Misc.12.12.24

The Miscellany News

College’s student newspaper of record since 1866

Board of Trustees decides against military divestment

Jacques Abou-Rizk, Charlotte Robertson Contributing Editors

On Monday, Dec. 2, the Board of Trustees (BoT) released a highly-anticipated memorandum through the President’s Office announcing that they will not divest its endowment from military and surveillance companies, as requested by a student-authored divestment proposal.

“The Board’s decision was the result of robust dialogue—with students, CIRC, TIRC, discussions with Vassar’s endowment investment manager, and the full Board—and re-affirmation of the College’s educational mission and the Board’s fiduciary duty,” wrote BoT Chair Sharon Davidson Chang ’84 P ’19, Trustee Investor Responsibility Committee (TIRC) Chair Leslie Jackson Chihuly ’83 and Investments Committee Chair John McCormick ’89.

In May 2024, the Campus Investor Responsibility Committee (CIRC) met with students to consider their proposal for divestment of the endowment from military and surveillance companies. In Sept. 2024, CIRC voted to forward the proposal to TIRC for review. In Oct. 2024, TIRC and CIRC met with students again.

These meetings were a result of negotiations between the College and the Vassar Popular University (VPU) following the dismantling of the Gaza solidarity encampment last May.

According to a written correspondence with Chang and The Miscellany News, the decision against divestment was made just before Thanksgiving, a result of a unanimous vote from TIRC and a unanimous vote from the Executive Committee of the Board.

The memorandum from BoT came as a surprise, as on Oct. 10, President of the College Elizabeth Bradley announced to the student body that TIRC would not make their full recommendation to the BoT until February.

“After all those months of ‘meaningful consideration,’ they suddenly decided it wasn’t possible at all?” Lily Anderson ’25, VPU member and one of the student authors of the proposal, wrote to The Miscellany News. “They really think we’re not smart enough to challenge it. Which honestly says a lot about how good of a school they think this is.”

Three days after the memorandum’s release, a group of 13 faculty members co-signed a Letter to the Editor supporting military divestment and expressing disappointment over the recent decision, published in The Miscellany News online. In the Letter, they wrote: “As Vassar employees with principled ethical opposition to war and militarism, we believe it is incumbent upon the College to take a clear stand against violence and in favor of peace, including through its investment decisions.”

Likewise, on Friday, Dec. 6, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) condemned the result and nature of TIRC’s decision in a school-wide

See Divestment on page 3

Student artworks exhibited

Allen Hale Editor-in-Chief

[CW: This article makes mention of physical assault.]

On Friday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m., the Palmer Gallery held a reception for a new collection of student-created artworks. “Something Is Happening” features contributions from 10 students, displaying a diverse range of subject matter brought to life through numerous mediums. As a whole, “Something Is Happening” was one of my favorite exhibitions I have been able to see while at Vassar, consisting of works entirely created during the past calendar year.

Prior to “Something Is Happening” opening on Dec. 3, an email calling for submissions was sent to studio art majors and minors. The resulting exhibition was entirely student-organized.

The reception itself featured light refreshments, including drinks and small plates of sushi. Students, including some of the artists’ friends, gathered to support the artists, meandering around the space to closely take in an array of unique works.

Upon entering, one of the first pieces to catch my attention was by Kieran McByrne ’25, titled “dictate the shape i make.” Five handmade Napoleonic collars were ar-

Inside this issue

4 NEWS

Allison Lowe details the sewage backup currently shutting down the basement of Joss.

ranged in a row across one of the Gallery’s central pillars; described by its label, each was made from lace, thread and buttons. The subdued darkness of the College Center brought out the shadows cast by each collar, producing a notable effect on the pillar itself. I was impressed by their intricate detail, especially memorable owing to a relative lack of clothing items in many gallery installations.

My eyes then drifted towards an oil painting by Zoe Giles ’25, entitled “Light Study: Deece.” The piece featured a view from inside the titular dining hall, capturing natural sunlight pouring into the building’s gray interior. In a written correspondence with The Miscellany News, Giles stated: “The specific reference photo I was working from for this piece was taken on a quiet morning in the Deece, one of those rare moments of stillness in the early hours of the weekend before it fills up with people, the overhead lights still off.” After years of gazing from similar vantage points, observing a painting of this perspective felt particularly resonant on an emotional level, eloquently representing a slice of beauty in what is otherwise a mundane location. Giles echoed that, “I also just really love finding and painting tiny moments of beauty in otherwise mundane spaces or places.”

See Student art on page 5

Local book burning revisited

Caris Lee Guest Reporter

TheNew York Herald Tribune once cited that “Poughkeepsie, N.Y. claims fame for three things: Vassar College, Smith Brothers Cough Drops, and Lindmark’s.” Lindmark’s bookstore, once named one of the five best bookstores in America, housed over 300,000 books with 14 miles worth of shelves. Lindmark’s collection was valued at approximately $2 million, specializing in rare and old volumes. Initially located at 290 Main Street, in 1933, John Lindmark purchased the 120-yearold Christopher Columbus brick schoolhouse on Church Street for his bookstore, one of the first establishments you would see after crossing the Mid-Hudson Bridge. However, when plans for Poughkeepsie’s new northsouth arterial highway came to fruition, Lindmark’s vibrant and warm bookstore, along with hundreds of other Poughkeepsie natives’ homes, became reduced to buildings in the way of progress. By the beginning of 1963, wrecking companies had already demolished about 400 buildings in the path of the proposed arterial. Lindmark’s Bookstore was one of the last standing.

Plans for the north-south arterial highway first appeared in 1947 as part of a larger traffic study conducted by the State Department of Public Works. Kafui Attoh, Associate Profes-

sor at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, records in his 2023 essay “Infrastructure and the Tragedy of Development” that between 1920 and 1946, the number of cars registered in Dutchess County increased by 330 percent—in 1915, for every 11 people there was one vehicle, in 1940 for every three people there was one vehicle. Traffic and congestion in downtown Poughkeepsie escalated, compounded by the city’s geography with the location of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. The Bridge was constructed in 1930 as one of only two Hudson River crossings between New York City and Albany. Ironically, he notes that the Mid-Hudson Bridge was conceived as part of Poughkeepsie’s “Bridge Movement” to relieve congestion at the city’s piers, modernizing the antiquated ferry lines residents heavily relied on. Roughly 35 years later, the Bridge was now the cause of a different type of congestion, not just vehicular but also moral, raising tensions between the public good and rights of individuals.

The construction of the north-south arterial displaced 247 families, all in the name of “modernity” or “progress.” The highway would not just assuage traffic but also encourage economic growth, connecting Poughkeepsie to the greater Hudson Valley. According to Attoh, those who opposed the highway were deemed to be opposing the

See Book on page 7

7 FEATURES

The 2025 Founder’s Day theme has been announced! See Ila Kumar’s article for alternative dream themes.

SPORTS

Women’s rugby team reflects on Division II National Championship win.

Vassar

Image courtesy of Makenna Monaghan ’25.

THE MISCELLANY NEWS

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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.

Tori Kim/The Miscellany News.

Campus reacts to BoT decision against divestment

email statement unanimously approved by both the Internal Affairs Committee and the Student Senate: “The memorandum failed to address the nuances of the situation, the ethical concerns of the Vassar Community, nor the agreements made between the College and those who brought the proposal to the Board of Trustees.”

“Even if [the Trustees] were going to say no, the way that they went about saying no was horrible,” said VSA President Emily Doucet ’25. “It did not recognize any of the ethical issues. It did not recognize any of the struggles that Vassar students made when trying to bring this proposal to the Board last year.”

In the email, the VSA reiterated their responsibility to advocate for the student body: “This decision has disheartened many constituents, and the role of the Association is to serve, represent, promote the interests of, and improve the welfare of students.” The statement continued: “However, the Association cannot be held responsible for the dissent caused by the Board’s missteps, which fosters division and hatred across the campus community.”

It was important to include this piece of the statement, explained VSA Vice President Miles Harris ’25 in an interview, to remind students and the College of the VSA’s purpose. “I think it’s no mystery that last semester, things in VSA were a little contentious in terms of our role in this push for divestment,” he said, referring to the BDS bill that was blocked from reaching the Senate floor last semester. “But I think there is also this attitude in the College, in the Board of Trustees, that when students are, quote-unquote, ‘acting up,’ it’s the VSA’s responsibility to temper those—that we have some ability to whip and control the actions of students in a way that we just don’t.”

The Miscellany News also contacted students that participated in the authorship and presentation of the proposal. Azaan Malik ’25, an Economics major who helped write the financial review and alternative investment sections in the 20-page divestment proposal, chronicled the process of drafting and proposing the document in an interview with The Miscellany News. He explained that on Dec. 2, he met privately with Bradley, Deputy to the President and Secretary of the Board of Trustees Wesley Dixon and Dean of Strategic Planning and Academic Resources Marion Bergemann, where he was informed that the proposal was rejected. “The Board said no, basically, or TIRC said no, they’re not going to pass it on to the Board,” he said. Although the proposal was never reviewed by the BoT in full, the Executive Committee of the Board voted on behalf of the full BoT.

Malik explained that he was one of two students present in the meeting with Bradley, Dixon and Begemann, and that others who were involved in proposing the divestment plan were excluded from that particular meeting. “I kind of go corporate when I go into these [meetings] so that I can work that angle for the organization, the kind of bureaucratic angle, working within that system,” he said. “And I think [Bradley] saw that in me, and kind of knew that it would be easier to tell this news to me, which I felt was very manipulative.”

The proposal itself, of which The Miscellany News obtained a copy, was submitted to the College on May 8, 2024. The document addressed ethical concerns regarding investment in military and surveillance companies, common arguments against divestment and provided an alternative long-term divestment plan. It also included a preliminary list of 16 companies from which students requested Vassar divest, including Aecom, Airbus SE

and Axon Enterprise, as well as a comprehensive rating system that flags companies for their commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles on a scale from A to F.

“To truly promote ‘equitable education’ at a college that is forging global partnerships in the pursuit of the liberal arts, it is imperative that Vassar College commits to no longer funding the killing of students and faculty and the destruction of education systems,” the introduction stated, pointing to the fact that there are no more universities standing in Gaza. The introduction of the proposal further explained that while the call for divestment is motivated by the ongoing violence in Gaza, it extends globally, as multiple companies on the proposed list also manufacture weapons used during conflicts in Yemen and Tigray.

The proposal argued that divestment would not necessarily harm the endowment’s performance, as the divested funds can be redirected towards sectors of the economy which have outperformed military and surveillance corporations within the past year; one of several examples provided was the construction and infrastructure company Emcor Group, which has an ESG rating of AA and saw a 125.5 percent increase in return, compared to an average return of 9.5 percent in the top five defense companies. “It must be stressed that divestment measures across higher-education institutions from previous divestment movements have not negatively impacted endowments,” the proposal stated, using fossil fuel divestment as an example.

While the BoT will not move forward with divestment, they did pledge to increase transparency regarding the minutiae governing the endowment’s management: “The Board understands the benefits of enhanced clarity and community education about how the endowment is managed.” This condition was also promised as part of the agreement to end the encampment last spring: “PB [President Bradley] and Secretary Dixon will work with the Senior Leadership Team to create more transparency about Vassar’s independent contractors, for example, potentially publishing a list of major independent contractors on the web.”

