, but representative of an increasingly polarized country. And our president is––perhaps also unexpectedly, but still depressingly— demonstrating his contempt for democracy and belief in his own autocratic rule.
22. _______ Horsemen of the Apocalypse 23. Tale with a message 25. Backlit 26. Support 27. Possible state after doing this puzzle 28. Airport security 30. Duty 31. Owner of the pizzeria in “Do the Right Thing” 35. ___ Wayne 37. ___-A-Fella Records 40. “Inception” director 41. Wade opponent 42. 3.0 GPA 45. Right angles 47. Early anesthetics 49. Musically borrow 52. _____ idea 53. “Yay!” 57. Pirate’s seven 58. Turn-___ 59. Shallow inlet 60. Bilingual’s class 61. Even prime 62. Likely to 63. Voiceover 64. Wrath 65. Crossed out
Answers to previous puzzle
November 5, 2020
OPINIONS
Page 15
Cold weather and double standards harm student musicians Liam Manion
Guest Columnist
I
’m not a drummer, but I have had a drum kit bobbling around in the back of my car since I arrived on campus in August. At the beck and call of over 250 registered student musicians, I have lugged it, along with a 40-pound amplifier, to every corner of campus, where a band eagerly awaits their opportunity to finally play music together. I’m the President of Vassar’s Student Musicians’ Union (StuMu), so I’m happy to facilitate this—but it’s not exactly what I signed up for. Because of COVID-19 regulations, our usual practice space in the basement of Blodgett has been inaccessible since the semester started. That space is normally open seven days a week and contains everything a band needs to play; it’s an equalizer for student musicians. But with its closure, I, along with a small group of other students, have been struggling to fulfill StuMu’s mission of musical accessibility and have been tasked with transporting heavy and clunky instruments around on other people’s schedules. Again, while I’m happy to be helping other students get practice time in, frankly, I’m exhausted. And with the cold weather moving in, combined with no significant regulation advancements for bands, it seems like us student musicians are soon going to lose any hope of doing what we love. For people that aren’t musicians themselves, the artform might seem enjoyable
but expendable. This sentiment has certainly been reflected in a grand sense via the federal government’s refusal to provide legitimate relief packages for performance venues and musicians, even with notable pressure from nonprofit organizations like the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA). Real musicians know, however, that music isn’t just an activity. After a long day of classes, a runner goes for a jog to decompress, a writer journals and a musician makes music. It’s part of who we are. It’s such an important aspect of our lives and identities. That’s why I knew, with the Blodgett space closed, we needed to work hard to open up opportunities for everyone who wants to play. Our search for our new corner of campus started at the observatory, one of the few spaces with outdoor electrical outlets. Student bands would informally organize times to play in succession, offering their own personal gear for others to use and waiting until late afternoon so as not to disturb classes. However, this ended quickly, as one day a resident of the neighborhood below (ironically, a music professor) complained about the noise spillage. A few interactions later, we knew we needed to move on. Since then, bands have been popping up wherever there are electrical outlets to play, and I have been driving around after them offering what equipment I have. We love it, so we make it work, but it is frustrating to see
the administration grant other groups more privileges while we have been overlooked and seemingly left out to dry. Campus Activities (CA) has done everything within their ability to help us, but the problem is the administration’s regulations at large. For instance, CA went out of their way to help StuMu book a tent once every weekend throughout the semester. But the limit of one hour-long slot per band was a significant hindrance for groups used to rehearsing over six hours a week. Additionally, the tent rehearsals have racked up a significant amount of noise complaints from students squeezing in some weekend studying and are not sustainable in cold weather. What bothers me is that we’re coping with heavy restrictions while other groups are taking advantage of Vassar’s opening up amid minimal cases. I don’t mean to convey that Vassar is being too lenient towards others in their updated restrictions—truthfully, I find some of them long overdue. I simply wish the administration would begin to consider musicians as part of the conversation about reopening efforts. There are numerous communities that have received more attention than musicians in reopening. I also write this from the perspective of a student athlete. In our rugby practices, we are allowed to engage in full-contact tackling activities. All musicians want is a dedicated space where they can play after the responsibilities of the day
end and people leave. Bands would consist of five or six people tops, all wearing masks and spread out. This is far less risky than some of what Vassar allows, including the administration’s decision to allow off-campus visits as long as they are for “academic purposes.” With access to a room, it will no longer be students’ responsibility to lug equipment across campus with only the prior notice of a random phone call, and there will no longer be noise disturbances. The cherry on top is that, with a designated room, we could return to the norm of equitably sharing gear and time, honoring StuMu’s mission of providing for and empowering all student musicians. I know that a small, congested room in the basement of Blodgett isn’t COVID-19 friendly, and I get that its reopening would come with restrictions. So I am proposing that StuMu be granted a separate space for now, because the current situation is exacerbating the stress already innate to college students. With all the unusable space freed up because of COVID-19, I cannot imagine there is nowhere available. So many theaters and lecture halls are either gathering dust or have gear closets and are free after 7 p.m. when musicians could grace their stages. And action needs to happen soon because, with the impending cold, we’re going to quickly run out of options. With music being so critical to musicians’ mental health, it has never been more important.
