Misc11 20 14

The Miscellany News

Volume CXLVIII | Issue 9

November 20, 2014

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

VSA votes to decide Wu explores model minority myth fate of house teams “T Noah Goldberg Guest Reporter

Res. Life proposal adds behavioral requirements for house officers Bethan Johnson

Contributing Editor

T

“The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority,” in which she tries to explain how the phenomenon came to be. Dr. Wu spoke at Vassar on Nov. 13, 2014 about her book and the creation of the “model minority” myth.

She began her talk by giving a basic history of Asians in America, admittedly focusing on Japanese and Chinese immigrants.

Southern Chinese immigrants began coming to the west coast during the California gold rush, escaping See STEREOTYPES on page 8

courtesy of Ellen Wu

his upcoming Sunday, Nov. 23, the Vassar Student Association will vote to determine if elected house officers will be required to follow behavioral expectations set by the Office of Residential Life.

Along with input unanimously supporting the amendment by House Student Advisors and Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa, members of the VSA are still seeking the opinions of students ahead of the decision. The change in expectations for house officers comes in light of increasingly noted tensions between house officers and the rest of house team. According to a statement prepared by Inoa, if the VSA fails to pass this amendment, the Office of Residential Life will automatically begin reevaluating the entire system of House Teams.

Currently, two separate groups operate within the House Team system, those individuals selected by the Office of Residential Life— student fellows, House Fellow Interns, and House Student Advisors—and those elected to their positions—house presidents, vice presidents, treasurers, and secretaries. This split currently leaves

the two groups operating with separate requirements, mainly that Residential Life employees receive compensation and housing benefits in exchange for their work to foster dorm unity and support students, particularly freshmen. They also pledge to abide by a contract defining unacceptable behavior as determined by the Office of Residential Life.

According to the current contract, breaking this contract can result in reprimands from a House Advisor or even forced removal from a specific dorm. As it stands, despite receiving preferred single-occupant housing during room draw, elected house officers are not required to sign a contract agreeing to follow any Residential Life regulations.

Of central concern in this amendment is the contractual obligations related to expectations related to alcohol, drugs, and sexual behavior, commonly referred to as the “3 Bs.” The contract in question, as drafted by the Office of Residential Life, reads, “A House Officer who knowingly engages in underage drinking or the use of other illegal substances with first year/[TransSee HOUSE TEAM on page 4

hose Asian-American Whiz Kids” is the title of the Aug. 31, 1987 cover story for Time Magazine. Six Asian-American middle and high school students smile brightly with their backpacks on, holding books or basketballs, looking “All-American” and prosperous and grateful to be able to study and play sports and have the opportunity to achieve the American dream. The story tries to explain the phenomenon of Asian Americans’ growing

success in America, citing arguments such as genetic superiority or “Confucian ideals” as the reason that young Asian men and women are vastly outstripping their peers of other races in their educations. But how did this anthropological study of the “model minority” come to be? When did the discourse change from the “Heathen Chinee” and the “yellow peril” to that of the “model minority” and the “whiz kids?”

Ellen Wu, a professor in the History Department at University of Indiana, recently published a new book,

On Nov. 13, Dr. Ellen Wu unpacked the model minority myth surrounding Asian Americans. She delves into the stereotype more extensively in her book, “The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority.”

VC faculty makes waves on WVKR SAAC looks to create charitable outreach W Maryam Norton Guest Reporter

Professors take to the WVKR booth to explore their interests in music as well as talk radio. Their shows feature a combination of interviews and musicality.

Inside this issue

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on Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. In an emailed statement, he said, “I discovered college radio in high school. I have this really vivid memory of tuning into KSCU, a local station, after noticing a station sticker on my friend’s binder. I See WVKR on page 16

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

VKR 91.3 FM has always been a space for students to showcase their individual taste in music, but many faculty members are also getting their time in the booth.

Hua Hsu—an English professor, vinyl devotee and ’80s hip-hop enthusiast—fits in almost seamlessly with the radio station’s eclectic vibe. But Chaucer scholars, too have a place on the airwaves: A Vassar art librarian, Thomas Hill hosts The Library Café where he interviews scholars—often Vassar professors—about their recent work.

“One of the things librarians and libraries do besides collect materials for people to use is build community. So I thought it would be a way to do that,” said Hill.

For him, radio provides another avenue for information, he continued, “Books don’t think, they’re just dead objects and you know...for whatever we do here to become knowledgeable, there has to be discourse. So stimulating people, stimulating discourse is part of what we do.” Hill explained the first show he did three years ago, stating, “Brian Lukacher here who teaches art was my first interview. I remember us walking down Main Drive here over to the main studio and both of us wondering ‘is this a bad idea?’”

WVKR’s general manager Jay Lancaster ’15 noted that finding your stride can take some time. “It’s very exciting to watch student programs find their

footing, because the first few times you’re on the mic, it’s like, ‘I don’t know what to say.’ But people figure it out.”

For Hsu, however, getting back behind the mic has been a kind of nostalgic homecoming. He plays a mixedgenre show called “Blowy Shirts”

Coalition examines Vassar FEATURES endowment

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‘Banner’ answers tough questions HUMOR about VC life

Amreen Bhasin Reporter

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ommunication is a necessary skill needed for teams to find success in sports, and at Vassar it is no different. The SAAC, or student-athlete advisory committee, is a committee comprised of student-athletes at the College that seeks to maintian productive relationships betweens athletics, the student body, and the faculty by creating channels of communication.

SAACs exist at all levels of NCAA sports: nationally, conference-wide, and within each institution. NCAA legislation even mandates that all member schools as well as conferences have their own SAAC. Senior women’s basketball player, Colleen O’Connell, is the current president of Vassar’s SAAC. In an emailed statement, O’Connell described her role in the organization as well as how she feels about being a part of SAAC. “I’m currently the president of SAAC. As president, my role is to oversee our program and steer our members toward achieving our goals for the year. I consider it a great honor to be able to represent our student-athletes.”

Vassar College’s SAAC is made up of two student athletes from each varsity team on campus. These representatives are usually nominat-

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ed and elected by their respective teams. Within SAAC there is also an executive board that handles the organization and actual running of the SAAC. Vassar College’s SAAC also represents Vassar College student-athletes at the conference-wide level. Senior men’s lacrosse player, Scott Brekne, plays a prominent role in making sure Vassar voices are heard, as he explained in a written statement, “I am the Liberty League Representative on SAAC. Just a few weeks ago, I represented Vassar and our SAAC at a Liberty League SAAC Conference in Utica, NY.” In 2011, the Division III SAAC initiated a partnership with the Special Olympics during that year’s NCAA Convention and was officially launched on Aug. 1, 2011. The reasons behind this official partnership are outlined in the NCAA Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Informational Guide and Best Practices release available on the NCAA’s website: “The SAAC [chose] Special Olympics because programs are offered in every state, it involves hands-on interaction and physical activities, events can be measured by volunteer hours or funds raised and Special Olympics is an established nationally recognized organization.”

Many Vassar College athletic See SAAC on page 18

Women’s rugby nearly advances to SPORTS win national title

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The Miscellany News

November 20, 2014

Editor-in-Chief Marie Solis

Fall arrives in Madrid Mija Lieberman Far and Away Blogger

I

Marie Solis/The Miscellany News Marie Solis/The Miscellany News

would say it’s officially fall in Madrid, as of a few weeks ago. It’s not as cold as Poughkeepsie, but I have to bundle up in a jacket and scarf and closed-toed shoes with socks. But Spaniards are already bundled up in winter coats, hats, and gloves like it’s winter. It’s no longer warm enough to casually go for a stroll in retiro park, but it’s the perfect excuse to get a hot coffee almost every morning.

Luckily, for the past two weekends, I went to warmer places. But in the weeks to come I will be taking my winter coat with me when I go to Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, and finally London, as well as warmer Granada in the south of Spain. This coming weekend I’m super excited to be going to Berlin and staying with a friend from high school.

I don’t really have a free weekend in Madrid left because of all the traveling and final exams, but it’s totally worth it to take full advantage of my final time in Europe.

The first weekend of November, our whole program went on a group excursion to Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands off the coast of northern Africa. It’s still part of Spain, though it’s much warmer and has very different vegetation, including palm trees and cacti. We flew early on Friday morning and went on a guided tour through different areas of the city of Santa Cruz.

We ate a delicious lunch with fresh cod and a spicy sauce called “mojo” that goes well with potatoes and bread. After an exhausting day, we arrived at a beautiful hotel that had a pool and an excellent buffet breakfast.

The next day we climbed up volcano Teidi, the tallest point in Spain, which is situated in a national park. We took a cable car up toward the top and then climbed around to see a giant crater. Despite the high altitude, it wasn’t as cold as we expected and turned out to be quite nice. The next day we had completely free, so most of us went to the beach in the morning before we had to check out of the hotel.

The sand was black from volcanic ash, and the waves were very strong when they crashed against the rocks. We arrived home very late at night on Sunday, but it was great to see everyone from Vassar and Wesleyan one last time, as well as the monitores.

This past weekend I went to Marrakech, Morocco with three other girls. We stayed in a beautiful riad, which is a traditional Moroccan house with a courtyard inside. It came with breakfast every morning that included coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, bread, an egg, and various other things. The owner was very hospitable and drove us to and from the airport. We visited the large market called Jemaa el-Fnaa several times in the medina, the old part of the city.

To read more about Mija and her time in Madrid, visit farandaway.miscellanynews.org

The following Editorial Board positions of The Miscellany News are now open for the Spring 2015 semester: Arts, Design, Sports, News, Features, Opinions, Online, Social Media, Photography, Copy and Humor & Satire.

Send inquiries to misc@vassar.edu.

Editorial Board positions are open to students who have served on the staff of The Miscellany News.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Senior Editors

Meaghan Hughes Palak Patel

Contributing Editors Bethan Johnson Aja Saalfeld

Features Opinions Humor & Satire Sports Design Photography Online Social Media Copy

Erik Halberg Chris Brown Chris Gonzalez Eli J. Vargas I Elizabeth Dean Samantha Pianello Gwendolyn Frenzel Maddy Vogel Ashley Pecorelli

Crossword Editors Collin Knopp-Schwyn York Chen Assistant Photo Jacob Gorski Assistant Arts Emma Rosenthal Reporters Amreen Bhasin Julia Cunningham Emily Hoffman Charles Lyons Rhys Johnson Erik Quinson Columnists Sophia Burns Delaney Fischer Sam Hammer Sarah Sandler Design Sarah Dolan Sixing Xu Photography Alec Ferretti Emily Lavieri-Scull Social Media Kayla Holliday Hannah Nice Copy Hallie Ayres Claire Baker Kristiana Bowman Anika Lanser Cody Duane-Mcglashen Macall McQueen Kelsey Quinn Jessica Roden Emma Roellke CORRECTION Sophia Slater Rebecca Weir

The Miscellany News does not expressly endorse any of the opinions of the columnists featured within the pages of the paper, except for the staff editorial.

LETTERS POLICY The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers.

Letters to the Editor should not exceed 350 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue. Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu.

November 20, 2014

NEWS

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VARC events analyze animal rights activism, U.S. laws Emily Hoffman News Reporter

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rom Sunday, Nov. 16 through this Saturday, Nov. 22, Vassar Animal Rights Coalition (VARC) is hosting an event week entitled “The Terrorization of Dissent” in honor of the just-released anthology of the same name, to which guests of the lecture series contributed. The week will include a series of lectures themed around the government’s labeling of animal rights and environmental activists as terrorists, the free speech-chilling Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), and the recent “ag-gag” laws. The events are co-sponsored by the Vassar Greens, Amnesty International, Democracy Matters, FemAlliance and the Political Science and Geography departments.

The first speaker, who gave a lecture this past

Sunday, Jason Del Gandio, is Editor of “The Terrorization of Dissent” anthology and Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Public Advocacy at Temple University. Del Gandio shed light on the AETA and its implications that have fallen largely under the radar of mainstream circles, due in major part to its passage in 2006 in a stealthy manner with minimal debate by a voice vote of only five House representatives, despite the more than 250 social advocacy groups that opposed the act. Del Gandio talked about the passage of the law in the wake of Sept. 11, a very different time when people were afraid and anything that was labeled as “terrorism” received the full attention of the Federal Government.

The AETA targets animal rights activists by labeling them as domestic terrorists. Del Gandio argued that the act was the result of the Fed-

Emily Lavieri-Scull/The Miscellany News

Jason Del Gandio, editor of a recently published book about the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, spoke to Vassar students as part of a lecture series on animal rights activism and the law, hosted by VARC.

eral Government and corporations coming together to stop animal rights activists by labeling them as terrorists if they inhibit a corporation’s ability to make a profit. Trespassing, harassment, vandalism and threats are all considered violations of the act, and animal rights activist groups have been arrested and labeled terrorists for variations of these violations including leaving flyers at coffee shops and chalking slogans on public sidewalks.

Del Gandio sought to point out specific problems with the act, labeling it “overly vague and strategically ambiguous.” He asserted that the language of the act allows for multiple interpretations and that the actions outlined in the act are already illegal; thus the legislation is unnecessary. Del Gandio went even further and claimed that animal rights activists were the furthest thing from violent, while many other systems that Americans base their lives on are inherently violent. Del Gandio stated, “I would argue that capitalism, by its very nature, does harm to people on a daily basis. Furthermore, how much violence do you think has contributed to the founding of, maintaining of and defense of the nation state?” Lastly, he discussed the violence of the food system in terms of the mistreatment of animals. Del Gandio ended his lecture by urging the audience to spread awareness about the AETA, as the “AETA affects all activism. People concerned with social change and people concerned with the first amendment should be concerned about this legislation.”

VARC Co-President and event coordinator Alessandra Seiter ’16 was pleased with the first event to kick off the week. She said, “Jason gave a fantastic overview of the AETA and its implications not only for animal rights activists, but for everyone working toward social justice.

He’s a super dynamic speaker with tons of experience from his professorship at Temple University in Philadelphia, which definitely came through during the entire lecture but especially during the Q&A.” Seiter continued, “He also has a long history

of social justice activism, and it was cool to see him merging activism with the academy (we so often dichotomize the two).”

The second lecture in the series occurred this Tuesday, Nov. 18 and was given by Odette Wilkens, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Alliance and established lawyer. Wilkens went into depth about the AETA and its flaws and joked about its parallels. Wilkens remarked, “The AETA reminds me of an onion because the more you peel it, the more it smells and the more it makes you cry.” She described the excessive penalties that could occur from the law, including up to 20 years in prison for effecting profit losses. She finished her lecture by comparing animal rights activists, deemed terrorists, to other extreme political activists such as anti-abortionists and white supremacists, who have committed much more violent and terroristic acts, yet are not considered terrorists under the law. Wilkens urged the audience to take action by contacting local legislators so that when a coalition is made and an appeal bill is introduced, there will be support behind it.

In terms of the importance of the events this week, VARC feels that—given the huge numbers of self-identified social justice activists in Vassar’s student body, as well as the many activist orgs on campus—the AETA and government repression of activists in general provides an immensely important topic to which to alert the Vassar campus.

According to a statement by VARC, “If we don’t educate ourselves about and take mass action against the issues covered in our event week, then a great many Vassar students will find themselves facing serious punishment for their future social justice advocacy.”

The remaining lectures in the series will occur on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 5 p.m. in Rocky 300, and Will Potter, acclaimed journalist and author of “Green is the New Red” will lead the talk.

Lastly, on Saturday, Nov. 22, from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Faculty Parlor, there will be a group discussion with campus activists.

VC professors disheartened by midterm election upsets Rhys Johnson

Assistant News Editor

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crats. He said, “I also will point out that, while Obama’s record could be stronger, the unemployment rate under Obama has fallen dramatically, the budget deficit has fallen dramatically and millions of people now have healthcare.”

Born spoke to the background of the elections by characterizing today’s political zeitgeist as one of divisiveness and disparity. He argued, “There aren’t so many moderates nowadays. We’ve polarized. People have moved either to the left or to the right, and moderates are supposed to fulfill this very important kind of function of splitting the ballots.”

He continued, “Also, the idea of the ‘Goldilocks solution,’ of compromises between the two parties and the idea of divided government, more and more becomes apparent [of being] not a recipe for compromise. It’s a recipe for paralysis and stalemate.”

Plotkin condemned the sluggishness that has been the product of polarized politics that, in-

courtesy of Fora.tv

n Nov. 13, the Vassar chapter of Democracy Matters, a nonpartisan student organization centered around campaign finance reform, hosted an event to discuss the midterm elections and the issues surrounding them and their results. The event featured a panel consisting of Director of the International Studies, Timothy Koechlin, and Political Science Professors Sidney Plotkin and Richard Born, who, disheartened by the results, offered their opinions about potential ramifications for and the problems with the political atmosphere that the results of this year’s elections underline.

The 2014 midterm elections were, as predicted, a substantial victory for the Republican Party. The GOP added 12 new Representatives to their 33-seat advantage in the House of Representatives and won eight new seats in the Senate, reversing the 53-45 majority that had favored the Democratic Party. Professor Born said of the elections, “Everything that could have gone wrong in 2014, did go wrong, a total disaster in every single regard.”

This year’s midterms have also caused concern over new statistics regarding campaign funds that reached a record high of $3.7 billion and the lowest national voter turnout since 1942, issues which the panel considered highly problematic and symptomatic of problems with the political system outside the realm of partisan dogma. Professor Plotkin said of the campaign finance issue, “Torrents of money [are] washing over the political system whose effect is crippling it.”

Another question that caused confusion among the paneled professors was the peculiarity of Republican successes in recent elections despite evidence to support the conclusion that the American people have, in recent years, favored more Democratic policies. “Why do so many Americans continue to vote for Republicans apparently against their interests?” asked Professor Koechlin.

“I’ve spent most of my adult life watching Ronald Reagan and then Newt Gingrich and then George W. Bush, and the Tea Party and

Rush Limbaugh, and more times than I can count thinking, ‘Now, surely, the American people get it. Now they know that this is crazy.’

But maybe not,” he continued.

Koechlin criticized the willingness of Americans to vote for politicians who support conservative economic principles which contributed to the financial collapse of 2008 and the perceived inequality between the benefit that the recent recovery has had on the top one percent and the rest of the American people.

“Since the recovery began in 2010, the value of the stock market has more than doubled, corporate profits are at an all time high and virtually every dollar of economic growth has ended up in the pocket of the top one percent,” he said. “Not the top 20 percent, not the top 50 percent, the top one percent.”

Koechlin also attempted to demystify some of the alleged failures of President Obama that have swayed voters away from electing Demo-

Professor of Political Science Sidney Plotkin argued that the midterm elections encapsulate the gridlock and divisiveness surrounding today’s American political system in a panel for Democracy Matters.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

stead of promoting compromise and bipartisan accomplishment, has favored the precedent of waiting for elections to provide the political means to enact policies. He said of the matter, “The United States political system looks to all the world, to me, like a slow motion train wreck. It is, in fact, in my view, in the midst of a slowly developing crisis of default, ineffectiveness and inequity, and we face a serious crisis, an intolerable crisis, of governance failure.”

Plotkin and his colleagues echoed this cry throughout the panel, censuring the modern American political system as one not only willing to contribute to a harmful precedent of gridlock and inertia, but one that does so pridefully. Plotkin said, “I don’t care whether it’s right public policy or left public policy. Make public policy. Do something. But instead of making workable public policies, the political leaders of the country and the major political organizations do nothing more than keep playing for time until the next round of elections, which is all very entertaining for cynical journalists, but is, in fact, pointless.”

President of the Vassar chapter of Democracy Matters Adam Eichen ’15 said, “We were hoping that students would take two things from this event. The first is a better sense of what actually happened during the election (why there was a shift in power and what the consequences of this shift might be). Second, we wanted to show (or perhaps remind) Vassar students just how important midterm elections are and why it is important to vote. An extremely large portion of Vassar students did not vote in 2014.”

Eichen and Democracy Matters were disappointed with student turnout in the election, which, hovering around 20 percent of registered students of Dutchess County, was particularly low this year. “It was extremely discouraging to hear the elaborate excuses for why Vassar students didn’t have time to vote,” remarked Eichen. “Considering there were a couple of N.Y. State races that were decided well within the margin of the number of registered Vassar students, this apathy really made an impact.”

NEWS

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November 20, 2014

HSAs endorse amendment for freshmen, house team unity HOUSE TEAM continued from page 1

fer/Visiting/Exchange] students from his/her house may be move to another house on-campus,” and “House Officers should avoid interpersonal relationships (sexual, intimate, and/ or amorous) that would prohibit their responsibility to objectively support and represent the first year/TVE students living in their house.”

While such measures will be voted on one week after the amendment reached the VSA Council floor, those working within Residential Life view this as merely the long-awaited solution to a protracted problem for House teams. VP for Operations Ramy Abbady ’16 said, “[Inoa] didn’t want it to be an administrative top-down thing, which is why even though this has been an issue before, he hasn’t pushed for it. But this year students wanted it so that’s why it came about now.”

According to the proposal submitted to the VSA by Inoa, “Over the past 9 years I have repeatedly heard concerns about the behaviors of officers that were problematic to the community and just as important disruptive of the house team dynamic.”

He continued, “Anecdotally these behaviors include providing drugs to freshmen, hooking up with freshmen while under the influence, and/or hosting parties.”

The severity of these house officer-freshmen encounters was more heavily stressed in a letter, sent collectively by the House Student Advisors (HSA). In it the group wrote, “There have been numerous occasions where the actions of a House Officer have effectively endangered first year students by way of unhealthy power dynamics involving alcohol, drugs, and sexual or romantic relationships.”

Aside from preventing potentially harmful actions or attitudes with the freshman class, supporters believe that the amendment will

Outside the Bubble ISIL Executes US Aid Worker In Latest Video

On Nov. 16, militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) published a video online claiming to document the execution of 26-year-old American aid worker Peter Kassig, also known as Abdul-Rahman. The White House confirmed later that the deceased man in the video was indeed Kassig, who was kidnapped in Syria in October of last year.

During his captivity, Kassig converted to Islam and began using the first name Abdul-Rahman. Kassig was beheaded in what appears to be Dabiq, Syria, along with several Syrian soldiers (Time, “White House Confirms Latest ISIS Beheading,” 11.16.2014). Secretary of State John Kerry stated that he and Kessig’s home Senator Joe Donelly had been working since his capture to rescue him, and called ISIL “wicked” for ignoring their work, as well as a plea written

by Kessig’s mother.