“[T]he school wants to give us transparency, and they see that as an easy goal,” Malik said. “I think that’s…something that should have happened before the proposal was even written.” He explained that lack of transparency regarding the endowment’s management hindered his research when drafting the proposal, as his audience was privy to more information than him.

In her weekly school-wide email on Sunday, Dec. 8, Bradley released a list of Vassar’s existing suppliers. According to a written correspondence with The Miscellany News, Bradley wrote: “A supplier is a vendor from whom we buy materials.”

The Sunday email sent by Bradley added that the Vice President of Finance and Administration, Bryan Swarthout, will hold workshops open to all students next semester in partnership with the College’s colleagues at Hall Capital.

She also addressed a primary concern of the faculty Letter, which was that the College has yet to uphold its commitment, per the May agreement, to recruit and support Palestinian scholars-at-risk. President Bradley wrote that this process has been made impossible due to the closed border, but that the College has appointed Professor Sa’ed Atshan, who grew up in the West Bank, as the 2024-25 Randolph Fellow.

In her email to The Miscellany News, Chang affirmed that the BoT plans to offer workshops and create a website where students

can learn more about how the endowment is managed. Regarding Vassar’s 40 to 45 third-party investors, which include individuals and companies that invest the endowment for the College, she wrote, “The current group of managers includes those with long standing relationships and others that are newer,” but declined to disclose who the investors are.

The memorandum underscored the BoT’s obligation to preserve relationships with these third-party investors: “While the endowment’s exposure to companies engaged in the manufacturing of military and surveillance technologies is negligible, the companies in which the endowment is invested change regularly.” It continued: “Even limited exclusionary changes in the composition of our investments would reduce our access to investment managers, potentially compromising the long-term return of the endowment.”

“If the content managers that we have would either not work with us or are threatening to pull out if we want to divest from military and weaponry and surveillance technologies…it does call into question whether or not it’s even worth having those relationships, because we don’t know what other terrible things they’re investing in,” Doucet said.

As liaison between students and the College, Doucet is the only student permitted to keep regular contact with the BoT, and the only student who attends the three annual BoT meetings. “I want to be able to be a resource for people to communicate and elevate their feelings upwards, because I’m the only person that can really do that for students,” she said. The aforementioned VSA statement concluded with a Google Form for students to express their perspectives, which Doucet will share with the BoT in February.

Losing current third-party investors may interfere with students’ access to financial aid, the BoT argued. According to the memorandum: “Our focus is on working to ensure Vassar is financially accessible and continues to offer a dynamic curriculum. As a Board, we discussed the importance of stewarding the College’s assets for the long-term future.”

The BoT added that nearly 30 percent of the school’s operating budget comes from the endowment. They wrote: “Making an investment decision that does not have a basis in the College’s long-term investment strategy could have a negative impact on the ability of the College to support its educational mission

over time.”

“They brought that up a lot,” Malik said. “It’s interesting that [financial aid] is the first thing to go.”

“[TIRC] literally glorif[ies] the South African Divestment student protests while activ[ely] suppressing our efforts for divestment and our right to protest. And now they’re building a new admissions building when we already have one?” wrote Anderson.

Another point of confusion, Malik added, was the authority of TIRC members, as few have backgrounds in finance. “I don’t know why they’re all allowed to make these financial decisions,” he said. “Sharon Chang…was a Drama major at Vassar.”

Malik and Kelly Fagel ’25, a member of Vassar Students for Justice in Palestine and VPU, both expressed that engagement between student presenters and the Executive Committee was low. “The coldness of the [memorandum] email aligned with the general lack of concern the Board had for the proposal all along,” Fagel explained in a written correspondence. “I helped present the proposal to the Exec Committee of the BoT in May, where they simply watched us present and let us go without any questions or discussion.” Malik agreed: “I would have liked for a more Q and A style.”

Malik, the VSA and the faculty Letter all shared the sentiment that the BoT decision does not end dialogue around divestment and transparency: “The Board must move expediently in its promises and represent the will of the students its members purport to serve. Without action, the palpable divide in our campus community will continue to fester,” the VSA stated. “We do not understand this conversation to be permanently closed, and we look forward to continued conversation about the merits and impact of military divestment,” the faculty Letter read.

However, it is unclear what the next steps will look like for students. “With the agreement we have, [we] agree not to do anything, not to set up another encampment,” Malik said.

“We will continue to be persistent and vigilant in the movement for divestment,” Fagel wrote. “Divestment is the bare minimum universities should be doing to end the genocide in Palestine. For a school that claims to stand for tolerance and acceptance, I find it horrific that we have yet to remove our investments from continuous killing and violence. It is truly the least we can do.”

Image courtesy of Makenna Monaghan ’25.

Sewage backup temporarily closes Josselyn basement

Allison Lowe Guest Reporter

On the morning of Monday, Nov. 25, residents of Josselyn House received an email from the Residential Operations Center (ROC) entitled “Avoid Joss Basement.” The ROC warned against entering the basement due to a sewage backup, writing, “Please avoid going into the basement until it has been thoroughly cleaned, disinfected and sanitized.” House Advisor for Cushing House and Raymond House Jared Hunter was the Administrator on Call at the time. In a second email sent shortly after the ROC’s initial communication, he also addressed the septic backup in the building’s basement and stated that it would need to be temporarily closed for repairs. “The basement is currently being worked on, and I will provide an update with a clearer timeline for opening as soon as one is available,” Hunter wrote.

Assistant Vice President for Facilities Operations Maxine Coleman explained the cause of the incident, writing to The Miscellany News, “A sewer backup due to a clog in the line…We closed the basement to allow for the space to be cleaned and disinfected prior to students using the space.”

The evening prior to the closure, Ashley Hunt ’26 noticed a strange smell while doing laundry. “I noticed a bad smell—it was like farm animal and tonsil stone— and I was like, ‘What’s all this about?’” she said. The next morning, the ROC’s email answered her questions about the source of the smell. “I was happy because I did all of my laundry [that night], but I was

worried for all those people who couldn’t do laundry for, like, a week,” Hunt explained.

The laundry room’s unavailability made it difficult for several Josselyn residents to complete their necessary chores.

“I was planning on doing my laundry Monday afternoon, and when I got that email in class, I was literally so sad,”

Chloe Rogers ’26 said. “It was also like, I lived in a dorm with fecal matter floating in the basement?”

With Thanksgiving Break beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 27, Rogers chose to bring her dirty laundry home with her. Expecting the issue to be resolved by the time she returned that Sunday, Rogers was surprised to find the basement still closed. “I was even more deeply concerned,” she said.

It wasn’t until Tuesday, Dec. 3 that the basement was cleared for use. Numerous residents felt the effects for over a week.

The sewage backup in Josselyn is remi-

niscent of a similar incident that occurred in the Noyes House basement at the end of the Spring 2024 semester. “The smell is literally imprinted in my mind,” Wyatt Keleshian ’26 told The Miscellany News “Everytime I stepped out of my room [on the second floor], I gagged.”

In order to prevent future backups, Coleman advised students to avoid flushing anything besides toilet paper. She wrote, “Even wipes labeled as flushable can cause issues in our plumbing.”

Supreme Court hears gender-affirming care case

[CW: This article discusses suicidal ideation and depression.]

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday, Dec. 4 in what will likely be this term’s most important case. United States v. Skrmetti asks whether Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care— puberty blockers and hormone therapy— for transgender teenagers violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Tennessee is one of 24 states with some kind of ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth; the Supreme Court’s decision will have broad implications for such laws nationwide. A decision is expected in Summer 2025.

Regardless of the Court’s decision, Skrmetti has already made history: Chase Strangio became the first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the Supreme Court when he stepped up to the stand on behalf of families harmed by the law.

Tennessee’s law, Senate Bill 1 (SB1), states, “[I]t is the purpose of this chapter to prohibit medical procedures from being administered to or performed on minors when the purpose of the medical procedure is to: (1) Enable a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex; or (2) Treat purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, on behalf of the U.S. government, argued that SB1 discriminates on the basis of sex, requiring the Court to use a higher level of scrutiny than the one the Sixth Circuit Court of Ap-

peals used to uphold the law. Courts use three levels of scrutiny to assess claims of rights violations, depending on which right is at issue. Rational basis, the lowest level of scrutiny, applies when no fundamental rights or “suspect classifications” are in question; the government must show a legitimate state interest in the law and a rational connection between the law’s means and its goals. Intermediate scrutiny (also called heightened scrutiny), applies when gender classifications are at issue; the government must show an important state interest and that the law’s means are substantially related to that interest. The highest level, strict scrutiny, applies when a law burdens a fundamental right or creates classifications based on race, religion, national origin or citizenship. Under strict scrutiny, the government must show a compelling state interest that has been narrowly tailored to use the least restrictive means possible.

The Sixth Circuit used rational basis to uphold SB1. Prelogar argued that it should have used intermediate scrutiny: Because a minor assigned male at birth can receive medication to live as a male but a minor assigned female at birth cannot—even if they wanted the medication for the same reason—Tennessee clearly drew sex-based lines.

Prelogar’s argument was narrow: She said multiple times that the government was not asking the Court to decide whether gender-affirming care is constitutional but only to declare that bans on such care discriminate on the basis of sex, then tell the Sixth Circuit to re-judge the case using intermediate scrutiny.

Vassar Law Club Co-President Nathaniel

Dexter ’26 commented, “I think it’s pretty explicitly based on sex-based lines.” He argued that SB1 prohibiting care for transgender youth but allowing the same care for cisgender youth is clearly sex-based discrimination. Of applying intermediate scrutiny, he added, “To not do that for the case is, I think, willfully ignorant.”

During oral arguments, there appeared to be an ideological split between the Court’s six conservative justices and three liberal ones. Conservative justices questioned Prelogar about Tennessee’s arguments that SB1 draws lines on medical purpose, not sex, and that laws about evolving medical issues should be left to states. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed uncertainty that the Court had jurisdiction to decide controversial policy questions about evolving fields like medicine. Prelogar reiterated that she was not asking the Court to rule that gender-affirming care cannot be regulated at all, only that Tennessee’s total ban should be re-judged under intermediate scrutiny.

The liberal justices essentially argued on behalf of the government, proposing examples and perspectives to support Prelogar’s and Strangio’s positions. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson supplemented Prelogar’s sex-based discrimination argument by giving an example of how someone assigned male at birth who wanted to take medication to lower their voice would be allowed to under SB1, but someone assigned female at birth who wanted the same medication for the same purpose would not. That, said Justice Jackson, was a clear sex-based line: The law treats individuals differently when their assigned gender is the only distinction between their situations.

Vassar Voices for Planned Parenthood

Treasurer Emma Adams ’25 [Disclaimer: Adams is the Arts Editor of The Miscellany News] wrote in an email to The Miscellany News, “If the Supreme Court were to uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care, it would signify the United States justice system’s continual disregard for the human rights of its trans and gender non-conforming citizens. Particularly, this gross injustice would serve as a blatant reminder that trans and gender non-conforming youth have little to no control over what happens to their bodies.” Dexter feels that conservative justices applied their arguments unevenly: “While, on one hand, they’re relying on a medical argument in order to undermine it, they’re ignoring the realities of the medical implications for people’s lives in Tennessee.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor repeatedly mentioned that suicidal ideation and depression are reduced for transgender youth after receiving the care Tennessee has banned. According to The Trevor Project, which surveyed over 18,000 American LGBTQ+ people ages 13 to 24, 46 percent of transgender and nonbinary youth seriously considered attempting suicide in 2024. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 20 percent of high school students overall—a narrower age group than The Trevor Project’s survey—seriously considered a suicide attempt in 2023.

