Misc4.27.17

The Miscellany News April 27, 2017

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org

Volume CXLIX | Issue 21

Doyle speaks to Title IX policy, response Hanna Stasiuk

[Trigger warning: mention of suicides, sexual violence]

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bout a year ago, Alexia Garcia ’18 stumbled upon the book “Campus Sex/Campus Security” and chose to read it during lapses in her busy schedule. “I really loved it,” she remembered. “I found myself bringing it into all of my classes.”

With heightened policing on Vassar’s campus, the recent expansion of who is a mandatory reporter and students’ continued frustration with the Title IX process, Garcia and the Feminist Alliance Cooperative decided to bring the book’s author Jennifer Doyle to campus to speak about safety and sexual violence.

On Monday, April 17, Doyle spoke in Rockefeller Hall, surrounded by a group of over 30 eager students and faculty members.

Doyle is an English professor at the University of California at Riverside and is also the author of “Hold it Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art” and “Sex Objects: Art and Dialectics of Desire.”

Her most recent work, “Campus Sex/Campus Security,” outlines the complexities that underlie sexual violence, how corporate universities manage Title IX in this neoliberal era and the failure of campuses to both build community and challenge inter-

personal violence. “‘Campus Sex/Campus Security’ is a literary experiment,” Doyle explained in her talk. “It’s theoretical in some ways but there are also ways in which it is really not.”

Doyle was inspired to write the book by a personal experience. While she was teaching at the University of California at Riverside, a student began to stalk and harass her. As the situation escalated, Doyle became increasingly frustrated with the campus police.

“My department and colleagues were really great around it, but the school itself was terrible,” she recalled. “The campus police were really useless, they made everybody, myself and my colleagues, feel...terrified and uneasy.”

She explained that the campus police made her feel like she was part of the problem. “I was struck by the hardening between the harmful ways in which the system was behaving around my own case in the name of protecting me: an escalation of my fear and sense of threat, an increase of the securitization of my workplace and the presentation of me as a kind of security problem.”

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) helped Doyle change her perspective on her situation.

Their therapeutic, behavior-modification approach treated stalking and See TITLE IX on page 3

Courtesy of Vassar LGBTQ Center

Guest Reporter

The Trans Allyship Workshop was held on April 19 and 20. It aimed to teach Vassar students, staff, faculty and administrators about ways to support the trans and non-binary communities.

Workshop educates about trans allyship Matt Stein

Features Editor

In the age of increasing social media presence, we can often denote activism with ‘slacktivism,’ passively supporting an issue without actually taking efforts to make a change. In general, though, to truly strive for allyship with a marginalized community, it involves staying aware and supporting the community through actions instead of declamatory statements. Besides asking for a difference, ‘allies’ need to make a difference and also not ignore those voices they support.

On Wednesday, April 19, and Thursday, April 20, Spencer Garcia ’18 hosted the Trans Allyship Workshop, which has been held for the last several years.

With the guiding maxim of “Move up, move up,” the workshop created an affinity space for participants to learn about their roles and how they can better support the trans community.

The workshop’s curriculum began by establishing basic principles about allyship for participants to understand.

An example of the principles covered was the need to respect the pronouns See ALLYSHIP on page 8

Baroque-era master Rugby teams prove to honored at long last be Beasts of the East Sasha Gopalakrishnan Reporter

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n a pioneering move, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center is currently hosting the first-ever exhibition dedicated to works by the last great painter of the Baroque period, Francesco de Mura. “In the Light of Naples: The Art of Francesco de Mura” was organized by the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College. It is a traveling exhibition, and Vassar’s own Art Center is the only venue in the Northeast where it will be visiting. It will be on view on campus from April

21 through July 2.

On Friday, April 21, curator Arthur Blumenthal delivered an opening lecture on the show, taking the audience through the impact and significance of the works on display, his own journey in acquiring them and the ascension and declension of de Mura’s career. “An artist who was highly regarded during his lifetime but quickly forgotten with his death,” according to Director of the Loeb James Mundy, de Mura and his work have been vastly undervalued. There have been neither See FRANCESCO on page 15

Courtesy of the Loeb Art Center

From April 21 through July 2, the Loeb Art Center will host the first full-fledged exhibit dedicated to Italian Baroque master painter Francesco de Mura, organized by the Cornell Fine Arts Museum.

Inside this issue

4

NEWS

Biodiversity expert discusses climate change complexities

6

FEATURES

Lindsay Wolk

Guest Reporter

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his year, 54 Vassar Rugby players made the four-hour trip to Portsmouth, RI, for the 34th annual Beast of the East Tournament, the largest college rugby event in the country. Over 75 teams and between 1,7000 and 2,000 college rugby players spanning six divisions took to the field this weekend.

The Vassar men competed in the men’s Division III competition, originally being placed into a group with Central Connecticut State University and Massachusetts Maritime. Meanwhile, the women’s squad fielded two squads: the A-side team in the Division I bracket and the B-side team in the Division III bracket. The group games took place on Saturday, April 22 and the playoffs were held on Sunday.

Heading home with eight wins out of a total of 11 games, Vassar rugby smiled upon the weekend. “This weekend was a very successful one for the team. We competed at a high level with three physically imposing teams showing that we can not only play with structure, but also outmuscle teams bigger than ours. This semester has been about development for our main Fall season, and along with our tour to Barcelona, this weekend was a crucial stepping stone in preparation for next semester,” commented the men’s team junior captain George Sheppard.

To kick off the championships, the

Pre-org’s new column warns against complacency in trans allyship

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

men took on Central Connecticut State. The Brewers led throughout the entire game off of tries by sophomore Charlie Hooghkirk and first-year Evan Roberts. Sophomore Stephen Kpundeh kicked both conversions in order to put the Brewers up 14-0 before CCSU began their attempted comeback. Ultimately, Vassar was able to hold off an incredibly athletic team, 14-7, in order to win their first game of the tourney.

Meanwhile, the women’s B-side team headed into competition. The squad earned two shutout wins against Brandeis University (59-0) and the University of New England (24-0).

Against Brandeis, junior Kayla Lightner led the efforts with five tries, followed by two tries each from junior Claire Fondrie-Teitler and senior Lizzie Bennett. First-year Caroline James and sophomore Aja Dunn also each tallied one try apiece while Makena Emery ’19 contributed two conversions.

Senior captain Mary Margaret McElduff commented in an email, “I feel incredibly proud of all of the women who competed in Rhode Island this past weekend. The B side played their hearts out and gained some really meaningful experience with 3 important wins and a tough loss in the semifinals on Sunday.”

McElduff continued, “They were lucky to have a few upperclassmen with more rugby knowledge to set the See RUGBY on page 18

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‘Medea’ revives tragedy Noah Purdy & Patrick Tanella Arts Editors

“N

ow all love is turned to hate, and tenderest ties are weak,” laments the Nurse in the opening to Euripides’ tragedy “Medea.”

Both ancient theatrical genres, comedy and tragedy, relied heavily on inversion and exaggeration, as ancient playwrights were wont to explore the outer limits of human reactions to extreme circumstances. These depictions required a certain alienation from the familiar as a means to put audiences’ social norms under the microscope.

“Medea,” a quintessential Greek tragedy, is no different, as evidenced in the stunning production sponsored by the Greek & Roman Studies (GRST) Department performed this past Friday, April 21, on the Frances Daly Fergusson Quadrangle.

The play recounts the mythical story of its titular character, a former princess and sorceress of the kingdom of Colchis who helped her husband Jason—of Argonauts fame—retrieve the Golden Fleece. As the play opens, Medea finds her already-unstable position in her newly adopted Corinth, to which the couple fled, threatened when her husband leaves her for the daughter of the king of their new land.

Medea, distraught, brings life to the phrase “desperate times call for desperate measures,” as she takes her revenge by killing Jason’s new wife and her own children.

Associate Professor and GRST Chair Rachel Friedman served as the production’s faculty advisor and leader of two independent studies related to the performance.

As she explained, “One of the challenges of performing any ancient tragedy is this basic fact, that we are so removed from the circumstances in which they were composed and performed. All tragedies in Athens were originally performed as part of festivals that formed an integral part of the civic and religious life of the Athenian polis.”

Euripides’ version of the Medea tale was performed in Athens in 431 BCE during a festival in honor of Dionysus called the “City Dionysia,” right after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War between the Athenians and the Spartans.

Friedman continued, “This context, as well as the particular historical moment, inevitably shaped the plays.

I think it’s important to keep in mind the original context while also working to create newer versions and to infuse the ancient drama with a contemporary vision. This can be a very delicate balancing act.”

The theme of a cheating husband and a betrayed wife seeking revenge is ever-present in many media today, and so “Medea” has lent itself through the years to such contemporary reimaginings.

This production, however, showcased Medea’s foreignness as it was See MEDEA on page 15

Track and Field stays on track to field SPORTS competition in Championships

The Miscellany News

Page 2

April 27, 2017

Editors-in-Chief

Anika Lanser Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson

Senior Editors Nick Barone Emma Jones Noah Purdy Elena Schultz

Eilis Donohue/The Miscellany News

“There are actually laws about what hours shops can be open, and it is true that almost all of them are closed on Sundays. However, you’re not out of luck if you find your stomach rumbling on a Sunday afternoon; it’s totally possible to find a coffee or a bite to eat. You can always find what you need. Even things you don’t need, but are certainly quite nice. Like a warm chocolate croissant at a quarter to three in the morning (true story).” To learn more about Eilis Donohue’s adventures in Berlin, read her full post at farandaway.miscellanynews.org!

The Miscellany News 27

April

Thursday

Music on the Bridge

11:30am | Bridge North Atrium | Music Dept.

Newman Lecture, Naomi Oreskes

Weekender_ 28

April

Lacrosse (W) vs. Clarkson University

6:30pm | The Loeb Permanent Galleries | The Loeb

Victory Over the Sun

8:00pm | The Mug | Unbound

8:00am | Aula | Barefoot Monkeys

Storytime at the Loeb

Late Night at the Lehman Loeb

Saturday

Monkey See Monkey Do! Circus Convention

12:30pm | Rocky 200 | English Dept.

1:30pm | The Loeb Atrium | The Loeb

Art Talks by Art Majors

April

Masha Gessen

5:00pm | Rocky 200 | STS Dept.

5:00pm | The Loeb Atrium | The Loeb

29

Friday

4th Annual Spanish Spelling Bee 9:00am | Taylor 102 | Education Dept.

4:00pm | Prentiss Weinberg Field | Athletics

Monkey See Monkey Do - Juggling and Fire Arts Convention

10:00am | College Center 223 and Rose Parlor | Barefoot Monkeys

Monkey See Monkey Do! Circus Convention

6:30pm | Aula | Barefoot Monkeys

Tennis (W) vs. Rochester Institute of Technology

International Dance Festival

10:30am | Joss Tennis Courts | Athletics

7:00pm | Villard Room | International Services and Special Projects

30

April

10:00am | Rugby Field | Athletics

Monkey See Monkey Do - Juggling and Fire Arts Convention

10:00am | Rose Parlor | Barefoot Monkeys

Vassar College and Community Wind Ensemble 3:00pm | Skinner Recital Hall | Music Dept.

Rugby (M) vs. Siena College 3:00pm | Rugby Field | Athletics

Paper Critique

9:00pm | Rose Parlor | \The Misc.

Lacrosse (M) vs. Union College

8:00pm | Orchard | Big Night In

1:00pm | Prentiss Gordon Field | Athletics

Baseball (M) vs. Bard College 1:00pm | Prentiss Baseball Field | Athletics

2:00pm | Prentiss Weinberg Field | Athletics

Courtesy of Wikimedia

Courtesy of Wenjie Xie

Big Night In will host a game of Manhunt this Friday in the Orchard.

Pictured above, students enjoy Trivia Night, one of BNI’s events in Feb.

Claire Baker Hannah Nice Michael Chung George Witteman

This weekend, join the Barefoot Monkeys for their Seventh Annual Juggling and Fire Arts Convention!

Lacrosse (W) vs. St. Lawrence University

Victory Over the Sun

3:00pm | The Mug | Unbound

Senior Recital: Daniel Young, Tenor 4:00pm | Skinner Recital Hall | Music Dept.

Laurel Hennen Vigil Matt Stein Evelyn Frick Patrick Tanella Olivia O’Loughlin Talya Phelps Kelsey Quinn Laila Volpe

Courtesy of Barefoot Monkeys

Big Night In: Manhunt

News Features Humor and Satire Arts Sports Design Online Copy

Reporters Sasha Gopalakrishnan Meg Howell Kaitlin Prado Andrea Yang Columnists Jimmy Christon Jesser Horowitz Steven Park Sylvan Perlmutter Drew Solender Design Scarlett Neuberger Maya Sterling Yoav Yaron Copy Adele Birkenes James Bonanno Gabriela Calderon Leah Cates Jillian Frechette Tanya Kotru Gode Sumiko Neary Jessica Roden

Sunday

Rugby (W) vs. TBA

11:00am | Prentiss Old Competition Field | Athletics

8:00pm | The Mug | Unbound

Sarah Dolan Yifan Wang

Assistant Copy Assistant Social Media Assistant Photo Web Master & Technical Advisor

Soccer (M) vs. Dominican College

Victory Over the Sun

Contributing Editors

Masha Gessen, pictured above, will be presenting a lecture on Friday at 12:30 p.m. in Rocky 200.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only accept corrections for any misquotes, misrepresentations or factual errors for an article within the semester it is printed.

The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented within its Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board.

April 27, 2017

NEWS

Page 3

Despite rain, Earth Day festivities shine across community Laurel Hennen Vigil News Editor

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Courtesy of Poughkeepsie Earth Day

or the past two years, the city of Poughkeepsie has organized a citywide clean-up initiative on Earth Day, which this year fell on Saturday, April 22. “We want to celebrate the diversity and biodiversity of Poughkeepsie and for people to see what’s available in the city and also for Poughkeepsie residents to take a part in helping to beautify [the city],” explained public relations volunteer Eve Madalengoitia. She continued, “Hopefully, this will help people think about the fact that it’s important to do these things year-round.”

This year’s clean-up, organized primarily by volunteers, was expanded to a two-day celebration, which included a concert on Friday, April 21, in City Hall Plaza. The concert featured performers such as blues musicians Joe Louis Walker and Murali Coryell, the Poughkeepsie Drum Circle, the Strawberry Hill Fiddlers, singer/songwriter Pat Lamanna, Arlington High School band The Well Rounded, spoken word artist Louis Corbet and steampunk folk duo Frenchy and The Punk.

Organizer Laurie Sandow commented of the event, “Earth Day is a large umbrella under which individuals and groups can gather, advancing their own missions and simultaneously bringing awareness and benefit to the City of Poughkeepsie’s ecosystem—its environment, community, diversity and biodiversity.” She continued, “This is a city filled with history, vibrancy and beauty, where promise, challenge, neglect and potential all exist side-by-side. The more people come to know their neighbors, work together to address challenges and dedicate themselves to the great or small efforts within their means, the better and more rewarding the result.”

Unfortunately, Saturday, the day of the cleanup, dawned gray and drizzly, and it seemed that many Poughkeepsians chose to stay indoors.

Along the nearly three-mile route from Vassar to downtown, only a handful of residents were

outside, walking dogs or tending to their gardens.

At the Adriance Memorial Library, one of the clean-up sites, no one showed up to help pick up litter or mulch the flowerbeds. However, Sandow commented that while the weather wasn’t the best, turnout was relatively high at several of the other sites.

Despite the lack of volunteers at Adriance, Assistant Library Director Casey Conlin and his young daughter resolutely offered balsam fir seedlings and bumble bands to the sparse trickle of library patrons walking by. Bumble bands, inspired by an idea posted on DoSomething.org, are strips of paper on which bee-friendly plant seeds are glued.

Conlin said, “We want to make the community a nice place for people to live, [so] we though it would be a good thing for us to give away trees for people to plant in their yards ... We wanted to make Poughkeepsie a little bit greener. It’s part of our job [as a public library] to make Poughkeepsie better, and this is one way we thought we could do it.”

Local residents looking for more ways to help out, whether or not they were able to make it to the official Earth Day events, can take up Poughkeepsie Mayor Rolison’s “seven-minute clean-up challenge.” The idea behind it is that the city could be a great deal cleaner if everyone committed to spending seven minutes each day cleaning up around his or her home or business.

Sandow added some advice for the Vassar community as well: “I encourage Vassar students to include and identify themselves [as Poughkeepsie residents],” she said. “It’s vitally important to recognize that neither democracy nor sustainable practices are spectator sports.

Both require conscious effort and active participation. I encourage [Vassar students] to get involved and stay involved; to step forward with contributions of time and energy, expressing their passions and volunteering their talents wherever they see room for improvement, both on campus and in the wider community.”

On Friday, April 21 and Saturday, April 22, the city of Poughkeepsie held an Earth Day celebration.

The event featured a concert on Friday and a citywide clean-up initiative on Saturday.

Author gives talk on ‘Campus Sex/Campus Security’ ing inside in that kind of crisis, one of which was personalized...one of which was systematic, one of which was sexualized and one of which was racialized.”

Doyle decided to share an excerpt from her book at her talk to communicate the complexity of campus harassment cases. The excerpt that she read detailed the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University who took his own life in 2010 after his roommate secretly taped him having sex. Doyle explained that Clementi’s story highlights the pain of losing privacy.

Her book reads, “For people not used to living under a sense of surveillance, finding oneself stripped of a privacy is profoundly disturbing.

