The Miscellany News
Volume CXLIX | Issue 9
November 17, 2016
Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
Activist reflects on VC Divest
Campus discusses poll results
Jakob Eckstein
Laurel Hennen Vigil
Guest Reporter
Reporter
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D Courtesy of Sam O’Keefe
ophie Cash ’19 reflected, “[I’ve] always been interested in the environment. My dad worked in environmental policy, so the saving-the-earth narrative was always big for me.” True to her word Cash wasted no time getting involved with the Vassar College Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign, or VC Divest, as it’s commonly referred to on campus. She’s been a highly active member of the campaign, quickly becoming one of its de facto leaders. Cash became convinced of the power of activism during her gap year after high school. She remembers, “I went to the big climate rally in New York two years ago, and then I visited a friend at her university in Edinburgh where she was also helping lead their divestment movement. I was there during a week of really climactic protests, and then victory. So that gave me a really heady taste of successful activism, which was really exciting and made me feel like this is something I really want in my life. So I came to Vassar knowing that I wanted to do divestment here.” During her time at Vassar, Cash has learned about the complexity and intersectionality of climate change, and how it harms those whose identities are marSee DIVEST on page 6
First-year student Sam O’Keefe attended a rally in New York City on November 11 to join protesters marching from Union Square to Trump Tower in solidarity with those mourning the results of the 2016 presidential election.
Students trump hate with protest Andrea Yang Reporter
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y the end of election night, Vassar campus was filled with faces of somber disbelief. Social media outlets were flooded with indignant outcries and passionate remarks. Around 3 a.m. of Nov. 9, frustrated students gathered for an impromptu primal scream on the quad. They found fleeting solace in each other’s
company, screaming together in a brief and raw moment of solidarity. Fortunately, students soon found a more proactive way to spread love, show support for one another and find inner peace at such a historically tumultuous moment. Many rallied in Union Square, on streets of New York City and outside Trump Tower as well as the Poughkeepsie City Hall, carrying
signs reading, “HATE won’t make us GREAT” and “My body, my choice,” among other emotionally charged slogans. The Vassar community has shown overwhelming support for students attending these protests. Many professors extended their paper deadlines. Organizations like VSA and ASA See PROTEST on page 7
onald Trump’s victory in the presidential election on Nov. 8 sent shock waves across the Vassar campus—students raged, sobbed and protested. On Thursday, Nov. 10, dozens of students attended a discussion entitled “Where Do We Go From Here? A Post-Election Panel,” hoping to gain an understanding of the factors that lead to Trump’s election, as well as to find out what could be done now that the seemingly impossible had come to be. Attendees Chris Allen ’19 and Nell Compton ’20 both described themselves as “distraught” in the wake of the election results. Allen addressed the confusion of the situation, adding, “I’ve been to two Political Science lectures...about why the election played out the way it did, and I still don’t know why. I’m looking for answers.” Co-President of Vassar’s Democracy Matters chapter Chris Clark ’18, explained that a similar panel is held by the Political Science Department and Democracy Matters after each election. He commented, “[This election’s results] should make students fight even harder and commit to polSee PANEL on page 4
Drama project probes identity Mosier unites LGBTQ+ community, athletes I Noah Purdy & Elena Schultz Arts Editors
Inside this issue
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White liberals called upon to step up for OPINIONS social justice
Lindsay Wolk
Guest Reporter
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Courtesy of Imrul Islam
n a New York Times review of the original 1977 production of the Tennessee Williams play “Vieux Carré,” critic Clive Barnes wrote, “It is a play of blatant melodrama and crepuscular atmosphere—poetically speaking, and he never tried anything less; Mr. Williams always writes of violence at twilight. Its qualities are those of texture rather than form. It is a series of vignettes, based on fact, falsified by art, transformed into short stories, and woven into a play.” Despite the show’s relatively negative reputation in light of Williams’s overall success as a playwright, drama students at Vassar tackled “Vieux Carré” head-on and the production was a resounding success. The show was a senior project in drama, an optional thesis project undertaken by drama students with a focus in areas such as directing, dramaturgy and stage design. “Vieux Carré” was a combined senior project by the director, set designer and choreographer Matt Goldstein ’17; casting director Naa Nikoi ’17; actress, choreographer and props designer Becky Wilson ’17; and actors Sally Roberts ’17, Billy Porges ’17 and Dan Thompson ’17. Members met for 16 hours of rehearsal each week and senior project members dedicated another three hours to weekly meetings outside of regular rehearsal. “In five short weeks we cast the See DRAMA on page 15
Pictured above is Billy Porges ’17 in the role of The Writer in last week’s production of Tennessee Williams’s “Vieux Carré,” a senior project in drama.
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Humor section heals pain of election HUMOR through art
n Monday, Nov. 14, Vassar students from all different communities joined together in the Villard Room to hear Chris Mosier speak about his life and experiences. Mosier is the first ever transgender athlete to compete on Team USA. The lecture began with Mosier addressing a question he was asked in a prior talk about the moment he knew that he identified as transgender. This led to his explanation of the idea that one moment in time can change everything and a million moments lead up to that one piece of time. That one moment for Mosier came in 2009 on his 29th birthday, when he decided that he never wanted to feel so unhappy, especially on a birthday, ever again. When asked to describe himself, the first two words that come to Mosier’s head are “athlete” and “competitive.” While he was always uncomfortable in his body throughout his childhood into young adulthood, Mosier was certain of one thing: he identified as an athlete. In high school, Mosier competed as a tri-sport athlete in volleyball, basketball and softball, earning honors in each. However, as college approached, he decided to end his organized athletics career, citing his desire to focus on academics, get a job to pay
14 ARTS
for school and join different clubs to explore his interests. In hindsight, Mosier states that the true reason that he didn’t continue his athletic career at a higher level was his fear of being labeled a ‘woman athlete.’ Following college, Mosier picked up recreational running as a hobby with fitness as the main goal. Through running and lifting weights, he was able to feel more connected with his body, altering the way he looked by slimming down in areas and building muscle in others in order to appear more physically masculine. In 2009, Mosier competed in his first triathlon, where he won first place in the women’s beginner division. This first race served as another moment in which everything changed. He wanted to see just how far he could push himself athletically. In 2010, Mosier began his transition, taking testosterone and competing in men’s races, which to him finally felt right. In 2011, two years after winning his division as a woman in a New York City triathalon, Mosier competed in the same race; his first triathlon as a male. Following his transition, The New York Times wrote an article about Mosier and his experiences. The writer stated that even though Mosier was an elite female athlete, when he competed as a man, his skill level would See ATHLETE on page 18
Troupe works asps off to raise curtain on drama
The Miscellany News
Page 2
November 17, 2016
Editor-in-Chief Rhys Johnson
Senior Editors Zander Bashaw Emma Jones
Contributing Editors Courtesy of Jennifer Williams
Jennifer Williams took a break from her studies in Cairo, Egypt, to swim in the Gulf of Aqaba. “I dove below the surface, letting the cerulean blue enshroud my body...My mind was brought back to my childhood dreams of being a mermaid and exploring the deep blue wonders without hindrance.” To read more about Jennifer’s JYA experience and see posts from other students, visit farandaway.miscellanynews.org!
The Miscellany News 17
November
Thursday
Music on the Bridge
12:00pm | Bridge Café | Music Dept.
Maurice Sitomer Lecture
5:00pm | Taylor 203 | Jewish Studies Program
Sheltreese McCoy Lecture
5:30pm | Villard Room | RSL Office
Timon of Athens
7:00pm | Aula | Merely Players
VRDT Final Showings
8:00pm | Kenyon Theater | Dance Dept.
Comedy Normative Stand Up 9:00pm | Rocky 212 | Comedy Normative
Weekender_ 18
November
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Friday
November
Saturday
Basketball (M) Tip-Off Tournament: Lehman College vs. Johnson State
Rugby (M/W) Playoffs and Championships
VRDT Final Showings
Squash (M/W) vs. Connecticut College/Haverford College
6:00pm | AFC 102 | Athletics
8:00pm | Kenyon Theater | Dance Dept.
Grey Gardens: the Musical
7:00pm and 10:00pm | Mug | FWA
Barefoot Monkeys Indoor Show
10:00am-2:00pm | Various locations | Athletics
11:00am | Kenyon Squash Courts | Athletics
World Cup—An International Education Week Event 11:00am | Ballantine Field | International Services and Special Projects
8:00pm | Sanders 212 | Barefoot Monkeys
Ariana Brown Reading
Affinity Workshop with Ariana Brown
8:00pm | Rocky 200 | Wordsmiths
12:00pm | Rocky 308 | Wordsmiths
The Limit Spelling Bee
9:00pm | Taylor 203 | The Limit
Vassar Smashers #1
Elizabeth Dean Yifan Wang
News Features Opinions Humor and Satire Arts Sports Design Online Copy
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November
Sunday
Rugby (W) Playoffs and Championships
9:00am-1:00pm | Various locations | Athletics
Fencing (M/W) Matt Lampell Hudson River Invite 10:00am | Walker Bays | Athletics
Vassar College Madrigal Singers
3:00pm | Skinner Recital Hall | Music Dept.
Artists for Soup
3:00pm | Aula | Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program
Stink Documentary Screening 5:00pm | Rocky 200 | Vassar Greens
12:00pm | CC204| Vassar Smash Club
SASA Fall Dinner
Basketball (M) Tip-Off Tournaments
Unbound’s 20th Anniversary
6:00pm | UpC | SASA 7:30pm | Faculty Parlor | Unbound
2:00pm-4:00pm | AFC 102 | Athletics
Grey Gardens: the Musical
Eilis Donohue Emily Sayer Nick Barone Evelyn Frick Noah Purdy Elena Schultz Olivia O’Loughlin Talya Phelps Charlotte VarcoeWolfson Kelsey Quinn Jackson Ingram
Assistant Arts Patrick Tanella Assistant Copy Claire Baker Laila Volpe Assistant Social Media Hannah Nice Web Designer George Witteman Web Master Andy Carrera Reporters Sasha Gopalakrishnan Saachi Jain Sieu Nguyen Sabrina Oh Laurel Hennen Vigil Clark Xu Andrea Yang Columnists Jimmy Christon Jillian Elkin Jesser Horowitz Steven Park Kirk Testa Design Scarlett Neuberger Maya Sterling Yoav Yaron Copy James Bonanno Gabriela Calderon Leah Cates Diana Henry Sumiko Neary Jessica Roden Laura Wigginton
3:00pm and 7:00pm | Mug | FWA
Exploring Cambodia with Rap Artist praCh Ly 7:00pm | Rocky 200 | SEASA
VRDT Final Showings
8:00pm | Kenyon Theater | Dance Dept.
Vassar College Orchestra Courtesy of Vassar Devils
The Vassar Devils perform at BOSS [Boston Sings] in April 2016. They won awards in three categories and also received First Place.
8:00pm | Skinner Recital Hall | Music Dept.
Barefoot Monkeys Indoor Show
8:00pm | Sanders 212 | Barefoot Monkeys
The Devils & The Committee A Capella Concert
7:00pm and 10:00pm | Taylor 102 | Vassar Devils
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only corrections for any misquotes, resentations or factual errors for ticle within the semester it is
accept misrepan arprinted.
November 17, 2016
NEWS
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Local students get a glimpse of academic possibilities Clark Xu Reporter
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Courtesy of Kevin Arce
n Veteran’s Day, members of the Vassar community and local young students gathered together to explore college as a post-high school path. Access to higher education remains an issue when profound differences of society and culture open up between those who believe that college can play a role in their future and those who do not. Vassar’s Transitions Program and Vassar After School Tutoring (VAST) welcomed middle and high school students from various school districts across New York State to visit and experience daily life on the campus. The middle and high school students shadowed Vassar students, professors and admissions counselors throughout the day to learn about daily life on campus and how best to prepare for the academic and social environment of higher education. Director of Transitions and Associate Dean of Students Luis Inoa linked the Veteran’s Day program to the mission of Vassar’s Transitions Program, reflecting, “The motivation is simple. We are trying to position Transitions at Vassar to be a resource for first-generation, low-income and undocumented students at Vassar and in the Hudson Valley. I believe that our education is better when we have an intimate connection to the lives beyond the gates of Vassar.” Inoa continued, “There was a moment, during a tour when one of the high school students felt as if she was peering into her future. She met someone who looked like her and who was interested in journalism. To understand your future as possible is really very powerful.” The Veteran’s Day program, called the Beyond the Gates Initiative, paired middle and high school students with Vassar students currently active in Transitions and VAST through similar academic and vocational interests, cultural and socioeconomic family backgrounds, gender and sexuality, languages spoken as well as sports and hobbies. Considering the Veteran’s Day program in the context of student-to-student tutoring and other outreach programs, VAST Coordinator Maximilian Cordeiro said, “Beyond the Gates is a collaborative project between VAST and Transitions, with Luis Inoa as my Administrative partner. This is a collaboration still in the making, and Friday, Nov. 11 was the first of hopefully many projects brought to life through Beyond the Gates.” Sophomore Advisor to Transitions and VSA Chair of First Year Programs Cody Duane Harmon ’19 stated, “My experience in the Transitions Program has been nothing short of amazing! I cannot describe how wonderful being a part of this program has helped me grow to a person I have grown
to love more.” Citing the influence of his own family background on the formation of self and identity, Harmon elaborated, “Based on my grandmother’s teachings to me as a child, she always encouraged me to give back in whatever ways possible and never forget where I come from. The Transitions program allows me to do what my grandmother has charged me to do all these years plus more.” Inoa reflected on his interactions with the middle and high school students, noting, “I would like to be clear—their presence and time on campus was just as much a gift to us. It was really an honor to listen and build community with such amazing and gifted students. Our own Vassar ‘buddies’ were just as tremendous.” Describing the transition from high school to college, Harmon agreed, “As far as my experience goes with advising first-year students, they are by far the best group of human beings. I am honored to get the chance to know them beyond surface measures. Being able to see their energy and poise each day is something I use to encourage myself and others.” Harmon continued, “It is actually funny because the advising works both ways: the first-years are teaching me, challenging me and encouraging me in ways I did not expect in this short space of time. I cannot overstate how immensely proud I am of each of them individually and collectively as a cohort. Also, advising first-year students is only one small part of the program. It is the relationships that we build with each other that are most rewarding.” Unlike some of Vassar’s other outreach programs, such as VAST’s extensive involvement in Poughkeepsie Middle School, Beyond the Gates reached beyond the immediate vicinity of the campus. Inoa elaborated, “The students that came to Vassar on Friday were not solely from Poughkeepsie ... The students belonged to one of two programs: Youth Arts Group or the Youth Economic Group. There were 14 students there on Friday, all from various parts of New York—Monticello, Fallkill, Middletown, Newburgh.” Providing further details about the organizations supporting the young students, Cordeiro explained, “Youth Arts Group (YAG) and Youth Economic Group (YEG) are two of several youth advocacy programs under Rural and Migrant Ministries (RMM), which is a statewide, non-profit organization working for the creation of a just, rural New York State through nurturing leadership and standing with the disenfranchised, especially farmworkers and rural workers. Most of the YAG/YEG students who came to Vassar last Friday similarly came from rural, low-income, and in some cases undocumented, families throughout the Hudson Valley.”
Students from across New York State came to Vassar for a day to learn from current students and faculty about college life and post-high school opportunities. In 2009, a study by the nonprofit education and research organization Fiscal Policy Institute, based in Albany, estimated that immigrants account for 13 percent of the population and 16 percent of the economic productivity of New York State. Furthermore, the study found that approximately 16 percent of immigrants in New York State, or two percent of the total state population, are undocumented. Organizations like YAG and YEG under RMM represent a coalition of many different immigrant nationalities, ranging from Mexico at nine percent of all immigrants, to Italy at six percent, India at five percent, Haiti at three percent and Poland at two percent (Fiscal Policy Institute, “Immigrants and the Hudson Valley Economy,” 12.31.09). Since 2009, these figures have been confirmed by a separate study led by the Washington D.C.-based Pew Research Center, which found that the steady increase in the number of unauthorized immigrants throughout the 1990s and 2000s recently stabilized from 2009 to 2014 (Pew Research Center, “Unauthorized immigrant population stable for half a decade,” 09.21.16). Harmon described his own experience in the area, saying, “The City and Town of Poughkeepsie [are] diverse by statistics but in my two years in Poughkeepsie, I have not witnessed it so much. Honestly, I am excited when I see another person who looks like me on the street, in the store or on
campus. Before I arrived to Poughkeepsie, I was warned not to venture off Main Street in the late day or evening. But being the researcher I am, I wanted my own experience to have and not someone else’s. I have often find comfort in these ‘places to avoid’ and in trying to talk through the walls that Vassar still has with community members.” The Beyond the Gates Initiative and other outreach programs continue to depend on the goodwill and high spirits of students, faculty and members of the local community. Inoa concluded, “I think VC students have opportunities to get involved. There is a choice to engage or not engage. What I would like to do with Transitions is to make the intimate connection a core and organic part of program. We are not there yet but Friday moved us closer.” Reflecting a similar sentiment about the programs organized by the College, Harmon asserted, “My belief is that college must be authentic in its approach with strengthening ties ... My grandmother emphasized to me that ‘Everyone is someone. They are meant to be valued, to be loved, to be appreciated.’ I believe in that simplistic approach with people ... I always remind myself that honesty is the best policy and consider what am I representing as an individual and an individual that attends Vassar. These have served me well in establishing relationships with people in and out of the community because it is authentic.”
Lovins calls for industry, politics to embrace sustainability Eilis Donohue News Editor
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nvironmentalism and industry do not often go hand in hand in political discussions. President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions and Professor of Sustainable Management at Bard College Hunter Lovins, who gave a lecture on campus on Nov. 14, proposes that sustainability and business can, and should, work in concert to create a financially and environmentally secure future for the world. Lovins focused on the interaction of politics, economy and the environmental movement, with an emphasis on the way the election of Donald Trump will shape policy, industry and sustainability in the coming years. The lecture had been planned since before election night, so Lovins had anticipated working topical politics into her talk. Her overlapping interests and expertise as an environmental business consultant lent her a clarity about the election, and she offered some wry observations. “Now perhaps this was meant to be. In 1920 H.L. Mencken said, ‘As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright moron.’” She acknowledged that the mistakes of the Democratic Party discouraged voter turnout, prompting the election to play out as it did. After all, she said, “We ran the two least-liked candidates in anybody’s recollection...The Democratic Party allowed itself to be portrayed as the party of the elite, of the bankers, of the neoliberals. The Democrats once stood for ordinary
people. [Trump’s election] is being celebrated of a victory of the little guy over the elite.” However, she expressed that the only path forward is acceptance of what happened and deliberate, progressive action moving forward. “I think we are called upon now, as Buckminster Fuller said, to be the architects of the future, not its victims,” she urged. Looking out at the audience, she encouraged everyone to move past the feelings of despair and anger that may have arisen in the past week and instead embrace the vast potential of the future. “See this as an opportunity for transformation,” she advised. “The system that we have built doesn’t represent us, and it doesn’t enable our own personal empowerment,” she explained. “We need disruption [to change]. This may be one of those climactic events that change everything.” As the world works right now, she explained, the world serves the economy, which serves finance. However, the proper balance should be that finance serves the economy, which in turns serves life. This was the foundation of the argument for what she terms “natural capitalism,” or “regenerative capitalism,” incorporating principles of sustainability, such as balance, adaptability, community engagement and holistic wealth of the system, into business designs and decisions. Part of making industry sustainable is shifting ideologies to a more holistic and all-inclusive concept of wealth, one not limited to money, but including consideration of the needs and resources of the world. Pointing to a somber graphic, she gave examples of the backwardness of capitalist consumerism, saying, “What [Americans] spend on makeup would pay for
reproductive health care around the world. Bottled water could provide clean drinking water three times over for the whole world.” Many businesses shy away from sustainability because they do not believe it is profitable, and are wary of regulations that would stunt their financial growth. On the contrary, Lovins asserted that companies that do measure their carbon footprint and take measures to reduce it see positive returns on that investment. “Sustainability is the touchstone of innovation,” she remarked. “This is business. And in the environment in which we now find ourselves, I think this is the way to go forward, to work on the issues that we care about.” Additionally, companies who want to attract a young workforce would do well to make sustainability a component of their operations, she suggested. “Almost all young people want to be involved in something bigger than themselves, want to be working for a green company,” she said. Fiona Harbert ’18, who attended the lecture, wrote in an email, “I feel like I’ve learned to antagonize big businesses, but Lovins demonstrated how much change those companies can catalyze, because they create standards.” She continued, “Although I don’t think that these huge companies can necessarily exist as they are in a perfectly sustainable future because of the immense growth that they are constantly seeking, it is interesting to think about them as a means towards wider change.” One of the most contentious issues of the 2016 election cycle, and one of Trump’s most robust platforms, was the creation and maintenance of jobs in this country. While Trump promises a restoration of old industry and man-
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
ufacturing jobs, Lovins argued that the future of employment and a healthy economy lies in sustainability. “You want jobs? It turns out the green economy is the fastest-growing sector of the economy,” she noted. Chair of Earth Science and Geography and Associate Professor of Geography Mary Ann Cunningham agreed that the way forward does not lie in the businesses of the past, saying, “It’s not like industry as we know it is saving us; it’s telling us it’s saving us and we’re believing it. Industry tells us a lot of things we believe.” Lovins stressed that the current fossil-fuel-based economy can not last much longer, and that businesses would do well to explore a profitable future outside of the coal and gas industries. “You might want to start thinking about divesting. Because once this goes down, it will go down very fast.” Many people are concerned about the employment of vast swathes of Americans in the coming years, and thus are wary of moving away from the established system. Lovins, and others of her mindset, believe that the future may lie in renewable energy instead. “[W]e tell ourselves that more manufacturing jobs and going back to steel production in steel towns is going to save jobs, and that’s not true. And everybody knows it. I think [in] Appalachia, they know they’re not going to go back to a lot of well-paying union coal mine jobs. That’s not going to happen. No matter how much they dislike Hillary, Trump’s not going to be able to give it to them,” Cunningham insisted. “So we all need to work together and find something else, because they have very legitimate concerns about employment and their futures.”