Adams, who is writing their senior thesis on the United States’ policing of transgender and genderqueer youth’s bodies, commented, “If Tennessee upholds this ban on essential and life-affirming care, which they likely will, we will continue to see detrimental effects on young trans bodies.”

Julian Balsley Reporter

Tori Kim/The Miscellany News.

‘Something Is Happening’ showcases student artwork

Continued from Student art on page 1

On the Retreat-facing wall, small cups made by Wren Rearden ’26 sat upon a table, assembled from deconstructed tea bags, a found child notice and the ambiguous component of “my first photograph.” The technical aspect of their construction was, although unknown to my non-artist self, fascinating nonetheless; the cups’ delicate character reflected a great degree of care and patience behind their assembly. Nearby, I looked at two complimentary works by Gracie Chang ’26, each featuring iconography related to birth control, including pills. “Election Day,” situated to the left, evoked a sense of urgency and fear felt by pro-abortion voters in the wake of Donald Trump’s recent, post-Roe victory. The works’ poignant themes were simultaneously powerful and disheartening.

Other pieces incorporated supplies used in daily life, reimagining the relationship between their practical uses and creative potentials. For instance, Max Brenneman’s ’25 “Amish rag rug” played on a divide between form, function and material, culminating in two colorful circles branching from a longer cord. I was struck by the flexibility of Brenneman’s section of the Gallery, which included multiple additions. On the other end of the Gallery, a large work from Zola Sullivan ’25 featured vegetal, torn contours and graphite lines made on a piece of cardboard. Named “medicine woman,” the adjacent placard described a Louisianan folktale about a spectral, healing guardian called the Moss Woman, whose spirit “merged with the veils of Spanish moss” after her death. As such, “She is both seen and unseen,” a keen suggestion which invites close inspection from a viewer engaged with the piece.

Charles Phillips ’26 contributed “Computer,” made with oil on canvas and silk. It featured two overlapping rectangles, one on the top left and one on the bottom right. The former rectangle depicted a Notes app todo list, including items like “Print receipt” and “Greenhouse.” The latter resembled an old-school iOS homescreen sliding button, featuring an inner and outer circle on which a sheep was painted; the top of its head and the rest of its body rested at an off-center angle, producing a memorable effect. Peter Chu ’26, a fellow observer, exchanged quick thoughts with me on its meaning, concluding in mutual fascination.

“Sleeping Bear” by Anna Bishop ’25 stood out for its shades of purple and yellow, combining photos and lines suggesting a map into a tapestry-like artwork evoking nostalgia. Similar to Sullivan’s regionally-focused piece, Bishop’s label discussed a myth recalled by her family in which the death of two bear cubs leads to the formation of islands in Lake Michigan. On my left, I returned to “Untitled” from Pearl Metcalf ’26. A subdued yet naturalistic color palette uplifted the subject matter—an impressive anatomical representation of someone’s back, shoulder and bent arm.

The final piece I spent time with was by Niahm Mulligan ’25. “Scab” is a stop-motion video made from clay, glass beads, cotton thread and aluminum base.“I’ve always been drawn to claymation, but I have never made a piece for display in the medium. In some ways I think it’s very similar to my usual art style, as I love to use mixed media and fiber art, which came through in my use of glass beads and crocheted backdrop,” Mulligan wrote to The Miscellany News. Within the video, viewers watched a looped depiction of

“the artist’s healing process after a traumatic physical street assault studying abroad this past winter,” as described in its label. Mulligan stated, “I wanted to show something on my assault while abroad this past February that doesn’t fetishize violence against women as beautiful or inspirational, but shows the struggle of healing once I was left on my own again, left with what was done to me.” Our conversation and the piece’s label left me with an even greater sense of the collective space’s personal importance to each individual artist. Mulligan concluded by writ-

ing, “Overall, I originally made this piece as a way to cope with the feelings I am still struggling with, but now I just hope someone sees it and feels seen too.”

Despite being unable to discuss every artwork from the exhibition in the above article, I highly encourage students to support their talented peers by attending. The craftsmanship on display was distinctly rewarding to witness. Whether or not there is another similar collection being arranged in the spring semester, I remain excited for the future of Vassar student art.

‘Gladiator II’ babygirl-ifies blood sports

Eduardo Culmer Guest Columnist

Gold tooth flashing in the sunlight of the colosseum, Emperor Caracalla (played by Fred Hechinger) maniacally smiles into the blade of an iron dagger. Rome in Ridley Scott’s 2024 film “Gladiator II” sits on the proverbial knife’s edge; constant colonizing has plunged the bloated empire into famine, and the people of the Italian mainland are shown starving to death in the streets, begging for alms as gold-clad elites roll by in triumphal chariots weighed down by looted treasure. In the absence of food, Caracalla—jesting in true tyrannical fashion—proposes that his starving subjects “eat war” to satiate their hunger. This is how Scott, with the help of costume designers Janty Yates and David Crossman, chooses to depict real world emperors Caracalla and Geta (played by Joseph Quinn): Incompetent and inhuman, yet somehow... tantalizingly endearing.

Known for iconic and highly-dramatized historical epics such as “Gladiator” and “Kingdom of Heaven,” Scott has maintained a commitment to honing his characters and message over historical accuracy. His second most recent film, “Napoleon,” a biopic following the life of the eponymous French emperor, is a testament to this prioritization, with many historians criticizing the film’s numerous inaccuracies when recreating historical events, costumes and the personalities of its lead protagonists. After being confronted by historical fact-checkers during an interview, Scott very bluntly responded to such criticisms by saying “Get a life.” The director carried this same devil-may-care attitude into his latest sword and sandals blockbuster, bas-

ing the film’s plot and characters very loosely off of the events following the reigns of Commodus (the main antagonist in the previous “Gladiator” film) and Septimius Severus, who, strangely enough, is never mentioned in the movie’s runtime.

Twin emperors Caracalla and Geta—who, according to real-world ancient sources, were actually brothers separated by at least a year in age—epitomize the paradoxical nature of the film. Their wardrobe, makeup and mannerisms are both bloody and beautiful, much like Scott’s ahistorical Roman Empire itself.

Enter the babygirl-ification of blood sports.

For years, the term “babygirl,” has represented an aesthetic often associated with soft, delicate femininity, innocence and vulnerability. For instance, bunnies, spotted baby deers and pink ribbons are all “babygirl.” Often for comedic purposes, these symbols have been increasingly juxtaposed against traditionally “hard” and “masculine” images like combat and violence, and the moniker “babygirl” has spread to sometimes include blood-soaked men with big swords and even bigger muscles. Or, in the case of “Gladiator II,” the man-children who force them into lives of brutality. When used ironically, the term “babygirl” is often employed to describe things or people who possess a magnetic, perhaps feminized charisma despite their association with unsavory actions.

This cultural phenomenon is reflected in “Gladiator II’s” aesthetic choices, where the brutality of both gladiatorial combat and violent colonization is contrasted with sumptuous fashion and personal vanity. The concept of “babygirl” can be used to humorously describe this darkly fascinating moment of tension—the depiction of Roman emperors

as both powerful and paradoxically infantile or effeminate. Although Scott’s portrayal of history is far from accurate, this contrasting image of Roman emperors is attested for in ancient sources such as Suetonius’ “Lives of the Caesars” and “The Historia Augusta” and acts as a microcosm of the duality of the entire Roman Empire’s simultaneous obsession with beauty and violence.

Take Geta’s appearance, for example: Quinn’s portrayal of the emperor combines an unsettling mix of virility and fragility, amplified by the film’s use of makeup and shiny, expensive fabrics. Quinn’s face is often coated in layers of pasty white and kohl-black, blending high-definition coverage concealers and eye shadow with the erratic shine of sweat. Gold-embroidered cloths imported from around the world and impressive stacks of jewelry complement the emperor’s makeup to complete the look. Through this creative collaboration, the filmmakers construct a character who masks his corruption and bloodlust beneath a patchy white veneer. These visual cues are not just cosmetic—they extend to other motifs present in the film that juxtapose the crumbling white marble and gold accents of Rome with the impoverished hordes of people who inhabit them. Geta’s face makeup represents his feeble attempt to present a perfect façade, even as his empire crumbles beneath him. Despite his violent tendencies and active role as an antagonist in the plot, Geta still manages to come off as an endearing character. With the casting of Quinn—famous for playing teen heartthrob Eddie Munson in popular TV show “Stranger Things”—many viewers of the film found themselves feeling more pity for the emperors than revulsion.

The infantilization of power is an idea that lies at the heart of “Gladiator II.” While historically both emperors were ruthless, calculating and driven by ambition, the film exaggerates their most destructive qualities, depicting them as mere boys who have inherited their forebear’s empire without the maturity and wisdom to wield it responsibly. Like spoiled children, Caracalla and Geta oscillate between temper tantrums and exaggerated confidence. The emphasis on both characters’ youthful appearances—their almost porcelain skin and shaggy, unkempt hair—makes their evil more palatable; the emperors are merely brats who inherited too much power and not enough emotional maturity.

In this context, the “babygirl” approach to the portrayal of Caracalla and Geta allows Scott to present them as more than mere tyrants—they become tragic figures, dressed up in opulence and vanity, playing with their subjects’ lives like children playing with dolls. The film suggests that, for all their power, they are still fundamentally immature and lacking in the wisdom required to rule.

Flouting realism for flair, “Gladiator II” is absolutely dripping in its irreverent approach to the brutal yet decadent duality of the Roman imperial elite. Keeping in line with the iconic line delivered by the gladiator and main protagonist Maximus of the previous film, Scott aims to keep his audiences morbidly entertained, turning the film itself into a spectacle on par with the games shown in the Colosseum. The costumes, the blood, the CGI sharks—every second of the film is a visual feast for ravenous audiences excited to “eat war” from the comfort of their movie theater seats.

Allen Hale/The Miscellany News.

ARTS

Holding space for ‘Wicked’: A review

Brendan Kennedy Guest Columnist

On Nov. 22, my friends and I frantically ventured to the Poughkeepsie Galleria to catch director Jon M. Chu’s new movie-musical “Wicked.” Large popcorn buckets in hand, we sat back in the weathered, reclinable chairs at the Regal Cinema and watched as the film transported us into the mystical world of Oz. Within moments, pop superstar Ariana Grande appeared on screen, dressed to the nines in a fabulous pink ball gown. While I was skeptical of Chu’s ability to successfully translate the acclaimed musical onto screen prior to watching the film—I have not seen the musical, but I am aware of its high regard—all my worries were swiftly abandoned as the song “No One Mourns the Wicked” flooded my ears. Instantly, my expectations were exceedingly surpassed, both by the creative direction of the film, including cinematography and sound design, and by the performances from the leads, Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp and Grande as Galinda (later Glinda) Upland.

