Misc11 5 15

The Miscellany News

Volume CXLVIII | Issue 7

November 5, 2015

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Chapel Exercise made exciting in spirit of Halloween damaged P in concert Kaitlynn Vo

Guest Reporter

Rhys Johnson News Editor

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courtesy of Bob Kopac

arly in the afternoon following singer-bassist Thundercat’s much-anticipated performance in the Vassar Chapel on Saturday, Oct. 24, members of Vassar Catholic Community (VCC) entered the building to begin preparing for the weekly Sunday Mass. What the worshipers discovered, however, was less than holy.

The Chapel had incurred some visible damages after the Thundercat concert organized by Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) the night before. The seating areas, particularly in the center aisles towards the front of the building, were in poor shape, the racks on a number of pews had been broken, and there were sweat towels and pieces of trash littered throughout the room.

Those that witnessed the scene were shocked, and many worried if there would be enough time to clean up the mess before the 5 p.m. Catholic Mass.

“It was distressing,” remarked Associate Professor of Music Christine Howlett, who saw the state of the Chapel firsthand. “Very distressing.”

Even more distressing to many, however, was the state of the Chapel’s prized centerpiece, the Gress-Miles organ. Built in 1967 to occupy the space of the ChapSee CHAPEL on page 3

eople from all ages from Vassar and from the community huddled on the quad in front of Rockefeller Hall on Saturday. Outfitted in costumes, athletic apparel or a spirited combination of the two, runners of all skill levels stood in the brisk, clear sunshine with numbers pinned to their chests. The enthusiasm was palpable and the conversation audible as each person awaited the sound of the starting signal.

The runners were waiting in anticipation of the imminent Halloween 5K Fun Run hosted by Vassar College. In one brief moment, the buzz emitted by the crowd was silenced with the commencement of the race; the runners were off.

While running a 5k is no simple task, participants were more interested in having fun than in competSee FUN RUN on page 7

Runners at the Health Education-hosted Halloween 5K Fun Run take off in style as they traverse the campus. People from Vassar and the community are welcome to run regardless of their costume, or lack thereof.

Alumni offer guidance into world of finance Alan Hagins

Guest Reporter

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anding a job in finance is tough, but the hardest part might be the first step—breaking in to the industry. As students repeatedly hear, networking can be the keystone to success in finding any job.

That’s especially true in the close knit and highly competitive world of finance. For Vassar stu-

dents interested in gaining access, alumni are their best bet. That’s why on Nov. 8, the Vassar College Business Club (VCBC) will host a panel of alumni from the financial sector in Taylor Hall 203.

The co-president of VCBC, Steven Mages ’17, encourages all interested students to participate as there might not be another panel like this for some time. Mages men-

tioned, “We usually only do one panel a year.”

So it’s a rare event, but why is it an important one? Mages mentions two reasons to attend: information about careers in finance, and networking opportunities.

“We wanted to give younger students a chance to learn about some of the different possible career options within finance,” He said. He

NYC exhibit depicts local scenes Connor McIlwain Arts editor

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n a campus filled with history, it’s easy to overlook the significance of Vassar’s larger community.

But just like Vassar, Poughkeepsie has a rich history. From producing the first cough drops in the U.S. to becoming a bustling hub for IBM, Poughkeepsie’s beauty and proximity to New York City has attracted an array of business-

es and elites.

“There is just something about the place that keeps calling me back,” said Elizabeth Thompson ’11 of Poughkeepsie. She is the Director of Media and Operations for the Bertrand Delacroix Gallery (BDG) in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The gallery just wrapped up its exhibit “Works on Paper,” which featured a series of Poughkeepsie-inspired watercolor paintings

by artist Mitsu Haraguchi.

“Works on Paper” premiered Oct. 1 featuring five New York City-based watercolor artists. One of the featured artists got a group together, which included Haraguchi. Thompson explained, “We…represent American watercolor artist Elizabeth Allison, and have for several years. She actually shares a studio with Mitsu in Harlem and they See EXHIBIT on page 17

courtesy of Bertrand Delacroix Gallery

A series of watercolor paintings by Mitsu Haraguchi highlight Poughkeepsie homes and sites. Haraguchi was drawn to the city during a brief visit in the summer of 2014. He sought to capture its rich history and architecture in his works.

Inside this issue

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German Dept. dinner spreads FEATURES awareness

14 ARTS

Student-written play to take over FWA’s Pippin

went on, “Beyond that, there will definitely be an opportunity to network with the alumni who have kindly offered to come back.”

VP for Alumni Relations, Samuel Hammer ’17, utilized those all-important alumni networking skills to coordinate the event. Hammer, who has always been interested in forging relationships with alumni and See PANEL on page 6

Tough test for XC at Championships Winnie Yeates Reporter

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hrough rain, sleet and snow, in the blazing heat and frigid cold, the Vassar cross country team has run and run hard. Despite their determination and success, these dedicated runners would not be anywhere without their coach.

James McCowan has served as head cross country coach to the Vassar College Brewers since 2005 and has instituted a strong coaching philosophy to instill and drive both the men and women’s teams to success.

This year, he feels both teams show lots of promise and depth, explaining, “The whole season—and each individuals career—is a process of developing physical and mental characteristics for season-long and life-long success.” The teams entered the year talented, yet quite young. Still, in spite of their youth, the 2015 season has certainly provided the Brewers with ample opportunities for such success.

This past weekend the Vassar College team traveled to the Liberty League Championships in Canton, N.Y. hosted by St. Lawrence University. There, they finished fourth out of seven teams in the 6K race. This was the first time any member of the current team had run on this particular championship course. In addition, the

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Brewers faced some very tough and strong competition. RIT is nationally ranked No. 17, St Lawrence No. 18 and RPI is ranked No. 22.

So with all of these aspects under consideration, the women’s team ran a particularly strong race. The top finishers for the Brewers were freshman Christiana Prater-Lee (23:50.29) in 20th place overall and senior Ava Farrell (23:51.29) in 21st place overall. Sophomore Katie Voegtlin (24:04.83) followed Farrell in 26th place overall, with freshman Cameron Daddis (24.08.20) tailing close behind in 27th place overall.

The final Brewers teammate to score was junior Jemma Howlett (24:10.03) who finished 29th place.

This was good preparation for the upcoming ECAC Championships in Williamstown, Mass. where the team will hopefully leave its mark.

Prater-Lee spoke about the team’s goals in regards to the Championship, “Our team goal was to put up a good showing against RPI, St. Lawrence and RIT to prove we belong at the same caliber as these nationally ranked teams. We have been doing workouts at race pace effort to ingrain that pace into our bodies.” This hard work and dedication has paid off for Prater-Lee as she has been solid all season. She is the only runner on the See XC on page 18

VC Fencing back for more SPORTS season records

The Miscellany News

Page 2

November 5, 2015

Attention Students!

The following Executive Staff positions of The Miscellany News are now open for the Spring 2016 semester.

Applications must be submitted by midnight on November 8 to misc@vassar.edu.

Contributing Editor Senior Editor

The Senior Editor aids the EIC in all aspects of weekly production. The Senior Editor will be responsible for proofreading all sections for grammar, clarity and design aspects. If another editor is absent, the Senior Editor will assume the responsibilities of that position until it is filled.

The Contributing Editor shall actively contribute to a specified aspect of the newspaper, and will help to train new reporters and editors, along with an individual project. The responsibilities of this position will vary according to the needs of the paper and the individuals filling the position.

Editor-in-Chief Palak Patel

Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief is ultimately responsible for the paper’s content... including editorial content, production, business management and layout. The EIC represents The Miscellany News to the VSA Council, the Senior Officers of the College, the Vassar community and other organizations.

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

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November

Thursday

Late Night at the Lehman Loeb

5:00PM | Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center Atrium | Art

Member of the Vassar community shares personal experiences or interpretations of works of art on view in the galleries.

Oyama Kozan

5:30pm | Villard Room | Music

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November

Friday

MakerSpace Talk

12:00pm | Old Laundry 104 | DiSSCo

Conversation soliciting community input about campus needs for a makerspace / digital studio.

Steelpan Band and Step Showcase 6:00pm | Aula. | Music

Oyama Kenzan and Rumi Shishido will give a shamisen and koto performance.

Feed

Nana Brew-Hammond Lecture

8:00pm | Shiva | Philaletheis

5:30pm | Rocky 300 | Alumni

Nana, a Vassar alum, will come to give a speech about the complexities and intricacies of Blackness.

7:00pm | Blodgett Audit. | Unbound

The Drunk and the Elephant Night Owls and Axies Joint Concert

10:00pm | Rocky 200 | A Capella

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November

Saturday

Field Hockey (W): Liberty League Championship

8:00am | Prentiss | VC Athletics

Soccer (M): Liberty League Championship 8:00am | Prentiss | VC Athletics

Environmental Consortium Conference

8:00 am | Villard Room. | Environmental Studies and others

Annual Conference, Environmental Consortium of Colleges and Universities: Teaching, Learning and Research in the Hudson-Mohawk Region Butterbeer Classic Tournament 10:00am | Joss Beach | Quidditch

Various speakers present.

Squash (M)

Feed

7:00pm | Blodgett Audit. | Unbound

12:00pm | Kenyon Squash Courts | VC Athletics

RSL Coffeehouse

Night Market

8:00pm | Aula | RSL

An annual event featuring music, art, and coffee. Hosted by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.

The Drunk and the Elephant 8:00pm | Shiva | Philaletheis

6:00pm | College Center | ASA

Senior Editor Noble Ingram

News Features Opinions Humor & Satire Arts Sports Photography Design Online Copy

Rhys Johnson Julia Cunningham Emily Sayer Zander Bashaw Connor McIlwain Zach Rippe Sam Pianello Sarah Dolan Elizabeth Dean Anika Lanser

Crossword Editors Alycia Beattie York Chen Collin KnoppSchwyn Assistant Arts Yifan Wang Assistant Social Media Hannah Nice

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November

Sunday

(W) Rugby Game

12:30pm | Farm | VC Athletics

Business Club Alumni Palen 1:00 pm | Taylor Audit. | Business Club

Several experienced alumni from various professional backgrounds participate in this open panel.

Class Issue Dialogue

1:00pm | Villard Room | Music

This dialogue will address a variety of topics related to socioeconomic class and how it affects college students.

Vassar College and Community Wind Ensemble 3:00pm | Skinner | Music

VSA Council

Reporters Amreen Bhasin Eilis Donohue Ashley Hoyle Jeremy Middleman Sieu Nguyen Sabrina Oh Matt Stein Winnie Yeates Columnists Nick Barone Penina Remler Sarah Sandler Josh Sherman Patrick Tanella Design Scarlett Neuberger Talya Phelps Samana Shrestha Charlotte VarcoeWolfson Copy Laura Wigginton Noah Purdy Claire Baker Jackson Ingram Steven Park Rebecca Weir Sophie Slater Sophie Deixel Jessica Roden

7:00pm | Main MPR | VSA

Paper Critique

9:00pm | Rose Parlor | The Misc

Come tell us all about our typos!

Feed

7:00pm | Blodgett Audit. | Unbound

Vassar College Choir 8:00pm | Skinner | Music

A performance by the Vassar College Choir.

The Drunk and the Elephant 8:00pm | Shiva | Philaletheis

Gals and Pals

10:00pm | Taylor Audit. | Indecent Exposure

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only corrections for any misquotes, resentations or factual errors for ticle within the semester it is

accept misrepan arprinted.

November 5, 2015

NEWS

Page 3

Makerspace offers creative outlet for Vassar students Eilis Donahue Reporter

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courtesy of New York Hall of Science

ovember is, to many, a month for makers.

The Poughkeepsie Day School will be hosting a “Mini Maker Faire” to bring together the mid-Hudson area’s hackers, crafters and creators of all persuasions to share ideas and learn. Meanwhile, Vassar will be hosting a series of four talks that will be held throughout November to hear students’ ideas and inform those who want to know more about what a makerspace is and how they can contribute.

The Digital Scholarship Services Collaboration (DiSSCo) are sponsoring these conversations, as well as the space itself when it is established.

According to DiSSCo’s events websites, a makerspace is a community place that provides resources for design, education and creation. The information page reads, “Makerspaces combine manufacturing equipment, community, and education for the purposes of enabling community members to design, prototype and create manufactured works that wouldn’t be possible to create with the resources available to individuals working alone.” These spaces can take varied forms, depending on the interests of the community, so participants will shape Vassar’s own makerspace.

Staff and students encourage all to attend, even those without any experience. Academic Computing Consultant and DiSSCo member Amy Laughlin said in an emailed statement, “Experience is not a prerequisite to participating. Anyone interested should attend and find out more about the creative potential that spaces like a digital studio or makerspace would have to offer. Makerspaces are built around the idea of creating a diverse community of makers that are able to share ideas and knowledge in a place that also provides the necessary tools and equipment to bring those ideas into reality.”

Students with interests in computer science have long expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of venues for computer science and digital design at Vassar. One outlet of creative energy for technologically-inclined students like Sufyan Abbasi ’18 is to work for Academic Computing Ser-

With hopes of aiding community members to cooperate on projects relating to computer science and programming, the Digital Scholarship Services Project is hosting Vassar’s first makerspace. vices, contributing to faculty projects by making educational technology and designing websites and presentations. A group of passionate students has also formed the VSA pre-organization VC++, a space for students to learn and practice using practical computer programming and software skills. President and Co-Founder Jayce Rudig-Leathers ’16 explained, “VC++ is an organization to provide a place for students to use and learn about technology, with the angle of being able to use technology to create things.”

While the organization is extracurricular, its members want to use their time and effort to prepare themselves for careers in the digital world by working on skills that Vassar does not teach. Rudig-Leathers emphasized, ”Vassar’s CS department is very theory-based, theory-heavy; we [only] have one class that’s actually on software development and how to actually go about

building things. [I]f somebody just majors in CS and then wants to go into the job market, they’re totally unprepared. If you just go through the motions and do all your classes, you can get good grades and understand everything, you’re totally unprepared to go work for Google or Facebook or something like that. So you need to teach yourself outside, do side projects and stuff, to actually learn how real development works, so that’s what I’m trying to do with VC++, is to give people a way to do that together and to learn things together.”

While the talks will be aimed at students and focused on gathering student input, they were organized by the faculty members of DiSSCo. Rudig-Leathers spoke about the importance of student involvement in the planning of the makerspace. He said, ”I think the makerspace is Vassar’s technology bureaucracy trying to respond to the same need VC++ is responding to. VC++ needs to

be incorporated into that somehow, so it’s not [as if] the VSA funds VC++ and CIS is throwing money at this makerspace. I think Vassar needs to sit down and have a real talk about how they’re approaching technology and how they’re teaching technology.” This is exactly what DiSSCO hopes to accomplish with makerspace conversations.

Laughlin said, “There are many groups that have expressed an interest in creating a makerspace/ digital studio and we feel it’s important to tap into that interest to find out exactly what type of environment and equipment would be the most beneficial to students, staff, and faculty.”

Makerspaces are not a new concept; they already exist in the professional world and on other campuses. The webpage for the talks features videos of makerspace projects from colleges like Case Western Reserve, Tulane, and Georgia Tech University. Abbasi remarked, “Many other campuses have makerspaces and they’ve been able to produce a lot of amazing things. It’s time Vassar has one too. The question is: what are we going to do that’s the Vassar version of the makerspace?”

Abbasi also stressed the importance of recognizing and including creators of all kinds in these discussions. “A makerspace allows Vassar students an opportunity to express themselves in a technical makery way,” he explained. “When I say maker, I mean if you knit, if you love fashion design, if you make robots. Vassar students are creative people, but sometimes we’re at a lack of resources and equipment. Figuring out what people want and then providing the resources to do that is what the makerspace is all about. We need a community space to make things that people are interested in making. When you usually think of makers, you think of robots and computer stuff.

But that’s just a tiny part: people have been making for such a long time.”

DiSSCo encourages students to reach out and contribute ideas, offering a forum on their website as a way to facilitate discussion. Laughlin mused, “What I think a space like this would mean to Vassar is that it would put the necessary tools and resources in the hands of our incredibly talented and amazing community. The sky is the limit.”

Shared spaces dialogue follows destructive ViCE event CHAPEL continued from page 1

el’s original organ from 1904, the Gress-Miles, which features a hand-carved facade, 99 stops and almost 6,000 pipes, is the largest organ on campus, and is to many nearly as sacred as the Chapel itself (Vassar Music Department, “Pipe Organs at Vassar”).

This afternoon, however, the Gress-Miles

was an object of great concern rather than of great admiration. According to Director of Religious and Spiritual Life Sam Speers, the pedals for the organ console had been removed and were found lying across the chapel, the front set of keys of the instrument had been bent back to a near-breaking point and the entire area was covered in garbage. “The tampering

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

The day after a ViCE concert on Oct. 24, damages were discovered in the Vassar Chapel and its Gress-Miles organ, which have sparked a campuswide discussion of respect for community spaces.

with the Chapel organ was very disturbing as the organ was filthy and dismantled,” Assistant Dean of the College for Campus Activities Teresa Quinn commented in an emailed statement. “The stage was not necessarily designed for these types of performances, as the organ is a fixed structure and can not be moved or compromised, limiting the performance area.

Damage to the pews and other areas is most likely related to crowding in the front section.”

In response to the significant amount of damage to one of the more revered buildings on campus, an emergency administrative meeting was organized between Quinn, Speers, members of the Music Department faculty including Howlett, VSA President Ramy Abbady ’16 and Acting Dean of the College Ben Lotto.

According to Abbady, the purpose of the sudden meeting was to clarify the information each had received before any action would be taken by the College in response to the incident. “At that point, there were a lot of different sources of information. There were stories from Safety and Security, stories from [Buildings and Grounds Services], stories from people from the Music Department…” he remarked. “We just needed to figure out what exactly had happened.”

Since then, VSA Activities Committee has taken up the case, and has been engaging in closed conversations with ViCE to determine what happened, who is responsible and how those involved are to move forward. Although rumors have circulated about the possibility major sanctions being imposed upon ViCE for hosting an event that resulted in such heavy damages, according to VSA VP for Activities Kevin Pham ’18, no serious actions have yet been decided on.

Quinn echoed Pham’s uncertainty for the future, explaining that although nothing is yet certain regarding the College’s potential response to what happened, this incident has provoked a conversation within the Administration regarding student-organized events in the Chapel. “We are certainly taking a pause to re-evaluative policies for appropriate use of

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the Chapel by student organizations, and also to determine how best to proceed with future use of the space.”

Some students, however, remain outraged by the incident and have argued that what happened was inexcusable and worthy of serious action. Sarah Rodeo ’17, herself an organist and a member of the VCC, argued that what occurred is evidence for an argument against holding such types of events in the Chapel. “Concert programming of this nature ABSOLUTELY should NOT occur in the Chapel EVER again,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “The building and its contents are old and cannot handle the type of behavior (standing on pews, mosh pits, pregaming, drugs and alcohol) and large quantities of people that concerts conducted in this style of music attract. Concerts of this nature should be held outside or in the Walker field house or in the Mug or in the Villard Room. Those spaces’ facilities can handle it better.”

Rodeo went on to note that what happened at the Thundercat concert was not an isolated incident, but rather an example of a lack of respect on the part of many students for community spaces on campus. “This is NOT an isolated incident. There is a huge issue on campus with disrespecting public spaces,” she asserted. “[I] want to point out that there is a plaque on the outside of the chapel. It reads: ‘given for the worship of God at Vassar College.’ I do believe that the donors who gave the chapel to this campus 150 years ago did not foresee rock concerts being held in there.”

Although, given the opacity regarding the responsibility for the incident, Speers maintained his ambivalence as to what the appropriate course of action may be, he offered that what happened to the Chapel has, in spite of its obvious drawbacks, stimulated an ongoing dialogue regarding community spaces on campus. “What does it mean to have structures in place that we need so that we both understand and practice what it takes to live together in a community where we share these spaces?” he wished to asked the campus community.

NEWS

Page 4

November 5, 2015

Vending machine brings essential supplies back to campus Jeremy Middleman and Rhys Johnson Reporter and News Editor

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Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

ave you stopped by the College Center vending machines lately?” asked the VSA to the student body in a Facebook post on Nov. 1. “We’ve placed a ~very~ special present there for you that we hope will come in handy.”

Located in the College Center next to the Campus Activities desk and the Computing Center, the VSA’s special present comes in the form of a newly installed vending machine, which holds a variety of basic living supplies that many college students need, including medicine, tampons, first aid kits and personal hygiene products.

The need for creating such an alternative means of obtaining these miscellaneous items has increased greatly in the minds of students in recent years, as the number of places selling them on campus has diminished. After the Vassar bookstore located beneath the College closed before the start of last year to make room for yet-upcoming student spaces, there was no official vendor of non-food products like medicines and travel-size hygiene kits on campus. Since then, these products have been primarily sold at the College’s current store, the Vassar Juliet.

Since the move, many have argued that, although the new college bookstore offers a wide variety of essential and nonessential products for Vassar’s 2,500 students, major time and location problems have arisen. VSA VP for Operations Ruby Pierce ’16, who was heavily involved in the discussions about and planning of the machine’s arrival, explained that the major problem with the Vassar Juliet is that it is located off-campus, which can be an inconvenient distance away for those who may need quick solutions to basic living problems but may not have the time to make the journey to Raymond Avenue.

Joshua Austin ’18, who was seen picking up Vaseline and cough drops from the new vending machine, commented that the location has irri-

With help from Campus Activities, the VSA has responded to concerns about a lack of a place to buy basic living supplies on campus with a new vending machine in the College Center. tated him in the past. “The expectation for students to have to hike to the Juliet to get things that should be readily available here is pretty ridiculous, if you ask me,” he posited. “I’m feeling a little under the weather right now, just as an example. Unless I was just content to feel sickly, I’d have to either go to Baldwin, which I don’t have time to do, or make a 30-minute trip off-campus just to get the supplies I need. How is that a system that works?”

He continued, “Basic living supplies like this new machine has shouldn’t be an inconvenience to have to buy at college. They should be ready whenever people need them, in places where people can get to them without having to compromise other things in their daily routine.”