Chileans vote to rewrite Constitution, heal legacy of dictatorship Helen Johnson Columnist
T
his time last year, I was living in Valparaíso, Chile and witnessing the country’s historic explosion of protests that began on Oct. 18, 2019. The protests were sparked by a hike in the Santiago metro fare, but quickly evolved into a nation-wide reckoning with massive wealth inequality and the neoliberal economic system that produced it. Almost exactly a year later, the country took an extraordinary step in changing that system. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, about a quarter of all income in Chile goes to the richest one percent. Additionally, most Chileans are greatly in debt due to the high cost of living: The Central Bank found that an average of almost three-fourths of Chileans’ household income was used to pay debt last year. The median wage in Chile is just $540 USD per month—about $3.38 per hour in a 40 hour work week— and the meager pensions (Chile’s version of social security) can be as low as $140 USD per month. Among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.)—which consists of 36 democracies throughout the developed world—Chile has the highest level of post-tax income inequality. Although Chile has long been considered one of the most prosperous countries in Latin America, the economic growth that resulted from the country’s transition to a neoliberal economic model in the 1980s has largely benefited a tiny sliver of the population. This economic model was first implemented by General Augusto Pinochet, who served as dictator in Chile from 1973 to 1990. He came to power through a military coup that ousted democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende. The next 17 years saw thousands of Chileans killed and tens of thousands more detained, tortured and disappeared. The dictatorship inflict-
ed enormous pain and resulted in massive ongoing trauma for the country, especially since Chile has never fully reckoned with this history. Although the government produced two separate truth commissions after the return to democracy, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander In Chief of the army until 1998, which allowed him to maintain influence over the democratically elected governments that replaced him. He blocked virtually all attempts to prosecute either himself or his people for the egregious human rights abuses that occurred under his rule. Although he faced legal charges at the end of his life and was arrested by the British police in 1998, he was sent back to Chile in 2000 after being deemed unfit to stand trial because of his deteriorating health. He died in 2006 before being convicted of any human rights crimes. Consequently, there was a lack of retribution for Pinochet and many of the people who helped run his regime of terror and brutality. But there is something else left over from the dictatorship: the constitution. A glaring reminder of this chapter in the country’s history, the current Chilean constitution was put into place by Pinochet (approved in a fraudulent plebiscite in 1980). Retaining the constitution was one of the conditions of Pinochet peacefully stepping down as dictator in 1990. The document enshrines many aspects of the neoliberal, capitalist economic model that Pinochet implemented, and makes it extremely difficult to put into place many of the policies that might help remedy the huge inequality in Chilean society. For example, any laws that touch education policy, political parties, the military or the electoral system require a supermajority to be passed. It is also virtually impossible to alter the free market model put into effect by Pinochet. That’s why the constitution became a primary target of last year’s protests. Chileans
demanded a new one, which would accomplish two goals. First, it would allow for greater flexibility (without the constraints embedded in the old constitution) to implement the policies demanded by the protesters; second, it would finally rid the country of a document that is a glaring reminder of 17 years of oppression and violence. In a crucial concession to the massive protests happening across the country, President Sebastian Piñera agreed in November 2019 to hold a nationwide referendum on whether or not to rewrite the Chilean Constitution. The referendum was originally to take place in April of this year, but then Chile went into lockdown due to the ongoing pandemic. It was postponed to Sunday, Oct. 25. Election officials said almost 7.5 million Chileans turned out to vote (the country’s population is 18.73 million). In a landslide victory, 78 percent voted in favor of a new constitution. Although it is still early in the process, and the country will not see a new document for over another year, the referendum is a powerful lesson in democracy and the first step in what could be a drastic alteration of Chilean society. It is also hugely symbolic: A national referendum was also the means by which, in 1988, Chileans voted “no” to Pinochet extending his military rule for eight more years, setting the country on the path to a return to democratic elections two years later. Now, they have voted “no” to Pinochet’s constitution, hopefully setting the country on the path to becoming a more fair and equal society. After witnessing first-hand the estallido social that began last October, I waited with hopeful anticipation for last Sunday’s referendum, and I celebrate the chance for Chile to make long-lasting change to a system that further enriches the wealthy, impoverishes the poor and blocks the working class from being able to implement policies that would better serve the interests of the majority of