The first scene is larger-than-life—marked by huge sets, beautiful costumes and intense ensemble harmonies, yet Chu only goes bigger as the film progresses. “Wicked” is fast-paced, and the viewer rarely experiences a dull moment amid the profuse design mixed within a dozen musical numbers. Chu does a near-perfect job placing the audience into the world of Oz, enhancing our viewing experience with elaborate props and never-ending movement. Grande and Erivo both immerse themselves fully into their roles, showcasing a dedication to their characters and the work as a whole. Grande is witty, sharp and comical—the perfect mixture for the popular Glinda—effortlessly tossing her hair with exuberating confidence. Similarly, Erivo embraces the quirkiness of Elphaba, both displaying her struggles with insecurities and her bravery with having powers in a world of normality.

On one end, “Wicked” satisfactorily comes together due to both actresses delivering breathtaking performances that present their love for each other. Grande shines in her execution of “Popular,” jumping around a beautiful pink dorm room with breathtaking vocals. Equally, Erivo is awe-inspiring in the final act, in which

she belts the fan-favorite “Defying Gravity.” Soaring above the Emerald City, Erivo delivers a live-recorded, special vocal talent that is rare for the big screen. Black cape gusting in the wind, Erivo launches her own spin on the infamous battle cry, certainly inspired by original Elphaba, Idina Menzel. As the credits began to roll shortly after, my friends and I were left shocked, taken aback by the power exuded through the screen.

Most audience reactions to “Wicked” have been positive, praising the project as irresistible and fantastic; it is an enthralling adaptation of the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz.” Moreover, its powerful songs and complex characters are captivating, drawing in a multitude of different demographic audiences. This is one of the main reasons the film was split into two parts, with “Wicked: Part Two” set to be released one year after the first on Nov. 21, 2025. Chu certainly realized the lucrative potential of “Wicked’s” popularity, but also picked two parts to adequately develop the whole story.

“Wicked” critical reviews, however, have not been entirely positive. Many feel splitting the movie into two parts is unnecessary and Chu’s decided structure is stretching the narrative. The first film feels overwhelming and incomplete—many of the “hard-hitter” scenes of the musical take place after “Defying Gravity,” meaning audiences must wait an entire year for the second film to feel fulfilled with the story. In addition, many critics found issues with the color grading of the film. When picturing “Wicked,” one would imagine bright and vibrant colors, yet Chu picked a slight grey-scale for the movie, disappointing many fans. Particularly during “Defying Gravity,” many felt underwhelmed with the choice to have Erivo fly over a gray, cloudy sky instead of a beautiful, effervescent sunset. Nevertheless, “Wicked” still remains visually striking and I was able to overlook the grayscale to embrace other creative elements within the film.

Alongside negative reactions to the film itself, many viewers are confused about the strange press-run of the film. Grande and Erivo are constantly seen with intense emotional displays during interviews. In numerous clips, both actresses can be viewed holding hands and crying when asked simple questions involving their work. It is no secret that each actress feels

a passionate connection to their character, and both Grande and Erivo have expressed how meaningful it is to contribute to a beloved story. They have also discussed the intense effort they have put into their performances, both mentally and physically. Furthermore, they have deep admiration for each other and their friendship, which is naturally reflected both in-person and on screen. In the end, the emotional weight of the project shined during these interviews, and their tears are purely a reflection of the love and effort that went into “Wicked,” making the film all the more special.

The last couple weeks have been centered around “Wicked,” equally in its mass-marketing and in audience anticipation. It comes as no shock that media jokes have become widespread, including the viral “holding space” interview that became unintentionally funny due to its over-thetop earnestness. This interview, in which the interviewer told Erivo that people are “holding space” with the lyrics of “Defying

Gravity,” brought immense noise to the film, both in discussing the deeper themes of the film and by engaging with audience perspectives. Recently, Grande expressed how during this humorous moment, she was completely confused just like viewers, both by the interviewer’s statement and Erivo’s sentimental reaction. But perhaps only those who work in “queer media” can understand the interview’s full context.

“Wicked” has a lot to unpack, and I am sure next year will bring about more internet shocks, jokes and astonishments when Grande and Erivo must repeat it all for “Wicked: Part Two.” I am especially excited to see how Chu adapts the second act of the musical, as it covers much darker, more intense themes. Besides, Elphaba must become the coveted Wicked Witch of the West somehow. So whether you are trying to defy gravity, or just enjoy a powerful film, “Wicked” is sure to bring some magic into your life, and not in the “dropping a house on you” type of way.

Image courtesy of Tait Tavolacci ’27.

Image courtesy of Karen Mogami ‘24.

December 12, 2024

Recollecting on Poughkeepsie’s book burning

Continued from BOOK on page 1

future of Poughkeepsie and its expansion by city developers. With large-scale infrastructure The New York Herald Tribune once cited that “Poughkeepsie, N.Y. claims fame for three things: Vassar College, Smith Brothers Cough Drops, and Lindmark’s.” Lindmark’s bookstore, once named one of the five best bookstores in America, housed over 300,000 books with 14 miles worth of shelves. Lindmark’s collection was valued at approximately $2 million, specializing in rare and old volumes. Initially located at 290 Main Street, in 1933, John Lindmark purchased the 120-yearold Christopher Columbus brick schoolhouse on Church Street for his bookstore, one of the first establishments you would see after crossing the Mid-Hudson Bridge. However, when plans for Poughkeepsie’s new northsouth arterial highway came to fruition, Lindmark’s vibrant and warm bookstore, along with hundreds of other Poughkeepsie natives’ homes, became reduced to buildings in the way of progress. By the beginning of 1963, wrecking companies had already demolished about 400 buildings in the path of the proposed arterial. Lindmark’s Bookstore was one of the last standing.

Plans for the north-south arterial highway first appeared in 1947 as part of a larger traffic study conducted by the State Department of Public Works. Kafui Attoh, Associate Professor at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, records in his 2023 essay “Infrastructure and the Tragedy of Development” that between 1920 and 1946, the number of cars registered in Dutchess County increased by 330 percent—in 1915, for every 11 people there was one vehicle, in 1940 for every three people there was one vehicle. Traffic and congestion in downtown Poughkeepsie escalated, compounded by the city’s geography with the location of the Mid-Hudson Bridge. The Bridge was constructed in 1930 as one of only two Hudson River crossings between New York City and Albany. Ironically, he notes that the Mid-Hudson Bridge was conceived

as part of Poughkeepsie’s “Bridge Movement” to relieve congestion at the city’s piers, modernizing the antiquated ferry lines residents heavily relied on. Roughly 35 years later, the Bridge was now the cause of a different type of congestion, not just vehicular but also moral, raising tensions between the public good and rights of individuals.

The construction of the north-south arterial displaced 247 families, all in the name of “modernity” or “progress.” The highway would not just assuage traffic but also encourage economic growth, connecting Poughkeepsie to the greater Hudson Valley. According to Attoh, those who opposed the highway were deemed to be opposing the future of Poughkeepsie and its expansion by city developers. With large-scale infrastructure projects, those in power of enacting changes tend to abstract away from the particularities and idiosyncrasies that give meaning to places, such as Lindmark’s bookstore. His bookstore, along with the 247 homes, were seen not as places of life with distinct historical and cultural significance. Rather, these sites were reduced to the 16 minutes of travel time saved. Moreover, the burden of development for projects of this kind is often placed on the poorest in society and those least capable of resisting. Indeed, the construction of the arterial highway meant asking the same families who were most burdened by the effects of congestion and traffic to bear the majority of the costs. As Attoh insightfully notes, “The idea of solving congestion by building more highways was like trying to solve obesity by letting out one’s belt.”

And so, Poughkeepsie’s arterial highways are emblematic of a disaster of urban renewal and mid-century planning. Lindmark’s bookstore spectacularly fell victim to its course. In 1961, when the plans for the highway were announced, the state offered Lindmark $16,500 as compensation for the building, later increasing to $22,000. A 74-year-old, obstinate bookseller, he refused the offers because the state would not cover the actual expense

of moving his inventory of books to a new location, a cost estimated to exceed $10,000 alone, not including the cost to find a new building and equip it with shelves. In April of 1963, Lindmark was evicted. The state granted delays to this eviction to allow him to find storage, but Lindmark refused multiple offers of assistance from nearby colleges and the City Board of Education. Instead, 50,000 books were strewn on the sidewalk. What were organized stacks devolved into loose leaves. A plyboard fence was placed to hold the books back from the street. Lindmark remarked in the Poughkeepsie Journal on April 25, 1963: “This whole thing is amusing to me. If I didn’t look at the funny side of this thing it would be enough to drive me crazy.”

After 27 days of books scattered on the street and Lindmark’s unwavering and seeming indifference towards doing anything about it, the city scooped the volumes from the sidewalk using a mechanical shovel and loaded them into two trucks to be hauled into an incinerator, as noted by The New York Times. Placed alongside the other trash, it took two furnaces to burn 50 tons of books.

This book burning is striking not because of its similarities to other book burnings but because of its differences. The Nazi book burnings at Humboldt University in 1933 destroyed over 20,000 books, marking the beginning of censorship and a fascist regime. Ray Bradbury’s fictional “Fahrenheit 451” eerily resonates with this sentiment as well. However, as Attoh remarks, “the banality of the [Lindmark] case made the story even more jarring.” He continues: “Rather than falling victim to a fascist regime bent on ideological conformity, Lindmark’s books fell victim to a sanitation department, and collective neglect.” Why did Lindmark refuse help? Why did he lose care for his books? Though notoriously stubborn and known to the neighborhood children as a “scary and mean old man,” the loss of his bookstore is more than just a reflection of his personality. Books hold meaning and insight as a time

capsule of how society understands itself and how this knowledge is contained and retained, passed onto the next generations for them to grow from and reflect upon. Lindmark’s book burning represents not just what cities are willing to sacrifice for the sake of “progress” or “modernity” but also what mistakes or tragedies we allow ourselves to repeat unabashedly. Richard Blouin wrote in the Poughkeepsie Journal on May 5, 1963: “It is with mounting disgust and final revulsion that I read about the things which have happened to John R. Lindmark’s collection of books which was one of the finest ... Such utter lack of regard for finer things is shameful and causes me to ask the same question one of my Chicago friends asked me when he read the same AP story: What kind of people live in Poughkeepsie anyway?”

To state that we must learn from the tragedy of development in Lindmark’s bookstore burning is hackneyed. It is more than this— the feelings evinced from the burning of his collection, including Ernest Hemingway and Mark Twain’s first editions, books autographed by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt as well as Lindmark’s personally cherished manuscript on the career of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the US and the diaries of Thomas McKeon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, are grief-stricken. It is not just the loss of knowledge, history or expression, but the loss of something more poignant. As John Milton claims, a book is a “life beyond life” where destroying a book is like committing homicide. The book is able to transform what exists in the mind as purely conceptual and immaterial into something concrete yet immanent. Perhaps this is what we underlyingly mourn in Lindmark’s bookstore—the words and meanings held in those books, the ghosts of other readers who have read the same words and drawn different definitions and the writer who decided to pen their thoughts in the first place are irrevocably ascending in the smoke of the incinerators.