Similarly, many community members have complained that the 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours of

the store can also make it much more difficult for students to shop for basic living supplies during weekdays. “There was always a significant problem with getting these items at odd hours, even when the bookstore was still on campus,” Pierce explained. “The vending machine is available to all students, at all times.

This way, people can get emergency items when they need them!”

As a response to student concerns regarding the availability of such goods on campus, the VSA spearheaded discussions with Director of the College Center and Associate Director of Campus Activities Michelle Ransom and Director of Campus Activities Teresa Quinn towards finding a solution to the growing necessity.

VSA Council then drafted a resolution earlier this year that committed the VSA Operations

married couples in the nation to have two children for the first time in over three decades. The decision, once approved by China’s top legislature, will mark an end to the country’s thirty-five-year-old policy limiting most families to only one child (Xinhua, “China to Allow Two Children for all Couples,” 10.29.15).

The announcement caught many experts by surprise.

“I’m shaking, to be honest,” said Stuart Gietel-Basten, an associate professor of Social Policy at the University of Oxford who has advocated for an end to the one-child policy. “It’s one of those things that you have been working on and saying for years… and it finally happened. It’s just a bit of a shock” (The Guardian, “China ends Onechild Policy After Thirty-five Years,” 10.29.15).

Deng Xiaoping, China’s paramount leader during the 1970’s, introduced the “one-child” policy in 1979 to curb China’s rapidly growing population. The policy restricted most families from having more than a single child, and imposed several coercive measures to those that violated it–including fines, loss of employment, and forced abortions (New York Times, “China Ends OneChild Policy, Allowing Families Two Children,” 10.29.15).

The one-child policy is estimated to have prevented nearly 400 million births in China over the past three decades, which has helped the nation to maintain a high economic growth rate in the past. However, the policy has also been identified as the primary cause for China’s “aging population” in recent years–a trend that has shrunk the Chinese labor force by over seven and a half million, and is expected to result in a quarter of the population that over the age of sixty-five by 2050 (Bloomberg Business, “China’s One-Child Policy Backfires as Labor Pool Shrinks Again,” 01.20.15).

It was primarily in response to China’s aging population that the CPC decided to reform its one-child policy. “To promote a balanced growth of population, China will continue to uphold the basic national policy of population control and improve its strategy on population development,” the party said in their statement published by Xinhua, the state-run news organization.

“China will fully implement the policy of ‘one couple, two children’ in a proactive response to the issue of an aging population” (Xinhua).

The CPC projects that the new policy will increase the number of births in China by 23 million within the next 15 years (CNN, “China’s One-Child Policy to End,” 10.29.15). Despite the relaxed rules, many demographers and economists believe that this number may be much lower, as the costs of rearing a second child are likely to

deter many eligible couples from having two children.

“I don’t think a lot of parents would act on it,” said Professor of Demography at Peking University, Mu Guangzong, “The birthrate in China is low and its population is aging quickly, so from the policy point of view, it’s a good thing, as it will help combat a shortage of labor force in the future. But many parents simply don’t have the economic conditions to raise more children” (New York Times).

In addition, many human rights advocates claim that the policy reform does not address other issues created by the one-child policy, including reproductive freedoms violations, the use of forced abortions and the promotion of female abandonment and infanticide. “The move to change China’s one-child policy is not enough,” said Amnesty International Researcher William Nee. “Couples that have two children could still be subjected to coercive and intrusive forms of contraception, and even forced abortions – which amount to torture…

If China is serious about respecting human rights, the government should immediately end such invasive and punitive controls over people’s decisions to plan families and have children” (Amnesty International, “China: Reform of one-child policy ‘not enough,’” 10.29.15).

Despite these concerns, many Chinese citizens viewed the reform as an important measure towards larger change. “While it shouldn’t be confused with the full embrace of reproductive freedoms,” said China director of Human Rights Watch Sophie Richardson.

“This is definitely a step in the right direction” (Personal Liberty, “China to let couples have two children as it ends one-child policy,” 10.29.15).

The CPC will present the “one couple, two children” proposal to the National People’s Congress for legislative approval in March.

Committee to a one-year trial run for a student-run store on campus that would sell things students felt they lacked on campus. The resolution, authored by South Commons President Joshua Sherman ’16 [full disclosure: Sherman is a staff columnist for The Miscellany News], read, “[T]here would be a significant positive impact of student quality of life to give access to a 24­hour, V­Cash accessible vending machine or other unattended sales space for office supplies, stamps, over the counter medication and other miscellaneous items...”

As Sherman put it, “[T]he goal here is to make these things accessible while trying to ensure it’s a reasonable financial option for students here.” The South Commons President was also involved with working towards the new machine’s installment with the Campus Activities Office as well, which believed it to be an idea worth pursuing and offered to foot the bill. According to Ransom, Campus Activities requested from the VSA a list of products students would want, then she herself met with Triple J Vending to work out pricing and distribution details.

With the machine now up and running, many students have lauded the initiative as a successful venture, and one worth developing further.

“There should be one of these in every dorm,” Austin remarked. “It provides available resources that affect our quality of life as students probably more than we realize. I don’t think it’s a replacement for an actual store itself, but it doesn’t have to. It’s quick and easy, and gets the job done.”

Pierce confirmed at a VSA Council meeting on Nov. 1 that the success of the new vending machine has inspired development of new and greater plans. She later remarked, “There will be another vending machine, filled with food items chosen by the student body. There will be a survey available for [student] input via email and Facebook!” As Austin summed up, “This was exactly what students need, and have been waiting for!”

Outside the Bubble Lenin Statue Converted to Star Wars Icon In Odessa, Ukraine, a statue of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin–originally to be destroyed–was remodeled by Sculptor Alexander Milov into Darth Vader from the “Star Wars Franchise” and was unveiled on Oct. 23 (New York Post, “Sculpture of Soviet leader transformed into Darth Vader,” 10.24.15).

The original statue shown signs of weathering, so Milov added a protective layer on the sculpture and then built atop the original statue with titanium alloy.

(Moscow Times, “Darth Vader Sculpture Replaces Soviet Leader Lenin in Ukraine’s Odessa,” 10.23.15). This design features a wireless router inside Vader’s head which supplies wireless internet access to the vicinity. Milov explained, “I was born in the USSR, and I am a child of a country that doesn’t exist any more. I wish to save the monuments of history. I’m trying to clean up the operating system and keep them on the hard drive of memory.”

Throughout many areas of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), sculptures of Stalin and Lenin can still be seen in squares, public bathrooms and parks. Following the “decommunization” law passed by the Ukranian parliament in April 2015, factory workers requested for the monument to be transformed (Metro, “This Lenin statue has been turned into Darth Vader but which leader do you prefer?” 10.23.15).

“We didn’t want to vandalize the statue but the monument to Lenin was due to be dismantled in connection with the new law,” Milov stated. “I decided to take a monument to Lenin and transform it into a monument to Darth Vader, because at this moment Darth Vader is a political figure in Ukraine.” After changing his name to and dressing up as Darth Vader, the leader of the Ukrainian Internet Party (UIP) ran to be Odessa’s mayor (New York Post, “Sculpture of Soviet leader transformed into Darth Vader,” 10.24.15). A person named and who has the appearance of “Chewbacca” was the press secretary for the party and “Princess Leia” served as head of credentials commission. Currently, Vader is running for the position of Ukrainian prime minister.

“I wanted to make a symbol of American pop culture which appears to be more durable than the Soviet ideal,” Milov commented.

—Hannah Mittman, Guest Reporter China Lifts One Child Policy On Oct. 29, the Communist Party of China (CPC) released a statement announcing that it would allow all

—Ethan Baratz, Guest Reporter Howler Monkeys Overcompensate Too Testicle size is not traditionally an indicator of anything beyond sperm production, but it is directly related to the pitch of the howls in howler monkeys.

Howler monkeys live in the forests of Central and South America, and their howls can extend as far as three miles through dense rainforest jungles.

Male howler monkeys are known for loud howls, used against other males and for attraction of females.

According to University of Cambridge researcher Jake Dunn, “females find a deeper howl more attractive”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

(BBC, “Big monkey voice ‘means less sperm’,” 10.23.15).

Low and attractive voices are not without cost, however. Field researchers captured and used MRI machines and 3D laser scans to analyze the anatomical structure of the monkeys. They found that the pitch of the howler monkey species’ howl was dependent on the size of a bone in the monkey’s throat, the hyoid. Hyoid bones act as resonators as the sound travels through the throat canal. Larger hyoid bones create lower pitched-howls.

To explain this phenomenon, Dunn placed the discovery into the larger context of the evolution of reproductive traits. “There is evidence in other animals that when males invest in large bodies, bright colours, or weaponry such as horns or long canines, they are unable to also invest in reproductive traits,” she noted. “However, this is the first evidence in any species for a tradeoff between vocal investment and sperm production” (Daily Mail, “Beware loud-mouthed guys: monkeys with smaller testicles roar the loudest to make up for their shortcomings when attracting females,” 10.22.15).

The social-mating groups of the monkeys support the trend. Howler monkey species that have males with low-voices live in small groups with one alpha male and many females. Males with smaller hyoids, but larger testes live in larger groups with more than one male and females that mate with all males in the group.

Dunn explained why having less developed sexual organs may not matter for the reproductive success of the individual. ‘It may be that investment in developing a large vocal organ and roaring is so costly that there is simply not enough energy left to invest in testes,” she posited. “Alternatively, using a large vocal organ for roaring may be so effective at deterring rival males that there is no need to invest in large testes” (Daily Mail).

A study of the reproductive patterns of other monkeys and apes reveals similar trends. For chimpanzees, mating is promiscuous, so sperm compete in the female to fertilize the egg, and as a result, chimpanzee testes are large (New York Times, “Seductive bass tones enough to seal the deal in some monkey species,” 10.22.15).

While research on howler monkey vocalizations provides insight into the evolved mechanisms of sound production in monkeys, there is no relevance human mating patterns. Dunn’s co-researcher Leslie A. Knapp referred to the fact that human females have many more important criteria for mates other than testicle size (New York Times).

—Jeremy Middleman, Reporter

November 5, 2015

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Herbstessen discussion brings Refugee Crises to light Kaitlynn Vo

S

Guest Reporter

courtesy of the German Department

Students supported Syrian Refugees through the money they donated as their admission fees to the German Dinner. The money goes towards childrens’ books that will be given to refugees in Germany.

courtesy of Silke Von der emde

hrouded in the inky depths of typical mid-autumnal evening, Vassar College’s Aula projected rays of light into the brisk November night. Housed in its protective Ely Hall, the luminance emanating from within the Aula shone bright enough to rival even the sun. Like the sun, there appeared even the effect of some gravitational pull; from a hundred meters away, students, faculty and members of the Poughkeepsie community alike filed in.

As one attendee, Chris Langer ’19 put it, “The food was true to my heritage (I’m German and Irish), and the conversation (and Germanic speaking) left me so much more informed and equipped to impact the local refugee community.”

The night offered just that: authentic food from different parts of Europe as well as an informative and constructive discussion. Just from external observation, there seemed compelling enough reason to be inside, among everyone else. The festive atmosphere, lights, and music seeping into the darkness emitted a promise of a spirited night spent with friends and family, all bathed in the light of camaraderie and conversation at the German Department’s annual Herbstessen.

Every year, a uniquely themed Herbstessen is hosted by the German Department. Literally translated, the word means “fall dinner,” thus accounting for its appropriate occurrence in mid-autumn.

The German Department makes sure that everyone plays a role in making the dinner come alive. German Department faculty and staff are responsible for providing publicity and early access to tickets for the event, while students are held responsible for the event’s organization and success.

For example, besides running the dinner, students also cook all the food, organize the event’s execution, decorate the entire reception hall and provide all entertainment. This year, it was also the students who determined that the refugee crisis would be the topic and theme of discussion.

Alysha Mckenzie ’19 explained that the promise of in-depth discussion of the Refugee Crises encouraged her attendance to the dinner. “I was a little apprehensive at first to attend a dinner for a conglomeration of cultures I’m not necessarily acquainted with, but the promise of progressive public policy discussion on the topic of immigration was veritable enough,” She said.

This year’s Herbstessen event, Deutschland Multikulti, is a historical reference to the German progressive movements of the latter quarter of the 20th century. A slogan of the multiculturism approach of public policy, the term “multikulti” derives from the German term “multikulturalismus,” or multiculturalism.

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, the German Green party utilized it when speaking of its public policy tactics, and from this point forward its usage spread. Eventually, the word surged so much in popularity, that people from all over Europe were using it.

Though this year’s dinner was a reference

to the historical foundation of the idea of Deutschland Multikulti, students were also encouraged to update this idea’s significance by applying to it a general discussion of the main immigrant groups in Germany.

As German Department academic intern Kristen Caccavale ’16 explained, there was a strong desire to draw on current events for this year’s theme. Because themes are usually chosen based on relevance to different aspects of German culture, this year’s refugee crisis seemed a natural fit.

This year’s topic took on a new tone as compared to the past few years. Last year’s subject was soccer’s impact on the nation (Germany had recently won the World Cup), and the year previous’ was “Nosferatu,” a German horror movie about vampires.

Caccavale described the presentation of a unique opportunity for impactful campus discussion this year.

She stated, “With the current situation in Syria and Germany making space for so many refugees, we felt we were being presented with an opportunity to talk about this current political event, and that we needed to take that opportunity in order to raise awareness on campus.”

She went on, “We didn’t want to do something cliché, such as Oktoberfest, when we had the chance to talk about something incredibly relevant and important at the moment, especially something with which Germany is directly involved.”

Students of all backgrounds were invited to participate in the dinner and discussion on Monday. Mckenzie explained that her interactions with Germany have been limited. “Since I’ve only been to Germany once as a child, my memories of European travel are not significant enough for me to feel a real association with countries apart from the United States and the Caribbean Islands. However, some of my German and Irish friends convinced me to experience their culture, so I did,” She said.

She went on to explain that she was intrigued by the conversation, enough that she was moved to become more involved in the Refugee cause. Mckenzie said, “I’m glad to say I did so, too, because not only was the food and conversation so enriching, the presentations I saw also compelled me to involve myself more in helping immigrants integrate themselves socially and academically through volunteering with various Vassar organizations.”

Additionally, students involved in the planning and preparation for the event specifically sought a more delineated concentration in order to provide comparison and contrast to the settings of the last quarter of the 20th century and now.

Their intent was not to understand the historical significance of multiculturalism in Germany, rather, they hoped to apply this concept of cultural integration to a contemporary context. This idea was accomplished by singularly concentrating on Syrian refugees in Germany and their impact on German culture.

Choosing such a divided topic did not prove to be an easy task. Because Herbstessen is perceived as a generally fun event with a buffet,

Students gathered in the Aula on Monday night to enjoy dinner and engage in a discussion about Germany’s role in the Syrian Refugee Crises for Herbstessen, the annual German fall dinner. music and lighthearted presentations, Caccavale described slight difficulty in ensuring the tone of conversation was appropriate for this very serious political situation. The ultimate decision was to prepare and include food from the main immigrant groups in Germany in order to segway into talking about Syrian refugees and their inevitable importation of culture into Germany.

Through the inclusion of foods from Germany’s most important immigrant countries, Professor of German Silke von der Emde described the hope that meaningful discussion would be facilitated. She said, “The dinner will focus on Germany as a multicultural society and provide information on the way the country is impacted and deals with the refugee crisis.”

She went on to explain that this space was not going to be anything like a formal class lecture or a directed conversation. “There won’t be formal discussion, however. Rather, the students will provide lots of background information and we hope that lots of conversations will take place at the different tables over dinner dishes,” She said.

Fortunately, von der Emde’s hope was not unfounded. The dinner’s buffet featured foods such as Syrian Roz Bhaleeb (Rice Pudding), Polish pierogies, German Käsespätzle, Greek Moussaka and Turkish Bulgar Salad.

While the conversation was undoubtedly important, some students, like Anamarie Cirigliano ’19, were drawn in by the food. Cirigliano said, “Food and festivity, all accompanied by the food of my people? Obviously, as an Italian, I was there.”

She added that each dish still managed to bring its own flavors to the table. “Fortunately, I was not disappointed either. Despite the breadth of cultures represented culinarily, there was so much authenticity in each dish I was able to thoroughly enjoy all of it, and I plan on attending next year’s Herbstessen too.”

Students canvassed in the Deece a few days and the day before the event happened. They called out to passing students, “Support the cause! Learn more about the Syrian Refugee Crises!” If you bought a ticket then and there, the cost was only $8. Tickets were also available at the door for $10.

Indeed, students were able to not just learn about the crises, they were also exposed to a wide variety of prospectives on the issue.

About 20 students were in attendance from German to Economics majors, freshmen through seniors. .

Throughout the event, student-generated media presentations provided different information about the Syrian Refugee Crises and Germany’s role. This included a video presentation of an in-depth discussion of a refugee’s experience, personal pictures and a presentation from the department’s Language Fellow Lea Espinoza. As a student of a college in Münster, Espinoza was able to describe her experience and connection to groups aiding refugee placement in Germany, and her relationship with her college even provided the college an opportunity to directly impact the crisis through student involvement.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Professor Höhn and Anish Kanoria ’18, who helps Höhn organize campus events, were also present. Imparting a brief presentation on Vassar College’s capacity to impact local and global causes to alleviate the challenges faced by refugees and immigrants of all types, Höhn brought a sign-up sheet for students and community members both to volunteer their skills.

The money generated by ticket sales of the events also went towards aiding those in distress: the funds will be used to purchase German children’s books for Syrian children refugees. The intent of this action is to ease these children’s attempts at acquiring the German language, and through Espinoza’s academic relationship to Münster, they chose a group to ensure that these books arrive and benefit the refugees in need of them most.

Unsurprisingly, the same learning conception has also been applied to students at Vassar attempting to learn German for the first time as well. Like Syrian refugees and other immigrants in Germany seeking to learn language for expression and communication, there is often the trouble for students in familiarizing language rules and constructs in an easily comprehensible form.

The idea of using the medium of storytelling to teach German arose during the summer of 2014 when Caccavale, Ford Scholar for the German Department, compiled a list of over 50 German children books for use in the department. It is this list the donated books are to be purchased from, and it is also this list that is used as a basis for the course content of the Department’s Introductory German course, GERM 105/106.

Like the Deutschland Multikulti event coordinators intended for Syrian refugees, the Intro. German course focuses on German children tales and content as a medium for teaching German. Caccavale identifies, “This method of teaching in our department matches our goal for this year’s Herbstassen event; we want to provide the same learning opportunities for students in any context to learn German.”

Regardless of whether it’s an individual at Vassar College looking to learn German as a part of their coursework or an immigrant to Germany seeking to speak the language and access German culture, the methodology and medium through which this task occurs is identical.

For those who attended this event, there appeared to be endless opportunities and areas in which to gain or further their knowledge.

Regardless of motivations, like experiencing a taste of home or something new, engaging in political discussion on a contemporary significant topic or identifying and engaging in various pathways of local or global involvement, the success of this year’s Herbstessen drew on the same concept of its theme of Deutschland multiculturalism.

Essentially, by taking and assimilating various concepts and contributions of individuals from backgrounds as different as the foods served, languages spoken and presentation methods given, attendees of this year’s event were able to enrich themselves and others by their contributions and communication.

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November 5, 2015

MECHA holiday celebrations offer elements of home Kayla Gonzalez Guest Reporter

“B

courtesy of MEChA

eing Latino is pivotal to my time here at Vassar. I really couldn’t imagine being any other race.” Sergio Perez ’18 shared this thought to a small group of students who were helping prepare for MECHA’s latest event, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan, or MECHA, is a student organization that has brought a new home to many Latinx students on campus, including Perez.

This past weekend, MECHA volunteered at a community event with Hudson Valley Housing to celebrate the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. At the community event, they decorated sugar skulls with children and offered face painting of the traditional Day of the Dead skull.

Jasmine Rodriguez ’19, a new member to MECHA, felt comfort in celebrating the holiday on campus. She recalled, “back home we would put out conchas (a Mexican pastry), make hot chocolate, and my mom would say a prayer. It feels nice to have a little bit of that here too.”

Bringing comfort to students is one of MECHA’s goals. Cristian Ventura ’17 stated, “We want to provide a safe space, somewhere people can come into and feel comfortable because they see people who look like them.”

“After my first semester,” Ventura continues, “that’s when I really felt like I didn’t have a place on this campus, especially since most of my student fellow group was white and I couldn’t relate to them.”

This organization wants to provide a place for Latinx students to feel like they belong, which is something a lot of these students struggle with. Rodriguez feels lucky to have found this space so early, and she shares, “I’ve found a place where people understand me when I talk about my stories and holidays, stuff people from other backgrounds wouldn’t necessarily relate to.”

Another goal of the group is bringing a voice to those who often go overlooked or underappreciated. Every year MECHA hosts two campus-workers’ appreciation dinners. At this

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan (MECHA) hosts a Diá de los Muertos event in addition to the other events they hold to ensure Latinx students are able to celebrate their cultures. event, they treat workers from the Deece, Retreat and the janitorial staff to food and entertainment. Ventura stated, “Ultimately, it’s just a really nice way to show that we acknowledge what they do for us.”

Another event that is approaching is the East Coast Chicana/o Student Form, where the various branches of MECHA on different campuses come together to celebrate the Latinx culture.

Ventura explained, “We don’t usually get to go home for Thanksgiving, and so this conference started as a time to come together, celebrate, and hold important discussions.”

MECHA meetings always aim to continue these important discussions with topics such as colorism, racial ambiguity and identity. Another new member to MECHA Lisset Magdaleno ’19 shares, “Back home, I’d never jumped into my culture as much as I do here.”

Perez can relate to Magdaleno’s feelings.

“When I came to Vassar, I never thought of my

culture, never cared for it,” he reveals, “I came here ready to assimilate. Of course I never realized this, but looking back, that’s what I was doing.” For Ventura, discussing his identity and culture served another purpose. He stated, “Just having this opportunity to talk about my culture in a way I never would have has triggered an interest to do more, and that’s what kickstarted my decision to study Latin American and Latino Studies.”