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November 17, 2016
Novelist draws on childhood memories for inspiration Meg Howell
Guest Reporter
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n Nov. 8, Korean-American novelist Changrae Lee gave a talk on writing at Vassar College. As the guest speaker for the English Department’s annual William Gifford Lecture for Visiting Writers, Lee explained his creative process to the students and faculty members who filled Taylor 203. Preambling the hotly anticipated speech was an introduction by Henry Noble MacCracken Professor Robert DeMaria as well as comedic allusions to the then-pending election results by the Hemingway Foundation/ PEN Award winner. Regarding his 2014 novel “Such a Full Sea,” a story set in a dystopian America where descendants of Chinese migrant workers toil in labor camps, Lee spoke of how the initial plot he had in mind evolved. “The book I originally set out to write was about modern, contemporary factory workers in China. It was a book that I’d been wanting to write for a while...as an American citizen, [I] was fascinated by the rise of China and its influence in all things—politically, economically, environmentally as well,” Lee said. Wanting to gain a more intimate look into the everyday lives of Chinese factory workers, the writer took a trip to visit the subject of his infatuation. To gain access to one of budding superpower’s 1.9 million factories, he posed as a potential investor. Toting an empty briefcase, Lee
pored over the mundane details of the workers’ quarters: the placement of the beds, the spartan and clean setup, a lone potted plant in one of the dorm’s windowsills. Despite the visit, Lee was dissatisfied by the work he produced after returning home to Princeton, NJ. Disheartened by the lack of emotional depth plaguing what would become the first draft of a 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, he experienced an epiphany while riding the Amtrak Northeast Regional line. The derelict neighborhoods of Baltimore his train passed by en route to Washington, DC instilled a new idea in him. What struck him most was their dilapidation, which had remained seemingly unchanged since the first time he road the popular train route connecting New York City to the nation’s contentious capital. With newfound inspiration, Lee embarked on creating the world of “B-more,” placing into it the characters he’d conceived through tours of spartan dormitories. Much of Chang-rae Lee’s work can be traced back to his own upper-middle class upbringing as the child of Korean American immigrants. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Lee moved to the States with his mother, a former basketball star, and father, a medical student, at the age of three. In an interview with New York Times editor-at-large Charles McGrath, describing the assimilation of his parents to American culture, Lee characterized his father’s difficulties
with English and Western Culture as “slow but steady and inexorable.” Lee’s frustrations as a third-culture kid straddling Korean and American identities shaped the works he would write as an adult. The central themes of his works— the myth of the perpetual outsider, alienation, the fluidity of identity, linguistic relativity— take root in reality, flowering into critically acclaimed books. In his debut novel, “Native Speaker,” the character of Ahjuhma (“Auntie” in Korean) was inspired in part by Lee’s mother. Like the Korean housekeeper who’s hired to tend motherless protagonist Henry Park as a child, Lee described his mother as being detached from her Western surroundings, intellectually and emotionally. “Not because she had that role in our house,” Lee explained to McGarth, “but because of the way she was so outside of things—you know, the great divide between her private human personality and the expression of it in public. I was always impressed by how interesting and smart, and sometimes even aggressive, she could be, but it was always in Korean. She was never that person in English” (The New York Times, “Deep in Suburbia,” 29.02.2004). Lee ended his lecture by answering questions from the audience. Regarding questions that pertained to writing convincing narratives about race, he highlighted the importance of remembering what he referred to as “little bits of nothing.” He upheld the idea that a convinc-
ing narrative should be first and foremost concerned with character development rather than rhetoric. Struck by Lee’s statement on writing identity, Clark Xu ’18, a student who attended the lecture, commented in an email, “I was surprised when [Lee] made the distinction between ideological writing and writing aimed at conveying experience. His comments sounded to me like something an experienced writer...would say ... Ideological writing can feel flat, since the writer approaches the subject with the belief that he or she already knows the right thing to say, the right way to feel and think about experience. But, if we are to take seriously the paradigm of the literary project as a process of exploration between writer and reader...then we had better start by admitting our own ignorance and allowing the writing process to take on a life of its own and to make ourselves into instruments for expression of the world.” The overarching theme of telling sweeping narratives of struggle through the most mundane acts of human experience resonated with many people in the audience. “I definitely think people focus more on rhetoric than they do individual people, especially considering the current state of things,” explained an Asian-American senior, alluding to the elections. “I have a lot of friends of color who sometimes fall into the trap of writing allegories to support political beliefs.”
Panelists ponder president-elect’s improbable success PANEL continued from page 1
ize that we’re not some little 10 percent group. We are the majority in this country.” Born posited three possibilities for the inaccuracy of the polls. Possibility one is the “shy Trump factor,” the idea that some people who voted for Trump were less willing to share that with pollsters, because it could be perceived as less socially acceptable. There is precedent for the “shy voter phenomenon” in other countries: the so-called Brexit vote in the U.K. was thought to be essentially tied right before the vote, but the results ended up being 52 percent to 48 percent in favor of leaving the European Union. A similar phenomenon also occurred in the 2015 U.K. Parliament vote and in the 2015 legislative election in Israel. Possibility two: because the United States has historically had very low turnout rates, pollsters have to account for that by weighting less heavily the responses of those whom they deem less likely to actually vote: respondents with little or no history of voting or political engagement. Many people who ended up voting for Trump fit these categories and so their poll responses weren’t given as much attention as they should have been. Possibility three is the influence of non-response to polls. As more and more people refuse to participate in polling, the response rate has been steadily decreasing and has now dipped below 10 percent. Because of this, those who do respond may be less representative of the electorate as a whole than if the response rate was higher.
Born concluded by saying that if the polling industry does not figure out exactly what went wrong and quickly fix it, there is a very real chance that the industry could go extinct. Plotkin talked about the anger, resentment and rage of the white working- and middle-class that have grown in the wake of undelivered promises of economic security and prosperity. Political scientists have long been aware of this anger, but failed to anticipate its impact in this election. Mandle also spoke about the sociocultural explanations for the election results, notably prejudice about race and gender. There are some people in this country, she said, who couldn’t tolerate having a Black president, and who could not handle the idea of a woman as his successor. As always, there was a dramatic difference between voting patterns in cities and rural areas, leading Plotkin to ponder why that anger would find its vessel in a Manhattan billionaire. To help explain this, Plotkin discussed the theories of early 20th-century sociologist Thorstein Veblen. In his 1923 book, “Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in Recent Times: The Case of America,” Veblen wrote about the institution he called the “American country town.” Though most people no longer live in small rural towns, these types of communities continue to influence American sentiment and values. “The American country town taught us how to think, how to experience, how to value, how to under-
Laurel Hennen Vigil/The Miscellany News
itics, either as a career or just as an engaged citizen.” Held in Rockefeller Hall, the panel included Political Science Professors Richard Born and Sidney Plotkin, as well as Vassar alum and Executive Director of Democracy Matters Joan Mandle. Democracy Matters is a national student organization that works to get private money out of politics. Born opened the panel by talking about what he had been planning to discuss right up until Tuesday night: Hillary Clinton winning, and a 50-50 tie in the Senate that Tim Kaine would be able to break as Vice President. He had anticipated that Republicans would distance themselves from Trump and insist that his candidacy was an aberration. Republicans, he had predicted, would do well in the 2018 midterm elections, then come back in 2020 with an establishment candidate and possibly win the presidency. However, in light of the Democratic Party’s loss, Born didn’t feel he could discuss their potential recovery. “I don’t know if there will be a recovery, at least not in the near future,” he stated. He added that he worries about factionalism between those who supported Bernie Sanders or Jill Stein and those who backed Clinton. Mandle also addressed the Democratic defeat by explaining the quote from activist Joe Hill that she had written on the chalkboard: “(Don’t) mourn. Organize.” She explained, “I put ‘don’t’ in parenthesis because we have to mourn. This was a terrible, terrible defeat—for people who believe in equality, for people who believe in tolerance, for people who believe in science. This was a shock to all of our systems and we need to mourn together.” Instead of his initial plan to consider what will happen now, Born opted to examine why the polls that predicted a Clinton victory had been so wrong. He stated, “2016 was the most disastrous election year in the history of election polling, which goes back to the 1830s. The only possible counterpart would be 1948, when the polls showed [incorrectly] that Harry Truman was going to be defeated by Thomas Dewey.” Though the polls were fairly accurate in predicting the national popular vote, which Clinton is expected to win once every vote has been counted, they made serious errors in predicting the popular vote by state (which then determines the Electoral College vote), particularly in Rust Belt states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Clinton was predicted to win in all of those states, but lost them all by a very slim margin. Mandle commented on the national popular vote, saying, “While we’re feeling depressed, and while we’re feeling afraid, we have to real-
Political science professors and an alum led a discussion analyzing the recent election, focusing on polling inaccuracies, voter motivations and the national political climate.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
stand our relationship to leaders and what we come to expect from those leaders,” explained Plotkin. “The country town was an enterprise in hope, an enterprise in dreams—in other words, an enterprise in real estate–and especially in real estate speculation,” he continued. He explained that the country town is controlled by “boosters,” who were little more than con men that used inflammatory hyperbole to boost the residents’ aspirations for wealth and success. The boosters accomplished this by encouraging residents to buy land that they promised would continually rise in value. “The real estate developer is the quintessential booster,” Plotkin summarized. “Donald Trump didn’t build buildings, he built ‘Trump Palace,’ ‘Trump Taj Mahal.’ Whatever you might think of him, Trump masterfully displayed skills and virtues that country town citizens frequently come to emulate, admire and respect.” Mandle discussed the influence of money in congressional, state and local elections. Over 90 percent of the candidates who spent the most money won their races, she explained, while those who relied on small donors for over 50 percent of their campaign funds lost. If Democratic congressional candidates had larger campaign funds, she stressed, it would be unlikely that Republicans would have retained control of both the House and the Senate. In addition, most of the money that wins elections isn’t coming from regular people, it’s coming from hedge funds, from energy companies, from oil companies. The energy sector, she noted, spent $150 million in this election cycle. Mandle ended on a positive note, pointing out that there is hope not just for the 2020 presidential election, but for the 2018 midterms, when Democrats have a chance to take back Congress. She spoke of the importance of encouraging fellow young people to vote—the turnout among 18-29 year olds was only 19 percent—and of mobilizing between elections and protesting the actions that Trump’s administration will take. She commended Vassar students who campaigned and helped register voters for this election. “Some of you who work hard in these elections feel the worst, because you feel like you failed,” she reflected. “And I want to say that you didn’t fail, that doing that work was absolutely critical.” “You can get involved in creating and adding to social movements, which aren’t going to die just because Donald Trump’s the President,” she said, “They’re going to coalesce together and fight what he does. There are real gains that we can make, but we have to do it. We cannot sit on our hands.”
November 17, 2016
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Mixed reception of Trump in China inspires criticism Yifan Wang and Iris Li
Contributing Editor and Guest Reporter
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ast Wednesday, we sat in our room with another friend, talking about the previous night, Nov. 9. The day had been confusing and we were despondent, just like the rain that had been pattering incessantly. As international Chinese students, we discussed issues that normally wouldn’t come up in class or other contexts of discussion. While less than a third of Chinese and Taiwanese Americans voted for Trump, according to the Election Eve Poll, the dynamics in Mainland China are starkly different. It is perhaps no longer news that Trump has a substantial following in China. With one of his best-known pledge to impose a tariff of 45 percent on Chinese products in the hopes of returning manufacturing to the U.S., the controversial President-elect’s reception in China has been polarized as well. Some called him great, while others dismissed him as a clown. According to an article published in the Chinese website of The New York Times, China’s state-run media has described Trump as “a big mouth,” “a maniac” and “willful.” He’s also frequently presented, in Chinese official media outlets, as an illustration of the dysfunctions and problems of Western Liberal democracy. The People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s primary news funnel, claimed that the U.S. election represents a chaos, tastelessness and turmoil avoided by contemporary Chinese politics. On social media networks, however, Trump has gained a considerable number of followers and fans. As the NYT article summarizes, some of them are sympathetic to Trump’s anti-Muslim position, which echoes with the fear and hostility against Chinese Muslims among certain people in China after a series of terrorist attacks in provinces such as Xinjiang during the past few years. Others embrace his message to expel undoc-
umented immigrants and to prevent further immigration into America. As for his policies on trade and China, many don’t think that they will eventually be carried out, or that they will actually have a tremendously negative impact on China. There are also those who simply enjoy watching the fireworks from a safe distance, believing that Trump’s America will make enemies at home and abroad, and consequently benefiting China. This is not to say that there are no critiques or reflections about Trump and his election. As the article notes, many people in China are indeed critically and seriously thinking about these issues. However, the phenomenon of Chinese Trump supporters should not be overlooked and lightly dismissed. Admittedly, Chinese students at Vassar, as well as the campus as a whole, are normally shielded from such views and may have very different experiences and understandings of the U.S. As many realize, the result of this election has significantly demonstrated how much further efforts are needed to improve mutual communication between communities and better comprehend the reality of America, China and the world. Eric Hong ’17 commented, “I think that students at liberal arts colleges like ourselves live in a certain kind of bubble. And it might be very hard for us to understand other people’s feelings and experiences.” However, some students at Vassar are surprised, annoyed or disappointed to find out about certain reactions and views held by some of their peers–that is, international Chinese students studying at either Vassar or other U.S. universities and colleges. “Some of my high school classmates, who are now going to top colleges in America as well, have showed limited empathy and willingness to understand those who felt hurt and disheartened by the election. It is very concerning for me to see such views coming from students
who are receiving a liberal arts education, yet still unwilling or unable to reflect on and critique their own privileges and assumptions, and to acknowledge others’ experiences,” said an anonymous source. Ruoyu Li ’19 recounted, “When I and a fellow Chinese student were walking past the protest signs in Main the other day, the other student was skeptical and uncomprehending of such efforts.” Li continued, “I feel somewhat annoyed at and scared by some of the student’s remarks. It can be quite terrifying if people would just speak without first carefully considering how their words can be problematic in certain ways, if people just casually say something like ‘illegal immigrants are just supposed to be expelled.’ This unquestioning tendency to take things for granted can be quite scary.” Li went on to express her hopes. “The most important thing is whether we are open to other logics, discourses, experiences and emotions; whether we try to understand others before making any claims. Oftentimes people make claims too quickly and think that is it. It’s also not enough just to understand others, we must further think about where justice can be found, what are the alternative ways of living, what [courses of action] are effective and in what sense. But I think many of my fellow Chinese students have failed to do so.” Similarly, Sixing Xu ’18 has heard people at other colleges speak of participants in anti-Trump protests as “finding excuses to skip classes,” as “crying on the streets” and as “unable to face the reality.” “I was very upset to see such comments. Yes, we do need to think about Trump’s election critically. But these students are privileged in many ways and this way of talking makes me feel quite uncomfortable,” said Xu. Associate Professor of Political Science Fubing Su spoke of the issue from his academic background and personal experiences. “I think for many Chinese people who didn’t grow up
in the U.S., the significance and magnitude of Trump’s racist, sexist remarks may not be as clear. But the anti-Trump protests and discussions we are witnessing now would likely make them realize and recognize that other kinds of voices and perspectives also exist, and lead people to reflect upon their own preconceptions.” Su continued, “For international students from China, the present moment could be a good learning opportunity to better understand America. Coming from a relatively homogeneous society, many students probably have a lot to learn about the racial, gender, immigration and other kinds of discourses and experiences here. And then we also need to look back and examine China from these angles. I also think that it is now a good opportunity for Chinese students to examine democratic systems. Most of our education has told us that Liberal democracy is a mess, that it doesn’t work. But it is through the very functioning of this system that different voices in America are currently and having been engaging in self-reflections and self-critiques. This is exactly what China lacks.” “I think all these ongoing dynamics could allow Chinese students to learn and grow,” he concluded. Professor of Chinese and Japanese Peipei Qiu shared Su’s views. “Social engagement is one of the fundamental cores that a liberal arts education can teach us ... [Whether] you realize it or not, no matter you care about it or not, you are always already a member of the global community ... If someone thinks that these things are happening in America, and therefore shouldn’t concern them, and just laugh it off ... But then you would have lost the most central part of your education.” Ultimately, Qiu remains optimistic and hopeful. “If we could all hold a positive and active attitude to engage with each other and with the situation, then this could indeed have a significant impact on the global environment as a whole.”
Vassar community expresses pain at disturbing election Mack Liederman Guest Reporter
“I
had hoped that on Nov. 9, I could call my grandma who supported Hillary since before she was First Lady, and tell her that we made it happen. We were a part of the movement that elected the first female president of the U.S.” For May Venkat ’20 of Akron, OH, Tuesday night began with high hopes. She began the night in her room watching the election broadcast on her phone. As the results began pouring in, she went to be with the rest if her friends in Main. She stayed up, in front of the TV, until Trump’s acceptance speech at 2:45 a.m. “I am deeply saddened as a person of color and a woman that such a heinous man was elected to our highest office. As an Indian, I mourned because in my eyes...our country was moving backwards and this could only cause more problems for me and my family,” Venkat said. “I asked myself and my family for advice on how to go on. How would life
change for me? A man who has been accused of sexual assault is now been rewarded with the most powerful and prestigious seat of influence in the American political system.” Isabelle Hart ’20 echoed Venkat’s grievances, saying that the results came as a complete shock. “I think that initially I thought it was some huge joke. I was waiting for Trump to interrupt the news and tell everyone that this entire election was a publicity stunt. Once it sunk in I think I mainly felt the waves of sexism that I’ve been experiencing since I became a preteen. Hillary’s loss isn’t all because of gender, but for the first couple of days I couldn’t stop thinking that if she were a white man, she would have won.” Living part of the year in the “Vassar bubble,” students often become detached from the political climates of their hometowns. This election served for many as a jarring reminder of nationwide schisms. Venkat was relieved that she did not see the
Courtesy of Mackail Liederman
(From left to right) Vassar first-years William Dwyer, Sana Zaidi, Isabelle Hart and Sam O’Keefe protest Donald Trump’s presidential election last Friday night at a rally in Manhattan.
results from her home state of Ohio come in live. “I have a lot of state pride, I loved my childhood growing up in Ohio. But, after hearing that my state went for Trump by more than 5 points I was left with complete embarrassment and anger,” Venkat said. She continued, “My state voted for a man who supports taking away my right to privacy, my family’s rights as people of color and the pride I have for being a child of immigrants. My state voted for a man who wants to rid the country of people with ties to the Middle East. My state voted against me.” With Thanksgiving coming up, Venkat admitted that returning home to Ohio will be difficult: “It hurt and I am sure that this Thanksgiving will be difficult. I will be going home, but now it is a place that leaves me feeling guilty and angry.” However, Venkat believes there is no better place to be during Trump’s presidency than at Vassar. “I am so lucky to take a political science class here at Vassar. Professor [Sidney] Plotkin allowed the class time to discuss our feelings, opinions and emotions. I was so moved by my fellow classmates and I realized that I am not alone in my hatred of this situation or in my fears for the future. My friends were there to listen to my fears, embarrassments, anger and picked me up after I broke down,” Venkat said. William Dwyer ’20 of Irvington, NY watched the election at the Young Democrats viewing party in UpC. “I met friends there and we stayed up way too late, just sitting on the floor in a corner of the room, chewing at our nails anxiously,” Dwyer recalled. “I simply couldn’t believe it. Everyone around me was livid, staring at the walls with blank faces. Disbelief quickly changed into disappointment, then fear, then anger. The worst part was leaving UpC. I just remember walking back to my dorm in silence, squeezing my friend’s hand. I fell asleep that night to the sound of screams in the quad.” The screams resonating from the quad were the product of an impromptu “primal scream,” a Vassar tradition usually reserved for finals week. “Election night was rough for everyone,” Dwyer said. “The day after was even worse. Walking to class in the morning felt like a funeral. Vassar was mourning.”
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A few days later, Dwyer and some friends traveled to New York City to protest, like many other Vassar students. “The point of going down to the city for me was not to protest per say, but rather to show that even in bad times like this, people stick together,” Dwyer explained. “Whether you like it or not, Trump is our next president, and there is nothing we can do about that. What we can do, however, is support and fight for those who will be most affected.” Dwyer said the opportunity to go to New York City is something he will not soon forget: “I was incredibly moved to see so many people in the streets, holding signs like ‘we will fight for you,’ chanting their hearts out marching across Manhattan. I felt like I was fighting for something so much bigger than just me.” Isabelle Hart accompanied Dwyer to the protest. “I thought it was important for me to go because I’m a New Yorker, and I wanted to be around the people I grew up with, people of every race, gender and religion possible,” Hart said. “I wanted to be reminded of what it’s like to be home, where everyone belongs. I wanted to support some close friends who feel very unsafe right now.” Brian Lee ’20, an international student from Taiwan, felt let down by the country he wanted so earnestly to be accepted into. “I came to the United States when I was 14, with the excitement of seeing ‘the land of opportunity, diversity and freedom’ for myself,” Lee said. “As an international student who admittedly has assimilated because I thought that’s all I would have to do to integrate, I abstained from accepting this presidential election result. It is hard to see my effort to fit in with the American people becoming meaningless. It is difficult to imagine that many people I have relied upon secretly betrayed me.” With many students still reeling and recovering from one of the most momentous events of their generation, Vassar treks on. Students like Lee are left to process both the causes and repercussions of this election cycle, but despite these difficult introspections, they’ll have to move forward with these burdens while tackling their usual routines. As President Obama stated, the sun still rose after the night of Nov. 9. Classes on Wednesday after the election resumed as usual.