Vassar discusses dream Founder’s Day themes

Ila Kumar Guest Columnist

Like most school traditions, Founder’s Day is both pretty meaningless and incredibly important. Beer with breakfast. Tablet of acid and a bite of bagel. Dressing up. Disco naps in the afternoon. Spring semester. The sense of things coming to an end. The impending date of graduation or summer break transforming the day into an urgent matter. “It was an uncertain spring.” That is the first line of Virginia Woolf’s “The Years.” It is also how I feel every year as Founder’s Day rolls around. More than a memorial for Matthew Vassar’s birthday, the day celebrates the moment before things change. On Founder’s Day, birds sound different, and the places where I have lived and walked past a million times before appear more beautiful, more colorful—as if I was seeing them for the last time and trying to tattoo the image onto my brain for later recollection. It sounds like I am talking about being on drugs, but I am trying to paint a picture of how Founder’s Day makes me feel sentimental and scared/sad/uncertain about time passing.

A couple of weeks ago, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) emailed the student body with a form for us to submit ideas for this year’s Founder’s Day theme. They do this every year, but I am not sure they actu-

ally mean it. Here are some dream Founder’s Day themes from your classmates and professors:

In an email, Associate Professor of English Heesok Chang wrote, “The Swing State. In all senses (geopolitical, psychotropic, mesmeric, dance and playground) - with red-blue swings and hammocks and pendulums adorning the grounds, trees, etc.” Others also looked outward for their inspiration. Minkyo Han ’25 said: Kamala 2025 theme, Gay Son Thot Daughter theme or King Kylie theme. Sebastian Montañez ’25 thought Stains should be this year’s theme. Sam Goldstein ’25’s idea was Videos, and Catherine Philips ’26 wants YouTube Rewind 2015. Julia Pippenger ’25 said Glastonbury was her dream theme. Frieda Dangerfield ’27’s idea was for a Carnival/ Circus theme, and Niamh Mulligan ’25’s wanted a Cabaret/Moulin Rouge theme. Adjunct Instructor in English Ryan Chapman wrote, “The first that came to mind: DIY Everything, the International Space Station.”

In contrast, other ideas referenced campus life. Frederica von Siemens ’25 said we should dress up as people who transferred, and Kieran McByrne ’25’s themes included: Freshman Year Friend group, Brandy Melville, a high school production of “Shrek Jr.,” or if we all dressed up as one person who goes here. Ben Glazebnik ’25 said Furniture was his dream theme, Kay Tichy

’28 thought a wedding theme would be cool and some of Henryk Kessel ’25’s ideas were: Professors, just came back from study abroad theme, Couples at Vassar, Pride 2008, or dressing up like our (high school) senior year selves. Anna Bishop ’25 thinks the theme should be Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights,” and President Bradley’s dream themes include “Alice and Wonderland” and Shock and Awe. Leslie Partida ’25 hopes for Rave or Clits to the Wind, the latter of which encourages sparse clothing. I also got a bunch of ideas from people who said I could not use their names in this article because of the nature of their dream themes, which were: Religions of the World, The First Thanksgiving, and Marist theme. A lot of these ideas are, at least to me, a kind of social poetry that expresses the spirit and style of our students and the college in a meaningful way.

I have been going to Founder’s Day since I was four years old. My first Founder’s Day was in 2007, and I wore a two-piece yellow and red Indian lehenga. I am not too sure what the theme was then, but I had gone with my classmates from Wimpfheimer Nursery School, including my good friend Owen DeCordova who now goes to Cornell but has come back home for Founder’s Day; he told me his dream theme was “Disco, or Rick James theme. Everyone dresses as Rick James.” The difficult truth is that no

matter what this year’s theme is, no matter what the weather will be, I will probably do what I and many others have done for the past three years, aka wearing slightly different versions of a white dress with corresponding accessories.

On Monday morning, the VSA announced that the theme for this year would be Lassos and Laser Beams: Cowboys and Aliens. In my opinion, this idea is not nearly as good as any of the aforementioned ones, and it was also the theme in 2019. But at least it is not Shapes and Colors: Colors and Shapes, and that, at the end of the day, is something we can all celebrate.

Image courtesy of Racine Rieke ’28.

Send help: My campus crush is into someone else

I hate him with all my passion. He stole my grace, my vitality…I’m on life support guys, I can’t do this by myself.

Important Disclaimer: This humor piece is a work of fiction. Everyone mentioned in this article does not exist, and the opinions expressed in it aren’t necessarily mine. If you read this article and see me about campus, please remember that I’m writing from the perspective of someone different than myself.

Have you ever seen someone beautiful? The most beautiful person to exist, at least according to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lay of Leithian,” was Lúthien Tinúviel, but I’ve encountered someone with something of her beauty. It is astounding, how I see her. Her reddish hair, as the dawn, is glorious. She will be my one and only campus crush.

The only issue. She’s into someone else. Now I can’t say who, but he’s rather shorter than me (by two whole inches!), has atrocious hair (and I mean atrocious, no curls at all) and is ugly. I mean, I’m a nice guy, I try to give credit where it’s due—even if it’s only an eighth of the full points. But there is no excusing this gremlin, this goblin of a man.

Some infinite part of my totality that has gone into loving her: stolen, forever! I contacted my friend for help or some form of solace (given friends usually help with failed ambitions of the heart), and he said: “Some people just don’t click, and you can’t let yourself worry about what others think about you,” but he is wrong. The redhaired woman’s father is a professor of archaeology at MIT, and I simply can’t give up the opportunity to meet him. The guy she’s into is also totally a jerk. Whenever I talk to him, he’s always way too polite—I think he knows he has power over me. This man is my mortal enemy.

I quite like archaeology and goats. I also very much like Zero Escape, especially the first game, involving the nine people trapped on a ship. There may be a relationship between these two topics. I’m not quite sure; I think a big issue here is that I’m trying to figure out someone else while also being unsure of who I am. This is scary.

About the girl—we’ve talked about seven times this semester. I haven’t even gotten her phone number. You guys have no idea. My heart soars when she is around, and falls when she leaves. I cried myself to sleep last night, admittedly over my grandparent’s impending deaths from old age, but her lack of affection was a factor too.

Jealousy, like that one song about the goats and cheating, is turning me into the sea. Now, I’m not exactly a saint, so I’m not exactly sure how it’s doing that. When I asked my friend, he had no advice. None at all! He just said, “I think you shouldn’t concern yourself with that, focus on you. Let other people do what they will,” or something like that.

But my other friend told me this: “Aww, that’s a hard question, just remind yourself of how awesome you are and that independence is fun.” She then ran off to class. I wonder where she is now…I will have to call her up.

I’m not really sure how awesome I am. I mean, I’ve gone my entire life so far not having dated anyone. Keeping up hope is

very hard though, despite my other friend (I’ve told too many friends) telling me to “look on the bright side—you can focus on your studies!” I feel horrendously betrayed, destroyed, ground into NOTHING. I feel as though there is a Golden Path and I am not on it. Every day I am straying further and further from how things ought to be, maybe she would like me if I had gotten an A on my first bio test, or if I had made friends with her friend that day at the Deece…

Maybe if I hadn’t given up the viola…

Maybe if I had stayed in track…

Maybe if I could run faster…if I could balance longer…

Maybe if I could go a sentence without stuttering, or a social interaction without worrying if I…

Maybe she would like me if I wasn’t a…

Whatever. The world is as it is, not something for me to fret over.

All that is left is for me to acclimate to it.

Imagination is an illusion, it will come, it will pass—only I will remain.

I will recover from this.

I will be myself again.

Evan Seker Seking Companionship

Image courtesy of Evan Seker ’28.

Studying like a studious student who studies

Finals season is upon us, and as the weather draws colder, the deadlines draw closer. This is a hard time of year, but you will get through it. Here are some top tips to study for finals from a seasoned finals-studier.

Don’t

You’ll be fine. Why bother?

Burrow into the ground like a mole

It’s hard to find a nice study spot. The library is too crowded. Your room is too distracting. One of my favorite things to do during finals week is to find a nice spot in the dirt and dig a hole in the ground. Then, I bring my books and my computer down into the hole and study my heart out. This helps me study in a place free of distractions and feel more connected to burrowing owls, moles, voles and groundhogs.

Sharpen your pencils with your teeth

Fun fact: Over 90 percent of beavers who take the bar exam pass on their first try. Their secret? Whittling down their pencils with their powerful teeth. The wood splinters help them focus. Take a lesson from our furry friends and start gnawing.

Don’t wear shoes to study

If you don’t wear shoes in the library, you will be scorned and made fun of. This will encourage you to study as fast as you can so you can leave the den of humiliation sooner.

Use a stone tablet

Kids these days and their iPads and laptops and paper. To really etch the knowledge in your mind, consider also etching it

in stone and taking notes with a chisel on a stone tablet. This will both cement what you’re learning and also create a beautiful family heirloom your descendants will treasure for generations to come.

Hire me to encourage you

If you give me 20 dollars, I will come to the library with you and whisper kind words as you study. Samples include: “You are brilliant and smart,” “You are Einstein reincarnated” and “Your skin is soft and your mind is sharp.” Alternatively, I can also be mean to you and encourage you to work faster. Samples include:

“You suck,” “You smell bad,” “I’ve seen hamsters that are smarter than you” and “FASTER FASTER FASTER FASTER.”

Use highlighters

Highlight key points. Highlight unimportant points. Highlight the whole page. Highlight the table. Highlight your highlighter. HIGHLIGHT THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sabotage others

If you’re feeling worried about your exam, consider sabotaging your classmates by surreptitiously blowing an air

horn whenever you see them studying. If everyone in the class does bad, maybe the professor will curve the exam.

Suck up to the professor

Professors love apples. They love brownies. They love lake water. Consider giving them any of these three things.

Try your hardest

At the end of the day, test-taking and paper-writing come down to believing in yourself and knowing your stuff. So all you have to do to succeed is know your self-worth and shoot for the stars!

Miss Likki is enjoying her last moments of freedom

Let me just start off by saying that I love my mom, despite her endless issues. She’s a good kid and I definitely think she’s going places. One thing about her that makes me question these latter feelings is what my household is calling The Gnat Problem. See, my mother loves me, but even more than me, she loves plants. Our house is filled with money plants, rubber plants, curry leaf trees, aloe veras, vines, ferns and all sorts of coniferous and deciduous green beasts. I have accepted this for most of my life and have lived in harmony with these plants. Unlike other pesky things that might live with you, such as pets or other human beings, plants are pretty chill and mostly keep to themselves. When you talk to them about how insecure you are about being a film major unable to carry sound equipment, they listen. They understand. They heal. But recently, there has been a new development amongst our enclosed suburban jungle. These tiny little flies have been hovering incessantly around my mom’s plants. Although the gnats can be killed with one pinch of the finger, they reproduce like the heads of the Hydra. Soon enough, they weren’t just flying around the plants but all over the house. I would sit down to read—fly in my face. I would wash the dishes—two flies! I would mercilessly destroy my sister in Just Dance, and I swear I could see the flies cele-

brating along with me.

We tried everything in our attempts to vanquish these pests. I laid out colorful sticky fly traps in the shapes of butterflies and stars, which the flies initially loved, but I think they soon caught onto what was happening to their brethren and stopped sticking to them. Dish soap and apple cider vinegar solutions

proved futile and only stank up our house. I finally suggested to my mom, “Hey, what if you put some of these plants outside?” She gasped in shock as if I had asked her to sacrifice a newborn.