Perez’s realization of his identity also influenced his career path in the STEM field, and he conveys this when he said, “Being in MECHA made me realize the importance in giving a voice to minorities, especially in STEM. This gives me motivation in a field that isn’t catered toward me.”

Academics, however, is only one part of the Vassar experience. The other part is figuring out how to make this new environment your home. Ventura shares his experience with this,

“I’m from Northern Illinois, where most people are immigrants, and everybody is raised with the same culture and values. The switch from majority to minority was a learning experience because I only knew how to be Mexican in a Latino environment.”

MECHA has taken on the role of home for many students who relate to Ventura’s struggle. Rodriguez states, “I definitely would’ve been homesick without this organization on campus, but the first MECHA picnic I attended reminded me of family parties back home, and that feeling has helped a lot.”

Ventura expresses it in the simplest terms when he said, “MECHA is an extension on my own family.”

One of the last goals of this organization is to promote the importance of being Latinx in the Vassar community. When it comes to the importance of her culture, Rodriguez explains, “Without my culture, I wouldn’t be the same person. I wouldn’t have the same motivation or personality. Being Latina is so much more about the inside than the outside.”

She continues, “In fact, out of all my identities, I think being Latina has had the biggest and most important influence on my life.”

Perez reflects these sentiments when he states, “Yes, it would’ve been easier to be white. There’s always going to be that easier life that could’ve been, but I know that means I wouldn’t be the same person.”

There is one more thing MECHA has the goal of fostering in its members and in the Vassar community as a whole. Ventura shares, “Self-love is really important, and I’m starting to love this aspect of my identity. It’s who I am, what I study, what I plan to teach, and it has become the largest part of my identity, especially here at Vassar.”

When MECHA holds events, such as the past Día de los Muertos one, they are doing more than celebrating a holiday. They are celebrating a culture and a community that often goes unrecognized on this campus and many other places. And when being Latinx affects the identity of so many people as it does here on campus, that culture deserves to be celebrated.

Old faces bring new prospective to Business Club Panel bank. The other is an anti-money laundry due diligence review in a major commercial bank.

Fang will be able to give current students an idea of the recruiting process for consulting firms as well as the work that they do,” Mages explained.

Don’t let these intimidating titles scare you off, however. The Business Club would love to see people of all majors attend these lectures to learn all that they can about the professional world.

Economics major Benjamin Kurchin ’16, certainly expanded his web to get a better idea of where he hoped to ultimately end up. He began his job search using the Vassar alumni network.

“I spoke with around 60 alumni in the industry, some on multiple occasions, to seek advice and hear how they broke in, to hear more about what they do specifically (to help get a sense of what I would want to do) and in some cases, to help get an interview at their company, which usually entailed them forwarding my resume to the recruiting division.” Kurchin said.

He went on, “All this said, it’s not an impossible task to get a good finance internship, and any motivated student who’s willing to put in the work will find themselves successful in their pursuits.” Kurchin said in an effort to give hope to those students willing to get serious.

After applying to around 80 internships during the summer after his Junior year, Kurchin successfully landed one at Jane Street Capital, a proprietary trading firm. He’s been offered a full time position there for after graduation.

Internships are a way to figure out what type of job is the right one for you. At the same time, they can help you figure out what you don’t want to do. During many alumni panels, hosted by any club or department and for alum of any profession, the alum will often reiterate that internships are mere guidelines.

The upcoming alumni panel is only a part of the business club’s overall goal of supporting students succeed in the industry. Hammer said,

“this year, one of our primary objectives was to tailor to the needs of the student. We really want to be open in our willingness to help. We have held general body meetings or workshops aimed to help students with networking and resumes.”

In addition to joining the Business Club or attending their events and workshops, economics students with an interest in finance might look to their faculty. Kurchin named a few professors who have experience working in the financial sector.

“Ben Ho used to work at Morgan Stanley, and Sarah Pearlman, who teaches a class on financial markets, used to work at Chase and S&P.” Said Kurchin.

The Vassar alumni, and professor, network is here to offer their support. They went through

the same trials and tribulations that current students are beginning to face. By offering the annual alumni panel, the Business Club mainly hopes to strengthen relationships with Vassar alumnae/i. Being able to hand your resume to a specific person could give you a huge boost in any job market. Sometimes, just having the Vassar College name on that piece of paper isn’t enough.

It would seem that opportunity abounds for Vassar students interested in careers in finance.

Certainly though, a strong initiative is required.

The three panelists joining the Business Club in Taylor Hall 203 for a couple hours on Nov. 8 will provide a unique opportunity.

Hammer hopes interested students will be in attendance, “This is a particularly special event and I hope a lot of people will show up.”

courtesy of Vassar Media Relations

PANEL continued from page 1 older students, found his outlet in the Business Club his freshman year.

“I decided to join the Business Club originally as a way to learn from the senior leaders and the various alumni speakers about potential career opportunities. The club has had some great speakers in the past that have really opened my eyes to what is out there after Vassar,” said Hammer.

Now a junior, Hammer hopes with this panel he can pay it forward and help others on their path to a successful career in finance. “The most important thing for students to take away from the panel will be advice for leveraging your Vassar connections,” He said.

He went on, “It is quite competitive and it will be good for current students to hear about how someone with a liberal arts background can be successful in interviews and applications.”

This year’s panel will include Greg Kantrowitz ’08, Ricardo Espinosa ’14 and Sida Fang ’15.

Kanthrowitz is the current Vice President of the Global Power Team within Corporate and Investment Banking at Citi. Mages said, Kanthrowitz is very excited to return and speak with students.

Espinosa is a private banking analyst for J.P. Morgan. He serves J.P. Morgan’s Latin American private banking clients with their financial needs. “Ricardo will be a great resource for anyone interested in private banking and wealth management,” Mages said.

The most recent graduate, Fang, works as a consultant for Ernst & Young’s advisory practice. “Sida is part of the Financial Services Office group whose clients include investment/ commercial banks, asset management firms and big financial service providers.” Mages said. She has been working there since graduation.

Since entry into her job, Fang has worked on two projects. “One is a compliance change and restructuring project in a global investment

Business Club hosts their annual Alumni Panel next week. This year’s alumni come mainly from finanace backgrounds, but students of any major are welcome to show up to form connections.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

November 5, 2015

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Annual Consortium revitalizes student sustainability Sarah Sandler Columnist

T

keepsie with Harvey Flad, Professor Emeritus of Geography at Vassar; walking the Walkway over the Hudson with Fred Schaeffer, who led the effort to create the Walkway; exploring the Edith Roberts garden at Vassar and its restoration with Professor Margaret Ronsheim, and an introduction to the Vassar Conservation and Environmental Engagement Cooperative with its Manager, Jen Rubbo,” Johnson listed.

There will also be multiple workshops covering a wide range of topics, such as Leveraging GIS in the Classroom with Kytt MacManus from the Earth Institute at Columbia University; incorporating Data Analysis with Excel into the Classroom with Larry O’Connell from the New School and Fordham University; mapping the Hidden Campus Landscape with Vassar Assistant Professor of Anthropology April Beisaw; and Where Animation and Citizen Science Collide with Ann LePore, Associate Professor of Fine Art at the School of Contemporary Arts at Ramapo College.”

A dinner on Friday night will also include

courtesy of Walter Garschagen

he Villard Room is going green this weekend. The annual consortium of colleges and universities will be gathering at Vassar to discuss how to get students more involved with the world around them. Specifically, this conference is titled: “Celebrating the Living Classroom: Research, Education, and Collaboration in the Hudson-Mohawk Watersheds.”

Anthropology Professor Lucy Johnson explained, “We seek to influence the behavior and cultural change within our institutions to improve the health of the regional and global environment and humanity’s long-term survival, to educate ourselves, our institutional communities, and the public about the ecosystem in which our institutions reside, and to support environmental, interdisciplinary collaborative research and teaching in the regional higher education community.”

While students and professors from colleges and universities from all around are expected to attend the conference in the Villard Room, it only comes to the mid-Hudson Valley region every three years.

As the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Environmental Consortium, Johnson has been involved with the conference every year.

With the conference at Vassar this year, she is also leading the Planning Committee. Johnson said, “The mission of the Environmental Consortium of Colleges and Universities is to harness higher education’s intellectual and physical resources to advance regional, ecosystem-based environmental research, teaching and learning.”

For the first time, the consortium will include a Student Congress on Saturday morning. Johnson explained, “Students can participate in a unique and groundbreaking forum to share ideas, inspiration, aspirations, and action. It is open to all higher education students, all majors invited, to meaningfully engage in the Environmental Consortium’s mission.”

The Environmental Consortium was established in 2004, and was first hosted by Pace University. This year’s marks the 12th environmental consortium. Johnson said, “In alternate years we focus on an environmental topic that

colleges and college students in the region are concerned with, or on issues of pedagogy, how and what we teach about the environment and sustainability.”

The conference covers a large region of colleges and universities. Johnson added, “We expect to have students, faculty and administrators from all over the state join us and share ideas on how best to teach and learn about environmental issues.”

Specifically, Johnson explained, they will be trying to get students more involved. She said, “We will be exploring how to get students involved in projects that will enhance their education and their understanding of complex environmental issues. For faculty, we hope to inspire them with new and creative ways to teach their materials.”

The Environmental Consortium consists of much more than just presentations and discussions. On Friday afternoon, there will be field trips and workshops led by distinguished Vassar professors. “Exploring downtown Pough-

Next weekend Vassar will host the 12th annual Environmental Consortium in the Villard Room. Vassar will welcome a number of colleges and universities from all across New York.

a presentation of the Environmental Consortium’s Great Work Award. This year’s awardee is Professor and Interim Associate Provost and Dean for Research, Laboratory for Marine & Estuarine Research from Lehman College Dr. Joseph W. Rachlin. On Saturday, Senior Scholar and Director of the Curriculum for the Bioregion at Evergreen State College, Jean MacGregor will give a keynote address on “Educating for an Ethic of Place: Insights from Curriculum for the Bioregion’s First Decade.”

The conference will cover topics to engage professors and students from the departments of Environmental Studies, Geography, Biology and Anthropology. Johnson said, “The conference sessions will provide examples and inspiration about how to teach actively and engagingly about environmental issues and how to collaborate with students and community members to enhance education and improve the environment.” For students who are interested in or majoring in these subjects, Johnson added, “The Student Congress will set the agenda for the spring Student Summit in order to make it most germane to the interests and concerns of student members of the consortium.”

Learning at the Environmental Consortium isn’t limited to just students and professors of these subjects. Johnson explained, “The collaborative, research-based teaching that the conference will be exploring should be of interest to any professor who wishes to explore new ways of approaching academic materials to more fully engage their students and enhance their education.”

Assistant Professor of Anthropology April Beisaw will be hosting a workshop at the consortium about mapping the Hidden Campus Landscape. It is her first Consortium, and she will be demonstrating how to use the GPS technology that she uses in her courses and research. Beisaw explained the importance of the conference, “People get so comfortable with their usual places and routines that they often miss what else is around them. There are many ways of perceiving the environment in which we live. Looking closely is important to seeing and understanding how a landscape has developed and planning its future.”

HealthEd unites students and community in rowdy race of the students primarily involved in the coordination of the event, Carleto noted the higher levels of runner commitment to the spirit of Halloween. Runners were given the option of running in costume, and though children had the incentive of a costume contest immediately after the race, Carleto noticed a decent amount of older runners donning more lighthearted costumes as well.

Because the event was designed to appeal to more than just the running community, this year’s Fun Run included attractions to draw in general participation from Poughkeepsie and surrounding areas as well. Many partnerships were forged to contribute to the event. For example, the Office of Health and Education partnered with the Town of Poughkeepsie’s Department of Parks and Recreation to host a trick-or-treating event for kids of all ages. Following the end of the race, children were able to go to several rooms in Josselyn House on the northwest corner of residential houses and trick-or-treat in students’ rooms.

Fall refreshments, including cider and donuts, were offered to older race participants, and a costume contest and pumpkin decorating were options for all. The Poughkeepsie Farm Project also offered educational activities for those interested. Taking into consideration that the race course itself was a source of attraction to runners, members of the Office of Health Education appreciated seeing a substantial amount of engagement from Vassar and the surrounding Poughkeepsie community at the event.

It was obvious to coordinators that this year’s Halloween Fun Run and its related events were a resounding success for participants. This opinion was shared by members of Vassar College’s student community who decided to participate.

Part of the huge turnout may be in part due to higher sports team involvement. The Sunday

before the race, the swim team issued a challenge to itself and to other sports teams on campus. The first challenge: to get through a 5K the day after a meet as well as a practice that morning. The second challenge: if any other sports teams wanted to do it with them.

Madison Carroll ’18 explained that, at first, she was apprehensive. “To be honest, I was kind of nervous. As a swimmer, I’m not really used to or prepared for running any distance,” she said.

She went on, “However, when we found out we could walk and still be a part of the race, I was really excited.” Carroll reiterated the fact that participating in the Fun Run was a bonding experience between not just her and her teammates, but also between Vassar and the

community. Carroll said, “It ended up being a great bonding experience for our team, and an opportunity to be with other Vassar students as well as the outside community.”

Children, students and adults were able to participate in activities open to all ages and interests, and there were spirited attempts by all to engage in the festivities of Halloween.

Costumes were worn, candy was distributed and community partnerships were forged. Vann described the Office of Health Education’s outlook for Halloween and the event best when he said, “We’re very excited for the Fun Run this year.” Fortunately for him and all involved, this year’s Halloween 5K Fun Run turned out be cause enough for celebration.

courtesy of Kael Ragnini

FUN RUN continued from page 1 ing with each other. As Devon Wilson ’19 said, “I feel like it was a great opportunity for people to reach out to the outside community. It was a fun time for both friends and family to run and enjoy the spirit of Halloween together.”

Tracing their way around the entire campus, runners in this year’s Fun Run were able to see everything Vassar has to offer. A standard 3.1mile course complete with medals for all finishers, this year’s 5K started in the residential quad and encompassed the majority of the College’s campus. The biggest challenge to runners this year was by Sunset Lake as runners were forced to climb the course’s steepest hill going up to Walker Field House.

The 5K Fun Run hosted by the College is on its way to becoming a tradition. For the past six years, standard participation usually numbers in the mid to upper one hundreds. The goal for this year, or at least one of the many besides creating an overall enjoyable experience for participants, was to have over 200 runners complete the course.

Despite the past trend of participation, members of the Office of Health Education maintained an optimistic outlook. As HealthEd Office Intern Taylor Vann ’16 explained, “We think our chances of reaching that goal this year are high because last year we were unable to do a 5K based on the way the academic calendar worked out with having a late October Break and Halloween in the middle of the week.” She added, “We’re hoping that the one year hiatus has generated a lot of interest, and will get more people to come out and run.”

Fortunately for all involved in the coordination of this event, Vann’s reasoning was well founded. Participation in the event this year numbered well over 200 and marked a record in attendance. Fellow HealthEd Office Intern Marvin Corleto ’19 agreed that the race was a success in terms of more than just turnout. One

VC Swimming and Diving poses for a picture before they took off for their first ever Halloween 5K Fun Run as a team. This year had a huge turnout from both Vassar and the community.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

FEATURES

Page 8

November 5, 2015

Don’t Wait Up an eerie addition to weekend of fright Matt Stein Reporter

F

we ultimately settled on the Golf Course trail which is in many ways better. It’s safer, it’s wider and more varied than the Farm trail was.”

Going for a lingering eeriness rather than a jump-scare, the performers caused shock, panic and the hurried gasps of many who dared tread past.

Asked about the true nature of Halloween and its appeal, Terreden responded, “Horror can come in a variety of different forms. For some, it’s the knowledge that one will always die, for others it’s that finals are next week, and for us it’s walking in the woods alone.”

“The element of loneliness associated with walking the trail by oneself is what draws me to that project. So rarely is theater created for an audience of one, often out of the financial or logistical impracticality associated with it,

courtesy of Vassar College

or many, Halloween was quite spooky. Raging, partying, laughing and dancing occupied some students’ weekend, while others drank the night away. The Villard Room wasn’t the only way to enjoy yourself this weekened, however. Sunday night, a haunted trail behind the golf course stretched from the Wimpfheimer Nursery to Sunset Lake. Don’t Wait up was presented by Unbound, Vassar’s experimental student theater organization. Collin Knopp-Schwyn ’16 and Alycia Beattie ’16 ran the event.

For students who had not experienced Halloween at Vassar yet, the wide variety of options offered throughout Halloweekend this year created an unforgettable experiemce. One of the performers in Don’t Wait Up, Jake Terreden ’19, addressed the alternate programming he encountered during his first Halloween at Vassar, saying, “It’s been much more fun than any high school party I’ve ever seen. I really like the variety of options, the fact that there was something for everyone even if you’re not insane and want to go the big Villard Room party. You could definitely go to The Witching Hour or the Halloween Movie night. It does try to make it inclusive in a time when it can be very exclusive.”

Don’t Wait Up wasn’t always presented as an immersive haunted trail. Knopp-Schwyn [Full Disclosure: Knopp-Schwyn is a crossword editor for The Miscellany News] recalled, “Alycia and I, in addition to our friends York Chen and Belle Shea, did this secret, unsanctioned midnight ghost tour back on Halloween 2013 that we sold as us telling real, historical ghost stories about Vassar. But that became this whole ghost drama when Alycia suddenly appeared as a ghost. The whole thing was a huge seat-ofthe-pants mess but we had twenty-five people show up to see it, which felt like a success.”

He went on, “Don’t Wait Up, like most of the

good to middling ideas I’ve ever had, was the product of a restless night attempting to fall asleep. I’ve wanted to do a follow-up project to that ghost tour of two years ago, but on a much grander scale and Don’t Wait Up fit that bill.”

Meeting by Kenyon Bridge, people walked along the trail through the dark woods, only guided by their flashlights and the dim paper lanterns along the trail. Minutes of silence could pass before they might encounter someone or something on their way, be it mannequins, morph suits, sprinters or screamers.

The original intention was to have the event occur on Vassar Farm, but, with guidelines stating that the Farm can’t be open after dark, a new location was found. Knopp-Schwyn saw opportunity in this minor speed bump, commenting, “We had to find alternative space and

On Sunday Nov. 1, the Vassar Golf Course was turned into an interactive and spooky trail called Don’t Wait Up. Students were meant to traverse the trail alone and experience eerie loneliness.

but here we have an opportunity to create a unique, terrifying, individual piece of performance,” Knopp-Schwyn said.

There were enough guidelines in place to ensure that anyone who walked through the trail would come to no harm. One was that the performers were not allowed to come into actual contact with anyone, lest someone be on the receiving end of a violent outburst.

Despite providing alternate programming for the Halloween weekend, Knopp-Schwyn explained, “While Don’t Wait Up has a number of safeguards to keep people from getting lost on the trail or from being too uncomfortable that it’s no longer enjoyable, I don’t think we intended this as a safer option, like something to compete with other Halloweekend events.

Where most of the events that happened this weekend were grand and social events, Don’t Wait Up is inherently an antisocial event.”

He went on, “I have trouble seeing Halloweekend as an either/or of Villard Room party or Don’t Wait Up. Why can’t it be both? And it definitely can be, because we’re performing on a Sunday when there’s not much else happening.”

A performer in Don’t Wait Up, Griffin Berlstein ’19, talked about his particular enjoyment of this Halloween. He said, “There were a lot of weird things you could potentially do. For instance, I got 28 people with moderate degrees of intoxication to sign their souls over to me when I was dressed as the devil. I’m not sure if I can cash those in for anything, but that’s a thing I have now.”

Reflecting on the overall effect Don’t Wait Up might have, Knopp-Schwyn said, “Less than entertaining, we’re hoping the trail is eerie and disquieting. We hope people are afraid in a way that no other event at Vassar will be able to make them. We’re aiming for a creepy, shiver-inducing sort of feel. It’s been a project goal not to rely on jump-scares in this project and I think we’ve managed alright.”

Cookie recipes to make your tastebuds give thanks Julia Cunningham Features Editor

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ow that Halloween’s over, it’s time for Christmas! At least that’s what the commercial world is trying to tell us. In honor of that, I decided to look up cookie recipes. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Christmas isn’t for another two months! Just kidding, we’re all thinking about Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving break. And Thanksgiving food.

If there’s one thing that I love, it’s the amount of food I manage to consume on Thanksgiving. There’s always one thing missing, however, and that is the fact that Thanksgiving isn’t big on cookies. And let me just say, pies are the brussel sprouts of the dessert world.

I always leave the dessert table with a far too empty plate. What is the appeal of mushy, warm fruit congealed inside a bowl of baked butter? And how does pumpkin pie become that texture? I guess I’ll never know.

Complaining aside, I do like to get into the spirit of Thanksgiving. I am very thankful for cookies. To celebrate this fact, I did a little bit of searching for festive cookie ideas.

Now, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Why can’t we let Halloween fully run its course before letting Thanksgiving take over? Well, I have Halloweened myself out, my friends. I want nothing more to do with pumpkins or monsters or ghosts and definitely get that “witches’ brew” out of my face.

In addition, the Deece has already started having turkey and stuffing. So it is perfectly reasonable for me to start craving things with the theme of giving thanks.

My search, somewhat surprisingly was not in vain. It started on Instagram, but that got too complicated, as I really didn’t even know where to start. Naturally, I turned to Google. Google Images did not let me down.

You would be surprised, or maybe you wouldn’t be, at how many tumblr-like blogs there are that are devoted to cookies. I certainly was. They may not be grandma-level homemade, but they’re pretty aesthetically pleasing. And we’re all about the aesthetic.

courtesy of Love This Pic

courtesy of Indulgy

Okay, this first one is already making me hungry. What ever happened to Nutter Butters, anyway? According to the amazing genius who came up with these, you just need mini Nutter Butters, mini chocolate chips and regular-sized chocolate chips. Plus a fancy trick where you microwave a plate.