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November 17, 2016
Professor of Sociology brings Paris Accord to Vassar Sarah Evans
Guest Reporter
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Courtesy of Vassar Alumnae/i Hub
onversations surrounding climate have come to surpass the limitations of government, economy and society. Climate change and discourses surrounding sea level rise, arctic ice melt, habitat degradation and extreme weather conditions are increasingly politicized. The danger of leaving climate change unaddressed, or unsolved, has become a concern for scientists, activists, politicians and international institutions alike, and is something the world can no longer afford to push to the wayside. In December 2015, 195 nations came to a unanimous consensus on a legally binding agreement with the goal of limiting the effects and causes of climate change, termed “The Paris Climate Agreement.” The deal came into full force on Nov. 4, 2016 with the goal of establishing a collective effort by nations to prevent global temperatures from rising. Each country submitted a “national climate action plan” with a strategy to cut national carbon emissions. Yet, even if the entire global community adheres to their emission reduction goals, warming will still rise above preferred levels. In order to attain zero carbon emissions, the international community must look to both renewable energy and alternative production methods divested from fossil fuels. China, one of the world’s largest emitters, has identified the evolving nature of the world’s energy market and now leads the world in renewables. Under the Paris Agreement, governments will come together every five years to take stock of progress and reevaluate goals in order to attain targets levels set by scientific data. Many are skeptical about the commitment of many countries and their ability to completely eliminate carbon emissions. Although many technologies and alternatives exist to reach these goals, the question of success is reliant on economics and incentives. Clean energies such as wind, water and solar require new machinery, training and significant investment from gov-
Chair of Earth Science and Geography Mary Ann Cunningham expressed her concerns surrounding climate change and sustainability, focusing on how Vassar is tackling these issues. ernments and nations. A willingness to adapt is confronted by a global conformability in our reliance on fossil fuels. Chair of Earth Science and Geography Mary Ann Cunningham said, “Getting off of fossil fuels is inconceivable to most Americans.” Here at Vassar, there have been some efforts to adopt lower emission practices. Electricity has become the main vehicle for these efforts. The College has power purchase agreements for hydroelectric and solar energy. New buildings are equipped with on/off light motion sensors and LED bulbs, which conserve energy. Future clean energy efforts look towards geothermal heating. Heat is a major cost and comprises 60 percent of Vassar’s carbon emissions. However, it is possible to dramatically turn around campus consumption through sustainable renovation efforts.
Cunningham stated that climate change, sustainability and divestment are very much involved in social justice. On campus, the Vassar College Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign is an active voice in the campaign to withdraw endowment funds from investments in companies whose activities are deemed harmful to the environment. The more the campus become geared toward sustainable practices, fossil fuel divestment and embraces renewable power, the easier it will be to facilitate conversations about climate change. Cunningham said of the agreement, “It is so exciting that 195 countries agreed to anything, much less something so revolutionary. It represents a lot of learns, it is well understood that this is about justice, public health, biodiversity and economics, and these are not separably any-
more.” In light of the recent election, many activists and proponents of the Climate Movement have experienced apprehension about the future direction of climate change efforts. Visions for a more sustainable future have become caught the volatile web of an emerging world leader, President-elect Donald Trump. Throughout his campaign, Trump has vocalized his opposition to climate change, calling it a “Chinese hoax.” He has vowed to cancel the United States’ involvement in the Paris Climate Agreement, in addition to eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency, repealing environmental regulations and cutting climate funding and pursuing an energy plan that will work to revive the coal industry. These plans have the potential to be catastrophic to environmentalist and sustainability efforts. If Trump succeeds in erasing the conversation of climate and environment from the national discourse, many on campus feel that it will not only be detrimental to the United States’ interests, but also to the global community. Generally, the student community has expressed that the pattern of denying climate change and the science behind it would implicate both our country and the entire world in the rampant vulnerability created by carbon emissions. Organizations on campus like VC Divest believe that in the coming months and years, our representatives must come to terms with and recognize that climate change does not settle in one party’s camp. It is not Republican or Democrat. Quality of life, food availability, sea level rise, environmental disaster and potential social upheaval should become the concerns of a global collective, VC students maintain. This conversation cannot be impeded by the rhetoric of a single political figure. It is certain that the reach of Climate Movement and other environmental movements will be determined more than ever in the next few years. For many, the Paris Agreement highlights a greater alliance and the shared stake we all have in the climate conversation.
Activists dissuade Vassar from cashing in on fossil fuels send to John Chenette which is going to be part of a greater body of research that we’re working on solidifying for the new president next year ... Sources and compilations of counterarguments for any argument they might think of, to say, ‘This is all of the research. This is why. This is scholarly. This is not just students being activists, this is what economists and politicians say. And with that would come, ideally, faculty, student and alumni support.” These efforts are time-consuming, but extremely important. So far this year, Cash says VC Divest is not only channeling its energy into gathering evidence, but also into garnering support from faculty and alumni and creating coalitions among student groups. If this year’s theme is preparation, last year’s was action. VC Divest organized a student referendum to inform the Board of Trustees of the overwhelming student support for fossil fuel divestment. 45 percent of students voted and 91 percent of those who voted supported fossil fuel divestment. The campaign also staged actions during two trustee meetings, for which Cash acted as a kind of scout, “I biked out to the alumni house to see if they were there, to see where they were,
and then came back and messaged everybody to say, ‘We need to do it now! They’re having lunch! Let’s go!’” In May, VC Divest organized a week-long sitin in Main. It was the biggest climate action ever on Vassar’s campus and Cash was integral to its success. When asked about that week, she recalls it with enthusiasm and pride. “We tried to get people psyched about the cause by making it fun. It was really just a loving, enthusiastic environment. We all slept overnight! It was like our home base for the week, we had over 500 students pass through at one point. We got a bunch of professors to do their classes here, to show their own support, but also so that our students didn’t have to leave. My environmental studies class came here and showed one of the documentaries we were supposed to be watching in class. We all sat on the couches and had breakfast, somebody had donated a bunch of bagels that morning. There was a lot of camaraderie and people feeling like, ‘We’re doing something good. This is powerful and fun.’ That, to me, is what activism should feel like.” Cash was also careful to acknowledge, “Obviously, it isn’t always fun, There’s a ton of work
Courtesy of Jasmine Prasad
DIVEST continued from page 1 ginalized. “I didn’t really know about the intersections of climate justice and social justice until I came to Vassar, and I think a lot of people don’t... Rather than just, ‘Save the earth, save the polar bears! Biodiversity loss! Pollution!’ These are, of course, extremely important parts of the story. But when I got to Vassar, I realized that the most compelling elements [of the movement] are climate justice and how that ties with social justice.” According to Cash, the first pillar of good activism is educating oneself about the complexity of the problem. She cites Professor of Sociology Pinar Batur’s class “Coal” as having given her valuable insight into the intersectional nature of climate change. “I focused on why the coal industry is a social justice issue as well as a climate change issue, so I ended up doing a lot of research on why climate justice is social justice. [I was] looking into things like environmental racism, the reasons why climate change affects women disproportionately to men, how climate and the coal industry and other types of fossil fuel industries disproportionately affect the global south, indigenous people, developing countries and other already marginalized identities. [Instead of] people and groups who have caused climate change and who tend to have more power.” Cash has also learned to be wary of the ethical pitfall that is climate supremacy. It’s easy for environmental activists to lose sight of the human aspects of climate change, to think “that all of our efforts should be directed toward mitigating climate change. [But] it’s extremely important to remember that that is a privileged way of thinking, and that a lot of people can’t think that way because they have other, more pressing forms of oppression going on. It’s more helpful to look at climate change and climate injustice as part of a set of larger interlocking problems.” The divestment campaign is using this transition year, while Vassar is between presidents, to lay important groundwork to increase the potency of future actions. “[My education has] been helpful in terms of sources, studies and research to back up the information we give to the authorities we are trying to convince. [For instance,] I just set up a little packet of that kind of stuff to
Members of Vassar College Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign have been involved in many demonstrations and have worked to garner support from faculty, students and alumnae/i.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
that goes into it beforehand, which is something that I wasn’t really prepared for, all the work. It’s a lot of organizational stuff, a lot of logistics, a lot of planning, reaching out to people, social media campaigns.” Last year’s success glows warmly in Cash’s memory, which, she says has made this year’s more tedious agenda difficult for her. However, she also claims that Trump’s election last week has given her a renewed sense of urgency. “It’s just an incredibly important time and also a kind of exciting time to care about the world. Even though it’s super scary, and a Trump presidency is terrifying, and the way that the world is reacting to it is also very scary and indicative of the problems in our country. So, now it’s up to us, since we can’t trust the federal government to solve our problems. It’s up to us. The groundwork, businesses, state level governments, to solve environmental and social justice problems. That sort of opens up some imperatives for us.” Cash is also excited about Vassar students’ considerable support for those protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline and plans to get involved herself. She believes the issue has garnered such support because it is inherently intersectional and gives activists a chance to protest against multiple issues at once. “I think there’s a lot of energy on campus that is ready to rally around this issue, which is really exciting...and I think that we can do good work, since we have a lot of people power behind this. I’m personally going to donate, which is one of the first actions we can do, a fundraiser over the next two weeks.” Cash, like the rest of us, will be sleeping with one eye open in the coming months. No one knows what the future holds. Although she but she doesn’t think a Trump presidency is going to change the way she does activism, she’s aware that this is a time that calls for solidarity. “We, as people who have progressive ideals have to support and be enthusiastic about each other even though we might feel inclined to divide each other over the little things. We have to stay united against one monolithic racist, xenophobic and homophobic entity. No one person’s struggle is more important or more devastating than another’s. We don’t know what’s going to happen, we’ll just have to be flexible and be ready to change tactics.
November 17, 2016
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Protesters flock to New York City, decry election results PROTEST continued from page 1
offered to reimburse students who don’t have the necessary personal funds to transport and attend events in the city. Students attributed their motivation to go and protest to the strength of their political convictions. Madhavi Jere ’20 explained, “The night of the election results, I was pretty despondent. I could barely believe it. I really wanted to do something with my frustration, which is why I went to the protest on Wednesday.” Sana Zaidi ’20 reported that she wasn’t acting on impulse but instead went to support her friends and loved ones. She said, “At first I was hesitant to go because I wasn’t sure if protesting was really going to make a difference; however as soon as we start-
ed marching down 5th Ave., I knew I made the right decision. Protesting was both empowering and exhilarating. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made.” Sam O’Keefe ’20 seconded, “I was a bit hesitant at first to go since I felt kind of powerless and didn’t think that protesting would change anything. But I realized that my friends and everyone else who had gone or wanted to go didn’t think that we were going to get rid of Trump–we went for ourselves.” Being a quiet and introverted person, O’Keefe, among others, expressed initial discomfort going to such a crowded group setting. He noted, “While many people who saw us and watched our protests and protests similar to it on the news, there were definitely those
Courtesy of Sam O’Keefe
Vassar protestors attended a rally in New York City on Wednesday night to peacefully contest the tumultuous political climate uniting against hate and intolerance.
who thought our efforts were pointless. They probably shrugged us off thinking we were idiots just wasting our time, because these smallscale protests won’t change anything. And I’ll be honest at first I kind of felt weird belting out the clever chants that everyone was reverberating around me.” O’Keefe maintained, however, that his positive experience at the protest completely dispelled his initial misgivings. He explained, “As I started to march and master the chants and get more into them, I began to lose my self-consciousness and I suddenly was overcome with a rush of pride, hope and excitement. I took a second to breathe and realized I was in one of the biggest cities in the world, having my voice heard and was being cheered on by city goers who were proud of me and my friends for taking the time out of our day, for being brave enough to get out and assemble.” He continued, “While there were a good number of people who showed their disdain for us–one man actually yelling at us that ‘Trump is the answer’–we remained strong and united, determined to get our voices heard and to finish what we started.” My friends and I made signs for the protest that included messages that were relevant and meaningful to us. As I held up my sign and marched with my friends and strangers who I felt became my friends in the moment, I was overcome with a sense of happiness, relief and pride ... Chanting empowering phrases like, ‘Tell me what democracy looks like ... This is what democracy looks like!’ reaffirmed for me the influence that we the people can have, and how rewarding it is to exercise our rights to assemble, voice our concerns and unite on common grounds.” Maithri Goud ’20 came away from the rally with the same sense of positivity. “I usually associate protests with chaos and violence, but the anti-Trump protests were heart-breakingly beautiful.” Students who attended the NYC rally intimated similar sentiments of camaraderie in the face of nationwide grief. Protesters felt that they were able to influence dialogue on a larger platform and exercise civil liberties that they’ve not yet experienced in their youths.
Jere articulated the exhilarating and empowering atmosphere at the protest. She commented, “It was so, so inspiring. I didn’t really understand the power of free speech until I stood there with thousands of other people that believed the same things that I did, together. It really made me feel like my opinion mattered, at a time that the election results were telling me otherwise. It gave me a sense of purpose and it was pretty cathartic in that after the protests, I felt like there were still things that I could do to change the political scenario instead of feeling sad and hopeless. And I can say with complete confidence that all my friends that went with me feel the same way.” O’Keefe characterized his experience at the protest in NYC as “surreal,” citing of its unique power of eliciting sincere emotions. He shared, “I realized that I yearned to be surrounded by people who share my grief, sadness, frustrations, anger, shock and sense of being personally attacked. Being with people that are like-minded in that regard was exhilarating and made the experience so much more potent.” He reaffirmed the positivity of the protest, saying, “This event confirmed for me that love most certainly trumps hate, but that a lot of other things trump hate as well: unity, courage, compassion, friendship, determination, passion and peace (and peaceful protest).” “Though I know that the one protest and march that we attended has not and will not get rid of Trump, it was one of the ways that I could somehow find peace with this devastating news, reminding me of the crucial and unifying principles on which this country is founded.” Isabel Sakarin ’19 and hundreds of others participated in the Love Rally in Washington Square Park. She recounted the poignancy of the scene; people were hugging each other, offering comfort and support. As more people arrived, the emotions escalated. “We! Reject! The President-elect!” Crowds chanted anti-Trump slogans uniformly. People’s eyes were filled with heartfelt fervor. The rally served as a meaningful channel for pent-up emotions. Sakarin concluded, “Seeing people come together in that way made me hopeful about the power of love. I really do believe that love is stronger than hate. If we come together and refuse to hate, who can stop us?”
Leaves have a’fallen, now lentil loaves are a’callin’ Sarah Evans
Guest Columnist
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Courtesy of Catherine Evans
hile recent events have induced a spell of chaos among us, the need for love, kindness and self-care is a necessity. Right now it may be challenging to trod through life, dive into challenging conversations and look toward positivity, but the value of distraction, a break and treating yourself to a little happy time is boundlessly helpful. With Thanksgiving just a little more than a week away, the idea of “what we are thankful for” will be perceived in a new light. Let us look deeply at what we value, what enlivens us and what brings us happiness. Perhaps these notions seem trivial in the present moment, but the ability to decompress and gain perspective is a heartening and helpful way to reevaluate what is important, what we hold dear and what we are devoted to. In the midst of mulling over these thoughts and questions, let these recipes line your stomach, hug your insides and give you an excuse to consume sweetness, revel with rich flavor and feed your soul to fullness and contentment. One of the most challenging aspects of a Thanksgiving meal, or any holiday meal for that matter, is deciding what to serve. In the midst of rushed decision making, it is easy to overlook a dish or just settle for your go-to in a crunch. Thinking and contemplating the contents of your table may send your head racing with mixed emotions, from mouth-watering to utter panic. So, as you gear up for the holiday season, let me propose a small assortment of possibilities, if for nothing else but to get your own creative gears going. By sharing our cooking style and ingredients I demonstrate how easy it is to incorporate delicious foods into your own culinary repertoire and create your own bounty. Here is an assortment of our favorite recipes to sample and make yourself! To bake a Pumpkin Ricotta Loaf, start by preheating the oven to 350°, and coat a pan with coconut
spray or a little olive oil. Add all of the dry loaf ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix. Next, stir in the cashew milk, coconut oil, agave and vanilla extract. Place mixture into bread pan and cook for 30 minutes. Mix the ricotta cheese ingredients together while the loaf cooks. Take the loaf out of oven and pour cheese over the bread. Place it back in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the loaf is a golden brown color. Take the loaf out of the oven and let it cool. Mix together the glaze ingredients, then spread them over cooled loaf. Cook your brown rice and lentils. The cooking process goes faster if these are made ahead of time, but are also great freshly prepared! Chop all of your ingredients keeping then quite small For the Vegan Lentil Loaf, preheat your oven to 400°F. In large frying pan, heat one tbsp. olive oil over medium-high. Add the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Sauté everything until the onion becomes translucent (about two minutes). Add the mushrooms, kale, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper and continue sautéing until everything is just tender. In a large bowl, combine the sautéed vegetables, brown rice, lentils, flaxseed meal, oat flour, nutritional yeast, walnuts and cranberries. Mix everything very thoroughly. Don’t be afraid to put some muscle behind it. Mashing the ingredients together helps then bind better. This step is important–make to press and bind together Line a cake pan with parchment paper, and firmly press the mixture into the pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the loaf from the oven. Either add a cranberry glaze over the loaf or drizzle a little olive oil over the top. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. Remove the loaf from oven, allowing it to fully set for 10-15 minutes. Cut, serve and enjoy!