So, dear reader, I am writing all of this just to tell you that I am simply enjoying a fly-free life before I have to go home for winter break.

This Christmas season, take some time to appreciate the little things in your life that aren’t fly-infested. I know I do. Everything about Vassar seems so romantic now—the constantly messy laundry rooms shine a little darker, seem a little dirtier. The cold December air feels pleasant to breathe in when it’s not being permeated by fruit flies. Ahhhh. This is bliss.

Josie Wenner Jo-she Studies

Nicholas Tillinghast/The Miscellany News.

Nicholas Tillinghast/The Miscellany News.

Nandini Likki

Bonjour Tristesse

Campus Security reveals your complete Vassar Wrapped stats

Nicholas Tillinghast

Narcolas Tillinghast

AMESSAGE FROM CAMPUS SAFETY (CAMPO)

As a courtesy from the Vassar security panopticon, we have decided to be so kind as to share some quirky info from our large swaths of data with the student body in a Spotify Wrapped-style review of your activity on campus. We’ve tracked every card swipe, every social interaction and every morsel of rice that you’ve taken from the Deece, just to relay a fraction of it back to you.

Your longest time at the Deece was 11 hours on May 13.

Wow, were you a hardworking Deece boother or did you just have a big appetite?

You ate 311 slices of Deece Shrimp Pizza this year! Who are you?

Wow! You single-handedly saved Deece Shrimp Pizza from entering our “Vassar Dining failed ideas” folder along with lasagna soup, the pizza burger and those six touch-free condiment dispensers that we sent to the glue factory.

Someone’s been cooking. You spent 23 minutes this year at the library.

Wow, that’s incredible. You must get, like, really good grades or something.

You were late for class a total of 452 minutes.

Wow. This guy did not haul ass to class this year. Like John Lennon once said, “Imagine all of the learning that you could have done during that time. Imagine all of the revelatory moments. The pre class ban-

ter that you missed out on. That’s really unfortunate for you. You should really apply yourself.” —John Lennon. Too bad he died.

You walked in Retreat and walked out with nothing 13 times.

Not satisfied with Retreat’s delectable weekly sausage offerings and egg concept sandwiches? Go to Express and eat some cold food like the wet blanket you are.

You typed out 10 yards-worth of paper this semester.

If you stretched that around the earth, it would go around 0.00000025 times!

58—that’s the number of times that you waved at someone you knew and they didn’t wave back!

A social butterfly. You were in the top 0.0001 percent of students in this category!

What a friend you are! You went to four of your friends’ crappy shows this year.

You also said you were going to five oth-

er of your friends’ crappy shows, but each of those times you canceled at the last moment, claiming you had a lengthy Moodle post due that night.

We know you stole three bowls, seventeen forks, two plates and a carafe from the Deece this year. Please bring them back :( You said “That’s what’s up” 114 times this year at the end of conversation. That’s what’s up.

Nicholas Tillinghast/The Miscellany News. Anna

ARIES March 21 | April 19

TAURUS April 20 | May 20

HO-HO-HOROSCOPES

Emma daRosa Emma daWriter

Your shoes definitely don’t have good snow and ice traction. I know you’re all cocky and everything and think that you’ll never fall, but I saw in the stars: You’re gonna fall and it’s gonna be really embarrassing. Everyone will probably call you ice ass from that point forward. Get some new boots ASAP, ice ass.

It’s time to release yourself from the shackles of traditional holiday cookie recipes. I know you’re baking some soon, so why not get funky with it? Throw some tahini in those bitches! Maybe a pink peppercorn or two. I wouldn’t be mad at some matcha, it’s your prerogative! Let yourself be free, my friend!

GEMINI May 21 | June 20

CANCER June 21 | July 22

You should be extra nice to retail workers this week; it’s a rough time of year. Next time you have to go to the store, the best thing to do would be to sob the whole time and fall to your knees at the checkout counter, apologizing for daring to purchase something during the month of December. You should also give the person working a gentle kiss on the cheek. The stars know that we all need to take care of each other right now, and this is how you can do your part.

Finals can be super stressful, and that can make you sweet water signs prone to lash out towards those you love. Be wary of letting your emotions get the best of you this week. Maybe take a vow of silence, and carry a whiteboard around your neck to communicate. If someone tries to make you talk, you can scream “FUCK YOU,” and if they get mad, it’s their own fault! That’s like trying to pet a dog with one of those “Danger-Reactive” vests on.

LEO July 23 | Aug. 22

VIRGO Aug. 23 | Sept. 22

Tis the season to be generous. I know you’ve been thinking about going all Marie-Kondo on your single before next semester. You should walk around campus and hand people your stuff this week. To make sure they really understand how good of a person you’re being, you should drop it in their laps and say “TAKE THIS, PLEASE OH MY GOD, I CAN’T STAND LOOKING AT IT ANYMORE. SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THAT THING.” Your giving spirit will be the talk of campus!

You might be being a little too rigid this winter. To help relax, try rolling around naked in the snow! It’s the ultimate cold plunge and everyone would probably think you were so chill. Everyone will probably be like “Woah, that person is so chill, someone call 911, I think we should get some thermal blankets, their fingers are turning blue, oh my god oh shit oh fuck.”

LIBRA Sept. 23 | Oct. 22

SCORPIO Oct. 23 | Nov. 21

SAGITTARIUS Nov. 22 | Dec. 21

An amazing opportunity is coming your way this week. The Vassar IT team wants to install some awesome new updates on your computer during winter break! All you have to do is click the link they send you. Maybe it’ll make Vassar One actually remember you! I heard (via the stars) that the best updates are only for Libras, so you definitely should! Nothing phishy about that…

You’ve got lots of laundry to do before break this week, but be warned—the stars have revealed to me that you suck at setting timers! Your chonies are gonna get thrown all around the basement if you don’t act fast. The best course of action would be to set up a Home Alone-esque trap so if someone tries to open your machine, a paint can smashes them in the head and they get a third-degree burn on their hand. That’s the easiest solution.

Someone is going to try to convince you to go caroling with them this week. Now is the time to practice saying no. Everyone says caroling will be so fun but it’s NOT. It’s so cold, you DEFINITELY don’t know the songs as well as you think you do and then you get nervous and forget the lyrics to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (there’s more verses than you think). Everyone looks at you weird, and nobody gives you free hot chocolate—that’s a lie that the caroling mob uses to trick you.

CAPRICORN Dec. 22 | Jan. 19

AQUARIUS Jan. 20 | Feb. 18

PISCES Feb. 19 | March 20

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you go to a tree lighting this week. The tree will definitely fall on you and it’ll hurt, and you’ll be humiliated because when they pick the tree up off you, it’ll take your pants with it. Please…for your own sake…just watch out. Every tree, even unlit ones, seems to be out to get you. Are you responsible for a forest fire or something? That’s fucked up man…

You’re going to have a run-in with eggnog this week. You start by saying “No, no, I have class tomorrow” which turns into “Maybe just one,” which turns into you dancing on a counter performing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” The stars are pretty locked into place, I don’t know that this situation is avoidable. The spiked dairy is gonna get you. Best I can do is tell you to stock up on Tylenol.

You’re going to run into that person you made out with at the Yule Ball and realize they’re a total freak. Maybe you catch them barefoot in the bathroom, scooping different flavors of ice cream without rinsing the scoop or eating something wet, loud and sticky in the library. I truly wish that there was something I could do to stop this, but I don’t control the stars. Just know your soulmate is waiting for you, shod, clean ice cream scoop and quiet snacks in hand.

OPINONS

Making the case for ground-source heat pumps at Vassar

Julian Gross, Demetri Sedita Guest Columnists

First, a few questions: Are you reading this in a cozy, warm room right now, nestled somewhere comfy? Are you safely swaddled in the noise and heat of Gordon Commons? Toasty from head to toe in the Rose Parlor, or in an administrative office nearby? Burning up in your room in Raymond? Please, if you have answered yes to any of the above, read on. If not, still read on.

While you warm your hands and feet by the fire—that is, your incessantly clanging radiator—you may wonder where all that heat comes from. Please allow us to introduce you to Vassar’s heating plant, a huge building sneakily nestled behind Main and attached to the Powerhouse Theater. It is in this building that Vassar burns natural gas in its boilers, providing heat to the entire school. Yes, we burn fossil fuels right on campus.

Our names are Julian Gross ’26 and Demetri Sedita ’26. Since last spring, we have been organizing a student movement toward campus decarbonization with Genevieve Reoch ’27 and a growing number of other committed students. This semester, the two of us have joined Jackson Brogan ’25 and Professor Jenny Magnes for an independent project researching potential paths toward campus decarbonization at Vassar. We have worked closely with facilities staff, the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Studies faculty to explore opportunities to transition away from fossil fuels. It all begins at the heating plant.

The heating and cooling systems at Vassar account for a vast majority of the campus’ carbon emissions, emitting approximately 10 thousand metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2023. For reference, the average

American is responsible for the emission of approximately 13.8 metric tons of CO2 per year, which is already about three times greater than the global average. Alright, that is a whole lot of carbon. So, what do we do about it? The answer just might be: ground-source heat pumps! Groundsource heat pumps—which fall under the umbrella of geothermal heating—are heating and cooling systems that rely on stable Earth temperatures to mediate air temperatures. Despite seasonal changes outdoors, the temperature hundreds of feet below the Earth’s surface remains a relatively constant 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit year-round. In warm weather, heat within a building can be transferred to a closed water system—often mixed with some other temperature-stabilizing element—that is pumped below ground, where

The heating and cooling systems at Vassar account for a vast majority of the campus’ carbon emissions, emitting approximately 10 thousand metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2023.

it cools and can return to the building again. In cold weather, the opposite happens: The Earth is a warm reservoir that can be tapped into in order to heat buildings. None of the water ever escapes from the pipes under the surface. There is no burning of gas, oil, or coal to generate heat; instead, heat is merely exchanged. Therefore, there are no emissions, except for those that come from the

local electrical grid.

Ground-source heat pumps are especially cost-effective when a group of buildings— like a neighborhood, or a campus—are linked up to one system, known as a “district.” Advanced technology can even transfer excess heat from one building to another, or from one room to elsewhere in a building—for example, steam from a shower that gets put back into heating. These systems are new, but increasingly seen as an answer to global heating-related carbon emissions, especially on college campuses. Other schools, like Smith College in Massachusetts, are well on their way to converting their entire campus to a ground source system. Here at Vassar, the new Heartwood Inn and Institute, across the street on Raymond Avenue, is 100 percent electric and gets all of its heating (and cooling!) from ground-source heat pumps!

But while Vassar has taken many steps to reduce carbon emissions, it has yet to make a final push toward systematic decarbonization. Between 2005 and 2018, the College reduced its carbon emissions by roughly 45 percent. Much of that decrease comes from changes to New York’s electrical grid, renewable power purchasing agreements the College made and the updating of the campus’ central heating plant to run on natural gas rather than fuel oil. For many years, groundsource heat pumps were not that viable, but now they seem like our best shot. Right now, the College is hearing proposals from several companies to survey the campus for ways to reduce emissions on a systemic scale. However, we still worry that, without a campus-wide show of support, it will be too easy for the College to turn up its nose at a price tag.