The experience of exposure doubles on itself.

One comes to grips with how much a sense of privacy does to maintain a specific kind of selfhood.”

Izzy Braham ’20 of the Feminist Alliance appreciated Doyle’s words. “Invasiveness was the back of [Doyle’s writing],” she commented. “Policing and protesting are very personal things and schools approach them in very invasive ways. But where is the empathy? It seems like schools just worry [about] managing events instead of helping students. Doyle addressed this problem in her book.”

Doyle also addressed the issue of mandatory reporters, a particularly relevant topic given Vassar’s recent decisions to increase the number of mandatory reporters on campus and to shut down a student-run hotline operated by the organization CARES because it was considered a liability problem.

“Mandatory reporting stuff is so challenging,” Doyle said. “It gives faculty and administration a means to hand off that worry to someone else who they think might have better training.

That’s a mixed bag.”

Doyle recommended that students read their school’s mandatory reporting policies so that they understand what they are up against. She said that student unions are excellent ways to protest policies that are not fulfilling students’ needs.

Finally, she added that peer-to-peer counsel-

ing is an option for students who wish to speak to someone who is not a mandatory reporter.

Students, she said, must be there for one another.

As for Title IX, Doyle explained that it only exists as far as people file complaints. “[Title IX is] very simple [in] it’s initial language,” she said. “The place where it becomes interesting from a feminist perspective and an LGBTQ-perspective is where people make that connection between sex based discrimination and sexual violence. Where there is a recognition that sexual assault is a sex-based form of violence.”

She encouraged students to use Title IX to hold the members of their communities accountable for the ways in which they treat each other.

“Media discourse about Title IX often involves a kind of shaming of students as a bunch of ‘special snowflakes’ and hysterics,” she said.

“Instead, [filing Title IX complaints] is an in-

tense form of activism that is demanding and requires a lot of work.”

Garcia hopes that Doyle’s message about Title IX will resonate with Vassar students. “I hope that students see that they must continue to insist on reforming the Title IX process,” she said. “There is something that people can get out of it.”

Going forward, the Feminist Alliance plans to continue the conversations that Doyle started with her talk and work toward affecting positive change.

Garcia commented, “We are going to start to rethink education during freshmen orientation and get students to consider what community responses to these incidents should look like.”

“We have a meeting scheduled with the Title IX office,” Braham added. “We will also continue to bring relevant speakers to campus and work with other student organizations like CARES to fix the smaller things that we see as problems.”

Courtesy of Amerique via Wikimedia Commons

TITLE IX continued from page 1 harassment as a process rather than an eventbased crime. They believed that a person should go to jail only if preventative methods failed to change their behavior. The LAPD did not want a prison sentence to ruin the life of the individual harassing Doyle if it did not have to.

Doyle did not see this same type of empathy from individuals policing college campuses. She further noticed that security consistently singled out people of color.

To highlight this problem, she told the story of the “pepper-spray cop,” which always underscored issues with how schools view the Title IX process.

In 2011, University of California at Davis (commonly known as UC Davis) students were peacefully demonstrating during an Occupy movement and were prepared to spend the night on the campus quad. When the police came to remove them, the students refused to leave. After asking the students to go several times, an officer doused them with pepper spray. A video of the incident instantly went viral and the “pepper-spray cop” became a popular internet meme.

In defense of the incident, the UC Davis college chancellor said that the students had to leave because it was unsafe for them to spend the night outside. She claimed that older men from Oakland had been spotted drinking in the area and could potentially harm the students.

The chancellor expressed, in so many words, that if something had happened, the students could have filed a Title IX complaint and damaged the school’s reputation.

While this concern was inherently problematic, Doyle explained that it also “evoked the myth of the black rapist” since Oakland is a predominantly African-American city. She remarked, “There was his explicit entanglement of perceived sexual vulnerability and a racialized threat outside of campus.”

Doyle wanted to capture the threat she and POC had faced in a book. “I was living inside a problem and wanted to try and write it,” she said. “‘Campus Sex/Campus Security’ was a way of sharing out how it felt to be living and work-

Jennifer Doyle, who is a Professor of English at the University of California at Riverside, came to Vassar on Monday, April 17 to discuss her book, “Campus Sex/Campus Security.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

NEWS

Page 4

April 27, 2017

Lovejoy discusses biodiversity in conference keynote Steven Huynh Guest Reporter

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degrees.”

The majority of the lecture analyzed the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, Lovejoy’s home turf. He charted the effects of changing temperatures and day length, both the most visible indicators of climate change, through the retreat of specific species of trees. Though somewhat crude, as other factors could be responsible, the measure relies on the species’s niche conditions to survive and thrive. Other examples include the snowshoe hare and mountain pika. Both animals have slowly reduced in number due to their changing environment. Warmer temperatures cause snow to melt earlier, nullifying the camouflage of the hare’s white fur, and the pika, normally adapted to colder temperatures, must flee farther up the mountains (United States Geological Survey, “Pikas Disappearing from Parts of the West Due to Climate Change,” 8.25.2016). Ngoc “Seven” Duong ’18 stressed, “The issue about biodiversity applies to the Poughkeepsie ecosystem too. We’re seeing a

Michael Chung/The Miscellany News

r. Thomas Lovejoy, known as the “godfather” of biodiversity, argues that the world nears an environmental tipping point—launching us into an age in which humans will likely become extinct. Vassar College invited Dr. Lovejoy to be the keynote speaker for the one-day Conservation Leaders of Tomorrow Conference held this past Wednesday, April 19. The conference included a series of lectures identifying the challenges and wealth of opportunities within the preservation/ conservation field. A range of alumnae/i shared their personal experiences working as an Environmental Science professor, a zoo director and at various non-profits. Beyond exploring career pathways and necessary leadership skills, students, educators and local Poughkeepsie community members dove into the larger issues of conservation.

How do politics and economics play into conservation methods? What can we do to push our community into using sustainable resources? Lovejoy’s lecture concluded the conference by encouraging the audience to understand the complexities of these issues and realize that finding and implementing a solution will not be easy.

Lovejoy established the focus of his lecture by revealing an unexpected secret in his field: “Climate change is greatly underappreciated from a biological point of view.” Only in recent decades have biologists and ecologists recognized the impact of climate change on living things. This is far too late considering humans have severely altered the climate since the Industrial Revolution more than a century ago. While more people step into the field, Lovejoy urged for both acknowledgment and action in not only academia, but also in the general public. To actually reverse past damages and prevent further stress on our surroundings, everyone has to be aware of how they personally and, as a collective whole, humans need to change.

Perhaps it will mean using less fertilizer to inhibit the creation of coastal dead zones, areas in which algae blooms deplete oxygen entirely, eating less meat to reduce the amount of methane being released in the air or simply investing in more sustainable resources (Scientific American, “What Causes Ocean ‘Dead Zones’?,” 9.25.2012). Either

way, he said, one small step would be better than none.

Vassar has already pushed for more climate change awareness on campus through extracurriculars and academics. In conjunction with the Anthropology, Chemistry and Economics Departments, among many others, the Environmental Science Department created the well-received course, “Climate Change: A Global Challenge.”

Each week, professors from different departments point out the implications of climate change within their respective fields. The class analyzed climate change on a global level as well as detailing its effects in Poughkeepsie. Kayla Lightner ’18 appreciated this, pointing out, “Climate change is real. Most people know that, but they imagine it to be something like polar ice caps melting or faraway islands being submerged underwater. They don’t realize that it’s affecting them personally, in Poughkeepsie. If you look back in February, there were days when temperatures reached seventy

Dr. Thomas Lovejoy, the “godfather” of biodiversity, delivered the keynote lecture at Vassar College’s Conservation Leaders of Tomorrow Conference on Wednesday, April 19 in Taylor Hall.

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huge change in biodiversity, especially with the exploding deer population and invasive plant species because, in some ways, it’s a response to changing global climate.”

Lovejoy’s has completed extensive research in Central Amazonia, in which he charted the vast number of animal and plant species with fellow ecologists. Eventually, he helped coin the widely-used term “biological diversity” in the mid-1970s, with Edward O. Wilson, currently the world’s leading expert on ants, and Elliott Norse, founder of the Marine Conservation Biological Institute (Yale, “Lovejoy, Godfather of Biodiversity, Reflects on 50 Years in the Amazon,” 2.17.2016). In reality, none of them thought anything of it, creating the term was simply a way to move conversations quicker.

At the time, Lovejoy spent his time examining the impact of Brazil’s plan to implement a Trans-Amazonian highway system. The project caused massive deforestation and the resulting pushback led to the establishment of mini conservation units. Ultimately, Lovejoy researched the efficiency in preserving biodiversity through these units versus one larger reserve, culminating in his seminal paper. He found that habitat fragmentation reduces biodiversity from a range of 13 percent to 75 percent, primarily caused by decreasing biomass and altered nutrient cycles (Science Advances, “Habitat Fragmentation and its Lasting Impact on Earth’s Ecosystems,” 3.20.2015).

When it comes to conservation, you cannot simply compromise the Earth, he argued. Choosing the method which is the most convenient has its consequences.

The audience itself was diverse: there were both science and humanities majors, students as well as their professors and local Poughkeepsie residents attended. Nevertheless, many found the lecture to be transformative of their viewpoints towards the environment while for others, it reaffirmed prior convictions. Lovejoy ended on an encouraging note, stating, “It’s time for us to have a bold new vision about how we relate to the natural world.” The statement was perfectly timed, three days before Earth Day—when millions have marched across the U.S. to protest cutbacks in the funding of scientific and environmental agencies.

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

April 27, 2017

NEWS

Page 5

Updates from the VSA Annual Budgeting, Special Purpose Fund Freeze, Last Meeting of the 2016-17 Senate Annual Budgeting is underway for the 201718 year. This year’s VSA Senate will vote on the 2017-18 budget at their last meeting of the year on April 30!

VSA Special Purpose Funds are still frozen until further notice as the VSA sorts out this and next year’s budgets.

The final meeting of the first VSA Senate (2016-17) will be this Sunday, April 30. The meeting will be a joint meeting between the current Senate and the second Senate (201718); Calvin will officially pass the gavel to next year’s VSA President, Miranda Amey.

VSA Friday Movie Night: This Week’s Screening is Get Out! The VSA and the Campus Activities Office have revived the Friday Night Movie Series that took place long ago in Blodgett Auditorium every week! This week (Friday, April 28), the movie will be “Get Out,” screening at 8 p.m. in Taylor 203. Note that the event has temporarily moved from its normal location to accommodate a different event in Blodgett Auditorium. Refreshments will also be provided thanks to our new popcorn machine!

Final New York City Shuttle of the Year!

Take the What Happens Here Survey!

the VSA propose alternative language for the statement. Instead, the VSA Senate endorsed a statement that declined to provide alternative language to the statement. Read the VSA’s statement below: “The 1st Senate of the Vassar Student Association declines to offer alternative wording for the Proposed Mission Statement. The pursuit of justice is essential, but that pursuit must be undertaken with an acute awareness of the unjust state of the present and the past.

If the Mission Statement cannot acknowledge that Vassar is not and has not been a place that pursues diversity, inclusion, and equity, then the VSA Senate does not believe that it is productive to propose changes in wording.

As proposed, the Mission Statement assumes

that Vassar has been (or at least has attempted to be) a justice-oriented institution for the marginalized ever since its founding. It is true that Vassar was founded as a women’s institution, but it was founded as an institution for white, upper-class women. Obscuring this fact erases the institutional struggles of the very ‘underrepresented and disadvantaged groups’ whom this statement purports to support. The College has not ‘pursue[d] diversity, inclusion, and equity’ ever since its foundation, and the 1st VSA Senate, recognizing that any language which does not maintain that illusion would be rejected, declines to propose or endorse Mission Statement language saying that it has.”

-Calvin Lamothe, VSA President

Changes to College Mission Statement Recently, a committee comprised of Trustees, administrators, faculty and students proposed minor changes to the College’s Mission Statement that would emphasize the college’s commitment to upholding diversity and inclusion. The major addition to the statement is a sentence that reads as follows: “Founded in 1861 to provide women an education equal to that once available only to men, Vassar continues to pursue diversity, inclusion, and equity as essential components of a rich intellectual and cultural environment in which all members, including those from underrepresented and disadvantaged groups, are valued and empowered to thrive.” Upon receiving the VSA’s feedback, the committee requested that

Courtesy of Pixabay

This Saturday, April 29th, the final New York City Shuttle will be leaving at 8 a.m. in front of Main Building and returning by 10 p.m.

VSA Programming will be tabling in the College Center on Wednesday and Friday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Each ticket will be $10, and you can also purchase from the Info Desk starting 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Vassar is conducting the second What Happens Here: Campus Climate survey of all currently enrolled students concerning issues relevant to sexual assault, misconduct and interpersonal violence at Vassar.

In order to have reliable information, it is vital that as many Vassar students participate as are comfortable. Your candid answers will be helpful, informative and appreciated.

Your participation is entirely voluntary, and completely anonymous. Your decision to answer any particular question on the survey, or not, is equally voluntary.

Links to the survey are individualized (so that the survey may not be taken twice) and can be found in your vassar.edu email inbox until Friday, April 28th. The email containing the link is labeled: “Vassar Sexual Misconduct Survey - your invitation and link.”

Survey FAQs, including findings from, and responses to, the 2015 Campus Climate Survey may be found on our survey website! Stay tuned for updates at http://www.vassar.edu/ whathappenshere/ Let’s encourage one another to take this survey so that we have a better understanding of #WhatHappensHere.

The final VSA New York City shuttle trip of the year will take place this Saturday, April 29. It will leave at 8 a.m. in front of Main. Tickets are $10 and available at the Info Desk.

Stevenson gives Crego Lecture on gender and economy Dylan Smith

Guest Reporter

L

abor Economist Betsey Stevenson came to Vassar on Friday, April 21 to give the Economics Department’s annual Crego Lecture. Titled “Our Changing Lives: Work, Family, and Policy in a time of Gender Equality,” the lecture examined the impact of public policy and changing gender roles on the choices we make regarding our family and careers. Past Crego Lectures have featured George Akerlof, Claude Henry, John Taylor and Daron Acemoglu, just to name a few (Vassar College, “Crego Lecture News”).

Empty seats were few and far between in Taylor Hall 203, where the lecture was held. Many students sacrificed comfort, listening to the lecture while sitting on the steps of the crowded lecture hall.

Professor Paul Johnson, Chair of the Economics Department, introduced Stevenson. “The Crego lecture was established by Jean E. Crego in the memory of her father, Martin H. Crego, to bring leading economists to speak at Vassar,” Johnson explained. Stevenson, who is based at the University of Michigan, focuses her research on the economics of public policy and family dynamics, with particular attention to the role of women in the labor market.

In addition to her research, Stevenson has served as the chief economist for the Department of Labor under the Obama administration from 2010 to 2011. In 2013, the administration appointed Stevenson to serve on the White House Council of Economic advisors, a panel of three economists that advises the administration on economic policy.

Stevenson writes as a columnist for Bloomberg View, as well. Some of her most recent articles include, “Believe It or Not, Women Are Doing Better,” “Manly Men Need to Do More Girly Jobs” and “Where Trump Should Look to Cut Costs.”

Stevenson began the lecture by looking at the shifting gender roles and family dynamics over

the last century, illustrating the sharp increase of women entering the labor market during that time. “Today the majority of college educated workers are females,” Stevenson announced.

“Young women are choosing higher education at much higher rates and outperforming boys.”

She had statistics, too: Women’s contribution to family earnings has grown to 45 percent, and is increasingly approaching 50 percent.

“The equality means differences in decisions about men and women’s careers,” Stevenson said.

The lecture echoed Stevenson’s writing, such as her article, “Believe It or Not, Women Are Doing Better,” which reads, “Although stay-at-home dads and breadwinner wives are still minorities, their growing presence is changing people’s expectations about the appropriate roles for men and women ... In the workplace, women are more likely to be in positions of leadership. They are now the majority of workers in management, professional, and related occupations—which shouldn’t come as a surprise, given their dominance in higher education” (Bloomberg View, “Believe It or Not, Women Are Doing Better,” 8.26.16).

Next, Stevenson turned to economics to describe the formation of families and the decision to get married. She pointed out three economic advantages to marriage: production complementaries, public goods and consumption complementaries.

According to Stevenson, “The traditional model for marriage comes primarily from production complementaries.” This means that the traditional model for marriage relies on the returns to specialization for the married couple, i.e. couples benefit from one spouse specializing in some form of market-based production—the man working a job—and the other spouse specializing in domestic production—the woman focusing on housework.

Stevenson pointed to three primary causes of the returns to specialization: public policy, tech-

nology and trade. “These three things reduced returns of having specialists in the home,” she explained. The advancements in policy, tech and trade minimized the benefits of having a devoted homeworker, a “housewife,” and increased the benefits of both spouses participating in the labor market.

“Laws directly related to employment increased women’s options to work outside of the home,” Stevenson said. She explained that other laws, like the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, indirectly affected women’s opportunities to work. The Act required equal opportunities for women in high school sports, which led to an incredible increase in women playing sports. Stevenson shared data that suggest that people who played high school sports earn 10 percent more than those who don’t.

Technology also played a significant role in the shift. Domestic technologies, like pre-packaged food and household appliances, made it less valuable to be an expert in cooking or sewing.

In addition, contraceptive technology became readily available during this period. “Birth control is really important for women’s employment and education,” Stevenson said. She explained that increased availability of birth control gave women opportunities other than staying home and raising a family, and prompted an increase of women pursuing post-secondary education.