The opinions expressed above do not represent those of The Miscellany News as a whole.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
the country. But watching (what I hope will turn out to be) Chile’s success story, I am acutely reminded of how badly we need a similar overhaul in the United States. Although I hope we are able to vote out overt fascism, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia—you name it—in favor of a government that might pass an economic relief bill for its citizens during a global pandemic at the very least, I know the election will do very little to change the systemic racism that still plagues our Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities or the packed courts that will hold a disproportionate influence over generations to come. Even with a Biden win, our unadulterated capitalism will remain: a system that produces obscene bills for healthcare and medication in order to line the pockets of insurance and pharmaceutical companies, perpetuates endless war in order to enrich the oil and defense corporations and, slowly but surely, makes our planet uninhabitable in the name of profits. Chile is rewriting its constitution. The country demanded change, and although it is still too early to tell what that change will look like, it is coming nonetheless. Meanwhile, we in the United States still cannot rid ourselves of an electoral college that disproportionately favors the votes of a few and disenfranchises huge portions of the electorate. The Chilean neoliberal economic system, framed in large part by the constitution, was modeled directly on that of the United States. The massive wealth inequality that Chileans took to the streets by millions to protest? It exists here, in even more extreme proportions—the wealthiest one percent hold about 40 percent of all U.S. wealth, while the bottom 90 percent hold less than a quarter. The United States’ income inequality consistently ranks in the top seven among the O.E.C.D. If Chileans have had enough, why haven’t we?
November 5, 2020
SPORTS
Page 16
How lacrosse provides some normalcy during the pandemic Jackie Molloy
Assistant Sports Editor
A
s I finished my last official fall training on Friday, I let out a deep breath. After a long seven weeks with 29 practices (13 more than Women’s Lacrosse is usually allotted), I needed some time to focus on school, my mental health and the world around me. Like everyone else, my past few weeks have been grueling, with assignments, Mercury in retrograde and, of course, the election. But I was also relieved that my team and I made it through our fall season unscathed by COVID-19. I was worried in the beginning—I hadn’t gathered in such a big group since last March, and was wary of a potential outbreak from a team affecting the rest of campus. Fortunately, the plans that the administration had in place were effective in keeping my team and the rest of campus healthy. I successfully survived the fall season, a little bruised and injured, with five negative tests, twice as many practices as I am used to, a new practice penny and my first coaching in six months. Yet, now I sit here days out from my last training, bored, unsure what to do with myself and missing lacrosse. I thought I would’ve taken a nap, caught up on some Netflix, FaceTimed my friends, heck, maybe even done some homework despite having a Community Care day. But here I am, already wishing to be back on good ol’ Prentiss field, dreading our one warm-up lap, running 7s around the 8-meter arc, petting our assistant coach’s dog Cosy and huddling with the rest of my teammates. I find myself becoming increasingly grateful for this past fall season, for having the privilege to train together while staying safe. And with our official season still in question for the spring, these opportunities to play together will continue to be few and far between. My team had just split for our four-day break after playing in Nashville during the first week of spring break when we heard our season had been canceled. It was a whirlwind of disbelief, surprise and sadness—everyone had only just started talking about this coronavirus thing seven days be-
fore. People on the team had been hearing about cancellations throughout the week from former high school teammates now at different colleges, but we hadn’t heard anything from Vassar or any of the other schools in the Liberty League. We were fully living in our own world in the middle of Tennessee—team chemistry on and off the field had never been higher, we were 4-0, won both of our games during the trip and had finally beaten rival Skidmore a week and a half before in an OT thriller. We were led by a fierce group of seniors, all naturals in leadership, talent, athleticism and hard work. This team was ready to show the Liberty League what we were made of, and we were ready to be damned if we didn’t make it to the Liberty League Final. But then, all of that came to a world-ending, confusing, unimaginable halt—we were done and never going to be able to get this team back. Fast-forward to six months later—seniors have graduated, there are