Then, to melt the bottoms of the chocolate chips, you put them on the warm plate so they melt just enough so they’ll eventually stick to the mini Nutter Butters. The mini chocolate chips make the top of the acorn and the regular-sized chocolate chips make the acorn! Ta-da! An entire treat devoted to chocolate and peanut butter!

This one looks like it may take a little more skill. And by a little, I mean you actually have to make the dough, and then cut out the shapes, and then bake all of this into cookies all before you even get to ice them. To complete the icing process you probably would need a machine to make everything that perfect. And then you need to put on your patient gloves so you can actually arrange the plate. You need eight different cookie cutters! I think I’ll just admire the aesthetic of this one rather than stress myself out by looking at the recipe.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

courtesy of Indulgy

courtesy of Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle

I found this one on a site called “Indulgy.” All you need are those fudgy cookies that become the brim of the hat, and mini Reeses Cups to make the actual hat part! Oh, and some mad icing skills.

How did they make that tiny little buckle square on the front of the hat?! When I went to look for the “recipe,” it really was just a blog post about how quickly this woman’s infant daughter ate all of the cookies behind her back.

First, a letter: Dear Oreos, the bottom of this recipe was trying to get me to buy candy corn flavored Oreos. Please stop, Oreos. Please.

Love, a Devoted Fan. But back to these adorable Nutter Butter turkeys. I’m guessing you need Nutter Butters, Oreos, some of those weird hard candies that could make the beak, and M&Ms for the wattle and feet. I’m not sure how they managed to make everything balance on that Oreo but I suggest crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Especially since that Oreo and Candy Corn tail looks heavy. Note how it is not a Candy Corn-flavored Oreo, but a two separate entities. The way things should be.

November 5, 2015

OPINIONS

Page 9

The Miscellany News Staff Editorial

VC should rethink interactions with greater community T

he tangible divide between Vassar and the surrounding Town of Poughkeepsie is clear in the minds of most students.

Living on campus means living inside the mythical “Vassar bubble,” in which all destinations that can’t be entered with a quick Vcard swipe fall out of sight.

Most students have come to accept this simply as a part of their Vassar experience, whether they like it or not. We at The Miscellany News see problems with this paradigm. Far too often Vassar students openly express the sentiment that the locals hate them, or that there isn’t anything to do off-campus. Vassar students often talk about the bubble as a joke, however, we encourage students to consider why there seems to be such a sharp divide between the college and the community, and why we have not moved to change this.

From the start of our Vassar careers, we come to understand the universal truism that our community and those surrounding us have a tenuous relationship at best.

After big campus events, it is old habit for administrators and the VSA to field complaints from Poughkeepsie residents irritated about the noise or about drunk students wandering around on their streets and lawns. Rather than dismissing this behavior as typical of young students, we should endeavor to be more considerate of those that live near campus.

There is little to no dialogue among students about our neighbors, and most people do not seem particularly concerned about how our actions reflect the Vassar community’s ideals and affect Poughkeepsie residents around us.

Additionally, in recent years, the campus has had a number of run-ins with town

residents coming onto campus, and many of those instances have not ended well for anyone.

Our own hospitality—especially for a supposedly open campus—has proven insufficient, and students and administrators seem more suspicious than welcoming when it comes to community members. In light of our treatment, Poughkeepsie residents’ discomfort and frustration with us can hardly seem inappropriate.

Fortunately, some students have noticed the issues surrounding Vassar’s relationship with the town of Poughkeepsie. One of the largest resources for getting involved in Poughkeepsie is the VSA’s Community Fund, which allocates $10,000 each year for community outreach projects.

However, this is the VSA’s least-used fund.

This discrepancy could exist for a number of reasons—students could be uninformed about off-campus activities and organizations, most students are possibly unable to get around Poughkeepsie in a convenient way or perhaps community involvement is simply not a priority on this campus.

The lack of interest in working or living in Poughkeepsie seems to be based more on stereotypes than facts. There are many opportunities in the area surrounding Vassar that suit a multitude of interests and purposes. There are a number of students who have taken the initiative to break the Vassar bubble.

Many students go off campus to do their part in serving the community, either through sustainability-oriented student organizations that work with nearby scholars and activists or through the Vassar After School Tutoring program, in which Vassar community members work one-on-one with

young students at Poughkeepsie Middle School. Students are also able to do field work for class credit, which serves as an extra incentive to explore off campus. These examples show that organizing events and programs off campus is not impossible, and in fact often yields useful and rewarding opportunities to those willing to put in the extra time and work.

Therein, however, lies the problem. The effort required, to many students, outweighs the excitement of exploring the people and places outside the bubble. We at The Miscellany News believe that the Administration must take action against this imbalance. It is clear through the College’s efforts to change campus culture with the smoking ban that the Administration is ready and willing to make long-term changes to Vassar culture and experiences.

The same student body will not be here in five years. The structure of the College and the institutional power that it has, however, will, and so the onus of making this change must fall on administrators, faculty and staff.

We have seen very little effort from the College’s leadership to address the concerns students have had with the pervading sense of isolation Vassar has from its surrounding community. Students know that this problem does not stem from a lack of activities and opportunities that are available. Students must, then, challenge this status quo, lest they be content to define their Vassar experience solely by what happens on campus.

We commend the College for the efforts that it has already taken to help students get off campus. The Field Work office provides student drivers for those who do not

have cars, and some student groups reach out to Poughkeepsie businesses when planning events. This is a good start, but there is much more to do.

Perhaps the College can start by changing the rhetoric and language it uses when it refers to the campus and the community.

Many students complain that Poughkeepsie is boring and unsafe, but maybe if both students and administrators made an effort to see the positive aspects of Vassar’s location, students would be more inclined to explore the surrounding area.

In addition, classes often take trips to New York City to supplement what students are learning in the classroom, and for good reason. New York is home to multiple cultural and educational institutions, and we absolutely should take advantage of our proximity to the city.

However, it is much rarer for classes to go on trips to local events or attractions.

This would not only be more convenient, but would also expose students to what the Hudson Valley has to offer and help to dispel misconceptions about Poughkeepsie.

The Hudson Valley features a number of art galleries, local cultural heritage centers and many hiking trails.

Although there are many reasons for Vassar students to get involved in Poughkeepsie, perhaps the most important one is that we will not be students on a campus for the rest of our lives. It is important that we learn to engage with our communities regardless of where we live, and only staying within the confines of the bubble will not benefit us after we graduate.

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

Open dialogues require unobstructed flow of language Jesse Horowitz Guest Columnist

A

few weeks ago I wrote an opinion piece for The Miscellany News critiquing Vassar’s culture of political correctness. The newspaper’s most recent edition featured not one, but two responses to my article: one a letter to the editor from Jonathan Nichols, the other an opinion piece from Noble Ingram.

Both of these articles are very well written and I would highly recommend giving them a read-through. However, I feel the need to provide some clarity on these issues.

Jonathan Nichols’s letter to the editor centers on a point I made towards the beginning of my article in which I defended Meryl Streep from individuals who claimed that a shirt she was wearing to promote her newest film was racist. The shirt had on it the quote “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave.”

Mx. Nichols begins by saying that just because a phrase has historical roots does not excuse it from examination. I completely agree with that. It’s always worth engaging in a critical examination of such things. And had that truly been what occurred, I would not have bothered writing about it.

“It’s always worth engaging in a critical examination...”

However, that’s not what happened. Instead, activists cried racism. This particular response referred to the statement as being “anti-black.” Those are two very strong statements that go beyond a critique of the words used. They imply a level of intent, as if the producers designed the photoshoot specifically to alienate the African-American community. This is especially silly since this is a British film about the British women’s suffrage movement conducting a photoshoot

with a British paper designed for British audiences. The idea that the producers would cater their message to an American understanding of slavery is culturally ignorant.

There is always a place for intelligent critique, but that does not mean that we have to immediately jump to racism every time we see something questionable without engaging the historical context.

Noble Ingram’s opinion piece is a more holistic view of my argument. But sadly, he mischaracterizes it within the first two paragraphs.

Mr. Ingram writes, “No one wants to double think everything they say.” That’s not my argument. Everyone should think before they speak. Most of our parents probably taught us that from a very young age. But thinking before you speak should be a matter of intelligence and maturity, not fear.

The author goes on to write that “we need to put an end to this narrative that targeting someone for who they are and who they have struggled and fought to be isn’t always an attack.” While I do find that the word “attack” implies a level of intent that I’m not exactly comfortable with, this is a completely valid argument.

It also has nothing to do with what I wrote.

No, we shouldn’t be okay with statements that target certain individuals and groups. But we are so overly sensitive to anything that could possibly offend someone that we’ve taken to censuring and condemning statements that merely mention words like “sexual orientation” or “race” or “slavery” regardless of their contexts.

For example, take this joke: “Donald Trump is so in love with himself that he’s turned narcissism into a sexual orientation.”

This joke does not target the LGBTQ+ community in any way. Most reasonable people look at that joke and understand that it targets Donald Trump and nobody else. But because it so much as mentions the words “sexual orientation,” it becomes homophobic.

Not because it targets anyone, but because it might.

Mr. Ingram made a fair point in response to this, saying that it’s not up to me to decide what’s offensive to the LGBTQ+ community.

In theory, I would agree. As a white cis-gendered male, who am I to approach a person who’s been seriously hurt by someone and tell them that it’s not offensive? Wouldn’t it just be common human decency to stop telling a joke that is bothering someone?

“There is always a place for intelligent critique, but that does not mean that we have to immediately jump to racism...”

I’m sad to say that particular fantasy is not one we can afford to live in. Some objectiveness must be allowed when determining what is bigotry.

For example, suppose I argued that the use of the word “transparent” is insensitive to transgender individuals? Or what if a vegan finds the consumption of meat morally reprehensible and wants it banned? Or what if I felt that parents who gave their children non-gender-neutral names were committing child abuse? You might think these are all nonsense, but I found examples of all of these online (specifically on Tumblr). But who am I to tell any of these people that they’re being stupid? Everyone, to some extent, objectively draws the line between what’s offensive and what’s not.

In addition, the author links oppressive language to violence. I find this to be not only demeaning to victims of actual violence, but dangerous to the preservation of the democratic state.

Firstly, linking language to violence is laughable, especially language that is not ex-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

plicit or obvious hate speech. To equate my joke or the explicit and obvious hate speech of Republican candidates like Mike Huckabee and Dr. Ben Carson to the actual violence that is committed against the LGBTQ+ community every day is to do the later two injustice.

Secondly, how can a democracy function in which any person may run to the administration screaming that they feel unsafe because of oppressive language?

I have already heard that argument used against the existence of the Vassar Conservative Libertarian Organization, any of the pro-Jewish organizations on campus and Social Justice for Palestine. How can we possibly argue that political correctness has not gone too far when right in front of us we hear it used as an excuse the shut down clubs?

You may think this goes a bit too far, but it has happened in both this school and other ones.

Ten or so years ago, Laughing Stalks, the oldest comedy group on campus, was defunded and forced to change their name after a comedy sketch caught the ire of the student body. And only a couple weeks ago Wesleyan University defunded a student newspaper for publishing an article critical of Black Lives Matter. How can any independent journalism or comedy group function when they are constantly looking behind their backs, knowing that any politically incorrect article or comedy sketch could be their last?

The defenders of political correctness like to draw the line between being a decent person and being a jerk. But it’s actually the line between democracy and dictatorship.

Mr. Ingram’s article fails to draw that line.

He’s willing to make these sacrifices if it means furthering his cause.

All I’m asking is why can’t we create an environment that is actually accepting rather than merely conformist? I propose that we can do more good by getting a thicker skin than we can through what we’re doing now.

—Jesse Horowitz ’19 is a student at Vassar College. He is undeclared.

OPINIONS

Page 10

November 5, 2015

Obama breaks Administration’s silence on War on Drugs Nicholas Barone Columnist

O

n Oct. 21, 2015, I wrote an article for The Miscellany News, “War on Drugs has produced steep unforeseen (sic) casualties,” detailing both the implicit and explicit failures of America’s War on Drugs and the realities of many individuals who unjustly suffer as a result.

Particularly, the War on Drugs has disproportionately affected minorities, highlighting institutional injustice that pervades governmental bureaucracy. The article called for a change of tone and administrative reform in terms of drug and crime policy.

On Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, President Barack Obama boldly progressed the drug conversation significantly.

The President, who was relatively soft-spoken regarding drug and criminal justice reform in his first term, introduced a series of executive orders and measures in Newark, N.J., focusing on the Newark campus of Rutgers University and a drug rehabilitation center, Integrity House. Obama appeared in a round-table discussion with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and junior United States Senator from New Jersey (and former Mayor of Newark) Cory Booker to discuss criminal justice reform at the local and federal levels, while emphasizing the personal successes of former prisoners and meaningful discourse about rehabilitation. The measures Obama plans to order will limit the amount of barriers excluding ex-convicts from federal jobs, making strides in beginning to undo the damage of decades of intense retributive justice, institutional prejudice and stigmatization Obama is working in solidarity with other municipalities and states that have also introduced measures to “ban the box.” The “box” refers to the small check box on job applications that indicates whether the applicant has been convicted of a felony or not.

Obama’s executive order will apply to federal employers still asking this question in early

stages of the application process. Obama and other criminal rights activists “... argue that those formerly in prison should be allowed to prove their qualifications for a job instead of being eliminated early in the process due to their criminal background,” (The Huffington Post, “Obama To Announce Executive Action To ‘Ban The Box,’” 11.02.2015). This piece of administrative action, albeit deceptively small and low-reaching, symbolizes a glimmer of hope in a government still riddled with prisoners who don’t deserve to be incarcerated and drug laws that dehumanize and devalue their victims.

While drug-related crimes were not explicitly mentioned in press release statements by the administration prior to Obama’s visit, the president’s visit to the drug treatment center in Newark resonated strongly with drug reform policies and reversing previous legislation that unfairly impact addicts, minorities and the impoverished. During his tour of Integrity House, Obama hoped that “we can see more and more places like Integrity House” (Associated Press, “In criminal justice push, Obama to call for steps to ease former inmates back into society,” 11.02.2015).

However, Obama’s visit has not been without opposition. New Jersey Governor, presidential candidate and career bully Chris Christie has vehemently criticized Obama’s rhetoric in Newark, citing “inadequate support for law enforcement.” He has expressed frustration with Obama “taking credit” for attempts at criminal justice reform within the state of New Jersey.

While Christie has signed bills improving access to drug treatment for individuals in drug court, his governorship has been less than stellar in terms of drug reform (opposing New Jersey’s limited medical marijuana measures, for instance) and has vowed to crack down on marijuana if elected president, despite supposedly opposing the War on Drugs.

“He has not done anything on criminal justice reform in seven years as president,” Chris-

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tie said on Fox News. However, this thinly disguised attempt at legitimate criticism reeks of bias, especially in the context of Christie’s desperate attempt to raise his polling numbers which have been abysmal. For a governor who has continuously cut pensions for state law enforcement, accusing Obama of not adequately promoting the welfare of police forces is egregiously hypocritical. If Christie does not gain significant momentum, he will be excluded from the next Republican debate.

The White House fired back. Citing Christie’s lack of progression despite relatively positive reviews post-debate, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said his statement is “not surprising for somebody whose poll numbers are close to an asterisk. Clearly this is part of the strategy to turn that around. We’ll see if it works,” (Associated Press).

Recently, all three Democratic presidential candidates have voiced their support for “banning the box” and similar measures reducing drug laws. However, the War on Drugs and criminal reform has proved to be a bilateral issue. Senator Booker has recently introduced legislation into Congress to cut mandatory minimums for non-violent drug offenders at the criminal level, a rare instance of bipartisan sentiment in a staunchly divided and polarized legislature.

Republican figures such as Rand Paul have expressed similar sentiments regarding the futility and devastation of the current War on Drugs and its subsequent effects on the justice system. “I see an America where criminal justice is applied equally and any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color is repealed,” Paul stated, referencing the inherently oppressive and discriminatory nature of drug laws (The Washington Examiner, “Rand Paul calls for repeal of drug laws; reaches out to minority voters,” 04.07.2015). Paul’s sentiments have been echoed throughout the right, underscoring the gross inadequacies of America’s

drug policies and the necessity of immediate action. Only a handful of pundits and politicians have called for maintaining the status quo, such as presidential candidate Jeb Bush. While there has been a large and enthusiastic support base for reform, political obstacles still stand in the way.

In the final half of his second term, Obama has been unwaveringly committed to criminal justice reform in the United States. His recent visit to the Federal Correctional Institution at El Reno developed his shifting rhetoric in terms of administrative attitudes towards prisoners, particularly those convicted of drug-related crimes.

His visit to Newark and subsequent plans for executive action to address the failures of America’s drug war and the near-sighted catastrophe of Reagan’s massive expansion of deterrence marks a significant tonal modification in actual political action rather than simple discourse.

Discussion surrounding improving the lives of ex-convicts and reforming criminal codes has been circulating for months, particularly since Obama’s visit to El Reno. However, through the introduction of these executive orders and Booker’s recent introduction of a criminal reform bill, real progress is being made towards achieving a more just, stable and humane system.

Of course, no single piece of legislation or executive action serves as a panacea for the deeply entrenched aftershocks of the War on Drugs or will magically undo the tragic ripple effects on minority communities. Despite this, the Obama administration has been striving to sincerely reform the systems that have allowed such abuses to occur. Focus and action must continue in regards to de-stigmatization, rehabilitation and bureaucratic restructuring in order to fully address and effectively dismantle the War on Drugs for good.

—Nicholas Barone ’19 is a student at Vassar College.

Letter to the Editor November 2, 2015 Dear Editors: I am writing to respond to the editorial, “Smoking ban lacks clarity” (10/29). The college’s decision to go smoke-free as of July 2015 was made in 2013. That timing has allowed for a carefully constructed, nearly two-year education and communication campaign to unfold.

This work included several offices on campus, including Health Services, Human Resources, Communications, Residential Life, Buildings and Grounds, and Safety and Security.

The effort was a multi-faceted approach that included: • email communications from President Hill • campus-wide poster campaigns in dorms and elsewhere • development of the website http://smokefree.vassar.edu/ featuring information about the move to a smoke-free campus and free smoking cessation resources • development of a video, which has been featured on the homepage • outreach to students from the Offices of Health Services • offering a few series of cessation classes for students and employees (for a $10 fee) • offering two hypnosis sessions for cessation (free) • inclusion of policy information in all materials to prospective students and employees, and for all summer program participants • development of “palm cards” to be distributed to the community • a campus mailing of informational cards to employees Since the policy took effect in July, further efforts have included: • an all-campus email • signage at every entrance to campus and on security vehicles • signage around the Powerhouse Theater for summer audiences attending performances • discussion of the policy with incoming freshmen at orientation

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

• reminders about the policy to returning students • training security officers about the policy and how to approach smokers on campus, with an emphasis on policy education and reminders • a plan for further cessation offerings for students and employees in the spring semester.

The goal of the long roll-out was to ensure that the entire campus community would hear of the policy and to allow ample time to adapt. The Smoke-Free Task Force recommended a friendly enforcement approach for the beginning of the policy for largely the same reasons: to allow the community to adapt to the new policy and also to further education about it.This model has been used successfully other colleges and also in the roll-out of other smoke-free efforts (namely, in restaurants and bars) in cities across the United States.

By becoming smoke-free Vassar has joined more than 1,620 college and universities nationwide with similar policies.The recent email that was sent by Residential Life to students living in the apartments was meant to be a reminder about smoking in or near residences because of the very real and serious danger of fire. This has been prohibited and enforced properly for many years to insure the safety of our students.

The email was not meant to signal a change in the education-focused enforcement of the more recent all-campus smoking ban, which will continue.

Our ongoing goal is to help the community transition smoothly to being smoke-free and, by and large, that is what’s happening.

The smoke-free policy was enacted to ensure a healthier campus for everyone in the Vassar community and all efforts to support it are geared toward that goal.

Sincerely, Benjamin Lotto Acting Dean of the College

November 5, 2015

OPINIONS

Pink-washing distracts from awareness Emma Jones

Guest Columnist

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n recent years, October has become a month not only saturated with orange and black, but with pink as well.

The pink ribbon, universally recognized as the symbol of breast cancer awareness, can be found throughout the month of October on products ranging from makeup to clothing to Kentucky Fried Chicken.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) was founded in 1985 by the American Cancer Society and Imperial Chemical Industries. In the past decade, the utilization of NBCAM as a marketing tactic has gotten out of hand.

Although the popularization of pink products has been widely successful in mobilizing a vast range of companies to raise awareness of breast cancer, commonly used methods of increasing public consciousness are often flawed.

“Pinkwashing,” a blending of the words “pink” and “whitewashing,” is the sale of products that simultaneously claim to “support” breast cancer awareness, and contain substances that have been linked to cancer. Breast Cancer Action’s Think Before You Pink campaign coined the term in response to widespread exploitation of breast cancer as a marketing tactic.

The nation’s leading breast cancer foundations have recently come under scrutiny in the media, as the public begins to examine the real meaning of breast cancer awareness.

Komen, the most ubiquitous breast cancer foundation in the United States, is responsible for the distribution of most pink products. These products are sold either directly by Komen, or by companies that donate a portion of their profits to Komen. It is not necessarily beneficial, however, that the foundation has such a tight grip on the resources available for breast cancer research and treatment.

In 2012, Komen gave in to pressure from anti-abortion activists to cease their funding of Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening services. Although the company eventually reversed the decision as a result of significant backlash from the public, it had already exposed

its true priorities.

Komen’s method of funding breast cancer research and treatment is fundamentally inefficient, and ensures that only a small percentage of proceeds ever benefits cancer patients. The foundation spends approximately the same percentage of funds on “raising awareness” as it spends on research, screening services and treatment combined. In other words, Komen raises money by selling products, and spends it on making people “aware,” which in turn motivates consumers to go buy more pink products.

A significant portion of pink products, including those sold through Komen, are carcinogenic. Through the sale of such products, retailers are directly increasing the risk of cancer in their customers, while claiming to do exactly the opposite.