The reduction in the cost of tradable goods, such as fabrics, made work in the labor market a plausible substitute for domestic work, which means that the production complementaries of getting married were significantly lessened.

Women no longer had to get married to buy goods on the market. Marriage shifted from a production-based decision to a consumption-based decision.

The shift has resulted in marriages of people who are more or less equal producers. Because of this, marriage has become more appealing to those not interested in traditional gender roles.

At this point in the lecture, Stevenson stopped

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

to ask the question, “If marriage has changed in a way where there’s more room for equality, what is the role of public policy?”

The answer, it would seem, is to replace policies that reinforced the old model of marriage with those that support the new. Policies currently in place were designed for households in which one person is responsible for life outside of work.

“It’s hard to figure out how to straddle work and family,” Stevenson said. According to Stevenson’s data, 60 percent of men report work-family conflict. As Stevenson pointed out, this type of frustration and pressure can lead to low fertility rates.

A major step in the right direction, according to Stevenson, is a plan for paid maternity leave.

She explained that a woman’s decision to leave the labor market for two years to take care of a child can cost much more than two years’ worth of wages.

“To support marriage, policy makers need to reduce stress and make room for joy.” Stevenson emphasized the importance of financial stability, citing workplace flexibility, paid parental leave, workplace training and a higher minimum wage as crucial policies for a stable family life. She made it clear that income problems must first be addressed before policy makers attempt to tackle any so-called “marriage problems.”

Stevenson also advocated for changes in the United States’ tax code. “We incentivize people to do all sorts of strange things in the tax code,” she said. “We need to think about building policies for 2017, not 1977.”

Henry Kunin ’18 commented on the lecture.

As a child, Henry heard about the ins and outs of the economy from his father. Currently taking Introduction to Economics, Henry said, “I took the course out of a fascination with the nuances of finance. The lecture addressed concepts already understood by most students, and spoke about trends that are expected across a nearly hundred-year timespan.”

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April 27, 2017

Make vegan lemon pancakes without help from the Deece Brooke Thomas Guest Colunmist

I

Lack of campus support for non-cis students persists TBD

Pre-Org

T

Courtesy of Spencer Davis

BD is a new pre-org established to improve policy related to trans and gender nonconforming students at Vassar. It raises awareness and promotes positive change. In our weekly columns, we aim to “come out” about being non-cisgender on this campus, but the experiences are ones of individuals. The reality is that a person’s gender, or lack thereof, is a very personalized one. It is “To Be Determined” and cannot and should not be limited to others’ journeys.

We have washed and dried our hands of transphobia at Vassar College with gender neutral bathrooms (GNBs)–or so we think.

The reality is that outside of dorms, gender neutral bathrooms are rare on this campus. Every academic building should have gender neutral bathrooms, but many do not. And even when they exist, they are hard to find and harder to access. A diagram in the LGBTQ+ Center details the gender neutral bathroom locations on campus, but it’s more akin to a treasure map. It shows only a handful of handicap accessible GNBs beyond residential spaces. Furthermore, parts of the map are inaccurate or outdated, leaving trans students with minimal options. As a result, many will forgo using the bathroom, risking urinary tract infections to maintain their safety and avoid the discomfort of gender dysphoria. Vassar should affirm, not just minimally comply with, the needs of trans, gender non-conforming and non-binary students. Through the placement of gender neutral restrooms, the college fails to do this..

If this sounds like an exaggeration, TBD challenges cisgender students to use only gender neutral bathrooms for three days of classes and see if they are comfortable. If they are history majors, that shouldn’t be a problem. Swift has nice, clean gender neutral bathrooms. However, if they have a small bladder and study STEM, a field that desperately needs more gender diversity at Vassar College, they will find themselves straight out of luck. The Bridge Building lacks gender neutral bathrooms altogether.

Another problem with the focus on the bath-

rooms is that it distracts from other issues regarding trans rights. While the rarity of gender neutral bathrooms is an issue, we also need to talk about the difficulty of changing names and pictures on VCards, misinformation about what gender affirmation treatments Vassar’s insurance policy actually covers and the dearth of gender sensitivity trainings for faculty. Even the name we use, “gender neutral bathrooms,” implies that gender doesn’t matter. But to TBD students, gender feels anything but neutral. When trans femmes of color are most often policed out of bathrooms, and trans men consistently face the threat of violence if outed, gender is salient.

Our restrooms should be gender-inclusive, not just neutral.

It’s no secret that Vassar is a progressive campus, but our trans allyship is often conditional.

We don’t always introduce ourselves with pronouns, and we don’t call out when this doesn’t happen. We walk around campus and see people who break the binary and call it a day because we don’t mind sharing a restroom with someone who does not look like us. Yet instituting some gender neutral bathrooms is only the start. We have an exceptional student body that tries to stay aware of social justice issues. So let’s not be complacent. We certainly have the voices to walk our social justice talk and do more to protect minorities here on campus.

New pre-org, TBD, seeks to ameliorate school policy on matters concerning gender, one being that of gender neutral bathrooms on campus.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Courtesy of Wikimedia

’ve never had Deece pancakes, but when I asked my roommates just now how they are, they both said, “Pffft,” so they must not be that great. Plus, they aren’t available all day. I’ve just been told they sometimes have chocolate chips but not that often. And don’t they have anything else? Not acceptable. If you are interested in delightful lemon vegan pancakes that you can make yourself, stick around.

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, replacing eggs in recipes is much easier than it seems. When people ask what I use for the egg in my pancakes, I never know what to say because I don’t use anything for a substitute. Pancakes don’t need eggs in order to stick together, and the baking powder will make them fluffy, so eggs aren’t needed for that either. Honestly, it is easier not to need eggs around for baking because they are fragile and they go bad easily, especially if you live in a dorm. Luckily, these pancakes only require the general pantry essentials and a lemon.

Speaking of living in a dorm, I know many of the recipes that I’ve given you aren’t very dorm friendly, but I would argue that this one is. You can easily cook pancakes in a dorm kitchen if you have a skillet on hand. You could also opt to bring the batter to the deece and cook them at the stir fry station if you wanted to be really extra.

This recipe makes enough for one or two people, so keep that in mind and increase everything according to how many people you’re planning to feed. First add all of your dry ingredients to a bowl: one cup of flour, four teaspoons of baking powder, two teaspoons of sugar and a fourth of a teaspoon of salt. Mix this well.

Next you need to add one cup of non-dairy milk (you totally can use water if you are in

a bind, but it is better with milk), a fourth of a teaspoon of vanilla extract, two teaspoons of vegetable oil and one tablespoon of lemon juice. The pancakes will taste more like lemon if you use fresh juice.

Alternatively, you can also add lemon zest or lemon extract if you want that flavor to be stronger. It works best if you make sure your lemon juice is the last thing in the batter because it will react with the baking powder and make the batter fluffy. Use a whisk or fork for the final mix; the more air you whip into the batter, the fluffier the pancakes will be. Let your batter rest for a few minutes before cooking it.

If you don’t like lemon, you could use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar in place of the juice. You could also use another citrus juice if you’d like. Strawberry slices or blueberries are a delicious addition.

Some pancake troubleshooting: be sure toheat your pan at a low temperature for about five minutes before you put any batter on it. If your pan is too hot, the pancakes will generally not turn out well. When cooking the cakes, the temperature should be set to medium-low.

Most of the cooking should happen before you actually flip the pancake. You’ll know it’s ready to flip when the bubbles have risen to the surface and popped.

However, you should only be flipping your pancakes one at a time; if you have to flip them more than once, you didn’t cook it long enough on the first side. Additionally, if you are adding fruit or anything else to the pancakes, be sure not to mix it into the batter; it will work better if you sprinkle the toppings onto each pancake later, just after you’ve poured the batter in the pan.

Don’t let your pancake dreams be dreams.

This recipe is based on the Loveliest Lemon Vegan Pancakes from Happy Healthy Life.

Ingredients Ingredients: 1 cup flour 4 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 2 tsp sugar (preferably organic) 2 tsp vegetable oil 1/4 tsp vanilla extract 1 cup nondairy milk 1 Tbsp lemon juice + 1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest 1/4 tsp lemon extract

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April 27, 2017

Page 7

Spring bursts onto scene with annual Holi celebration Kimberly Nguyen

Guest Photographer

Mack and Kim Get Strep Throat!

Mackenzie Little and Kim Carlson

28. Pretty Trojan lady ACROSS 31. Philippine type of banana DOWN 1. Went real fast 32. Medieval vocal composition 1. Holds eggs or ink 5. People who speak Gaelic 33. 1 cubic meter 2. Devious plan 10. Abbreviation for a chunk of text 35. Hear from here 3. Engrave on glass 14. "Defying Gravity" is best for this 37. Tube found in many screens 4. Ring me to open a house voice (abbr) 5. Grand dance events 15. Head of a monastery 40. by Longing 6. Stopped 16. Like an avatar, but smaller After delightful dance performances various groups including members of VC’s own South Asian Students’ Alliance, students took to the Quad this 42. Voice boxes 7. Move away from land 17. The airplane-dino friend from past Saturday, April 22, to unleash a rainbow of colored powder as part of 45. Was Heofloved 8. Chillax,the un-tense (2 words) Fosters Home annual Holi celebration, a Hindu festivalAnakin's marking brother. the arrival spring. him.

9. Walk arrogantly 18. Work 48. Someone who makes images 19. Bro Org that we don't have here 10. Nonsense!

50. Unit of electric current 11. Measure of land 20. My body part that's in pain 53. Where your limbs attach 12. Loud animal sound 22. What said body part does to 54. Pig noises 13. Small who build cause me pain

by Kim Carlson and crawlers Mackenzie Little 55. underground nests 24.

A non-precious metal (2 words) ACROSS 46. The lesbian British hero from Overwatch 32. Medieval vocal composition 53. Final Where your limbs attach 47. Jean material 1 cubic meter 54.Self Pig noises 56. images 26. Earthy, brownish pigment 21.33.

Lady who rows a boat 1. Went real fast 49.

USA basketball group pre-NBA (abbr.)

35.

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Final 23. Being the papa of 57. Volcano also called Wangore 29. Put on something fancy 5. People who speak Gaelic 51. Angry 37. Tube found in many screens (abbr) 56. Self images 59. Do __ others...

30. Two play in baseball 25. Cow talk 10. Abbreviation for a chunk of text 52. Institution of marriage 40. Longing 57. Volcano also called Wangore 60. brown colors What crowd did besides 14. “Defying Gravity” is best for this voice 34. A55.threatening Once called thephrase “Paris of(2 thewords) Middle East” 26. 42.

Voicethe boxes 59.A Dofew __ others…

63. golf score 36. What I say in reaction my ahhed 15. Head of a monastery 58. Swine testicle, crudely (2 to words) 45. Was Anakin’s brother. He loved him.

60.Average A few brown colors 16. Like an avatar, but smaller 61. Very eager Someone who want makes images 63.Chinese Average golf score 27.48.

Really really 65. philosophical principle condition 17. The airplane-dino friend from Fosters 62. Become ready to eat 50. Unit of electric current 65. Chinese philosophical principle 38. Robo nickname Home 64. Annoying Summer bug 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 39. A66.long room only containing 18. Work Bottom of a shoe doors67. A sassy remark 19. Bro Org that we don’t have here 14 15 16 20. My body part that’s in pain 68. Active volcano in Sicily 41. High-ranking clergy member 22. What said body part does to cause me pain 69. Russian royal 43. Night before 17 18 19 24. A non-precious metal (2 words) 70. Shrek and Fiona 44. Cookie where the cream is the 26. Earthy, brownish pigment 71. Average (2 words) 20 21 22 23 best part 29. Put on something fancy 30. Two play in baseball DOWN 46. The lesbian British hero from 24 25 34. A threatening phrase (2 words) Overwatch 36. What I say in reaction to my condition 1. Holds eggs or ink 47. Jean material 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 38. Robo nickname 2. Devious plan 49.

USA basketball group pre-NBA 39. A long room only containing doors 3. Engrave on glass 34 35 36 37 38 (abbr.)

41. High-ranking clergy member 4. Ring me to open a house 43. Night before 5. Grand dance events 51. Angry 39 40 41 42 44. Cookie where the cream is the best part 6. Stopped 52. Institution of marriage 7. Move away from land Answers to last week’s puzzle55. Once called the "Paris of the 43 44 45 46 8. Chillax, un-tense (2 words) Middle East" 9. Walk arrogantly 48 49 50 51 10. Nonsense!

58. Swine testicle, crudely (2 words) 47 11.

Measure of land 61. Very eager 52 53 54 12. Loud animal sound 62. Become ready to eat 13. Small crawlers who build underground 64. Annoying Summer bug nests 55 56 57 58 59 60 21. Lady who a boat 66. Bottom of arows shoe Being the papa of 61 62 63 64 65 67. A23.sassy remark 25. Cow talk 68. Active volcano in Sicily 26. What the crowd did besides ahhed 66 67 68 69. Russian royalwant 27. Really really 70. Shrek and Fiona 28. Pretty Trojan lady 69 70 71 31.

Philippine type of banana 71. Average (2 words)

“Mack and Kim Get Strep Throat!”

The Miscellany Crossword

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

© 2017 (Published via Across Lite)

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April 27, 2017

WFOCA revitalizes org centering intersectionality Matt Stein

Features Editor

es. There won’t be groups based on how you identify because I want everyone to understand that we are all going to be different races. We’re all going to identify differently. And all of those things are going to intersect and differentiate us. We can’t change that.”

The most obvious difference between the old org and the new org is in the name. By adding the F for “femmes,” WFOCA is expanding the representation for their members to support more students in the Vassar community.

Challenger spoke about the ways WFOCA has outreached with a broader inclusivity: “We’d definitely like to be more non-binary and trans-inclusive. That’s been a real focal point as we restart, which is why we’ve added the femmes part. I know some of the girls in Strong have talked about how they messaged

people by inviting any people who have ever, will or do identify as a woman or a femme. So that’s exciting.”

For anybody wishing to get involved, WFOCA will be hosting more general body meetings at the beginning of next semester. There will also be more frequent meetings next semester so more students can get involved.

Reinforcing WFOCA’s individualistic approach to forming a community, Spence said, “Even if we just had a Women of Color Alliance, race is always going to be a separate experience for us. And there’s no point trying to unify us by washing over that difference.

It’s going to be important to recognize it, and that’s what we mean by uniqueness. It’s really underscoring the fact and making sure that difference is not something to be afraid of.”

Courtesy of Vassar College

Organizations at Vassar have an interesting life. Some are as old as the Philaletheis Society, founded in 1865, and others are more recent, like Big Night In. Rarely does an organization get resurrected from the dead, though. Women and Femmes of Color Alliance (WFOCA), formerly WOCA, is one such org.

In 2015, the presiding members of WOCA graduated and shortly thereafter the org faded away. Three current students, Kate Spence ’18, Ally Fernandez ’18 and Hope Challenger ’19, have revived the group in the hopes of giving a greater voice to women and femmes of color at Vassar. WFOCA has, in a very short time, established an inclusive community and already laid the groundwork towards being a significant presence in the fall.

While acknowledging their previous incarnation, Fernandez explained how the new WFOCA is striving to create its own path: “This is kind of just our own thing. I know WOCA was a thing my freshman year but then they fell off. I’m not sure what happened to it or the kinds of things they did. But this is definitely the creation of everyone here now.

And I definitely do say everyone, because this is not just me, Kate and Hope running the show here. I take notes. Kate has the vision.

But we’re definitely trying to make sure this is a positive space for everybody.”

WFOCA has already held two meetings this semester. In their first meeting earlier this month, the group brainstormed different communal events to hold and general outreach possibilities. In the second meeting, members held a conversation about cultural appropriation.

Fernandez talked about the group atmosphere that emerged from the preliminary meeting: “In our first meeting, we had this brainstorming session and everyone had so many amazing ideas, like potlucks, movie

nights, study breaks. They were all to really create a community, not just getting together each week for an hour and talk about whatever’s on the agenda. We want to really know each other and support each other in and out of the meetings.”

Challenger added, “Our first meeting was about structure but it was very relaxed. There was pizza and everyone was chilling and talking about what we’d love to see. Honestly, it seemed like a safety net, where we’d just love to be together and talk about our experiences. There’s nothing really formalized. I think that was a really wonderful part, just to be in a space that felt very safe and where people could talk to people who maybe have similar experiences to you.”

One of the biggest hurdles WFOCA has encountered is a struggle for all orgs: publicity.

Besides relying on word-of-mouth, WFOCA’s plan is to be a greater presence during orientation for incoming first-years.

Challenger talked about how WFOCA will provide a supportive community for the incoming women and femmes of color: “I would love if we could be there for first-years, as people come in, while also being there for people who are already here. As soon as Kate mentioned WOCA, I realized that the absence was so real. I wish this had been a thing when I was a first-year. It definitely would’ve been a good basis, especially going through all the transitions in coming to Vassar. I hope it can be that for people.”

A significant element of WFOCA’s new design has revolved around treating each member as an individual, instead of generalizing, acknowledging the shared experiences and each member’s uniqueness.

Spence elaborated: “I think we’re going to always either speak from the ‘I’ perspective to not generalize and to set up norms so that we can create a space of respect. It needs to be obvious that everyone has different experienc-

Women and Femmes of Color Alliance (WFOCA) has been revived at Vassar. The group aims to have a greater presence in the Vassar community, including collaborating with the ALANA Center.