According to CNN, some analysts see the killing and video as a sign of “desperation” by ISIL. Haras Rafiq of Quiliam Foundation told CNN that the brutality of the video reflects greater violence to come because the United States has made recent gains against ISIL, thus provoking insecurity and an attempt to prove further strength. It is also different from previous execution videos of Westerners released in recent months. Kassig does not speak to the camera like previous victims and is not the only victim in the video. Further, the video does not name a future victim. According to retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joe Ruffini, it may be primarily intended as a propaganda video to intimidate Iraqi and Syrian civilians and keep them from resisting ISIL authority by featuring the execution of several Syrian men. On the other hand, a ISIL member in the video directly “taunts” the US to invade the Iraqi city of currently ISIL-occupied Mosul (CNN, “Analysts: ISIS video ‘sign of desperation,’” 11.16.2014).

United States veteran Kassig was a former Army ranger who returned to the Middle East after his tour of duty, serving as a medical aid worker in Syria. He wrote, in a 2012 email published by the BBC, that he returned to the Middle East because “what I do know is that I have a chance to do something here, to take a stand.

To make a difference” (BCC News, “Abdul-Rah-

promote healthier house team dynamics. In the HSA letter, the group noted, “The current structure of house teams, in which House Officers are not held to any sort of behavioral standards like those to which selected positions are contracted, has for several years fostered a resentful and unhealthy environment for house teams and first year students.”

It continued, “In many houses, this lack of guidelines for House Officers has led to divides between positions that prevent effective communication and functioning of the house teams as a cohesive unit.”

On a personal note, House Student Advisor for Lathrop House this fall Margaret Ginoza ’16 agreed with this sentiment. She wrote in an emailed statement, “The lack of official expectations for officers leads to confusion and tension within house teams, as well as uncomfortable situations with first year students.”

Amidst the debates about the merits of such a contract being necessary for the sustaining of a healthy residential experience, points to the functionality and normality of these regulations are also critical. Ginoza explained, “I think it is important to note that the things being asked of the officers (not drinking with freshmen in their house, etc.) are not only against college regulations in the first place, but also the law—asking an officer not to participate in underage drinking or illicit substance use should not be considered a huge burden, when the safety and comfort of first year students should be one of the house team’s top priorities.”

She continued, “The other parts of the expectations are simply things that officers have long been expected to do as part of their position, but never formalized.”

While those affiliated with the Office of Residential Life appear to have presented a united front supporting the amendment,

members of the VSA have registered some degree of hesitation on the amendment.

Among the chief reasons for criticizing this proposal is the perceived threat of reconsidering, or even restructuring, the House Team program. The Office of Residential Life proposal states, “If VSA decides that it does not want to hold all House Team members to the same behavioral standards, Res. Life will then need to reevaluate how much to invest in the concept of a House Team.”

Despite co-authoring the amendment in question, Vice President for Student Life Hannah Matsunaga ’16 noted her discomfort at the timeline and forcefulness presented by the Office of Residential Life. She acknowledged the varied opinions related to the issue, some of which were negative. She said on the Council floor on Nov. 16, “This was handled very poorly and ResLife sprung this on everyone with short notice and the timeline was very strict. Having to make a decision before Thanksgiving was unfair and tying room privileges to all of this is coercive. I think this is an intentionally crafted amendment we’ve talked about a lot. I really appreciate all of you.”

Abbady echoed this belief. He said, “I don’t necessarily like the way it’s been presented to us, but I don’t think that’s the core of the issue we are discussing.”

Another potential concern is the endowment of the Office of Residential Life with the ability to remove elected officials from their housing. The wording of the amendment does grant the Office of Residential Life some ability to reprimand or remove elected officials from their housing. However, Ginoza was quick to explain that this, as in previous cases for other Residential Life employees, would not be a common instance. “As it would stand if the new expectations are adopted, decisions on consequences for certain infractions

man Kassig in his own words,” 11.16.2014). He continued to write about his humanitarian goals during his captivity, telling his parents in early 2014, “If I do die...I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need.”

President Obama released a statement later on Sunday condemning the beheading as “evil” (Time, “White House Confirms Latest ISIS Beheading,” 11.16.2014). He focused on aid work and also highlighted that Kassig had converted to Islam during his captivity, stating that ISIL members who killed Kassig betrayed the religion that they shared with him because of the violence that they committed.

letter, signed by more than 50 of his conservative colleagues, to the House Appropriations Committee proposing caveats to this year’s government spending bill that would block the immigration legislation. This, in turn, would lead the funding bill to be vetoed by President Obama, even if it makes it past Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (Md.) who is a Democrat and has asserted that such additions would be a “deal-breaker” (Roll Call, “As Obama Weighs Executive Action on Immigration, Is Government Shutdown Possible?”

11.13.2014).

However, according to Reuters, Congressional leadership is currently looking for alternatives to forcing another shutdown, but is still committed to blocking Obama’s immigration reform legislation. In the coming weeks, the exact nature of President Obama’s immigration reform executive actions will become clear, and conservative members of Congress will have to decide whether they believe opposing these measures is worth forcing another government shutdown.

President Obama Announces Immigration Executive Action

Upcoming

On Nov. 15, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson announced that President Obama intends to hand down immigration-reform executive actions before the end of this year.

Nearing the penultimate year of his time in office, Obama is considering actions that would allow millions of undocumented immigrants to stay and work in the United States. The announcement may come as soon as Nov. 22 (Reuters, “U.S. official sees action on immigration before year-end,” 11.16.2014).

According to The New York Times, one essential part of Obama’s forthcoming legislation will be provisions allowing parents of children who are US citizens or legal residents to obtain permission to stay in the U.S. and to work. This will provide more legal protections for up to 5 million members of migrant families who came to the United States, had children and now fear the separation of their families (New York Times, “Obama Plan May Allow Millions of Immigrants to Stay and Work in U.S.,” 11.13.2014).

The President seeks further protections for immigrants who traveled to the United States as minors, although he is less likely to propose protections for illegally employed farm laborers. Johnson also asserted on Sunday that the package will aim to increase border security.

Meanwhile, conservatives in the newly-Republican Congressional Houses have responded to these announcements with hints at forcing a new government shutdown to block Obama’s executive orders. Arizona Republican Representative Matt Salmon wrote an open

—Elizabeth Dean, Design Editor Keystone XL Pipeline Defeated in Senate

On Nov. 18, the Senate defeated a bill that approved the building of the Keystone XL oil pipeline by a vote of 59 yeas to 41 nays, falling one vote shy of passage. The vote comes one week after the House of Representatives passed the bill and in light of a recent poll that 65 percent of Americans supported the pipeline (The New York Times, “Senate Narrowly Defeats Keystone XL Pipeline,” 11.18.14). Although political analysts believed that the bill would have been vetoed by President Obama, this narrow loss showed divisions within the Democratic and the two houses of the legislative branch.

The pipeline would have constructed the final 1,200 miles of a 3,800 pipeline network that attempted to connect the Gulf of Mexico and Canada (Reuters, “Senate narrowly fails to pass Keystone XL pipeline bill,” 11.18.14). Reuters reports that the pipeline, owned by the TransCanada Corporation, is worth approximately $8 billion. The pipeline proposal would have run through South Dakota, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas and Nebraska (CNN, “Keystone XL pipeline debate: what do I need to know?”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

would be considered on a case-by-case basis; [serious] infractions may indeed result in a removal from the house, but as is more likely to be the case, minor infractions would simply result in a conversation with the House Advisor about the infraction and the officer’s ability to continue fulfilling their duties appropriately,” she explained. “Just as ResLife does not arbitrarily remove Student Fellows from power without justification, they would not simply remove an officer from power for any minor mistake.”

As the decision has yet to be made, students invested in the issue have avenues for voicing their opinions. Ginoza explained, “Students can reach out to members of their house team, particularly their president or class reps. In addition, if they have questions about the exact content of the proposal itself, House Advisors and other Residential Life administrators may be of use, as well as the VSA executives involved in this process.”

Abbady also advised students to talk with their class or house presidents who sit on VSA Council ahead of the vote, as these individuals, unlike those affiliated with Residential Life, will cast the votes determining the amendment’s outcome.

While the amendment will face a decision this weekend, there may be further changes to the house officer position. Matsunaga said, “I think we can also expect another amendment like this in the future. If we believe in treating house officers like we treat student fellows— student fellows get $200 in VCash—some kind of shift that acknowledges what other house officers do would be good.” Despite this statement, proposals on the monetary compensation of house officers remains fairly vague, as talk has yet to reach the phase determining whether the VSA or the Office of Residential Life would pay for such a measure.

11.18.14).

Within the Senate vote, a deep split appeared within the Democratic party not present among Republicans. While all 45 Republicans supported the bill, 14 Democrats supported the bill as well (The New York Times, “Senate Narrowly Defeats Keystone XL Pipeline,” 11.18.14).

The pipeline was previously supported in the House of Representatives by a vote of 252-1611 (NBC, “Keystone Vote Falls Short in Senate,” 11.18.14). During this vote, 31 Democrats supported the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. This support marks one of many passed bills within the House of Representatives about the pipeline, all of which were previously avoided on the Senate floor.

The bill faced a wide variety of support and criticism. The passage would have assisted in the run-off election of Democratic Senator Landrieu of Louisiana on Dec. 6; heavily promoting the pipeline, Landrieu hoped to win votes in the oil-rich state (CNN, “Senate rejects Keystone Pipeline XL bill,” 11.18.14). Another argument supporting the pipeline is the belief it will add jobs and boost the economy (CNN, “Keystone XL pipeline debate: what do I need to know?”).

Meanwhile, critics include environmentalists and many Native American tribes. Environmentalists have argued that potential spills and the damage to the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest aquifers in the world. Aquifers provide fresh water and critics of the pipeline argued the pipeline could pollute the water reserves (CNN, “Keystone XL pipeline debate: What do I need to know?”).

The pipeline also traverses Native American tribal lands, prompting the Rosebud Sioux Tribe to state that “the House bill to approve Keystone XL last week amounted to a declaration of war” (CNN, “Keystone XL pipeline debate: what do I need to know?” 11.18.14).

Despite the Senate rejection, the debate about the pipeline may resurface in the coming months. In January, the full State Department report on the pipeline’s effects will become available, a report the White House has commonly cited as a reason for opposing any current legislation, which may prompt supporters to introduce another iteration of this bill.

—Bethan Johnson, Contributing Editor

November 20, 2014

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Page 5

New coalition aims to incite College’s fiscal responsibility Erik Halberg

Features Editor

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courtesy of Vassar Factbook

assar prides itself on the formidable amount of endowment money it receives every year, but the distribution of the over $800 million can be mysterious to the average student. To this end, the Vassar Transparency Coalition (VTC) has set forth to elucidate the College’s finances.

“Our goal is to hold Vassar accountable for the language it uses,” said Tzvetelina Garneva ’15, a member of the VTC who is working to bring its various members together. “[It uses language] that says it’s a (financially) transparent school when it doesn’t disclose it’s reports.”

The VTC is an alliance that includes Act Out, Democracy Matters, GAAP, SJP, Student Labor Dialogue, Vassar Divestment, Vassar Greens, alumnae/i and faculty. Uniting such a large number of organizations is a task that members of the VTC, like Priya Nair ’15, feel will take a lot of work to determine the issues each of the groups feel is important, and how they can go about working to settle these issues.

“We’re in a grassroots coalition phase,” said Nair, who also serves as the President of Act Out. “We’re trying to tap into different groups and find out what issues concern them and bring them together and get manpower, and womanpower,” she finished with a laugh.

Since the Coalition is still young, their current goal is to merely continue bringing their various constituent groups together and to determine how best to help each of them.

“Our goal for now is to keep everyone informed,” said Nair. “Because different groups will have different opinions and not all want the same thing.”

Garneva and Nair pointed out that there are many other issues of transparency on campus, most notably the huge amounts of requests by students for the release of the Margolis Healy report of their review of Vassar’s Safety and Security policies. Though they believe the report will eventually be released by the Administration, the members of the VTC feel that it will be released not out of a feeling of responsibility or

accountability toward the student body but as an effort to quiet the voices of the activists who are demanding its release.

“It’s imperative to make sure that these different issues are kept in common [between the groups],” Garneva said. “That’s why we’re calling the finance transparency campaign just a campaign because it’s just one issue.”

Garneva, Nair and the other members of the VTC—which is a nonhierarchical organization—believe it is extremely important for Vassar to join a growing number of schools who are becoming increasingly financially transparent.

According to a report from July 2012 published by the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) Institute, between 28 and 36 percent of colleges across the nation release reports on their endowment holdings. The same report finds that 36 percent of universities disclose the names of funds in which they have invested. Caitlin Munchick ’17, a founding member of VTC, thinks that one of the reasons it is so important for Vassar to become financially transparent is because of the school’s history.

“Vassar has a history of being at the forefront of reforms,” said Munchick. “For example, we were one of the first to implement the ‘Yes Means Yes’ reform, among many others. I think it’s imperative that we join this movement or we risk falling behind the times.”

In addition to this reason, Garneva, Nair and Munchick all feel that financial transparency is crucial to a healthy relationship between Vassar’s administration and its student body. Without this transparency, they wonder, how will students be able to trust that the administration has students’ best interests at heart?

“All these issues are moving us to a situation where we have no trust in the Administration and there’s no moving forward from such a lack of trust between students and administrators,” Munchick explained.

“We believe our campaign will be the first step towards rebuilding, or creating, a relationship that will show that the administration is accountable to us and its constituents,” she con-

The college has over $800 million in endowment funds, which works out to nearly $350,000 per student. It is not known where the vast majority of the $800 million goes, which is why VTC is calling for transparency. tinued.

For a start to their campaign, Munchick and her fellow VTC members feel it will be enough for Vassar to start giving out financial information when it is requested. They used the example of the Vassar Greens, a member organization of the VTC, who are trying to formulate a proposal to the Administration to help promote more ecologically-friendly spending. But to create a thorough proposal, the Greens need access to information on where Vassar’s money is going, which they cannot currently reach.

“The first step is direct answers,” Garneva said simply.

According to the findings of several studies, such as the IRRC/Tellus study mentioned above, universities that do issue reports on their endowments are yielding significantly better on their investment returns. One of these universi-

ties is Yale, which is currently at the top of the Ivy League in terms of investment returns and whose Board of Trustees, Garneva points out, includes Vassar’s own President Hill. Given this, there is no basis to assume the Vassar Administration is not aware of the benefits that come from becoming a transparent institution.

But for now, the VTC will limit themselves to doing what can be done.

“We’ll be focusing on creating dialogue between groups that hasn’t been there before,” Garneva stated.

That said, the VTC members firmly believe that this is a very important issue, primarily because it affects students so profoundly.

“The Administration is not only accountable to us as students,” said Munchick. “They’re also accountable to us as residents. This campus is our home.”

Blogger confronts Asian representation in popular media Erik Halberg

Features Editor

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courtesy of Phil Yu

rom racial stereotypes to offensively-worded t-shirts to butchered attempts at mimicking Asiatic languages, the media has often subjected Asians to incredibly offensive, if not outright racist, slights. To help raise awareness of these issues and encourage dialogue, the ASA recently brought Phil Yu, the founder of the popular blog “Angry Asian Man,” to Vassar to give a speech.

The speech was conceived and planned by the Asian Student Alliance, who contacted Yu and brought him out to Vassar.

According to Michelle Zhao ’16, a Co-President of the ASA, bringing Yu to Vassar almost didn’t happen because they thought that because of his popularity in the Asian activist scene and his general popularity on the Internet, he wouldn’t be interested in coming to speak at Vassar.

“Initially, we didn’t think of bringing him because to us, he was this really famous blogger that talked about the same exact issues ASA wanted to bring up to the community,” said Zhao. “A senior in ASA posted [a link to a page on his website saying he was willing to speak at schools] to our Facebook group, maybe half-seriously, half-jokingly? And we thought, ‘Hey, why not?’ As long as we could afford him, we would do it.”

As it turns out, they were able to afford to bring him to campus, and Yu spoke in Rockefeller Hall this past Saturday. Yu, an Asian American from Los Angeles, Calif., was motivated by his observations of continual microaggressions against Asians in the media that he encountered daily to found his blog in February 2001.

“I thought to myself: What does being Asian in a super-white environment mean?” Yu said.

Dwelling on this question encouraged him to start up his website nearly 14 years ago. It has since taken off and become a very popular site for Asian-American news and current events, as well as articles pointing out racism in the news and in pop-culture.

“I started the blog because I wanted a place to write down what I was thinking about: Asian-American issues,” continued Yu, who majored in film at Northwestern University and re-

ceived a Masters degree in critical studies from USC. He now works full-time running and updating the blog.

According to Yu, the title of the blog came about not because Yu himself is an especially angry person—in fact, he insists that he is quite the opposite—but because he wanted a title that defied the way in which Asians are always typecast by the media as either passive and thoughtful or knowing martial arts.

“I wanted a title that flew in the face of what Asians are perceived to be in America,” said Yu. “An angry Asian man is confrontational.”

The unofficial mascot for the blog, an image of which must be clicked to see the homepage, is an image of the character Quick Kick from the 1980’s G.I. Joe cartoon series. The image is of a Quick Kick action figure, featuring the character’s constant lack of shirt and shoes—ostensibly so he can practice his martial arts more effectively. Even as a kid, Yu found this stereotype bothersome and problematic.

“There was one episode where G.I. Joe had to go fight in the Himalayas,” Yu recalled. “And when they got there Quick Kick was still not wearing any shirt or shoes. I remember thinking to myself ‘that makes no sense.’”

Yu watched this show and many other movies and T.V. series that portrayed Asians in a similar fashion and often wondered why.

“I grew up on a diet of films, videos and series and I never really saw anyone that, well, looked like me,” Yu said.

It is his commentary on topics such as these that has helped Yu build the following he has today. Cindy Liu ’16, another of the ASA’s Co-Presidents, believed that the topics and elements of racism Yu covers and questions are applicable everywhere, including Vassar.

“There are definitely a lot of forms of microaggression that people of color face here even at a place like Vassar,” said Liu. In his lecture, Yu spoke particularly about several of the posts on his blog that have especially resonated with his audience over the years.

These ranged from his posts about Rosie O’Donnell’s infamous attempt to portray Asian lan-

Phil Yu is the founder of the popular blog “Angry Asian Man,” through which he tackles instances of racism against Asians in the public sphere, his experience with which he recently spoke about at Vassar. guage during an episode on ABC’s “The View” to his most popular posts about Jeremy Lin during the “Linsanity” period of 2012.

Although he began with articles from practically the start of the blog and covering topics as recent as the past week, Yu didn’t talk much about the specifics of how he got the blog to grow as much as it has.

“The only thing was that I wished he talked a little more about was how he got to where he was,” mused Liu. “Although I thought his lecture was pretty good.”

Yu himself feels that the blog’s success and popularity is less because of his own machinations as much as it is the topics he tackles resonating with people.

“There was no master plan,” said Yu. “There was no grand design. But it has given me a lot of purpose.”

Liu and Zhao both praised “Angry Asian Man” because the posts are always characterized by

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Yu’s own commentary on the events he covers, which often includes his own commentary and thoughts and feelings on his subjects.

“It [the blog] is coming from my perspective,” Yu stated. “I’ve never pretended it’s an objective news source.”

Yu’s voice, which has gradually built up a nationwide following, is what the ASA hoped for him to bring to Vassar, to help make students and faculty more aware of these issues that confront a significant portion of the population.

“I think for every single speaker we bring, we hope that they can raise awareness at Vassar about Asian-American and Asian culture and issues,” said Zhao of what she hopes people took away from the lecture. “We find these things happening on the media and in our daily life but without bloggers like Phil Yu and other Asian Americans, the rest of the community don’t really know what goes on since mainstream media doesn’t cover it.”

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November 20, 2014

Check and mate: Vassar Chess Club learns from king Julia Cunningham Reporter

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Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

ost people can relate to the mental strain of an intense game of chess. Now imagine facing multiple chess games set up on tables arranged in a U-formation. And then imagine playing all of these games of chess simultaneously against a bunch of different opponents.

For Chess Masters, this requires only a slight strain for their skill. But all Chess Masters, like all who have mastered a skill, only achieved their skill through thousands of hours of practice, and that practice comes from testing your skill weekly with clubs like the Vassar-Chadwick Chess Club.

The Stanley Chadwick Chess Club was founded in the 1930s with the idea of bringing some of the best chess players in Hudson Valley together. It continues to be open to the public, allowing anyone, child, student or adult, from anywhere in Dutchess County, Orange, Ulster or Putnam, to play alongside them.

The club offers free lessons to anyone up through college graduates, participates in nationally-rated tournaments, team chess and inter-club matches, and hosts prestigious guest speakers and simultaneous chess exhibitions from grandmaster-level players. Professor Emeritus at Marist College Dr. Craig Fisher has been a member of the club since 1973 and still attends the club’s weekly meetings in Rockefeller Hall. “None of this would be possible without Vassar College’s gracious support,” Fisher wrote. “So we run many events at Vassar.”

These events are co-hosted by Marist College and the Vassar-Chadwick Chess Club, and many of them are held in honor of National Chess Day. In the past, when the club has had internationally-recognized players visit, the guests usually give a short talk or lesson, and then play a simul, or many games played simultaneously against as many players as want to play. This year, although the United States Chess Federation holds National Chess Day in October, the Vassar-Chadwick Chess Club celebrated it on Saturday, and hosted William Fisher, a member of the club and a player rap-

Top-ranked chess master William Fisher plays a simul, where he plays several chess games against different opponents at one time. Fisher came up from the city to celebrate National Chess Day with Vassar’s chess club. idly rising in ranking. The club has several players ranked in the top five percent of all U.S. players, in addition to many good tournament players. But, a few months ago, Fisher added himself to that list. “Last spring he began coming to our Vassar-Chadwick Chess Club because he found it on the internet,” Dr. Fisher wrote. “We are fairly well known in N.Y. State Chess circles. William came up from NYC to play chess with us. We wanted to promote a rising star who at 20 years old is in the top two percent of all USA Rated chess players.”

Fisher proved his ability when he played a simul against nine of the 15 players in attendance, winning four games, losing three and drawing two. This was his second time taking part in such a strenuous exercise. However, Dr. Fisher wrote, “While William Fisher is a great player, he has not yet won international acclaim.” Dr. Fisher believes that the turnout was

disappointingly small because of this.

Past president and longtime member of the club Michael O’Connor took part in the simul, and disagreed. “This event was a good balance with the number of players who showed up,” wrote O’Connor. “When there are 40 or so, such as at some of the other simuls run by the club, it can take quite a while for the master to play all his other boards and get back to my game. Having 10 or so games meant that each game could be played at a manageable pace.”