Vegan Lentil Loaf
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil 1/2 onion, finely chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 medium-large carrot, grated 1 rib celery, thinly sliced 1 1/2 c kale, shredded and tightly packed 1 1/2 c mushrooms, thinly sliced 1/4 tsp fresh thyme 1/4 tsp fresh oregano 1 tsp salt black pepper to taste 1 c overcooked green lentils 1 c cooked brown rice 1/3 c flaxseed meal 2 tbsp oat flour 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast 1/2 cup ground walnuts (optional) 1/4 cup dried cranberries (optional)
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Ricotta Pumpkin Loaf
2c Bob’s Red Mill Oat Flour 1c cashew milk 1/2c coconut oil 1/2c agave 2tsp baking powder 2tsp baking soda a generous amount of pumpkin pie spice dash of cinnamon 2tsp vanilla extract Cheese
3c ricotta cheese 1/4c agave 1tsp vanilla extract 1tbs cinnamon Glaze
1c powdered sugar 1/4c pumpkin puree 1/2c coconut yogurt 1tbsp cinnamon
OPINIONS
Page 8
November 17, 2016
The Miscellany News Staff Editorial
In wake of Trump win, white liberals cannot remain silent
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he 2016 presidential election is undoubtedly the most chaotic political moment that many Vassar students have been forced to contend with as mostly new voters. For the majority of white, liberal students, the loss of an overqualified Democratic candidate to a GOP pseudo-populist whose campaign represents explicit white nationalism and gender oppression comes as a total shock. Many, including us at The Miscellany News, were left incredulous at the unforeseen turnout for Donald Trump, wondering how polls and pundits got the outcome so wrong, and how so much of America has fallen prey to McCarthy-era fearmongering. However, many of us who were shocked live and move in a bubble. Vassar is an anomaly, a concentrated drop of liberalism in historically conservative Dutchess County. For too many Americans, including almost half of Vassar students, the scope of our country’s bigotry is not a distant threat, nor is it something that ebbs and flows at the whims of popular media coverage. It is a daily experience. For marginalized groups— our Black, Latinx, Asian, queer, and trans* friends—the prejudices at the foundation of the Trump campaign affect their lives constantly. Even at Vassar, marginalized students face bigotry to which privileged students are too often blind. While there are many unaffected by systemic discrimination who recognize it, it is nearly impossible to comprehend the magnitude of the problem from the position of a bystander. Therefore, it is imperative to understand how so many were blindsided by the outcome of the election given the current sociopolitical climate. To do so, we must first reconceptualize our idea of conservative voters. For example, Trump garnered votes from not only perennial GOP voters, but also lower middle class and blue collar workers who usually vote blue but feel neglected by the establishment. He also managed to tap into minority votes, perhaps due to the same an-
ti-establishment sentiments. This was most evident in the Rust Belt, where poverty and failing industry secured him votes from white, uneducated males and portions of the Black and Latinx populations that voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. In the crucial Rust Belt states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Trump won 47 of the counties that Obama won in 2012, and all but one that voted Republican four years ago remained red (Cleveland.com, “Donald Trump flipped Rust Belt states by boosting rural vote; Hillary Clinton couldn’t make up the difference,” 11.11.2016). In spite of Trump’s misogyny, women—especially white women, who Trump won—still to voted for him in decent numbers. Research has shown that party loyalty typically overrides gender bias in elections, but it is no less illustrative of the Democratic Party’s failure to provide a more convincing option for its traditional constituents than the GOP. The fact that Clinton was unable to convince many voters of color that she could do more for them than Trump speaks as much to her alienatingly elitist image as it does to Trump’s appeal. The Democratic Party’s worst mistake was selecting a controversial candidate who didn’t inspire voters. Low voter turnout, the lowest in 20 years, must be partially attributed to the unappealing candidate Democrats were presented with. Only 55 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots (CNN, “Voter turnout at 20-year low in 2016,” 11.12.2016). Further, the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act before this election disenfranchised marginalized voters nationwide, while felony voting laws allowed the prison industrial complex to strip millions of returned community members of their voices. The Democratic National Committee ignored the concerns of the working class and chose an establishment candidate, leaving some alienated voters no realistic alternative but Clinton’s outsider opponent. This election also reflects the disturbing ten-
dency of the DNC towards elitism, in part displayed in the shock that many felt in seeing that women and people of color voted for Trump. We must change our perception of what the average voter of each major party looks like, and to understand the reasons that voters who do not fit our imaginary mold chose the way they did. The DNC is not just a party for educated white people, the impression with which many are left based on Clinton’s platform. To regain the confidence of marginalized groups, the party needs to champion leaders who listen to their voices and provide workable solutions to the very real problems that so much of the population faces. We must reconsider the idea that Trump’s America is something radically new. Undoubtedly, his hateful rhetoric and chosen cabinet will make the situation worse, but many Vassar students—as privileged, white liberals—ignore the fact that Trump’s hateful America has long existed for those whom it will affect most. People of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, the disabled, the working class and many others have suffered from American bigotry and intolerance long before the election brought it to national attention. Trump’s presidency will worsen this, but things will likely not turn dire for whites and the upper class. It is also crucial that we defend and support marginalized groups facing immense fear at how the new administration will affect their wellbeing. White students need to show up and stand up for marginalized communities, both at Vassar and in their hometowns. However, we as a predominately white editorial board can only speak for those in our demographic. A good deal of self-reflection by liberals—especially white liberals, who make up a large part of Vassar as a whole—is crucial going forward. Despite discussions of the “other side” or the “silent majority,” many of us come from communities that supported Trump, and not necessarily in silence. Avoiding polemical
subjects for our own comfort is frankly unacceptable. White complacency is in many ways responsible for Trump’s win, so we must have these tough conversations. Though seemingly small, they are essential to understanding his supporters’ positions with the hope of engaging and challenging these viewpoints. Thanksgiving break is a great time to start. When white liberals avoid challenging harmful beliefs in their communities, we implicitly say that our own comfort comes before the safety of marginalized Americans. White students in particular bear the burden of proving we are better than our voting demographic by fighting for change in our own communities and working to support those who will suffer from our silence. The Miscellany News would like to express solidarity with the people of color, the LGBTQIA+ community and the disabled who are threatened by a Trump administration, and would like to re-commit ourselves to supporting them on campus. We remind students that ads— for meetings, marches, fundraising—are free to the Vassar community, and we remain committed to providing a space for diverse voices on our pages. We also invite those who feel we can do better to tell us how we can be more supportive, and we will do better. Understanding and challenging these positions is all the more crucial at a time when the lives of so many hang in the balance. Silence is not an option. The election has empowered and normalized hatred and violence, and further stifled the voiceless. This is not the time to sit idly by. Those with the least to fear have the most responsibility to recognize their complicity in this election, to voice their opposition and to challenge others in their communities to do the same. — The Staff Editorial expresses the opinion of at least 2/3 of The Miscellany News Editorial Board
Electoral College proves antithetical, toxic to democracy Andrew Solender Guest Columnist
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onald Trump will be our next president. It is an unavoidable conclusion considering he has won a majority of the electoral vote. People have been throwing around the idea that faithless electors may save us from Trump and to that I say: don’t hold your breath. For those of you who may not know, in about 20 states, including Texas and Pennsylvania, the law permits electors to disregard their pledge and vote for whomever they choose. However, this is very uncommon and is unlikely to happen even when faced with having to vote for Trump. Despite the fact that Trump will likely be our next president, he didn’t actually win the most votes. Hillary Clinton won a plurality of votes by a margin of more than 600,000 and that number grows as I write this. According to the New York Times, “By the time all the ballots are counted, she seems likely to be ahead by more than two million votes and more than 1.5 percentage points... She will have won by a wider percentage margin than not only Al Gore in 2000 but also Richard Nixon in 1968 and John F. Kennedy in 1960.” Just for reference, two million is roughly the population of Houston, TX, or to put it another way, the entire population of New Mexico. It is not a small amount by any means. No amount of recounts could realistically evaporate her lead; Clinton won the most votes in the 2016 presidential election. Trump, despite winning only 47.3 percent of the vote, is projected to carry 307 electoral votes or roughly 57% of the Electoral College. So why do we have a system that can go so contrary to the majority opinion? According to Federalist No. 68, written by Alexander Hamilton, the electoral college “will be much less apt to convulse the community with any extraordinary or violent movements, than the choice of ONE who was himself to be the final object of the public wishes.” In other words, the electoral college is meant to prevent “favorite son” candidates from getting elected. Favorite son candidates are those who appeal mostly to certain states or regions
as opposed to the country as a whole. The theory was that by giving a plurality in each state more power than a national majority, we could avoid presidents who only appealed to just the north or just the south, also conveniently forcing presidential candidates to reach out to all walks of life. This was also an attempt to check regional political power on national elections. It is, however, an outdated colonial construct that is irrelevant in the modern United States. We are no longer two relatively homogeneous regions, but a diverse collection of 50 states, many with their own heterogeneous populations.
“The Electoral College now does more to suppress votes than it does to stop tyranny due to the heterogeneous demographics of many states. “ The best example of how the Electoral College is irrelevant is the candidacy of George Wallace. Wallace, arguably Hamilton’s ideal favorite son candidate, appealed almost exclusively to white, southern segregationists in the 1968 election. He ended up winning 13.5% of the popular vote and about 8.5% of the electoral college, taking Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia as well as one elector in North Carolina. George Wallace, a man that appeals exclusively to a certain homogeneous group, is much less likely to make headway now than in 1789. This serves as a good modern example of how the electoral college is no longer the necessary safeguard. The Electoral College now does more to suppress votes than it does to stop tyranny due to the heterogeneous demographics of many states. New York has a conservative population in the north that is completely sup-
pressed in national elections by the heavily liberal New York City. The same is true for Texas Democrats in Austin, Houston and San Antonio, whose votes are suppressed by Republicans in the more rural areas. So how did all of this affect the 2016 election? Well, it actually affected it remarkably. A big trend of young and educated voters has been movement towards places such as Texas and California. This makes their votes less powerful because those are heavily red and blue states. The effects of these population shifts are apparent in the results, however. Clinton lost Texas by 10 points. That sounds like a lot until you learn that Obama lost it by 16 points in 2012. Considering 2012 Obama far and above outperformed Clinton overall, this is a significant shift. So, despite the fact that Clinton underperformed Obama in key states like Wisconsin and Michigan, she overperformed in states like Texas which have seen an influx of liberal voting blocs like young people, educated people and Hispanics. The same is true in Arizona, where immigration has caused the once reliably red state to fall into the swing-state category. While these demographic shifts don’t change the actual popular vote, they take democratic votes away from swingable states like Michigan and Wisconsin: states that would be and were likely affected by these demographics shifts, and bring them to harder-to-swing states like Texas and Arizona. Another interesting point is how racialized the impacts of the Electoral College are. This is not intentional or inherent in its design nor is it always the case in elections. However, the voting in this election swung heavily based on race, with whites greatly favoring Trump, and Black people, Latinx people, and Asian people overwhelmingly favoring Clinton. This shift across racial lines, as opposed to ideological ones, is what caused states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to turn red. While those states each have smaller populations of Black Americans and Latinx Americans, their politics are heavily dominated by white, working class people.
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This means that white, working class people, due to their electoral power, have much more of an effect on the election’s outcome than black people, who tend to live heavily in solid red states like Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana and Hispanics who tend to live more in solid blue California and New York as well as red-leaning Texas. In other words, the huge uptick in Hispanic, Asian and Black voters this year, as well as the increasing proportion of minorities vs. whites in the US, didn’t do anything to affect the election’s outcome–effectively silencing their voices and the very real issues that are affecting their communities. Imagine a world without the electoral college. Imagine elections where presidential candidates don’t just visit a handful of swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Florida. Imagine them coming to swing districts, swing counties and swing cities instead. You know what’s a swing county? Dutchess County! Dutchess voted for Trump by a margin of just 1.1%, 48.4 to 47.3, making it closer than Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida or Colorado. Imagine presidential candidates no longer being deterred from reaching out to voters in New York, California or Texas. Imagine them coming to places like Poughkeepsie to hear our voices and our issues. The electoral college isn’t the only thing suppressing certain voting communities. As many people know, strict voter ID laws in North Carolina, Ohio and many other states targeted minority communities with, as so elegantly put by a NC judge, “surgical precision.” The illegality of convicted felons voting is another huge suppression, and there is little evidence to suggest that, while they are heavily more black than white, felon populations would even vote more democratic. The electoral college has become a tool of voter suppression just like all these modern designs for suppression, and it is time that we do away with it to make way for a 21st century style of democracy. One person should have one vote: no more, no less. That is why it is time to lose the electoral college for good.
OPINIONS
November 17, 2016
Page 9
Science community should continue to pressure Trump Steven Park Columnist
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s much as people may absolutely hate the idea, it’s an inescapable fact of our reality: Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States come January. Yes, the same man who talked about how vaccines gave a child autism and who claimed that climate change is a hoax created by the Chinese (The New Yorker, “Trump’s Anti-Science Campaign,” 08.21.2016). Naturally, I imagine the world’s scientists feeling more than a bit upset after news of Trump’s victory was announced after Election Day. What will happen to the development of science and technology in Trump’s America during the next four years? Nothing pretty, that’s for sure. While the future is now more unpredictable than ever, I’m willing to bet that scientific progress is not at the forefront of Trump’s plans as president. He once called the National Health Institute “terrible” on public radio and thought it would be a great idea to have conservative talk radio host Michael Savage bring “common sense” to the institution (STAT, “What does Donald Trump’s win mean for science and medicine?,” 11.09.2016). It’s important to note that Savage is infamous for saying that autism is just “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” as well as “a racket” designed to let poorer families find new ways to be parasites of the government (New York Daily News, “Protests sparked by Savage autism comments,” 07.21.2008). However, it remains unclear exactly how Trump will influence funding for the sciences as president. While he did state that Americans “must make the commitment to invest in science, engineering, healthcare and other areas that will make the lives of Americans better, safer and more prosperous,” he has yet to release any sort of plan on how he would accomplish that goal (STAT). It is difficult to believe, however, that Trump will ever follow up on that promise to invest in
science to improve the lives of others when he practically labeled himself as an anti-environmentalist throughout his campaign. In fact, Trump made a rather hefty list of things he wanted to get rid of once he takes over the Oval Office. Items of the list include the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, the “Waters of the U.S.” rule that’s designed to protect America’s waterways and wetlands, and the entirety of the Environmental Protection Agency (The New York Times, “20 Things Donald Trump Said He Wanted to Get Rid of as President,” 11.14.2016). In addition, Trump vowed to pull the U.S. out of the historic Paris climate agreement, which had more than 190 countries agree to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to lessen the impact of global warming.
“Trump vowed to pull the U.S. out of the historic Paris climate agreement.” That last part about the Paris climate agreement is among the scientific community’s top concerns. Last September, more than 375 scientists from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, including 30 Nobel Prize winners, wrote an open letter to Trump warning him that withdrawing from the Paris Accord would prove to be disastrous (Reuters, “More than 300 scientists warn over Trump’s climate change stance,” 09.20.2016). Now that he’s president-elect, Trump will likely work towards fulfilling his promise to promote oil drilling and coal mining in an effort to restore jobs in those fossil fuel industries. “Regulations that shut down hundreds of coalfired power plants and block the construction of new ones — how stupid is that? We’re going to bring back the coal industry, save the coal industry,” Trump said to an arena full of cheering
people (The New York Times, “Donald Trump’s Energy Plan: More Fossil Fuels and Fewer Rules,” 05.26.2016). Just to keep things in check, the World Health Organization estimated that 7 million people died due to indoor and outdoor air pollution in 2012 and more than 600,000 children will die each year from breathing in toxic air (STAT). But it’s not just Trump. The entire U.S. government will be controlled by several people with less-than-stellar track records on following science. Trump’s running mate, former Indiana governor Mike Pence, has resisted answering whether he believes that evolution is real and once published an essay piece in 2001 that claimed, “Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill” (Popular Science, Trump VP Choice Mike Pence Doesn’t Agree With Science,” 07.15.2016). The head of Trump’s EPA transition team, Myron Ebell, is known as “an oil industry mouthpiece” and has asserted that greenhouse gas pollution could be beneficial (The New York Times, “Donald Trump Could Put Climate Change on Course for ‘Danger Zone’,” 11.10.2016). It is also very possible that creationists Ben Carson and Sarah Palin may hold positions in Trump’s cabinet. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it appears science will take a backseat in Trump’s America, and the entire nation will feel the rippling effects. Can anything be done about this when the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court are all under his command? There actually is. Place Donald Trump and his government under constant scrutiny and keep the protests alive. Of course, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people accused me of keeping the country divided and polarized, but that’s not what I’m asking for, either. I don’t see the benefit of shunning those who voted for the other party and refusing to communicate with them under any circumstances. As divided as we may be, we are all part of the same country, and thus the same boat.
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On the other hand, protesting against politicians is very different from yelling at fellow voters. We should absolutely not be complacent with whatever Trump does, because it’s his job as president to listen to public outrage. Trump himself stated that the government should serve the people. If that’s the case, then he has no right to complain about angry protesters. It’s the president’s duty to change in accordance to the will of the people, not the other way around.
“It is vital to create that stressor so that Trump never gets the feeling that he can get away with anything he wants.” The protesters may never be satisfied with whatever compromise he makes, but that’s part of democracy, just like how many people refused to acknowledge President Obama. What is important is that we always remind Trump that he will be held accountable for his rhetoric and actions. He must be subjected to a barrage of criticisms and opposition to let him know that people are upset at his presidency and that his entire reputation is at stake. If that sounds arduous and stressful, that’s because being president is not supposed to be an easy job. It is vital to create that stressor so that Trump never gets the feeling that he can get away with anything he wants. Set the bar really, really high so that Trump has no choice but to either try to reach our expectations or go down in history as a pathetic, miserable failure. If he’s going to be America’s 45th president, then that is the burden he must carry.
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OPINIONS
Page 10
November 17, 2016
American identity warrants critique in wake of election Emma Jones Senior Editor
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he night of Tuesday, Nov. 8, I expected to see students enthusiastically celebrating a momentous victory for American women. I expected spirits to be unusually high after an arduous election season. I expected to watch perhaps the most controversial, but undeniably the most politically prominent, female figure in U.S. political history shatter the ultimate glass ceiling. What I witnessed was a drastically different sight: hoards of people screaming “primally” in the center of the quad, intermittently chanting, “fuck Donald Trump”; fellow students, many of whose livelihoods will be seriously threatened come Jan. 20, staring blankly at their computer screens, or else with tears running down their faces. As the news of Trump’s triumph began to sink in, the “glass ceiling” that feminist leaders have been urging us to break since the late ’70s began to feel more like a concrete ceiling. However, I would argue that it’s about time we– as feminists, as young voters and as a nation–felt the true weight of the oppression that persists in the U.S. I’m not saying there are benefits to a Trump presidency; I won’t even claim this to be a silver lining, because there isn’t one. But the Democratic Party has grown complacent with the seemingly leftward trend in social and political progress, and–although it shouldn’t have taken a flagrantly discriminatory, socially regressive egomaniac winning a national election to open our eyes–we can’t change that now. Clinton spelled out the ways in which Trump would set back progress decades for women. Most Liberals–and many Conservatives–can by now rattle off a long list of misogynist acts: his continual appearance-based judgments of women; his insistence that sexual assault within the military is only to be expected; most horrifically, his alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl. Many of these offenses, however, are not specific to Trumpism. It is crucial for the U.S. to address the ways in which it is, and always has been, a breeding ground for misogyny. In some states, insurers and employers are still
permitted to refuse to comply with the birth control provision instated as part of Obamacare, therefore denying women access to affordable contraception (Think Progress, “How Some States are Rolling Back the Clock to a Time Before Roe v. Wade,” 01.22.13). Lawmakers continue to push back against the progress made toward reproductive freedom in the 1970s, “slowly passing abortion restrictions, shutting down women’s health clinics, targeting abortion providers, and inching the country backwards” (Think Progress). While the U.S. seemed to be working toward deconstructing a system that disproportionately put non-white and low-income women at risk, current policymakers are steadily reinforcing these historical divides. Although the Left has undeniably taken action against anti-choice politicians and activists, it has done little to dispel the myth that Americans are increasingly in favor of reproductive rights; in fact, it has arguably perpetuated such misconceptions. While it is true that many Conservatives have given up on the idea of overturning Roe v. Wade, this indicates not an acceptance of reproductive freedom, but merely a different approach to the restriction of basic human rights: Rolling Stone articulates, “Instead of trying to overturn Roe, which both sides see as politically unviable, they have been working instead to chip away at reproductive rights in a way that will render Roe’s protections virtually irrelevant” (Rolling Stone, “The Stealth War on Abortion: How the Tea Party and Christian Right are Eviscerating Rights,” 01.15.2014). President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights Nancy Northup explains, “What you’re seeing is an underhanded strategy to essentially do by the back door what they can’t do through the front” (Rolling Stone). This strategy is perhaps more threatening to women than attempting to undo Roe v. Wade, which would be met with great opposition. Admittedly, Liberals are far from oblivious to these measures; however, public outrage has centered on extreme measures. Meanwhile, as the Democratic Party continues to highlight blatant legal infringements, in most states, “the anti-abortion movement’s real success has been in
passing seemingly innocuous regulations known as TRAP laws (“Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers”), which are designed to punish abortion providers by burying them in mountains of red tape, and, ultimately, driving them out of business” (Rolling Stone). The rise of “PC culture” has in many ways served to legitimize these instances of extreme Conservatism. What started as a social movement intended to promote respect and acceptance of varying identities often, in practice, suppresses arguments against Right-wing politics. In the wake of Trump’s victory, there has been a rush to shift the blame of his impending presidency off the backs of certain pockets of his supporters. While it is critical to understand the logic behind his demographic–specifically white women, recent college graduates and the working class– there is no excuse to dismiss the inherent misogyny and racism of any demographic of voters along gender, race, class and educational lines. This attempt to bridge the gap is undoubtedly well-intentioned, and yet, “In the rush to be radically empathetic, and reckon with another’s disaffection, a different kind of normalization occurs: We validate an identity politics that is often rooted in denying other people’s right to the same” (The New Yorker, “What Normalization Means,” 11.13.2016). Although it is important to respect differences of opinion, there is a line between hearing Rightwing voices, and using them to justify the perpetuation of racism and other systems of oppressions. We often uphold the Obama administration as proof that America is now “colorblind” and PC culture frequently contributes to this delusion. Not only is declaring oneself or one’s nation “colorblind” inherently racist for obvious reasons, but it glazes over the grim truth: Obama’s presidency has only strengthened the resolve of Conservatives–who see this as a threat to the structure of white supremacy–to reclaim their territory. While most Liberals would be–and were–outraged and disgusted by this unabashed display of racism, many of the same people believe, on some level, that racism is not an issue that every American must confront. A country built on white su-
premacy cannot continue to ignore an issue that is deeply rooted in our national identity. As uncomfortable as white Americans may be with discussions of racism–and the rise of PC culture, if nothing else, has made it abundantly clear that this is the case–it is crucial to continue to have these conversations, albeit better informed and more inclusive of minority voices. Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike are at risk of “further legitimis[ing] Trump’s white nationalist narrative by turning a blind eye to the structural racism and misogyny that swept him to victory” (Newstatesman, “Make no Mistake – Donald Trump’s Victory Represents a Racist ‘Whitelash,’” 11.09.2016). As much as we would like to believe that it was simply the promise of steady employment or the appeal of radical change that attracted voters to Trump–and these were certainly factors– rationalizing the unexpected outpouring of Trump support is a slippery slope. It is not enough to demonize Trump, or even his supporters; rather, “In the coming days, weeks and months, we need considered analysis about the construction of whiteness and politicians’ arguments that white identity [is] under attack from... minorities” (Newstatesman). So consider this a wake-up call. Donald Trump isn’t an outlier; he garnered 47.5 percent of the country’s support. And while it’d be foolish to argue that the U.S. would be in just as much danger in a Trump-less world, we cannot continue to attribute all the nation’s shortcomings to a single person. In order to move forward, it is of course essential to recognize the ways in which Trump will attempt to silence minority voices; however, it is equally crucial to acknowledge the ways we have failed to ensure that these voices are continually heard in a constructive way. Most importantly, we must be there for those around us (as well as for ourselves) who are people of color, who are survivors of sexual assault, who are differently abled, who are LGBTQIA+, who are Muslim, who are Jewish, who are immigrants or the children of immigrants. Because as scary as the idea of building a wall around our nation may be, it is equally dangerous to construct walls within it.
White progressives must confront community prejudices JD Nichols
Guest Columnist
T
he day after the 2016 presidential election, The New York Times published an editorial by journalist Nate Cohn titled “Why Trump Won: Working-Class Whites.” The Guardian similarly released an article focusing on the white working-class in Ohio, and countless other newspapers, media sites and blogs followed suit. It has become common knowledge that dispossessed whites were the chief player in Donald Trump’s victory (despite the fact that Trump voters as a whole had higher incomes than Clinton voters). Consequently, the lesson that Liberals and those on the Left learned from this election was the necessity of addressing economic issues impacting working-class, post-industrial white America. But does this realization go far enough? It is my responsibility, and that of other white people, to examine the easy explanations given for Secretary Clinton’s loss and to question whether or not we are also implicated in the wave of discontent that flooded through the ballot box and into the White House. It is not a novel suggestion that there is a massive communication divide between the Right and the Left.