Vassar community pursues a goal of active allyship ALLYSHIP continued from page 1

the country’s culture and laws.

For part of the workshop, members-which included Vassar students, staff, faculty and administrators-broke off into groups and discussed ways they could integrate the action tips into their daily life for being supportive allies to the trans community. Teachers, for instance, discussed how to address students’ pronouns during the first week of class in a safe and comfortable manner.

“The handouts given out at the workshop are simply starting points to learning about trans vocabulary and trans allyship. There’s so much information on how to support trans and non-binary people, and it all can’t be covered in an hourand-a-half workshop.” Garcia acknowledged the limitations of the workshop.

They further elaborated on further actions attendees and people in general can take: “I think it’s important to recognize that not all trans and non-binary people are the same, and as a result, trans allyship oftentimes takes an individualized form. It’s necessary to do your own research on how to best advocate for trans and non-binary people, but you also need to listen to and respect the trans people you’re supporting. Recognize that the approach you may want to take or what you think allyship ‘should look like’ may not be helpful to the trans and non-binary people you’re seeking to advocate for.”

One of the important points presented in the Garcia’s handouts “Trans Vocabulary” and “Action Tips for Trans Allyship” was how consequential even little actions can be: “Trans people’s pronouns are not “preferred,”, they are mandatory... [‘Trans’] is an adjective, not a noun... It’s also important to be aware of a trans person’s ‘out’ status, since this may not apply uniformally in every circumstance.” Also there are boundaries for questions. “Do not ask about a person’s genitals or surgical status...Do not assume you can tell if someone is transgender or cisgender... Do not assume pronouns.”

During one of the group discussions, attendees considered how they would plan to apply tips from the workshop into their daily life. One of the participants in the workshop, Katie Nordstom ‘18, hopes to put the workshop’s tips into action: “I am going to work towards introducing myself with

my pronouns when in a group as to help take that burden off of trans people.”

Nordstrom found attending the workshop to be very educational and enriching experience: “Spencer Garcia did a fantastic job leading the workshop, and my knowledge of trans allyship has increased dramatically since attending the workshop, and they made sure we had access to additional resources to continue to become a better, more active ally.”

Garcia finished the workshop by providing different trans organizations around the country to support. On campus, there is the Vassar Trans Clothes Exchange (VTCE). VTCE collects clothes and provides them to trans and non-binary students who might not feel safe going out to buy them. VTCE has various donation periods year-round, and students can email vassartransclothes[at]gmail.com if they wish to get involved.

The workshop is only a starting point for allyship, though. Garcia expanded on what they hope attendees pursue: “I hope that the workshop par-

ticipants left with concrete ideas of how to support trans and non-binary people inside and outside of Vassar, and with an understanding of the importance of questioning their own gender, gender biases and societal constructions of gender. I also hope that they see the workshop as a starting point for their trans allyship, and that they commit to pursuing further research on trans issues and activism.”

While people can and should take these measures to move towards trans allyship, it is fundamental for them to listen to trans voices to better understand their experiences.

Garcia’s handout reinforces this: “The best way to practice allyship is to listen with an open mind to trans people themselves. They are the experts on their own lives! Be mindful of your activism to ensure that you don’t erase trans voices in your attempt to support trans people. Do not ignore other systems of oppression such as racism, sexism, ableism, classism and homophobia, all of which affect trans people to varying degrees.”

Courtesy of Vassar LGBTQ Center

of trans and non-binary people.

Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson ’19 attended the workshop on Wednesday [Disclaimer: Varcoe-Wolfson is the Editor-in-Chief for The Miscellany News]. Explaining why she believed attending was important, Varcoe-Wolfson said: “I’m an intern at the RSL Office and we usually have our meetings at that time. Instead of having our weekly meeting, all eight interns were encouraged to attend. The Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and the Interim Interim Rachlin Director of Jewish Life attended as well.”

Varcoe-Wolfson continued: “Especially as I was sitting in the workshop, I realized that the way I see myself as a trans ally is in a passive way. One of the things I saw the handout was: “Don’t add the T without doing work.” Because I see myself as a ‘progressive’ Vassar student, it’s easy to let myself off the hook as a trans ally without taking the active steps.”

The Trans Allyship Workshop permits members of the Vassar community of all identities to get informed and ask questions, no matter what previous knowledge participants have.

In addition to modifying the workshop’s curriculum to reflect feedback from last year’s event, Garcia also altered the event’s phrasing: ìI moved from the language of ‘training’ to ‘workshop’ to emphasize the continual self and community work present in trans allyship.’

Garcia expanded on the workshop’s new features: “This year, I added the ‘Challenging Constructions of (Cis)Gender’ section in order to push workshop participants to examine their own ideas of gender and how they understand themselves in relation to these constructs. There are also more interactive elements of the workshops, and they now include more small group discussions and activities.”

Besides general principles, Garcia’s presentation addressed Vassar-specific transphobic situations. For trans students that haven’t come out at home but have changed their names through AskBanner, accessing mail can be impossible. Likewise, the Office of International Programs doesn’t always provide sufficient information to trans students who are planning on going abroad regarding

Spencer Garcia ’18 hosted the Trans Allyship Workshop, which educates members of the Vassar community on allyship topics such as gender biases, transphobia and pronoun use.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

April 27, 2017

OPINIONS

Page 9

The Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Films must deconstruct, address racist structures on screen

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hitewashing, a film industry casting practice in which white actors or actresses are hired to play non-white characters, has long permeated popular media and systematically denied artistic and economic opportunities to marginalized groups. The activist site racebending.com further describes whitewashing as “a resultant discriminatory impact on an underrepresented cultural community and actors from that community (reinforcement of glass ceilings, loss of opportunity, etc.). In the past, practices like blackface and yellowface were strategies used by Hollywood to deny jobs to actors of color...Because characters of color were played by white actors, people of color were hardly represented at all–and rarely in lead roles” (Racebending. com, “What is “racebending?”).

Whitewashing and racism have been prevalent in Hollywood films and television shows for over a century. What’s more concerning is that nothing has changed. Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl in “A Mighty Heart” in 2007; Johnny Depp as Tonto, a Native American, in the 2013 “The Lone Ranger”; and Scarlett Johansson as the leading role in the 2017 remake of “Ghost in the Shell,” which was meant to be played by an actor of Asian descent–these examples serve to illustrate that whitewashing in Hollywood is still a ubiquitous practice that relies on the exclusion and reduction of people of color in the industry. This practice is rooted in structures of oppression that are limiting to people of color in areas far beyond the screen. Hollywood has actively ignored the explicit denial of employment opportunity for actors of color, while contributing to a culture of white supremacy in which narratives from marginalized groups don’t get told or are whitewashed.

As whitewashing continues to be a common practice, these actions are justified in ways that simply serve to reinforce the oppressive struc-

tures these practices stem from in the first place. Filmmakers argue that casting white people in lead roles for remakes set in the United States is not whitewashing, which was posited by the producers of the upcoming Netflix film “Death Note.” The Japanese animated film and manga series will have Nat Wolff, a white man, starring as the protagonist, Light Yagami. Due to changing the story’s location to Seattle, the film’s creators said that they “Americanized” “Death Note” (Buzzfeed, “People Have Mixed Feelings About Whether Or Not Netflix’s ‘Death Note’ Is A Case Of Whitewashing,” 03.23.2017).

Yet, “Americanness” should never be equated with whiteness. Producers could have cast a Japanese-American actor for the role, but instead chose to hire an already-popular white actor.

There is never an excuse for denying roles to marginalized groups–especially in an industry with such an exclusionary, oppressive history.

A study released in February 2016 by the Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California analyzed 109 films in 2014 and 305 scripted television shows aired from September 2014 to August 2015. The report found, “In the 414 studied films and series, only a third of speaking characters were female, and only 28.3 percent were from minority groups—about 10 percent less than the makeup of the U.S. population” (CBS News, “Damning study finds a ‘whitewashed’ Hollywood,” 02.22.2016). A study done at UCLA found that “film studio heads were 94 percent white and 100 percent male, film studio management is 92 percent white and 83 percent male, film studio unit heads are 96 percent white and 61 percent male, TV network and studio heads are 96 percent white and 71 percent male, TV senior management is 93 percent white and 73 percent male, TV unit heads are 86 percent white and 55 percent male” (Patch, “Hollywood Whitewashed: White Men Dominate Film Industry,

Studies Confirm,” 02.22.2016). Legacies of white supremacy infect all strata of Hollywood, from the board room to the screen. While actively combatting whitewashing is crucial to achieving equitable and socially just representation for marginalized groups, hiring writers, producers and directors of color is equally essential to undoing such exclusionary practices.

Moreover, when many actors of color are hired, they are forced to portray secondary, stereotyped characters that erase the complexity and dynamism of the cultures they’re from. One need only look to the portrayal of Middle Eastern characters to see whitewashed, Orientalist structures at work. As Jeffrey Fleishman noted, “Hollywood has portrayed Arabs as villains and schemers for generations, from ‘The Sheik’ in 1921 to Steven Spielberg’s ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ to Disney’s ‘Aladdin.’ Other minorities, including Indians, have also been fitted into constraining frames” (LA Times, “Forget playing Terrorist No. 3 Middle Eastern actors seek roles beyond Hollywood stereotypes,” 08.05.2016).

Such lack of proper representation has tangible impacts on the psyches of marginalized youth.

As a study published by Communication Journal found, “Television exposure predicted a decrease in self-esteem for white and black girls and black boys....In contrast to white characters, black male characters are more likely to be depicted as menacing or unruly, and black female characters are more likely to be shown as exotic and sexually available” (Media Consumers for Entertainment Equality, “Study examines television, diversity, and self-esteem,” 06.06.2012).

The widespread success of blockbusters such as “Moana” and “Hidden Figures” more recently, along with the Academy Award nominated and winning films like “Moonlight,” “Fences” and “Lion” demonstrate that audiences will pay to see films where the protagonists are people of color and where the stories belong to people of

color. These movies illustrate the ways in which telling stories that center the experiences and narratives of people of color have the potential to change public perception; impact and improve the self-esteem and self-image of people of color, specifically for young folks; and impact and contribute to conversations concerning racial oppression.

The racial logics behind whitewashing films and television underpin the tangible physical and psychological violence people of color are forced to confront every day. In a nation where people of color are denied access to educational and economic opportunities, upending such violent paradigms is crucial. In a nation where the murder and incarceration of Black men is state-sanctioned and normalized, the power of media and art in activating social change becomes quite literally a matter of life and death.

Issues of whitewashing carry over beyond the confines of Hollywood’s board rooms and production studios. In communities at Vassar, white students are often overrepresented–a lasting byproduct of Vassar’s history of white supremacist exclusivity and broader denial of educational opportunity to those of marginalized identities across the nation. The Miscellany News recognizes its own positionality in this exclusivist history, as the Editorial Board has long been dominated by white voices. Whether in big-budget blockbuster films or The Miscellany News’ offices on the third floor of Main, the experiences of people of color, told and represented by people of color, must be centered. We at The Miscellany News commit to addressing white supremacy in all of its ugly, violent manifestations on campus while acknowledging its own complicity in such violence.

––The Staff Editorial expresses the opinion of at least 2/3 of The Miscellany News Editorial Board.

Antisemitism permeates leftist political platforms in U.S. Jesser Horowitz Columnist

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nder normal conditions, a Democratic primary for the New York City Council would not attract much attention. Yet, Thomas Lopez-Pierre, who is running against incumbent Councilman Mark Levine, has recently received the ire of Jewish groups who believe that he is running on an antisemitism platform.

Lopez-Pierre, a fierce anti-gentrification candidate, has continuously postured himself as a defender of Black and Latinx people in the fight against “greedy Jewish landlords” (Forward, “Greedy Jewish Landlords Are The Problem: New York City council Candidate,” 4.24.2017).

And that is no off-hand comment. Look at his Twitter account and you’ll be greeted by the following bio: “Jewish landlords OWN 80% of private rental buildings in Manhattan; GUILTY of GREED for pushing Black/Hispanic tenants out.” Every other tweet mentions “greedy jewish landlords.” He is running on an openly antisemitic platform, and uses his status as a candidate for public office to harass Jewish business owners and Jewish City Councilman Mark Levine.

And, if that isn’t enough to make you love this puppy dog of a man, he’s also been convicted of criminal contempt for threatening his ex-wife and has a history of domestic abuse (Observer, “Anti-Semitic NYC Council Candidate Has History of Domestic Abuse”, 4.24.2017).

“Antisemitism and anti-Jewish sentiment, unfortunately, infects all political ideologies.”

While a part of me feels guilty about calling any attention to Lopez-Pierre, a perennial candidate with no chance at winning, he demonstrates a growing and disturbing trend of anti-semitism in the Democratic Party and the American left.

For too long, iberals have viewed antisemitism as either an issue of the past or have exclusively associated it with the right. That’s not

to say that conservatives don’t have their own antisemitism to deal with, especially considering White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s recent comments about the Holocaust. Antisemitism and anti-Jewish sentiment, unfortunately, infects all political ideologies.

And the American Left isn’t alone in its growing association with antisemitism. The United Kingdom’s Labour Party has grown increasingly antisemitic under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

Ken Livingstone, Labour Party member and former Mayor of London, claimed that prior to the Second World War Zionists worked alongside the Nazis (Algemeiner, “Ken Livingstone and the Myth of Zionist Collaboration With the Nazis,” 4.21.2017). Labour Party MP Naz Shah called for the deportation of Israeli Jews in order to allow for the creation of a Palestinian state (The Spectator, “The Labour Party has become institutionally anti-semitic”, 4.5.2017). Yet, the response from the Labour Party to these incidents were underwhelming at best.

In the United States, the Left has followed a similar, if not so obvious trajectory. This growing antisemitism is oftentimes framed as either opposition to Israeli government policies or backlash against economic elites.

For the former, one would only have to look as far as Vassar College’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which in 2014 republished a Nazi propaganda cartoon from Norwegian illustrator Harold Damsleth (Times of Israel, “Vassar’s SJP sort of apologizes for anti-Israel, Nazi cartoon”, 5.16.2014). At Northeastern University, SJP was banned for, among other things, disrupting a Holocaust Awareness Week event (Frontpage Magazine, “Northeastern U. Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine”, 3.17.2014).

Or consider the case of Professor Jasbir Puar, who was invited by the Jewish Studies Department to speak at Vassar College last year and used that opportunity to reuse the historic, antisemitic trope of blood libel and levy it against the Jewish state (Observer, “Vassar Jewish Studies Sponsors Demonization of Israel...Again”, 2.9.2016).

Or consider the case of Linda Sarsour, a

pro-Palestinian activist and one of the organizers of the Women’s March, who infamously declared that Zionism is incompatible with feminism. Or consider Rasmea Yousef Odeh, one of the organizers of the “A Day Without a Woman” strike, who was convicted of carrying out a deadly terrorist bombing in Israel that took the lives of two people (Snopes, “One of the Organizers of A Day Without a Woman Strike Was Convicted of a Terrorist Bombing,” 3.25.2017).

Yet antisemitism on the Left does not only exist among opponents of Israel, and oftentimes comes out during movements against economic elites.

“Yet antisemitism on the Left does not only exist among opponents of Israel, and oftentimes comes out during movements against economic elites.”

Consider the example of Thomas Lopez-Pierre, whose blatant antisemitism came out not in opposition to Israel but as the result of a different hot-button issue: gentrification.

Moreover, it painted “greedy Jewish landlords” as the elites committing “ethnic cleansing” against Black and Latinx renters. This parallels a traditional portrayal of Jews as greedy moneylenders and landlords who care nothing for anyone outside their own community.

But Lopez-Pierre is admittedly disliked and most likely won’t be winning this election. However, not every antisemite is so unpopular.

Consider the Occupy Wall Street movement, which targeted the one-percent wealthiest earners and urged the government to act against income inequality. Many liberals remember it fondly. Those same liberals forget that the movement veered off course into antisemitic territory, as one popular Occupy Wall Street

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page with 250,000 followers repeatedly posted content portraying Jews as elites controlling American politics and the United Nations (Vice News, “When Did the Occupy Movement Start Hating Jews?”, 10.25.2012).

Or consider the Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Keith Ellison. Ellison may not actually be a hardcore antisemite (I’m not saying he’s definitely not but there’s room to disagree). However, Ellison has publicly defended vile antisemites before and even recently. In 1990, Ellison publicly defended statements

by Stokely Carmichael, also known as Kwame Ture, claiming that Zionists collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War (CNN Politics, “Rep. Keith Ellison faces renewed scrutiny over past ties to Nation of Islam, defense of anti-Semitic figures”, 12.1.2016). He also repeatedly defended Louis Farrakhan, a man who has repeatedly claimed that Jews control the media and that the Holocaust was exaggerated.

Yet, he received widespread support, including from Jewish progressives, when he made a big push to be the Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

There is a clear pattern in these cases of those on the Left dismissing anti-semitism as unimportant when it is tied with progressive movements they like. The American Left has not endorsed those efforts to connect Jews with greedy economic elites, but have allowed it to occur and have failed to properly object to such claims. That a man like Thomas Lopez-Pierre would even feel comfortable associating himself with the Democratic Party demonstrates that the American Left has a serious issue regarding how it portrays and approaches Jews. That a man like Keith Ellison could become Deputy Chair of a major political party demonstrates that those same Democrats don’t view antisemitism as particularly important. The social justice issues some of these activists and politicians raise are essential and vital to protecting marginalized peoples in the United States. However, such movements must reckon with and expel antisemitism from their ranks if they are to properly fight for the rights and safety of all people.