Many companies donate an extremely low percentage of their profits to breast cancer organizations, reaping the rewards of associating themselves with a charity without significantly benefiting cancer patients. Others do not tie their donation to the sales of a particular pinkwashed product at all. Rather, they use the product to increase their own profit, but make a preset donation to a breast cancer foundation.

Most sellers do not provide information up front about their actual donation of funds to breast cancer charities. It is often unclear to buyers how the proceeds will be used to help women with breast cancer, and the money is often used to promote the sales of more pink ribbon-branded products.

Merging health concerns with marketing is always a risky endeavor, and often a counterproductive one. The most profitable option for a company rarely coincides with the most beneficial course of action for cancer patients. It is often difficult, from a consumer’s perspective, to determine where the supplier’s priorities lie.

Pinkwashing threatens to make breast cancer into a trivial, seemingly harmless marketing scheme. The overemphasis of the color pink, irrelevant to the cause itself, spreads empty awareness instead of promoting action that will help cancer patients. Some research has suggested that the association of breast cancer with bub-

blegum pink merchandise has decreased the seriousness with which women take the disease.

Marketing is fundamentally intertwined with competition. While the prevalence of the spread of breast cancer awareness is undeniably advantageous, it also means that the disease often overshadows other equally threatening health issues.

In fact, the leading cause of death in women is heart disease, which receives comparably minimal attention.

Although it is, of course, important that women are educated as thoroughly as possible about breast cancer causes, risk factors and symptoms, it is equally important that they have the same level of understanding when it comes to other health threats that can be just as grave.

Women with breast cancer are portrayed in the media as attractive and cheerful–in other words, palatable for readers and viewers. The world rarely sees the mental and physical scars that the disease inflicts on its victims. By continually obscuring the unfortunate realities of breast cancer through the promotion of a single story of victorious survivorship, the media discredits experiences that do not follow the prescribed script of stories in movies and magazines.

Most attempts to inform the public of the realities of breast cancer ignore the systemic issues at the heart of the disease. Instead, they tend to emphasize individual solutions, which is not a sufficient means to tackle the root causes of breast cancer. While the public has come a long way in the destigmatization and introduction of breast cancer into mainstream conversation, there is still a long way to go in terms of public knowledge.

It is difficult to draw a line between exploitation and beneficial utilization. Buyers, however, must consider their choices before blindly buying pinkwashed products. As the world begins to question the legitimacy of companies that claim to raise awareness of breast cancer and general knowledge about the disease grows, consumers will have access to a wider variety of products that truly aid breast cancer patients.

—Emma Jones ’19 is a student at Vassar College.

Cable not a viable option for millennials Joshua Sherman Columnist

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all us cord cutters. Call us whatever you like, it won’t change how few of us are going to pay into cable TV come graduation. And frankly, I don’t blame anyone. According to a report by The NPD Group, an analytics firm, there’s a predicted rise in monthly TV packages from $86 monthly to potentially more than $200 by 2020. This has in turn led to the “a la carte” model, where people pay independent, monthly access fees for each network they want content from. This isn’t a terrible thing, but I fear this is quickly evolving into something equally expensive and unfair for customers everywhere. (Time, “3 Moves to Cut Your Cable Bill Right Now’, 01.06.15) The whole a la carte model is pretty straightforward. For years, we bought cable televisions and premium content on a package basis. You pick between five or six versions, ranging from the “basic cable” namesake of the older, more established networks. Then you pay a bit more for HBO and the movie channels. Then you have the sports packages, international television packages and so on until you have your total cable TV experience.

Meanwhile, most of us don’t mind at all consuming the vast swaths of free content available on sites such as YouTube, Twitch and other video and streaming services. Even though my SoCo (and many other senior housing facilities) come ready to hook up Time Warner Cable, the $50+ monthly price for any residually decent TV package is a bitter pill to swallow, especially when I can just go on Vassar’s Internet for free.

Historically, this isn’t a strange concept.

Ironically, it was the very TV we flee that drew us in on the whole “free” argument 60 years ago. Not only were these services conveniently located in our homes, rather than down at the movie theater or performing arts center, but they also came at a price nobody could beat.

We traded it with our time, television ads and

other promotional spots.

Then cable came and changed everything.

At first it was just HBO, CNN and a few other channels for a monthly fee. Now there’s hundreds of channels, and still so little worth watching for the price they want.

It’s so mind-boggling, that the services you used to get for free as over-the-air television are now also embracing the pay-per-month model. CBS plans to launch a new Star Trek television show on its pay-per-month CBS All Access service in 2017. Hulu, a partnership of several major networks, charges $8 to $12 a month for access to the same content you get for free with a pair of rabbit ears and a DVR. Oh, and by the way, you have to pay for even the most basic cable packages that include network television too. They’ve suckered us in for the last few decades, and now they’re looking to cash in big time.

I can understand why too. People like the “cord cutter” generation (as we’re called by people twice our age) don’t buy cable, so they have to keep prices high to meet the same revenue expectations from a smaller customer pool.

As a result, even the most basic cable packages feel ridiculously priced compared to what we can (mostly) get online for free. There’s only a handful of shows worth paying for, and many television networks put these shows on pedestals to try and sell us on their worth.

This is where the true issue emerges. Netflix, and even Hulu, offer tons of content for their $10 to $12 a month each. But the same isn’t true for something like CBS All Access.

The sheer amount of content we get often puts these a la carte services to shame.

CBS only has so many shows, and unlike your favorite football team, you don’t stick to a single network when experiencing the content you want. CBS All Access lacks by-the-minute television coverage from its news studios, and instead over-hypes “NCIS” and “Big Bang Theory” to try and encourage people to opt into the service. They instead expect you to

pay each network $6 to $8 a month for service.

HBO wants $15 a month. Suddenly cable TV isn’t looking so inexpensive anymore.

This in turn discourages these very same companies from cooperating with services like Hulu and Netflix, which offer far more content for the exact same monthly price. They make you wait months before getting any new content. Hulu used to run “next day” programming, but now they require a cable subscription for that, and you may end up wiling a whole week anyway waiting. These networks, meanwhile, wonder why people continue to pirate their content. CBS All Access tries to remedy that, but at the same price as Netflix?

You’ve got to be kidding me. They’re holding our shows hostage—the very shows we may as well just watch over the air for free—or acquire through “other” means if we so desire.

Another criticism I have is that a la carte services, at $8 a month, do not cover the delivery method—only the content. This means that no matter what packages you get, you’ll still need decently fast Internet to handle your connection needs, equipment to watch your content on, and all sorts of other piecemeal things to get something relatively close to the total TV experience we used to expect on cable. This is, of course, true for all our streaming and other online services, but when you have to pay an extra $50 a month for all the a la carte services you want, plus $50 a month for Internet, you realize how much of a cash grab it becomes.

I’m glad we have so many options these days, but it’s clear the whole thing is becoming too expensive to maintain, no matter how you slice it. Paying a la carte is supposed to feel freeing, but frankly it encourages piracy just as much as cable television does today. Once the service is more competitively and reasonably priced, I might be willing to sign on. Until then, I doubt CBS All Access and other “network-based” services will ever be worth their salt.

—Joshua Sherman ’16 is an English Major.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 11

Word on the street Where were you when the chapel organ broke?

“I was dancing in the THs.” — Alison Breeze ’19

“I was in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.”

— Lucy Nystrom ’18

“Probably asleep.”

— Julia Dighe ’18

“Watching Yu-GiOh!” — Mackenzie Little ’17

“I was in the chapel checking my phone.”

— Adam Westerman ’18

“#smokefreeUpC.” ­­— Edgy Net Lords

Zander Bashaw, Humor & Satire Editor Sam Pianello, Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

November 5, 2015

Only white concerns motivate reform in penal system Emily Sayer

Opinions Editor

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ver the course of this first week of November, 6,000 federal prisoners will prematurely return home as a result of the United States Sentencing Commission’s mass reductions in drug charges. A culmination of overcrowding, rising federal expenses and backlash against the harsh treatment of offenders has compelled legislators on either side of the partisan divide to re-evaluate the penal system, and now, tens of thousands of inmates face potential release within the next year.

For activists decrying excessive punitive codes, this measure is a long-awaited and welcome step towards reforming the nation’s prisons. The War on Drugs initiated by Richard Nixon in the ‘70s, the catalyst for a pattern of villainization of addicts and dealers, seems to be finally relenting after decades of lengthy sentences and unforgiving rehabilitation policies.

But why now? Yes, overcrowding is a mounting problem, but with approximately one in one hundred Americans incarcerated each year, federal and state prisons alike have faced issues of overpopulation since the ‘80s; in fact, from 1980 to 1997, the number of offenders imprisoned for nonviolent drug charges leapt from 50,000 to more than 400,000. According to a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, by 2011 federal prisons were nearly 40 percent over capacity. In 2018, the GAO’s research estimates that prisons will be almost 50 percent over maximum capacity. So what has compelled both Republicans and Democrats in 2015 to suddenly champion softer anti-drug legislation? The response is evident: the face of America’s “junkie” has changed.

Heroin and cocaine addiction is no longer limited to minority communities and people of color. With cases of possession and overdose skyrocketing among the white middle class, drug abuse has spread from the underprivileged

“Organ-isms”

cities and become the domain of young people throughout the country’s affluent suburbs. In fact, 90 percent of first-time heroin users within the past decade were white (The New York Times, “In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs,” 10.30.15).

These affected families, unlike black and latino groups, have the means to redirect the national attitude towards punishment; director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Michael Botticelli said of the situation, “Because the demographic of people affected are more white, more middle class, these are parents who are empowered… They know how to call a legislator, they know how to get angry with their insurance company, they know how to advocate. They have been so instrumental in changing the conversation,” (The New York Times). In the Northeast especially, overdose is a leading cause of white adolescent mortalities, and the families of those lost to opioids are spearheading the movement for rehabilitation reform with a surge of task forces, summit meetings and proposals for new treatment and prevention methods.

Politicians have responded swiftly to these appeals. In the past few months, President Obama has formulated a $133 million plan to institute a wave of treatment programs, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has proposed a similar $10 billion project as a fundamental component of her platform, Republican candidates Carly Fiorina and Jeb Bush have relayed to voters their own personal accounts of drug addiction within their families and Governor Chris Christie has declared a pro-life stance for all people, including drug users. The opioid and painkiller epidemic is, essentially, the only current domestic problem on which legislators have found common ground.

Years ago, the strict punishments imposed in cases of drug possession were defended as necessary in deterring criminal violence. Drug use

is no longer perceived as a criminal act because offenders are no longer considered to be criminals– the average white teenager isn’t as easily villainized, after all, as the wayward black city kid.

Disproportionate incarceration rates are an indisputable reality in the U.S., with one in three black men and one in six Latino men likely to face imprisonment in their lifetime as opposed to one in 17 white men. For women, these figures are echoed, albeit at lower rates; one in 18 black women and one in 45 Latina women will serve time in prison at some point in their lives, but the same is only true for one in 111 white women. Traditionally, two-thirds of inmates charged with drug offenses are people of color.

These figures are a blatant illustration of the injustice surrounding the discourses on drug use in American politics. Is the government really waging a war on drugs, or a war on minorities?

Executive director of the Sentencing Project Marc Mauer notes, “Both the image and reality is that this is a white and often middle-class problem... and appropriately so, we’re having a much broader conversation about prevention and treatment, and trying to be constructive in responding to this problem. This is good. I don’t think we should lock up white kids to show we’re being equal,” (The New York Times).

What Mauer, like many of his fellow prison reform advocates, is virtually implying is that forgiveness for drug offenders is ‘better late than never,’ or that it’s better to accept the nation’s belated change of heart and accommodate white drug users accordingly rather than subject them to the same treatment as their black counterparts for the sake of reparations.

True, policy reform is desperately needed and should be lauded regardless of past circumstances, but it’s imperative that the country addresses the unfortunate fact that only the white population has the power to mobilize meaningful societal change. The clamor raised

by the parents of white drug users–children pegged as victims, not criminals–has garnered more attention from authorities over the course of a single decade than the protests of minority groups have won since the start of the civil rights movement.

In popular media, families leading the charge against harsh sentences cite the rise in protesters as the primary cause of recent reform, it’s the identity of the voices that’s changed, not the number. Attempting to attribute the shifts in the national conversation to anything other than structural racism is not only inexcusable, but simply unrealistic.

Moreover, the most disappointing truth of the matter is that American law enforcement on the state and federal level operates on sentiments of compassion, not equality, and for many subjugated groups, compassion from officers and policy makers is widely nonexistent.

Former narcotics detective Eric Adams told the New York Times, “The way I look at addiction now is completely different. I can’t tell you what changed inside of me, but these are people and they have a purpose in life and we can’t as law enforcement look at them any other way. They are committing crimes to feed their addiction, plain and simple. They need help.”

What changed inside Adams was his ability to relate to the addicts that he was investigating. His statement serves as a grave reminder that we inhabit a world where white lives are singularly prioritized as purposeful. They matter. The lives of people of color, it seems, will remain subject to degradation for as long as compassion is limited to the white majority, and considering the progression of racial equality in the U.S., sympathy for black and latino criminals is a long time coming, but we must continue to fight for it.

—Emily Sayer ’18 is the Opinions Editor at The Miscellany News.

The Miscellany Crossword

by Alycia Beattie, York Chen, and Collin Knopp-Schwyn Email coknoppschwyn@vassar.edu to contribute!

ACROSS

1 Less than a quarter of a pie 6 Shank 10 It’s cheeky?

13 Fictional Fawlty or Frankweiler 14 Yucca friend 15 Furry Stevens 16 “Die Fleidermouse”, for one?

18 “so much depends / ___ / a red wheel / barrow” 19 Larter or Baba 20 Ð 21 Mixtape, sometimes 22 Write 23 “Follow the” follower 26 Best suited 28 Twelfth letter 29 Lachrymal and bile 33 Coconut lube 34 Navy or Army website ender 35 George Bernard, for one 36 Swiss granddaddy of graph theory 39 Salt Lake City college athlete 40 Wreck completely, as in a car 42 Netbeans or Eclipse (abbr.)

43 Quality suggested by purple 46 Papa friend, I guess, sometimes, I’m not sure, they tried their best, but people fall out of love sometimes, right, I mean, right? I’m sure they tried

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their best. So maybe not friend.

47 Ohio home of the Bengals (abbr.)

48 Amino acid code (abbr.)

49 Fuss over hair 51 1 or 11 52 Train call with “All” 55 Anne, Charlotte or Emily 57 Lightning grabber 58 Bike number 61 Opposite of doff 62 “Able was I ___ I saw Elba” (Napoleonic palindrome) 63 “Falling Slowly” musical 64 Vocal range with a frog in your throat?

68 Nice no 69 “Yeah right!” (2 words) 70 10 am on a Saturday 71 Farm animal?

72 Nugent and Koppel 73 Shopping or killing

“The Three-Body Problem” Ken 30 Strategy game with cells and maybe chocolate 31 Turkic Mongol people 32 Husband, in Khmer, Malay, or Bengali 37 Decree, like the one of Nantes in 1598 38 Walk away if you’re this person!

41 Branch of calculus 44 NHL’s Ducks (abbr.)

45 Slow kid?

DOWN

1 Blood type categorization 2 Steve Rogers to friends 3 Exploit 4 Feeling when it’s 70-Across 5 Feeling when it’s not 70-Across 6 “Me” -York, flattering himself 7 Scotch, for one 8 Pleasant odor 9 Baboon bassoon relative?

10 Pouchy songbird, with no accompaniment?

11 Marketing department 12 A time spent in the minors, say 17 Push forcefully 23 It can have a ring-tail 24 C Wright Mills’ “The Power ___” (1956) 25 Lively, like a mouse?

27 Olympic hurdler Xiang or sci-fi author of

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

50 Most non-Party members of Oceania 52 Stadium 53 Fifth element 54 A black hole, for example; alternatively, me 56 “What beers do you have ___?” (2 words) 59 -COOH 60 Umps 65 Gifted defenseman Bobby 66 Brown, pale, or India pale 67 Tyrian purple, for example

November 5, 2015

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 13

Breaking News From the desk of Zander Bashaw, Humor & Satire Editor Experts conclude the Villard room fire alarm resulted from “fire mixtapes” igniting exhaled ethanol vapors Pleasures from eating bacon New SAT structure readies far outstrip any health risks students for dystopian future Zander Bashaw

Baconator Junior

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he news broke and shook the world like the way a pig’s belly shakes as it walks around. Bacon, among many of our other favorite meats, has been declared a carcinogen by the World Health Organization.

The general populace has responded with overwhelming indifference. After all, when an organization with the name abbreviation WHO makes a statement, people will always question who are they to make the rules about what can and can’t be consumed. Also, considering that cutting asbestos out of the modern American diet was a real challenge, nixing bacon is going to be nearly impossible.

Processed meat in its entirety was added to the category “definitely carcinogenic to humans” and red meat was added to the category of “probably carcinogenic” this October.

The precise scientific rhetoric continues with the categories “possibly,” and “probably not.”

Bacon, spam, hot dogs and the like join other compounds equally intrinsic to human life, including but not limited to drinking alcohol, and benzene, the main compound in gasoline.

Cutting these three carcinogens out of life would be a real challenge, removing bacon intake would likely involve an increase in binge drinking to ease the pain. I guess not using gasoline would make it impossible drive to the liquor store, but you could always buy diesel fuel. Oh wait that’s carcinogenic too.

We live in a time where people are constantly bombarded with ever-changing headlines about how Bud Light is good for your skin, or Taco Bell is a satisfying meal. “Studies show” is as weak a sentence starter as ramen noodles are a meal. So why should anyone be up in arms about boycotting bacon? The simple answer is that people are freaked out by cancer.

Now I’m not saying that this is the kind of fear that we can just put behind us. An insidious disease where the body destroys itself and for which the treatment can be just as deleterious is a truly frightening prospect. However, nothing on this planet is worth forgoing the ephemeral goodness of a piece of bacon.

If you don’t eat or enjoy bacon, just for a moment, I will try to describe the feeling that a bite of it can create. Bacon tastes so good,

it momentarily makes me feel as if human existence in the world does matter. When I eat bacon, I’m suddenly not just a mishmash of bits of carbon and oxygen formed in the cores of stars billions of years ago- I’m as important and valued as Kanye West’s mirror.

So how can eating bacon make me feel like I’m suspended in the Milky Way watching Rick and Morty unfold in real time? The answer lies in human evolution. Humans have spent over 90 percent of our existence as hunter-gatherers, worried about where and when the next meal was coming from. With no Deece to swipe into, our bodies had to evolve ways of telling when a food source offered quick and valuable stores of energy. That’s why things with copious amounts of sugars and fats taste so amazing. Berries and meat were once good for us to eat since we exercised all day trying to find them. However, now that I can get a ultra-concentrated sugar or fat source by practically crawling to a vending machine, how can anyone be surprised that Slim Jims aren’t healthy?

Some people have chosen to fight back, forgoing these biological impulses, and living in a shroud of quinoa-laced superiority. Others embrace their inability to resist the Butterfinger. For instance, producers of the YouTube channel ‘Epic Meal Time’ regularly create some of the most extremely meaty, fatty, and often bacon-laced food ever devoured. Almost 8 million YouTube subscribers watch in horror and envy as Harley Morenstein and others consume meals of the highest calorie caliber.

Morenstein himself recently released a video about how the news about bacon’s carcinogenic side will not change his behavior at all.

He compares the ill affects of bacon to the risk of drowning in a glass of water, which he fittingly chugs at the end of the video.

Maybe certain hedonistic pleasures are worth some potential dangers far off in the distance. Plus, as a millennial, I’m supposed to buy in to the tenets of YOLO that are so raucously displayed in Epic Meal Time’s 71,488 calorie Fast Food Lasagna. Maybe I’m being foolish to continue to worship bacon like the rising sun, but then again, according to the World Health Organization, “solar radiation” is carcinogenic as well.

Evelyn Frick

College Bored

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or years now, college admissions officers across the country have been vying for an admissions process capable of completely breaking the spirits of high school students.

This past year, the College Board finally agreed on a new test format with a decisive “Fuck it!”

Starting in 2016, the SAT will no longer be an enigmatic brainteaser which baffles the minds of Ivy League hopefuls and any-school hopefuls alike. In fact, beginning next year, it may even be incorrect to call the SAT a test. Rather, the Scholastic Aptitude Test will now give students a look into the bleak, punishing and unforgiving world they are about to enter.

First, it is important to note that the SAT will still be conducted in hormone-teeming gymnasiums across the globe. One feature of the SAT that the College Board has always been proud of is that any student in the world should have to endure their four-hour, intellectual triathlon surrounded by complete strangers. But that is where the similarities to the former SAT end, because the new SAT is being changed even on the basic level of what equipment can be used.

Previously, the College Board reminded test-takers that calculators aren’t really necessary to complete the math sections. In spite of this, students have always scrambled to get the best, newest and SAT-approved calculators.

Well now, to make life simultaneously a little easier and a lot more painstakingly difficult, College Board will be providing every student with what is now the only approved calculating device, the TI-Abacus! “In this way, students will be figuring out algebra problems and also learning about the menial labor the real world has in store for them,” said College Board President and CEO David Coleman.

Furthermore, forget about those #2 pencils.

From now on, the only writing utensil acceptable for use on the SAT is a ballpoint pen. Unlike the abacus, however, the College Board will not be supplying students with this necessary test-taking tool, citing that students need to learn early that nothing in life is free. The ballpoint pen also satisfies another aspect of the lesson the new SAT is teaching kids: mistakes are inerasable, unchangeable and will have a profound effect on their future.

Another new feature of the SAT will highlight the omnipresent self-doubt that goes hand-in-hand with adulthood. After each test question they answer, students will be asked a supplementary question, “Are you sure?” College Board has explained this new part of the SAT was derived from focus groups describing millennials as the most self-assured generation alive today. These focus groups later agreed that the College Board would simply be remiss in preparing young adults for college and beyond if they did not make them feel as insecure as possible.