“[W]e who are perhaps best situated to break down this barrier...are often the least inclined to attempt to break it down.” The few things on which the two sides seem to be able to agree center around vague concepts—like “freedom” and “liberty”—for which each side has a different definition of and perspective on. This divide seems insurmountable at times. How often have those of us growing up in predominantly white, Conservative, rural areas spoken of our longing to get out of their small
town and into a (preferably urban) environment that accepts our progressive views? How many times have we silently rolled our eyes when we hear our relatives talk about what Bill O’Reilly told them about the previous night? Not only is there a massive communication gap between the poles of political ideology, but we who are perhaps best situated to break down this barrier—the children and relatives of traditionally Conservative people—are often the least inclined to attempt to do so. Particularly when these issues are those of race or of other oppressions by which we are not disempowered, we are demonstrating moral failure every time we simply cannot be bothered to fight for those who do not share our privilege to those closest to us. It doesn’t feel like we do nothing when we’re going through those moments; it feels like a huge test of endurance, and who would willingly make that worse for themself? So often we afterwards tell a friend about how exhausting it was to simply share a space with a family member espousing those views. Sometimes, if we want “social capital” or if we want to feel affirmed in our righteousness, we tell a Black friend, or a friend of color, or a gay friend, or any friend who is a member of the communities that we did not defend to our relatives. And we expect them to reassure us that they would have stayed silent in the situation too, that we were really quite brave for enduring what we had to endure at the hands of our family. But what does our silence actually do? It does nothing of value. It tells our relatives that we either agree with them, or that we think their points are unanswerable, or–and this is usually the closest to being correct–that we have deemed ourselves too superior, too ideologically pure, to bother interacting with their thoughts and ideas. To a population that has felt ignored and ridiculed by those of us who have clamored to escape our hometowns, this behavior on our part simply serves as confirmation that they are misunderstood and under attack. And so we go home for holidays, we silently endure dinners and we try to say as little as possible about what we think. We hope topics of
social justice never arise in conversation. When they invariably come up, we look down at our plate and we remember all the times we have heard Black people, people of color, other marginalized people say “it’s not our job to educate.” We silently apply that to ourselves, lightly skipping over the fact that we, as white people, are in no such position with regards to our families.
“[W]hat is the point of our socially just convictions anyways? If it is simply to feel self-righteous in the face of opposition, then our convictions are worthless.” We go up to our rooms or go out with friends as quickly as possible, thinking back to Seth Meyers’s most recent political segment, or wondering what exact wording Jon Stewart would use to mock and to rip our grandparents’ views into shreds. After all, if a viewpoint is too ridiculous to take seriously, then there is no reason to bother contesting it. The constant ridicule and superior, self-righteous manner with which many of us engage (or do not deign to engage) with the ideology of our family and those from our hometown do not go unnoticed. Our families firmly believe their way of life is being attacked, and we, largely, are doing nothing to explain why certain elements of society desperately need to change. Fox News is never going to expose viewers to the reasons why white people as a class are being called racist, why defending “the American way of life” is viewed as bigoted. It only says that the viewers, wherever they are, are under attack, and the “PC society” is condemning them for defending themselves. In what world do we not have the responsibility to fill in the blanks will-
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
fully left by the newscasters? Engagement with family will not immediately save the world, but it has the potential to start stemming the tide of fear that is so easily exploitable by the Donald Trumps of the world. Talking with family instead of talking around them (or passive-aggressively at them) is also essential if we expect any change at all to take place in their thinking or the way they understand the world. When it is so common to post on social media how waiting for the older generation to die off is the only cure for society’s ills, do we think those whom we are talking about cannot see? Do we expect to be listened to in family discussions if we do nothing but indicate to our families that their views are so beneath us that we view it as a burden to even be around them? There is no set script for us to follow in all of our interactions with white family members— widespread political communication in the age of specialized news sources and commentators is next to impossible. There is no single argument, no news report, editorial or political candidate that has the potential to convert huge swaths of the white, Conservative Midwest to the causes of human rights and social justice. Those days are gone, if they ever truly existed in the first place. Our responsibility now, as the white children of our families, is to put ourselves on the line in ways that nobody else can, to engage with our families, listen to the ways that they describe their pain or anxiety, learn about their struggles and help them learn about the struggles of those who do not share their identity-based privileges. Some family members will certainly be adamant in their beliefs, but others might be open to honest dialogue with no pretenses or condescension. If we don’t even try to engage them, what is the point of our socially just convictions anyways? If it is simply to feel self-righteous in the face of opposition, then our convictions are worthless. If the point is to fight for the survival of our non-white, non-straight and otherwise marginalized friends, however, then we must come to terms with our responsibilities and we must go to work.
November 17, 2016
OPINIONS
Mass anti-Trump protests must persist Sylvan Calko Perlmutter Guest Columnist
I
went down to New York City this past Saturday on Nov. 12 to join thousands of other concerned and outraged Americans in the ongoing protests outside of Trump Tower. We mobilized in Union Square Park and marched the 40 odd blocks up to that gaudy edifice of phallic self tribute, all the while shouting slogans like “Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Donald Trump go away!” and “Not my president!” Unlike the recent protests in Portland, the march did not descend into violence and was, on the whole, characterized by the good vibes that come about when people are united by a common purpose. I carried these sentiments back with me to Vassar, only to have them brusquely dispelled by one of my more cynical friends who argued that the protests were fundamentally undemocratic and that there was no benefit to marching in them beyond the trivial accumulation of leftist social capital. Over the past few days, these same criticisms have been voiced by many figures in progressive and Liberal circles. Therefore, I would like to justify my protest actions and by extension the protest actions of the tens of thousands of Americans still out on the streets. These protests are a warning to Trump that he does not have the sweeping mandate that he assumes he has and that his toxic rhetoric against racial and religious minorities will not simply be forgotten because he has abandoned some of his more extreme policy proposals. Every assembled body is a reminder that he cannot violently alienate half of the population and then expect docility and compliance. By continuously protesting over the next four years, we can show Trump and those who would attempt to emulate his path to power that bigotry makes successful governance difficult in the long term. I would not be surprised if protests, unauthorized this time around, became the new normal over the next four to eight years if Trump over-
estimates the quiescence of the American public. Trump’s first reaction to the current wave of protests only reaffirmed why he should be so vigorously opposed. He tweeted that these were “professional protesters...incited by the media,” which is contradictory in addition to being utterly false. This is the same type of language used by the Putin regime in Russia when it spread propaganda that Ukrainian Euromaidan protesters were in the pay of the “West.” Trump shares the view of neo-authoritarians like Putin and Erdogan that no sensible citizen could possibly be opposed to them and so these protesters must be in the power of outside forces. Suffering from despotic myopia, Trump’s foreign role models have denied the independent political agency of oppositional citizens and thereafter used that as a justification to repress dissent and push even larger segments of their societies to the political margins. And Trump’s personal enthusiasm to repress was made evident early on in his campaign when he spoke of the need to “open up the libel laws” to sue journalists who wrote unflattering articles about him. Better to protest early and often before Trump is in power than begin during his tenure and face stiffer resistance to establishing a precedent of mass demonstrations. Continuous protest can keep the American psyche from normalizing the Trump administration. Although we must accept that Trump will be our President, we must not accept his base morals and brand of politics as having a normal and regular place in our democratic structures. They simply don’t. Just look at his new chief strategist, Steve Bannon, whose website Breitbart is the principle echo chamber of the white supremacist, antisemitic and sexist ramblings of the alt-right. What does giving this man national security clearance spell for the country? What types of attitudes and beliefs are being explicitly and implicitly upheld?
Or maybe take a look at Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who signed a law (thankfully blocked by a federal judge) that would have forced women to cremate or bury the fetal tissue remaining after an abortion or miscarriage and has professed support for gay conversion therapy. And let’s not forget that the President-elect himself is an unapologetic serial sexual assaulter, who was scheduled to go on trial for the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in December. Having such people in power only further corrodes the strength of our society and democracy. Protesting these characters, far from being undemocratic, is essential in preserving our democracy. However, I must admit that there is an undemocratic current running through the protest movement when “Not my president” is chanted. Despite the obsolete nature of the Electoral College, framing dissent in calls for regime change instead of regime reform would only more quickly bring about the enfeeblement of democracy we are fighting against. This would leave us even more vulnerable to the powerful currents of reactionism roaring through our country. Accordingly, I would advise people to recast the chant of “Not my president” as a reminder to the public that Trump never wanted to be a president for everyone in our society in the first place. When he used racist, sexist and Islamophobic rhetoric to mobilize support, he made it clear that he was going to primarily be the president for white male Christian Americans. I suspect that my sentiments will not catch on and that there will be many protesters engaged in calling for regime change, but I will hold firm to the belief that it’s better to be out in the streets yelling “Not my president” than to stay inside and nod at the TV screen in unwitting acquiescence. The question now is not whether we should or should not protest, but rather how can we protest better? We have four years to find a suitable answer and a lot hinges on it.
Forces of love will always trump hatred Dylan Horowitz Guest Columnist
O
n Election Day, many members of the Vassar community, let alone the entire nation, were struck with a pang of fear as presidential nominee Donald Trump became President-elect Donald Trump. Within the past few days, we have already seen a spike in violent incidents towards women, African Americans, Jews and Muslims. Immediately after the election, the majority of Wall Street froze, canceling all private contracts until it became clear how this election will impact the economy. It isn’t looking good for that economy though, as the U.S. dollar is currently of lower value than post-Brexit Britain and possibly below its value during the late 2000s recession. As I look upon the faces of my fellow students and teachers day-to-day, it is clear that while they are trying to keep moving forward, they are inwardly panicked–terrified with what the future holds. The very real dangers of a Trump presidency became more and more apparent. I myself am horrified as well, not for my own safety but the safety of those around me. Being a privileged member of the community, I have fairly little to worry about when returning home with exception of finances and religion, of which I am Jewish. Yet, it is times like these when we must come together most of all to fight the oppression that is threatening our safety and ability to be who we choose to be instead of who society says we have to be. The day after the presidential election was the anniversary of Kristallnacht, which, for those not familiar, was when the first incidents of extreme antisemitism in pre-World War II Germany occurred. That night, people went throughout the streets in Germany and threw stones in the glass windows of shops owned by Jewish individuals. On the anniversary of this event, I woke up not just to find out Trump had won the election, but Nazi swastikas and rhetoric had been spraypainted on glass windows in South Philadelphia. Almost 80 years after the events that led to the
Holocaust, it seemed as if we were heading in the same direction. So I took a walk. I walked around campus, listened to music and took in the somber mien the day’s weather was setting. And on this walk, something snapped in me and suddenly my sadness and anger focused itself. It turned into determination and said “This isn’t the end. We can’t just cope and weep and mourn for our country. We need to take what we have and defend it.” It has taken decades for us as a society and a community to obtain the rights we now have. Women can vote, people of the same sex can get married, segregation is illegal and discrimination is outlawed in businesses. Yet Donald Trump and his followers promise to reverse most of this. While Donald Trump may say he plans to protect LGBTQ+ members, his Vice President Mike Pence promises to roll back all legislature previously made to ensure this protection, including the right for same-sex couples to marry. The President-elect has promised to allow discrimination in private businesses and to deport countless American citizens, many of whom are here legally. I have heard many people say over the past few days that Trump won’t end up doing most of these things, that his promises are empty, but considering who this man has picked for his Cabinet members, we must take caution and assume that he plans to make every promise happen. Not only must we believe that he intends to spread this mass-legalization of hatred, we must believe he can, considering the Republican party now owns both the Legislative and Executive Branches, not to mention that they will most likely own the Supreme Court if Donald Trump ends up appointing the next member. So the question now stands as such–will we let him commit these atrocious hate crimes? Will we just stand back and sip our tea and drink our wine and pretend that everything is going to be fine? Will we comfort ourselves, learn to cope, then continue with life as usual? No.
No, we will not let this stand. We will not let our country be ruled by hate. We will not let the decades of hard work, the lives lost, the people who have suffered, be in vain. We will take to the streets and protest. We will write petitions. We will fight discrimination where we see it and make sure our persecuted ones know that they are not alone and they don’t have to take this abuse. We are those who study history and those who study history know the power in civil disobedience. We must honor these traditions. We will honor these traditions. It is our civic duty. If they create unjust laws, we will break them. If they threaten us with jail, we will give them our wrists. If they throw stones at us, we’ll turn the other cheek because we have to be better than them. We cannot promote love and peace if we turn to violence and war. This country has fought long and hard to be free from tyranny throughout the centuries and will continue to fight, but in order to gain sympathy and followers, we must practice peaceful protest. If they punch you, use self-defense to end the conflict but do not inflict unnecessary harm. If they slap you or kick sand up your shoes, know that they are beneath you and that your cause is greater than that of a petty racist. We must show this country that we will not be oppressed. This is not just some helpless few screaming into the void–we are a revolution. We have taken the streets of Seattle, Manhattan and D.C. Together, we will unite and our voices will be heard. Our revolution is no longer about a new president, although many of us would certainly hope that the Electoral voters change their minds before voting on Dec. 19. This is about showing President-elect Donald Trump–a man so despised that people are refusing to even call him President, just President-elect–that he can take his hate and choke upon it. We fight for love, and love will always find a way.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Page 11
Word on the street Who is your favorite historical nasty woman? “Lucia Sanchez Saornil, she was a Spanish poet and feminist!” — Dean Spyropoulos ’19
“Um...Marilyn Monroe.” — Nitasha Giran ’20
“I love Marie Antoinette... people give her so much shit, though.” — Patrick Tanella ’19
“Probably Eleanor Roosevelt...I’m named after her, actually.” — Eileanor LaRocco ’20
“Eartha Kitt.” — Tatum Phillips ’20 and Karly Andreassen ’20
“Cleopatra.” — Katie Scibelli ’19
Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor
HUMOR & SATIRE
Page 12
November 17, 2016
Breaking News From the desk of Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor This week the Humor and Satire section is giving pause to reflect on the pain and fear caused by Tr*mp’s election Imagining the election results Grilled cheese, despair and like the death of a loved one the normalization of Tr*mp Sumiko Neary
Beth Overly
Guest Contributor
You have died You Who wakes me up gently by the sliver of warmth that embraces me Before falling back into the world You who walks beside me the clicks on the ground were reliable You were a good walker, never too far behind or ahead with one hand always on my shoulder
I’ll miss the dinners we had whether the two of us or with many others sometimes we defended us, others we celebrated either way I was whole because of it Safe
Guest Contributor
You who have never left my mind have died
I am awaken, but this time by falling I walk the same path but the silence is jarring at dinner, brunch, and every other minute I breathe I try to remember your sound, space that you were indeed once well
Maybe one day you’ll come back to wrap me in security and reaffirm my self but until then I walk trying to fill the silence I breathe doubly, heavy and each moment I both try to forget you and remember you, you who has died
A musing on hate symbols, epidemic since the election Evelyn Frick
Humor and Satire Editor
what to do when you see a swastika 1. pinch yourself to make sure you haven’t been transported back to 1940s germany 2. stare at it for awhile 3. cry 4. try to rationalize it 5. lose all ability for words 6. wish you weren’t the way you are 7. cry 8. try to scrub it away 9. (try to scrub it away because no one else will)
10. (try to scrub it away until your knuckles bleed) 11. wrap up your knuckles 12. fall down and weep 13. wonder if you matter 14. curl up 15. cry 16. get up 17. wipe yours tears 18 (wish you didn’t have to get up) 19. (wish you weren’t down to begin with) 20. try to move on 21. (get angry about the fact that you have to move on) 22. move on
It happened that the Monday before the Tuesday that Donald Trump was elected President was my first day of work at a fast casual grilled cheese restaurant. I was issued two shirts, a hat and told that I could drink fountain soda for free.
Six hours later, I drove home with a medium Coke in the cup holder of my Mercury Mystique. I hopped in the shower and tried, unsuccessfully, to scrub the smell of tomato soup from my skin.
By five in the evening, I was back in my car and heading to school. I returned home a little before 11 and knocked back a grown-up dose of liquid Benadryl. That night, I barely slept. I tossed and turned for hours, altogether unable to separate the stress of sandwich-making from that of politics.
I woke up on Tuesday morning and did it all over again, but with one significant addition—I voted. By the time I returned home Tuesday evening, it felt both certain and impossible that Donald Trump would be elected.
It’s strange and shameful to say that on that night, what I felt more than anything was tired. When I returned home from work on Wednesday, I noticed a post on my Facebook feed. It was written by my friend, Evelyn Frick, who happens to be the Editor of the Humor section of this newspaper. She kindly offered to make this section a space for students to respond to the results of the election—the key word there being “students.”
Two things you might not know about me are that I don’t go to Vassar and that I’m not very good at following directions. Evelyn, in what I can only conclude was a lapse in good judgment, allowed a dumb, exhausted Pennsylvanian to write this essay anyway.
I feel fortunate to be able to work out what I’m feeling through words, especially now that I’ve had the chance to sleep and process the week that we’ve had in this country. On Friday, I sat in my bathtub and thought about how lucky I am to have never been taught to believe in the power of conversion therapy.
On Saturday, I looked into the eyes of a Muslim pediatrician and listened to her story—she does not feel safe in the only country she’s ever called home. Later that night, I watched as Kate McKinnon sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” on “Saturday Night Live.” I’m writing this in bed on Sunday night and wondering if there’s a way to feel all of the things that I should be feeling.
How does one flip a grilled cheese with a heavy heart? How do I stay hopeful without adjusting to a normal that I don’t accept? How do we combat hatred with love? We’re not okay— but I have to believe that if we can learn to hear each other, one day we will be. -Conversion therapy is a real fear for LGBTQIA individuals, particularly now that Vice President-Elect Mike Pence believes there is virtue in it. (There isn’t.) If you would like to support foundations that in turn support LGBTQIA youth, please consider donating to The Trevor Project, Point Foundation or The True Colors Fund, to name a few.
White U.S. Liberalism fostered an environment ripe for Tr*mp’s victory by Gabi Anspach and Leela Stalzer, Guest Contributors
60 million people voted for Trump, but many more propelled him into office. The Liberal establishment is deeply implicated in Trump’s election given its longstanding neglect and abuse of marginalized people, particularly people of color and rural populations. Our country is not “going back 50 years.” Trump’s popularity is consistent with the now, with the racism, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, classism and other forms of oppression erupting from the Right and supported by the Left, including by people like Hillary Clinton. As Thomas Frank recently pointed out in The Guardian, “[T]here is a kind of chronic complacency that has been rotting American liberalism for years, a hubris that tells Democrats they need do nothing different, they need deliver nothing really to anyone– except their friends on the Google jet and those nice people at Goldman. The rest of us are treated as though we have nowhere else to go and no role to play except to vote enthusiastically on the grounds that these Democrats are the ‘last thing standing’ between us and the end of the world.” The Democratic Party is only Left-wing when compared to the Republican Party.
The Democrats have orchestrated “Wars on Terror,” bailed out Wall Street, pushed mass incarceration, dismissed racist police terror while asserting that “all lives matter,” ignored continued segregation, deported millions, supported occupation of Palestinian territory, made non-committal promises regarding climate change, hollowly championed white feminism, remained mostly silent about Standing Rock and overseen vast increases in wealth inequality right alongside the Republicans. In response to the election, many Clinton supporters have chanted that they are “still with her.” But has she ever really been with most of us? Her interests have, at heart, been to maintain American hegemony abroad and satisfy American business elites at home. Speaking as one Hillary voter, supporting the lesser of two evils is not social justice politics. We cannot let ourselves be deluded into thinking that just by casting a Liberal vote, we are doing our part to fight injustice. Trump’s presidency signals a new urgency to fight back beyond the ballot. How many more people will now be unable to receive medical treatment? How many more will be sexually assaulted? How many more Muslim
people will be attacked or scapegoated? How many more Black people shot with impunity on the streets? How many more Central American and Mexican people living in the U.S. will be deported? To all “progressive” white people–and this includes you, fellow white women–we need to do better. People of color have been charging us, along with the Democratic Party and entire U.S. government, with all degrees of racism for as long as we can remember, but we haven’t wanted to listen. In addition, we have neglected to engage our white friends and family enough in critical dialogue about race. Now is not the time to delete our overtly racist Facebook friends. If we truly care about dismantling racism in this country, we have to do the work. If we aren’t discussing or acting against racism, we are only going to continue acting shocked when bad things continue to happen. Racism isn’t the only axis of oppression we need to address. This election has highlighted the desperation of lower-income rural white people. As David Wong points out, “Step outside of the city, and the suicide rate among young people fucking doubles.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
The recession pounded rural communities, but all the recovery went to the cities. The rate of new businesses opening in rural areas has utterly collapsed ... To those ignored, suffering people, Donald Trump is a brick chucked through the window of the elites. Are you assholes listening now?”(Cracked, “How Half of America Lost Its F***ing Mind,” 10.12.2016). While continuing to fight racism, we need to address rural voters’ real economic concerns. This being said, it is flawed to blame Trump’s victory entirely on the government’s classism toward rural white people. Both college-educated and non-college educated white folks came out for Trump. In fact, more white college-educated voters chose Trump than Clinton. Take this in contrast to the huge majority of voters of color with no degree who voted for Clinton (The Guardian, “White and Wealthy Voters Gave Victory to Donald Trump, Exit Polls Show,” 11.09.2016). Racism is clearly at play. Despite their differences, both Trump and Hillary represent racist corporate interests. Now is the time to recognize this and fight back. The rules of our world are not as fixed as they may seem.