OPINIONS

Page 10

April 27, 2017

March for Science affirms value, pertinence of discipline Steven Park Columnist

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he numbers are in: Tens of thousands of scientists and their fellow protesters took to the street on Saturday, March 22, to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s reckless approach to science. Estimates show that, despite the rainy weather, approximately 40,000 people participated in the March for Science in Washington, D.C., while another 40,000 people joined the protest movement in Chicago (Resistance Report, “The Attendance Numbers From the March for Science are In,” 04.22.2017). Not only that, more than 20,000 people took part in the protest in New York City and 10,000 people marched down in Philadelphia to show their support. And those numbers only represent the number of people from four cities–the reports show that a total of 600 marches were organized worldwide from London to Tokyo.

“Tens of thousands of scientists and their fellow protesters took to the street...to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s reckless approach to science.”

It may not be a huge, shocking revelation, but there’s a whole lot of people who care about the sciences and feel that Trump and his policies are guiding the country and the world in the wrong direction. Originally conceived in January in the wake of the highly successful Women’s March, the March for Science slowly but surely gained momentum as the Trump administration made assault after egregious assault on the scientific community: appointing Scott Pruitt (who saw

no need for the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA) as the head of the EPA, proposing budget cuts that will slash 18 percent of the National Institute of Health’s funding, the dismissal of climate change and the safety of vaccines, and so much more (The New Yorker, “The Usefulness of a March for Science,” 04.23.2017).

“It’s been frustrating to watch as certain forces in our society try to squelch science or their refusal to believe in it or propose alternative realities and facts–alternative facts, whatever the f*ck that is,” stated one Washington, D.C. demonstrator (CNN, “March for Science: Protesters Gather WorldWide to Support ‘Evidence,’” 04.22.2017).

Throughout the entire day, all sorts of signs were lifted up, some with clever science jokes (“Science is Real. Your Alternative Facts are √-1”), while others were more straightforward (“I can’t believe I’m still protesting this shit”).

Either way, the main goal of the march was to communicate the sheer outrageousness of Trump’s actions in the past 100 days and to send him a message that those who support logical analysis and facts stand in opposition to his anti-science proposals and appointments.

“I can’t think of a time where scientists felt the enterprise of science was being threatened in the way scientists feel now,” said Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard professor who specializes in the history of science (The New York Times, “Scientists, Feeling Under Siege, March Against Trump Policies,” 04.22.2017).

But while it’s evident that a lot of protesters got the chance to stand in support of the scientific community, one must ask: Did the March for Science manage to sway anyone?

For some scientists, there’s a likely chance that the protest movement unwittingly backfired and divided the country even further. For instance, coastal geologist Robert Young worries that the march might overly politicize science and reinforce the conservative narrative that scientists only spout biased opinions that favor the liberal agenda (The New York Times, “A

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Scientists’ March on Washington Is a Bad Idea,” 01.31.2017). According to Young, the March for Science, while well-intentioned, “will serve only to trivialize and politicize the science we care so much about, turn scientists into another group caught up in the culture wars and further drive the wedge between scientists and a certain segment of the American electorate.” While Young did attend the march to support his friends, he argues that scientists should make more of an effort to teach others how they conduct their research, talk in churches and schools and connect with Americans more personally.

Indeed, those who believed that the march would remain nonpartisan were quickly proven wrong as countless people joined the protest holding not only anti-Trump signs but also anti-Republican signs. Even during the rally in Washington, many of the official speakers attacked the administration and congressional Republicans to the sound of booing from the crowd (STAT, “7 Takeaways from the March for Science,” 04.23.2017). It’s undeniable that an usvs-them sentiment was present throughout the march–only time will tell whether this will negatively impact the scientific community in the future.

“[S]cientists must be willing to step outside their lab and join the conversation on an eyeto-eye level.”

But despite fears of possible negative repercussions, I can’t help but believe that the March for Science did far more good than harm.

For one thing, the march served to instill pride in the scientists in what they do. The scientific community is not known for banding together under a political cause and historians

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have commented how the March for Science “is pretty unprecedented in terms of the scale and breadth of the scientific community that’s involved” (The Washington Post, “Historians say the March for Science is ‘Pretty Unprecedented,’” 04.22.2017). It might not have persuaded any stubborn Trump supporters to change their mind, but the march itself was largely a celebration of science, causing people to realize how much they have taken the works and discoveries of scientists for granted.

The movement brought together science enthusiasts of all ages, from bright-eyed 7-year-old children to the gray-haired elderly who showed their support with their own hand-made, nerdy signs.

In a sense, the march reaffirmed the value of science. It not only let politically active demonstrators bond with lab experts who rarely entered the political sphere, but it also allowed young children to meet their heroes, the nerdy yet brilliant scientists, in person, potentially inspiring the next generation to become even more excited about science. For that, I think the march was well worth the effort.

Of course, even if the march has ended, the movement is far from over. There’s still much work to be done, and Robert Young is right: More effort should be made toward getting people to understand the scientific process and teach them not to fear it. In the eyes of many people, there exists a significant barrier between the general public and the scientific community that only serves to cause further distrust and misunderstandings.

While scientists may be holed up inside their labs, focusing only on their research, the fruits of their work will ultimately end up wasted if the general public is constantly kept in the dark with confusing acronyms and obscure terminology.

In order to really reach the hearts and minds of Americans, scientists must be willing to step outside their lab and join the conversation on an eye-to-eye level.

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April 27, 2017

OPINIONS

Colleges should welcome political dissent Drew Solender Columnist

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ince publishing an article titled “Politicization of VSA should be questioned in election,” an admittedly controversial subject, I have received a great deal of pushback from people on campus.

I have been called hurtful things and criticized personally. However, I in no way wish to portray myself as a victim. Far from it, in fact. I put my controversial ideas out there knowing what the likely response would be. I wanted to take the opportunity to qualify some of my previous assertions and defend free speech as a virtue of liberal democracy.

What concerned and discouraged me was not the contentious debate that ensued from my article, but rather the fact that many people were trying to make me feel a sense of shame for speaking my mind and sharing my opinion. Why? Because my opinion goes against what I believe is the status quo at Vassar. Some people even tried to shame me for going so far as to state my pacifist that people shouldn’t be physically attacked for their political views. I am far from a right-wing conservative.

I’m a registered Democrat with mostly liberal and progressive views. My opinion is nonetheless confronted with hostility, treated as blasphemy and dismissed without engagement for simply suggesting that progressivism often eschews political pluralism.

I would like to make a plea for a less-toxic political environment and for more free and equitable discourse at Vassar. I urge student organizations and academic departments to facilitate hosting speakers representing divergent political views at Vassar. These views might include those of moderates, conservatives and libertarians among others.

It is important to note that there are speakers that have absolutely no place speaking at Vassar.

One example is Milo Yiannopoulos whose goals as a speaker are not to educate but rather to provoke hatred, anger and violence amongst his progressive opponents. Another is Alex Jones, who goes beyond simple political discourse to advocate direct violence against his political counterparts.

One final example would be Ann Coulter who, like

Jones and Yiannopoulos, often distorts or ignores facts to suit her personal narrative, often to disparage or deny the humanity of marginalized peoples.

All three peddle in racism, sexism and classicism.

So what concrete effect would hosting dissenting voices have at Vassar? Well, there are three primary purposes that I think having dissenting voices represented at Vassar would accomplish.

First, it would help set Vassar apart from the many left-leaning colleges that have embraced violence or stifling of political diversity and freedom of speech in response to political discourse.

Recently there have been many instances of problematic reactions to controversial speakers such as at Berkeley in February, where anti-fascist protesters and alt-right protesters clashed violently in response to the speaking engagement of Milo Yiannopoulos, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. There was also an instance at Middlebury in which “one protester pulled [a professor]’s hair and injured her neck” (“Protesters aggressively confront controversial scholar,” Boston Globe, 03.04.2017).

I have faith that Vassar is an open-minded and intellectual enough community to eschew outright violence and pursue more peaceful and effective methods of opposition, or even constructive participation.

The second thing it might accomplish is breaking the Vassar bubble and helping to decrease the extent to which Vassar’s left leaning political environment insulates the campus from political realities. The fact is that conservatives exist. In fact, they are in power in 33 of 71 states in the International Democratic Union, an alliance of center-right. And that 33 does not include states that are ruled by right-wing or far right parties. In fact, it would not be wildly unjustified to assume that the majority of global governance is in the hands of right-of-center governments.

That being said, learning how to properly engage hostile or even oppressive ideologies can only happen when the person engaging them has a solid understanding of their views. If one spends all four years of college learning only about pro-

gressive politics, listening to progressive lectures and reading progressive literature, students’ only understanding of conservatism will be from a progressive perspective. This type of one–sided education that shuts out alternative worldviews is fundamentally flawed and will likely lead to a warped understanding of the ideologies and the experiences of one’s political opposites.

Most importantly, I think hosting dissenting voices might give much needed voice to students who do not normally engage in political discourse at Vassar.

On the contrary, allowing a discourse between groups with divergent world-views would likely facilitate a greater understanding of opposing viewpoints and worldviews and hopefully allow for greater compromise and empathy in the future–while allowing for problematic ideologies to become (peacefully) excised from such discourse.

I personally would fight just as hard for progressives if I went to Liberty University, where they represent a small minority of students, if I found that they similarly had suppressed voices.

A recent study shows that the majority of students concur with both of my assertions and my beliefs. According to this study, conducted by Gallup and published by the Knight foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the freedom of the press and the media, “54% [of students] say the climate on their campus prevents some people from saying what they believe because others might find it offensive” (“Free Expression on Campus,” Knight Foundation, 2016).

So a majority of students nationwide believe that freedom of speech is stifled on campuses, but do they think that is a bad thing? They do, overwhelmingly. When asked if they think “colleges should or should not be able to establish policies that restrict expressing political views that are upsetting or offensive to certain groups?” a vast majority, 72 percent, said they should not. Ending racism, sexism and other oppression on campus is, of course, essential. This work does not have to come at the expense of nuanced discourse and dialogue across difference.

Chechen anti-LGBTQ crimes merit action Sylvan Calko Perlmutter Columnist

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nexpectedly, the world is once again talking about Chechnya, a republic within the Russian Federation. During the Russo-Chechen wars of the 1990s and 2000s, televisions buzzed with footage of the worst terror attacks committed against Russia by Chechen secessionists and Islamic extremists. The most tragic of these attacks was against a secondary school in the town of Beslan, where 30 Chechen terrorists held over 1,000 people, mostly children, hostage and resulted in 334 deaths after a three-day siege. But following the rise of Vladimir Putin, the use of overwhelming force by the Russian military and pro-Kremlin Chechen militants, systematic torture of opponents and the Putin administration’s selection of Akhmat Kadyrov (replaced by his son Ramzan Kadyrov in 2007) as president of the Chechen Republic, the conflict has been reduced to a relatively contained insurgency in the North Caucasus. The rare moments that Chechnya has reappeared in Western headlines over the past decade have been when prominent Russian dissidents have been assassinated. The assassinations of Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent journalist, and Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician and former deputy prime minister, were both traced back to Chechnya and it is widely presumed that Ramzan Kadyrov had a hand in them. But discussion of these events, outside of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, was mostly confined to foreign policy and human rights circles.

This has changed with recent reports that six detention centers are operating in Chechnya where LGBTQ residents of the republic are imprisoned, tortured and murdered. Liberals I have known to never have an interest in Russia are suddenly reposting numerous articles on Chechnya on social media. Even long time opponents of gay rights, including Republican politicians like Marco Rubio, have taken the floor in Congress to publicly condemn Ramzan Kadyrov and Putin’s unwillingness to act against him. 50 members of Congress have signed a letter imploring Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to publicly pressure the Russian government to properly investigate these reported human rights

violations.

This response has been admirable, although it is saddening that only now after a decade of living under Ramzan Kadyrov’s murderous dictatorship, Chechnya is finally getting more mainstream attention. As for why only now is Chechnya getting so much mainstream attention, it boils down to a couple of factors. One, this is a shocking crime. The murders of members of the LGBTQ community in detention centers evokes the historical trauma of gay people being among those marked for death in Nazi concentration camps. Two, in this period of heightened tension between Russia and the U.S. and its NATO allies, there is a greater receptiveness in the mass media to stories of human rights violations in the Russian Federation.

Noble sentiments and political opportunism coexist in the banding together of American politicians in the house to call for pressure on the Russian government to stop the persecution of the Chechen LGBTQ community. I believe that they genuinely want to stop this atrocity while also implying that Russia is not a country the Trump administration should be cozying up to.

On the part of the Democrats, this adds fuel to the fire of the investigation of the Russian hacks of the DNC. This is perhaps less necessary than it was previously before the Trump administration ordered missile strikes in Syria and consequently cooled U.S.-Russia relations.

However, critics are mistaken to think that Putin has the ability to easily end the torture and execution of LGBTQ Chechens. The Russian government has left Chechnya alone because it remains haunted by the brutality of the first and second Chechen wars. In fact, in the first Chechen War, the fledgling Russian Federation actually was defeated by the Chechen Rebels and that national shame has influenced many subsequent policy decisions. It can be assumed that the last thing Putin wants is to go through yet another Chechen war, especially while engaged in the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, and so is quite willing to ignore substantial amounts of international outcry for the sake of stability.

Furthermore, even if the Russian government did resolve to reign in or depose Kadyrov, it

would be a monumental undertaking. Kadyrov has a military force estimated from 20,000 to 30,000 militiamen who have pledged loyalty to him personally, so the Russians could only depose him with military force if they were willing to accept a war. The other option, cutting the federal funds that Kadyrov used for social services for the republic and to redistributes to those loyal to him, would deeply destabilize the republic and give renewed life to the terrorist insurgency. Putin is a very strong leader, but contrary to Western misperceptions, he is not omnipotent, and so we in the international community must find ways to help the Chechen LGBTQ community beyond simply calling for Russian federal intervention.

The international community should donate money to human rights groups in the Russian Federation such as the Russian LGBT Network, which has already helped LGBTQ Chechens flee and find sanctuary elsewhere in Russia or abroad. I encourage everybody to consider donating to them at this link: https://www.lgbtnet. org/en/endonate. In conjunction with this fundraising, the international community needs to exert pressure to make sure that these NGOs are protected from repression by the Russian government, which has in the past put in place legislation restricting the rights of LGBTQ Russians and has regularly impeded the work of NGOs by classifying them as foreign agents. These Federation-wide policies, unlike making forays into the internal affairs of Chechnya, is something that Putin’s Kremlin can actually substantially change. Furthermore, these human rights violations should be considered by international bodies such as the International Criminal Court and the European Court of Human Rights to translate international condemnation into actual legal directives for Russia to stop the persecution of LGBTQ Chechens. These directives can and probably will be ignored, but perhaps as Chechnya continues to bring international humiliation after international humiliation upon Russia, the Kremlin will eventually decide that it is worth the risk to replace him. Until then, we must continue to raise our voices in protest and not make the mistake of forgetting Chechnya again.

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Word on the street Who is your cartoon crush?

“Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Is that even a question?”

— Chloe Catoya ’20

“Johnny Bravo, he’s such a hunk. Hubba hubba!”

— David Sparks ’19

“Professor Farnsworth from Futurama; I love 160-year-old men” — Joseph Szymanski ’17

“My parents didn’t let me watch cartoons very much as a kid” — Erik Silver ’20

“Flynn Rider from Tangled; he’s a dreamboat and I’m freaking obsessed with him” — Matt Goldstein ’17

“Rapunzel from Tangled” ­­— Zamir Birnbach ’20

Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson, Editor-in-Chief Talya Phelps, Design Editor

HUMOR & SATIRE

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April 27, 2017

Breaking News From the desk of Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor In this 24-hour-news-cycle world, what is newsworthy and what is not has blurred. What is breaking news anyway?

Yesen(ed)ia’s Declassified The great Nordic indoors: Finals Week Survival Guide roughin’ it in a local IKEA Yesenia Garcia Life Coach

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have a problem. This problem has been haunting me for several weeks now, and I have decided that it is finally time to acknowledge it. Everytime I glance at my calendar, my eyes dart ahead to the impending doom that is collectively known as “finals” that is scheduled to occur in May. This is followed by me profusely sweating, pacing around my dorm, and furrowing my brow while I halfheartedly assure myself that “it’s okay, I still have time”.

I like to think that I have my life together most of the time, but whenever I think about all the lengthy essays and hours of studying I will have to endure in the near future, I envision my life going up in flames. After several intense discussions with some of my fellow classmates, I have come to the conclusion that the feeling is universal. In order to preserve my sanity in these trying times, I have devised some strategies that are 100 percent proven to alleviate stress.

1. Get high

I have heard that many people on this campus are fond of “getting high”. I can only assume that they mean that they like to put themselves in situations where they are physically elevated from the ground. Recent scientific studies have proven that nothing is more liberating than shouting from the rooftops, so you should head on over to the roof of your favorite academic building and release all the pent up stress by opening your mouth and allowing the deep guttural sounds from within to tumble out of your mouth. (*Please note that The Miscellany News will not be held responsible for any injuries that may result.)

2. Become one with nature

This warm weather tends to draw us outdoors where we have many opportunities to observe the local wildlife in action. Have you ever noticed that the geese, womp-womps, and rodents that call Vassar their home always look carefree and majestic as they gallivant around campus? You should take a page from their book by transcending your corporeal form and imitating these magnificent beasts. Perhaps by emulating them, you

will be able to channel some of their serenity and wisdom.