eight new firstyears, only seven total upperclassmen on campus and we are due to start our fall ball season in some capacity in the next few weeks. Everyone has had a season ripped away from them (for returners, the spring, and for the first-years, their senior seasons of high school). A few of my teammates were able to safely participate in coaching or camps over the summer in their home communities, but myself and a few others were left to our own devices over the summer. I did wall ball, attempted to juggle, practiced my stances and did the lift regimen, but none of that compares to live shots, live plays and live coaching. During this time, none of us knew how practice would look—would it be hard to breathe while wearing a mask and a helmet? What kind of drills could we actually do? Would we have to have two different groups of practices? What would happen if someone tested positive? All these questions were heaped on top of the other uncertainties that had been weighing on all our minds for months. But as soon as our Head Coach Judy Finerghty sent the schedule of practices for the fall—five days a week, hour and 30 minutes, 30 practices—I reveled in the idea
of just feeling busy again. Practicing five days a week was only one less than being in season, my four classes were starting, hours for work-study were being scheduled. The pandemic outside of the Vassar bubble seemed to be fading away in my mind. The first practices were weird––all masked and split into pods based on our houses, warming up in five different groups, no high fives allowed. Since defense involves physical contact, practices consisted of a lot of stickwork, footwork and uncontested shooting. Not the kinds of drills you would think of when someone said “fun practice,” especially for goalkeepers who haven’t seen real shots in six months, but I was slowly reminded of the habitualness of our seemingly former lives: the sweating, the shoutouts at the end of practice, the Deece dinners, the weekly laundry. Normalcy was turning the corner, and it all came from lacrosse. We slowly transitioned to bigger groups within practice, our accuracy in passing improved, shots didn’t hit the goalies as much, chemistry formed—it was shaping up to be like real fall ball, even with our masks on. And then we got the option to play contact with the campus moving into Phase 3. Our team decided to opt in—we would have to test every week, would be split into two groups at first, still would need to wear masks, and were made aware that if one person tested positive, the rest of us would also have to isolate. But the chance of contact! Real lacrosse! Other schools in DIII couldn’t even practice together, and we were going to be able to play defense, offense and high five! So, on Oct. 12, women’s lacrosse began their first of three weeks of contact practice. Defenders were happy to finally be in their natural element and put pressure on the sticks of attackers after weeks of shooting, attack could run full plays around the 8-meters, a proper face-off could start a round of play. We had our first full on scrimmage on Oct. 21, Burgundy versus Gray, full contact with the whole team. After months of hearsay, rightful precautions and grief over the canceled season, walking onto the field that day felt like we were playing for the Lib-
erty League Championship, just as we had hoped for last spring. Trash talk, spectators, flashy goals, hustle to save a ball from out of bounds, the scrimmage had it all—Burgundy pulled away 13-11. Our offense was flying, the defense needed some tightening up, but luckily we were able to have another chance at playing the next week. For our second to last time on the field, our team played another scrimmage, a 14-13 OT thriller with Gray flying high this time. The team looked even better than the week before––we were on our way to mid-season form, and if we had played Skidmore the next week, I would have felt ready. The environment around us hadn’t changed much from the week before, but during this second scrimmage we were allowed to take off our masks. There was an oddness in being with twenty other people maskless for the first time since Tennessee—I almost felt insecure, like my face was naked. But as I stood on the sideline with my goalie coach, she said, “Wow, it almost feels normal again.” Normal again. Not something I thought I would feel for maybe even another year. Yet, on Prentiss field around 5:30 p.m., in my own little bubble within the bubble, watching my teammates zing around a yellow lacrosse ball at one end, I forgot about COVID-19. About having to wear a mask all the time. About being worried about going home where my dad is an essential worker. About how I miss sitting in the Deece. About how I miss hugging my friends. Of course, all of this was only possible because of the preparation done by the school, the student body as well as employees committing to safety precautions and taking this pandemic seriously. So, as I sit here thinking about how I am going to keep myself occupied the next few weeks without annoying my roommate and friends too much, I am going to reflect on the privilege I had to play a sport I love, with restrictions and then without, the opportunity to stand next to my teammates six feet apart and then be able to high five them, and I’ll be grateful that I had a chance at normalcy, even if it was only for two hours last Wednesday.