HUMOR & SATIRE
November 17, 2016
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Courtesy of an anonymous artist
The Miscellany Crossword
“Crossword Kitchen” ACROSS
1. The thens and the these 5. A kiln for drying hops 9. Buddhist spiritual teacher 13. Those small buffalo again 14. That Guy 16. Smallest U.S. paper bills 17. Ride the radical waves 18. Pavlov’s favorite way to travel 19. Never tell them to Han Solo 20. Northwest Indian state known for wildlife 22. Meeting place to get actor signatures 24. Horses hate this ancient city 26. M in y=mx+b 27. Makes the hard choices 30. Give them at weddings, drunkenly 34. Penultimate wedding words 35. Beginning 38. A basin for holy water 39. Rarer, second smallest bills 41. There’s a whole game about binding him 43. Satisfy, but smaller 44. Grandfatherly way to refer to children 46. “You must construct an additional _____” 48. Won’t write in space
Answers to last week’s puzzle
by Kim Carlson and Mackenzie Little
49. Many of 35-Across 51. Use all 4 mystery ingredients or you’re ______ 53. Princess Peach’s orange friend 56. Capital of Norway 57. Robert Flavor, to his friends 61. Deviated from a straight course 64. You can do it 65. Marsh plants 67. Python editor 68. WHAT YELLING IS 69. Bristles on an invertebrate 70. Main Earthbound boy 71. Christopher, Jason, and Bruce 72. Anti-drug organization with t-shirts now worn ironically 73. A long trip, alternately, a Star franchise
36. Host of 30 Minute Meals, now has talk show 37. Baby powder 40. Potato eyes 42. A type of salmon or... wine? 45. Four Seasons 1964 doo-wop hit 47. A parent who reads your diary 50. What a sieve does to flour 52. A lamentation, or accusation 54. Turned, harshly and violently
DOWN
1. They send people to space 2. Burden 3. Hosted by 57-Across and Anne Burrell 4. Driving animal tour 5. Aged term for “frequent” 6. Put these on to seem fancy 7. “Everybody take your _____” - high school teachers, always 8. Error’s companion 9. Hosted by Alton Brown pre-Cutthroat Kitchen 10. Ctrl + Z 11. Ctrl + Y 12. The Beatles don’t want to go back 15. Block of metal 21. Forum administrators 23. An epic poem 25. Arctic cryptid 27. Pokemon blob 28. Buzz Aldrin’s real first name 29. 36-Down’s characteristic voice 31. Non-gel laundry detergent 32. Tutor’s pupil 33. Exchange for goods or services
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
55. Meeting place of Stalin, Churchill and FDR 57. Cinderella’s mug night 58. Shitty clarinet 59. To Halsey, everything was this color 60. 2016 is a bad one, unanimously agreed 62. “Give me your lunch money or ____” 63. Productive place 66. Brown bear brown bear, what do you __?
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November 17, 2016
Student theater shows resilience in wake of election Kaitlin Prado
Guest Reporter
“T
he show must go on” took on multiple meanings this week as Vassar artists did their best to take care of themselves and entertain audiences in the wake of the recent presidential election. The performers interviewed for this article stated their respective identities for this article when the fate of so many identities is uncertain. Student performers have used their involvement in the theater community to engage with their varied emotions in this tumultuous climate. Director of “Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play” Miranda Cornell ’19 recalled the events of election night in the context of their dress rehearsal: “The only person who was allowed to be checking the election was our stage manager Liv [Rhodes ’18]...
and she would call out results. As things got darker...we actually cut off all election news because it was too distracting, it was too scary—we had a show to do and it had to get done because we’ve all put too much work into it to let it not happen because of this.” In spite of the emotional drain of the week, Cornell remarked, “This show has become...a space that is easier to process and heal in because of these people...” Cornell recalled an inspirational lyric from “Burns,” “Nothing protects us, nothing holds us, nothing leads us on, but we stumble ahead anyway, we bleed, we scrape, we bite, we are going to fight.” She continued, “The people in Act 1, they use stories to lift them out of some of the darkest times imaginable...and I think that message has really stuck with us and helped us the past couple
Courtesy of Miranda Cornell
“Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play” and “Blood Play,” as well as a myriad of other student plays this past weekend, provided outlets for healing and self-expression during political tumult.
of days.” Cornell: “I am a cisgender heterosexual woman of Japanese and Jewish descent. I struggle with mental disabilities and disorders.” “Burns” actor Nic Penn ’19 recalled the struggle of performing this week. “It was really hard—it was hard to get out of bed, it was hard to get in the space, but once I was there and once everyone was there and warming up, it was escape and it was just beautiful,” Penn said. “People talk about theater being escapism for the artists, but it’s escapism for the performers involved as well.” Penn: “I am cis, Mexican American.” “Burns” Stage Manager Liv Rhodes ’18 spoke to the strength of the people involved in the production. “I have actors who are really sick and haven’t left their beds for two days, but they get out there and they do it,” she noted. “It’s just a really nice escape to have people that you love to work with, and you know are incredibly talented vibe creatively off one another, and to hear an audience laugh when you want them to laugh is just a really beautiful, exceptional thing we have—especially given this week. I’m very happy to have had it and I think for me personally it would have been a lot harder if I didn’t have these people to lean on and to have this space to come to.” Rhodes: “I identify as a white, cisgender, straight woman.” The ensemble group Woodshed performed “Blood Play” this week, and the results of the election hit them during a naturally stressful tech week as well. Ensemble member Lukas Sarnow ’17 recalled, “We didn’t think this election would turn out like it did. We were midway through tech when this happened and it was definitely rough.” He continued, “There are a lot more things one could do, one could go to a protest, have a lot of conversations, and I think escapism is important too, and creation is important in terms of self-worth and reflection and how that can transpose onto another person. We created this, in this midst of this you can create something too—have your own solace in this way. And yeah, you can talk about the message of the show and all that
bullshit but we didn’t know what was going to happen—the message of the show changed because of the election so I think, in relation to this, it’s more about the act of creating.” Sarnow: “White, cis, gay male.” Imani Russell ’18 commented on the healing nature of participating in this show, saying, “Woodshed is the best thing that I have been a part of on this campus—to me we’re like a family, so creating with them is what pushes me in creating art in general.” They continued, “We worked so hard on this and there are a lot of dark moments in the show, but it’s very funny and these people in the show are very human and I think it was great that we could show this to an audience that would potentially also like to escape the aftermath of this week.” Speaking to the production itself, Russell commented on the importance of the performance despite its poor timing. “I think it was important to show a play like this on campus,” they remarked, “and it sucks that it was this week, but I think that just pushed us more to show people something that connected us as a group and connected to a lot of audience members.” Russell: “I’m a Black, Puerto Rican, queer, non-binary individual.” Mariah Ghant ’17 found strength in her ability to perform with Woodshed. She recounted, “This week has been certainly a whirlwind. I found it really hard to stop and process because every time I do stop and process where we are it inevitably gets me into a place where I can’t function. It’s been really hard, but I will say that being able to come to a space where I’m with people who I know care about me, who I care about, has been really beneficial and just being able to create through all of it is really good, being able to use my mind for something good, feels great.” Ghant: “I am a cisgender female who’s a little queer.” As a reporter and an artist, I consider myself lucky to have been able to feel even a little bit healed by seeing these honest productions this week.
Merely Players presents classical Shakespearean tragedy Sasha Gopalakrishnan Reporter
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with a tinge of comedy. However, once Antony departs for his honeymoon with Octavia, Caesar violates the truce and attacks Pompey’s camp. Angered, Antony returns to Egypt and begins to raise an army and navy against Caesar. He makes the love-struck decision to let Cleopatra command one of the ships, and, in a later battle, employs her help as well. Both times the Egyptian fleets abscond and Antony becomes convinced that Cleopatra is disloyal and vows to kill her. McKenzie did a fabulous job in depicting the emotions of anger and pain that come with a lover’s betrayal. Out of fear, Cleopatra locks herself in her monument and sends word to Antony that she has committed suicide. Overcome by grief, Antony decides to kill himself and join his lover. Cleopatra enters the scene in Antony’s dying minutes and despairingly cradles him in her arms. They share a poignant moment before he dies. Echoing the same quality that countless doomed lovers share throughout the history of Shakespearean tragedies,
Cleopatra eventually kills herself as well using poisonous snakes and is buried by Caesar beside her eternal love, Mark Antony. Lodhi elucidated his personal feelings towards the play, encapsulating some of its most striking elements: “To do a successful Shakespeare play, it’s not enough to just say the lines because the audience may not always understand the [language]. So to connect to them, a lot of emotion needs to come through in one’s acting and manner of delivery, which is something I think the cast really excelled at. Additionally, my favorite thing about the play is that it is a medley of tragedy, comedy and social commentary. The director, Max, did a great job with sprinkling this drama with comic relief, while still maintaining some of Antony’s most powerful scenes. The variety of scenes is commendable, from a drunken party, to a sword fight, to a naval battle with cannons. The sheer amount of diverse elements we managed to integrate is of course all thanks to the production team.”
Courtesy of Katie Scibelli
ntony and Cleopatra,” one of Shakespeare’s many classics, was performed this weekend in the Mug by Merely Players, Vassar’s only student theater organization dedicated solely to the production of classical theater and Shakespeare. With shows on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, the Mug was crammed each evening as Vassar students congregated for an enthralling performance of this famous tragedy. The play was directed by Max Fine ’17, with Henry McKenzie ’18 starring as Mark Antony, one of the three rulers of the Roman Empire, and Xiangyi Tan ’17 playing the beautiful Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Set in 40 B.C.E., “Antony and Cleopatra” begins several years after “Julius Caesar.” The visual look of the set was inspired by post-World War II Germany—a white sheet hangs in the background covered with slogans and graffiti that lend context to the play. Mark Antony, Octavius Caesar and Lepidus have formed the Second Triumvirate and rule over the Roman Empire, though Antony spends the majority of his time in Egypt having an affair with Cleopatra. Both McKenzie and Tan captured the essence of these eternal characters from the moment they introduce them—Antony was depicted as charming and amicable, while Cleopatra was spirited and combative, sporting regal attire and a feisty attitude. Their love affair was depicted as both passionate and tender from the very beginning, where both McKenzie and Tan shared a great dynamic as a stage duo. Fine, the director, explained his reasoning for proposing the idea of producing “Antony and Cleopatra.” He explicated, “‘Antony and Cleopatra’ is not as commonly performed as other Shakespearean plays like ‘Hamlet’ or ‘King Lear’ because it is very long. For it to be performed, especially to an audience of college students, I had to cut it severely. So I’ve been editing and condensing the script since January to adapt it for a Vassar audience’s viewership. But I was willing to do so because the play has a lot of fascinating and complex characters that I wanted to explore.” Stage Manager Katie Scibelli ’19 added, “The character developments are really interesting. Even the minor characters have pretty thorough arcs.”
Fine then elaborated on the reason for giving the minor characters a lot of importance in the play: “I wanted to foster a more ensemble-type feeling. I really wanted a team that would work together such that everyone felt included and felt like they could contribute. I definitely think that was a great decision. It’s been really nice to come in and work with this group of people every night. They possess a tremendous level of talent that I’ve been excited about ever since we cast them.” Scibelli drove this point home. “We have a lot of new talent working hard on this production, some of them freshmen, some of them students who have never taken part in theater before, and so it’s really exciting to see all this diverse talent at work.” The plot begins to develop after Antony receives news that Pompey, a relatively powerful man amongst the general population, is raising an army against the Triumvirate. Antony decides he must return to Rome and strengthen alliances with his other triumvir, Caesar, so that they have a greater chance of defeating Pompey. This initially proves to be difficult considering that Caesar has little respect for Antony because of all the time he spends in Egypt indulging his affair with Cleopatra instead of doing his duties as a Roman ruler. Thus, their relationship is quite strained. This tense dynamic was brought out well by McKenzie and Tabraiz Lodhi ’20—who plays Caesar—with McKenzie being easy-going and even patronizing, while Lodhi was of a stiff and unyielding temperament. However, the charming Antony agrees to marry Caesar’s sister Octavia in order to introduce familial ties that will dilute the animosity between them. The production team did a fine job depicting differences between Antony and Caesar, with both wearing uniforms that signify their high military ranks. Antony’s white uniform contrasted with Caesar’s navy blue one, further making the disparity between these triumvirs as clear as day. In Egypt, Cleopatra hears of Antony’s marriage and is positively livid. Already quite an aggressive character, she is driven into a jealous rage by this news. Tan’s incredible acting flawlessly conveyed the sheer wrath of a beautiful and powerful queen. Meanwhile, Antony and Caesar form a truce with Pompey and engage in an evening of drunken festivities to celebrate, infusing this classical tragedy
Merely Players, Vassar’s Shakespeare-focused theater group, presented “Antony and Cleopatra” in the Mug last week, a fraught historical drama full of high emotion and stark characterizations.
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
November 17, 2016
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French singer performs bilingual set at Loeb Late Night Patrick Tanella
Assistant Arts Editor
L
Courtesy of Joey Weiman
ast Thursday, I attended Late Night at the Loeb, a weekly event that extends the museum’s hours and highlights art, music and culture for students and the surrounding community. That evening, the French Club and Late Night staff collaborated to bring Vincent Dupas, a French singer that goes by the name My Name is Nobody, to the Loeb. Dupas’s beautiful vocals in both French and English gave each audience member a sense of warmth and compassion in somber times. Vincent Dupas has been performing under the name My Name is Nobody since 2002. Growing up in Nantes, France, Dupas was surrounded by American music, which drove him to perform predominantly in English for most of his career. Recently, however, he has began exploring singing in French and broadening his sound. Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies Anne Brancky met Dupas while studying abroad in Paris and the friendship developed further while she taught English in French public schools after graduating college. Brancky commented, “It’s kind of an interesting question, the way a lot of musicians whose native language is not English choose to perform in English to reach wider audiences.” Brancky was one of the key organizers of the event and once she found out that Dupas would be in New York for a week, she brought up the idea of him coming to Vassar to the French club. She said, “I thought it would be a cool opportunity for my students and students in the department to interact with someone who is not far from your age that plays music in bands and travels a lot. I like that the event is small, intimate and student-organized.” What separates Dupas from other performers most noticeably is his ability to perform in two languages. While others stumble attempting to, Dupas possesses the same grace and ef-
Vincent Dupas, who performs under the stage name My Name is Nobody, visited Vassar’s Late Night at the Loeb this past Thursday to play music with both American and French influences. fortless nature as he transitions from English to French. During the transition mid-way through the show, he jokingly said that he would forget the lyrics, but that was nowhere near apparent during his set in French. Dupas’s intersectional music ties in to the Loeb’s mission as a museum. Loeb Student Committee Member and French Club Co-President Matthew McCardwell ’17 coordinated the event with Brancky after coming back from studying abroad in France. He commented, “I think this is a really beautiful opportunity to have multilingual music in the galleries, which is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. It is important to think about different cultures and remind students that we are bigger than Vassar, Poughkeepsie or America because the art on the walls are. The point of the Loeb is to find
intersectional ways to engage with the art and have interesting dialogues, so our programming should reflect that as well.” In reference to having Dupas perform, McCardwell continued, “We are trying to show that learning and understanding a language, and all of the culture and history that comes with that, is an art of translation involved in translating one’s mind into a French mind or in a francophone context.” Dupas’s music perfectly intertwines the duality that all language students experience and certain students that are bilingual encounter in their daily lives. Dupas has released five albums, with all of them being in English. In contrast to the folk/ rock that encompassed the first four, the newest album is much more ambient and meditative. The album’s title, “Safe Travel,” is indicative of
its laid back and spiritual nature. He predominantly performed songs from this album at the show and his soothing vocals and instrumentals filled the room. Deep into the show, one could hear a pin drop. All that could be heard in the Loeb were the echoes of Dupas’s beautiful voice and the strum of his guitar. Dupas performing that night was especially important to me in light of recent events. Vassar has been somber since the election of Donald Trump on Nov. 9, and you can feel the uneasiness in every room you walk into. Each campus member has attempted to deal with the outcome in the best way that they can. Yet, while I was listening to Dupas’s set, I was not thinking about the election. I was not thinking about how scared I am for the future and for those close to me. I was thinking about the music. Dupas’s music fit the atmosphere of the Loeb perfectly, with his guitar and mellow demeanor. During a break in his set, Dupas said, “Music is good to make people feel better. That’s what I want to do for you. We have experienced similar catastrophic situations in France and we’re still alive. We have to go on.” The audience went silent, but seemed to take in Dupas’s kind words in a similar way to how we have been taking in everything since Tuesday night. In the future, I hope that the Loeb continues to collaborate with different language programs on campus in order to tie in many themes that students encounter in their daily lives. It facilitates important conversations in regards to music, culture and art. Brancky closed by saying, “I think it’s really interesting to think about the way that we interact with in particular French cultural artifacts, in this case music, and the way that, from his perspective, the way the exchange between learning songs in English and French works between the two languages/cultures.” In light of recent events, it is pertinent that we continue to appreciate and embrace other cultures and art forms, which includes the multilingual music of Vincent Dupas.
Tennessee Williams play revisited in senior production DRAMA continued from page 1
work, “The Glass Menagerie,” in reference to a play told through the memory of the narrator. “Vieux Carré” is a play consisting mostly of choppy vignettes and high drama with little drive. The students involved thus deserve a lot of recognition in how they gained considerable control over the material to create a cohesive and emotional piece of art that still paid homage to the great playwright’s intentions. The hazy stage periodically pierced through by spotlights contributed greatly to the idea of the plot being filtered through a character’s mind, as did the dreamy and minimalistic dance interludes interspersed between many of the scenes. The wonderful live jazz band accompanying the performances, led by composer and music director Conor Chinitz ’18, bolstered these moody scenes, deftly rising and falling along with the turbulent plot. “I had a blast working on ‘Vieux Carré,’” Chinitz wrote in an email. “I love combining art forms, so writing music to accompany dancelike transitions in a theatrical production was really exciting ... I’m so thankful for the cast, creative team, and especially the members of the pit band. They were all a joy to work with.” The most tangible element of this narrative manipulation, though, was the brilliant use of theatre in the round. The rotating points of view and swirling compositions within the circular stage essentially cast the surrounding audience as voyeurs into the writer’s mind. While watching, it was easy to feel the blurred tension between succumbing to the emotions of the characters and taking a step back to analyze as an audience member. The play was absolutely absorbing, and the acting engrossing. The audience felt at once intimately connected to and wildly disconnected from the characters, a dual effect that is the product of both Williams’s genius and the elements intensely specific to his individual experience and psyche. Tucker elaborated on the difficulty of this particular piece, namely the challengingly slow pace of the memory play, the specificity of the time and place Williams was depicting in this
Courtesy of Imrul Islam
show, did detailed dramaturgy and script analysis, blocked and choreographed the show, teched it and then performed,” Wilson enumerated. “It wasn’t until really last night, our closing performance, that it hit me that this was supposedly the ‘pivotal moment’ of my Vassar drama career.” Associate Professor of Drama and faculty advisor for this production Shona Tucker explained the reasoning behind the senior project in drama in an email: “The senior project is a capstone project created to address several educational and practical concerns: 1. It can create a means for the large number of seniors to participate in a meaningful way in a theatrical production as their senior project. 2. It can and should cultivate a spirit of collaboration and deep exploration on a given production or artistic endeavor. 3. It allows seniors to showcase what they have learned in the last four years and to work independently with the support of the department and faculty advisors.” “Vieux Carré” tells the largely autobiographical story of a young writer who moves into a broken-down boarding house on Toulouse Street in New Orleans, LA, in the heart of the French Quarter, the titular “old square.” The writer—unnamed—grapples with his latent homosexuality and poverty. The other tenants he meets, from two malnourished elderly women to a young woman battling both illness and an abusive boyfriend to his gay neighbor dying of tuberculosis, further challenge and hinder his personal growth. To top it all off, their landlady, Mrs. Wire turns out to be crazed and manipulative. “A big reason we chose this play was because it deals with the identity, especially queer identity,” said Porges, “as Williams writes about his experiences in New Orleans in the late ’30s, when he began to explore and experience his queer identity among like-minded peers.” The senior project participants—along with their fellow actors and production team—did a phenomenal job capturing the myriad themes and nuances in this tough play. “Vieux Carré” is what is known as a memory play, a term coined by Tennessee Williams himself for his later
The design elements of “Vieux Carré,” performed this last weekend, reflected its genre as a memory play—a term coined by Tennessee Williams—delving into homosexuality, poverty and inner turmoil. piece and the numerous accents present in “Vieux Carré.” In her words, “There are several accents at play in this piece and so the young actor cannot necessarily rely on listening to his fellow actor to pick up the rhythm and cadence ... [Additionally] this play is chock-full of social/racial/cultural/gender/health issues. This is sometimes a bit daunting for any actor to want to ‘go there’ on any of these angst-inducing topics.” In light of the recent presidential election, these topics were particularly difficult for members of the cast to confront in such an intimate setting. “[T]here was a mutual feeling of despair throughout the cast and crew of the show, and for me there were moments when I thought I would be unable to actually perform the show, because indulging in art felt frivolous, and the content of the show hit too close to home to the real threat that Trump as a president poses,” Wilson explained. “Doing this show this week
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
was hard, to say the least, but I think that ultimately, performing this piece was so important and salient to the issues we are dealing with right now.” Porges commiserated, saying, “For me, art is a crucial part in my grieving process and I hope to continue to make art that can highlight important themes that are necessary for progress in our nation.” Despite the fact that the already demanding process of rehearsal was intensified just prior to the show, the cast strove to find healing in performance. Wilson remarked, “Although the process of creating this show was not easy for me (or anyone, I think,) it was a perfect ending to my Vassar drama career, and I feel honored and blessed to have worked alongside so many beautiful, talented human beings. Upon completion of this show, I feel pride; I feel a sense of closure; and I feel a sense of community.”