3. Experiment with scrapbooking

According to all the advice I’ve ever been given, college is all about trying new things. You should experiment with the underrated art form that is scrapbooking. Your friends and family may never look at you the same after you take up this habit, but the thrill that accompanies this activity makes it worth it. In addition to relieving stress, you can also uses scrapbooks as bribes to get your professors to substantially raise your grade. They will appreciate all the time and effort you put into creating the scrapbook and wish that you had applied yourself that hard in class.

4. Embark on an epic journey

Sometimes the best way to get rid of your stress is to simply vanish without a trace. For one day, you should drop all of your responsibilities and obligations and take a journey of epic proportions.

Your destination does not really matter, because as Miley Cyrus once said, it “ain’t about how fast you get there, ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side, it’s the climb”. Make your way to the Poughkeepsie train station and have a stranger randomly pick out your destination for best results. While on the train, you can gaze forlornly out the window and pretend that you are the star of a dramatic music video, which has been been shown to effectively combat symptoms of stress and could potentially even land you a career in the music industry!

5. Buzzfeed quizzes

As the old adage says: “Friends come and go, but Buzzfeed is forever”. In addition to giving you practice with test-taking strategies, you can always count on Buzzfeed quizzes to reveal some deep and vital information about yourself that you would have never known otherwise. Where else would you be able to learn which Poptart flavor you are based on your Zodiac sign? Or receive an oddly specific compliment based on your choice of German Shepherd pictures? I recommend taking at least three quizzes a day to give you the inner peace you desperately need to get through this finals season.

Sophie Blumenstock Recreational Glamper

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ow that we’re firmly into spring, there are no longer opportunities for winter camping and getting to experience nature while trekking around in the snow. Never fever, however, an authentic cozy feeling can be provided by glamping, camping without all the trouble. For an authentic Nordic experience, go no further than your nearest IKEA, which will provide you with all you need for a weekend of family fun, without ever even venturing outside.

The first order of business upon entering any IKEA store, no matter your purpose for being there, is to get the lay of the land. This is accomplished by a quick, exploratory walk through the store, starting at the top in the show rooms, and then winding down the pathway to lighting and home goods. After this initial journey, you should be able to identify your ideal campsite for the weekend. There are several good choices available. Many of the showrooms come fully furnished with books and clothes, making them more attractive for the forgetful packer.

The urban and adventurous camper might feel more at home downstairs amongst the stock abstract posters. For an authentic outdoorsy feel, pitching your tiny, decorative tent amongst the plants could make for a stimulating campground. Running water is deceptively not included. After all, it’s not a camping trip without roughing it a little bit! After exploring your surroundings and picking your campsite, you’re ready for a cozy evening at home, nestled into a fully furnished living space.

As your first morning in IKEA dawns, food may be the first thought on your mind. Luckily for you, IKEA comes stocked with a variety of quirky local foods, including their famous Swedish meatballs and equally famous, if not equally Swedish, rectangular pan of cinnamon buns. Serve it up family style seated at a laminate countertop on stylish Henriksdal and Råskog bar stools, or more intimately, at a Bjursta/Börje dining set.

For couples with young children really looking to capitalize on the vacation atmosphere and have some alone time, IKEA even offers childcare services. As you enter the store, simply stick your offspring in the woodland-themed ball pit and be on your merry way.

For the more hands-on parent, your child could also accompany you through the showrooms to the children’s section, full of bins of soft plush toys, doll houses and elegant Minnen extendable beds, ready to grow up as your little one does.

After a thorough exploration of the showrooms, a trip to the warehouse can be exciting for the camper looking for a challenge. Cold, grey and foreboding, the warehouse is not for the faint of heart. Metal shelves tower above you, full of indistinguishable cardboard boxes that are maddeningly easy to mix up. Before you leave, make sure to pack extra sweaters and brush up on your Swedish proper nouns. Otherwise, you’ll undoubtedly lose your way in the freezing terrain. The stuff of nightmares.

As the weekend winds down and it’s time to re-enter civilization, have your last few meatballs around the coffee table and pack up your things. Campers can trail through the warehouse to the checkout area, full of last-chance sale items to impulsively bring home to loved ones. A small food shop is conveniently located close to the door, allowing campers to stock up on all of the food they enjoyed on their trip.

Who knew that lingonberry and elderflower juice were so conveniently packaged in juice boxes? Perfect for souvenirs.

Camping trips are great ways for couples to really get away from it all and connect with each other. IKEA is the perfect setting for this.

A trip to IKEA allows people to imagine the lives they could lead, most likely in a tiny and overpriced apartment, filled with sturdy dishware, say-something light fixtures, and furnished with pops of color. Experience the wilds of Scandinavia in a much more manageable way, and maybe pick up a nice mustard wingback while you’re at it.

HEL brings stand-up comedian Ashley Gavin to campus

by Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor

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ver the last few weeks, student organizations have brought some well-known and amusing comedians to Vassar, all of whom have brought their own unique experiences and work to showcase. To continue with the trend, on May 3, New York-based comedian Ashley Gavin will be performing in Taylor Hall 102 courtesy of HEL. In a statement to The Miscellany News, HEL explained why they are bringing Gavin to Vassar: “We wanted to bring Ashley Gavin to campus because she is really funny, and as a group we really enjoyed her stand up. We really enjoy that her comedy doesn’t have to pull other people down to be funny. Her comedy stems from sharing about herself and being relatable rather than targeting others.”

I was fortunate enough to be able to interview Ashley Gavin earlier this week to discuss everything from her life to her comedy style and more.

For those unfamiliar with her comedy or background, Ashley is a comedian based in New York and while Gavin has been a performer all her life, comedy was not her initial career choice. Speaking to her irregular ca-

reer path in comedy, Gavin said, “I found engineering, which is what I did for a very long time; I was a software engineer and I found that you could be really creative doing that.

But I got about one year into my post-college job as an engineer and while it was a really wonderful place to work, I wanted to, like, die. I was so miserable.”

After quitting this job, she moved back to New York to pursue what she wanted to do the most: make people laugh. She tried many different avenues of comedy including improv and even writing a comedic musical until coming upon stand-up. Gavin explained, “Then I did my first open mic, and then I was like, ‘Oh, oh, this forever.’ The first open mic I was like, ‘Oh, this is done.’ Like I think it’s hard for creatives to find their medium because they can be good at a lot of things, or at least okay at a lot of things. But once I did the open mic I was like, ‘I gotta do this every day.’”

Since then, Ashley Gavin has performed stand-up across the United States at various festivals like Carolines and on TV programs like “Laughs” on FOX and Gotham Comedy

Live.

None of these successes were a product of luck, however. While being funny is an integral part of the process, Gavin highlighted the importance of the business side of comedy in our interview, adding, “The philosophy I’ve taken is that you need to create volume; luck is opportunity meets preparation. So getting good at the craft is your preparation and also having a resume and headshots and a website, stuff like that. And everyone’s like, ‘Well I don’t need it,’ and then all of a sudden you need it.”

She went on further to say, “No angel is going to come down and be like ‘Oh by the way, tomorrow you’re going to meet a manager and you better have all your shit together.’”

In conjunction with incredible writing skills and drive, Ashley Gavin has achieved a great deal of success within a short amount of time, and her Vassar show is coming at a moment when she is gaining much deserved popularity. Conversely, performing at colleges provides Gavin with the opportunity to try new jokes on a younger audience.

One of the products of all her hard work is

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the honest and relatable social commentary she is able to cultivate in her stand-up. One topic that does not necessarily define but rather permeates Gavin’s comedy time and again is her identity.

She commented on that aspect of her work, saying, “It’s hard for me to get up onstage and not address the fact that I’m gay. Because a lot of people are sitting in the audience being like, ‘Is she gay?’ So if I don’t say it, they just can’t stop thinking about it. And then I realized, ‘Oh, I have a lot of feelings surrounding this.’ My identity is a huge source of emotional fodder for me, so it is good inspiration to write about.”

With an industry as male-dominated as the entertainment business, Ashley Gavin provides a perspective that can go unheard by many audiences. In the current political climate, giving voice to performers such as Ashley is more important than ever, and I for one am glad that Vassar is breeding an inclusive environment on campus for comedy. Ashley Gavin’s performance next Wednesday will prove to be a nice way to end the semester and I would highly recommend going.

HUMOR & SATIRE

April 27, 2017

Page 13

J.K. Growling: reimagining Harry Potter with Deece food Tanya Kotru Gode

stroys it because he’s a bit cray-cray).

Head Chef at the Great Hall

2. Harry Potter and the Chowder of Clam: This

I am a huge Potterhead. YUGE. Not a fan of Trump though, don’t worry. I also love food. One sleepless night, I was lying in bed rather hungry, and my brain was doing this thing where it refuses to quiet down and starts imagining everything from parallel universes to alien conspiracy theories. I started thinking about the Harry Potter series, and food (Deece food for some weird reason), and wondered what the books would’ve been like if J.K. Rowling had been very hungry for Deece food when she wrote them. Behold–a peak into what I was imagining instead of trying to get some REM sleep.

1. Harry Potter and the PhillySteak Sandwich:

Dumblemore acquires a rare magical PhillySteak sandwich from a 600-year-old connoisseur, and hides it in a room that can be accessed by the third floor corridor, if you manage to surpass all the deadly obstacles that come first. Being a greedy man (DumbleMore), he proclaims that the third floor corridor is out of bounds, but the tempting smell attracts brave hungry students like Harry and his friends. They think that professor Severus Steak is trying to steal the sandwich for himself, so they try to save it (and maybe they’ll steal a bite later).

Turns out ravenous lord Veganmort (no offense to vegans) was craving meat, and he got professor Quinoa to try and steal the rare sandwich for him. Harry saves the day of course, but passes out when he gets greedy and tries to steal a bite from this sandwich. Dumblemore realizes that greed is bad, and returns the sandwich to the very hungry 600 year old man (who then de-

time, there’s a bowl of very tempting clam chowder hidden in the castle, and everyone has been forbidden to go near it (greedy old Dumblemore’s orders). However, the tempting smell of the chowder gets around the castle through pipes, and the fact that you can smell it but not eat it is “petrifying,” especially for muggle-borns. Lord Veganmort influences Ginny Weasley (through a magical diary) to steal the Clam Chowder for him, but Harry saves the day yet again, and destroys both the diary (to get rid of pesky Lord Veganmort for now) and the chowder (to end the petrifying temptation).

3. Harry Potter and the Pizza of ApplePie: This one is slightly different. Yeah yeah, WhySoSirius Black comes and goes, Harry saves the day, dementors kill the mood etc. But this one focuses on why Hermione never seems to get hungry.

She is always in class (sometimes multiple ones at the same time), is always engrossed in homework, and is rarely seen eating with her friends at the Great Hall. The secret to her non-existent appetite is that Professor McDonalds (I’m sorry I had to do it) gave her a magical pizza at the start of the year, that never runs out, and can fill your stomach in one bite. Hence, Hermione doesn’t have to waste time eating, but all she eats is pizza all year. And so she gets sick of it.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Hot Chocolate:

HOROSCOPES ARIES

March 21 | April 19

TAURUS

April 20 | May 20

GEMINI

May 21 | June 20

CANCER

June 21 | July 22

LEO

July 23 | August 22

VIRGO

August 23 | September 22

There is a contest at Hogwarts, where champions from different schools compete for a goblet of nice, warm hot chocolate. Meanwhile Hermione tries going out with Viktor Crumb (one of

So you’d have the healthiest relationship with a Gemini or Aquarius, v good chemistry with Leos and Sagittariuses, but like the hottest sex with Libras even though you’re total opposites. It’ll probably end in a fatal combustion of clashing opinions on whether horoscopes are real science or not. Regardless, you should fuck/kiss/cuddle a Libra who also wants to fuck/kiss/cuddle you.

So like, you can try to get with a Gemini, but things will get rocky. While you are a calm, committed person, Gems are a force of nature. If you went to a party with a Gem they’d leave you so fast to socialize with all their peeps, and you’d be all alone — forced to talk to someone you recognize from your Freshman Writing Seminar. Face it, Geminis are better than you. Settle for a Pisces.

You know what you need, Gems? Another Gemini. This is the perfect pairing because everyone else is afraid of you. No one else will understand or accept your confusing-as- fuck nature as much as one of your own. So conquer the world together, start some evasive shit., and forget everyone who’s not a Gemini.

Cancers tend to cry after sex. Tauruses and Virgos will be your best source of comfort. Aries and Libras will not be sympathetic. Capricorns will EMS you. Aquariuses will not be able to deal with your emotions. They will silently gather their things and leave. We hope this helps you determine who is worth your time.

So you are semi-sextile signs with Cancer and Virgos which gives a misleadingly sexy impression.

You will have literally the most bland, beige sex with Cancers and Virgos. If you’re not into sex, no worries, the conversation will also be beige. A relationship with a Capricorn or Pisces would be a step up —to olive— but also not ideal.

You know who’re underrated? Virgins. What is a virgin? Or virginity for that matter? It’s a social construct imposed by a patriarchal society that only recognizes heterosexual preconceptions of sex. Fuck that. My Virgos, my virgins, define sex and your sexuality however you please. Also, you’re pretty compatible with Cancers and Scorpios. Avoid Sagittariuses, they’ll eat all your food.

the champions) but gets sick of him soon because his name is too close to “crust” and she’s sick and tired of pizza from last year. Harry and Cedric make it to the hot chocolate (at the end of a deadly maze), but it turns out that ravenous Lord Veganmort turned the goblet into a portkey, so that when someone touched it, it would get teleported to him (along with whoever touched it).

He kills Cedric (he’s a very mean guy as he’s been vegan for too long, and craves meat) and uses the hot chocolate to get fully rejuvenated, but Harry manages to escape getting killed.

Behold—peek into what I was imagining instead of trying to get some REM sleep.

5. Harry Potter and the Order of “Eggs your way”: Nobody believes Harry that Lord Veg-

anmort is back and is ravenous, except for this brave, hungry group of people that will cook “eggs your way,” of which Dumblemore is a part.

Veganmort is trying to access a prophecy to understand how to curtail his enormous appetite, but the way to do that is evil. Hence, this group of chefs tries to distract him at the Ministry of Magic, to prevent him from getting the prophecy, by offering to cook eggs his way. WhySoSirius Black gets killed in the process (told you Veganmort is a mean guy).

6. Harry Potter and the Half-salted Pasta: Har-

ry finds a bowl of magical, never ending (but rather bland) pasta that helps him succeed at his Defense against the Dark Arts class. He is also drunk in love with Gin-ny (get it?) and Dumblemore gets killed for being greedy and interfering with Lord Veganmort’s secret stash of deathly hamburgers.

8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hamburgers:

There are seven deathly hamburgers that keep Lord Veganmort alive. Everyone is sick and tired of him and his antics to fill his growling stomach.

He refuses to quit being vegan (he clearly doesn’t like it), craves meat (which he secretly eats sometimes) and his frustration makes him a mean guy.

Harry and his friends decide to end the menace.

They go on a quest to find and destroy his secret stash of deathly hamburgers, so that he’d die and stop being a menace to society (they seem meaner now). They succeed in doing that–Lord Veganmort dies. Unfortunately, many other people also get killed, including professor Severus Steak. But everything ends well as Ron and Hermione end up together (Aww. Romione is my OTP–don’t you dare challenge their love) and Harry lives as an alcoholic–drunk in love with Ginny for the rest of his life. All was well. No one was hungry.

In closing I’d like to say that I know my imagination is wild. Also no offense to anyone who is vegan. Lord Veganmort is weak willed, but you guys are hella awesome if you can survive with such limited eating options! I couldn’t do it in a million years. I love meat way too much. Now excuse me as I head to the Deece for an order of eggs my way (thats the best thing at the Deece, I swear).

-Natasha Sanchez and Theresa Law

LIBRA

September 23 | October 22

SCORPIO

October 23 | November 21

SAGITTARIUS

November 22 | December 21

CAPRICORN

December 22 | January 19

AQUARIUS

January 20 | February 18

PISCES

February 19 | March 20

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Marry a Virgo. They are lifetime-material. In addition to being fantastic in bed, they will be your truest friend. You will be in a constant process of creating beautiful memories with each other to reminisce over with your dogs and dog grand-children.

Remember, every little fight is worth it because they love to send nudes.

Stay the fuck away from Leos and Aquiariuses.

Those assholes. They will betray you in the most brutal of ways. Imagine that person who sends really inappropriate emojis. That person who takes a shit on the bathroom floor on a Saturday night. They are the Leos and Aquiariuses in your life. They will steal your underwear after sex.

A Sagittarius cannot be tied down. You need to experience all the signs of the Zodiac, no matter how messy it can get, and we support. Flirt with some Capricorns, fool around with a few Geminis, suggestively message a Aries. It may not follow the science of astrology, but just allow yourself some fun, and you’ll figure out who you’re compatible with.

Goats, the symbol of your sign, love to climb mountains, cliffs, and other high landmasses. You should do the same. Bring a DTF Virgo on a hike, and as you pause to take in the view, make a move.

You’re getting intimate with nature and getting intimate with each other. Side-note: I once read on the internet that goats and dolphins are the only animals with human-like vaginas.

Sorry, but looks like no one is compatible with you. jk, JK. You’d have a pretty harmonious relationship with an Aries and/or a Sagittarius, but we think you should take some time for yourself right now.

Sex or romance isn’t the only way to find intimacy with people. Focus on the love you have for friends, family, and Michael Bay.