In the past, because these guest players are usually ranked in the top two percent of all U.S. players, it isn’t uncommon for them to win the majority of their games. When Men’s Grandmaster Ronen Har-zvi played a simul with the club at Marist in October 2009, he played 40 games at once and won all 40. Woman’s Grand Master Jennifer Shahade also played a simul on Oct. 15, 2005, and of 38 games, won 34, drew two

and lost two.

Not all of these events are easily accessible, however, when they are hosted at Marist or other off-campus locations. Jayenth Mayur ’16, who is a member of the Vassar-Chadwick Chess Club, wrote that now Vassar has a way to play chess without having to worry about traveling off campus. “Unfortunately, I didn’t go to the national chess day event, but I was part of the Vassar Chadwick Club my freshman and sophomore year moreso than I am now, because now we have our own Vassar student-run chess club which meets every Friday at 7 p.m. in the retreat,” he wrote.

Mayur is the captain of the team, while Noah Kulick ’15 is the President, and George Beyer ’15 and Albert Chung ’16 are the Co-Vice Presidents. Vassar’s Chess team is just as involved with the rest of the chess community as the Vassar-Chadwick Chess Club. “While many of our members, myself included, have played in both USCF rated games and tournaments, they can be a bit dry,” wrote Beyer.

“During USCF rated play, the room must be silent. The Vassar Chess Club is a lighter atmosphere and is geared more towards teaching.”

Beyer added, “Additionally, while Vassar-Chadwick tournaments are a useful resource, we play in larger tournaments designed for collegiate players.” In the past, they competed against teams like University of Texas at Dallas or USC in an online collegiate chess championship and placed third. This year, the Vassar chess team is competing in the U.S. Amateur Team East tournament, which is in February in Parsippany, N.J. Chess doesn’t have to be a competitive game.

Mayur has been playing since he was five years old. “I like chess because I enjoy solving puzzles and I love the chess community at tournaments,” he said. “Chess has been a big part of my life and it has taught me how to think ahead and calculate quickly.”

O’Connor agreed, saying, “The attraction of chess for me is that it is a mental exercise which allows me to shut out the rest of the world for a few hours and concentrate on it.”

Obeying ‘golden rule’ key for true Kentucky-fried chicken Alex Trunnell

Guest Reporter

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

courtesy of recipes.sparkpeople.com

f anyone has been following the articles I have written thusly, you will note that I have been educating you on the proper way to cook and eat in Kentucky. Seeing as the semester is nearly over, I believe that you are finally ready. Brace yourselves: It’s fried chicken time, y’all.

Now. Before we begin I want to make one thing clear: This is not a copycat recipe from THAT place. This is not fast food chicken. This is not served in a paper tub.

This is real Kentucky fried chicken, made from love and wonder, fried in happiness and the tears of angels.

I have been making fried chicken alongside my mother for about as long as Jesus has been risen from the dead. I cannot remember a time when a deep fryer full of oil didn’t sit under the island in my kitchen. Speaking of, pro tip: Reuse your oil. It tastes even better the second time around.

Fried chicken seems to be a daunting task, but I must reassure you that it really isn’t all that complicated. All you need to get started are some basic ingredients and something to deep fry in: a deep cast iron skillet, a hefty pot, etc.

Of course, once the vessel has been secured, it demands to be filled with enough oil to fully immerse the chicken when it is dropped into the pot. I recommend canola oil.

So. Fried chicken. We begin with, naturally, the chicken. I always love drumsticks, but breasts are incredible too. And if you’re in a special kind of mood, you can never go wrong with boneless and skinless chicken strips.

Y’all seem to be really into that up here.

So. You have your oil, simmering away until it reaches 375 degrees. Measure this with a candy thermometer, and be sure not to heat it beyond that value. While it heats, prep your breading station.

You’re gonna need three bowls and a platter. Place your chicken (be sure it’s thawed!)

on the platter and set it aside. Now, this next thing I’m going to say is very, very important. Like, very important. As important as Roseanna marrying Johnse. Pour your seasoned flour into the first bowl, being sure that this flour is Kentucky Kernel seasoned flour, available at any supermarket.

“But, Alex!” you scream, after a moment of stunned silence. “I thought everything was better homemade!”

Well, you’re mostly correct, because most things are. This is not one of those things. Kentucky Kernel has a blend of spices which cannot ever be topped. Trust me on this one: Use Kentucky Kernel.

Beat three whole eggs into the second bowl and add a splash of milk. Set this bowl beside the first. In the third bowl add more of the seasoned flour, and place it next to the egg bowl.

Set a clean platter next to this final bowl.

Now comes the fun part: assembly line chicken-breading. Take a piece of chicken, dredge it in the flour, then the egg wash, then the other bowl of flour. Repeat as many times as is necessary, until you have enough chicken to fill (but not crowd) the hot oil in the bowl.

With the chicken breaded, place it gently into the hot oil. Check the chicken occasionally, using a slotted spoon to pull it out, and look for the breading to become golden brown and get that nice crisp that makes fried chicken so worth it.

Unfortunately, there is no clear way to tell that the chicken is wholly done. Ninety percent of the time, the “when it’s golden it’s delicious” rule holds, but to double check just pull out the chicken and pierce it with a knife, making sure the chicken is not pink. If you do this for the largest piece in the bunch, then you can be sure the rest are done as well.

Place the chicken for a few moments on a plate lined with paper towels to drain the excess oil. Eat it while it’s still warm, being sure to close your eyes and make that “mngh” sound as you bite for the full effect as you savor that good ol’ Kentucky goodness.

The Ingredients Chicken (breasts, wings, drumsticks) Lots of oil (preferably canola) Kentucky Kernel seasoned flour Three eggs Splash of milk

FEATURES

November 20, 2014

Page 7

Physics prof pushes for greater communication in sciences Alex Trunnell

Guest Reporter

On Nov. 14, Dr. James A. Stith came to Vassar and delivered two lectures surrounding the communication of science. Stith has devoted his life to teaching and to physics. Growing up on a Virginia farm, Stith found himself consistently enthralled with the way things work and interact with one another.

Laced between anecdotes of homemade ice cream and family dinners, Stith revealed this fascination to be just another part of his life, a consistent interest. When he learned of physics and its implications in the world, the subject was a natural fit for him: Physics explained all of the things he had been questioning.

Since then Stith has gone on to become an accomplished physicist, eventually even rising to the respected position of the Vice President of the Physics Resource Center for the American Institute of Physics.

Stith’s accomplishments extend even further. According to the American Institute of Physics website, “[Stith] is a past president of the American Association of Physics Teachers, past president of the National Society of Black Physicists, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Chartered Fellow of the National Society of Black Physicists and a member of the Ohio Academy of Science. Additionally, he serves on a number of national and international Advisory Boards.”

Throughout his career, Stith has made an impression on the physics community through his education-centric research, which is considered to be both unique and necessary by his various colleagues.

In addition to the numerous accolades listed above, Stith is a teacher; as a colonel in the United States Military, he spent 21 years on the faculty of United States Military Academy at West Point. In his semi-retirement, he has continued teaching in a variety of ways, including joining the discussion of how to effectively teach things like physics to the public—which would help eliminate many instances of misin-

formation about science that have been a persistent problem.

“Being an expert on a topic does not imply that one will also be effective teaching their subject. It’s something else to be this,” said Stith in one of the lectures he gave at Vassar on Friday.

Through his work, Stith attempts to educate people on what this “something else” is, and how to use it to students’ advantage. His current research focuses on how people learn, and Stith uses the results of this research to effectively speak about things commonly seen as difficult to communicate, such as bioethics.

“Part of what our job as instructive mentors is, is to enable our students to see the bigger picture; or, as my brother used to always say, the boar can’t see the forest for the trees,” Stith said with a smile.

This anecdotal remark is met with a laugh from the audience as Stith follows it with, “Who’s heard that before? I know where you come from.”

It is with this witty, personal manner that Stith gets through to his students and to anyone who listens to him. His lectures were riddled with it, and the bits of personality he let peek through the academics of his lectures kept his audience fully engaged.

When beginning a discussion of media communication of science, Stith again calls upon an anecdotes from his past to help get his points across. Stith relays the story of a family trip to Three Mile Island, a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, taken right at the time it partially melted down in 1979. While locals panicked and began fleeing the surrounding city, Stith remained calm.

“I found myself that evening conducting physics seminars on the way reactors work and why [the locals] should not leave. They made the decision to trust me, and they stayed,” Stith recounted to his audience.

Through this story, Stith makes a point of how the media is not often quick to relay scientific information, and how the media can sometimes be misleading, especially when news is

breaking. Due to a lack of information about the workings and dangers of nuclear reactors, the people of Three Mile Island could’ve been in serious trouble had they truly panicked.

“Life is about communication,” Stith remarked in his talk, “[and] knowledge that you could not communicate is knowledge that is not useful.” Stith holds this to be true in every way, and his talks reflected that. He has devoted the second half of his life to understanding the way people learn, Professor Jenny Magnes of the Physics Department explained in the introduction of Stith at the lectures, and through this devotion, he has developed certain methods of relaying information.

“The bottom line is that, as all of us tell all of our students, I expect you all to be independent, innovative, critical thinkers–and do exactly what I say,” Stith poignantly remarked in his lecture.

As Stith’s comment would suggest, teaching, especially in the sciences, is often about instructors simply asking students to relay certain bits of information. This view toward teaching lays the foundation for Stith’s ideas about science teaching and ways in which ideas are communicated, something which is incredibly relevant for Vassar students.

Many students are required to take Intro to Physics for their major, but have a difficult time grasping concepts. Stith hopes to alleviate this difficulty via different teaching techniques, such as “backward design,” as Stith calls it. This idea centers around the student rather than the professor, upon focusing each aspect of a course around the student and ways in which they can succeed.

Stith’s focus is not, however, limited just to students. Rather, he looks also at the media and the communication of science to the public as a whole.

“If we take a look at what I call the disconnect, the disconnect between scientists’ opinions and public opinions...the question becomes ‘how do we bridge that divide?’” asked Stith about the transmission of scientific information through the media.

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His second lecture of the day, entitled “Scientists Reaching Out to the Public: A Necessary Dialogue,” focused on members of the scientific community can better diffuse its findings.

As its title would suggest, this talk looked at the relationship between science and the public, and the transmission of information: not a simple subject.

In order to begin this dialogue, Stith presented the media as it is now.

“It’s amazing how opinions now seem to count as opposed to what the fact is,” Stith remarked in his lecture.

Upon offering methods with which to alleviate this problem, Stith suggested that the gap be closed between public perception and scientific knowledge.

“People’s perceptions persist. Even though they know better in the terms of, they still believe [the preconceived notion],” Stith had remarked in his first lecture.

It is the scientist’s job to eliminate this problem, Stith believes, and he has taken steps, along with his peers, to begin this process.

In order to begin changing people’s perceptions, Stith began the ISNS, the Inside Science News Service. The ISNS is a staff assembled by Stith to write scientific articles which can then be sent out to publications. Said Stith, “What we were trying to do was to project ourselves as the science portion, or the science equivalent, of the associated press.” This project was a major success, and Stith noted that at their peak, ISNS appeared on roughly 100 stations per day around the country. This is an incredible number, and reflects the success of an important project started for the sole purpose of closing the gap between scientists and the general populus.

With this project and others like it, Stith has made quantifiable progress toward a better scientific learning environment for anyone who is willing to learn. Because, in his view, learning is something that starts the day a person is born and never ends.

“Life is a process of continually learning, continually filling the bucket,” Stith concluded.

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

FEATURES

Page 8

November 20, 2014

Perceived positivity masks racism in Asian stereotypes STEREOTYPES continued from page 1 poverty in their country, looking to make money and return home. They did menial labor for lower pay than white workers which lead to vocational laws that were part of a system of exclusionary laws that affected Asians in America until World War II. Wu spoke briefly about a “regime of Asian exclusion,” that blocked Asians from meaningful participation in American society. According to Wu, for the most part, this regime lasted until the second World War, when white supremacy became a political liability.

Wu asserted that the creation of the “model minority” myth relied on the complete restructuring of the American social order. The three major radical changes that Wu cited are the beginning of racial liberalism, the profound self-interest of Asian Americans in securing a better future for themselves and United States foreign relations.

Racial liberalism, a political philosophy implemented during American mobilization for World War II, attempted to assimilate nonwhites through government intervention. Intervention included the assimilation of young Japanese-American men out of internment camps and into the army. The American government believed this act showed trust in Japanese Americans as long as they would loyally serve America. This caused strife within the Japanese-American community; sons who were born in the United States fought against Japan even though their parents spoke little to no English and viewed Japan as home and America as the enemy. There were Japanese-American men, too, who refused to fight in World War II when the American government gave them the chance to. These “no-no boys,” as they were referred to, were sent to jail. When they came out, they were looked down upon by many other Japanese Americans for tarnishing their com-

munity’s image as loyal to America.

This led into Wu’s second proposal that helped create the “model minority” myth— the profound self-interest of Asian Americans in bolstering their status in the United States.

Groups like the Japanese-American Citizen’s League worked to reshape the image of Japanese Americans. They did this through propaganda posters of white and Japanese soldiers smiling side by side in uniform as well as with stories about Japanese-American recovery after World War II which attempted to paint the internment camps as the best thing that could have happened for Japanese people in America.

After World War II there was also a movement for Chinese inclusion in social and political America. Similar posters to those of the JACL were spread to show that Chinese Americans were just like any other Americans; they had stable families, a husband who worked, a wife who raised the kids, they read American newspapers as a family, they went to church, etc. This example of what a “typical American family” is allowed Chinese Americans to assimilate more into American culture, while, according to Wu, further alienating Black Americans who are seen as having less stable families.

Important, too for Chinese Americans after World War II was the impending war against Communism in America. There was a massive anticommunist movement in America’s Chinatowns, similar to the support for America by Japanese Americans in World War II in that the Chinese-American anticommunist movement showed a sense of loyalty to America and its often imperialistic and discriminatory ideals.

These examples of Chinese and Japanese Americans supporting the United States and the political systems and ideals that America values show that many Asian Americans were happy to benefit within this system that was beginning to finally allow them to prosper

economically and socially to some degree. Associate Professor of English Hua Hsu agrees.

“There were certainly Asian-American leaders who were happily complicit in furthering this [the model minority] myth. Even today, especially in debates around affirmative action, you hear Asian American leaders holding firm to this model exceptionalism,” Hsu claimed.

The last change Wu cited was United States foreign policy after World War II. Trying to assert itself as the leader of the “free world” by fighting a battle against communism and fascism, the US wanted to clean up the image of its race relations at home. The “model minority” allowed America to show that its own race problems were solvable: the American dream was achievable even for marginalized groups.

This is the major problem with the model minority myth: assimilation of Asian Americans into white American culture as the “model minority” immediately pits them against other minorities, Latinos, Black Americans, Native Americans and many more, claiming that it is possible for minority groups to achieve the American dream and so the effects that structural and institutional racism have in keeping those minority groups from gaining fiscal, social, political and personal security in the United States is disregarded and instead these groups are looked at as dangerous and lazy. At the same time, the myth relegates Asian Americans into second place, healthy in society, well assimilated, distinctly not black but also not quite white. The obedient, docile “model minority.” In this way the myth hurts everyone and only works to relegitimize power structures in America that benefit only whites.

Wu stressed that the “model minority” myth was not accepted universally in Asian-American communities. Many Asian Americans questioned exactly what were they trying so hard to assimilate into. The answer often seems to be

a nation bent on discrimination that continues to move further politically to the right in the name of “freedom and democracy.” Because of this, many Asian Americans in the 60s rejected the “model minority” myth which they believed pitted them most frequently against African Americans and supported America’s many systems of structural racism. Grassroots organizations were formed that served as the Asian-American counterpart to Black power.

Wu talked about the creation of the “model minority” and how it took hold in the 1960s and 70s, but did not mention where the myth stands today. Professor Hsu notes that the myth has been particularly durable.

“It has been used as a bludgeon, a false standard, evidence that our system still works. Ellen’s book does a terrific job of complicating that picture and tracing the myth’s historical roots,” said Hsu. Hsu believes he understands why many Asian Americans are quick to accept the myth.

“It’s a seemingly positive stereotype, but it only serves to divide different ethnic and racial groups,” Hsu said. “The narrative of success and achievement also obscures a lot of actual problems within the Asian-American community, particularly concerning mental health.”

In the Time article, this idea of “obscuring actual problems” is perfectly clear. In the first personal story that the article recounts, Satia Tor, a Cambodian immigrant is praised for winning an essay contest about “his experiences:” the title of his essay, “Cambodian Boys Can’t Cry.” The story doesn’t delve into this title.

In his picture for the article, Satia Tor looks hauntingly at the camera in a cardinal Stanford sweatshirt, and on the wall behind him is a poster that reads, “A Trauma Of Our Times.”

His “haunting memories of the horrors he has witnessed” will always be overshadowed in the story by his perceived success in America.

Bazaar showcases local vendors, promotes ethical spending Penina Remler Guest Reporter

F

bowls, woven baskets, pottery and dolls. Many of the crafters themselves attended the event to personally converse with clients and promote their products, including photographer Tom Hackett and jewelry maker Lorelei Pollack. The vast collection of available products makes the fair trade bazaar an appealing attraction for people of all ages and interests. Beatrice Land ’18 went to the fair to browse the goods and buy some gifts for her family.

“It was an exciting opportunity to engage with the Poughkeepsie community that I’ve yet been able to get to know,” said Land. “Meeting the various vendors and artisans gave me a new impression of Vassar’s neighboring area. I also got a chance to purchase way better seasonal gifts for my family than what I’d be able to find at the Galleria.”

What makes the fair a success each year is its unique selection of merchandise which is marked down to considerably reasonable prices. Additionally, many shoppers also find great satisfaction in not only scoping out creative and thoughtful holiday treats, but also supporting

their community and local business’s at the same time. Sarah Mincer ’15 was another student who stopped by the Bazaar to take a look at the wares.

“I enjoy going to flea markets and like looking at and buying handicrafts and natural products,” said Mincer, who was accompanied by her boyfriend. The two shared a bar of Fairtrade dark chocolate, which was reportedly very good.

“It was a little crowded,” Mincer continued.

“I wish it was a bigger space. But overall everybody was friendly and passionate about what they were selling.”

All in all, Lamanna reports, the great turnout and huge variety of goods sold at the Bazaar made the event, in her book at least, a successful event.

“I think the consensus is that it was one of the most successful, if not the most successful [bazaars] we’ve ever held. We’re always happy to have Vassar organizations join us,” said Lamanna. “There was a great atmosphere with the artists, the vendors and the attendees.”

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

or nearly a decade, the Fair Trade of Hudson Valley has hosted the annual Fair Trade Bazaar which has turned into an anticipated tradition within the Poughkeepsie community.

The fair, which is sponsored by the Dutchess County Interfaith Council and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie, focuses on interconnecting the people of Poughkeepsie with local non-profits, craftspeople and vendors. This year, the Fair Trade of Hudson Valley initiated its busiest and best season here at Vassar College as over 300 people made their way through the Aula last Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 15 and 16.

Pat Lamanna, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie which is an affiliate of the DCIC, is the head of the committee that heads the Bazaar. She feels that the Bazaar is a great way to disseminate knowledge about fair trade in the community, and to increase involvement between members of the community.

“This was at least the Bazaar’s fifth year at Vassar, and before that it was at another location,” said Lamanna. “Through the Bazaar, we hope to raise the community’s consciousness of what fair trade is and general consciousness of what it means when they buy something. We want them to be aware of where their goods come from. If they’re buying a big boxed door, what that means about the goods and how the workers were treated.”

Over the weekend, the Aula transformed itself from a standard venue within Ely Hall into an authentic fair trade bazaar. For most of the day on Saturday and Sunday, the Aula was filled with Vassar students and Poughkeepsie locals browsing the various stands. The event did a great job of kick starting the upcoming holiday season for shoppers with the help of local food and live music from local bands Lost in the Woods and The Roundabout Ramblers. The inviting atmosphere made for a shopping setting that simultaneously benefited many local vendors and businesses who consider the fair to be ideal advertising for their array of products. The event also helps to integrate Vassar and the Poughkeepsie community by connecting people on campus and residents of Pough-

keepsie itself.

The annual event is made up of several different booths which come together to sell and promote a collection of unique gifts—some of which are international merchandise that is purchased and sold by co-operatives who publicize the value of hand-crafted work. This year’s most popular imported product went to the Mayan inspired backpacks and accessories from the international business Mayan Hands.

“We want to support artists in other countries and we invite local vendors because we want to support local vendors who make high-quality and durable goods,” said Lamanna of the Bazaar’s focus on including items from such a wide variety of vendors.

Many of the imported products came from poor nations where certain groups have gone to buy the goods of vendors from the countries to help them stay afloat and practice their craft.

“As a group, we buy goods from a group called SERRV who goes to various third-world countries and buys goods from vendors there.

We had three tables of SERRV goods,” said Lamanna about the initiative.

Many times the vendors end up collaborating with one another by selling complementary products. For instance, one might find themselves purchasing jewelry at one stand and later purchasing a decorative jewelry box/holder from another or possibly buying organic coffee from one vendor and a customized mug from a separate vendor.

While most of these small businesses sell their products all throughout the year, the Fair Trade of Hudson Valley is held specifically during the holiday season. These local treasures help to portray the complexity within Poughkeepsie’s business market, featuring a collection of ethnic backgrounds that help to shape Poughkeepsie’s diverse culture. Additionally, the Fair Trade of Hudson Valley aims to educate its clientele about the growing social and economic world circulating within Poughkeepsie and to be more conscience of the origin of purchased goods.

The handcrafted products sold at the Bazaar ranged from art to clothing, jewelry, organic food, skin care and bath products, house warming gifts and so forth. Some of this year’s best sellers included organic coffee, carved wooden

Shoppers go through the items being offered by the multitude of vendors at the Fair Trade Bazaar held this past Saturday. Vendors sold items made locally, from other parts of the nation, and from overseas.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

November 20, 2014

OPINIONS

Page 9

The Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Marketing Stalled action on BIRT database worrisome relies on T gender norms he Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT) is a committee composed of various administrators and student leaders that is meant to act as a means of ensuring that students have the resources to respond to incidents that threaten the campus climate at Vassar. Such resources currently include referral to counseling services, facilitation of dialogues and recommendations for campus alerts, among other means.

At a VSA Council meeting on Nov. 9, the VP for Student Life informed the Council that BIRT was drafting a letter to ask the senior Administration to allow them to set up a bias incident database. This database would contain detailed information on all bias incidents reported to and investigated

by BIRT and would be accessible to all students, faculty and administration.