It would be very expensive to switch heating systems. At Smith, it cost about 200 million dollars, and it would likely be

similar here. That is in part due to the cost of technology and in part due to the cost of renovating and retrofitting buildings all over campus. It would also be something of a headache, shutting down some essential buildings and areas on campus for a period of months to years. We are not going to say that we students can figure out all of the intricacies—we cannot. We do not want it to cut into financial aid, or into the already stretched Facilities budget. However, as Vassar expands into two new buildings—the Inn & Institute and the Bartlett Admissions Center—we ask that the buildings we already have be made a priority as well. Especially in the context of a changing federal administration, where President-elect Donald Trump has promised to repeal clean energy funding offered by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, per Politico, it is crucial that we act before it is too late.

All of us—students, staff, faculty, alumni, administrators—should care deeply about this issue. Climate change is real. It is life-threatening. It disproportionately affects people of color, poor people and people in the Global South; who, according to Eos, historically emit at much lower levels than Western nations, and especially the wealthy within them. Decarbonization of campus would limit air pollution in Poughkeepsie, where, according to a report from the AAFA, asthma rates in some areas are in the highest 1 percent in the United States. Vassar—a rich institution in a rich region in the world’s richest country—must do right by the citizens of the world as much as by the people on campus and right next door. The new Inn and Institute was only made into a sustainable building due to student pressure. It will not be easy or cheap, but if Vassar is to be a leader, then the school must lead—with the campus at its back.

Image courtesy of Julian Gross ’26 and Demetri Sedita ’26.

Thoughts since ditching the smartphone

Annie Wilthew Guest Columnist

Ayearago in The Miscellany News, I wrote about wanting to get rid of my smartphone. A year since making that grandiose statement and after a few phone detoxes and an increasingly buggy smartphone, I decided that the safe, predictable Vassar bubble and college student schedule was the perfect opportunity to dive into a smartphone-less experiment.

There were many reasons I wanted to get rid of my smartphone. A lot of my time was swept into the vortex of doom scrolling. No matter how many phone breaks and boundaries I set up to reduce my screen time, I could not seem to get out of the cycle. My doom scrolling worsened when social media and entertainment platforms mimicked TikTok’s short-form content. Because of this expansion of short-form entertainment, most online spaces draw away exorbitant amounts of time through addictive algorithms.

I enjoy online spaces and they produce impactful and amusing content, such as nature conservancy, social justice, mindfulness, embroidery and amateur comedy. Conversely, social media encourages behaviors that are the antithesis of my values. Social media surveils its users, shaping our behavior with the end goal of mass consumption. I spend more time watching others create while I spend less

time creating.

So, in October, I replaced my smartphone with a cheaper “dumbphone,” loosely defined as a mobile device that does not support social media effectively or efficiently, if at all.

But how do you function inside and outside of the Vassar bubble without the handy smartphone multi-tool? How does one culturally adapt to a smartphone-less life?

Ironically, I looked for answers on YouTube. There, I discovered innovative content creators seeking agency and intention in their everyday consumption. YouTube creator crist0fu dislikes how social media prioritizes mass consumption over connecting with loved ones and friends and projecting an inauthentic version of the self. He sacrificed convenience and opted for a flip phone, a digital camera and a notebook. YouTuber MoonbeamsWorld felt drawn into the addictive loop of short-form content and projecting an idealized version of herself, which even altered how she perceived her own body. She deleted social media but uses a smartphone with the basic apps to text, call, read and use GPS. Their solutions were vastly different, but they each addressed the issue of social media on their own terms.

As inspiring and dynamic as their solutions are, the issue of poorly-regulated social media companies remains in the hands of 90% of Americans who own a smartphone. If social media companies prioritize profits over pub-

lic health by offering little to no solutions for social media addiction, then consumers must navigate this issue alone. We can see how ineffective it is to shove the burden of largescale issues onto the public. Just as reducing corporation-scale plastic waste has been shifted onto the consumer, so too has smartphone consumption. Until implementable guardrails are established to address social media addiction, the public will shoulder this health issue themselves.

Conversely, going smartphone-free can be risky. Increasingly, modern infrastructure integrates smartphones, making life easier for smartphone users while sidelining those who do not own a smartphone. Not all dumbphones can run GPS or DUO phone authentication, or access banking apps. I have also found that I am expected to carry a smartphone to accommodate quick, everyday transactions. Smartphones can also better protect vulnerable groups who need emergency care or are threatened by abuse of power, yet they are less likely to be able to afford a smartphone.

Keeping these risks in mind when I finally decided to get rid of my smartphone, I tried to strike the right balance of safety while being more present with loved ones in-person. I would call my new device a “dullphone.”

My Unihertz Titan Pocket cellphone has its quirks, bulkiness, dare I say unsexiness, but it functions exactly as I need it to. It has a tiny,

tiny touchscreen. It can run Google Maps, Messenger and even YouTube videos. It can play Spotify and is Bluetooth-capable.

During the first few weeks without my smartphone, I crashed into a void of time. I felt the habitual urge to open Instagram when boredom struck, and this urge continued for three weeks.

The most effective way for me to counteract the void was setting up accessible “timepassers.” I leave hobbies on the table that keep my hands busy while watching a show or talking with friends. I embroider and watch “Love Island.” I carry colored pencils in my backpack to sketch the passing seasons on Vassar campus. I do more things that I really like, instead of guiltily scrolling for hours.

I have learned that boredom is healthy. It forces us to occupy ourselves instead of reaching for the easiest and most addictive solution. That said, ditching a smartphone does not fix deeper personal challenges. I am still me with all my baggage, and I bet it is the same for others who have ditched their smartphones. So, if you are going through any kind of crisis, ditching the smartphone will not solve your problems. It may help. But I suggest therapy. Ultimately, it is not one individual’s responsibility to solve the nationwide crisis of phone addiction. But until social media companies choose the public’s health over profits, I will continue to use my dullphone. I do not plan on going back.

Letter to the Editor: The courtroom has no place on campus

[Disclaimer: The statements made in this article were collected as part of a research-based Anthropology class where the students worked with a community of their peers to examine the disciplinary process surrounding divestment-related student activities, culminating in the following statement. The students involved expressed desire for action to be taken regarding the student handbook’s policy transparency, and all involved parties agreed the best medium to advocate for doing so would be writing an anonymous submission to The Miscellany News.]

According to the About section of Vassar’s website, our institution is “an independent, coeducational, residential liberal arts college, which fosters intellectual openness and lively exploration through its widely varied course offerings…Today’s students, who meet each other as equals, are encouraged to develop diverse perspectives through engaging in lively dialogues with faculty and fellow students, which enables them to achieve the insight and confidence needed to function most creatively in today’s complex world.”

The uprise in activism across colleges and universities has allowed student protesters to shine light on the importance of divestment from resources supporting Israel, in favor of opposing the genocide in Palestine. According to The New York Times, controversy surrounding on-campus protests spread nationally when students began facing expulsion, suspension and a limitation of free speech under their institutions’ disciplinary policies, betraying the very foundational pillars of which educational centers were created: promoting discussion and diversifying knowledge.

The mission statement of our own institution, Vassar, has been betrayed through the manifestation and enforcement of its disciplinary policy on students openly engaging in pro-divestment activities. The

written disciplinary policy itself, within the Community Expectations section of the student handbook, utilizes specific legal language such as “charges,” “the accused,” “impacted party” and “crime,” which consequently criminalizes students. They are deemed suspects rather than participants in an open, political dialogue. This, alongside a compilation of stories highlighting the unfair and non-uniform enforcement of institutional policy, calls for transparency from the Office of Community Expectations, the very department that swears to uphold and protect the very students they are condemning.

We who have been subject to this policy, under charges like Section 5.01, “Disruptive Conduct - Substantially interfering with environment,” for activities relating to on-campus activism with Palestine and divestment, were placed under “trial,” a process not stated in the handbook. The policy outlined is vague and is not comprehensive of what we went through. The only outcomes stated directly are a meeting or warning from the Office of Community Expectations, nothing else. During this mimicked process of a trial, we were asked to state our stance on if we considered ourselves innocent or guilty of our “charges,” essentially pleading like a legal convict. We felt coerced to plead guilty, believing the outcome had been pre-determined regardless of our defense because of how the administration treated us. Some employees from the Office of Community Expectations, involved in these trials, immediately agreed and congratulated us for expressing our guilt. Not only is the use of trial in question here, but the misuse of authority. Our shared experiences mirrored criminal-like proceedings rather than educational interventions or resolutions. The absence of clear procedural guidelines in the student handbook resulted in our mistreatment, where we felt like suspects incapable of free

speech. Why were we put on trial instead of engaging in a process where our perspectives could be heard? None of us agree with the decision to hold trial over our charges, and we do not understand why we were subject to it in the first place, especially outside of any protest on campus. We are confused why our individual actions and interactions were condemned with the use of a trial while others were not.

The evidence used in these cases often lacks substance, including the use of hearsay or unverifiable witness statements collected by Campus Response Center members; the details of said cases were asked to remain anonymous by each student. Such practices fail to meet even the basic standards of fairness. In any quasi-legal process, the absence of concrete evidence would render decisions invalid. Yet here, students have been sanctioned, as usually seen with a loss of privileges, based on the subjective interpretations of administrators empowered to enforce policy as they see fit.

Other students who have been under the charge of violating Section 5.01, “Disruptive Conduct - Substantially interfering with environment,” under the same Community Expectations policy as we were, for reasons unrelated to divestment, have instead received warnings rather than undergoing the trial-like disciplinary process. We interviewed a number of students who described their brief interactions with the office. These warnings typically involved straightforward conversations and written letters, without the intimidation or fear that those engaged in pro-divestment activities experienced. The vague language seen in this section of our handbook leaves too much room for interpretation, enabling uneven and discriminatory application of policy. This lack of uniformity raises serious concerns about transparency, accountability and the motives of the Office of Community Expectations. By selectively imposing

disciplinary measures and framing pro-divestment actions as criminal behavior, the administration not only violates its own stated values, but also suppresses the critical engagement it claims to uphold.

These actions destroy the trust and credibility of the Office of Community Expectations, which is charged with fostering a fair and supportive campus environment. Instead of serving as a resource for students, this office has become an instrument of intimidation and control, betraying its stated mission to uphold community standards and protect students. The broader implications of these actions cannot be ignored. In a time when academic freedom and free speech are under attack across the nation, per ABC News, Vassar’s handling of its disciplinary policy sets a dangerous precedent. If a liberal arts college that claims to value open dialogue and diverse perspectives cannot tolerate dissent, what hope is there for other institutions? Vassar must recognize that its actions not only affect its own community, but also contribute to a larger narrative about the role of higher education in fostering critical thought and social change.

This is why we condemn this policy and the trial-like atmosphere created by its process. The policy must be revised. This includes revising the disciplinary framework to ensure transparency, fairness and consistency, eliminating the use of trial-like procedures that intimidate and silence students. Achieving this would reaffirm the college’s commitment to intellectual freedom and open dialogue.

We students who have endured this unjust process call on the Office of Community Expectations to address these inconsistencies and provide full transparency in how disciplinary actions are administered. A college that claims to value diverse perspectives and open dialogue cannot allow its policies to become tools of suppression.