Pisces, you’re the only people who can handle Scorpios. No matter what you do together, it’ll be hot. Here are some hot activities to consider: showering together, cooking together, cooking our way through Julia Child’s cookbook in 365 days together.

If you can’t handle the heat, try dating an Aries.

ARTS

Page 14

April 27, 2017

Visiting artists discuss narratives of Spanish history Kayla Schwab & Matthew McCardwell CAAD Student Assistants

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n May 3, an installation by interdisciplinary artist Ann Burke Daly and Spanish musician, writer and translator Álvaro Marcos, “SPECERE LAB,” will be on view in the Aula.

Their project “SCRIPT: FRANCO IS STILL DEAD” is a multi-channel video and sound installation that combines archival footage, original sound and visual materials about the rise of the Spanish modern democracy and the act of silencing the narratives of those killed, tortured and “disappeared” during the preceding dictatorship and civil war.

Daly describes her interventions as “Machines for the making and unmaking of sense.”

Marcos has a background in arts and humanities and is the lyricist and vocalist for two Madrid-based bands.

Daly and Marcos have been invited to stage an exhibit as part of the Mellon Foundation-funded Creative Arts Across Disciplines Initiative (CAAD).

Working with VC Professor Katherine Hite’s Political Science course The Politics of Memory and Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies Michael Aronna’s course on literature and culture, their work acts as a living example of the way art, politics and the construction of memory can be engaged to challenge the erasure of marginalized voices and suppressed historical counter-narratives.

In preparation for this installation, Matthew McCardwell ’17 sat down with Daly and Marcos to discuss their project. McCardwell has been a part of the ongoing transformation of this art installation in his capacity as the co-founder of unFramed, an arts-based organization striving to bring politically engaged artists to campus.

Last fall, he worked with Daly for an installation of her film and soundscapes in the Shiva.

Matthew McCardwell: Ann and I first started having conversations last fall. Ann reached out to me about the possibility of a workshop installation in the Shiva, where her work with Álvaro

would find its first home. This was realized at the end of September. Could each of you speak to how this project came about? What was the beginning of your collaboration?

Ann Daly: We met through a friend and I heard Álvaro’s music including a Franco-era sample. His lyrics interested me.

After three years as an ex-pat in Madrid, I’d become curious about the lived experience of post-war Spain, and had been filming conversations with friends who were youths under Franco’s dictatorship and came of age during

unpacking the mythology of this grand narrative that has been created?

AM: In the beginning we started working with a lot of archival material trying to come to terms with how these cultural products were part of this grand narrative.

Gradually we found out the interesting thing was not so much the archival material, the speeches and images, but the silence itself upon which they were built.

MM: Does that find itself in the form of video compilation?

“Many of the places you will see are in Madrid and are part of my quotidian life, but were actually prisons and torture centers during some periods of the dictatorship.

Part of the work is remarking these sites, building a cartography of silences hidden in plain sight.” the transition to democracy (1975-1978), and the cultural shift La Movida. For the Shiva, we worked with some of Álvaro’s lyrics translated to spoken-word English. Álvaro Marcos: We started corresponding a year ago. Ann contacted me, and I was surprised she recognized some of the archival material we sampled in our music, which belonged to the Franco-era dictatorship. It was also very interesting to me that she was so interested in a very specific area of recent Spanish history—the transition to democracy.

This is a period whose official narrative—the mythical foundational narrative—that accounts for the Spanish transition to democracy in the late 1970s is being revised and questioned by my generation.

The counter-narrative that is emerging struggles to bring about a “Second Transition” that accounts for all the silences upon which this first transition was achieved.

MM: How has your collaboration been part of

AD: Yes, we are working with video in long takes with a hovering presence. A focus is sites of marked and unmarked mass graves, prisons and torture centers that are literally hiding in plain sight in Madrid.

AM: Many of the places you will see are in Madrid and are part of my quotidian life, but were actually prisons and torture centers during some periods of the dictatorship. Part of the work is remarking these sites, building a cartography of silences hidden in plain sight.

MM: When people come into the space what will they be greeted with?

AD: There will be four large projections, and four sources of sound, which will become immersive.

AM: We conceived this as a work in progress, so one of the layers of installation has to do with our correspondence about the project itself. Also, we want to retain the subjective in the piece, as it conveys our own take on a very sensitive issue.

AD: It is structured as a script in revision.

The language is dialogic, poetic, notational— and will make visible our correspondence.

MM: Álvaro, how is music finding its way into the work? How are you creating the sound component?

AM: The function of the sound is to create an immersive experience, while also evoking the haunting past, trying to flesh out the idea of the past as a ghostly radio transmission.

MM: What do you hope for the Vassar/Poughkeepsie communities to take away from this material?

AM: For those students that are already interested in Spanish culture, I hope we provide something interesting and fruitful for thought.

For people in the Vassar community, who might not know so much about our Spain, we hope the piece would convey some idea of what we say about the importance of historical sense and memory and the effort it takes to constantly reframe it.

AD: We’ve hypothesized that the 15-M/Indignados channeled anger into positive action while elsewhere, the ultra-right is rising. There is a chance for this type of positive turn to occur here in the U.S. MM: I wonder, where do you see your project fitting into this second wave of revolutions?

AM: From my perspective, this is a continuation of the energy and curiosity that emerged from my experience of those days of the 15M. For me it’s been a really interesting way of deepening that research, including the history behind my own quotidian geography in Madrid.

AD: I hope that we participate by marking what is silenced and hidden in plain sight, and by including others in the “struggle to make sense” of inherited narratives, and spectral transmissions.

“SCRIPT: FRANCO IS STILL DEAD” will begin around 8:30 p.m. when sun goes down on Wednesday, May 3, with a short discussion by the artists preceding the opening, which will begin at 8 p.m.

‘Into the Woods’ caps hard work with fairy-tale ending Kaitlin Prado Reporter

T

his past weekend, Future Waitstaff of America (FWA) presented “Into the Woods,” the fantastical musical of recent cinematic fame.

This was a huge undertaking, with a cast, crew and pit band to match.

Speaking to the challenges that size posed to one creative element, musical director Conor Chinitz ’18 said, “The key to getting the full 15-person pit band that the score calls for was just starting early. I agreed to music-direct the show at the end of last semester, so I reached out to instrumentalists during winter break, i.e. before the beginning of spring semester got everyone overbooked.”

And although he had acted in this show twice already, Chinitz admitted, “The prospect of conducting a band this large was both exciting and a little scary, since the largest pit I’ve worked with

thus far was five people, (including me). Tuesday was the first time we had run the show with the pit band playing (instead of me accompanying on piano) and it was a MESS. We were seriously concerned about our ability to make the show happen at all.”

“The biggest problem was that the band was unfamiliar with the show,” Chinitz continued, “so it was very easy for them to get lost and very difficult for them to get back on track. I ended up going through the entire score and giving the pit band cue lines for every song, and often for important moments within songs as well. Wednesday’s run went exponentially better than Tuesday’s, and by Saturday night the show was running almost flawlessly. I was very proud of the band for making such dramatic improvement so quickly.”

Actress Becky Wilson ’17 experienced a similar tech-week rush. She recalled: “It was extremely

Courtesy of Erin Reilly

Future Waitstaff of America showcased their production of “Into the Woods” this past weekend in the Shiva Theater, a valuable experience for all involved and a poignant one for the seniors.

fulfilling to see the show that we had been working on for nearly nine weeks come together with the set, the orchestra, the sound and lighting design, and the costumes.”

This team put in many long, hard hours into producing this show. Speaking to the value of a longer creative process, Wilson mused, “I think that having ‘Into the Woods’ go up during the final stretch of the semester gave us the time and the creative freedom to play. It wasn’t just a show that rehearsed for a couple of weeks and then went up as blocked, it was a show that all of us got to spend the semester living in.”

This experience was unique for the students involved in the production, since the longer-range rehearsal schedule allowed them to absorb the show in a way they often cannot in other, shorter productions. “I also think that this being ‘the last’ show for a lot of our seniors raised the stakes a bit, in a very positive way,” Wilson continued. “We all cared a lot about making this show the best it could possibly be, but we were also able to have a hell of a lot of fun along the way.”

Actress Emily Drossel ’19 reflected on the difficulties of playing three separate characters by saying, “Aside from quick changes, these roles prompted me to find what it meant to be neutral in the world of the Woods.”

As the show progressed and crystallized into its final form, members of the cast and crew found new layers of meaning within the produciton.

Speaking to how her feelings changed throughout the creation of the show, Drossel said, “This process made me think about the nature of agency among the characters. All of these fairytale characters fall on a spectrum of decision/indecision, morality and personal growth. Double- and triple-casting the smaller roles, and [director] Anisa’s concept of having them be puppets, made me think about the variation in characters within the show. I had known ‘Into the Woods’ for a long time, and had always grouped all the characters together as fairytale people who are trying to find their way through this story, but I had never thought about the two extremes that these characters can be portrayed, either as people breaking from the convention of their stories or pawns to the narrative.”

Wilson’s connection to her role and the show as

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

a whole also evolved over time. She remarked, “At the very beginning of the process, I was definitely excited because I loved my role, but as the weeks went on, my feelings shifted: my simple excitement transformed into a deep love and admiration for everyone involved in the process as well as a more meaningful understanding of Sondheim’s lyrics. By the time our performance rolled around, I was completely enveloped in the show, emotionally and physically. Thank you to our beautiful director Anisa for making this happen.”

Drossel fondly recalled the rich disparities between the multiple characters she portrayed in the show, which was a welcome challenge: “My favorite parts were exploring the differences between my characters. Rapunzel had moments of extreme terror that were unmatched by Florinda, while Florinda had moments of physical comedy that Rapunzel couldn’t provide. Each role I played allowed me to try something different and gave me the opportunity to really vary my physicality and voice throughout the show.”

Wilson added, “I could not be happier that I ended my time at Vassar with ‘Into the Woods.’

This show definitely felt like the perfect ‘button’ to my experiences here at Vassar. From an acting standpoint, I have never felt more ‘in my skin’ as I did when I was playing Little Red. There was something about that character that just made me come alive, and made me feel like I was floating.”

Apart from the perfect fit of Wilson’s role, she felt intense gratitude toward everyone involved in the show. She explained, “[I]t reminded me why I love theater—not just for the thrill of the performance, but for the moments you get to share with the people you are working with, and the relationships that form from these moments...I never suspected that in my final semester I would make so many new friends and fall in love with so many wonderful people, and it breaks my heart that after making all of these connections, I have to leave in five short weeks.”

In a show all about intertwining multiple storylines, it is only fitting that the students involved in “Into the Woods” formed such strong bonds, and their connections with each other and with their various characters shined through in the culmination of all of their hard work.

April 27, 2017

ARTS

Page 15

Loeb hosts first-ever exhibit of 18th-century Italian painter

Courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts via Wikimedia Commons

FRANCESCO continued from page 1 any exhibitions nor any books on him—he has only occasionally been included within exhibitions on the Baroque era or on the 18th century— yet he was one of the great masters of illusionistic ceiling painting. “He had a mastery of the [illusionistic effect of making the] ceiling disappear, so that one felt like they were being pulled into heaven,” Mundy mused. “Yet his material is not seen very often. Even large museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, have not done exhibitions on him. So, the material is definitely ripe for revival.”

“Part of the reason de Mura is so unknown despite being one of the major figures of Rococo,” he continued, “is that a third of his career was destroyed.”

He produced a lot of murals, most of them concentrated in his hometown of Naples. As a result, when the American and British Allies bombed Naples during World War II, many of the churches and other landmarks that he had frescoed were demolished, and his work was lost.

“He was unfortunately a victim of the circumstances, and now what remains is largely easel-sized painting, which shall be displayed in the exhibition,” remarked Mundy. Along the same lines, Blumenthal related, “[The loss of de Mura’s work was] the greatest artistic disaster of the war.”

Given these circumstances, Blumenthal’s de Mura exhibition, a decade-long project in his curatorial career, is an immense accomplishment.

His speech was fascinating, reminiscent of the ART 105-106 lectures in its reverential illumination of masterful artwork..

Blumenthal traced de Mura’s career from his beginnings as a 12-year-old apprentice to the grand Baroque artist Solimena up to his emergence as the richest man in Naples, and finally to the decline of his bright career.

Blumenthal semi-joked, “Why isn’t he more famous? Some say his master lived too long, overshadowing him. Others say de Mura himself

“In the Light of Naples: The Art of Francesco de Mura” presents work by the Italian master, many of whose works were destroyed during WWII, in a decade-long project by curator Arthur Blumenthal. lived too long, such that his work became irrelevant about a decade before he died.”

De Mura’s work appeared to have beautiful detail and extremely skillful use of light and shadow. Blumenthal drew contrasts between de Mura’s work and Solimena’s, emphasizing de Mura’s stylistic independence, as he favored brighter colors, simpler architectural settings and more open spaces than his mentor. Blumenthal spoke of his experience visiting the Church

of the Nunziatella in Naples, whose apse and altar had been painted by de Mura: “While still very close to Solimena’s style, this pastel-colored fresco also represents a break from his master. It is light, airy, luminous and delicate, quite unlike the darker, more somber compositions of Solimena.”

Blumenthal explained that since almost all of de Mura’s most famous works are either unmovable frescoes in Naples or were lost in the war,

the exhibition cannot display them. However, the show does feature preliminary drawings of his famous frescoes, granting valuable insight into his creative process. In addition, the slides on the screen all depicted the works we would be seeing right after the lecture, as well as the final works whose preliminary paintings we would be exposed to, thus serving as an educational teaser.

Blumenthal wrapped up the lecture by relating the remarkable impact and significance of this show: “In this exhibition, we Americans are making up in some small measure for our destruction of his works during World War II. And today, finally de Mura is receiving his due, finally. After 233 years, he will become known for the brilliant artist that he was.”

A reception followed the lecture, allowing us to finally absorb this seemingly unknown artist’s incredible and distinctive work.

A well-known work is his “Self Portrait,” an oil on canvas work painted at the pinnacle of his fame, where he presents himself as an imposing aristocrat, posing elaborately with his hand on his hip and a rather haughty expression on his face.

Mundy commented on why this painting is one of his favorites from the exhibition: “This is a man who worked with his hands and in trade during the Renaissance period. Yet by the end of the Baroque era, he had the opportunity to present himself as this grand bewigged gentleman, with his gilded dresser and his fancy gold vest and this flamboyant, flowing sash that doesn’t serve any purpose,” he laughed. “It looks like he’s started believing his own press clippings and propaganda.”

Finally, an incredible result of this exhibition is that it has inspired Italy, the country that the artist is originally from, to organize its own Francesco de Mura show. With this far-reaching influence, it is an absolute delight that Vassar is the designated location in the Northeast for this exhibition’s tour. This exhibition is free and open to the public, a wonderful opportunity for those who appreciate and value late Baroque art.

GRST production attempts to find humanity in cruelty sound designer Michael Oosterhout ’18 and choreography by Taylor Lodise ’19, was a striking success: “The sound of the Greek preserved the strangeness of the play and our distance from its original performance, but...the chorus members were able to express themselves in other ways.”

“To me,” Friedman continued, “the effect of this was the creation of a relationship to the material that could be both immediate and distant for the non-Greek speaking audience. Each of these experiences was, I think, an important part of the performance. You could simultaneously relate to the drama being performed but also be reminded of its otherness.”

Another mainstay of the shock and unfamiliarity of this play is Medea’s unspeakable actions toward those around her. Yael Haskal ’19, who played the controversial Medea opposite actors Yvette Segan ’19 as Jason and Tabraiz Lodhi ’20 as Creon, was fascinated with the character and particularly highlighted the challenge of understanding and connecting to the role.

She commented, “Her actions are horrifying—equally disturbing to men and women— yet something makes us root for her. She has this wild brokenness that we can’t resist ... We want to see her overcome the impossible choice she faces.”

As Haskal continued, “In Medea’s world, everything has a price, and she’s willing to pay anything in the name of honor. The most difficult yet rewarding part of this process was finding humanity in her cruelty...getting to the truth of why she destroys her own life to save it.”

Another challenge of putting on “Medea” is the mythological framework lost on modern-day audiences. In fact, Friedman noted, 32 of the 33 surviving tragedies from Greek antiquity involve a mythological storyline.

“This is one way in which a modern audience watching a Greek tragedy is so different from an ancient one,” she remarked. “The myths are not familiar to us in the way that they would have been to an ancient audience.”

The relative accessibility of the Medea story, though, explains its numerous restagings, but

constituted another element of the foreign in the GRST Department’s production that strived to stay true to the original intentions of the Greek text.

Friedman reflected on the relatively universal themes explored in the play: “I think all ancient myths easily lent themselves to reinterpretation. By definition a myth is a fluid and shape shifting narrative. In the case of Medea, I suppose it’s because the story of betrayal in love is such a timeless one, as is the idea that there are moments in life when we feel that the only choice for action that we have is a horrible one.”

Alexander recognized this tension between outsider status and insider knowledge—a theme not coincidentally shared by both 21st-century audiences and Medea herself. As he commented, “What we hope[d] to accomplish [was] to put the ancient world in conversation with the modern world.”

Audiences today may not ponder Medea’s

anguish as a reflection of an impending war’s threat to crumble a beloved city’s Golden Age to dust, as Athenians may have. Medea’s hopelessness and acts of ultimate desperation nonetheless continue to resonate with thespians and spectators alike, as such personal grievance and extreme social rejection have become timeless subjects. The dichotomies between love and hate, native elites and foreign newcomers, and moral right and wrong proved especially poignant in reflecting on our own shifting world, an interesting parallel to the original Athenian context.