Students would receive notifications each time the database was updated via an email informing them of the update, but without any specific information so as to avoid triggering content.

VP for Student Life Hannah Matsunaga explained that although BIRT had been pushing senior administrators to create the database, they had appeared to stall its progress by refusing to create the website, as well as to refrain from providing a timeline of when the database might be completed.

On Nov. 14 all students received an email from the Associate Dean of the College for Campus Life and Diversity and BIRT Coordinator informing them of all of the bias incidents reported to BIRT. This email had originally been drafted before Halloween by members of BIRT, who subsequently asked permission to send it through the Office of the President or the Office of the Dean of the College, both of which declined to do so.

While this email is a good initiative, we at The Miscellany News echo the sentiments of Matsunaga, who noted that it is not sufficient in making knowledge about BIRT’s activity accessible to students. There is no guarantee that future email updates will be sent out. Unlike a database that is continually updated, this email serves as a

short-term attempt at accessibility by way of briefly listing reported bias incidents.

We at The Miscellany News support the establishment of the previously described incident database and would like to see all administrators working to foster its eventual creation. We feel that such a database would be a beneficial asset to the student body.

However, we also understand that the database itself is not a remedy to all issues of campus climate, as some bias incidents are not reported to BIRT. Furthermore bias incidents alone do not measure the discrimination that some students may experience on campus.

Nonetheless, this database is a step in the right direction and would create greater transparency on campus about what students experience at Vassar. We advise students to put pressure on the Administration to push this idea forward so that it does become a useful tool for the student body. The plan currently in place for the creation of the bias incident database, shows promise in allowing for more transparency concerning bias incidents on campus.

However, it is evident that BIRT lacks any real power to put this plan into effect.

The administration has made it so that BIRT is unable to enact any fundamental change that would progress transparency.

This is evidenced by the fact that the email received by the student body was not sent out by BIRT, which was created for purposes such as this, instead it was sent out by one person, who may not share the same concerns that BIRT does. BIRT only has the power to make recommendations to the administration, which they can choose to override.

If the administration regularly blocks BIRT from taking action after bias incidents on campus, then what was the purpose of creating BIRT? The committee may be able to create progress in the way of responding to bias incidents on campus, or at least making the student body on campus more aware of such occurrences, but the administration is preventing this

from happening. We are concerned that this committee dealing with bias incidents does not have the proper authority to deal with such incidents accordingly, or even to make knowledge of them regularly available to the student body, at no fault of their own.

Because the BIRT must wait for approval from the administration that it currently rarely receives, it cannot respond to the incidents that it investigates, which puts much-needed progress in in jeopardy of being made.

Since the Committee relies solely on senior administration to act, BIRT is made subject to the desires of the administrations, and not to those of the students. This makes BIRT less powerful and less useful than it was originally intended to be. If BIRT is to make any lasting progress on campus in terms of bias incidents, then the administration needs to take their recommendations for action seriously and enact them efficiently.

On Nov. 16, the VSA sent and endorsed a letter to the administration addressed their concerns on the matter. This was a positive step to ensure that the administration understands that the student body does not believe that progress is being made, and that the current system in which the BIRT has no real authority will not suffice to create this progress.

However, there needs to be a stronger push to make sure larger issues are addressed. Bias incidents exist on campus, and any attempts by the administration to obscure this reality does not change the fact that they do occur.

The email sent to the student body brought forth the issues that are presently affecting how bias incidents are treated, but in order to create more understanding and accepting environment for all of our fellow students, we should continue to make our concerns heard, until lasting change is made.

Emily Sayer

O

f the largest global populations, a shocking gender imbalance is emerging as the by-product of centuries of perverse societal constraints and practices. China and India harbor cultures of anti-female sentiment so intense that egregious state-sanctioned crimes against humanity are considered the norm, and the near attempt to eradicate young daughters is adopted even by mothers themselves in gruesome acts of infanticide.

Inconceivable, but the mass murder of female babies and children is widely established and accepted, and while some of the tactics used to trim the influx of women into the populace are not protected by law, they are by no means inhibited by either nation’s lawmakers. How are these malpractices so wildly overlooked?

And at what point can cultural custom be disbanded to allow for reform and social change?

In India, the main culprit behind the gendercide epidemic is the dowry system. The existence of dowries condemns daughters to a role of subservience, burdening their families financially and inviting husbands to equate wives only with the monetary or commodity value that she is able to provide upon engagement. Raising a wife is of no use to an Indian family; wives are costly, and once they’ve married, the care and support that they can offer is reserved strictly for the inlaws. Impoverished ruralites simply cannot divest themselves of funds or resources for the benefit of others.

The result, then, is a string of unfathomable abuses plaguing the woman in all stages of development: illegal but common sex-selective ultrasounds and abortions, the murder of infants by their mothers or guardians, medical neglect throughout childhood and exposure to sickness and disease, “dowry deaths” com-

mitted by husbands when a woman has too little to give, and spousal abuse emanating from childbearing tensions. And these issues are not limited to just the working poor. India’s wealthy classes approach the gender binary with the same mentality, the only difference being that they are better equipped to pay off the pricey under-the-table costs of the sex-determination ultrasounds and then, if the results are unfavorable, abortion.

Criticizing mothers for what appears to be unimaginable callousness is complicated once the treatment of the female population is more considered. Our understanding of a mother’s role is that she is an ultimate caregiver, protecting her children from the dangers of the world. How can a mother bring a child into a climate so discordant and unforgiving? Sons, though beneficial for the family, also are born with their own opportunities for social wellbeing, financial success, career prosperity, extended familial ties, etc. Reform, here, must transcend class distinctions and family wealth. The holistic ideology of Indian culture is to blame for the degradation of what is now the country’s minority population, and until it is reworked, the systematic targeting of women will persist.

The Chinese situation is not one provoked by tradition, but policy. To curb the dangerously rising population, the government enacted legislation in the late ‘70s restricting the number of children born to a family; measures such as the tracking of birth control use and the scheduled authorization of conception were enabled, and those who did not abide by these were subjected to government coercion and unlawful forced termination of pregnancies. This was enforced more stringently in dense urban areas due to the want for labor amongst the families of rural provinces.

However, in agricultural regions, sons are

Columnist

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needed to perform physical tasks and financially provide for aged parents, so it is here that the gender ratio is most skewed. With female births hidden from record, the statistics cannot be analyzed seriously, but it is valid that Chinese brothers are outnumbering their sisters. Furthermore, an institution known as the Family Planning Police monitors villages by bribing neighbors to report the misdeeds of other families, sharing information of any illegal children. Law-breaking individuals are struck with fines so steep that many are led to economic ruin.

A psychological consequence afflicts the mothers who have fallen victim to their country’s eerily dystopian system. China has the highest global rate of female suicide, according to the World Health Organization, with an average of 500 deaths per day. Additionally, child trafficking and kidnapping have become a prevalent response to the rising demand for brides, and with these, sex-trafficking and prostitution. The outlook for the female condition here is grim.

Custom is not easily stripped from a society. Traditions support and create economic and political structures that perpetuate sexism and patriarchal abuse, but to reverse tradition, in these instances it is evident that policies must be redirected. Although sex-determinative ultrasounds in both countries are illegal and though India passed the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961, courts and lawmakers enable the continuance of the very practices that have been outlawed.

If pressed to govern with attention to national legislation, the countries will likely experience a disturbance in the current trend. But in the meantime, as is the fashion for any historical genocide, we’ll remain blissfully unaware.

ome of my very first memories include me playing with a Little Tikes beauty salon and my brother playing with a tool workshop. I played with Barbies and he played with G.I. Joes.

At school, if we did well on an assignment, the girls would get a flower sticker and the boys would get a car sticker. My mom would buy me princess gummy snacks and my brother would get a Spider Man pack. Was it her fault that she differentiated us at a very young age by gender?

For many people, this issue flies under the radar because it is simply the way we have been socialized to think.

This gender binary is largely enforced by consumer culture. Some products are understandably gendered for presumed biologically practical reasons. The concerning issue is products that are gendered for no functional reason whatsoever. Just plainly speaking from my own experiences, why couldn’t my brother and I play with the same types of toys? Why couldn’t boys and girls get the same stickers as rewards in school?

Why do the colors and shapes of the snacks we eat have to be different?

There are many products that are unnecessarily gendered. These differences can really invade all realms of life, including eating, working, school and more. BiC sells pens “for her,” Kleenex produces tissues for men and Banana Boat sells different sunscreens for men and for women. Bounce offers dryer sheets for men, and there is even a new type of Greek yogurt called Powerful Yogurt that is marketing to men with its higher protein content. These differences serve no physical benefit and therefore force people into thinking that if you are a girl, you should like these things, and if you are a boy, you should like these other things. What seems absurd about some of these products is that the only difference between the product for girls and boys is the packaging, and once you open it, the contents are exactly the same.

These products, as well as many other products like them, perpetuate the mindset of our society that gender and sex cannot be fluid. In some cases, this is not a result of purposefully close-minded thinking, but more just an inability to alter the way we have been programmed to think. In my Intro to Sociology class, we have recently been discussing the difference between gender and sex. From a sociological standpoint, gender is an imposed social construct, signifying rules and norms, and these are dictated by institutions like the media, schools, government and family. Yet, though we largely acknowledge that gender is a social construct, we forget that sex can be, too. Sex refers to biological differences that distinguish males from females. The most interesting point brought up in class was how sex is much more socially constructed than we realize. If, at birth, a baby is born with indistinguishable genitalia, doctors and families can determine their sex with surgery. Parents often go along with the surgery because they think it is best for their child. In society, people are taught to think that what is best for their child is having a clear, known sex that they live as for the entirety of their life.

In some cases, gender distinctions are made as a result of prejudice and ingrained stereotypes, but a lot of the time, it is just a continuation of how we have been operating for hundreds of years. As unfortunate as it is to realize, much of our country is built off of the perceived differences between men and women. It took a few hundred years for most of our society to come to terms with the fact that women can work full-time instead of focusing solely on childbearing. Because we have only scratched the surface of establishing equality between men and women, I think it will be many more years until the uncalled for gender distinctions in our society begin to disappear. Once it is realized by all that men and women are perfectly equal, which I hope will be within my lifetime, I think it will be more possible for gendered products like the ones I’ve mentioned to die out.

—Emily Sayer ’18 is currently undeclared.

—Sarah Sandler ’18 is currently undeclared.

—The Staff Editorial represents the opinions of at least 2/3 of our Editorial Board.

Gender inequality takes on violent forms Guest Columnist

Sarah Sandler

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

OPINIONS

Page 10

November 20, 2014

Relationships with music fall flat in wake of digital age Sophia Burns Columnist

R

ecently, there has been a great deal of discussion regarding Taylor Swift’s decision to pull her entire catalog from the music streaming service Spotify and what this move signifies for music as an industry and as a commodity. With the debut of the iPod in 2001, it was clear that the way people purchase, listen to and share music was changed forever.

Thirteen years later, MP3 players have, for the most part, gone the way of the landline as more and more people choose to listen to music on their smartphones. The nature of music as an item to be possessed has evolved drastically, potentially altering our relationship with music in unforeseen ways.

During the collective childhood of the nowcollege-aged generation, radio, CDs and even cassette tapes were still the main methods of listening to music. As children, many of us listened to Radio Disney and had fledgling CD collections featuring Kidz Bop, Britney Spears and maybe a boyband or two.

I remember seeing ads on TV for new albums “In Stores Now!” and hoping my mom would take me to Target to get it, so long as I could produce $12 (which was a lot of money for a third grader). By middle school, many of us received MP3 players and iPods, and likely never bought another physical CD again. This lead to a great shift in how people of all ages experienced music.

The act of going to the store and buying a CD slowly became unnecessary as digital libraries expanded and MP3 players became more and more widespread and accessible.

Stores such as Barnes and Noble that used to boast expansive CD sections began to downsize and eventually remove these areas, dissociating music from other forms of entertainment: Music used to be grouped with movies, TV shows and books, but has since become virtually absent from retail.

There are no longer huge signs in stores advertising the latest hit album or any albums at

all for that matter. It’s just no longer in stores.

As music loses its material status, it loses a certain meaning in people’s thoughts.

When music became widely available online, like anything, illegal downloading of music appeared. Entire albums could be downloaded for free with little to no difference in quality from a purchased version and then synced onto an iPod in just minutes. This is much different from a “fake” CD or record, which more than likely would have had to been purchased and would more frequently have errors or differences from the “real thing.”

“As music loses its material status, it loses a certain meaning in people’s thoughts.”

When it comes to an MP3 download, however, there is no concern about the legitimate sleeve or case that comes with it or the appearance of the “album,” as the album is solely the music files. It is completely possible to own an album without knowing what the artwork looked like or to “know” an album under an incorrect name (trust me).

With the proliferation of illegal torrents and sites such as Napster and Limewire, young people especially began to acquire most, if not all of their music entirely for free. Saving up for an album, waiting in line to purchase it, and displaying it in your room or in your car seems impractical and silly when you can rip it off of YouTube or download it from a website straight onto your iPhone and listen to it as much (or as little) as you want.

With this comes a loss of connection with music—because it is not a material thing, and we value material things, it loses that meaning to us. This occurs especially when one’s entire

library was acquired for free—it is not taking up space on our dresser or clogging up the passenger seats of our cars. Instead, it lives on our computers, as little file names and icons right alongside our tenth grade English papers.

There is no worry that your favorite album will get stepped on, scratched, stolen or lost, because it is intangible and likely saved both on a hard-drive and in some kind of cloud storage as well as on a device, so it becomes dispensable.

Also, because it is so intangible, we do not feel the same remorse when we download an entire discography illegally than we would if we ran out of Walmart with 12 CDs stuffed in our pockets, mostly because we know we will not get caught but also because we have developed this idea that it should be free. If it is not something one can touch and hold, and may or may not even enjoy, why would someone waste money on it?

The effect that this has on artists is a different debate altogether, but this ultimately has repercussions on people themselves as they grow more distant from something so personal.

With the loss of a physical form and monetary value, music can be easily thrown away.

Tired of that old Hannah Montana album you bought on iTunes when you were 11? Delete it and never see, hear or think about it again! Until, of course, it sneaks onto your new iPhone when you first sync up your iTunes account, put it on shuffle, and jump when you hear “The Best of Both Worlds” and fast forward furiously.

Instead of keeping these vestiges of our old selves, we can dispose of them in an instant and replace them with whatever represents who we assume ourselves to be today.

There is no digging through your pile of CDs and discovering embarrassing old albums, putting them on and laughing. You may forget altogether that you listened to that album 100 times and lip-synced to it at many a slumber party. Music is something that we use to ex-

press ourselves, and when we toss it away and replace it constantly, it becomes less important.

Because instead of purchasing an entire album and listening to it in its entirety, we download a few songs-maybe even just one—listen to it however many times we want, and forget about it or delete it, we do not develop relationships with albums or even the artists.

“With the loss of a physical form and monetary value, music can easily be thrown away.”

Instead, we enjoy music on an a-la-carte basis and like a few songs from a bunch of artists and collect them all on our iPhones rather than having a stack of different albums that we have listened to entirely at least once. This does not necessarily signify a diversity in taste, rather a jack of all trades approach to music and a diminishing of the depth in which we experience different kinds of music.

Relating back to the discussion of artists and their opinions of streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora and even YouTube (which has just released its own unique music streaming service), money is not the greatest thing at stake. In 30 years, we may only vaguely recall what we liked in high school and college because we streamed numerous Pandora stations while jogging and doing homework, oblivious to the names of songs and artists.

Will the abundance and variety of music available to us widen our tastes or dilute our appreciation and connection? As the way we consume music continues to evolve, it will be crucial to take note of how this affects our relations with and regard of music and those who create it.

—Sophia Burns ’18 is currently undeclared.

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November 20, 2014

OPINIONS

BurgerFi image conceals ethical dilemma Rockwell Schwartz Guest Columnist

Trigger warning: This article contains some violent imagery.

V

assar students are eating up a greenwashed atrocity marketed specifically to an eco-minded student body. On Oct. 1, The Miscellany News covered the opening of BurgerFi, the new burger joint conveniently positioned beside Vassar College’s renovated and newly relocated off-campus bookstore.

The article misleadingly touts BurgerFi as “an ecologically friendly twist on the American burger joint” with an “environmentally conscious selection of food” (“BurgerFi location a major appeal,” 10.1.2014). In the article, the restaurant’s general manager, Derrick De Lise, is described as “proud of their lack of impact on the environment” and rightfully notes how environmentalism resonates with the Vassar community. Yet, BurgerFi’s recycled-Coke-bottle chairs and energy-efficient fans should not be used to veil the true environmental destruction its menu perpetuates.

The Vassar community, sharp and capable of looking past conscience-easing marketing, can and must recognize BurgerFi’s green image for what it is: greenwashing of environmentally disastrous animal agriculture.

“...the farming of nonhuman animals for human consumption is inherently violent.”

Animal agriculture is understood as a leading cause of biodiversity loss, resource depletion, pollution, climate change, deforestation, and desertification and erosion in many parts of the world. Here’s a brief look at why this is: The farming of animals for food—such as the

farming of Montana cattle for BurgerFi burgers—requires land for growing the cattle’s food and land for grazing and housing. This, in fact, currently requires 30 percent of the planet’s landmass and causes 80 percent of all deforestation. Wildlife who are perceived as threats to farmed animals or have habitats in the way of agriculture are either displaced or killed, including the rounding up of wild horses who are auctioned off and often also sold for slaughter.

Similarly, a great deal of water is needed to grow the plants farmed animals eat and for the hydration of the animals, themselves.

A National Public Radio report reveals that just one quarter-pound hamburger requires 52.8 gallons of water to produce! As headlines bring international attention to devastating droughts—such as that in dairy-producer California—those monitoring their sprinkler use or shower times must also take a close look at what’s on their plates.

Additionally, the farming of animals produces mass amounts of waste in the world, in the form of manure, blood and miscellaneous body parts from these animals. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that the waste generated by the farming of pigs, chickens, and cattle has polluted 35,000 miles of river and contaminated ground water supplies in 17 of 22 states reporting on the subject.

This is just a small look at the devastating and widespread effects of animal agriculture on the environment. As is the case with other environmental issues, animal agriculture’s effects disproportionately affect already vulnerable human populations.

Beyond the devastating environmental effects of animal agribusiness, the farming of nonhuman animals for human consumption is inherently violent.

Whether grass-fed or confined to a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), the cattle killed for burgers only live out two of their potential twenty-plus years. Over 30,000,000 of these sensitive, gentle animals are killed young each year in the U.S. alone.

They experience the pain of separation from family and friends before finally having a bolt gun pressed to their heads.

Most consuming the flesh of cattle or other animals and forms of livestock have never known them intimately in their living forms, never watched as they experience a full range of emotions or revealed their individual personalities. Rather, most only know them through consumption of their bodies, sometimes in the form of a BurgerFi burger.

“A quarter of the student body has already pledged to participate in...

Meatless Monday.”

With all this in mind, I know Vassar students and others compelled to dine at “ecologically friendly” eateries can see through BurgerFi’s marketing.

A quarter of the student body has already pledged to participate in the international Meatless Monday campaign, and many choose to eat vegetarian or vegan every day of the week.

If BurgerFi intends to present a menu resonant with the Vassar community, a great first step would be to offer truly environmentally conscious options and to place a vegan burger on the menu.

The Vassar Animal Rights Coalition has launched an online petition asking the franchise to do just that on Change. org. Please sign to show your support! Beyond this, we, as a community, must continue to question the seemingly benign and nicely packaged, recognizing the true impact of BurgerFi and animal agribusiness.

—Rockwell Schwartz ’15 is an STS major and a member of the Vassar Animal Rights Coalition.

New website transforms online job search Joshua Sherman Guest Columnist

T

aleo, Brass Ring, LinkedIn—any student in search of an internship or post-graduation job knows the unfair, confusing and outright ridiculous world of career vetting.

Making one stand out is hard without the opportunity to prove yourself. One startup called MindSumo is trying to change this, however.

MindSumo is something of a cross between a Chegg-like community website, and a wanna-be consulting firm for students.

Anyone with an .edu email address can sign up, and once they do, they have the opportunity to participate in “Challenges.” These challenges are posted by real companies of all sizes—ranging from credit unions in Wisconsin to even the consulting and tech giants like McKinsey and Microsoft. Ultimately, the goal of a student challenge is simple: Provide the best solution. In return, students can win cash prizes, get introduced to recruiters and even receive internships or interview offers in return for their solutions.

MindSumo is in a unique space that crosses over between two realms of work, inherently making its challenge system both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that MindSumo really is trying to help us as students get in touch with companies we like and recruiters with proof of our abilities.

That said, in the six months or so I’ve been with the site I’ve yet to hear back from any recruiters, mentors or other resources since I discovered it.

My evidence is of course purely circumstantial. A likely factor, though, is that you need to socialize yourself and get “recommendations” from fellow students in order to get introduced to a recruiter. Some challenges have offered recruiter and interview opportunities, but usually they are only open to students at a particular school or program with which MindSumo has partnered. The social element is really focused around the challenges, which inherently have limited

socializing due to their competitive nature.

These challenges also have their benefits and concerns. For one, typically 20 or 40 entries can be made for each challenge, and it can take months before enough entries are made, since the site is still growing. In a 20-entry challenge, only six winners are selected, and in a 40-entry challenge, only 10 winners are selected. The odds are good, but it depends on the quality of the other entries, not necessarily your overall abilities, and a small site like MindSumo can attract everything from one-paragraph answers to entire, comprehensive reports by students and other people that are interested.

An issue of this is also that only one person can submit one entry, so while in the real world no project is solved by a single person, this is really about how you stand up to your peers, even if you give a correct, or good answer. Every challenge will have a different pool of candidates a potential employees and ultimately it’s impossible to know how you perform unless you get feedback from the challenge creator.

The last, and rather ethical, concern I’ve had with MindSumo is its lack of an equity system. While you can win or lose, you lose all intellectual properties to whatever suggestions you make for a product or solution to a challenge. Many of these challenges are creative-focused, and have to do with unique problem-solving in situations that are real-world oriented. MindSumo makes it very clear the company has a right to do what it likes with all the suggestions received, even those that do not win. Winning, at most, grants you $150, which is a measly sum for challenges that ask you to invent products or propose solutions to complex engineering problems, such as increasing oil delivery efficiency.