The most significant changes to the SAT, though, are content changes to writing and math sections. In the writing section, now instead of having twenty-five minutes to write an entire essay, test-takers will now have thirty minutes to formulate a graduate-level thesis on a topic of College Board’s choosing. When questioned about the reasoning behind this change, College Board Vice President Frank Ashley responded, “College is mainly about racing deadlines and the SAT is a major component of the college admissions process, so we figured we’d let kids know what they’re getting in to.”

While the writing section prepares students specifically for college life, the math section of the new SAT promises to be extremely applicable to everyday life. To this end, the SAT will continue using real-world math problems, but with a twist. Instead of doing pointless geometric calculations, students will now be using data and statistics to solve problems such as the debt crisis in Greece, the cost of alternative fuel sources, balancing the U.S. budget or redistributing wealth in the United States. The College Board has stressed, however, that test answers will still remain confidential, only read by the test graders and the Department of Homeland Security.

All in all, those that study standardized testing expect that the changes to this test are irrelevant, and will pretty much produce the same results as the old SAT, just slightly more depressing than before. “It’s actually kind of funny how seriously the College Board takes themselves,” said Andrew Barron, a student in the midst of his college search. “I’m probably just going to take the ACT anyway.”

College rodent writes home to his family

by Sophie Blumenstock, Mouse Landlord

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he other day, my roommate and I heard a lot of scratching and scrabbling noises. We didn’t think that it was anything out of the ordinary, as we’ve suffered through a mouse problem for the past month or so. We pulled all of our storage bins out from under our beds. Unsurprisingly, we did not find him.

He’s a little shit and likes to tease us.

We’re going crazy and not dealing with it well at all, thanks for asking. I keep thinking that we hear him, and then we scream and hit things with our dust mop. My roommate tries to talk some sense into him, but he remains largely unresponsive. He squeaked at us one time, so my roommate googled mouse behavior patterns to figure out what he was trying to say to us. The internet was helpful as always, informing us that he could be in trouble, or content, or playful, or fighting. We never do manage to find him.

I did find one of my pencils (very chewed) and the following letter, which I decided was poignant enough for Misc publication.

Dear Mom and Dad, Life as a college rodent is going pretty well for me. I’m definitely enjoying branching out and being more independent. The first month or so was hard, and I ended up hiding out away from everyone a lot. After a while though, I started meeting the other mice on the hall and I made a friend! We went foraging together, but we got caught and got into a little bit of trouble after eating some funny powder that turned out to be preworkout.

Nothing to worry about, though! I don’t hang out with him anymore, he turned out to be too reckless and a bit of a jerk. Now I mostly forage by myself, but I enjoy that more. Vassar is pretty easy-going and no one judges you if you forage by yourself.

I’m enjoying the food more than I thought I would! There is so much of it everywhere.

My favorite things are ramen noodles and cereal, but I like cereal better because chewing through ramen packages hurts my teeth a bit and I know you don’t want me to get them out

of alignment after you spent all that money on braces. I had some crackers the other day and I tried to eat some craisins, but I got caught and yelled at before I could figure the packaging out.

Even though I’m working hard like I know you want me to, I’m still making time for friends and parties. Some of the other mice get really crazy! I heard that a couple of them had a full thimble of beer a few nights ago and pulled the fire alarm in main. Luckily, I never feel pressured to drink to have fun. Instead we play hide-and-seek all over the dorms. Last night we even had a food fight! I threw lots of cereal around the room and we had a great time. I come back to look for it later when I was hungry, but someone had cleaned up.

I’m keeping active and exercising. Every day I run laps around the rooms for at least an hour or two. I think that I might join the track team next semester if I keep it up. I’m definitely getting faster. I love running, it really clears my head when I’m having a stressful

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

day. I’ve become especially effective at avoiding pitiful humans and their clumsy mop swings.

How are you? Are they still making a lot of noise at home? They should have told us before they started construction on that new building. I know that you were thinking of moving anyway, now that all of us kids have moved out and you don’t need that big of a house anymore. But still, it’s really disruptive.

They should have been more considerate. Do you think you’ll move soon? I kind of miss my old burrow.

Even though food is everywhere, people are cleaning more and starting to hide it, so if you could send me some food in the mail, that would be good. Maybe some of the sandwich crumbs from the construction workers?

I think I miss those the most. I’d love to make plans to drive across campus to see you some time. I hope you and the pet roaches are well.

Love, Ralph

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November 5, 2015

Botanic forms illustrate painter’s environmental concerns Yifan Wang assistant arts editor

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The curators then set up the works according a layout plan created by Geiger. Church elaborated, “Charles is methodical and put lots of thought into how the exhibition might look in advance of delivering the works to the gallery, including making a layout of the space and mock-ups of his paintings to assist in selecting which paintings went well together. His planning of the installation went smoothly with only a few changes from the plan.”

Working with Geiger’s paintings closely, Church expressed the particular styles that interested her. “I respect his work and am especially fond of the more open paintings on paper that use transparent ink washes and iridescent paints,” said she.

Jose Erazo ’16 is one of the gallery guards who sits at the front desk of the Palmer, and possibly who spend the most time with the works. Erazo

is very excited about the life and spirits embodied in the multitudes of colors. “The works are absolutely beautiful. This might be my favorite exhibit here this year. They are all so colorful and very complex. I love the vibrant colors and the focus on nature. I don’t think I have ever seen so much color in this gallery and I have been working here for two years now,” he said.

With all these colors, organic shapes and conceptual considerations, Geiger hopes to share his thoughts in environmental issues with the campus. “Perhaps some of the topics within the paintings are of shared interest to students and faculty. I am not a scientist, nor a specialist in any of these topics. I am just an artist using a traditional visual medium to hopefully create poignant signposts that reflect our time period, and perhaps bring a little magic along with it,” he concluded.

courtesy of Vassar Media Relations

vast expanse of blue, green and pink organic shapes unfolds on the canvass. The leaves, rhizomes and trees weave together a complex space. On top of the biologic forms is a abstract, geometrical rectangle of black and red, adding visual contrast to the piece. It’s hard to stop looking at the image.

This is one work from the Charles Geiger exhibition, Quasibotanics: From Apocalypse to Now, currently on view at Vassar’s Palmer Gallery. The paintings will be on display until Nov. 30. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 5 p.m.

Quasibotanics is the term Geiger coined for his unique visual vocabulary of adopting biologic, botanic forms. The artist elaborated, “A few years ago my painting process shifted to become a more affirmative gesture toward nature. I chose to use leaves, trees, rhizomes, and biologic forms in a metaphorical way. They would become a language set that acted as visual agents within an imaginary surrealist space.

An in-between space that is fluid, microscopic and macroscopic.”

According to Geiger, he seeks to explore and utilize the symbolic significance of these vegetation structures. “I am interested in the symbolic energy of a newly sprouting green leaf, and the unique interconnectivity of rhizomes and rhizome systems. The continuous process of breaking and recovering of rhizomes are of interest to me. So for my practice, leaves and rhizomes are a set of botanically derived linguistic symbols, and with them I do paintings about environmental and health issues,” explained Geiger.

Over time, Geiger has internalized this organic, visual language. “The botanical grammar set became a part of my ritual of painting that I call “Quasibotanics,” he said.

In addition to nature, Geiger takes inspiration from other artists. With their pastoral landscapes and serene atmospheres, the Hudson Valley School paintings allowed Geiger to

look at the world in a new light. Based on this new vision, he then developed a contemporary use of the subject matter.

Geiger recounted, “I looked at nature here in the Hudson Valley and at the Hudson River School of painters who were deeply moved by the spectacle of raw nature. Painting a landscape today needed a different approach, one using the shapes of nature within a completely different spatial context. Looking from the smallest outward, then back again.”

The other part of the title, From Apocalypse to Now, suggests the conceptual themes behind the visual. With vivid colors and botanic shapes, Geiger seeks to express his reflections on environmental and health issues. He commented, “I work to affirm the possibility of renewal. Some of the paintings deal with invasive species, some with stresses in bird and bee populations. Others may be about health and certain obstacles to perception.”

He continued, posing a pressing question. “I was thinking of the age of Anthropocene that we are now in, and the idea that we are in the sixth period of mass extinctions. There have been many apocalypses, and our influence on the planet is now significant, and so what are we to do Now?” Living close to campus, Geiger has had a long-lasting connection with Vassar. “I live only a block and a half from campus and have a great studio built in the 1930’s used by the artists C.K. Chatterton and Lewis Rubenstein [both artists who taught at Vassar]. It is great to be a part of the legendary aura of campus community.”

It was a mutual effort by both Geiger and Vassar to put together the exhibition. Associate Director of the Palmer Gallery, Monica Church, visited the artist’s studio and discussed work selection with Geiger. “This show was organized

by Palmer Gallery Director Teresa Quinn. She and I made a studio visit to discuss what body of work Charles would exhibit. Given the physical properties of the gallery, we opted for an exhibition of most recent paintings rather than a retrospective,” she recounted.

A work by Charles Geiger uses organic shapes to create abstract space and explore environmental issues. It belongs to a series of works from Geiger’s exhibit Quasibotanics: From Apocalypse to Now.

With Pippin gone, Eads’ Lemonade takes center stage Sabrina Oh reporter

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hat happens when you suddenly can’t perform the show you’ve been rehearsing for three weeks? You find a new one. That’s what happened to the cast of “Pippin,” when, for legal reasons, they were forced to switch shows.

The show had to go on, and so it did. The result is a freak show circus fueled by spiked lemonade.

Directed by Logan Pitts ’18, “Lemonade” is a musical written by Vassar alumnus Sean Eads ’15. The plot of the musical revolves around the protagonist Georgie and his encounters with a freak show circus in which the ringmaster exploits his employees via spiked lemonade to ultimately and permanently chain them to the industry. Allegra Kaufman ’19, who plays Georgie’s love interest, elaborated, writing, “What [Georgie] doesn’t realize is that the bright lights of the circus are not as innocent as they appear to be.”

Aside from the specious narrative, “Lemonade” explores the fibers of the human condition.

Stage manager of “Lemonade,” Isabel Furman ’19, wrote, “It deals with ideas of addiction, love, corruption, power.”

Behind the curtains of production is a story in and of itself. “Pippin” was the original musical

to be produced. Josh Bruce ’16, who plays Georgie, wrote, “The opportunity to put on this musical came as a result of [the Future Waitstaff of America] failing to obtain the rights for Pippin.

The cast and crew had already been recruited at this point so we still really wanted to put on a show and started looking for an alternative. I became familiar with “Lemonade” several semesters ago when I was in “Sludge Dump,” also written by Sean Eads. Sean wrote “Lemonade’ in high school and staged a workshop version so I figured he’d be happy to let us do a full production and make some progress on his previous work.”

Bruce continued, “Having to change shows meant that we lost about three weeks of rehearsal time... Though we didn’t have that luxury, the story and characters are actually inspired by ‘Pippin,’ which made the transition between the two shows a lot easier... [but] Sean’s music is [still] very rhythmically complex and doesn’t always make sense until you hear the piano parts.

We’re just now starting to get piano accompaniment during rehearsals and the first time you hear the vocal line and piano together there’s this magical moment of transformation from something that sounds clunky and ugly to something hauntingly beautiful or bouncy and fun.”

Furman also wrote about the transpiration,

courtesy of FWA

Written by a Vassar alum, Lemonade is a musical that depicts the story of a girl’s encounters at a freak show circus.With lyrics and melodies, the work explores addiction, power, greed and sacrifice.

“Lemonade is like nothing I’ve ever done. For one thing, losing the rights to Pippin and then picking Lemonade a week later made us lose a ton of time, so this process has been greatly a game of catch up, but the cast and crew have been absolutely incredible in making up that lost time. Another thing is the playwright and composer Eads. Having contact with him and having his say in the process has been very different for me and very valuable. His music is incredibly complex and his story lines are fascinating. Nonetheless, he has invited us to change things and make it our own, but it’s been wonderful having him as such an open minded resource and opinion. ” The process of switching shows so late seems demanding and exhaustive. But in reality, it has benefited the show–bringing the cast even closer together. Furman wrote, “We were drawn to Lemonade for a number of reasons. Primarily, we were interested in the idea of doing a show that has never really been done before. Since much of the cast knows and loves Sean, the personal attachment coupled with the freedom of doing a show that none of them have seen or know was very appealing to many people. We were also fascinated because Lemonade as a story bears a lot of resemblance to Pippin. Even more, however, we felt like it tackled more directly a lot of the issues we would have tackled anyway in doing Pippin. And, of course, everyone was drawn to Sean’s incredible music and lyrics, which tell the story in such a unique and creative way.”

Mused by Eads’ artistry, Bruce wrote, “Sean definitely writes his musicals with the songs in mind first and the script essentially to fill the gaps, so he’s been very open to the big script changes that our director, Logan Pitts, and the cast have developed over the course of the past month. With only 12 days until we open we’re all getting a little nervous but there have been some really amazing moments in rehearsal that I can’t wait to share with the campus.”

Undoubtedly, the production is an aggregate of the time and energy of Vassar students, notably Pitts, the student director of “Lemonade.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Furman wrote, “In terms of some key participants, Logan Pitts, our director, is one of the kindest and most creative thinkers I’ve met.

He always has an interesting take on the scene from an acting perspective but also from a visual/artistic perspective. Ari Bell [’18] and Leora Randall-Tavori [’18], the vocal director and choreographer, are super enthusiastic people with an amazingly creative outlook on how to incorporate music and dance into the telling of the story. Our whole production team has been working so well together...finally, of course, the cast is so hardworking and talented...they’ve been unbelievably supportive both of each other and of the whole process.”

When asked about what kind of impact Lemonade’s participants would like to make, Bruce wrote, “First and foremost, I’m just excited to share Sean’s music, which sounds fantastic in the voices of my fellow cast members. Each number is so different and so full of moments where you can clearly pick out what makes the characters unique. Secondly I hope the show can communicate in a shocking, spooky way how a person’s sense of self-worth or heroism can be used against them.”

Kaufman keeps it sweet and simple. “I just hope to give the student body a fun entertaining show. I think this piece is a fun and silly and slightly creepy kind of show, just like any circus. Maybe they can take away the thought that though ‘life is grand,’ not everything is as it seems,” she wrote.

On a final note, Furman wrote, “We hope that this show will be an insight for the student body into a lot of important themes–addiction, power, greed, love, sacrifice. To me, though, the fact that it was written by an alum demonstrates to the student body what is possible of the work created by Vassar students and how Vassar theatre can function to promote and support that work. This is, in a lot of ways, a workshop. It’s important, at least for me, to see students use Vassar as an opportunity for furthering and cultivating their own work in its very first steps, because it reminds me of the amazing resources we have here.”

November 5, 2015

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Dystopia immersive theater questions gender, technology Matt Stein reporter

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your own adventure brought to life.”

To further plunge the audience into Feed’s world, the production team also plans to utilize sounds. Tait explained, “We’re planning on having the audience members bring their phones and headphones to the show and we’re going to give them a link. Basically, they’ll be accessing a live streaming, which is where they’ll be getting all the sound from and where they’ll be hearing a lot of lines that are being said between these characters telepathically using the technology that exists in this future. So we’re just bringing in that kind of audience participation into what would usually be just static for theatre.”

During the whole process, the team members comprehensively explored this world, hoping to present an illusion in place of the reality. Each member believes that this work is not to answer, but rather, to ask the questions of society, giving

the audience members the tools to chisel away at what binds them to technology.

Collier concluded, “It’s kind of confronting the standard form of theatre where you’re only given one narrative and told what’s happening, whereas with this piece as we’re talking about engaging with the audience, the audience has to choose what story they’re going to follow and choose which character interests them. It’ll lead to every audience member having a completely different experience,” he continued, “Ultimately, I think this piece is about complacency and rebellion and asking ‘What would it take for you to rebel?’ or ‘What would it take for you to stand up against what’s happening all around you everyday at this college or in this world or in your day-to-day life because it’s so easy to be complacent.’ And this show is all about what happens when everybody makes that choice.”

courtesy of Facebook

rom the deep, dark depths of the Raymond basement on a rainy night just days before Halloween, a dystopia is unfolding one scene at a time. “Feed,” the source of these scenes, is being devised by artists with a goal.

Based on the 2002 Young Adult novel by M.T. Anderson, “Feed” will debut on Nov. 6 and 7.

Liam Collier ’16 is the director and Irene Tait ’16 is both Stage Manager and Assistant Director.

Anderson’s original novel takes place in a world where consumerism and technology dominate everyday life, with a direct connection to computers ingrained in people’s brains from birth. In this dystopian world, Titus, the teenager who narrates the story and a victim of this mind-control, encounters Violet, who independently thinks and questions the overbearing force of this uniform feed. Satirical of modern society and its tech obsession, Anderson provides a world that is not too far off from the world we live in today.

Describing what first drew him to this book, Collier recalled, “I read the novel when I was in seventh grade. My dad’s an English teacher and recommended it to me. It had a big impact on me and it’s kind of stuck with me ever since. So when I started getting more into immersive theatre, my mind went to Feed. It’s always struck me as a very theatrical text.”

The production team intended to create a show that touches on the original work but can still stand on its own two feet. For example, the concept of gender was accentuated for this production, with added gender-blind casting.

Yvette Segan ’19 and Miranda Amey ’19 both play characters that were initially males in the book: Link, a very alpha-male type, and Marty, who disappeared early on and so it was left to Amey to expand the role.

As the production moved forward, more discussions among the creators altered its path.

Collier remarked, “We’ve had so many conversations about gender in this show and in this world.

I don’t know what M.T. Anderson meant to do

but he wrote a very gendered book about what men do to women. And the conversations we had about that and about this world I think took the show in a completely new direction early on...it’s a major element behind our show even if it’s not overtly discussed that much. We transformed characters and thus transformed plot lines.”

Although Collier is the director, the production a true collaboration. The main priority has been for the actors to establish their characters.

Explaining the very democratic environment, Assistant Stage Manager, Kate Spence ’18, said, “Everyone listens to everyone’s opinions. Even though Liam’s the director, he listens. Actors play a huge role in their characters, stemming from their energy. There are texts that are drawn directly from the text but there hasn’t been a script.

The priority is that the characters are first, the world is second, and the dialogue comes after.“ Much of the rehearsal has been based around character work and improvisation, with Spence recording the dialogue that both the directors and actors have created through this technique.

Lexi Karas ’17, who plays Calista, was initially off-put by having to improvise, but has grown comfortable with it: “I’m not somebody who does improv. I’m usually fairly uncomfortable; I’ve been slowly shaken from that as my time at Vassar has gone on. This has been the first time it really felt different. It’s so different improvising when I know this character and it’s just this character being in a different situation. So, really leaning into that and being comfortable with that has been what’s made the difference.”

Adding on to the creative experience and growth, another actor in the show, Yael Haskal ’19 replied, “We’ve finally come to a place with our characters that we can talk as if we are them and have a natural synergy and how it makes sense.”

The role of the audience will be redefined as well. Viewers will not just be sitting and watching. Multiple scenes will go on at the same time in different rooms in Raymond’s basement so that it will be up to audiences to decide what they follow. As Karas described, “It’s a choose

A student theater piece, Feed is based on the dystopian novel by M. T. Anderson about technology and consumerism. Focusing on gender, the team hopes to create an interactive, immersive experience.

Fesser to explore differences in reality, fiction with humor Sieu Nguyen reporter

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courtesy of Mario Carvajal via Flickr

he “Jon Stewart of Spain” is how Chair of the Hispanic Studies Department Eva Woods cordially refers to her friend, screenwriter Guillermo Fesser, who is going to deliver a lecture at Vassar College on Nov. 10, 2015. The event, which will take place at 6 p.m. in Taylor 203, includes the screening of his award-winning film “Bienvenidos” (2015), followed by his lecture titled “Surfing Between Reality and Fiction.”

Fesser is a media figure in Spain well known for his integration of humor into news reporting. Having studied journalism at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Film at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Fesser has been involved in a wide variety of media branches—radio, television and film. The renowned screenwriter has given lectures at Harvard and Wesleyan.

At Vassar, Fesser will focus his speech on character building and humor in storywriting.

Fesser’s previous visit to Vassar proved fruitful, according to Woods, the main organizer of the event. As she recalled, “Guillermo is a multi-talented artist, writer, film and media producer. I brought him before to speak to a seminar in Hispanic Studies. The students loved him because he was very down to earth and interacted a great deal with his audience.

Because he is also a professional comedian, he is great fun. Moreover, he has tremendous experience overseeing and producing major film, media and theatrical productions, and has written scripts and novels, and multi-media interactive children’s literature and comics. Guillermo can connect with students in the humanities who are also navigating fiction and non-fiction, different media, and the personal and the public.”

The lecture will focus on the subtle boundary between fiction and reality. Woods explained how this theme came about. “Originally I invited Guillermo because he was going to discuss the issue of translating hu-

mor between Spanish-speaking and English speaking cultures, which I thought would appeal to anyone who has traveled abroad or tried to represent themselves in a foreign language. But recently he finished an award-winning short film on the issue of laptop technology in rural Peruvian schools. In this film he relies on a technique he used in other films, which is to draw on real people and their lives to make a film that is both fiction and reality. I’m very interested in the fine line between the two and how our reality is often a mix of these two constructs,” she said.

Humor is a big part of Fesser’s media persona. It is the trademark of Gomaespuma, a radio program he was hosting for 25 years, which brought him to great fame. In an emailed statement, Fesser said, “Humor is the sugar that Mary Poppins puts on the pill to help the medicine go down. Humor is modesty and because of that, it creates a friendly atmosphere to discuss any serious matter. To me humor is a vehicle, never a destination.”

Inma Donaire, a friend of Fesser, commented on this aspect of his writing and filmmaking style, “I find very interesting his point of view concerning current events, which is very insightful and truthful, yet at the same time always able to find the ironic, comic side of the situation. I have seen ‘El Milagro de P Tinto’ and ‘Candida,’ two very different films which I liked very much. Both are told in a humorous, refreshing manner and maintain a level of tension throughout, which is not easy to do.”