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November 17, 2016
A new “Arrival” stakes its claim on science fiction scene Jimmy Christon Columnist
Arrival
Dennis Villeneuve Paramount
“A
er was released, I was disappointed that the military, which played a minimal part in the short story, was going to have a bigger, and what looked like a overused, role in the film. I thought the role of the military in the film would be something I had seen literally hundreds of times before. Thankfully, I was very wrong. If you’ve seen any movie involving aliens landing on Earth, you know what I thought the military would be like in this movie: a bunch of nameless, angry white dudes with their fingers hovering over the “launch nukes” button. In “Arrival,” however, these angry white guys are shown as reasonable, competent human beings doing their best under stressful situations. In a word, they’re human. Another standout performance comes from Amy Adams. Her character goes through a lot of emotions and Adams mainlines these emotions
Courtesy of jingdianmeinv on Flickr
rrival” marks the next in a series of “intelligent” sci-fi movies that lands somewhere in between being a blockbuster and a bona-fide think-piece. This tradition includes movies such as “Contact,” “Interstellar” and “District 9.” This is some pretty good company to be in, and I think “Arrival” is a leader of this pack. “Arrival” is the next piece of work from rising director Dennis Villeneuve. You might have heard of Villeneuve before, his other films (“Prisoners,” “Sicario” and “Enemy”) have all been excellent. What I like about Villeneuve’s films is that he always manages to strike a nice balance between character-depth and the actions of the plot. Villeneuve has also recently been signed on as director for the “Blade Runner” sequel, and in some sense, I see “Arrival” as Villeneuve testing the waters before jumping into the deep end. I have to say, then, that “Arrival” is making me very hopeful for this “Blade Runner” sequel. “Arrival” tells the story of Louise (played by Amy Adams), a linguist who is tasked with deciphering the language of the arrivees. These aliens are giant, talking knee-joints that flew down to Earth in a giant pebble. There is much more to the plot, but I don’t want to say anymore because the less you know going into this film, the better. The film itself is based off the short story “Story of Your Life” by author Ted Chiang. It’s a cool experience seeing how Villeneuve and lead writer Eric Heisserer choose to adapt the original work—the story in the film is excellent. I do have some reservations with it though. These reservations mainly stem from changes from the short story that were made during the adaptation process. These change some of the sci-fi ideas in a way that doesn’t really
make sense, especially when compared to the airtightness that was the short story. Otherwise, the narrative of the film progresses naturally and expands in scope before ending on an incredibly personal note that will leave a taste in your mouth for weeks to come. I won’t say if the taste is sweet or bitter to avoid spoiling the movie, but any film that keeps you thinking about it after the credits roll is a success in my book. We’ve gotten literally dozens of these aliensappear-hovering-over-earth films before, and I was skeptical that this movie would become very generic very quickly. Fortunately, the script works wonders and not only somewhat faithfully adapts the short story, but also introduces some new elements to the story that only benefit the film. One of these new additions that I liked the most is also the most cliché: the military. When the trail-
The talented Amy Adams stars in “Arrival,” a new sci-fi film from director Dennis Villeneuve, which explores how people deal with the Other—a timely subject given today’s sociopolitical climate.
straight to the audience. Again no spoilers, but Adams’s performance is one that definitely improves with repeated viewings. Then there are the aliens. These aliens were pretty cool, but I couldn’t help being a little disappointed. They just felt so bland to me. Their language sounds cool and their written words look unique and they’re cool to watch during the film, but in retrospect, everything else about them boils down to gray, featureless and round. Even the alien ships reflect this. The ships look like they’d be perfect for skipping across the surface of the water, but floating rocks aren’t really threatening or even alien. Compare this to the engineers from “Alien,” who have a similarly gray and rocky aesthetic, and you’ll see that there’s a way to do gray design without sacrificing detail. Now onto the elements I didn’t like about the movie. This movie has a subplot that mirrors “The Mysterious Case of Benjamin Button” where you will watch a fully grown man regress before he disappears before your eyes. Of course, I’m talking about Jeremy Renner and his character Ian, the experimental physicist. Renner starts the movie firing on all cylinders, portraying a truly realistic awkward, nerdy scientist who actually feels authentic instead of a good-looking actor trying to come off as awkward. But as the movie goes on, Renner’s character—and his performance—becomes more and more generic until he could be switched out for any other charismatic lead male actor in a sci-fi film with aliens. One of his lines towards the end of the film will make you cringe. I’m not saying that awkward people can’t or shouldn’t be funny, but Renner pulls a pretty complete 180 throughout the film. Other than this performance and some odd choices made during the adaptation process, I don’t have any other glaring complaints with the film. Overall, if you’re a fan of science-fiction films, go see “Arrival.” It is well made, well executed and will leave you thinking about the ideas it presents. More importantly however, it ties these impersonal ideas with a human story in the vein of some of the best sci-fi movies out there.
Listeners navigate increasingly digital music industry Patrick Tanella
Assistant Arts Editor
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n 2016, the easiest way to listen to a newly released album is on your phone. With streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal providing access to thousands of artists in mere seconds, you have to question whether CDs will be prevalent in the near future. Digital sales eclipsed CDs for the first time in 2014 and the number has only grown since then. With more and more artists each year relying on exclusively streamed albums for their income, I believe that this market will reduce CDs to vintage collectibles that your parents once cherished. Billboard announced in 2014 that it would re-
vamp its album charts to include digital streams, providing a more comprehensive method of album sales. This change has resulted in Rihanna’s latest album, “Anti,” becoming RIAA certified platinum, which indicates that the record has sold one million copies, without a single physical sale. Chance the Rapper’s third mixtape, “Coloring Book,” was released exclusively on Apple Music and was streamed over 57 million times in one week. This equated to 37,000 album sales and a debut at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. Digital streaming being counted in album sales is truly changing the game in the music industry, and I believe for the better. While digital albums have been overall successful, they have brought about questions
Courtesy of Blue Coat Photos/Flickr
With digital sales now dominating, CDs are a thing of the past. The music industry has adapted accordingly, such as Billboard including digital streams in their album charts.
about exclusive streaming, paying artists and the cost to consumers. 2016 has been the year of exclusive streaming, as artists such as Kanye West, Beyoncé and Frank Ocean utilized this method when they released their respective works. Kanye West was the strongest advocate of this. As a shareholder in the streaming site Tidal, the controversial rapper vowed never to release “The Life of Pablo” on iTunes. However, the record appeared on iTunes and Spotify about a month after its release.
“...[T]he competitiveness of digital streaming results in newer artists becoming lost in the sea of search engines and genres.” Exclusive streaming allows a service the sole ability to release an album. Music streaming is an enormous business with over 100 million people using platforms such as Spotify and iTunes. More than one million people created accounts on Tidal when Beyoncé exclusively streamed “Lemonade” on the network for a week. Exclusives can be either a certain amount of time such as 24 hours or hold the streaming rights of an album indefinitely. This has created battles between artists and streaming companies and this may not be benefiting fans. Exclusive streaming means that fans will need to continue to pay a certain amount a month to use a particular platform to listen to an artist. So if you wanted to be the first to listen to “Blonde,” Ocean’s exclusive album, you need Apple Music. If you wanted “Lemonade” or “The Life of Pablo,” you went with Tidal. Even the video streaming site YouTube has created a form of streaming in an attempt to get in on the action. A poll conducted by The Verge found that a majority of fans find that exclusive streaming hinders their listening experience. Spotify does not take part in exclusives but
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appears to blacklist artists that use it on other platforms. When “Blonde” was put on Spotify after its exclusive deal with Apple Music was completed, you could not find the album unless it was specifically searched for. It did not appear on the new music charts or pop up when listening to similar music. This manipulation is only further hindering fans from finding artists and listening to newly released music. This streaming war arose out of companies such as Spotify paying artist dismal amounts of money every time their records were streamed. Tidal was formed by artists such as Jay-Z, Chris Martin and Rihanna to give artists a fair share of their earnings. While Tidal is more expensive than Spotify and Apple Music, I understand that it is important that artists are able to make a living, and paying to stream music is a cheaper and easier method of listening to music than buying CDs. With all of these platforms on the internet, why are people still releasing music on CDs? Many have argued that it is easier for new bands to release music using this method due to the inexpensive cost and distribution. CDs cost about a dollar each to produce and you can even hand them out to strangers on the street if you are that desperate for attention. Listeners also reference nostalgia and better listening quality on CDs. Western ideals about ownership drive people to want to physically possess what they are listening to rather than pay a fixed price every month to continue to have the same access. In contrast, the competitiveness of digital streaming results in newer artists becoming lost in the sea of search engines and genres. Thus, while they are not as popular as it used to, CDs still provide a substantial method for listening to new music and they are helpful for those long car rides if you don’t have an aux cord. Overall, whether streaming companies continue to fight over artists or CDs make a comeback, fans just want to support the artists that they love. I personally have bounced through different platforms and pay for whichever one is offering the best deal. It doesn’t matter where I am listening but rather whether I can hear my favorite artists through my earbuds.
November 17, 2016
ARTS
Artistic c#ns*rsh!p pervades social media Kirk Patrick Testa Columnist
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few days ago, while scrolling down my Facebook newsfeed, I came across an article that I found troubling. It was titled “Facebook Censors Caravaggio’s Nude Cupid, Then Changes Mind.” It was published on Artnet News. A synopsis of the article is as follows: Art aficionado and Facebook user Hamilton Moura Filho’s Facebook account was briefly suspended after he posted an image of Caravaggio’s “The Victorious Cupid (Amor Vincit Omnia).” Facebook informed Filho that because the painting portrays a nude male with his legs splayed, it violated Facebook Community Standards and thus the image was censored. The article goes on further to reveal that Facebook has faced consistent backlash for its repeated censorship of art that depicts nude figures. This article left me enraged and empowered to write about my thoughts regarding the ridiculous fact that social media platforms like Facebook would censor any image of any work of art, or better yet, anything at all. A primary reason as to why this particular act of censorship frustrates me is because of the fact that art images serve as a platform for the spread of knowledge. Any image of art that a Facebook user posts can become a site for discussion about
that work of art. There are also many leading figures in the art world that have Facebook accounts and use social media as a way in which to spread awareness of art and to open up spaces for discussion—on a global scale! I wholeheartedly believe that the censorship of art that portrays nudity is an act that is detrimental to the spread of understanding art. When I shared my thoughts with Dominic Demeterfi ’20, he expressed, “I think that Facebook’s censorship policy towards nudity is asinine because it disguises censorship as protection ... They need to be striving to provide a platform for uncensored free speech.” Before going on any further, here is an excerpt taken from Facebook’s Community Standards on the subject of nudity: “We restrict the display of nudity because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content–particularly because of their cultural background or age ... We remove photographs of people displaying genitals or focusing in on fully exposed buttocks ... We also allow photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures.” What strikes me after reading this and reminding myself of the censorship of “Cupid” is that Facebook took down an image of a painting because of its portrayal of nudity while its own Community Standards state that it allows
Courtesy of Google Cultural Institute via Wikimedia
A recent incident of censorship targeted Caravaggio’s “The Victorious Cupid (Amor Vincit Omnia).,” above, prompting a discussion of what constitutes appropriate online content.
photographs of art that depicts nude figures. It is not right that Facebook gets to make a distinction between art as either portraying something properly nude or improperly nude (aka censorship-worthy). And on the subject of Facebook claiming that it bans nudity because of the cultural background or age of other Facebook users in the world, I am also left troubled. The nudity of “Cupid” does not aim to be erotic or sexually provocative. On the other hand, many Facebook users take and post photos and videos of people that are clothed, but clothed in a way that is revealing and hypersexual. All I am trying to say here is that if Facebook truly does care about maintaining the integrity of the sensitivities of a user’s cultural background or age, it should be reminded that Facebook users are subject to images and videos of many sexualized people. I pointed this out to Sylvia Foster ’19 and she responded, “I find it disturbing that Facebook’s censorship of this particular image, which depicts an idealized body of a prepubescent boy, supports the sexualization and vulgarization of an ‘underage’ body.” I couldn’t agree more. By overlooking Caravaggio’s “Cupid” and subjecting it to the category of censor-worthy nude art, the painting is debased and art is misunderstood. I recall the day I sat in Taylor Hall for Art 106 when Professor Yvonne Elet lectured on Caravaggio’s “The Victorious Cupid (Amor Vincit Omnia).” It is a painting inspired by Virgil, Donatello and so much more. This is a painting but also a masterpiece that transcends vulgarity and corporeal pleasures. This painting is about Love. Facebook’s censorship of it was disrespectful and wrong. Facebook needs to rethink its views on nudity and censorship. It is important to point out that social media platforms are not platforms for free speech. Not only are paintings being censored by Facebook, but so is political speech. Furthermore, Facebook allows much more offensive or triggering content than the nudity of a classically rendered Cupid. For example, I, along with many other Facebook users, come across violent words, images and videos fueled by hate and oppression. I shared my thoughts with Elias Contrubis ’20 and he asked, “Why is a painting depicting love and innocence censored while graphic videos of street fights are readily available? Why is a classical masterpiece, an integral part of education in art, censored while a violent youth culture grows?” If we are all susceptible to being confronted by a racist video or status update on Facebook, I think we need to reconsider the censorship of nude art, since it is undoubtedly a more pleasant experience to admire images crafted with talent than to read posts or watch scenes revering hate-filled political rhetoric.
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Excuse me, If you could go to a Trump protest, what would your sign say?
“This pussy grabs back, with cats on the sign.” — Claire FondrieTeitler ’18
“My friend made a great sign that said ‘Remain Restless.’” — Karla Acosta ’19
“You’re a carrot with a bad hairdo.” — Max Fine ’17
“I don’t want a deflated Cheeto as my President.” — Jordan Buhmann ’19
“Let’s electrocute Mike Pence until he turns gay.” — Rachel Elson ’19
“Something along the lines of ‘Fuck Trump.’” — Mirit Rutishauser ’19
Have your art admired across campus! Submit to misc@vassar.edu MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor
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November 17, 2016
Talented junior class takes reins of women’s basketball Fiona MacLeod Guest Reporter
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Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton
fter finishing seventh in the Liberty League last season with an overall record of 10-15, the Vassar College women’s basketball team is ready to begin a more successful season. The Brewers will look toward greater success in their 25 games this winter, 11 of which will take place at Vassar College. This season’s schedule will be highlighted by a team trip to Puerto Rico, where the Brewers will take on two opponents: Messiah College and DePauw University. The team will then begin competing in Liberty League games, which kick off with a game against Skidmore College on Dec. 30. Along with the support of newly appointed Assistant Coach Claire Mattox, Head Coach Candice Brown will take the reins for the eighth season in a row. After leading her squads to three Liberty League titles and one first place finish in the Liberty League, Brown been named one of the program’s winningest coaches. Mattox, a new addition to the Brewers, will replace Carolyn Crampton, who served as the assistant coach for two years and will now be taking up a position at Wellesley College. After assisting the women’s basketball team of the University of Saint Mary in Kansas for two seasons, Mattox has the knowledge and experience to help the Brewers. Without any seniors on the roster this year, the team will look to juniors Kim Romanoff, Samarah Cook and Ariella Rosenthal for leadership and direction. “I feel really good about the juniors leading our team this year,” Brown said. While Romanoff will serve as a leader, Cook and Rosenthal will serve as the team’s captains. Cook has proven to be a solid player for the Brewers since her introduction to the team as a freshman. Last winter, she played 20 games, starting in 16. Throughout these games, she scored a total of 112 points for the Brewers, averaging 5.6 points per game and earning a spot in the team’s top five scorers. Cook ranked fifth for
the Brewers in assists, with 32. “Leading the team has been such an honor and a lot of fun,” Cook explained. “Everyone is willing to work hard and learn in order to improve their game, so the team has made my job a lot easier. It has been a challenge since almost half of the team is new players, but I’m thrilled that I can teach others and help them to accomplish their goals.” Rosenthal has also proven to be a huge asset for the Brewers. Last season, as a sophomore captain, Rosenthal took the Liberty League by storm, ranking sixth in the conference for average points per game, third for field goal percentages and 11th for most minutes per game. Posting seven games with 20 or more points, Rosenthal was unsurprisingly chosen for the All-Liberty League First Team. Though Rosenthal led the team last season, she acknowledges that directing the team this season will be extremely different due to the team’s lack of seniors. “It’s weird, but special at the same time to lead as a junior. Last year I had two seniors above me, so I didn’t need to be as vocal off the court as I need to be this year,” Rosenthal said. “As the oldest on the team, we have to become the faces of the team. It’s an honor and a privilege, and I’m happy to be able to embrace it.” Both captains are ecstatic to work off the team’s enthusiasm and determination to claim victories this season. Along with Coach Brown, they are working to capitalize on the team’s strong suits while improving their shortcomings. “I think our team strengths are the players’ desire to get better, their youth and their ability to push the ball up the court and score,” Brown said. Using this willpower and work ethic, the players will be able to work together to improve their skills on the court. The team’s weaknesses come from being such a young squad and having a lack of height. “The transition from high school to college
Juniors Kim Romanoff, Samarah Cook and Ariella Rosenthal smile for preseason photo. These three will lead the women’s basketball squad this season, starting with home match on Nov. 15. basketball is very different and that’s something we need to think about as a team with many new, young players,” Cook reasoned. “It’s more fast-paced, competitive and has different rules. However, with practice and time, our team will be prepared.” The team welcomes five new freshmen, all of whom have stepped up tremendously in pushing the team to improve its game every day. “Before the season even began, you could see the fire they had to get better and push our returners,” Rosenthal shared. In addition to providing the squad with further scoring options, the newcomers bring heaps of enthusiasm and strength to the team. “They are all very positive and eager to learn,” Cook praised. “Each one takes criticism phenomenally and recognizes their opportuni-
ties to grow as players, which is something that will prove very important to the success of our team this year.” Heading into the season, the Brewers will focus on building team chemistry and becoming very fluid and comfortable playing with each other. Their overarching goal is to make it to the Liberty League playoffs and win the championship. “Unlike previous years, no one on this current team has won a Liberty League championship, so we are hungry and extremely hard-working toward this goal,” Cook explained. “Our team dynamic includes exceeding what’s expected of us on a consistent basis.” Ready for success, the team will host its opening game of the season at home against New Paltz this Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 6 p.m.
Trans USA athlete sparks conversation on VC campus ATHLETE continued from page 1 transfer to being “middle of the pack.” This article was yet another moment that ignited a fire within Mosier to be the best that he could possibly be. He continued training endlessly to prove his own athletic talent as a trailbazer for other transgender athletes. Major change soon followed as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) finally revised its rulebook. With countless pushes from Mosier and other advocates, trans athletes were officially granted permission to compete. Soon after, Mosier made his first USA team in 2016 in the duathlon, a bike-run-bike race. Mosier has since starred in a Nike commercial, which aired during the 2016 Rio Olympics, and was featured in ESPN’s body issue, among countless other achievements and awards. Some of his accomplishments include being named Athlete of the Year at the Compete Sports Diversity Awards in 2013 and inducted
into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame in 2014. Outside of the world of sports, Mosier claimed a position on the 2014 Trans 100 List, a yearly list of transgender individuals who have strong influence in establishing a more welcoming world for the trans community. Sophomore men’s tennis player Nick Lee is responsible for bringing Chris Mosier to Vassar’s campus. Nick first met Mosier in his junior year of high school at a workshop in New York tailored for LGBTQ+ high schoolers and their allies. “After seeing Chris in the Nike commercial during the Rio Olympics over the summer, I thought that he would be a great person to reach out to,” stated Lee. “The experience of being LGBTQ+ in sports is something that I can personally relate to.” Lee continued, “While our campus is progressive, there is still not much trans and gen-
Courtesy of Nike
In 2016, Chris Mosier joined the USA team in the duathlon. As a transgender athlete, he advocates bridging the LGBTQ+ and athletics communities. Mosier spoke to the Vassar community on Nov. 15.
der non-binary visibility, particularly in sports. I always think that it is important to not be complacent with where we are at, and that a goal should always be to create more inclusive and welcoming spaces.” With this ideology, Lee was dedicated to hosting Mosier at Vassar and bringing such conversations to campus. “I knew that with the intersection of Chris’s identity as trans and an athlete, who is very successful, would be a good way to bring members of the Vassar community together who may not have interacted or have come together in the past,” Lee added. The true goal of this lecture was to unite multiple Vassar communities for a common cause. The intersection between LGBTQ+ and athletes is a common occurrence, especially at a school like Vassar. However, it is not always recognized as important or even present. Specifically, the intersection between transgender and non-binary student-athletes is almost always ignored. “I feel that this lecture was really important in the sense that it brought together two prevalent communities at Vassar: the athletic community and the LGBTQ+ community,” expressed sophomore women’s lacrosse player Emily Hamburger. “Chris emphasized how these two communities are intertwined and therefore how important it is to have LGBTQ+ education, awareness and inclusivity within the athletic community.” Mosier views athletics as a gateway to making social change. Sports are so widely viewed that it creates a massive platform for those athletes who choose to stand up for what they believe in. In Mosier’s case, he grew up in an athletic environment, both playing and watching sports. While he was incredibly successful from a young age, he was always uncomfortable in his own body. Growing up and attending a college with almost no public members of the LGBTQ+ community, he didn’t even know that other people in the world felt the same way that he did or that there was a word to describe his identity. Just seeing one person with a similar experience could have made a huge impact for Mosier
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and probably many others. Now that he has access to such a large platform through his own athletic and personal achievements, Mosier plans on being a mentor who can help others get through what he did. In terms of one of his greatest goals, Mosier explained, “I want to be the person that I needed when I was younger.” Lee hopes that by bringing Mosier to Vassar, people will change the way that they think about both the LGBTQ+ and athletics communities as well as the intersection between the two. “I hope that people learn from Chris that with privilege comes the power to step up right away and reach out, and to break down these barriers and create more inclusive environments where students of different identities can feel more comfortable and more safe,” remarked Lee. Lee added, “To actively show that one is accepting and make that known to the world is much different than simply being accepting and can create such positive change. As Chris shows, him being able to be his authentic self has let him come so far.” Reiterating Lee’s hopes, freshman Sarah Barash stated, “I think this lecture can benefit Vassar as a whole through continuing education. The importance of hearing new and different stories from unique people is imperative to creating a more inclusive and educated campus.” “Personally, I was very taken by this lecture because Chris is such a brave man. I really admire his courage to speak so proudly about his transition and his accomplishments as an athlete,” Barash continued. The Villard Room on Monday Nov. 14 was filled with members of every community represented at Vassar. Yet, they all have one thing in common: everyone who attended Mosier’s lecture has the ability to reflect on our community and in turn, potentially make Vassar a more welcoming place for all. While Mosier opened his lecture speaking about one specific moment and the millions of moments leading up to it, he closed by stating that it is his goal to not just make a moment, but rather to make a legacy.