There’s also no guarantee of an interview or recruitment opportunity for solving a challenge, which means that you inherently have no guarantee of equity for providing a

solution. So even if it’s just a paragraph or a ten-page solution, everyone is rewarded the same way. MindSumo has mentioned to me via email that there have been discussions of an equity system, but it’s a hard sell to the companies who create these challenges. MindSumo does not advertise itself as a challenge center like InnoCentive—its model is about showing off your talents, so I will concede that this is about your human capital, not the products you invent while answering challenges that already exist. In any case, if I were providing a solution creative and detailed enough to end up on a supermarket shelf, I’d be heartbroken to find my reward be just $150.

But let me be frank in that, despite these issues, there’s nothing out there quite like MindSumo, where nothing more than an email address qualifies you to answer challenges by some of the most well-known companies in the world. I personally have completed challenges and won prize money, so it’s certainly a system that works and is interesting to engage in. There are dozens of challenges on the site already that range from banking to product marketing, strategy and design.

It’s great to see the scope that MindSumo tries to incorporate unique projects that attract students of all backgrounds from universities all over the United States and beyond. If you’re interested in the idea of challenge solving, or perhaps think MindSumo might lead to an interesting venture or opportunity, you’ve got nothing to lose by visiting their site (www.mindsumo.com) and signing up. I think the model of MindSumo needs some polishing, though, if it expects to compete with the juggernauts in the industry of career gate-keeping. The challenges feel very distant from the talent-acquisition element, and I wish there was a clearer path to prove your talents to potential employers.

—Joshua Sherman ’16 is an English major.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 11

Word on the street How do you stay above the influence?

“I smoke cigarettes.”

—Essie Asan ‘17

“D.A.R.E. in elementary school.”

— Patrick Lai ’17

“With a little help from my friends.”

— Stoddard Meigs ’16

“I barely have time for my homework, when can I get high?”

— Christine Silveira ’17

“I spend all my time thinking of witty answers for the Misc.”

—Gracen Evall ’17

“Unsuccessfully.” ­­— Lucas Fifer ’17

Christopher Gonzalez, Humor and Satire Editor Jacob Gorski, Assistant Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

November 20, 2014

Conversations about race should not center white voices Christopher Brown Opinions Editor

R

ecently, The Miscellany News was approached by MTV producers to spread the word about a new casting opportunity. Attached to the email was a flyer which promoted a casting for “an MTV documentary.” The flyer asks “Are you white? Do you have a story to tell?” to the reader. The flyer then goes on to ask slanted questions revolving around one’s relationship with racism as a white person, including “Are you being discriminated against for being white?” and “Are you being made to feel guilty because you are white?” The questions are clearly directed toward a white audience. This MTV documentary ad is indicative of a larger problem of mainstream discussion on race being dominated by white voices. No offense to all of you white readers out there, but you should be the absolute last people to have a say in what direction conversations about race take in media. It’s extremely unfortunate, however, that the opposite happens to be true.

There is already a huge problem with underrepresentation in the television and film industry for people of color. There are scarce numbers of Black, Latino and Asian-American actors playing roles in shows that don’t revolve around some kind of stereotype that is founded on racist undertones and structures.

I recently (and shamefully) got into a Facebook argument with someone from my hometown of Temecula, Calif. about the implications that come with being a person of color in today’s society. They threw things at me asking why any person of color should get a job or a role in a film over a white person who is more qualified. Their language was riddled with

problematic word choices, but what struck me the most was that they believed everything relied on drive. People have to have the drive to get what they want, and there is nothing more to it. I was annoyed at how incorrect they were and how ignorant to any other opinions they heard from other people.

It is not only about drive. It has never been only about drive. Take any class that centers around race and racism at Vassar and you’ll learn how messed up the systems in this country actually are. I’m embarrassed to admit that it took taking one of those classes for me to see how twisted and wrong my views on racism were. To believe that racism doesn’t exist and that everyone has a fair shot in the system is to actually reinforce the racist structures ingrained in society today.

That’s why I’m so angry about this MTV ad.

It predicates itself on that idea that the United States is a post-racial country. By asking your audience what it’s like to be a white person and have to listen to people talk about race and share their stories and struggles, it immediately victimizes the non-victim in the situation.

Usually, I wouldn’t even give a story like this my time. The reason I’m concerned about this particular incident is the implications it can actually have on society. MTV, as crocked as it has become over its evolution the past 30 years, still has a lot of viewership, especially among teenage viewers. There are already horrible documentary style shows on networks like MTV and VH1 that promote the ideal life as being a young, attractive, rich white teenager who is able to go to movie premieres, spend whole summers with their friends at some cabin by Beverly Hills and other kinds of ridiculous dribble. These types of shows already further

“Memphish”

alienate people of color, making them feel tokenized and unwanted by society .

This phenomenon is not exclusive to television. As the world moves further into the digital age, online media is taking hold of the younger generations. If you look at a list of the most famous YouTubers and online personalities, there are a sparse number of people of color. Most of them are young white vloggers who have a rampant following. A lot of famous YouTubers that are people of color base their content on stereotypes that they face as whatever race they may be. While I don’t believe this is a bad thing in the slightest, I suspect many of their viewers are young white teenagers who find humor in the tokenization of these individuals.

A documentary put on by a mainstream music channel that basically advertises for reverse racism could have a severe effect on the outlooks of many young people who happen to watch MTV. It’s alarming that this kind of show has the possibility of getting a cult following while real issues like the constant killings of black-bodied individuals in the country go unheard of. The social media support from so–called non racist whites for what happened to Michael Brown seems to have all but disappeared, and Michael Brown was only one of hundreds of people of color that get attacked by law enforcement in this nation.

I’m blessed to go to a school like Vassar. I admit that Vassar has its fair share of issues and more than its fair share of ignorant people. But without the things I’ve learned here, I would still be as uninformed and confused as I used to be about racial issues when I was in high school. I know what most young people in this country think, and it’s not that racism is a prob-

lem that needs to be addressed now.

It is hard to think outside of the Vassar bubble sometimes. This ad from MTV reminded me of what actually goes on outside of this school. The media continues to silence the voices that need to get heard and promote the voices that need to simmer down and take a step back.

White people, especially those new to the Vassar community, listen up: You need not feel marginalized or attacked at this school because you’re white and people criticize your race for being inherently racist and ignorant. You shouldn’t feel marginalized because it is actually impossible for you to be marginalized by people of color. I won’t make the outright claim that every white person is racist, but I will guarantee that more than once in your life, you have helped further the racist structures that fuel society today. As a half-white, half-Filipino man, I’ve done it too. It’s okay to admit that. But when you start to frame yourself as a victim, that’s when you’re doing it all wrong.

Take a second to learn about what racism actually is and how you play a part in it. It is shocking and scary at first, but you can use your knowledge to make legitimate change.

Don’t give in to the belief that racism no longer exists.

I do not believe that MTV had any misintentions when creating the concept for this documentary. I believe that the producers truly believe that giving white people voices on issues of racism is a productive way to move the conversation forward. And that’s what scares me the most.

—Christopher Brown ’16 is a political science and mathematics double major.

The Miscellany Crossword

by Collin Knopp−-Schwyn and York Chen ACROSS 53 Shy but flirtatious rock garden 35 Sample 1 Shaq has one from Barry fish 37 Much saved text, until 2007 4 Pats gently 54 Genderless, as a noun 39 Like three toothpicks laid out end 8 Goal of many an econ major 55 Damp to end 11 Black, green, and Darjeeling 57 Greek meat sandwich 40 Gov’t org. that’s theoretically 13 Jacob’s twin 58 Mount where Moses received thinking of the children 14 ID some commandments 41 Eisenhower, colloquially, for 15 “La donna è mobile”, for one 60 Term of comparison some reason 16 Blood test before a booster 63 Land that is not 55-Across Plebs Collin Knopp−Schwyn and York Chen43 18 Zealous 64 Bacterium 45 City on the Puget Sound with 19 Osbert, on “Thundercats” 65 Teensy bit some colorful pond dwellers?

21 Kind of Mommie Faye Dunaway 66 “___ the season to be jolly” 47 Scrolls where 48-Down might be ACROSS 67 Her mother was Rhea was 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Shaq has 68 oneSaunders, from Barry 23 To and ___ in Potok’s 24 Rio Grande city with lots4ofPats gently “The Chosen” 11 12 13 8 Goal of many an econ morays?

25 Kind of company in the Silicon major DOWN Valley 1 Org.and that’s thinking of 15 11 Black, green, 16 29 Like the opening of Debussy’s “La the children Darjeeling Mer” 2 ScarJo, objectively 13 Jacob’s twin 30 Type of medic or legal 3 Professorial perch 19 20 21 14 ID 31 Early, in France 4 Bankrupt Michigan city 15 "La donna è mobile", for fish?

33 Auntie, to Daddy with some rainbow 23 24 34 Word with secret or Orange one 5 “Yaah, raiiiight” (2 16 Blood test before a 36 Rival of SFG words) 38 Hugo genre booster 6 Cricket eater or hitter 25 26 27 28 42 Mushroom tip 18 Zealous 7 Elvis shoe material 44 Last name of 28-Down 19 Osbert, on 8 Warning for emptores "Thundercats" 30 31 32 46 Yokel 9 Like a goody-two-shoes 21 Kind of 10 Mommie Faye 47 Grace and elegance What you do to the Dunaway was (2 words) 49 Impulse kitty?

34 35 36 37 To and ___ 51 City on the Charles River,23 filled 12 Bay Area city 24 Rio Grande city with lots with some smallmouth fish? specializing in fishy liver 42 43 44 of morays? oil?

Answers to last week’s puzzle City on in thethe Gulf [Directions Go Here] 25 Kind of 14 company of Mexico with some Valley A Silicon U N I F Y A W N E D N T 47 48 49 S Like M O O L A E E N O O N E 29 thebigheads? opening of 17 They may be bleached K E N C E N T R I P E T A L Debussy’s "La Mer" 20 How thou might be? 51 52 W I T L A K E S I D E 30 Type of 22 medic legal or 3 in Likeor 39-Down S K I D S I N S T 31 Early, inRoman Francenumerals M A I N E C A R I N G 54 55 33 Auntie, to 25Daddy Where they use P A T E R N E L E A N O N 34 with secret orbut not for cucumbers, R Word U E W I G C O M P A S S eating D E R I Orange L S D O R I O L E 57 58 59 Variations include C Rival O C T E T S I N R I 36 of 26 SFG P I M P R E S E T toilet and laser 38 Hugo genre 64 63 O N C A M E R A O H O 27 How 42 Mushroom tip you might be?

I M A G I N A T I O N I L O 28 Dictator Pot 44 Last name 28−Down S T O N E T I R E D S A M 32 of It may come spookily 66 67 H O 46 T R E S S U Yokel E W E S E on the shoulder

Memphish

© CC-BY 4.0

47 Grace and elegance 49 Impulse 51 City on the Charles River, filled with some smallmouth fish?

53 Shy but flirtatious rock

© CC−BY 4.0

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

2 ScarJo, objectively 3 Professorial perch 4 Bankrupt Michigan city with some rainbow fish?

mentioned 48 God who probably dealt with many mummies 50 Barefoot Monkeys might spin them 51 Produced, biblically 52 “I’m a horse and I say no!”

55 Johnny of the Smiths 56 Mjölnir’s wielder 59 Born as, to a French woman 61 Gobbled down 62 Catch, as a villain 8

9

10

39

40

41

61

62

14 17

18 22

29 33 38 45

46 50

53

26 Variations include toilet and laser 27 How you might be?

28 Dictator Pot

56 60 65 68

50 Barefoot Monkeys might spin them 51 Produced, biblically 52 "I’m a horse and I say

November 20, 2014

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 13

Breaking News From the desk of Chris Gonzalez, Humor & Satire Editor Unassuming VC senior caught lingering near Express Lunch line, spritzed with water bottle as punishment ASK BANNER: Vassar’s new ‘weekly’ ‘advice’ column Banner

Expert of All Things Since 1866 Dear Banner I’ve been feeling discontent with my time here at Vassar. Give it some time, they said. Give yourself a chance to acclimate to the new environment, they said. Well, you know what? They all lied. I have friends, I’m thriving in my classes, I’m pretty damn fuckable and, if I’m going to be completely honest here, I’m over all hot shit.

And before you even say it, Banner, I am not a freshman! Gosh. Anyway, I’m thinking it might have something to do with the fact that I spent my first two and a half years on campus living in Raymond. Even as a senior, I still have flashbacks to mysterious brown liquids dripping from the ceiling (which tasted oddly of microwaved Gogurt and dried fish skin), the lack of hot water, asbestos (???) and the perpetual odor of vomit, puke, marijuana and burnt pube hairs wafting through the halls...you get the point.

Please, Banner, answer me this: Why does Raymond suck so hard and why can’t I shake my time there?

Sincerely, Raypride Syndrome

Dear RayRay: My heart goes out to you (really, it does).

Think of Raymond as the ugly stepchild of Vassar College—it’s the dorm that gets no love, no funding and no happy residents, which probably explains why the building is permanently in shambles. Sources tell me the Sorting Hat process isn’t entirely random, so odds are you were placed there to build a strong backbone for yourself. “Come in a weak sapling, leave as strong as a fucking California Redwood.” Pretty sure that was written in the original draft of Vassar’s mission statement, before Matthew Vassar himself decided opening a college would bring in more street cred than a greenhouse ever would. If anything, living in Raymond must make senior housing look like a penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue! Count yourself lucky, RayRay, and remember this when your first apartment postgrad lacks not only hot water but also lockable windows, plumbing, friends, a lover and hope.

My best, Banner

BANNER! I’m a rather sickly individual. A cold ends, I get the flu. The flu goes away and BAM! my ankles swell up to the size of eggplants. Every time

an issue arises, I go to Baldwin. And for some reason they tell me, time after time, that I am pregnant. Doesn’t matter if I walk in because I need a strep test, think I have pink eye, there’s blood in my stool or if I have pus dripping from my ears. Doesn’t matter if I can’t breathe because of the phlegm build up. The answer is always the same. “You’re pregnant.” Banner, why does Baldwin keep telling me I’m pregnant? It’s been a total of seven times now and I have yet to birth a child!

Please help, Married to the Pill

Dear Married: If Baldwin announces that you are with child, thank the high heavens because you most certainly are (probably) not pregnant. Don’t take it personally. Baldwin doesn’t really have much going for it; however, Baldwin is really trying to get the word out about their new Underground On-campus Abortion Clinic. Apparently it’s the one specialty they have but can’t claim for one legal reason or another. It’s quite possible they believe that if they cry pregnancy enough, eventually they’ll get it right. But here’s a question for you, Married: Can you imagine what it would be like if you were actually pregnant each time they told you? You’d have seven little Pills running around. Sure, they might be adorable, but holy hell! Gee, that would be awful, huh?

My best, Banner

To Whom It May Concern: Let’s cut to the chase. How come BurgerFi, Burger King, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Hurricane Wings, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Buffalo Wild Wings don’t offer any animal-product free menu items? Don’t my needs matter? Am I not allowed to eat?

Signed, Cow & Chicken

Dear Double C: Absolutely you are allowed to eat. It is a basic need of all of God’s living creatures. Might I suggest—and this is just an idea; by no means am I saying you have to follow my advice (I am, after all, one Banner in a world of banners)— you eat elsewhere? Yes? No? Maybe so? Let’s chew on this together.

My best, Banner

Yo, Banner I’m getting pretty darn frustrated around here. Alright, I’ll paint the scene (so mad, haha).

It’s Friday or Saturday night, right? And, you know, you’ve had about three shots of Everclear (no chaser, haha), so you’re starting to feel yourself, right? You figure, why not go to the Mug, right? So the music is going and you’re grooving with it, right? It’s hitting that sweet spot and the beat’s dropping at the perfect moments, right?

And you’re just trying to get your bump and grind on, right? Now you’re hooking up with someone in the Mug, right? And I mean big wet sloppy kisses, tongue all up in that, right? But then? Nothing. It ends there, right? You never hear from them again, right? (Ugh, so mad, haha.) How’s someone supposed to make a love connection?

Sincerely, Drunk in Love

Dear Loveless: College is one of those weird places where it seems like everyone around you has found their one true love. Except for you, loser! It’s easy to get swept up in your own loneliness and want to find a body to make nice with, but is the Mug really the place? It’s dark, it’s sweaty, it’s exhausting. (It’s what I imagine sex is like, but, like you, Banner isn’t getting any. Can you really call it a dry spell if you can’t remember the last time it rained?) Perhaps rethink your game plan.

Maybe you keep making eye contact with some cutie under the flashing lights of the Strong fire alarms every other night? Maybe you and your lab partner are on the verge of failing (which is the perfect time to start a new relationship)?

Ask them to dinner or some kind of food place.

It’s also possible that you can’t make conversation, and that’s completely understandable. People are terrifying creatures! In that case...um, I don’t know, Tweet at them?

My Best, Banner

My Beloved Banner— I need you now more than ever. I really really really, I mean really, want to become besties with this person. They’re the only person who gets me. All of the people in my fellow group are lame and decided to study biochemistry or economics, and I can really only talk about the beauty that is literature with this person. How do I get to that higher friend level? How do I make this happen? I just think we could be real-

ly really, I mean really, great friends. Oh, by the way, if it makes any kind of difference, though I don’t think it will, this person is my English professor.

In need of your guidance, Friendcrushing

Dear Crushed: A best friend makes a tremendous difference.

Usually these special friendships are formed through mutual interests: drinking, crying, insulting one another, etc. It makes perfect sense you’d want to become better friends with your professor, but I encourage you to stop before you get your feelings hurt. Sure, you could try to hit them up for coffee or lunch, hang out during their office hours, but what happens after you graduate? Odds are, your professor is best friends with another professor, who you may have at another point in your Vassar career, and there’s really no room for you. And the longer you keep lying to yourself, the more obsessive you’ll become. Plus, college is short, too short; don’t waste it. Basically, move on and get over it.

Stay crushed, Banner

Banner of the Ask Column: Hi. Is it too much to ask for someone to notice me? Sorry. Let me back it up. Banner, you ever feel as isolated as I do on this campus? No one seems to notice one another as they walk aimlessly around campus; they try to avoid making any kind of contact—physical, emotional, spiritual—with anyone. Everyone is so wrapped up in their own stress that they don’t notice how alone they truly are. Is it too much to ask for a smile, a laugh, some kind of acknowledgment that, yes, we are both students on this campus but, more than that, we are two souls in the midst of living, just trying to get by? Banner, what can we do as a community to rise up and close the gaps destroying us? What can I do, Banner?

Warmly, A Blip in the Universe

Sup Blippy, That’s all well and good and whatever, but what about me? No one stops to think, Hey? I wonder what Banner’s up to, maybe I should check in. Maybe they have something on their mind they need to get advice on. Maybe they’re a person, too, dammit. What about my needs!?

Fuck you. I’m drunk.

Banner

Yale Bros and TH Woes: a memoir

by Marie Solis, Misandrist-in-Chief

I

’ve felt compelled to set fire to my Town House on a few occasions. Once when every single glass, dish and piece of silverware was dirty and spilling from my sink for a straight week. Once when stinkbug carcasses littered our floors during that cruel transition between beautiful scenic fall and fuck-it’scold fall. And, most recently, this weekend, when my home became a halfway house for the 25 unwashed members of the Yale Ultimate Frisbee Team.

At first, the prospect of hosting a couple dozen Ivy League men seemed appealing to me and my one other sex-deprived housemate. Everyone knows Vassar women and Yale men go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong. We’d be going steady with them in no time (Read: engaging in mediocre coitus)!

One of our other housemates, the co-captain of Vassar’s Ultimate team, even tried to set us up for success. As he planned for the tournament, he gave us options, weighing in on de-

grees of attractiveness and trust fund-havingness. So, we did our research. We examined group photos. We poured over rosters. And finally, we hiked across the great expanse of the TH circle for our first ever sporting event, where we loudly objectified them in the most brilliant reversal of patriarchy this world has ever seen.

However, as they filed into our TH after a day’s worth of running, panting and chasing after a frisbee—or am I talking about the Puppy Bowl?—the only thing that came to mind was “Too Many Cooks.” Truly there were too many cooks in the kitchen, spoiling the stirfry.

They wanted to know when they could shower, where they were supposed to sleep and why I was still dressed in the soccer mom outfit I had carefully, perhaps misguidedly, curated for ~spectating~ earlier that day.

Then, to both my horror and relief, all 25 of them proceeded to shower. They mostly kept to themselves while my housemates and I had din-

ner. They chatted about the merits of Gatorade versus Powerade and which one is most appropriate to dump over your teammate’s head in 35-degree weather. For a moment, I held onto the fragile hope that at least one of them would be fun to hang out with, interesting to talk to or worth kicking out of my twin-sized bed in the cold light of day. But alas, my Symbolic Order was shattered as the Real intruded in the form of 40 more people entering my house, pulling the table cloth out from underneath us so they could play a drinking game.

What followed was a blur of people chanting, shotgunning beer and chasing shots with spoonfuls of the rice abandoned on my stove.

As Frisbee players from three other colleges filtered in and out of my house, it became a gas chamber of body odor, farts and warm Rolling Rock. I sequestered myself in my room or at my neighbor’s house, considering emerging with a weapon and chanting, “Thin the herd! Thin the herd!” Instead, my housemate Febreezed

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

someone in the face. Sometime later, I made my final escape, choosing to enjoy the rest of my Saturday night like a normal person whose eyes didn’t roll out of their head every 10 minutes. I laughed. I danced. I didn’t cry at the thought of the pool of beer on my kitchen floor.

But then I went home. Entering my house, I swung the door into three bros. I saw that they were all snug in their sleeping bags, lining my floor from wall-to-wall, down the hallway and up the stairs. Unsure of what else to do, I gently and quietly crushed all of their skulls on the way to my room and slipped into my bed, where I fell into an even deeper fugue state. When I woke up, they were gone. If they hadn’t left a jersey and a pair of boxers behind, it would’ve been like it never happened. (If only.)

On Sunday, another one of my housemates walked in and asked us if it was okay if we hosted five a cappella women from Smith. We chanted, “YES ALL WOMEN” as “Too Many Cooks” looped for the seventh time.

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Page 14

November 20, 2014

Pham to explore intersection of gender theory with fashion Emma Rosenthal

Assistant Arts Editor

M

courtesy of Minh-Ha Pham

Charles Lyons contributed reporting. inh-Ha Pham, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Visual Studies and Asian American Studies at Cornell University, will be coming to campus to deliver a lecture. The Women’s Studies Department, along with the Asian Studies, Media Studies, American Studies and English Departments, will be co-sponsoring Pham’s lecture on Nov. 20 at 5:30 p.m. in the Taylor Hall Auditorium.