Also a screenwriter and novelists, Fesser enjoys the creative search for words. He noted, “Writing is the art of translating internal emotions to words. Very challenging to find the accurate words, the right rhythm to make a reader experience those feelings. The search for that format is what fascinates me the most: editing.”

In his lecture, Fesser will stress the central role of characters in story writing. “The most important part of the story are the characters.

From Madrid, Spain, Guillermo Fesser works as a journalist, filmmaker, novelist and writer. With extensive experiences in exploring serious issues through humor, Fesser will share his writing philosophy.

The story itself doesn’t matter if the player is interesting. I’ll argue that every human being has a formidable biography, so any character is good. I will also argue that fiction reaches more public than nonfiction. So I will show my narrative way, real stories based on fictional facts.”

Elaborating on this, the “Jon Stewart of Spain” noted, “Normally, writers produce Fiction based on real facts. I do Real stories based on fictional facts. What is this? Basically it is a way of using real people playing as themselves, but in situations that would be possible (credible) but are invented. So the content is real, but I wrap it in the format of a fictional adventure.”

“His interviews and stories are witty, dynamic and transmit a genuine enthusiasm for his subjects. He also displays a deep understanding of the issues, which he addresses

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

without drama. He is an agile storyteller,” said Donaire.

Talking about some projects he is currently doing, Fesser noted, “I have a collection of children’s books in Spanish that some U.S. elementary schools are using for reading in their Spanish class; and I’m writing a new story with the same characters. Also, I am writing a script based on the life of a New York City barman that I hope will soon become my second feature as a director.”

Having participated in multiple roles of film production, Fesser will speak from this multi-aspect experience at the lecture.

Woods said, “I have no doubt that people will laugh and enjoy this event. They will also have an opportunity to reflect on how technology is changing our world and to talk with others about these changes in the question and answer session.”

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November 5, 2015

Oakley’s print debut reveals intimate personal struggles Patrick Tanella reporter

Binge Tyler Oakley Gallery Books

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f you have ever turned on a computer and gone to YouTube, you have probably seen a video featuring Tyler Oakley. The social media mogul has been on the site since 2007 and has amassed more than seven and a half million subscribers.

With his first book, “Binge,” Oakley divulges information that he has never publicly shared before, including his childhood eating disorder, his first love and his coming-out story.

In 2007 as he was starting college, Oakley decided to start posting videos on YouTube to keep in touch with his friends at other schools.. These simple videos began to gain hundreds and thousands of views, which led him to quit his job in 2012 and begin pursuing YouTube full-time as a career. After attending Michigan State University, Oakley moved to San Francisco with his best friend, Korey Kuhl, to get away from the Midwest and further his job options.

Many people do not understand what a career in YouTube really is. While some people go to YouTube for a funny cat video or the newest music video, others go to watch thousands of online personalities such as Oakley vlog about their lives.

These vloggers talk about current events in pop culture, unique challenge videos or even serious topics such as body issues and self esteem. Oakley is known for his activism in LGBTQ+ issues, working with the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ hotline for struggling teens that need someone to talk to. He has raised over a million dollars for the charity, becoming its largest donor for the last two years. Oakley uses his YouTube platform to better the lives of others rather than those that use social media for fame.

With “Binge,” Oakley brings his bubbly personality from online to literary form. He has managed to connect with a wide audience of people who are able to relate to him. Oakley describes himself as a professional fangirl and has interviewed many celebrities including One Direction, Paris Hilton and Michelle Obama. He brings these hilarious and often heartwarming stories to “Binge.”

The title “Binge” comes from Oakley’s eating disorder as an adolescent and his difficulties with food throughout his life. However, he hopes for people to indulge instead in devouring the book

page by page.

There are several highlights of the book, including what Oakley would do if he was Beyoncé for the day, ranking the hottest Disney princesses and the trials of being Yearbook Editor-in-Chief.

While those are all fun to read, the heart of the memoir is in Oakley’s advice for struggling teens, whether that be coming out, eating disorders or dealing with a breakup. Oakley did not have a difficult coming out story as he was able to accept himself at a very young age and come out to his mother when he was 13. However, it led to a period of silence between him and his father for years.. He discusses his privilege in being able to come out and be accepted and warns his readers to only come out when they feel they are ready and in a safe environment. With his coming-out story, Oakley states, “If someone cannot accept who I am, I do not need them in my life” Like most adolescents, Oakley had self-esteem issues due to his weight. He became anorexic and refused to recognize that he was harming himself.

Looking back on it years later, Oakley remarks, “Your brain gets better at caring less about what the mirror actually shows, realizing those few extra pounds aren’t a matter of life and death. I still deal with this now a decade later, but I’m getting better at it.” This is an important message to re-

lay to anyone dealing with an eating disorder or a body issue, and Oakley is able to relay it to his sizable, younger audience that may be struggling with the same issue.

While Oakley has been private about his relationships, in “Binge” he reveals his first love, who he calls “the one that got away.” The whirlwind relationship resulted in the pair breaking it off after a year, but it destroyed Oakley. It took him years to realize that his ex was the love of his life. He explained, “There are multiple loves of your life, who are supposed to join us just at the right times.

Throughout our entire time on Earth, we end up meeting all of them.” This part of the book really speaks to others going through rough times in a relationship or who just broke up with someone.

It is hard to think about, but just know that it will all be okay and you will find your true love soon.

“Binge” is a memoir of Oakley’s childhood, discovering YouTube and developing his career to where it is today. It is a remarkable book that all teens should read to figure out how to deal with the trials of growing up. Oakley’s writing is filled with care and thought, and he makes it feel like he is personally talking to each person, just like in his videos. This internet star has successfully crossed over into the literary genre, and it is just the beginning of exciting things to come for Oakley.

Ode to My Father weaves Madlib shows production past, present Korean lives skill, talent in latest album Steven Park

Guest columnist

Ode to My Father Yoon Je-kyoon CJ Entertainment

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f you’re looking for a cultural work of film that will tug incessantly at your heartstrings, look no further than the 2014 Korean movie, “Ode to My Father.” Directed by Yoon Je-kyoon, who directed Korea’s first official disaster film “Tidal Wave,” “Ode to My Father” is a well crafted story about one man’s life of sacrifice and dedication for his family as he lives through some of South Korea’s most historic events. The premise of the movie is rather simple. Deok-soo, a old, cranky curmudgeon can’t help but feel unfulfilled with his life as the world around him changes with the times. He runs an imported-goods store that is in danger of going out of business but explodes in anger whenever anyone mentions the idea of selling it. One day, while looking after his grandchildren, Deok-soo goes through a series of vivid flashbacks, from his childhood during the Korean War to serving in the military in war-torn Vietnam, that piece together the reason why his outdated shop means so much to him.

This film, which has become the second-highest grossing film in the history of Korean cinema, can be best described as South Korea’s “Forrest Gump.”

Actor Hwang Jung-min as the young Deok-soo does a fantastic job representing the Korean everyman from the 1950s to present day. Hwang successfully brings out Deok-soo’s most admirable characteristic: his devotion for his family. Numerous instances that show Deok-soo’s determination and willpower to give up his happiness in exchange for his family’s well-being, which rallies the audience to his support.

Continuing the parallels with Robert Zemeckis’ American classic, it makes countless references to historically significant people and events.

However, there were times when the film felt too forcefully dramatic and shamelessly sappy. Some of the many emotional scenes in this movie felt exaggerated and manipulative for the sake of drama.

There were times during the tearjerker scenes when I could pinpoint the exact moment the director cued the sad violins to accompany the weeping. There is no subtlety. There are clear, distinct moments when the audience is told to laugh and when to cry. Additionally, this movie falls victim to several overused tropes and clichés such as the bumbling comedic side-kick and the love-at-first-sight female lead.

While harmless, these can cause some eye-rolling.

Yet, despite all these faults, none of it seems remotely important in the end as even the most cynical critic will become invested in this family-focused story.

The emotionally-gripping narrative slowly draws

you in when you least expect it, and by the time you notice, you can’t help but care about the issues that Deok-soo faces and the hardships that he endures.

Even if it could be cliché at times, the film still remains enjoyable during those cheesy moments.

Another noteworthy thing to mention is the production value. The film was primarily shot in the Korean city of Busan, the hometown of Director Yoon, but other filming locations include the Czech Republic for the scenes of the German coal mines and Thailand, which stood in for the untamed jungles of Vietnam. It was also the first Korean blockbuster film to enforce a standard labor contract with the film and production crew. In Korea, it is common for labor laws and regulations to be brushed off and for young staff members to be overworked with little pay. While not the first Korean movie to have a standard labor contract, this film actually enforce the contract during pre-production and distributed bonuses equally Due to this, production costs rose to $300 million. But the film topped the box office with a total of 1.5 million viewers in the first five days. According to Director Yoon, the cost was worth it. He stated to korea joongang daily, “people worked harder and more willingly, which ended up elevating the quality of the work.”

Surprisingly, what I found important in the film was its relevance to modern issues. With a series of flashbacks, it creates a visual contrast between the flashback events and the observations of Deoksoo. This style forces the audience to compare the past and the present. For example, in one extremely emotional flashback, the five year-old Deok-soo and his family, as well as thousands of fleeing Koreans, were saved just in time by the U.S. Navy from the bombings during the Korean War but ultimately became unwelcome, harassed refugees in the south.

When it eventually fades back to the present, Deoksoo sees a group of present day teenagers verbally assault a family of immigrants and label them as unwanted, dark-skinned outsiders, which promptly causes the elderly Deok-soo to burst in anger and publicly scold and beat the reprehensible teenagers.

Scenes such as these struck me as powerful as it seemed like the movie used them to point out the various social issues in Korea today.

As a final note, I must reflect upon the film’s strange nature of being both unrealistic yet realistic.

It has its unrealistic moments when the drama is overly embellished and the scene carries out like a soap opera, but at the same time, the movie is genuine when it touches on the issues of family, sacrifice and the changes accompanied by the unending flow of time. Despite its clichés, the movie did not end with the perfect happy ending as I expected. Instead, it concludes on a bittersweet note that perfectly encapsulates the feelings of peace and memories of regret that comes with old age. It’s no surprise that many viewers in Korea saw it as a nostalgic journey down memory lane as well as a solemn tribute to those who carried the burden so that others didn’t have to.

Jimmy Christonr guest columnist

Bad Neighbor Madlib Stones Throw

S

orry Zac Efron, there’s a new “Bad Neighbor” next door. The recent album takes the title of best “Bad Neighbor” from last year’s film. Madlib, the album’s producer, makes another convincing case that he has the Midas touch with the recent drop. Madlib has shown time and time again that he can consistently create creative beats from project to project.

He is most well-known for his 2004 collaboration with MF DOOM “Madvillain.” Madlib has a wide discography of hip-hop releases from both the producing and rapping side of the game (under alter-ego Quasimoto) and has shown to be equally prolific in both. This album is no exception to that range, even though he only sticks to producing.

This project is the collaborative brainchild of producer Madlib, MC’s Blu (of Blu and Exile fame) and M.E.D. This is the first LP release from the group after their debut EP “The Burgundy” in 2013. Blu is a bit of an oddball in the music industry. His first–and best–album with Exile, “Below The Heavens” in 2007, seemed to ensure a track to stardom; yet Blu never really blew up after that.

M.E.D. is a rapper that has always been just below the surface, appearing on some of the early 2000s’ biggest records such as the Madlib-MF DOOM masterpiece that is “Madvillainy,” but never taking the spotlight for himself. Despite their differences, they come together to make a casual album with amazing production that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Both Blu and M.E.D. bring their A-game to this record, consistently delivering thoughtful, reserved and casual verses. Blu is especially good at delivering verses as if he just talks like this all day. He’s just so damn casual about it. Blu emanates so much charisma that it’s hard not to crack a smile when he spits lines like: “We In-N-Out like a burger/ serving 24/7, 7-11 we serving” on the track “Serving.”

Where Blu delivers lines with a casual grace, M.E.D. flows with a voice that’s blunt, harsh and just the least bit threatening that works with verses like “Walk with a lean like I need a sprite.” The two styles complement each other nicely–without one stealing the spotlight. The only exception is on “Knock Knock,” where M.E.D.’s verse is pretty forgettable with it being sandwiched between stellar verses from MF DOOM and Blu, which is a shame because other then that, the song is one of the best on the album.

Even greater than their lyrical content, how-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ever, is both Blu and M.E.D.’s ability to find their presence on a wide array of beats from Madlib.

They might be rapping over some spacy-guitars on “Knock-Knock,” traditional snares-and-synths on “Peroxide,” or a wide array of bird noises on the eponymous track “Birds;” whatever the sonic-landscape, Blu and M.E.D. traverse it like seasoned hikers.

Speaking of “Birds,” this song really is a testament to just how creative Madlib can be, without overcomplicating the song. The production of this track is mainly just some pretty standard drums and bird chirps, lots of bird chirps. The chirps are arranged in such a way that give the song a bouncy feel to it, especially when paired with Blu’s hook, “Move em’ out, move em’ out, move em’ out.”

This album would also serve well as an instrumental project. The tracks have a nice sense of flow to them. The beats start out quieter and slower at first but quickly ramp up for the middle of the album tracks like “Knock Knock” and “The Strip,” which are filled with distorted guitars and sample-vocals to give the songs a psychedelic quality for the better. Then the songs slow down again for the latter half of the album. With this change in tempo, the songs become more personal with songs like “Drive In,” where Blu and M.E.D. reminisce about movie-dates with their special-someones back in the day.

Any album can have some strong features, some solid beats and some good verse and be a solid album (Vince Staples and Tyler the Creator’s newest releases come to mind), but what truly elevates “Bad Neighbor” above a solid album is how consistent it is. All of the features, whether if it’s for a verse or for a hook, are great.

M.E.D. and Blu never give anything less than 100 percent on their verses throughout the whole album, and then there’s the production. Good lord, the production. Madlib proves for the few remaining skeptics that he is one of the best contemporary producers out there in hip-hop today.

It’s safe to say this is going to be one of those albums that ages well with time. The production and how they interact with the performers is so layered and dense that the listener will still be picking up on new sounds even after hours on repeat. Madlib uses everything from soul samples, guitars, drum kits, synths and even the previously-mentioned bird chirps to craft beats that are layered, smooth and work to compliment those rapping over the beats.

But, most people that take an active interest in hip-hop know about Madlib already. M.E.D. and Blu (and their chemistry) are the pleasant surprise in this album. Both are at the top of their game, and it shows. The two share a sense of camaraderie and charisma that makes it hard to turn them off once you start listening. That goes for the whole album too; once you turn it on, it’s hard to stop until you run out of songs to listen to.

ARTS

November 5, 2015

Page 17

Watercolor images paint Poughkeepsie EXHIBIT continued from page 1

studied under the same teacher, Paul Ching-Bor, at the The Art Students League of New York.

Elizabeth introduced the gallery to Mitsu’s work and the work of all the other watercolor artists that make up the Works on Paper show.”

Haraguchi’s resonated with Thompson particularly because of her time at Vassar. “Mitsu’s work stood out to us because of its unusual subject matter, skill, unexpected approach to watercolor and the brilliant use of color,” she said. “To me, of course, it stood out because Poughkeepsie played such a meaningful role in my life.”

Haraguchi contributed a series of housescapes to the exhibit, which are based on homes and sites he saw during a visit to Poughkeepsie in the summer of 2014. In an interview on BDG’s website, Haraguchi explained his interest in Poughkeepsie, “[I] immediately fell in love with the place. The town has a rich history dating back to the era of American Revolution. I am particularly attracted to historic sites and old

buildings (e.g., 19th century Victorian style, colonial style…etc.). It also used to be a capital of New York state a long time ago.”

But the house-scapes in the exhibit show the Poughkeepsie students all know. Haraguchi describes this modern Poughkeepsie as a relic of its rich past. “At present, however, you see the remains of those glorious days. After a major corporation left, things went south. Some say that nursing homes are currently one of the biggest industries there,” he explained. “You may wonder, how did I become attracted to the place? I don’t know.”

Urban Studies student Anna Beeman ’18 spent time studying Poughkeepsie. While her research has focused mainly on inequalities in Poughkeepsie, she noticed how important art and culture are to the city. She explained, “I think Poughkeepsie is cool because it has so much potential. In my current field work I am learning how important art and culture plays in a role of revitalizing the city. I definitely think

courtesy of Artsy.net

Haraguchi’s House on the Hill is based on a Poughkeepsie landmark. The painting is part of the artist’s contribution to Works on Paper, a recent exhibition at the Betrand Delacroix Gallery.

Campus Canvas

that Vassar students should look into different events in Poughkeepsie- its actually incredible how much goes on with events, art exhibitions, lectures, movie screenings, etc.”

Thompson echoed Beeman’s encouragement for students to explore Poughkeepsie. “I hope... [students] continuously look at Poughkeepsie with new eyes, as a city with a deep and complex history and a positive, flourishing future,” She continued, “I hope they see the beautiful homes and colors and insight Mitsu offers and make the most of the city during the years they spend there. Vassar is great at offering students the opportunity to leave the campus and explore more of the unknown Poughkeepsie—and I urge students to take advantage of this.”

According to Haraguchi, outsiders have a unique ability to explore these elements. This perspective helped shape his Poughkeepsie paintings. He explained, “Although I have been living in New York City for about two decades, I was born and raised in Japan. I am an outsider.

However, sometimes an outsider can see things, which locals take for granted, from a different perspective. In my paintings, I may take advantage of this outsider’s point of view in order to express my feelings toward the town.”

As students, we too are outsiders. “As a Vassar student, I was both uniquely connected to the town as I was a resident for 4 years, and uniquely separated as I spent so much of that time on the Vassar campus itself,” explained Thompson.

With this perspective, Haraguchi depicted several homes in Poughkeepsie in watercolor.

The depictions look eerily familiar. According to Thompson, “Several people have immediately recognized the homes as Poughkeepsie based while others have commented on the universal aspect of the works—that they could be mysterious houses in any location.”

According to BDG’s description of the exhibit as a whole, “The works blur the line between figuration and abstraction.” But for Vassar students, there is only the line separating campus from the outside community. And for those unwilling to cross over, or those simply in the market for some pricey dorm decorations, Haraguchi’s works from the exhibit are for sale through BDG’s webpage.

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Excuse me, What childhood book blew your mind?

“Harry Potter 6.”

— Sarah Hollis ’18

“The Babysitters Club.”

— Caroline Rivers ’19

“The Phantom Tollbooth.”

— Logan Cooley ’17

submit to misc@vassar.edu

“A Wrinkle In Time.”

— Isabel Furman ’19

“James and the Giant Peach.”

— Tika Peterson ’19

In this piece I was inspired by Subway rides in New York City. Oftentimes, there is a tendency to avoid eye contact with any fellow passengers or look around too much; the alternative option being to stare blankly at the feet of the people in front of you. I tried to capture the personalities of each passenger in my work, and relay the individuals emotions based on their seated position or stance, and their clothing and shoe choice. For each individual, there is a sense of anonymity as well as exposure.

-Zerlina Panush ‘17

“Matilda.”

— Sharika Hasah ’19

Zander Bashaw, Humor & Satire Editor Sam Pianello, Photo Editor

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

SPORTS

Page 18

November 5, 2015

Lax partners with Alex’s Lemonade to make difference Amreen Bhasin

I

Reporter

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

f on Saturday, Oct. 10 of this year, you took a trip down to Weinberg Field, you would have been treated to a familiar sight as the Vassar College men’s lacrosse team squared off against SUNY-Oneonta and Roger Williams University in a fall scrimmage. What you may not have known to expect was the sight of this year’s team preparing and selling refreshing cups of everyone’s favorite drink, lemonade. While the level of play was high and the Brewers showed a strong level of intensity, the real highlight of the day was the team’s partnership with the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF).

Senior standout T.J. Morrow, gave a little background on the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and emphasized its importance as a cause.

“Alex’s Lemonade Stand is a foundation based on raising money and awareness for childhood cancer. The cause is obvious[ly] a cause worth fighting for. Our team goal was [to raise] $600 and we already have raised close to $1000.”

ALSF has three main goals that it seeks to achieve. The first, as Morrow introduced, is to raise both money and awareness for the causes of childhood cancer primarily through research into new treatments and cures. From there, ALSF wants to create an open, inclusive community and help encourage and empower others, particularly children to get involved and help make a difference for children living with cancer. Finally, the foundation’s main goal is inspired by the vision of their founder and creator, Alexandra “Alex” Scott: a cure for each and every child that has cancer.

Junior Eric Prezioso explained how the team connected the ALSF: “Our team got involved with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation through our [Head] Coach, Marc Graham, who went to high school with Alex’s parents so this cause was more personal for him. It’s a great cause to get behind, Alex was a very brave young girl and it feels right to help carry on what she stated with [the original] Alex’s Lemonade stand, raising money to help fight sickness and

disease in young children.”

Alex Scott was diagnosed as a pediatric cancer patient just before her first birthday. Once, at the age of four, she informed her family she would be setting up a front-yard lemonade stand. The young girl had a plan, she wanted to give all the money she made to her doctors in order to help them find a cure. Scott and her older brother, Patrick, managed to make $2000 that first day. As Alex continued to battle her own cancer, she spent each and every moment she could setting up more and more lemonade stands. News began to spread and many others began setting up their own stands and donating any proceeds to the young Scott and her cause.

Morrow explained how he and his team were collecting much of their funds. “As a team we have a page on the Alex’s Lemonade website that you can find by searching on the site for Vassar men’s lacrosse. Any funds donated there will go straight to the foundation. I encourage anybody interest[ed] in donating to check out the website.”

After opening the lemonade stand in 2000 at the age of four, Alex spent another four years working and inspiring people at her lemonade stand. Unfortunately, in 2004 at the age of eight she passed away. At that point, she had raised over $1 million towards helping cure one of the diseases that had killed her. In 2005, Scott’s parents started the ALSF and continue the work on Alex’s goals. They were raising money and awareness for childhood cancer causes, focusing mainly on research into new treatments and cures and worked to encourage and empower others, particularly children, to keep making a positive difference in each other’s lives.

