The Miscellany News
Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
Volume CXLIX | Issue 16
March 2, 2017
CHAS brings Crenshaw, ‘Hidden Figures’ to campus Emily Sayer
Features Editor
T
Courtesy of NASA Kennedy via Flickr
Courtesy of Clarke Forum
his Friday, seminal feminist thinker and legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw will be giving the Keynote Lecture for the Consortium on High Achievement and Success (CHAS) Women of Color conference: (Re)defining Women of Color: Raising our Voices, Sharing our Stories. Crenshaw is renowned in her field for revolutionizing the way academia perceives law, and, more specifically, its role in the lives of women and women of color. Co-editor of the volume Critical Race Theory: Key Documents That Shaped the Movement and co-founder of the African American Policy Forum, Crenshaw pioneered the fields
of Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality, working to raise awareness of and bolster advocacy for violence against women, structural racial inequality and affirmative action. The lecture will be held at 1:30 at the Student’s Building. The Vassar Conference Planning Committee said of the talk, “[We] decided that Professor Crenshaw’s lecture would be a campus-wide event. We recognize her broad appeal and welcome your attendance. The CHAS Women of Color Conference is a student-centered event focused on women-identified students of color. As a result, the remainder of the conference activities will be for registered participants.” While Vassar hosts Crenshaw and See CRENSHAW on page 5
Kimberlé Crenshaw is scheduled to speak at Vassar this Friday, March 3.
“Hidden Figures” focuses on the true story of female mathemeticians and rocket scientists at NASA who helped land men on the moon.
H2A rallies Vassar Racist hate speech jars community against oppression Sarah Dolan and Yifan Wang
Online Editor and Contributing Editor
Laurel Hennen Vigil News Editor
[Trigger warning: racist and anti-Semitic hate speech.]
O
n Saturday, Feb. 25, just over a month after Donald Trump’s inauguration and a day after the second of two consecutive incidents of racist hate speech at Vassar, more than 100 people gathered in the College Center Circle at noon for “Rally, Resist, Rise,” a solidarity event hosted by a
new preliminary organization called Healing to Action (H2A). H2A co-founder Maimuna Touray ’20 explained the rationale for the group’s creation in an interview, saying, “H2A came out of us feeling as though there wasn’t an outlet for our grief, an outlet for our healing, an outlet for us to come together—especially in the first year class—to discuss the issues that were affecting us.” After three consecutive police shootings of See RALLY on page 4
[Trigger warning: racist and anti-Semitic hate speech.]
O
n Tuesday, Feb. 21, Director of Safety and Security Arlene Sabo sent out an all-campus email informing the Vassar community that violent anti-Black graffiti was found written on the wall of a men’s bathroom in the Library lobby late Monday evening. In the early morning on Feb. 24, there was another report about a second anti-Black, anti-Semitic, hateful and offensive message written on a wall down a staircase
off the front entrance of the Library. The Town of Poughkeepsie Police were called in to assist with the investigation. According to the website of Vassar’s Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT), “[The initial reports of these incidents were] reviewed by the BIRT core team, led by the Associate Dean of the College for Campus Life and Diversity and followed by meetings with the Dean of the College, the Director of Safety and Security and the College Information Officer. The President was also notified and updated periodically of discussions and assessments.” Following the notification emails, the
President’s Office also released statements in response to each incident, denouncing such hateful speech and calling for community solidarity. “While we at Vassar believe in open discourse amongst all groups, let me be very clear about this disgraceful threat–it and any message of hate are incompatible with our values at Vassar and will not be tolerated ... Now more than ever we need to be clear that if you are a purveyor of hate speech, you will find no home at Vassar,” Interim President John Chenette wrote in the email. In his statement following the secSee BIAS on page 3
Pokrywka chosen as guest expert Men’s lacrosse team looks forward to future “T Noah Purdy Arts Editor
Fiona MacLeod Guest Reporter
A
Michael Chung/The Miscellany News
here is a scientist out there somewhere who is dedicating their entire life to just studying how ostriches make love. There’s another person studying what would happen if monkeys used bananas as currency. There’s a team of scientists in Japan investigating ‘whether things look different when you bend over and view them between your legs.’ How are those people not famous?! That’s all I ever want to talk about,” expressed NYC-based comedian and host of “You’re the Expert” Chris Duffy. Duffy will be gracing Vassar’s Skinner Hall stage on Thursday, March 9, at 7 p.m. in a live recording of his acclaimed podcast, which tours the country challenging a panel of three comedians to figure out what exactly a special guest “expert” devotes their time to investigating and researching through a variety of games and question-and-answer segments. “[T]here’s a classic comedy setup of a ‘straight man’ and the comedian that’s been making people laugh for hundreds of years,” Duffy explained. “Scientists can serve up information and our comedians make it funny. It’s a classic comedy trope, just used in a new way.” The special guest on the upcoming episode of “You’re the Expert” will be Vassar’s own Professor of Biology & Director of Science, Technology and Society Nancy Pokrywka, and comedians Josh Sharp, Gary Richardson and Obehi See PODCAST on page 14
Chris Duffy, host of the podcast “You’re the Expert,” which approaches scientific research from a comedic perspective, will present a live recording of the show next Thursday, March 9, at 7 p.m. in Skinner Hall.
Inside this issue
7
Editor-turnedattorney reflects on FEATURES Misc journey
8
Ferry students past and present find new meal OPINIONS plan unpleasant
fter a historic season in 2016, the Vassar College men’s lacrosse team looks to further improve its performance this upcoming spring. Last year, the Brewers performed the best in program history, finishing with an overall record of 8-8, and a conference record of 3-4. The season came to an end when the squad faced off against the Union Dutchmen in Schenectady, NY, for a spot in the Liberty League playoffs, narrowly losing the game 1713. In hopes to compensate for the loss of last year’s senior class, Head Coach Marc Graham recruited a freshman class of 13. Defensive midfielders TJ Morrow and Nick Page, as well as attacker Noah Parson, graduated this past spring. Parson, one of last year’s captains who hails from Cary, NC, holds a spot in the Vassar lacrosse program as the most outstanding attacker to date with 127 career goals combined with 52 career assists. In his last semester at Vassar, Parson led the team in goals with 42, as well as in overall points, earning 57. He also earned seven man-up goals, 15 assists and 19 groundballs in his senior season. “Replacing a player like Noah is not something that we can easily do,” admitted Graham, who is now leading the team for the sixth consecutive
15 ARTS
season. “But an advantage that we have this year is our increased depth. We have a larger number of players who can make contributions to our scoring.” Despite losing the influential captain Parson, the team welcomes back returning senior captain and midfielder Brandon DeStasio from West Hempstead, NY. He is joined this year by three new senior captains, including attacker Sam Houston-Read from Waban, MA, midfielder Liam Moriarty of New Fairfield, CT, and defender Matthew Altman who also hails from New Fairfield, CT. The current squad boasts nine senior players, compared to the three of last season. While the 2016 team consisted of 29 players, this season the roster appears significantly longer, listing 37 names. DeStasio explains that although the team felt a loss as it graduated three impactful players, he has high hopes for the upcoming season. “We lost our leading scorer and two strong defensive midfielders,” DeStasio explained. “They will be hard to replace, but we have many returning players from last year and a strong freshman class ready to step up.” As one of the leaders of this 37 player squad, DeStasio plans to steer the team to success by leading by example. “Whether it’s on the field or in the weight room, I just try to set the tone See LACROSSE on page 19
Theater tech and design are too often outshined