Leslie Dunn, Associate Professor of English on the Anne McNiff Tatlock Chair and Director of Women’s Studies wrote in an emailed statement about Pham’s work in those areas of study and how it is pertinent to Vassar students.

She commented, “Courses in the Women’s Studies program teach students to think critically about the multiple systems of power through which sexual and gendered identities are constructed, and to engage with political and ethical issues from diverse perspectives.

We pay particular attention to the intersections of gender and sexuality with race, class, nationality, ethnicity and dis/ability.”

She continued, “[Pham’s] work speaks to issues that are central to contemporary feminist studies (gender, race and representation in popular media; racialized constructions of beauty and femininity; women in the global economy) as well as of personal interest to many of our students. But her work is deeply multidisciplinary, and so will resonate with students in many other departments and programs.”

Susan Hiner, Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Vassar, is familiar with Pham’s work and has incorporated her work into her curriculum as well. She wrote in an emailed statement, “I’ve used several of Pham’s articles in a [women’s studies] course I teach on ‘Fashion and the Feminine’ and have directed my students to her amazing Tumblr site, ‘Of Another Fashion.’”

Dunn commented her choice to host Pham at Vassar, and her relevance to students here. “My interest in bringing [Pham] to campus grew out of my conversations last spring with Asian and

Asian American students who had petitioned the Women’s Studies Program to address the lack of Asian and Asian American women’s perspectives in our curriculum,” she wrote.

Dunn continued, “The importance and urgency of their concerns prompted me not only to do research on Asian and Asian American feminisms (which led to revisions of the WMST 130 syllabus), but also to ask my colleague Hua Hsu to suggest some leading young Asian American scholars whose work might interest a broad range of students. It was he who introduced me to the work of [Pham].”

In addition to Hsu and Dunn, Hiner has examined Pham’s work as well, in the many mediums which she works in. Hiner has been interested specifically in one of those mediums, Pham’s Tumblr site: “What I really like about that project is the way it unearths the sentimental and cultural value of clothing by tying it to historical moments and to real people and real objects. That project also illustrates the incredible wealth of fashion creativity in groups that have been mostly sidelined by the media and fashion history.”

Hiner describes the prevalence of “Of Another Fashion,” Pham’s Tumblr: “[It] collects images and brief contexts from readers about fashion moments from personal histories of underrepresented groups.”

One of Pham’s most recent Tumblr posts commented on a picture of two women and attests to her work in the art of fashion. The post reads, “While doing research for a talk on the history and future of vanity, I found this incredible photograph by Max Yavno of ‘las pachucas’—Chicana zoot suiters, in pant suits! This archive already holds several photographs of women zoot-suiters but they’re wearing skirt suits or just the pants and a top. This is a detailed photo of the entire look of las pachucas from the hair to the shoes. Beautiful! The photo is called ‘Two Women.’ It was taken in Los Angeles, California in 1946.”

Apart from Tumblr, Pham’s work shows up in The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, The New York Times and American Prospect. She takes the art of fashion and contextualizes it to relate

The Women’s Studies Department, in collaboration with other departments, will bring Minh-Ha Pham to VC. Minh-Ha Pham combines academic analysis with artful fashion to examine race and gender. to gender, sexuality and race. Dunn commented, “[Pham] takes fashion–and the bodies that make and wear them–seriously. She practices engaged scholarship, documenting the ‘not q ­ uite ­hidden but too often ignored fashion histories of U.S. women of color’...She models contemporary feminist scholarship and activism in ways that will resonate with, and hopefully inspire, our students.”

Through a different type of media, a blog called “Threadbared,” Pham continues to ex-

plore the issues which Hiner and Dunn have brought into their classrooms. “Here [in Threadbared], she takes up questions of popular culture as it relates to fashion, media, gender, etc. in a very smart and engaging way. Her work ends up analyzing broad cultural questions in important ways–and she does it through discussions of fashion, which is so often judged as trivial, but which she shows is a rich medium for observing and critiquing lots of other ideas,” wrote Hiner.

Senior piano virtuosos build on shared musical experience Emma Rosenthal

Assistant Arts Editor

A

ll friends can be supportive. Not all friends can harmonize with you. Jessie Lanza ’15 and Jane Cardona ’15 can do both.

The pair will be performing on Nov. 22 at 1:30 p.m. in Skinner Hall through the Music Department. Lanza and Cardona decided to do their senior recital together, after taking music lessons during their time at Vassar.

Both performers have a strong background in music and drama, and have brought their talents from high school to Vassar since their freshmen year. Cardona, who has been playing piano for 15 years, wrote in an emailed statement, “I used to play Christmas carols that I heard on the piano and my mom asked me if I wanted lessons and I said ‘YES!’ I always enjoyed playing piano (not practicing though), but I didn’t realize I really loved it until high school.”

Lanza recounted the beginning of her musical history in an emailed statement, “I’ve been singing my whole life. One of my earliest memories is singing ‘My Fair Lady’ around a campfire at a family reunion when I was four years old.” She continued, “My mom then made me start taking piano lessons when I was six years old...it really helped [me] become a better musician all around.”

Lanza became even more involved during high school through different organizations.

“I was in every choir my school offered and did every musical they put on, I did some musicals at my community theatre back home and did private piano lessons and voice lessons,” she wrote.

Cardona’s love of piano also took hold before she came to college. She wrote about her high school experiences that sparked her musical career at Vassar. “I went to a performing arts charter school and I accompanied the choir and the musicals and took tons of theory classes,” she wrote.

“I think music has always been in me...Do-

ing choir in high school really made it a huge part of my life I knew I couldn’t live without,” Lanza commented.

Moving to the next level of music at Vassar, Lanza and Cardona connected right away with the music and drama community here.

Lanza wrote, “Being a drama major, I have done a lot of performances, and been able to sing in many of the Department shows. I have done a lot of work with FWA (The Future Waitstaff of America) and am the president now.” She continued, “I was also a member of BAM (Broadway and More A Cappella) for three years, and Vassar College Choir for a year and a half. I also have been taking private voice lessons through Vassar my whole time here, which is how I am able to have this recital!”

For some of Cardona and Lanza’s peers, the performers’ enthusiasm while at Vassar has been a positive influence. Fellow FWA member, Ryan Eykholt ’17, spoke on his experience with the two. “Jessie and I were in The Drowsy Chaperone together last year, and Jane was the music director for that show,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “That show was the first time I met both of them. As a Freshman in my first show at Vassar, they both made my experience so incredible.”

Speaking specifically on Lanza, Eykholt explained that her drive has not gone unnoticed. “I am hopelessly in love with Jessie Lanza,” he wrote in an emailed statement.

“She always gives 100% and puts everything into the performance. She’s just fearless and so talented. Her energy is unparalleled. She is also so compassionate and is always conscious and focused on her scene partners.”

He continued, “Honestly, it just feels like an honor being on stage with her. I mean, she is just the nicest, sweetest, and most thoughtful person. She’s so professional and fun at the same time. I desperately want to be in a show with her again. It has been a blast this year being on FWA board with her as Presi-

dent,” he wrote.

Cardona has also has been active in the arts at Vassar and wrote, “I have music directed and accompanied a lot of FWA shows, and one Department show (Hubcrawl), and I’m doing a Department show next semester (Cabaret). I’ve also accompanied Mads (madrigals), WoCo (women’s chorus), and VCC (Vassar College choir)... I take piano lessons and chamber lessons and...I don’t think I’m allowed to take any more music classes because I’ve taken too many.”

Eykholt has worked with Cardona as well, and described her reputation within the Vassar art scene as well. “I feel like everyone knows Jane as a wizard of music,” he wrote.

“It’s like she can just do anything. She is such a skilled musician and can play whatever you throw at her. Jane is so cool, she has such a fun attitude.”

Sauer, Cardona’s piano teacher praised her musical ability and passion for the discipline.

Sauer wrote in an email statement, “Jane is a strong musician, fluent in her playing, serious in her intent, responsible and an excellent colleague to her peers. She is a pleasure to teach. I see Jane continuing with music.

Her first love is musical theater and it is easy for me to imagine her working in the field,” she added.

At the recital on Satiurday, Lanza will be singing soprano, accompanied by Cardona on the piano, one of their final performances together at Vassar.

This recital is not the first time Lanza and Cardona have worked together, and it won’t be their last. “We have worked on some FWA shows together, which were all a blast. And next semester we are going to be doing ‘Cabaret’ through the Drama Department, which is my senior thesis in drama that Jane is music directing, [on] April 9 to 11.” said Lanza in an emailed statement.

Cardona commented as well on the working relationship the two have had throughout

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

their time at Vassar. She wrote, “I accompanied her in ‘The Drowsy Chaperone,’ and we did ‘Hubcrawl’ with the Department together also, but I think next semester during the department production of ‘Cabaret will be the first time we’ll get to really dig into music together for a theater production.”

For this recital, both musicians have been rehearsing alone as well as jointly. “We’ve practiced together on our own... and I’ve had lessons with Tom Sauer...and have spent almost every waking hour of the rest of week practicing in Skinner. Some non-waking hours too (evading security).” commented Cardona.

With regard to the preparation for the recital, Lanza explained the process of rehearsing. She said, “Jane comes to my voice lesson every week and we also find time throughout the week to meet and jam out in Skinner.”

Looking forward to their performance, Cardona commented, “I’ve also never performed solo classical stuff for my peers, I’ve always just been the accompanist, which is definitely my preferred role–hiding in the pit orchestra has a sense of anonymity that I appreciate–stage presence is naht my forte (no pun intended).”

While both Lanza and Cardona have fully immersed themselves in Vassar’s world of music, as seniors they are looking to the future as well. “I’m a music major and plan on accompanying somewhere... learn a bunch of instruments and genres and hopefully find musicians to jam with. Eventually, I think I’d like to music direct theater in some capacity.

I really enjoy having a good story that music (especially collaborative music) can enhance.” Cardona wrote about her intended plans. Lanza concluded, “I am a drama major and really hope to be able to pursue acting after Vassar. I would especially love to continue performing in musical theatre because I love singing so much and want to keep music in my life forever.”

November 20, 2014

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Page 15

Student orgs bring dynamic slam poet to perform at VC Yifan Wang

Guest Reporter

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hat is it that encompasses the meaningfulness of words, the rhythm of poem, the energy of rap, the dynamic of tones, gestures and facial expressions, and the sheer influential power of an unforgettable performance? The spoken word poetry

by G Yamazawa might be one answer.

Winner of Kollaboration DC, the National Poetry Slam, the Southern Fried Poetry Slam and countless other competitions, Yamazawa creates and performs spoken word poetry that combines the rich Southern history of his hometown in North Carolina with his Japanese ancestry.

Introducing him as “your favorite poet’s favorite poet,” two students organizations, Wordsmiths and the Asian Students Alliance (ASA), worked together to bring to campus the event A Night of Spoken Word Poetry with G Yamazawa, taking place in Sanders Auditorium at 9 p.m., Nov. 22.

In addition to the performance, a special workshop with Yamawaza will also take place the same day at 3 p.m.

The planning of this event can be traced back to last winter when members on the executive board of the ASA attended the Spring Conference of East Coast Asian American Student Union at Washington D.C. There they saw Yamazawa’s performance, and found it moving and impressive.

Cindy Liu ’16, Co-President of the ASA, wrote in an emailed statement, “I, personally, loved his performance. The amount of feelings he is able to capture in his words is astounding.”

Kevin Lee ’17, an ASA member who was also at the conference, commented on Yamazawa’s performance as an Asian American. He stated, “I thought he was very passionate about his craft, and it showed with each line he delivered. The messages he spoke through poetry really resonated me as an Asian American.”

Executive board members decided to ap-

proach Yamawaza and talked to him about bringing his art to Vassar. Michelle Zhao ’16 explained the logistics of inviting a performer like Yamawaza to campus: “We approached him and we really wanted to bring him to Vassar. We actually talked about bringing him last semester. But his scheduling didn’t allow.”

ASA then reached out to Wordsmiths for help on the event. One reason behind the decision to collaborate with another organization was funding.

“We usually contribute our own funds, but we apply to VSA funds as well since [there are] just so many speakers we would like to invite here,” said Zhao.

She continued, “For G, we applied for VSA Speaker Fund because we are cooperating with Wordsmiths, and VSA is more willing to provide us with funding to encourage organizational collaboration.”

The organizations have a history of working together, which has contributed to strong cooperation between the two.

“We also collaborated with Wordsmiths to bring Sarah and Phil Kaye last year, which was a huge success. And this was one of the main reasons why we decided to reach out to them to bring G.” Liu explained in an emailed statement.

Moreover, common interest and fondness of the performer facilitated the cooperation between the ASA and Wordsmiths.

Hannah Matsunaga ’15, president of Wordsmiths, talked about her love of Yamazawa’s art and poetry. She said, “G is one of my favorite artists, and I’ve been thinking about bringing him here some time.”

Matsunaga continued, “I think one of the things that’s really compelling about G’s writing and performance is that you can tell it’s from this very big heart, this place of deep care...He also has this energy that’s so dynamic and so impressive that it feels good to watch him perform.”

As a poetry lover and writer, Matsunaga also shared her take on spoken word as a form of poetry. “I don’t believe in a real dis-

tinction between poetry that’s for the page and that’s supposed to be read out loud.”

She added, “There’s something you can do with spoken word that you can’t do with page and there’s something you can do with page that you can’t do with spoken word. But I don’t totally agree with the idea that [there are] separate classes of poetry.”

Both organizations have extensive experiences in organizing and hosting major events and speakers. The ASA brings several speakers each semester to give talks on issues relevant across disciplines.

“In the past, we always brought more speakers, about three or four, in the spring.

But this year, we want to do the same for the fall. So we brought Phil Yu this past weekend. And G for this weekend. And we’re bringing a chef to do a cooking workshop the last day of classes,” said Zhao.

On the other hand, Wordsmiths brings well-known slam poets and performers to campus once a semester. Matsunaga explained, “Wordsmiths has brought high profile spoken word poets about once a semester, every semester for the past, going on the fourth year now,” She continued, “In the past we have brought poets like Anis Mojgani, Mo Browne, Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay, and Carlos Andrés Gomez. And those have all been really good events.”

This time, however, they had to find a way of working with another organization. “The whole event is collaborative. We try to split the labor as evenly as possible. The ASA has been working out details of the contract with G and his agent.”

She continued, “And we on the other side have been dealing with the VSA. Sometimes collaborating like that is hard because [there are] so many people and it’s easy for things to slip into cracks. But there’s no way we could claim that this is our event,” Matsunaga spoke about the cooperation with the ASA. Liu agreed: “Overall, we worked together well. Of course, there were times when there were communication issues, but we managed

Small ensemble joins forces for pithy piece Emma Rosenthal

W

Assistant Arts Editor

courtesy of Woodshed Theater Ensemble

oodshed, a student-run, experimental theater organization, will be presenting “The Snow Hen” at the Shiva Theater on Nov. 21 and 22. The cast, only comprised of three students, Mariah Ghant ’17, Thomas Lawler ’15 and Penny Luksic ’15, has produced the show almost entirely on their own, with help as well from Sierra Garcia ’15, Taylor Dalton ’15 and Meropi Papastergiou ’15.

Luksic, on behalf of the ensemble, wrote in an emailed statement, “We work together to stage, design, and put on the show...We as an ensemble have spent many hours working on adapting the script for our use. As a small group of only three people, we’ve spent a majority of the semester working on how to devise a show together as an ensemble by taking each other’s suggestions and implementing them into our work.”

This collaborative nature is indicative of the organization’s cited goals. According to the group’s mission statement, “Woodshed is a student-run collaborative theater ensemble that strives to use the skills of each of its members to generate thought-provoking, full-length productions. Ensemble members are highly encouraged to explore new avenues as well as pursue their pre-existing theatrical interests during their time in Woodshed. A group that fluctuates each semester, Woodshed’s productions have ranged from Shakespearean comedies to contemporary dramas, with members experimenting with various roles: as designers, directors, dramaturgs, and actors. Woodshed is a non-hierarchical organization and values the voice of each of its members.”

The group typically holds two-hour rehearshal about four times each week and hosts auditions at the beginning of each spring semester, which are open to all students, regardless of experience level.

Drawing from established sources as well as adding their own ideas, the Woodshed per-

“The Snow Hen” is a reimagining of a plague fable, exploring threads of disease and disorder throughout the show. It’s ensemble is comprised of only three students, who will take the stage on Nov. 21 and 22. formers described their upcoming show in an email, writing, “‘The Snow Hen’ explores the days and nights of a woman whose family and civilization have been lost. It’s loosely based on a plague fable, so there are some threats of disease and disorder present in the story. The Snow Hen spends her days collecting remnants from her lost life until a haunted Wanderer crashes into her world.”

They continued, writing about the production undertaking, “We’ve also focused on learning about design and incorporating that learning into the process. Luckily, it is a short script and we’ve had help from some amazing friends and supporters to execute some of our more elaborate ideas.”

One of the many theater productions of the

fall semester, “The Snow Hen” is relatively short, but is intended to bring a devised drama to the stage. “We want the audience to enjoy the weight that this short piece has to offer.

Even though it runs under an hour long, it’s a heartbreaking and compelling story. We’re excited for the audience to [experience] the live action and sound of bodies moving on stage,” the ensemble commented.

Within the whole of the drama, there are specific motifs which Woodshed wants to illuminate for the audience. They wrote, “‘The Snow Hen’ struggles with and explores themes of isolation, loss, resourcefulness, friendship and the idea that things come and go, sometimes in small ways and sometimes in ways that wreck you.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

to get through that and both orgs are super excited for him to come this Saturday.”

The organizations also worked side by side to publicize the event and extend it to the public.

They also tried to break the Vassar Bubble by seeking to engage the larger Poughkeepsie community. “We also asked [a committee which organizes] events in Poughkeepsie to advertise this event as well, because this is a public event,” Zhao said.

With the event around the corner, both organizations expressed their high expectations for it. Zhao said, “We want it to provide entertainment, but also have an effect on people in and outside ASA. G is of Japanese heritage. So with his talents and poetry, hopefully his stories will touch people.”

Matsunaga had a definite vision of the upcoming night, and described her hopes for the event. She explained, “I want the event to be packed. G is an incredible performer.

And this is such a great opportunity we have to bring him here. I want the students to be able to make the most of it and be able to see this happen.”

Matsunaga continued, “Our general goal is just for people to come to events, write poetry with us and share poetry with us...Also, G is just a really fun person to be around.

So I guess we’re looking to have a good time whilst he’s here.”

The three organizers wanted to highlight the workshop in the same afternoon just before the performance. “It’s hosted by G. So [it’s a] special workshop! The goal of the workshop is to get people writing, get people engaged. And hopefully help people to write poetry,” explained Matsunaga.

She concluded, with much confidence, “If anyone is on the fence about going, just look up one of G’s poems on YouTube, and that will convince you. I think we’re gonna have a really good turnout.”

Lee concluded, “I’m so glad ASA and Wordsmiths were able to bring G here to Vassar so everybody can hear his insightful take on culture and society.”

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Page 16

Summer hit reverberates with recurring ’80s theme Raphael Mariani Guest Reporter

Classic MKTO Columbia Records

I

don’t think I’ll ever forget the first time I heard “Classic” by MKTO. I was on a plane from New York to Los Angeles when this little earworm first came to my attention on the American Airlines radio station, and it’s been following me ever since.

I turn on the radio, I hear “Classic;” I put Spotify on shuffle, I hear “Classic;” I turn on the TV, I hear “Classic;” I open Vine, I hear “Classic;” I close my eyes, I hear “Classic.” I couldn’t put my finger on what about the song made it so interesting and familiar to me, and then it hit me. I thought I first heard the “Classic” melody when Hot Chelle Rae performed their hit “Tonight, Tonight” back in 2011.

There’s no denying the similarities between the two songs, which were both glued to the Billboard Hot 100 for a long time. Both follow the same incredibly simple piano melody that any pianist can play with their eyes closed; both had a squeakyvoiced vocalist center-stage that sounds like he belongs more on the cast of Glee or on the FreeCreditReport.com band than on the radio; both have lyrics that sound that they were written by a high school PTA board; and both are so generic that my mom might start humming it while she watches Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

But MKTO differs from Hot Chelle Rae in a few big ways. While “Tonight, Tonight” was definitely a product of the times, MKTO sees themselves as musical hipsters, and tries to show this by evoking legends like Michael Jackson, Prince and Marvin Gaye. I’ll be honest, I absolutely adore those three guys and I’ll always have a place in my heart for the ’80s, so you’d imagine I’d be thrilled to hear their names on the radio and not on my iPod. Weirdly enough, though, I was more confused than happy.

I remember saying to myself on the plane, “Did that just happen?” and I still do every time I hear

“Classic.”

MKTO obviously takes itself way too seriously to think that they would ever be compared to the all-time greats they name-drop in their first—and likely only—hit. These aren’t just artists quoting their favorite bands, these are dorks who moonwalk and grab their crotch in front of the bathroom mirror. I can only imagine tweens listening to “Classic” and having to look up half the bands they hear on Wikipedia, or yelling from their bedroom: “Dad, who’s Marvin Gaye?” Or maybe they won’t have to, because the song is so disposable that it’ll be gone in a few months.

The lyrics themselves are pretty cute as well.

“Oh, girl you shining / Like a 5th Avenue diamond” is absolutely adorable, and “I’m-a pick you up in a Cadillac / Like a gentleman bringing glamour back” makes me want to pinch MKTO’s cheek. But then, everything goes downhill extremely fast with one simple line: “I could walk you down the aisle.”

Considering this, it’s hard to feel threatened by “Classic.” Although they are trying to achieve a hipster-like status, their lyrics don’t match up with that persona. As well, it’s obvious they have no idea who the people they’re name-dropping are, other than the fact that they exist.

In that respect, they kind of remind me of Jason DeRulo’s “Talk Dirty,” where he names different exotic locations without actually saying anything about what he did or what he learned there. (Did he even leave the airport?) Just like DeRulo sees the world as just an American Airlines list of travel destinations, MKTO clearly sees music as a series of album covers, and nothing else. It’s unimpressive, it’s generic; “Classic” is an unfinished sloppy mess.

And yet, I still ask myself why I can’t get it out of my head. Well, the truth is, I have a soft spot for the ’80s and, if I can find it in my heart to forgive songs far worse than “Classic,” it stands to reason that MKTO should get off my list as well. But, the song fails in the same way as most ’80s-inspired or 80s-sample songs out there do: They take an interesting concept and do absolutely nothing with it.

MKTO’s one-hit wonder is sure to leave them in the world of musical obscurity.