Women’s rugby wins Division II National Championship

Maryam Bacchus Guest Columnist

Women’s rugby—Vassar’s only team to compete in NCAA Division II— has earned their fourth national title in six years, having won in 2018, 2021 and 2022. The team avenged the previous year’s loss when they prevailed over University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC) in the National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) Division II final on Sunday, Dec. 8. Jude Robinson ’26 scored the opening try six minutes in, followed by a try by Sophia Bailey ’26. Leah Dourmashkin ’27 scored the following two tries, and captain Zoe Lynch ’25 successfully kicked two conversions. Robinson’s stellar playing throughout the weekend earned them the Most Valuable Player Award, and Julia Wolff ’26 received the Heart & Soul Award after nomination by Lynch and co-captain Andie Authers ’25. Both awards were granted by NCR for performance during the tournament. The players were further lauded by Authers in an interview recapping the season.

Authers characterized Robinson as a rockstar and commended their performance as one of the most phenomenal she had ever seen. Regarding team spirit, she highlighted Wolff’s kindness on the team and resilience on the field. Authers emphasized, “She is so solid, so steady, you know, so selfless.” Both Authers and Lynch cited the community on the team as one of the main reasons they stuck with the sport.

Initially sucked in by the team tabling outside Vassar’s dining hall, Authers attended her first practice freshman year during a torrential rain and has not looked back. Despite the weather, she found fun and new friends during a difficult adjustment to college. Going through a tough time of her own after a breakup, Lynch joined the team to release pent up anger about the situation and found welcoming arms in addition to an addicting game.

Authers explained that the team’s community transcends generations, as alumni follow the season and even attend the national games to support the team from the stands. Many also offered words of support

via email before the games. She specifically highlighted the efforts of Charlie Williams ’80, who follows both the men’s and women’s games each season and hosts an annual dinner prior to the team going to nationals each year in honor of his fellow rugby athlete and late friend Michael Cesta.

The captains agreed that upholding the legacy of an accredited team is both special and pressure-packed. Authers mentioned that playing for the team is a unique experience, as the program has been running for a while, which also contributes to the vast alumni network. However, maintaining excellence can come with pressure which often compels the players to perform at their highest capacity. Further, Lynch wrote, “It’s a lot of pressure, but it’s also an incredible experience to be part of a team that’s so competitive.” She also expressed that due to the intense nature of the sport, the effort to uphold the legacy often comes naturally.

Reflecting on the season as a whole, Authers explained that an important lesson learned during the team’s game against crosstown rivals Marist College was the necessity of maintaining a consistent intensity level throughout the game. “We were up by a lot, and then I think we eased up, and they came roaring back, and we had to, like, scramble. And I think that was very important for us

to know,” she recalled. In the end, the team narrowly won with a final score of 39-33.

Lynch recounted the team’s away game at Fairfield University. “The one moment that sticks in my mind, the most where I was so so proud of my team was when we played Fairfield away at their field and we shut them out,” she wrote. Lynch stressed the true collective effort the entire team put forth to defend their try line for close to 20 minutes. After witnessing the team’s tenacity that led to the eventual 31-0 victory, she concluded, “I think that that was the moment when I knew that we would win the national championship.”

Going into the weekend, Authers said the team focused on their Saturday semifinal game against the United States Coast Guard Academy. Facing familiar opponents, she explained that Vassar’s team had prevailed in the majority of the matches against the Coast Guard in the past nine years and hoped to shut them out. They were unfortunately unsuccessful, and the game served as further motivation for the redemption they would go on to achieve in the final game.

The final matchup against UWEC was a rematch of last year’s final, where Vassar’s team lost 29-32 in an intense game. Entering this season, the Brewers were motivated by their loss and intentionally honed their

defense in preparation for a possible trip to nationals. Lynch wrote, “I think for the national championship and just the final four in general, I was filled personally with a lot of frustration and anger from the final last year. I think going into Rugby matches with a little bit of anger is always always a good thing.” She added that due to the physicality of the sport, a player needs to maintain the mindset of making physical contact to power through intense collisions. Authers mentioned that although the team scored consistently early on, she implored them to continue as if they had not scored at all in order to keep their momentum. In the end, the Brewers prevailed with the final score being 22-4.

Authers boiled the success of the season down to determination, consistency and love. She explained that in-game determination is indubitably essential to fighting through the toughness of the sport, consistency helps to foster the skills and community needed to succeed and love for one’s teammates and the game ties it all together.

Summarizing her thoughts, Lynch wrote, “This team means the world to me and I just want to get the word out the there is an accepting and nurturing community with open arms at Vassar. It is truly a space where you can become the best version of yourself.”

Women’s NCAA volleyball tourney surprises, thrills

Holland Kaplan Assistant Design Editor

The 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship started Dec. 5 and has already captivated fans with its unpredictability. The tournament has delivered stunning upsets that echo the broader theme of a season full of surprises. Lower-seeded teams have risen to the challenge, showcasing their hard work and talent against established volleyball powerhouses. The first round has begun, and the exciting results are a testament to the increasing parity in the sport.

One of the most compelling storylines came from Thursday’s match, in which Loyola University Chicago Ramblers swept Brigham Young University (BYU) in a decisive victory (25-20, 25-21, 25-17). The Ramblers, riding a 13-match winning streak, displayed incredible dominance, limiting BYU’s offense and proving their growth as a force to be reckoned with. The team made history; this was their first win in the seven trips to the tournament.

Meanwhile, the Ole Miss Rebels provided another thrilling upset against Florida State in a nail-biting five-setter (20-25, 2516, 23-25, 27-25, 15-13). The historic victory

marked Ole Miss’ first-ever advancement to the tournament’s second round. Senior middle blocker Payton Brgoch had a standout performance, finishing the game with 19 kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Her performance and the rest of Ole Miss marked the Rebels’ tenacity under pressure and highlighted their determination.

Another notable victory was the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets’ dramatic five-set win over the University of Tennessee, marking it as one of the most competitive matches in the first round. Senior outside hitter Tamara Otene particularly shined leading the Yellow Jackets with 33 kills. This match was nothing short of a marathon contest full of intense rallies and razor-sharp skills, proving indicative of the increasing talent showcased in collegiate volleyball.

These early tournament upsets reflect a broader trend seen throughout this 2024 season, where traditionally dominant schools like the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Texas at Austin faced heightened competition from emerging programs. Teams from less historically successful conferences such as the Atlantic 10 (Loyola Chicago) and the Southeastern Conference (Ole Miss) have proven they

too can excel on the national stage. This has been driven by strategic shifts such as improved defensive schemes and more effective serving, helping to level the playing field.

As the tournament moves into its later stages, predictions are swirling about how the competition will unfold. Loyal watchers like me are bracing for more surprises to come. However, the top seeds remain formidable and could still hold their place as the games go on.

A candidate I see taking the trophy home is the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The Cornhuskers have remained one of my favorite teams to watch this season. Their offensive firepower and defensive stability have made them one of the most consistent squads throughout the season. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has relied on standout players like senior opposite Merrit Beason and senior libero Lexi Rodiguez to maintain focus in high-pressure situations. Their ability to adapt and sustain confidence will prove crucial as they continue in the tournament.

However, underdogs like Southern Methodist University (SMU) have emerged as a team to look out for in the tournament. Entering as an at-large selection, SMU has cap-

italized on its dynamic offense and cohesive team play. Senior outside hitter Kennedy Davis and setter Alex Glover can be credited for how far the team has gone this season. Davis’s ability to deliver high-impact kills off of Glover’s clean hands has allowed SMU to execute a balanced and adaptable attack. Middle blocker Harper James has also been instrumental in anchoring the defense with timely blocks while contributing offensively at the net. Together this trio will dominate, positioning SMU as a legitimate threat you do not want to miss. Overall, the 2024 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament has delivered everything fans could hope for: thrilling matches, shocking upsets and standout performances. From Loyola Chicago’s and Ole Miss’ surprising victories to the resilience of teams like SMU and Georgia Tech, this year’s competition has showcased depth and talent. With top seeds like Nebraska and Wisconsin still in the running, the battle for the championship will ensure the blend of tradition and unpredictability. As the tournament heads for its final stages at the back end of December, one thing is certain—this season has solidified itself as a landmark year for the sport where anything feels possible.

Image courtesy of Andie Authers ’25.

Brewers Ballin’: Denham putback winner lifts Vassar over Hobart

Our goal with Brewers Ballin’ is to feature Vassar athletes who starred for their team the week previous to publishing. If you would like to nominate an athlete, please email hfrance@vassar.edu.

Brewers Ballin’

Name: Nathan Denham

Year: Junior

Team: Men’s basketball

Stats: Junior forward Nathan Denham has been a consistent scorer and force on the glass for the Brewers this season. Denham’s 12 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, two steals, two blocks and an overtime game-winning putback layup with just 0.7 seconds left on the clock hoisted the Brewers to their first conference win this season against Hobart on Saturday, Dec. 7. The 2023-24 Liberty League All-Academic Team honoree has enjoyed a strong start to the season, shooting .615 from the field and averaging just under 10 points and six rebounds a game.

Statement: “This past weekend we lost in a frustrating game at Ithaca but then had a great comeback overtime win against Hobart which was our first time beating them on the road in years. I’m glad that we’ve been able to get some bounce back wins after coming off of a loss the day before. ...I’m really excited to play more league games and prove some people wrong this year. We were ranked 8th in the preseason poll, but everyone on our team believes we’re capable of much more. Our focus now is to keep proving what we’re made of and showing people what we can accomplish.”

Recently in Vassar Brewers sports

Haley Schoenegge ’27 obliterates school 3k record

Schoenegge shattered her own school record in the 3000-meter by over 15 seconds at the Boston University, finishing first out of DIII runners in her event.

Jared Fiske ’26 named Third Team All-American

Fiske earned a deserved nod, becoming Vassar men’s soccer’s third-ever All-American after a stellar season. Fiske was also named second-team allLiberty League and first-team all conference.

Women’s Basketball demolishes William Smith by 45 points

Tova Gelb ’25 earns Liberty League performer of the week. Julia Harvey ’25 and Maureen Regan ’27 posted career highs, with 29 and 15 points, respectively.

Image courtesy of Nathan Denham ’26.

GAMES

The Miscellany Crossword

Our crosswords are now available to play interactively online! Check out our crosswords tab at miscellanynews.org or find the archive at crossword.miscellanynews.org

“Oh, Chute!”

By Sadie Keesbury

ACROSS

1. Disease for which the Ice Bucket Challenge raised money

4. *What might bring you down, in a board game 6. AM or FM

7. In an upset way 8. Ultrasound goop 9. Where drs work quickly

DOWN 1. 36, for De Armas

2. *What might bring you up, in a board game

3. Talents 4. R u _____? (You must be kidding me)

“Future Telling”

By Sadie Keesbury

5. Final number, as for profit (abbr)

ACROSS 1. Acronym with a hotly debated pronunciation 4. Sans _____ 6. Well hydrated, as plants 8. Suffix with lemon or lime 9. _____ Manning, former Giants quarterback

10. C, D, or B12 12. County where Charli XCX was raised 13. Japanese currency

DOWN 1. Advice to someone who wants to sell their crafts, maybe 2. Fury 3. Hot fighters?

4. Games editor for Spring 2025

5. Games editor for Spring 2025 6. File type for audio 7. Racket 11. Enzyme suffix

Answers to last week’s puzzles:

By Felix Mundy-Mancino