Let them speak: why “stick to sports” advocates are misguided Alex Eisert
Sports Editor
I
n this day and age, everything is political. It is damn near impossible to say anything without planting yourself firmly on one of two incredibly-far-apart sides, each associated with two vastly different realities. The number of voters who express opinions consistently aligned with one party has doubled in the past two decades, and this consolidation within the two main parties has made it so that ideological overlap between them has diminished remarkably: Whereas 26 years ago, the median Democrat fell to the left of 64 percent of Republicans and the median Republican fell to the right of 70 percent of Democrats, those numbers shifted to 92 and 94 percent by 2014, respectively, and the divide has likely only grown since. Due to this increasing partisanship and partisan-inspired hatred, we have become so attuned to everything that we say because we are terrified of people on our side even thinking that we might dare agree with something the other side has to say. So, athletes couldn’t be apolitical even if they tried. Yet, many coaches and owners still argue that they should try; they should stick to sports because they were hired to play, first and foremost. It is a privilege, they might say, to be able to play a game for a liv-
ing. But who are these executives to make such an argument? Any claim that athletes are contractually obligated to abstain from political discourse would be ambiguous at best. Asking athletes to do so is unjustified and hypocritical. Take Tommy Tuberville for instance. The former Auburn University head football coach is looking increasingly likely to unseat Doug Jones in Alabama’s senate election. Why is it that fans can allow for a man in sports with no political experience to espouse such unfounded beliefs as birtherism, but won’t listen to his players—many of whom have much sounder minds if you ask me—when they express their opinions? Well, Alabama is a deep red state, and along with hyper-partisanship comes an increased vulnerability to confirmation bias, or the tendency to hone in on information that aligns with prior (political) beliefs and eschew information that doesn’t. Given the preconceived notions of Republicans in a country driven to hate by an unrelenting racist demagogue, it stands within reason that many Alabamians would allow for a white male former coach and player endorsed by that same racist demagogue to represent them in federal government, but resort to arguments such as “They should stick to sports” in order to silence athletes belonging to racial, ethnic and religious
minorities, attempting to rob them of a platform that they only achieved after overcoming an obscene amount of obstacles placed by our broken socioeconomic systems. Donald Trump relegated his version of the “stick to sports” argument to anything that happens within a stadium, saying “Once you leave…go and do whatever you want to do. Run for office, do whatever.” If he stuck to this proposition, there might have been room for him to argue against in-game player protests during the national anthem but in favor of Tuberville’s political aspirations and beliefs. Even putting aside the question of why the anthem, an inherently political song, was brought into sports in the first place more than a century ago (among other patriotic songs), Trump undercut his own argument, as he is wont to do, with hypocrisy. As usual, standards only apply to his adversaries, and as soon as he and his allies need to go against them, they cease to exist. So, naturally, when it behooved him and his political interests to listen to athletes regarding in-stadium actions, that’s just what he did. In August, after many colleges had cancelled fall sports due to COVID-19 and the rest were mulling it over, Trump embraced athletes who were spreading the hashtag #WeWantToPlay on social media. A peaceful protest is deemed “disgraceful,” and the athletes who partake, belonging to
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
minority groups and begging the police to stop killing them, are labeled “sons of bitches.” But when a white athlete lobbies for a return to sport, risking the health of his entire team and each player’s community, he is considered “hard-working.” It is clear what is really at work here: an obvious double standard rooted in racism. Part of the burden that comes with having a platform is that your every move is scrutinized. It is unreasonable in the polarized environment that we find ourselves to expect someone with such a platform to be able to abstain entirely from political talk and action. Even if they tried, someone would be bound to spin something they said as political. So, why not let them use that platform to fight for something they believe in? To truly express themselves, rise above the endless spinning and interpreting of tabloids? Any logical argument against this proposal falls flat, and that’s because the real explanation behind the silencing of athletes is an entirely illogical one: that a lot of people in power disagree with what athletes, especially Black ones, have to say. As one of a few high-income areas in which minorities are well-represented and able (despite still facing more roadblocks than their white counterparts) to achieve the increasingly fleeting American Dream, it is crucial that we allow athletes access to the platform they deserve.