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November 20, 2014

Gyllenhaal finds stride in disappointing screenplay Charles Lyons Reporter

Nightcrawler Dan Gilroy Open Road Films

W

e never really know who Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is. Certainly, we are privy to his modest, lonely Los Angeles apartment and a series of concerning behaviors involving sudden acts of violence and bribery.

After the character’s unsettling introduction in “The Bourne Legacy,” screenwriter Dan Gilroy’s directorial debut is called “Nightcrawler.”

In this, we watch as Lou takes interest in collecting video footage of local crime and selling it to a nightly news television station, confusing and enticing those around him, namely, news director Nina (Rene Russo, who happens to be Gilroy’s wife) and assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed).

Though Lou’s perverse and seemingly boundless approach to his new line of work clearly points to an unhinged psyche, we are still kept at a distance from truly understanding or knowing the motivations of our antihero. “Nightcrawler[’s]” blend of tones, from the dark to the biting to the absurdly humorous, further confounds the viewer, but what results is far less transgressive than it sounds, a milquetoast debut for a long-gestating Hollywood presence like Gilroy.

Besides bookending acts of violence, the film isn’t as dark as it should be. For example, I wish there had been more serious ramifications of Gyllenhaal’s boundary-trampling and ensuing inaction. One wishes, too, that Gilroy had been more patient in surveying Lou’s unhinged condition, e.g. the montage where he smashes his mirror that should have been an uncomfortable and extended scene proper that lingered more introspectively on the man’s behaviors. JG is certainly up for it—he and Russo are both quite good, and I was most engaged when Gilroy let them take their dynamic to its extreme, like in

their dinner date, probably my favorite scene.

Gyllenhaal impresses throughout, ably trafficking in his demeanor and speech patterns a practiced learnedness. We understand his behaviors, sometimes hilarious, often unsettling, as the result of a lifetime of silent observation.

He spits it all back in hyper-verbal platitudes and approximations. That said, I hate when a character who has trouble with emotional expression articulates the all-too-exacting truths of a situation. It’s lazy screenwriting at best and appalling exploitation at worst. But the performer does occasionally find an emotional center in this overeagerness, locating Lou’s vulnerability in a number of scenes.

The infatuation Gilroy betrays with his roundelay of flashy, slick ’80s iconography doesn’t mix well with the mystery the filmmaker is careful to preserve in JG for the duration of the film.

Good thing the director has DP Robert Elswit to excite the aesthetic with a provocative use of close-up and barren, nighttime views of Los Angeles streets and signage, the latter choice of which injects a resonant current of loneliness to the character portraiture. James Newton Howard’s score for “Nightcrawler,” which has been fodder for some discussion and bewilderment in response to its idiosyncrasies, is mostly very good and reminds of Hans Zimmer’s work for Ritchie’s undervalued “Sherlock Holmes” (2009). Jangly and exhilaratingly weird, both evoke the industrial, which is befitting for “Holmes[’s]” turn-of-the-century tug-of-war between science and religion/fiction and “Nightcrawler[’s]” urban setting and sense of modern economic despair.

I really hope Gilroy and Elswit intended as visual gag the otherwise dumb shot of Lou visiting the set of the newscast to which he contributes and then sitting in the anchor’s chair with a face of constipated yearning. In fact, as full disclosure, on a subsequent viewing, it’s possible “Nightcrawler” will foreground its comedy in a more satisfying way than I first perceived, but as it stands, the film amounts to little more than wasted potential.

Professors carve out niche in Vassar art scene

WVKR continued from page 1 tuned in one day while my mom was driving and heard the most amazing songs. The DJs seemed just like me.”

Hsu and Hill are not the only professors to make their mark on WVKR. “[D.B. Brown has] been doing ‘The Rag Shop’ (I think it’s called) for about thirty years now. We’re actually going to be doing a pretty big 30th anniversary celebration broadcast with him,” said Lancaster.

Hill said he understands why the medium appeals to so many. He said, “There’s something about it. You’re listening to someone over waves that are going through the air. There’s something mysterious about it. In an interview that I did with a German media historian, Wolfgang Ernst, he talks at the end of that interview a lot about radio.”

He continued, “He likes to listen to short-wave and just listens to the odd kinds of sounds that get into the signal from weather patterns or from signals bouncing off clouds and that kind of thing. It’s strangely, in some ways it’s a very physical medium, radio waves, in that way.”

Hill posts all of his recordings on his blog and has garnered about 1000 downloads per month.

Many of his listeners are scholars, faculty who want to learn about on-campus research and the prison population. He has even received letters from a number of prisoners praising his show.

He recounted, “Usually, it’s a letter saying ‘I listen to your program’ and ‘keep up the good work.’”

Lancaster explained that some of the radio shows have very specific, devoted audiences.

“Our most popular program is called ‘Polka Rascals’...and that serves our Eastern-European community, and they bring in a bunch of money during our annual pledge drive. It’s pretty insane to watch just the sort of crazy rush that goes on in their studio with all of these people calling in,” noted Lancaster.

Meanwhile, Hsu tries to get a feel for his au-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

dience, browsing reviews from previous Vassar students, to get an idea of how students viewed artists that we now consider classics. “Like what some cooler-than-thou kid thought about Nirvana in 1991 or Animal Collective in 2004. It’s a great record of changing fashions and codes,” said Hsu. Hill explained his theory on the survival of radio through the invention of television, “If you look at the way radio was before television, it was an entirely different medium, it was a medium for drama to a great extent. Now there’s a lot of talk radio, but not this kind of talk radio. I don’t know if they feel people’s attention spans can’t handle it.

But, yeah, I think radio is going to be around for a long time. It may change—I hope it’s around a long time because it’s a great medium.”

Hsu’s interest in beginning his own show grew after his college graduation. At first, he did the show to stay in touch with friends—he chose time slots that could be heard by friends in both California and New York. Eventually, he said, “It became a way to force myself to go through all my old records and CDs.” For both Hill and Hsu, radio is a way to explore interests outside of work. “It keeps me alive,” Hill said.. He has spoken to some of the leading scholars in the country like Robert Darnton, Director of the Libraries at Harvard, and Betty Eisenstein, a Vassar Scholar who focuses on the history of the printing press. Next week, he’ll be interviewing Chuck Henry, president of the non-profit CLIR and former director of the Vassar library. They’ll talk about the CLIR and Henry’s experience directing a library. Though for Hill radio might be about reinvigorating academia, for some it is just about getting the chance to share music with the people who happen to be awake at 3 a.m.

Hsu said radio certainly brings with it some simple pleasures. He said, “There’s something really restorative about playing songs you love really loud in the studio.”

ARTS

November 20, 2014

Page 17

‘Flash’ reinvigorates comic fans’ favorites Saachi Jain

Guest Reporter

The Flash Greg Berlanti The CW

W

hen I first heard that “Arrow,” one of the The CW’s most popular shows, was having a spin-off called “The Flash,” I was skeptical. “Arrow” was one of my favorite shows, even with its many problems, but spinoffs rarely lived up to the original shows in my experience.

I was even more doubtful when I found out that the lead was going to be Barry Allen, played by Grant Gustin. From his appearance on “Arrow,” I liked the character. He was dorky in an endearing way, and seemed to be basically a less interesting, male version of Felicity Smoak, my favorite character on “Arrow.” But in no way did his short stint on “Arrow” suggest that he was leading man material, and I was afraid “The Flash” wouldn’t be very exciting due to that.

I didn’t go in with high hopes, but the show far exceeded those expectations. The pilot episode brought in 4.83 million viewers, one of The CW’s absolute highest rated premieres, and for good reason. The writers managed to turn Barry from a mediocre character whose most noticeable quality was that he babbled a lot into a three-dimensional one with layers and a troubled past.

Ever since he was a young boy, Barry wanted to fly. In a flashback, he’s shown running from bullies on the streets of Central City, trying to run fast enough to escape them, but falling short and getting beat up as a result.

Not long after, Barry’s mother is murdered.

Barry witnesses her murder, but he can’t make sense of what he sees—a man moving at lightning speed surrounding his mother and killing her. His father is sent to prison for her murder instead of the true culprit, and Barry is told again and again that what he saw wasn’t real but only a figment of his imagination.

His mother’s murder drives much of the

Campus Canvas

plot and serves as a mystery that needs to be solved during the course of the season.

Moving onto present day, after a particle accelerator at S.T.A.R. Labs explodes and causes a thunderstorm, Barry is struck by lightning and put into a coma. When he wakes up, he is under the care of Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon, who work with the brilliant scientist who created the accelerator in the first place, Dr. Harrison Wells.

Soon afterwards, Barry discovers the lightning strike had a curious effect on him: not only did he not die as he should have, but he now has super speed. Barry always wanted to fly, and now he practically can.

Working with the Caitlin, Cisco, and Dr. Wells, Barry tries to figure out his new power, find others like him, called metahumans, with their own unique powers, and help as many people as he can with his superpower.

The episode sets up a lot in terms of the plot, at times the action being overwhelming.

A lot of the scenes can be campy and melodramatic, and the metahuman antagonists could have been set up stronger. This villain motif has been pulled from older comics in the same vein as this spin-off superhero show, such as “Firestorm.”

In addition to the plot, however, there are many great characters and dynamics introduced as well. Perhaps the two most important are Iris West, played by Candice Patton, and Joe West, played by Jesse L. Martin.

When Barry isn’t under his secret identity as The Flash, he is just a forensic crime scene assistant for the police department, working under Joe, who had taken him in and raised him after his mother’s death.

Iris, Joe’s daughter, is Barry’s best friend who he also happens to be in love with. The dynamic between Barry, Joe and Iris is my favorite thus far, truly resembling one of a close family who would do anything for each other.

Barry and Joe act almost like father and son, and Joe’s concern for Barry permeates their every interaction.

Barry and Iris’s best friend relationship is a convincing set up for their possible upcoming romance. They banter with the ease of best friends who have known each other forever,

but Barry’s feelings for her are apparent, and his attempts at revealing them to her are in vain.

Joe and Iris aren’t just interesting for their relationship with Barry; however, they are great stand-alone characters with a lot of potential for future development.

Joe can seem strict and harsh, but his caring nature is clear in his relationship with Barry and his daughter.

Iris is strong-willed, ambitious and fiercely loyal, and though she doesn’t yet discover Barry’s secret identity like her father does by the end of the episode, she isn’t easily fooled and is determined to find out what Barry is hiding.

The team of Barry, Caitlin and Cisco is also an interesting dynamic, and very reminiscent of Team Arrow on “Arrow.” Caitlin is played

by Danielle Panabaker, who is perhaps best known for her roles in Disney Channel movies such as “Stuck in the Suburbs,” “Sky High” and “Read it and Weep.”

The character comes off as uptight and reserved, but she’s also highly intelligent and dealing with the loss of her fiancé. Cisco, played by Carlos Valdes, though he starts off as almost a comic relief character, is also very loyal to Barry and the team. Dr. Wells seems trustworthy at first, but the end of the episode reveals he has a lot to hide.

Representation-wise, the show is pretty good, with three out of the four main characters—Iris, Joe, and Cisco—being characters of color, and Iris and Caitlin being promising as female leads.

The pilot has a decent blend of action, character development, and relationship building, though it could go lighter on the action part.

It sets up many plot points—from the mystery of Barry’s mother’s murder, to Barry’s new superpower, to the conflict of the various other metahumans, to Barry and Iris’s budding romance, to the secret Dr. Wells is hiding, so the coming season definitely won’t lack in material to build on.

For “Arrow” fans, it’s a must, and even for those who haven’t seen “Arrow,” “The Flash” is a highly promising show with a lot of potential and the ability to keep you guessing.

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Excuse me, Who would you make into a life-sized sculpture to be displayed randomly on Vassar’s campus?

“Sarah Palin.” ­­— Joey Massa ’17

“The Barefoot Contessa” — Adam Spiegelman ’18

“Cappy.”

— Kyra Steiner ’18

submit to misc@vassar.edu

“My mom.”

— Hinda Abdelaoui ’15

“My dad.”

— Lanbo Yang ’15

courtesy of Laina Toatley

It was spring break of my junior year of high school, and I was going on my fourth set of college visits. I still hadn’t found the “right” school. I remember looking out the window and everything being a complete blur. We were moving so fast across the highway that anything you tried to focus on was gone before you could even identify what it was. It pretty much represented my entire junior year of high school, up until that point. It was supposedly the year that my entire future was riding on, but everything just seemed to be happening so fast, I couldn’t get a grip; I was completely overwhelmed. I remember the bump as we crossed onto the bridge. We were on our way to Skidmore College, and suddenly everything outside the window stopped moving. I stared for a while before I realized that I had the ability to keep that moment in time with me. As I fumbled with my holga camera, I took an accidental shot, and then I took the real one. When I developed the film, the second one that I had intentionally taken came out awful, but the first one, it was slightly tilted and you can still see the blur of the bus window, but this was the one that made complete sense.

-Laina Toatley ‘18

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Beyoncé” — Ana Sheehan ’17

Jacob Gorski, Assistant Photo Editor Emma Rosenthal, Reporter

SPORTS

Page 18

November 20, 2014

Men’s rugby rucks up tri-state final against Fairfield Ashley Hoyle

Guest Reporter

positions, but ultimately it came back to hurt them in the end. “It was a tough game also because of how many injuries we’ve had, so we’ve had to do a lot of positional switching around, putting people in new places,” said Hasui, “And I think that also showed a little bit. Our starting back line, most of them were out with injuries, so we had to put in some stop gap measures for that too, myself included. I had to move from the forwards to the back line...So we had been a little beat up during that week so we didn’t have a lot of time tackling that week and I think that made a bit of a difference. We weren’t as sharp in the tackles as we should have been and that came back to hurt us in the end,” he added.

The team kept their determined attitude even after a tough loss. “Even when we got down a good amount though, we kept fighting.

And we got an extra score in the end. So I’m

proud of our team for that,” said Hasui. The Brewers plan to build on their 2014 performance and continue to meet and exceed their goals, “And I think it was good, especially for the rookies and the underclassmen, the freshmen, sophomores and juniors to see that if you put in that kind of work you will see success,” said Hasui.

Upon thinking about his favorite moments of the past season, D’Agostino laughed before he explained the team chemistry; “There’s way too many to chose from. Ultimately to me, it was a great season, because the seniors this season were guys who I’ve played with since freshman year, both B side and A side. I feel like we grew up together. So really, it’s a culmination of everything we’ve worked on for three years. It was just a privilege to play with them for this fall.”

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

Coming off of years of success and a run at the national tournament, the Brewers felt confident that after surviving a conference play undefeated, they would have an equally remarkable postseason run. But on Nov. 9, in Fairfield, Conn., their season came to a disappointing end as Fairfield University won the conference title by a margin of 50 to 14.

The season opened with a rocky start, a loss to a Division I team: the United States Merchant Marine Academy. But the men’s rugby team quickly reined it in and started finding their footing. “It was a strong season overall,” said junior prop, Adam D’Agostino, “Obviously we didn’t go as far as we would have liked.

I’d say we had good improvement from the incoming freshmen and sophomores and the starting team (mostly comprised of juniors and seniors) had a strong showing. We had a couple of shutouts which was nice. And we had some sizable wins.” The Brewers’ first shoutout was in late September, as they beat Sienna College 74-0. This winning streak continued, and in early October, the men beat Union College 43-0. They had their largest margin of victory against SUNY New Paltz, with an 89-3 win.

“Overall,” said Winton, “a solid season with a lot to build on but also a lot to be proud of.”

The team was aided by some new faces this season in freshmen Joseph Simon from Van Nuys, Calif., and George Shepard, a native of the U.K. “We had a lot of great contributions from freshmen,” said Winton, “Joseph Simon was excellent all year.” While talent from individuals aided in the team’s success, all of the players attribute it to their coaches; “I think for a lot of it we have to give credit to our coaches: Tony Brown and Mark Griffiths,” said senior wing Kenta Hasui, “They really know the game of rugby really well. They’re our biggest asset on the team. They really drill us on doing the simple things, the basic things right. Before we do any fancy passes or try to run around people we have to tackle really well, we need to hold

onto the ball, and we need to ruck really well.

And they drill that into us. And I think that has been a huge part of our success; being disciplined and doing the grunt work.”

New York native D’Agostino agreed, saying, “It comes down to great coaching. Tony and Mark are awesome. They really put together a system that helps us cut through defenses and score a lot of points. And our offense is really what shone this year. We were able to put up a lot of points each game, maxing out at I believe 89 against New Paltz. So really, a very dynamic offense really put us through and an intelligent style of rugby.”

The Brewers’ successful regular season record culminated in a conference title match against Fairfield, a team who had also found success in regular season play. Defense had been identified as the weakest part of their game entering the title match, and it did not serve them well. Winton gave his summary of the game as such; “Fairfield is a great team and we knew all year that our issue going in was defense and tackling. So, throughout the year we know that we had enough ball, we’ve had enough possession that it didn’t cause as big of a problem, but Fairfield is the kind of team that is a much higher quality team. A very high-quality team and was able to exploit those weaknesses that we knew we had. “ “We really dominated possession of the ball, we had a lot of possession and while we had the ball, we really looked very solid and we looked like a better team, we looked very dangerous and we looked in a good position,” he continued. “And then the little bit of possession that Fairfield had they were really able to capitalize on. So missed tackles were a problem and that’s really what did us in.”

D’Agostino offered a similar explanation, saying, “Where we went wrong was we weren’t able to finish with our tackling. Which had been a bit of an issue all season. They were able to smother our offense.” The Brewers also struggled staying healthy leading up to the championship. Players tried their best to fill in

Vassar’s senior captian fly-half Nich Graham looks to pass the ball in a recent game against Sacred Heart University. His passing skills were essential to the men’s rugby team’s success this season.

Committee seeks to increase fanbase via social media SAAC continued from page 1

creasing fan-support through the Brew Crew; “We have designated certain sporting events as Brew Crew events, which means at those games there are halftime competitions where the winners get prizes. So far, our prizes have included gift cards from BurgerFi and Bacio’s, as well as Brew Crew t-shirts. Our goal with these competitions is to engage fans and coaches from other departments, essentially competing against each other for prizes.”

Brekne also explained the Brew Crew in greater detail and he also found Safir’s social media efforts to be positive. “We [SAAC] have developed a strong social media presence and have developed the Brew Crew . Brew Crew is [the] name that we use for the student section at each sporting event. We are featuring different teams at different points in their seasons and are encouraging fans to come out and support our teams here.”

As president, one of O’Connell’s responsibilities is to focus on how the organization maintains visibility and how SAAC and its members follow through on ideas. “We have focused on dividing our goals and having members commit to working towards them. We have also begun building a social media presence to keep fans updated on SAAC events and athletic competitions.”

All three executive board members felt that SAAC’s main purpose was to create a more positive time at Vassar for all student athletes.

Safir was particularly emphatic about it being SAAC’s mission. “I would describe SAAC as a student-organization designed for the sole purpose to enhance the experience of all Vassar athletes.”

It seems that this year’s SAAC has been relatively successful. In particular the Brew Crew games have had an important and positive impact on the student-athletes themselves. Junior women’s field hockey player, Lauren Wiebe described how fans affect her playing style. “As a player, I love having more fans at a game. I’m sure most people would say this, but I usually play with a little more umph when I know I’ve got a crowd watching. More importantly

though, I like knowing that all the hard work I put into my sport matters to a larger community. Having fans at a game is the most significant way someone can say they care about what you’re worked hard for!”

Safir seems to understand how Wiebe feels about engaging with the Vassar College community through athletics, and he cites this as the main reason he wanted to be in Vassar College’s SAAC. “I chose to be a part of SAAC because I knew it would be a way to get involved and potentially have a say regarding athletics and their role and purpose on this campus. Athletics are not the most popular here at Vassar…”

Another focus of SAAC is to help connect student-athletes and athletics to other parts of the Vassar College community. O’Connell considers that a central part of SAAC’s definition.

“SAAC is probably best described as a powerful voice for student-athletes, as it bridges the gap

between student-athletes and the athletic department, as well as the academic side of campus. We work to provide the best experience for Vassar student-athletes.”

Halftime competitions and a strong social media presence have all helped to provide more incentives for other athletes as well as non-athletes to come support teams. Social media in particular has helped increase the immediate visibility of games, meets, matches and team competitions in general. SAAC has also given t-shirts out at events along with gift cards and prizes. SAAC hopes to make Vassar Athletics more accessible to the overall community.

SAAC is an integral part of helping student-athlete’s voices be heard. It creates an open dialogue between individual student-athletes and their teams with the larger Vassar College community and extends beyond the Vassar bubble.

Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

teams have engaged in community service and outreach initiatives in the past. The women’s lacrosse team is a part of the Friends of Jaclyn organization, which connects pediatric brain tumor patients with college and high school athletic teams. Both fencing teams host an annual blood drive with NY Blood services in Walker, while women’s field hockey held a “Play 4 the Cure” game in order to help battle breast cancer. Fundraising for multiple sclerosis research has also been a mission for the men’s lacrosse team. In the 9th annual “Hour of Power” fundraiser to benefit sarcoma research, swimming and diving was heavily involved.

O’Connell explained that SAAC is working on upholding the community service ideals of the NCAA, by making Special Olympics more available and more a part of Vassar College Athletics. “We are cultivating a relationship with the Special Olympics. A goal is to have athletes from the Special Olympics honored at a halftime next semester. Also, we are setting up schedules for opportunities to volunteer with the Special Olympics program.”

Brekne agrees that community service, especially with the Special Olympics, is one of SAAC’s main focuses this year but he also outlined the other: “Our main goal is to enhance the student-athlete experience here at Vassar.

This year we are focusing on enhancing school spirit and support at games by developing the Brew Crew. We are also encouraging athletes to get involved with The Special Olympics in order to give back to the community.”

The SAAC is attempting to help support teams by making them more accessible to fans.

Senior men’s basketball player, Jonathan Safir, is a vital part of helping make this initiative happen; “I am the Vice-President of SAAC. I am also in charge of the social media pages and push to increase fan interest and attendance at games. We created the Brew Crew Facebook page and the Vassar Brew Crew Instagram account to try and enhance support,” he explained in a written statement.

Safir explained how the SAAC has been in-

Vassar’s SAAC provides an avenue for student-athletes to reach out to the student body, and organize fundraisers for charitable causes outside of campus, such as Friends of Jacylyn organization.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

November 20, 2014

SPORTS

Teams contend for conference playoff bids Sam Hammer Columnist

A

s we enter Week eleven of the NFL season, most teams already had their bye week and are now past the halfway point of the season. Things will almost certainly change between now and the end of the regular season, but so far there have been some interesting trends among teams in the league.