November 17, 2016
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Wall proves fines do not McGregor breaks record in match crimes in NBA UFC, earning second title Olivia O’Loughlin
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Sports Editor
ensions grew high in the world of sports this week with disreputable incidents happening in both the NBA and NFL. The first act of misconduct came from Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. In the Nov. 6 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Kelce grew very frustrated over the referees’ calls, or lack thereof. After the referees neglected to call Jacksonville’s Prince Amukamara supposed pass interference in the red zone, Kelce decided to take officiating into his own hands. Following an ill-mannered exchange, the referee threw his flag for unsportsmanlike conduct. Adding flames to the fire, Kelce mimicked the referee, grabbing the towel from his waist and launching it into the air. This inappropriate act resulted in Kelce’s ejection from the game and a fine of $24,309. To upstage Kelce, Washington Wizards guard John Wall was ejected from not one, but two games this week due to deliberate fouls and inappropriate behavior. Wall’s first ejection occurred with only 33 seconds left in a very close game against the Houston Rockets. Out of frustration, Wall argued with an official and purposefully bumped into his shoulder while heading to the bench. Consequently, Wall was prohibited from playing for the remainder of the game and was later fined $25,000 for his misconduct. The very next day, Wall expressed even stronger aggression. In a game against the Boston Celtics, Wall belligerently fouled guard Marcus Smart, knocking him to the ground while playing backcourt defense. Even though teammate Tomas Satoransky was defending Smart, Wall approached from the side and ultimately collided with Smart and pushed him down. This foul tallied ejection number two for Wall this week. Soon, the question arose: How much will Wall be fined this time?
It is clear that the NFL and NBA are not light with punishments, levying large fines for most wrongdoings. In fact, Kelce was charged over $24,000 for merely throwing his towel in the air. So, if Kelce received a large fine and Wall was previously charged $25,000 for hitting an official’s shoulder, how large would the cost be to knock an opponent on the ground? How about $75,000? $100,000? The NBA’s answer is zero. That’s right, the NBA disclosed that it will not be penalizing Wall for his second ejection. No additional fine, and no additional punishment. How does this make any sense? I am relieved that professional sport leagues such as the NFL and NBA punish athletes for their misconduct in terms of playing time and monetary fines. I agree that athletes cannot go unscathed for their inappropriate behavior. But if they hold strong to this ideology, Wall needs to be punished further. Additionally, I believe that the national sports associations need to more accurately correlate the punishment and the “crime.” Looking at these two stories, there is a $691 difference between making intentional physical contact with a referee and throwing a towel in the air. Even worse, the lack of punishment for Wall’s offense shows that causing physical harm to opponents is a lesser infraction and does not warrant further fines or punishment. Looking back at Wall’s history, he is no stranger to NBA violations. In fact, since the beginning of his NBA career in 2011, Wall has collected a total of 28 penalties, summing up to $163,766 in fines. This abundance of fouls shows that Wall’s misconduct is a recurring theme. With this in mind, it is truly unbelievable that, even with his overwhelming violation history, Wall walked away from his scuffle with Smart with full playing eligibility and every cent in his pocket.
Robert Pinataro Guest Reporter
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ith his win over Eddie Alvarez early on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 13, Conor McGregor has become the first fighter in the history of the UFC to be the champion of two weight divisions. After beating Alvarez, McGregor has claimed the lightweight belt, while holding on to the featherweight belt. His next test will be defending each belt, meaning that he will have to fight someone in each of those weight classes in a title fight. The fight was a very quick one for McGregor. He pummeled Alvarez, knocking him down five times, the fifth knockdown resulting in a Technical knockout (TKO). Alvarez just seemed overmatched by the Irishman’s lightning fast footwork and superb boxing technique. For his performance in the match, McGregor was awarded “Performance of the Night” honors by the UFC. Fights like this are why OddsShark has named Conor McGregor the best pound-forpound fighter in the world. McGregor is not new to the UFC scene and has been heading towards a title for some time now. Standing at 5’9” and 145 lbs, McGregor is a featherweight that packs a huge punch. The 28-year-old mixed martial artist from Dublin, Ireland has extended his impressive career record to 21-3-0. The only thing more grandiose than his statistics is his personality. His fighter nickname “The Notorious” shows this a little bit, as do his taunts before and during his fights. Before this past fight, he told MMA Fighting that he will retire Alvarez and that, “His wife and kids will never recognize him again.” During his fight, he taunted Alvarez repeatedly, even putting his arms behind his back at one point during the fight. After his fight, McGregor declared that he should have a stake in the UFC due to his influence on their prosperity. He came prepared
with statistics that illustrate a direct correlation between his presence and increased UFC revenue. One statistic showed the drastic drop in revenue at UFC 200, the event where the UFC did not allow McGregor to compete because he failed to fulfill media obligations. As he said in the post-fight interview, “I am aware of my worth.” Celebrities such as Conan O’ Brien have stake in the company without contributing any value. McGregor argues that he should be able to have at least the same amount of stake that these celebrities have, if not more, because of his value to the company. The thing is, McGregor is right. He is of so much value to the company that they need him a bit more than he needs them right now. He has made clear that he does not intend to fight until he gets the stake he deserves and there isn’t much that the UFC can do to stop him. He is soon to be a father, and he wants to spend time with his child. If he doesn’t get his stake, he says, he won’t be able to provide for his child the way he wants to. This is all relative, being that McGregor made well over 20 million dollars in the last 12 months. The UFC also does not want McGregor to be able to hold two belts and said that they will have to take one of them. At the UFC 205 Conference, McGregor fired back, “I’m going to wrap one (belt) on one shoulder, and I’m going to wrap the other on the other shoulder, and they’re going to need a fucking army to come take them belts off me.” McGregor will not be told “no” by the UFC or by anyone. With this big win, McGregor is on top of the world. The next thing people want to know is: who’s next? What about top-ranked featherweight Jose Aldo? Or a ‘superfight’ against Floyd Mayweather, the best boxer in the world. In reality, it is impossible to say what is next for McGregor because at this stage of his career, he truly can do whatever he wants.
Brewers continue squashing competition this season Kelly Pushie
Guest Reporter
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Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton
his weekend, the Vassar men’s and women’s squash teams competed in their second round of matches of the season. Coming off a sweep against Fordham, Siena and Mount Holyoke the week before, both teams used that momentum to propel them toward more victory. The men’s team traveled to Annandale on the Hudson to compete against Lafayette College and Swarthmore College, while the women’s team trekked up to Hamilton, NY to face off against William Smith and Colgate University. The men started off the season on the right foot. Coming off two 7-2 victories against Siena and Fordham at home, the team was able to keep the energy alive and defeat Lafayette 7-2 and Swarthmore 6-3 on the road. Meanwhile, the women’s team, now 3-1, fell to William Smith 0-9 in their first match but was able to turn things around against Colgate and defeated them 9-0. This victories have been driven by the leadership of first year interim head coach David Ames. A Bard College graduate, Ames spent 20 years coaching there after he finished up his squash career. Ames is proud of the way that the team has come together in the first few weeks of the season.“The team is looking great so far. We have a mixture of players; some played prior to attending Vassar and some did not,” Coach Ames noted. “The experienced players are doing a wonderful job of further improving their skills, while the newer players are focusing on improving the fundamentals.” Coach Ames made special notice of the upperclassmen who have stepped up to ensure a smooth transition from the previous season to the current one. He mentioned, “Our captains Vince, Richard, Sam, Hannah, Isabelle and Carly have taken a very active role both with the team and in assisting my transition as the new coach.” Senior captain Carly Scher made sure to put the team chemistry first when preparing for the season; it has paid off thus far. “The first few weeks of the season, we focused on the team aspect of squash,” Scher not-
ed. “Basically, for many of our freshmen, it was their first time playing team squash, so making sure that everyone felt comfortable reffing and marking games, supporting/cheering each other on and being able to analyze game play and give useful tips to players in between games.” This knowledge of the game and support for one another is why the team has been able to get off to such a great start. All the while, fellow senior captain Isabelle Bertram has emphasized the idea that in order to be a successful team, one person’s win is never any more important than another person’s win since each win benefits the team as a whole. So far, Bertram is very proud of the way the team handled themselves in such tight matches. “We demonstrated great sportsmanship on and off the court against a tough opponent with an abrasive attitude that shook up our mental game,” Bertram elaborated. “Squash is as much a physical sport as it is a mental sport and yesterday, in the midst of several let and stroke calls, Vassar players demonstrated a poised and mature demeanor when reacting to calls made against us.” The three captains on the women’s team have proven to be great leaders so far this season and can be seen as a main reason why the team has been able to start off so well. Freshman Sydney Nemphos shared, “As cliché as it sounds, all three of our captains have been great leaders so far this season. Hannah, Carly and Isabelle have done a great job of making all the freshmen feel welcomed and including us! They keep us motivated and focused during practice and are always watching, cheering us on and giving good advice in between games.” Holding the reins of the men’s team, senior captain Vincent Mencotti has also proved to be great asset to the Brewers. Mencotti shared his positive thoughts on the year thus far, recongizing the freshmen’s contribution to the squad’s undefeated start through their high level of play. Mencotti explained, “The team gained a lot of strength at the top of our roster with Viral Nadkarni coming in at No. 2 and Anti Khosla coming in at No. 3/4 (both freshman) to fill in after me at No. 1.”
Senior captain Carly Scher goes for ball in home match against Fordham University on Nov. 5. After defeating the Rams 9-0, the women will next play Connecticut College and Haverford on Nov. 19. Mencotti was elated that the team was able to knock off Swarthmore this past weekend. “Swarthmore has been ranked higher than us for at least four or five years, so it was great to take them down,” he stated. He also explained that everyone played well across the board and no one match was more important than the next. To help continue their season, Mencotti is focusing on staying confident. “I think we realized that we can win a lot of matches this year that we may not have been able to in previous years and that we could beat a lot of teams that we also couldn’t before,” he mentioned. In order to achieve this, Mencotti wants to ensure that the team continues to practice with intensity, stays focused and keeps the energy levels high at practice. In addition to the team captains, Coach Ames was very satisfied with the teams’ season openings. He was especially happy with the two matches against Lafayette and Swarthmore
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and the way that certain members of the team stepped up and were able to secure wins for the Brewers. He specifically notes, “Freshman Viraj Nadkarni, playing No. 2, continued his unbeaten streak as did Richard Bryenton, Lucas Fifer, Caden Gruber, Alex Riccio and Isaac Stuart.” One of the matches against Lafayette was a nail biter, a come-from-behind win from sophomore Isaac Stuart who, as Ames described, “Really stepped up and won a tremendously hard fought battle versus Peter Torrenti from Lafayette after being down two games to zero!” Regardless of the squad’s impressive records, the Brewers have to continue improving for talented compeition ahead. Coach Ames pointed out, “the matches ahead are going to be much tougher. Connecticut College and Haverford College are ranked much higher than the teams we have played so far.” Both the women and men look to knock down these powerhouses in home matches on Nov. 19.
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November 17, 2016
Competition challenges VC talent in recent matchups Jamie Anderson
With this win under their belt, the women will next compete in the USA Rugby National Fall Championship Sweet 16 next Saturday.
Guest Reporter
Men’s Soccer
Women’s Rugby
In the first round of the American Collegiate Rugby Association (ACRA) championships, Vassar women’s rugby handily defeated SUNY-Geneseo with a score of 72-12. With the Brewers running in 12 tries, they clenched their spot in the round of 16 at fall nationals. Vassar went into halftime leading 27 to 12, and that was all the scoring Geneseo would manage as the Brewers piled it on in the second half. Sophomore Rachel Elson was a standout performer and scorer, accounting for four tries on the day. Seniors Nathalie Freeman and Laila Blumenthal-Rothchild both had braces against the visiting Geneseo women, while juniors Abigail Alexander, Michelle Urrutia and Amanda Saich each scored once as well. Meanwhile, senior flyhalf Mary-Margaret McElduff established a new record for most points in a career at Vassar as she scored a try and slotted six conversion attempts, racking up 17 points in total. She now has 511 points from 17 tries and 213 conversions.
Men’s Cross Country
The Brewers finished 10th out of 44 teams at the NCAA Atlantic Regional at Rowan University as seven runners recorded new personal bests. Junior Michael Scarlett finished at the front of VC’s contingent with a 25:30.9 in 44th place overall. This was the 15th straight time Scarlett has led the Brewers. Freshman Adin Becker was the top freshman runner on Saturday, placing 49th with a time of 25:38.2. Junior Philip Brown was next registering a 25:56.3, and fellow junior Jesse Schatz came across the line next in 71st with a time of 26:01.7. Senior Gabe Fishman closed out his cross country career, clocking a 26:05.6 and finishing 78th. The team’s strong showing at the NCAA Regionals will cap Vassar’s fall 2016 season. Women’s Cross Country
At the NCAA Atlantic Regionals hosted by Rowan University, the women also had strong performances to take home 13th place. Running her last race for VC cross country, Senior Lucy Balcezak registered a career-best time of 22:23.9. In all of her races this season, Balcezak led the Brewers across the finish line. Senior Laura MacDonald also closed out her cross country career, finishing in 68th with a time of 22:39.3. Sophomore Christiana Prater-Lee finished just behind her with a 22:39.8, coming in 69th place. Sophomore Cameron Daddis and freshman Megan Cook took 76th and 77th places respectively, both setting new personal best times. Similar to the men, the women wrapped up their season at Rowan University on Saturday. Men’s Fencing
The Vassar men’s fencing team opened dual meet action on Sunday, going eight for eight at the Vassar Invitational in Walker Field House. Vassar had a long day, knocking off Yeshiva University 20-7, Hunter College 21-6, Stevens 1710, Haverford College 16-11, Lafayette College 207, Army-West Point 25-2, University of Incarnate Word 19-8 and Drew University 21-6. Eight fencers had 10 or more wins for Vassar, led by freshman Graeme Mills, who posted a 17-3
Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton
The Brewers’ postseason run came to an end last Saturday as the team fell to Elizabethtown College 1-0 in overtime at Rutgers-Newark in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the Brewers’ first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012. Despite a few good looks on offense from VC throughout regulation, particularly from sophomore defender Tyler Gilmore in minute 27 and senior defender Matt Fields in the 49th minute, Elizabethtown was able to keep the Brewers out of their net. Vassar defense and junior goalkeeper Matt Marcelino were able to hold things down against a less potent Elizabethtown offense for 90 minutes as well. With a score of 0-0, the teams entered overtime. Five minutes into the overtime period, Elizabethtown managed to get off a shot and find home from an improbable angle to book their spot in the NCAA Tournament’s second round. With 14 wins this season, the Brewers matched a program-best season from 1994. Seniors Noah Bloch, Matt Fields, Stephen Jennings, John Lopes and Adam Warner will graduate with 41 wins to their names.
Junior Michael Scarlett looks to the finish line at NCAA Atlantic Regionals. Scarlett finished first for the Brewers to lead the team to a 10th place finish. This meet closed out cross country seasons. record in sabre and junior Tom Racek who went 17-2 in foil. Other strong performances came from freshman Jack Holmes, who was 16-1 in foil, and junior Eli Polston, who nabbed a record 15-5 on Sunday. Additionally, junior Jonathan Alperstein finished 16-4 in epee and freshman Noe Berger went 13-4. Overall, Vassar finished 54-18 in sabre, 59-13 in foil and 46-26 in epee. VC will honor its four seniors, Jackson Dammann, Ry Farley, Campbell Woods and Clayton Marr before hosting the Matthew Lampell Hudson River Invitational on Nov. 20. Women’s Fencing
The Brewers started their dual meets for 2016-2017 by hosting the Vassar College Invitational at home in Walker Field House. VC went 4-3 on the day, taking their matches against Haverford (15-12), Queens College (207), LIU Post (24-3) and Incarnate Word (17-10), before being bested by Cornell University (216), Fairleigh Dickinson University (14-13) and Northwestern University (24-3). The Vassar foil went 38-25 overall, taking five of seven group decisions, while the epee team went 33-30 on the day. Seniors Elsa Stoff and Olivia Weiss were strong for the Brewers, going 16-5 and 12-4 respectively. Junior Arianna Hawk and sophomore Rose Hulsey-Vincent both added eight wins each for Vassar on Sunday. The Brewers will honor Stroff and Weiss next Sunday at the Matthew Lampell Hudson River Invitational, hosted at Walker Field House. Men’s Squash
Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton
Vassar women’s rugby battles SUNY-Geneseo in the first round of ACRA championships. As Vassar bested the Knights 72-12, the Brewers earned their spot in the Sweet 16 on Nov. 19.
Vassar moved to 4-0 after besting Lafayette University 7-2 and Swarthmore College 6-3 at Bard College on Saturday. Junior Vincent Mencotti contributed to Vassar’s success as he went 1-1 on the day, picking up a simple straight-set win over Lafayette but falling to Swarthmore in one set. Freshman Viraj Nadkarni also won in straights over Lafayette. The bottom of the lineup continued strong play, as senior Richard Bryenton, junior Alex Riccio and sophomore Caden Gruber picked up wins at five, six and seven. The squad picked up wins at fifth through ninth positions over Swarthmore. Nadkarni and Bryenton also picked up their second wins for the day. Looking forward, men’s squash will host No. 29 Connecticut College and No. 30 Haverford College on Nov. 19 at home.
Women’s Squash
On Saturday, women’s squash lost 9-0 to William Smith College but rebounded to beat Colgate University 9-0 later in Hamilton, NY. After a tough time against the Herons, VC came back to blank Colgate, as seniors Isabelle Betram and Carly Scher, juniors Hannah Nice, Cherylann Mucciolo and Kelly Rissman, as well as sophomore Jiamin Wu and freshman Sydney Nemphos all earned straight set wins. Freshman Alessandra Pilkington continued the success as she won in four against Colgate. Next up, Vassar has a home doubleheader against Connecticut College and Haverford College on Saturday, Nov 19. Men’s Swim and Dive
After much success, Vassar’s swimming and diving fell to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 105-188 in a home dual meet on Saturday. Nevertheless, multiple Brewers had impressive showings. Junior Jonah Strand had a stellar day, easily taking both the 100 and 200 breaststroke with times of 59.49 and 2:12.53, respectively, while accounting for 29 points for the Brewers. Fellow senior Anthony Walker was also a standout for VC, taking the 200 butterfly, the 100 fly and the 200 IM. In the 1-meter diving event, both freshman Michael Deiner and junior Connor Martin recorded personal bests, earning scores of 187.3, and 155.7 respectively. The Brewers are back at the US Merchant Marine Academy Memorial Invitational next Saturday, in Kings Point, NY. Women’s Swim and Dive
The Brewers were topped by the Engineers of RPI 105-183 in a dual meet at home on Saturday. The women started off with a second-place finish in the 400 medley relay as sophomores Kael Ragnini, Sammy Stone and Meg Harrington teamed with senior Julia Cunningham for a time of 4:14.55. Stone took first in the 1000-meter free just two events later and won the 500 free as well. Cunningham was by far the best in the 200 butterfly, as her 2:06.07 was the third-fastest time in all of Division III so far this season. Cunningham also clenched victories in the 100 butterfly and the 200 IM. The Brewers next compete at the US Merchant Marine Academy Memorial Invitational in Kings Point, NY on Nov. 19.
Weekend Scoreboard MEN’S SOCCER VASSAR
0
VS
WOMEN’S RUGBY
ELIZABETHTOWN
VASSAR
1
72
VS
MEN’S SWIM AND DIVE
GENESEO
VASSAR
12
105
VS
MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE
WOMEN’S SWIM AND DIVE
RPI
VASSAR
188
105
VS
RPI
183