For Prezioso, the experience of working with ALSF has been overwhelmingly positive and impactful. “The experience of working with Alex’s Lemonade Stand [has been very] good and it was so easy to get involved with. It really just goes to show how little effort it takes to get involved and how much of a difference that little effort can make in someone else’s life.”

Overall, since 2000, ALSF has managed to

The men’s lacrosse team has paired with the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to help raise money and awareness for childhood cancer. The team has already raised close to $1,000 for the charity. raise well over $100 million. The money they raise in dues helped fund more than 500 cutting edge research programs and projects. A new travel program was created in order to ensure the families of children receiving treatment are protected, and feel safe and secure as well. The money has also gone towards the continual development and upgrading of resources to help all those everywhere that have been affected by any sort of childhood cancer.

According to Morrow, the partnership with ALSF has been the realization of a team goal dating back to a year ago. “As a team, we have been trying to engage and participate in more community outreach projects for a while now, so partnering with Alex’s Lemonade Stand made sense to the team as a whole.”

At their actual stand on Saturday the 10th, the team managed to raise $303 selling beverages to

fans.

For Morrow, the partnership brings an important piece to his team and he’s glad to see them continuing to extend beyond the field. “As a team, we strive to achieve goals that would be impossible as individuals, and these goals do not need to necessarily always be centered only on the lacrosse field. Raising money to fight childhood cancer is a more than worthy goal.”

Prezioso agreed with Morrow and hoped to be able to continue to get more involvement all season long: “Our team plans to work with Alex’s Lemonade for the whole season with everyone on our team wearing yellow shoe laces every game to show our support and try to spread the word about Alex’s Lemonade to all the teams we play in hopes they will donate to the cause and make difference in a sick child’s life.”

Teams finish fourth, carry optimism into future success XC continued from page 1

team to finish in the top three of every race for the Brewers this fall. Howlett has also had a very successful three solid seasons with the Brewers. On top of her strong performance at Liberty Leagues, she recently finished second among VC runners at the Seven Sisters Championships. Howlett agreed with Prater-Lee’s sentiments and spoke highly of her teammates, “The team has the talent to perform well and be up there—we just need to stay confident and positive. Both Ava Farrell and Christiana Prater-Lee have both been huge front-runners for us this season.” Sophomore Eliana Tyler concurred, “As a team we went into the weekend focused on being competitive with the teams at the top of the League. The top three teams (St Lawrence, RPI and RIT) are all nationally ranked so we knew that we would have to work hard to break up their packs.” The team certain-

ly displayed their level of talent and dedication this past weekend.

The Vassar College men’s cross country team also ran their Liberty League Championship run in Canton, N.Y. this past Saturday, and the men’s team finished fourth as well. Sophomore Michael Scarlett finished 11th and also earned All–Liberty League Second Team. Scarlett finished the 8K course with a recorded time of 26:27.76. He has been the top runner for Vassar Brewers in every race this year. Scarlett is not only excited about his own success but also that of his teammate’s, explaining “My favorite memory so far this season was watching fellow team member Kyle Dannenberg run under 30 minutes in the 8k for the first time. As a senior, he has shown his commitment and perseverance over four years, and for him to accomplish his goal was inspiring to see.”

Scarlett continued to discuss the preparation

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

The women’s cross country team is bursting with young potential, growing closer as the season comes to a close. Both teams finished fourth at the Liberty League Championships and look to improve.

necessary to face this level of competition: “To prepare for our championship races, aside from growing out our facial hair, we are mentally preparing for a strong finish to the season. Our team is continuing to train with the same attitude as have all year: with an intense focus on our upcoming races.” In addition to this sense of humor, Scarlett brings a very positive and team-oriented attitude to his cross country pursuits. “Everyone on the team agrees that the fall brings three great things: foliage, the Patriots, and cross country season. It is our favorite time of the year, and we get to spend it with each other. Together. As one. A family”.

The team’s success extended beyond Scarlett and Dannenburg’s highlight performances.

Sophomore Jack Yaworsky finished a strong 22nd overall (27:07.34) and sophomore Philip Brown finished right behind placing an overall 23rd (27:07.65). Freshman Luke Arsenault ran his first League meet and finished fourth across the Vassar team (27:21.79) with sophomore Jesse Schatz following right on his heels with a time of 27:25.13.

The men’s team is a young team primarily consisting of freshmen and sophomores, however, they come to championships ready to compete and ready for a championship season.

Brown commented, “Winning the men’s team title at our home Ron Stonitch Invite was definitely a very satisfying moment in our season.

We’ve also had several workouts that have helped improve our confidence in our fitness, which is very important. We were definitely looking to finish among the top three teams as a distinct goal, but more generally we just wanted to get out there and compete against the other teams and runners.”

Coach McCowan spoke of his team’s dynamic and mentality, explaining “This year has started out differently for the Brewers, as a sense of beginning anew and working past last year’s [season] has been apparent. The teams are really coming together, we’ve got really closeknit teams, freshmen have integrated really well and upperclassmen have done a great job of including them into the team environment.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Tyler agreed, “What I love the most about cross country is definitely the team. I appreciate how we are all supportive of each other yet know how to grind it out when it is time to work hard.

Some of my favorite moments from this year have been during strong workouts we have had as a team. Whether on the farm or at the track, we have had many workouts where we have run as a tight pack and pushed each other to put in a lot of good work.” Howlett echoed Tyler’s thoughts, “I love how we are such an eclectic group of people but we all get along very well.

This is my third year on the team and it has definitely been my rock through Vassar. Everyone is so accepting and reliable. I can count on them for anything”. Prater-Lee agreed, “I love how quickly indivisible bonds have formed among this team. We are united through pain, perseverance and personality”.

Now both VC teams move onto the ECAC Championships on Nov. 7 at Williams College, then the NCAA Atlantic Regionals follow the very next weekend in Geneseo, N.Y. The season culminates at the NCAA Championships in Winneconne, Wis. on Nov. 21. The teams are prepared through consistent hard workouts.

Brown spoke about the team’s continued effort and commitment towards success, “We usually have a couple of workouts a week where we run intervals of a particular distance at what we call ‘goal pace,’ which is the pace our team would have to run to qualify for nationals. Those workouts are big in terms of building strength and endurance as the season goes on, and they’re also big in terms of building our confidence. We also have a couple of more steady-paced runs during the week that are less strenuous than the workouts and more focused on maintaining our endurance. The satisfying feeling after having a really good workout or race is probably one of my favorite feelings of the sport, and I imagine everyone else’s.” The team is still young, but dreams of success are not far-fetched. The Brewers hope all of this hard work and camaraderie will pay off as both teams move to the final stages of their championship season.

November 5, 2015

SPORTS

Page 19

NFL trade ‘dead’-line adds NBA contenders poised to little action, drama to league make run at ellusive title Zach Rippe

Sports Editor

F

or America’s major professional sports, the trade deadline promises the chance for a big move or two to shake the balance of power in the league. The NBA deadline almost always offers a host of moves that feature both superstars and role players. The MLB deadline is just as stressful and exhilarating, as teams in contention battle to the last second to pick up pieces their organization needs to make a final run at the playoffs. The NFL deadline, however, is often marked by the opposite sentiment.

While fans get riled up during baseball and basketball seasons, the reaction to football’s deadline is almost always a resounding “meh.”

This year’s deadline was this past Tuesday at 4 p.m. and proved to be more of the same for the NFL and its fans. The biggest deal took place on Monday as the struggling 49ers sent tight end Vernon Davis to the Denver Broncos for some late-round draft picks.

There was wind of all-pro left tackle Joe Thomas being involved in a trade to Denver as well, however, that move stalled and was never completed due to a dispute over draft picks.

This move would have actually been huge for the Broncos as Thomas would have helped better protect Peyton Manning’s blind side.

The Davis upgrade alone has made Denver the clear deadline winners. Still, there really isn’t a substantial discussion about the deadline as a whole to be had. There were no other moves of even remote significance.

The NFL moved the deadline back two weeks in 2012 with hopes of making it more active and competitive for teams looking to make the most of their status as contenders.

Sure, there’s the argument that the deadline is still too early. Yet the league and sport itself do not lend themselves well to these kinds of mid-season deals. Why is this? For one, switching teams means changing systems and thus entire offensive and defensive schemes.

In baseball, a player may need to learn some defensive shifts and base-coach signs, but their actions on the field are pretty much universal.

In basketball, players take time to learn offenses and defenses, yet there are only five players on the court for each team at a time and athletic ability and instinct for the game can compensate for lack of systematic knowledge, especially when players have good instincts and high basketball IQs. Football is unique in the amount of preparation and the intricacy of the systems players, teams and organizations implement. Positions are also much more specialized and highlight specific skills that alone may not be able to transform the dynamic of a team. It is unheard of for someone like a quarterback getting traded mid-year, as the learning curve would compromise a team’s entire season. There are also only 16 games in a football season, meaning each holds much more weight than those of the 162-game and 82-game seasons of the MLB and NBA. Those players who do get dealt will have an impact on the field, yet it will be much more specialized. An athlete playing left tackle, for example may be able to make a huge difference for a team, yet is only on the field for certain points in the game and has a very specific skill that only impacts certain circumstances. It is rare that teams can complete a trade for someone like baseball’s Yoenis Cespedes and completely turn their offense or defense around.

Congratulations to the Denver Broncos. With little fanfare (outside the Denver area at least), they made the only significant moves of the deadline. Yes, they, an undefeated team, made noticeable improvements to their team. Yet teams and fans can’t count on the deadline as a whole as a day of change that could turn one’s season around. Sure, there are plenty of other forms of excitement looming throughout the NFL season, but as a baseball and basketball fan I must say, it’s pretty disappointing.

Shira Idris

Guest Reporter

A

fter their dominant finish to last season, the 2014-2015 NBA Champions return with their core nucleus still together. The Golden State Warriors have Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut in their starting five, the same players that led them to their victory last season. Moreover, they still have their Finals MVP and star Sixth Man, Andre Iguodala, who Jalen Rose called their “Swiss army knife” for his versatility on the court. They’re the fastest team in the league, as well as a team that knows how to move the ball. According to Rose, the average Warrior holds the ball for 2.39 seconds, suggesting that they read the defense well and assess their strategies carefully. Most of the teams they faced in the playoffs last season were missing a starting player due to injuries, but the Warriors were healthy as ever. Many question if they will be as lucky this year. With their excellent ball-handling, their communication and their 3-point shooters, maybe they won’t need luck.

People love to hate on Lebron, but we’ve got to give him (and the Cavs) credit where credit is due. If the Cavs can first make it to the NBA finals, and second hold their own against last year’s Warriors, who were inarguably a better ball team at the time, they can do even better with all their key players healthy. They played without Kevin Love or Kyrie Irving, key players that could have potentially made a great difference in the outcome of the series. Irving is still out, but Love is back, and determined to make a great impact. Furthermore, center Timofey Mozgov proved valuable during last year’s finals; the Cavs won 76 percent of the games he started. With a strong Western Conference, the Cavs only have to beat one of those top contending teams to win the title.

Critics and analysts are saying this might be the Thunder’s most important season yet. This

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

is Kevin Durant’s last season before his pending free agency. Unfortunately for them, Kevin Durant, 2013-2014 MVP, was riddled with foot, ankle and toe injuries for almost all of last season. Now, it’s been almost seven months since Durant underwent his last foot surgery.

The Thunder also have Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka back together and injury-free, perhaps one of the strongest trios in the NBA today (or even, all days). Zach Lowe of Grantland even noted that after trading Harden, the Thunder have never lost a playoff series when all three of these players are healthy for its duration. People are worried that this Durant won’t be the Kevin Durant they knew and saw pre-foot surgeries (he had three surgeries on his foot in 167 days). But if this Friday’s game against the Thunder has shown anything, it’s that Durant is back, Durant’s foot is back and the Thunder are already killing it. Against the Magic in overtime, both Durant and Westbrook dominated, scoring over 40 points a piece, a feat that hasn’t happened since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen balled it up way back when.

The Rockets’ key addition of Ty Lawson can reshape the way they play this year. The duo of Lawson, one of the NBA’s leaders in assists, and James Harden may bring a strong offense that will scare away weaker defensive teams. With Lawson around, Harden has less of the burden to be the playmaker and carry the team’s offense, so hopefully he won’t get burned out at the end of games like he did in the playoffs last year. Plus, if Dwight Howard is healthy and plays as best as he could, they’ll have a stellar defense as well. Dwight has proved to be pivotal in the Rockets’ rebounding; when he was injured last year, the Rockets ranked 28th in rebounds. Trevor Ariza and Patrick Beverly, also starters, have proved to be ferocious defenders as well. The Rockets have reshaped themselves to their advantage, a strong, dynamic team that will shake the ever shifting balance of power in this young league.

SPORTS

Page 20

November 5, 2015

En garde! Deep fencing squads to build on past success Ashley Hoyle Reporter

O

ver at Walker Field House, the men’s and women’s fencing teams have been parrying away as they build towards the start of their season. Both squads will be performing this season under the tutelage of head coach Bruce Gillman. This will mark Gillman’s 11th season with the Brewers, and second year in a row with 20 plus wins.

Last year, men’s fencing went 20-14, an encouraging record that signaled the possibilities of even bigger things to come. Luckily, this year there is a huge amount of starter retention. Almost all of the experienced fencers from last year are returning for the 2015-2016 bid and are looking to improve their standings in the Northeast Fencing Conference, where they went 5-5

in conference play last season.

The men’s epee squad is coming off huge success. The starting trio of sophomores George Whiteside, Jonathan Alperstein and junior captain Ry Farley worked very well together. Alperstein had the second most winning record last season, posting 63 wins starting with his very first at a college competition at last year’s The Big One tournament. Whiteside and Farley finished the year with 57 and 61 wins respectively.

Foil was the only men’s squad to put up a losing record last season, but it is looking to rack up a few more wins this year with some more experience under their belt. Sophomore Tom Racek will be an important returner for men’s foil and fence the No. 1 position. Racek comments on the Brewers’ strengths this year, saying, “We have some very strong squads that can

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

Head coach Bruce Gillman has led the Vassar fencing squads to back-to-back 20 victory seasons.

Gillman boasts an experienced squad with quite a bit of depth on both the male and female sides.

go toe to toe with some of the best Division I schools. All of our starters are returning for the men’s sabre and epee squads and the women’s foil and epee squads are even more stacked this year thanks to the talent of the Class of 2019.

Regardless of all of that, our greatest strength lies with each other and the camaraderie that is present within the team. The camaraderie makes the wins so much sweeter and it also makes the defeats a little less sour.”

Vassar’s sabre fencers saw tremendous success last year, posting a 190-108 winning record.

Sophomore Eli Polston delivered a stellar performance in his premiere season, posting 65 wins himself and winning the NEIFC Championship. Polston will be joined by two-year captain, senior Elam Coalson. The experience keeps coming with junior Campbell Woods joining the squad, who won 46 matches last season along with senior Zachary Wilson.

Racek recapped last season, “We qualified nine men and nine women to NCAA Regionals (the prerequisite to the NCAA Championship).

The men’s and women’s team both finished the season with winning records and there were a lot of strong performances on an individual basis.”

On the women’s side, the Brewers are coming off a 27-20 season, posting the most victories in a season in program history. This year is exciting for the women as they are getting back two of their top epee fencers who missed much competition last year studying abroad. Last season, they clinched the third spot in the Eastern Women’s Fencing Conference and are looking to better their standings in the Northeast Fencing Conference.

Last year’s epee squad pulled out 185 wins for Vassar. The team is happy to welcome back senior Rachel Messbauer, who was studying abroad last year. She will be joined by junior Olivia Weiss, who is has been the most successful of the epee women, posting 80 wins in her last two bids. Senior captains Maggie Shepherd and Amreen Bhasin will also join the epee ranks,

bringing with them excellent records as well as some very valuable leadership presence.

On the foil front, sophomore Kirsten Denman delivered a stand out premiere performance last year, putting up 149 of the squad’s 179 wins in her first season wearing burgundy and grey. Denman won the NEIFC Championships last winter. Junior Elsa Stoff, sporting a 146 bout career win record, will also contribute greatly to the foil squad.

The sabre squad will be struggling to fill some spots left over by some now-graduated seniors who delivered excellent career performances. Sophomore Annie Innes-Gold will be stepping up into the No. 1 spot, holding a 92 victory record for last season. Innes-Gold felt good about last year, saying, “Overall, the team had a really great season last year. We had a lot of tough meets, and one team victory that stands out to me was beating NYU, because it was the first time in several years that the women’s team defeated NYU. I think we were able to do this because we had strength in each of the squads, so each squad contributed victories.

Last season was also a great first season for me. I was able to fence so much at every meet, which was a really great opportunity, especially as a freshman.”

Weiss said, “We are all working our hardest to prepare for the season with four practices a week as well as private lessons.” Innes-Gold added, “There won’t be one squad that will have to carry the other two; we should be getting victories from all three.” Both squads are unified in their goals for the season. Said Weiss, “Our team goal is to win the NEIFC Championships this season.” Racek agreed, saying, “Fortunately it is a shared goal, everyone wants to take their performance and the team’s performance to another level. We are all working hard to incorporate a lot of cross training activities outside of practice and during practice. We do all of this with the end goal in mind to win The Northeastern Intercollegiate Fencing Championships.”

Brewer fans wave goodbye to seniors, hello to playoffs Matthew Vassar

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team now looks to its dual meet against Skidmore College next Saturday.

Men’s Soccer

Men’s Squash

The men’s squash team had its first home match of the season last Saturday against Siena College. The men dominated play throughout, winning 9-0. Ben Kurchin allowed only 10 points over three sets to put Vassar up 1-0 on the day. The rest of the team followed suit with an impressive debut from sophomore Andrew Patton, who is new to the sport. This was the second time in two years that the Brewers won 9-0. The team is now 2-0 and looks to continue its winning ways against NYU next Saturday morning, followed by the Hudson Valley Individual Tournament later that afternoon.

Men’s Swimming and Diving

The men’s swim and dive team was edged out in the final race of the evening last Friday night against SUNY-New Paltz, losing the dual meet 149-132. It was the New Paltz Hawks’ ‘C’ relay team that outlasted the Brewers in the 400 yard freestyle relay to put Vassar, who trailed by just four points at the time, away for good. Still, there were nine total event victories on the night for the Brewers. Sophomore Jonah Strand and junior Anthony Walker had three apiece. Strand won the 100-meter breaststroke, the 200-meter breast and the 400-meter IM with an impressive time of 4:34.69. The

Women’s Field Hockey

The women’s field hockey team continued its dominant play last week with an important 3-0 victory over the University of Scranton. Junior Emma Bracken recorded two goals and an assist as the Brewers completed their shutout, extending their home winning streak even further. This was Bracken’s first two goal game of her career. The women then closed out their season with a come-from-behind victory over the New Paltz Hawks on Halloween. New Paltz scored first with a goal just past the 28-minute mark. But Vassar fought back with a goal from sophomore Storm Sideleau at the 46-minute mark. Shortly after, junior Lauren Shumate scored what would be the game-winning goal.

The Brewers have now won 18 straight games at home.

courtesy of Vassar Athletics

The men’s soccer team faced off against Union College Oct. 29 and fell in a devastating double overtime bout by a score of 1-0. The first and only goal of the evening was scored

by Union senior Jason Miller. This loss eliminated the Brewers from Liberty League playoff contention. This game made it so the highest the team could possibly finish would be sixth place. In their final game of the season against Bard, the team dominated the field, winning by a score of 5-0, with four coming in the second half. The match against Bard also served as senior day and the team honored its 10 senior players. The Brewers finished the season 8-6-2 with a 4-4 record in the Liberty League.

Women’s Rugby

The women’s rugby team continued its dominant fall with a 55-10 victory over crosstown rival Marist College. Still, the score is not quite as indicative of the game as it may read. The Brewers were only up 20-10 at the half and fought hard throughout its entirety.

The forward pack put forth a tremendous effort that helped the team overcome any obstacles. In the second half, the team reduced its turnovers and took advantage of a tired Marist squad whose defensive holes became more apparent as time went on. Seniors Taylor Nunley and Cierra Thomas scored two tries respectively along with junior Laila Blumenthal-Rothchild. Senior Darienne Jones and sophomore Abby Alexander also added scores in the victory. The Brewers now look forward to the Tri-State Conference Final next Sunday against Rutgers University.

The women’s soccer team ended their regular season play in style with a dramatic victory over Union College on Halloween to advance to the Liberty League Playoffs. The team will face William Smith.

They scored again around the 60th minute and while Vassar answered back late on a goal from senior Lucy Brainerd and pushed till the very end, they could not tie things up. This meant their playoff hopes would come down to their final game against Union on senior day. The Brewers did not disappoint, blanking Union 2-0 on Halloween to advance to the Liberty League playoffs. Freshman Rebecca Andrews notched a header in the 56th minute and Brainerd scored in the 89th off a free kick to seal the game and playoff birth. The Brewers now look to face No. 5 ranked William Smith this week.

Women’s Swimming and Diving

Women’s Soccer

The women’s soccer team had a tough loss against Bard last Thursday as they fell 2-1.

The teams remained scoreless for most of the first half, but Bard went up late on a free kick.

The swim and dive team took home a victory against the New Paltz Hawks this past Friday in an eventful evening that saw freshman Mia Moraru set the school record for the 3-meter diving event. Freshmen Sammy Stone, Kael

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Ragnini and Hayley Schultz combined for four event wins as the Brewers won 163-128. Junior Julia Cunningham also picked up three event victories on the night in the 200-meter fly, the 100-meter fly and the 400-meter IM. The team returns to action next Saturday against Skidmore College.

Women’s Volleyball

The women’s volleyball team took to the court against Brandeis University and Babson College this past Halloween, splitting their record on the day. The Brewers matched up against Babson first, falling 3-0 despite a good effort. The Brewers were able to handle Brandeis, however, winning by a score of 3-1 as they honored their seniors Paige Benson and Chloe Hallum. Hallum had 22 digs and a game high of five service aces on the night. Hallum finishes her career as the all-time leader at Vassar in digs per set at 4.77.