Some of the teams that were expected to be successful before the season have lived up to expectations (the Denver Broncos), while some have failed to live up to the hype (the Seattle Seahawks), and others have been downright terrible (Oakland Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars).

In the NFL playoffs, six teams from each of the league’s two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), will make the playoffs. Within each of the two conferences, there are four divisions based more or less on the geographical location of the teams in that conference. The team that holds the best win-loss record in each division automatically makes the playoffs while the remaining two wild card spots are given to the two teams with the best at-large win-loss record. So, even if a team such as the Pittsburgh Steelers fails to win their division due to how competitive it is, they can still grab a wild card spot if they possess a better record than other AFC teams. The first round of the playoffs is known as the wild card round, and it is in this round that the wild card teams will play each of the lower-seeded divisional winners. Each conference’s playoff teams are seeded one through six, so in this round the third, fourth, fifth and sixth seeds will all play games while the top two seeds each get a week off. It is for this reason why even the teams that are locks to make the playoffs will continue to compete until the end of the season in order to secure a position as a one or two seed. Having a higher seed also carries with it the benefit of home-field advantage against lower-seeded opponents.

Currently, there are three teams that are guaranteed locks to make the playoffs. These teams include the 6-3 Indianapolis Colts, the 7-2 New England Patriots and the 7-2 Denver Broncos. The Colts have a fairly reasonable schedule going forward with upcoming games against New England, Jacksonville, Washington, Cleveland and Houston. While New England will present a challenge to the Colt’s defense, the rest of those teams make for relatively easy matchups for the Colts who are led by third-year superstar quarterback Andrew Luck. New England’s road to the one-seed will be much more difficult since in the coming weeks they face off against Indianapolis, Detroit, Green Bay, San Diego and Miami. Each of these games will be incredibly difficult, and the Patriots division, the AFC East, is no longer as easy to win as it once was. The Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins have emerged as legitimate threats with each team possessing strong defenses.

Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos and their impressive offense led by Peyton Manning have a fair schedule going forward with games against St. Louis, Miami, Kansas City, Buffalo and San Diego. These are all winnable games for the Broncos whose star-studded offense is almost unstoppable and their defense that is ranked third in DVOA calculations (Defense-adjusted Value OverAverage). It is very likely that Denver, who entered the season, as the favorite for the Super Bowl will finish as the one-seed in the AFC. The remaining three AFC playoff spots will go to the winner of the hotly contested AFC North division and two wild card teams. The AFC North is currently led by the Cleveland Browns with a record of 6-3 followed by the Cincinnati Bengals at 5-3-1 and then by the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, who are both 6-4. This division is currently wide open, and it is possible that both of the wild card spots come from this division. Of course, there are other AFC teams in contention for wildcard spots including the Houston

Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills. Taking out the four divisional champions, there are eight teams in contention for two wild card spots. The rest of the season in the AFC will no doubt feature intriguing matchups between teams on the edge vying for competitive playoff spots.

Things are simpler in the NFC where fewer teams are in contention for the two wild card spots. The NFC is currently being contested between the 7-2 Philadelphia Eagles and the 7-3 Dallas Cowboys. Philadelphia’s future will depend on the performance of backup quarterback Mark Sanchez since their usual starter, Nick Foles, will miss the next four to six weeks with a distal clavicle fracture. The Cowboys are betting their hopes on the health of quarterback Tony Romo and MVP-caliber running-back DeMarco Murray. Murray, who is known as a player to be susceptible to injury, currently leads the league in both total rushing yards at 1,223 and in yards-per-game.

The competition for the NFC North has come down to the 7-2 Detroit Lions and the 6-3 Green Bay Packers. While either of these teams could take home the division, it is likely that the loser could still secure a wild card spot. The 8-1 Arizona Cardinals are currently in first place of what has been a shocking year for the NFC West. The perennial powerhouse San Francisco 49ers are currently 5-4 and have so far been lackluster on both offense and defense. The reigning champion Seahawks have looked mortal this season and currently sit at 6-3. Finally, the NFC South has been abysmally bad and is currently led by the New Orleans Saints at 4-5. No teams in this division will compete for a wild card spot, which means that in the NFC, only four teams are truly in contention for the wild card. The 2014 NFL season has so far been full of surprises and it is likely that more are to come. As teams prepare for the final stretch before the playoffs, there will no doubt be plenty of must-see matchups on television.

College football heats up in final stretch Rob Carpenter

Guest Columnist

M

any college football pundits had fears coming into this season, which is the first of the four-team playoff era. But after week 12’s games and with only a few matchups remaining, it is clear that college football is the same beast it has always been: unpredictable, heartbreaking and always exciting. The weekend spelled disaster for some teams, while others crashed the college football scene. Some players saw their hopes dashed, while other saw their names go up in flashing lights. This weekend’s action was a perfect microcosm for the nature of college football: immense excitement that cannot even be harnessed by a new playoff system.

Going into the weekend, Oregon’s redshirt, junior quarterback Marcus Mariota, was a clear favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. But after junior Melvin Gordon’s record-breaking performance Saturday, the competition for college football’s best individual award is a two-man race. Gordon, who plays running back for the University of Wisconsin Badgers, broke LaDainian Tomilson’s 1999 record for most rushing yards in a FBS game with 408.

But where Tomilson set the record versus an unintimidating University of Texas at El Paso team, Gordon broke the record in an upset of the 16th ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers. The Badger passed Tomilson’s record on the last play of the third quarter, as Gordon sprinted for a 26 yard touchdown run. The stat line no one will remember from the junior’s outstanding performance was his two fumble losses. Turnovers that would usually spell doom for a team were afterthoughts in this case. Both Oregon and Wisconsin could play three more games before the Heisman Trophy ceremony, providing both Gordon and Mariota ample opportunities to continue distinguishing themselves.

Where Gordon’s weekend thrust him forward in the Heisman conversation, junior running back Todd Gurley’s weekend ultimately scratched his name from the watch

list. The Georgia Bulldog football team lost their star running back to an ACL tear in the team’s convincing win over Southeastern Conference Championship (SEC) foe Auburn. After missing four games from a suspension, Gurley entered the game and made an impact, scoring for the Bulldogs and running for a total of 138 yards on 29 carriers before becoming injured in the fourth quarter.

The injury is particularly tragic if speculation that Gurley intentionally became suspended in order to protect his body and maintain his high NFL contract value is in fact true. Georgia will miss their star junior but will be able to move forward with the quick freshman Nick Chubb, who has excelled in opportunities opened by Gurley’s absences. And Georgia will need Chubb to contribute if they plan on beating 22nd ranked Georgia Tech in their last regular season game. The door to the SEC is still open, and with a Missouri loss, Georgia could play in the championship taking place in Atlanta.

In addition to Georgia’s victory over Auburn, nine other top 25 teams were upset in this recent volatile weekend. Few teams lost more than Mississippi State (MSU) in their 25-20 loss to the Crimson Tide of Alabama.

Not only did Mississippi State lose their undefeated record, but the teams they beat earlier in the season also suffered upset losses. After this weekend, it is a tough position to argue that MSU deserves a spot in the top 4 College Football Playoff; the team’s win portfolio took a major hit as Louisiana State, Auburn and Texas A&M all lost. For Mississippi State, the evil empire of Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide struck again, and with it, MSU’s clean road to the college football playoff has been blocked.

In fact, it seems that almost everyone in the SEC lost this weekend except for the Crimson Tide. After an overtime loss to South Carolina, the University of Florida went so far as to ask their head football coach, Will Muschamp, not to return for next season.

Muschamp has led the Florida Gators to a 5-4 record this season, which is respectable, but

insignificant compared to the championships Florida’s former coach, Urban Meyer, had won for the university. Florida has extremely high standards set for their team, a fact Muschamp acknowledged as he commented on his dismissal, “I was given every opportunity to get it done here and I simply didn’t win enough games that is the bottom line.”

For Muschamp, this truly is the bottom line, but the Florida Gators, his team for the rest of the season, do have an opportunity to play the best team in the country. The Gators will take on Florida State in both teams’ last regular season game. An upset, though unimaginable, would end Muschamp’s career at Florida on a high note.

The West Coast had its share of upsets, including unranked Oregon State defeating the previously number six ranked Arizona State Sun Devils. The Oregon State Beavers attacked on both sides of the ball in their 35-27 upset over the Sun Devils, as senior QB Sean Mannion threw for 251 yards and 2 touchdowns. On defense, senior Michael Doctor returned an interception to the Sun Devils’ end zone for a pick 6. With the upset, ASU will fall out of the top 10 and will leave the South Section seed to the Pac 12 Championship up for grabs between UCLA, USC, Arizona and themselves. While Arizona State got ambushed in Corvallis, Ore., the Arizona Wildcats snatched victory from the hands of defeat as they slipped past Washington, 2624. Up by one point with less than 90 seconds remaining, the University of Washington Huskies fumbled the ball away, which was a mistake that would prove costly as Arizona kicked a winning field goal.

With most teams only having two or three games left on their schedule, the season is in its final stretch. Nothing is set in stone and the top four playoff picture is still hazy. The new playoff format has led to one of the most exciting and volatile regular seasons in recent memory, but like the teams in contention, I am keeping my gaze ahead because the only thing that matters is the playoffs to come.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 19

Barcelona’s Messi shows true talent Claire Standaert Guest Columnist

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lmost everyone who loves sports has, over the past decade, witnessed Lionel Messi effortlessly slice through defenses and score goals that leave jaws dropping and eyes wide. Such breathtaking moments in soccer are typically rare, but the question, “How did he do that?” has become inherently part of what commentators say when Messi dribbles, passes or scores. If you have played the game, Messi’s brilliance becomes even more impossible to comprehend. There are plenty of examples. One is Messi’s goal against Real Zaragoza in 2010. The game had been lolling along with predictable passing and defending until Messi, with the ball at his feet, shook off an aggressive defender at the halfway line before sharply turning and running at the opposing team’s back-line. As he neared the four defenders, a lion vs. the lamb situation became obvious to the viewer. His graceful and powerful movements wildly contrasted the fearfully uncertain stumbles of the defense. Messi took on the four men—one of them twice, who was left in a spin— before skipping past the last defender to drill a low shot with cunning precision past Zaragoza’s goalkeeper Jimenez Roberto.

At an early age, it was discovered that he suffered from a growth hormone deficiency. FC Barcelona offered to pay for his hormone-deficiency treatments if he agreed to play for the club’s youth academy. Unable to pay the medical expenses, his parents decided this offer was too good to pass up and soon, Messi and his father left their home and family in Argentina for Barcelona, Spain.

Like most professional athletes, he had already developed a remarkable kinesthetic sense, which is the ability to regulate bodily movements through complex sensory inputs, including feel, touch, posture, balance, coordination, reflex, control and more. This explains his ability to gracefully dribble through defenders, his senses assessing multiple variables, such as the weight of the ball, his forward velocity and the slight movements of defenders, at an impossibly fast speed.

Because the club was paying his medical bills, which were crucial to his physical development, Messi experienced a great pressure to grow quickly as a soccer player. And this is where sheer repetition in training at an early age gives you “the edge” over not only your opponents, but mother nature herself. At Barcelona’s youth academy, Messi developed at a remarkable pace, eventually working his way up from the junior Infantil B team to the senior team by age of 17.

At 5’7”, Messi is considered to be on the shorter side, but this has worked to his advantage, allowing him a quickness and low center of gravity that trumps the brute strength of taller opponents. They call him La Pulga—Spanish for “the Flea”—because as reporter Roberto Saviano puts it, “from high up in the stands, Messi is a tiny, fast, unstoppable black dot.” There have been athletes throughout history that have shown the same power over gravity and physics. These include Michael Jordan, who seemed to be able to hang in the air a few seconds longer than gravity allows, and Roger Federer, who can control his body so well that he seems to float effortlessly to whatever part of the court the ball is racing for. And Messi is of the same breed—time seems to be on his side, and he is never off-balance.

His movement is so instinctual that defenders find it difficult to track him throughout the game. The ball is glued to his foot and his opponents seem to become slower as he approaches them.

Since his humble beginnings in a small village in Argentina, Messi has become the world’s greatest soccer player. He has broken records that would be unattainable for his fellow professional teammates and opponents. He has consecutively won 4 FIFA Ballon d’Or awards, the pinnacle of a footballer’s recognition through award. He has had the most hat-tricks in the UEFA Champions League, achieved 4 times, and the list goes on and on. Lionel Messi has become something of a worldwide Internet sensation, and is regarded as the best player in the world, which sounds abstract and nice, but it’s important to understand that Messi is not a god, but rather human. He shows that skill, speed, vision and power are the skeleton of soccer, but the flesh lies in the drive to reach your fullest potential. And for Messi, that potential is pretty damn high.

SPORTS

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November 20, 2014

Women’s rugby suffers tough loss in national quarter finals Erik Quinson Reporter

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courtesy of Vassar Athletics

his weekend saw the end of Vassar women’s rugby run at the National title for Division II rugby. The Brewers ended their season with a 9-3 record. After defeating University of Vermont on Saturday, the Brewers were set to face off against Kutztown. In a grueling match that was decided in the last minute, Kutztown won the day with a narrow win of 22-20. This is the second year that Vassar has made it into the final eight teams vying for the National Division II title.

Thinking back on the only teams to overcome the Brewers this season, Coach Tony Brown wrote in an emailed statement, “The women’s team lost to two teams this Fall—Rutgers & Kutztown—and there was very little to choose between these teams and Vassar.” With regard to Brown’s thoughts about this season, and the potential of the team going forward, he stated, “The Vassar women have had 19 winning seasons in the past 20 years and this was yet another good season. We have a wonderful group of freshmen who have an expectation to get to this point again and they will not want to experience the sadness of defeat as was the case Sunday. Hopefully, they will work hard and give themselves the opportunity.”

The emphasis on hard work is something that this team understands well. Captain and senior Yael Schwartz was impressed by the work rate of her teammates this season: “The biggest strength of this team is both the individual and collective commitment of their time, bodies, and selves. The commitment to showing up to practice and give their all, putting their bodies on the line, in cold, wet and dark conditions,” she said. While Schwartz was impressed by her teammates’ work ethic, senior Sophia Rutkin was quick to point out the trust that the team has for one another. In an emailed statement, Rutkin wrote, “We trust each other unconditionally. Rugby is an incredibly high contact sport, and it is impossible to commit one hundred percent unless you know

Junior center Cierra Thomas breaks through the defensive line of a recent opponent. Her strong running and aggressive tackling skills helped a successful women’s rugby team reach the quarterfinals. the team has your back, this season and every other I have never once distrusted my team.”

Senior captain Margaret Slattery also acknowledged the trust that is crucial for the team and went on to add in an emailed statement, “We are better coached than a lot of our opponents, and we have a pattern that is specifically designed to break down the defenses of teams we play keeping the strengths of our specific team in mind.” Coach Brown shared the same opinion; speaking of his assistant coach, Mark Griffith, Brown wrote, “The single biggest influence [this season] was the coaching of Mark Griffiths. His understanding of the game and recognition of each players’ qualities is second to none. Vassar rugby, both men & women, would not be the respected force they are in the collegiate ranks without his guidance.” Griffith only coaches in the Fall, return-

ing to his home in Wales for the rest of the year.

For many of the players on the team, tackling has been their biggest weakness. In thinking back on their loss over the weekend, junior Darienne Jones was impressed by the improvement that she and the team as a whole had made in this area of their game. In an emailed statement, Jones wrote, “I can confidently say I have never hit so hard or as many times in my whole time playing rugby at Vassar. I believe the whole team felt the same way as well. This is rewarding because I felt that was our struggle the entire year, was being as aggressive defensively as we were offensively.”

Though the team did lose over the weekend Jones was confident that the team was headed for greater things next season. “It took us awhile to become this strong defensively so hopefully next year, even just next season, we

Fencing dominates for sixth straight year Eli J. Vargas

Sports Editor Men’s Basketball

For the Brewers’ first game of the season on Nov. 15, they faced Wheelock College in the first round of the Vassar Tip-Off this past weekend.

Led by a dominant show of scoring by senior forward Alex Snyder in which he scored 27 points and was named to the Vassar Invitational All-Tournament team, the Brewers won 72-66.

In their final game of the Vassar Tip-Off, they played a tough game against Springfield College, and the competition didn’t go as favorably for the Brewers as the previous night, as they lost 82-44. The Brewers look to find their rhythm early in the season as they travel to Madison, N.Y. on Nov. 22 to play Drew University in their first away game of the season.

Women’s Basketball

At the Babson College Invitational this past weekend, the Brewers opened their season against host Babson College. Senior Allyson Pemberton scored a team high 15 points, but that was not enough, as the Brewers fell to Babson 66-55. On Sunday, the Brewers faced #15 ranked Williams College in a close game that saw a career night from junior Caitlin Drakely, who scored 32 points from 11-24 shooting on the night. However, the women ultimately lost 7567 and fell to 0-2 to start off their season. The Brewers look next to face St. Joseph’s-LI this Friday, 7 p.m. in N.Y. Men’s Fencing

The Brewers put forth a strong effort in honor of former Coach Matt Lampell at the Matt Lampell Hudson River Valley Invitational.

VCMF has won the Invitational all five times in the events history, and this past weekend was no different, as the Brewers captured their sixth team title to keep their streak alive. On their way to the title, VCMF beat Cornell 25-2, RPI 26-1, University of Albany 25-2, Marist 27-0 and Army 18-9. The top performing squad for the Brewers was the sabre team, as they had a strong showing on their way to a 41-4 record at

the Invitational.

Fenicng looks to keep their strong season going, and the Brewers will have a long break to practice next week before traveling to Fairfield, Conn. on Dec. 7 to participate in the Sacred Heart Tournament.

Women’s Fencing

In the familiar confines of Walker Field House, VCWF had a dominant showing at the Matt Lampell Hudson River Valley Invitational.

The Brewers faced six teams and lost no matches on their way to the title. The Brewers were victorious over Queens College 19-8, Marist College 23-4, LIU Post 25-2, Army 23-4 and Yeshiva University to go 115-20 overall in those matches.

In the final match of the meet for the Brewers, they faced a tough City College of New York, and showed that they were able to perform when the stakes were high. They escaped 14-13 with help from their sabre team that went 6-3. VCWF will look to improve upon these wins as they enjoy a break until Dec. 7, when they travel to Sacred Heart University to keep their winning ways alive.

past Saturday in Kresge Pool, the Brewers faced tough competition. Senior Luc Amodio had a strong showing on the afternoon as he finished first in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:16.13. He just missed out on adding a first place finish in the 100 yard backstroke when he was .45 milliseconds behind the competition who finished with a time of 55.36.

Looking to return to their winning ways, the Brewers face cross-river rival SUNY-New Paltz on Saturday, Nov. 22.

Men’s Cross Country

VCMXC ran competitively for the final time this season at Genesee Valley Park where the Division III Atlantic Regionals were held this past Saturday, Nov. 15. Out of the 41 teams that participated, the Brewers finished 21st and placed five runners in the top 133 out of the competing 288. In his last run of his senior year, Andrew Terenzi had a memorable afternoon as he paced the Brewers with a time of 27:15.3 over the 8k course to finish 122th. Freshman Michael Scarlett was not far behind his elder teammate, as he finished ten seconds behind Terenzi and finished in 123rd place.

Women’s Swimming & Diving

Women’s Cross Country

The Vassar women faced Liberty-League opponent RPI this past Saturday at home in Kresge Pool. The women swam hard, but ultimately were unable to match up to RPI, who won the dual meet 187.5-103.5. Sophomore Julia Cunningham provided some bright spots for the Brewers as she qualified for NCAA B Cut with a time of 2:07.39 in the 200 yard butterfly. She also finished first in the 200 yard backstroke by a 5 second margin over the competition with a time of 2:30.75.

Senior Kelly Wilkinson had a strong showing for the diving team as she finished second in the 3 meter dive with an overall score of 244.57. This Saturday, the Brewers return to action to face local Liberty League rival SUNY-New Paltz.

The women’s team traveled to the University of Rochester to run at Genesee Valley Park in the Division III Atlantic Regionals this past Saturday. For their last competition of the season, the Brewers had a strong showing, which they can be proud to look back upon over the cold winter, when they may be reluctant to run.

Out of 40 teams present, VCWXC finished in the upper echelon, as they placed 7th. Leading the way was Senior Cassidy Carpenter, who was named to the Liberty League All-First Team.

She finished 16th with a time of 22:16.8 over the 6k course. For her strong running, she earned a bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships which will be held in Ohio this Saturday.

Following Carpenter was freshman Meaghan Wilcoxon who finished with a time of 22:36.7 which was good enough for 26th place.

Men’s Swimming & Diving

Facing Liberty League opponent RPI this

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

as a team never forget the importance of that physicality and go in with that mentality every time for every game.”

Looking forward, all of the seniors were excited by the prospect of the team heading forward. Slattery singled out a few younger players on the team, “Cierra Thomas, who has always been a dangerous runner, really came into her own this year as well. She leads our team in points scored (75) and can always be counted on to make NFL quality hits when we really need them. Nathalie Freeman, Taylor Nunley and Laila Blumenthal-Rothchild also stand out. These are all non-seniors, so that’s very exciting.” While Schwartz picked out even more: “Mary-Margaret McElduff in her first year in a new position, learned on the fly and looked comfortable within a couple games directing the back line…Nathalie Freeman is a nonstop source of energy, always there to make another strong run, hit another ruck, or make a dominant tackle.” It will be exciting to see how these players develop in the coming years, and the heights to which they will take the Brewers.

The team will be losing some of its most significant players come the end of this year.

Chief among them are the two captains, whom Coach Brown has been very impressed with this season: “The leadership of Meg Slattery and Yael Schwartz has been exemplary and much of the team’s cohesion and success is attributive to them.” Rutkin, heaped praise on the two as well, “Our team chemistry is always very strong, but this year it was particularly so.

For this, I give a great deal of credit to our captains for making sure that we have team events often, even after losses.” But all of the seniors will be missed, Schwartz, thinking about her fellow seniors, said, “Sophia Rutkin is always a very strong runner and has improved her tackling significantly…Kathleen Gould is a fiercely powerful woman who played through too many injuries, refusing to rest or stop for even a second.” The team next year will be hard pressed to live up to the expectations left by this season’s team.

Weekend Scoreboard MEN’S BASKETBALL VASSAR

VS

70

NEW PALTZ

61

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL VASSAR

VS

67

WILLIAMS

75

WOMEN’S RUGBY VASSAR

20

VS

KUTZTOWN

22