“This is a great example of what can be so powerful about the study of classical antiquity,” Friedman concluded. “We easily find resonances with our own lives, but we also find strangeness and difference. It is in the gap between these two experiences that we discover rich insights both about our own lives and the lives of those who lived then.”

Courtesy of The Norton Simon Museum via Wikimedia Commons

MEDEA continued from page 1 intended, keeping a close connection to the ways in which Euripides represents Medea as Other—a non-Greek barbarian who dabbles in witchcraft. Production elements like disfiguring masks, a small number of actors playing multiple parts and the choral odes being sung in the original Greek aided in simulating the alienation for a modern audience, all to striking effect.

“On the one hand,” remarked director Schuyler DeVos ’17 via email, “this is a story that everyone knows, but on the other hand this is a 2500-year-old play, and things were much different then, and it’s that kind of tension between something understandable and these kinds of socio-political attitudes and customs and modes of speaking and doing that have been lost to time that I really wanted to explore.”

While this play has been reproduced hundreds of times around the world, production manager Gray Alexander ’19 was confident that this production, which he proposed to the department, would provide a new experience in light of Vassar’s past GRST productions.

As he illuminated, “Our show [was] unique in its fusion of ancient and modern elements in a way that Greek tragedy has not been performed at Vassar before. The Greek & Roman Studies Department has a history of holding productions all the way back to 1894, but all the shows done up to this point have either been entirely in Greek or entirely in English.”

“Most challenging, believe it or not,” DeVos reflected, “was putting on a show through the GRST Department. There’s a reason this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often. You don’t really miss the whole apparatus of student theater until suddenly you’ve got to get things off the ground without its help, but I found myself running around trying to do 10 jobs at once and it was TOUGH.” This bold decision of working with two very disparate languages in such close proximity was challenging, but Alexander was confident that they would coalesce beautifully.

Friedman affirmed that this decision, in concert with original music by composer and

The Greek & Roman Studies Department sponsored a production of Euripides’ classic tragedy “Medea” this past Friday, April 21, an exploration in the extreme limits of human desperation.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ARTS

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April 27, 2017

Gorillaz’ image, style dominates in band’s discography Jimmy Christon Columnist

Gorillaz

Gorillaz Parlophone / Virgin

Demon Days

Gorillaz Parlophone / Virgin

Plastic Beach

Gorillaz Parlophone / Virgin

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is kind of odd, because this album started conceptually as one that was supposed to feature artists other than Gorillaz themselves. It wasn’t until later in the album’s creation that it was turned into a bonafide Gorillaz album, but its origins can still be seen in the tracklist.

This album had a lot of features. In fact, only four out of the 16 tracks are ones where it’s just the Gorillaz. What’s great about this is that the tracks on this album feel like these songs are still Gorillaz tracks despite the overabundance of features. This is due in part to the theme of the album, which the band pulls off so well.

“Plastic Beach” is an album describing the world for all its excess and over-consumption and the waste this produces. It’s an album where the song “Stylo” might be about a car (as the single artwork and music video would suggest), but it’s also about how the materialist culture that the car represents is creating a sort of profound emptiness in the world. What’s great about this execution of theme, and what my attempt at description utterly fails at,

is that this theme is integrally tied to the lyrics by more than just music.

“Superfast Jellyfish” sounds like an ad for a commercial that was stretched out into a song, “Stylo” represents the “juice” of the car with this glaring synth that accompanies Bobby Womack’s vocals and “Sweepstakes” represents the chaos of overconsumption by literally bursting apart into a chaotic arrangement of horns and computer noises under Mos Def’s verses. The theme might not be unique, but the way it’s represented in the music is original and boundary-pushing. The best parts of this album are what make the Gorillaz great.

I’m hoping that Gorillaz’ new album “Humanz” can live up to the standards set by “Plastic Beach” and their self-titled debut, but the singles I’ve heard so far haven’t left me too hopeful. But whatever the case, I’ll always have these albums to look back on, and you will, too! If you haven’t listened to the band’s music before, don’t be afraid to dive right in. After all, now would be the perfect time to see what came before.

Courtesy of Tylerxg1 via Wikimedia Commons

ou’d be hard-pressed to find a band with an image as cultivated as the Gorillaz. Like literally: the band is animated. Their composition is 90 percent image, 10 percent music. That ratio is exaggerated, but it gets the point across. And this doesn’t mean that image and music are separated like oil and water either. When the band is at its best, their music is entirely unique to their image. And now we have a new Gorillaz album coming out soon, so I thought it would be cool to look back on what’s come before and see what’s worked for the Gorillaz and what hasn’t.

I’m going to get the best out of the way first: Gorillaz’ self-titled debut is my favorite album of theirs. As I said, this band is all image, and this is the album where that image gets directly tied to their music. Gorillaz’ self-titled album is one of those albums that feels fresh every time I listen to it; it’s the album where the Gorillaz sound as unique as they look, and it still stands out in a discography that varies in sound and style.

While I love the hits like “Clint Eastwood” and

“19-2000,” it’s cuts like “Slow Country,” “Double Bass,” “Left Hand Suzuki Method” and “Punk” that keep me coming back to this album. These tracks are all great and give off vibes of being really out there and strange but still enjoyable. I always think of graffiti when I listen to this album: You might not understand what it is or if there’s a point to it, but it’s fresh to look at. This is what the whole album feels like–fresh. Unfortunately, I feel like the band hasn’t been able to match this level of uniqueness since then.

If their self-titled is the best, then what’s the worst? Well excluding any B-, G- or D-side tapes or iPad albums called “The Fall,” I think “Demon Days” is the album that I feel the coldest toward.

This is an odd thing to say because looking at the album’s tracklist now, I find that I like a ton of these songs despite still feeling lukewarm towards the album as a whole.

My biggest complaint with this album is that I think its pacing is lacking. The songs themselves aren’t necessarily bad, but as an entire album, there’s just a sense of coherence that’s missing. “Demon Days” doesn’t progress from song to song, but rather it just moves from blocks of similar-sounding song to similar-sounding song (with the exception of the stretch from “Dirty Harry” to “November Has Come”). There’s no reason to have “O Green World” come after “Kids With Guns,” which itself comes after “Last Living Souls.” There just isn’t any variety here with these tracks.

Despite this, some of the band’s best moments are found on “Demon Days.” Tracks like “Feel Good Inc.,” “Dirty Harry” and “November Has Come” are probably the band’s best foray into hiphop. And then the non-hip-hop tracks are pretty strong too: “El Mañana,” “Every Planet We Reach is Dead” and “Demon Days” are all great songs in their own right. I just think it’s a shame that so much on this album would have served a much better place on one of the band’s various B-side tapes.

And that brings us to where the Gorillaz left us: “Plastic Beach,” which succeeds where “Demon Days” went wrong: It’s the album in the discography that I think feels the most cohesive. Which

The Gorillaz have had ups and down throughout their musical career as a group, but their strong thematic elements bode well for their upcoming album “Humanz.”

HBO drama series spins complex web of relationships Izzy Braham Columnist

Big Little Lies

David E. Kelley HBO

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gives the viewer a sense of the competition and cliqueness the mothers feel between and among each other. This aspect sets up some of the initial and integral tensions in the show—the bar is high and we immediately feel that all these relationships are riding on a lot.

As the show progresses, we begin to see the differences and similarities between the mothers and how each plays into different aspects of the housewife stereotype.

With Reese Witherspoon’s character Madeline, we are exposed to a resentful divorce, a new husband whom she loves but doesn’t have great sex with and an undying compassion for her unforgiving children. While she knows what she wants and plays the Type A leader of the household, she is still tied down to her world by the relentlessness of marriage and motherhood.

With Nicole Kidman’s character, the gorgeous and brilliant Celeste, we are presented with a violent marriage. In denial about her husband’s

Courtesy of Sky TV

veryone, stop what you are doing and watch “Big Little Lies.” The seven-episode HBO show is about the extravagant but complicated lives of upper-class mothers in the affluent beach town of Monterey, CA. The series exposes the inner workings of the mother’s marriages, friendships and personal parenthoods—and let me just say, it is one wildly jaw-dropping time.

If I could describe this show in one word, I would use intense. It is two-fold in its intensity, though: There is an ever-present “whodunit” thrill throughout the series, but also a layer of brilliance with larger statements about domestic violence, marriage, wealth and motherhood.

The show centers on a murder at trivia night, a glamorous school fundraiser put on by the Monterey parents. It begins in the present with police interviews of random bystanders talking about the night of the crime and sharing information about the main characters. The series then flashes back to the past and interweaves the storylines of four main families, specifically focusing on the mothers of each family. As the show continues on, trivia night approaches, and tensions amongst families and between husbands and wives escalate. We watch the crime unfold in the last episode.

Besides the stellar acting and dream cast (everyone from Reese Witherspoon to Adam Scott is in this), the show really shines in its all-exposing portrayal of upper-class housewives, revealing the reality of their marriages and parenthoods. We all know the stereotypes surrounding these women—superficial, gossipy, only consumed with neatly mapping out their children’s lives and waiting until their executive-level husbands walk through the door at five o’clock so that they can share some red wine and complain about something they heard another mother say

in the carpool line.

Well, “Big Little Lies” takes that stereotype, owns it and then flips it on its head. While many of the female characters supposedly embody this role, it becomes obvious that they are not ditzy or petty at all; they are the true masterminds behind their families. While they are confined to their familial roles, they hold a certain power—their families would utterly crumble without them. And if they weren’t in these positions—positions the institutions of family and marriage put them in—they would be out ruling the world.

However, before the viewer realizes the subtle strength of each mother, we are immediately introduced to the exorbitant wealth and privilege of the Monterey lifestyle. With mansion beach houses, high fashion and lavish parties, the viewer sees the entitlement of each character, and a desire of each to show off to one another. Their money and the superficiality that accompanies it

“Big Little Lies” delves into the backstories of rich Monterey, CA, housewives against the backdrop of a murder mystery, a masterful balance of a racing plot and profound social commentary.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

abuse towards her, she grapples with the dilemma of changing him or leaving him. The show does a good job of showing the difficulty in navigating an abusive relationship, as it is sensitive to the real-life emotional challenges that are often embedded in toxic marriages. Celeste portrays an inner toughness in keeping her family together and putting up with her awful husband.

The viewer also sympathizes with Jane (Shailene Woodley), a single mother who lives a modest life with her son. She is not the stereotypical housewife, but is still burdened with issues of all-consuming parenthood and past trauma from male violence. She is very guarded, but strong in her down-to-earth mother-bear protective instincts.

Still, there are other types of mothers depicted. Renata, played by Laura Dern, is a successful CEO who feels the need to defend being at work over being at home. High-strung and worried that she appears too preoccupied with work, we see scenes of her voraciously mothering her daughter and overenthusiastically showing up to school functions. She is the show’s model of a modern working woman, and because she veers from tradition, is a source of a lot of the mothers’ gossip and conflict.

So what is the overall statement here? “Big Little Lies” makes sure to highlight that no matter what the specific circumstance is, even with exorbitant wealth and enormous privilege, there are some things women cannot escape. Whether it is the demands of motherhood or past trauma such as domestic violence, there are many factors that inhibit the mothers from leading their own lives—or make it incredibly difficult and stressful if they do. They may be wealthy stayat-home moms with a penchant for gossip, but the show demonstrates for us that they are only slotted into this role as a product of multiple societal and familial forces.

Ultimately, this show is a winner. It is extremely entertaining to watch and the ending, which I won’t give away, is extremely satisfying.

While it is heartbreaking in many ways, its overall message is one conveying the true strength of women despite their constricting circumstances.

ARTS

April 27, 2017

Page 17

Vass Shakers shine in medley of styles Kimberly Nguyen

Guest Photographer

Excuse me, What would you write in a fortune cookie?

“The time is now” — Sharika Hasan ’19

“You will be hungry again in one hour” — Sam Sylvester ’19

Vass Shakers, a non-audition campus dance group, premiered choreography to a number of pieces on April 21 and 22 in Kenyon Theater. The group, comprised of members of all skill levels, danced to ballet, jazz and everything in between.

Campus Canvas

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

submit to misc@vassar.edu

“Sucks to suck” — Robyn Lin ’18

Breakfast in America “Cupid’s Chokehold” by Gym Class Heroes is the best song ever written, they declared, pointer finger high in the air as if with authority– “Help, I’m stuck in a fortune cookie factory” — Alex Trunnell ’17

memory held them by the jugular as with authority– they swayed, hips wide and awkward, the balls of their feet tense and tight in their ill-fitting Adidas sneakers, nervous that they’d remember that their cousin works for a non-profit that doesn’t exactly claim that climate change isn’t real, but instead says that fossil fuels are actually extremely cool and good– the room melted like that Dali painting I guess and with it they, hues mesh–yellow-greens dripping like the tea grandma spilt last time I visited, while Bill O’Reilly reruns talked at my dad and I stuffed my face with mozzarella and olive oil and fresh bread dipped in Ragu because she didn’t have the time or energy anymore to

“Look to your right” — Karin Halverson ’20

make it fresh, but it felt like, felt like, felt like I was a burglar in that house– or that my father and mother and grandmother and father and mother and mother and mother– a lineage of pathology–my first moment of recognition–talk of ECT (the acronym to end all acronyms), jaw grinding mood stabilizers in between bites of stale toast– everyone’s a millionaire.

“Look to your left” — Katherine Ni ’20

A sophomore from northern New Jersey, Nick Barone ’19 (he/him/his) is pursuing an English and History double major. Nick is an incoming Senior Editor of the Miscellany News. After graduation, he plans on pursuing a PhD in American Studies/History or an MFA in Poetry.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson, Editor-in-Chief Talya Phelps, Design Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

April 27, 2017

After recent upsets, lacrosse heads into crucial weekend Gabrielle Deitch Guest Reporter

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Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

oming off of a 14-3 win against Bard College, the Vassar women’s lacrosse team entered a weekend of back-to-back games. The double header began on Friday, April 21, against Skidmore College, followed by a game against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on April 22.

The Brewers kept a close score against Skidmore during the beginning of the first half. While Skidmore notched the first goal of the game, Vassar retaliated soon after with a goal from sophomore Fiona MacLeod, who scored off of an assist from first-year Tessa Waters. The scoreboard went back and forth again, recording two goals from Skidmore followed by one from Vassar as firstyear Kelly Pushie found the back of the net. Pushie was able to score one more goal during the half, again following two goals from Skidmore. However, Skidmore powered ahead in the rest of the half, tallying 11 goals by halftime.

In the second half, first-year Adele MacEwen and junior Storm Sideleau each scored a goal, but it was not enough to combat the eight additional goals scored by Skidmore, making the final score 19-5. Draw controls were even throughout the game, but Skidmore dominated the Brewers in caused turnovers and ground balls. Skidmore caused 18 turnovers, while Vassar only caused eight. Skidmore also tallied 30 ground balls, more than double the 14 that Vassar picked up.

“We were outrun on 50/50 balls,” said Head Coach Judy Finerghty in reference to factors that led to the loss. “Not possessing the ball enough limited our opportunities and maximized those of our opponents.”

The next day, the Brewers traveled from Saratoga Springs to Troy, NY, to face RPI. RPI was the first to get on the board, scoring three consecutive goals in the beginning of the first half. The Engineers notched another goal before Vassar was able to join them on the scoreboard, making the score 4-0 halfway through the first half.

Senior Phoebe Hankins was the first to score for the Brewers, answering back less than a min-

ute after RPI’s fourth goal. RPI, however, retaliated in just as quick a manner, bringing the score to 5-1. Tessa Waters added another goal for Vassar, scoring her 25th of the season, but RPI was able to score another four goals, making the score at halftime 9-2.

Leading the Brewers in the second half, senior Julia Trudell scored two consecutive goals in response to a 10th goal scored by RPI, bringing the score to 10-4. RPI scored two more goals that half, while Vassar only managed to score once more on a goal from Sideleau. Like Skidmore, RPI greatly surpassed Vassar in ground balls and caused turnovers. They also dominated draw controls, coming up with 13 to the Brewers’ six.

Overall, the Brewers were frustrated with the back to back losses and did not feel like they played to their full potential. “We were pretty disappointed because we left both games knowing we could have performed better. It wasn’t a question of skill so much as connecting as a team,” noted MacEwen.

MacEwen also attributed the losses to a lack of energy, especially when coming out in the first halves of their games. “We have a hard time performing when we play away so we need to work on better strategies to get pumped and game ready when not on our home turf,” she said. “I think we also just need to work on trusting our abilities and capitalizing on our strengths. We tend to be a bit passive in the first half and step it up in the second half. We have to figure out how we can come out with everything from the start.”

Despite the disappointing results, there were some positive takeaways from the two games.

Finerghty mentioned some noteworthy individual performances, including strong showings from junior goalkeeper Emily Chancey. Chancey tallied up many saves across both games. She stopped 16 shots against Skidmore and 11 against RPI. Above anything, though, the losses highlighted a need for the Brewers to clean up their play and directed the team’s attention to things to work on going forward. “The games underscored our need to make better decisions with the ball, to play with

Senior captain Julia Trudell zooms past Bard opponents in home game on April 14. The squad heads into a crucial conference weekend against Clarkson and St. Lawrence on April 28 and 29. greater composure,” noted Coach Finerghty.

The two losses did not help the Brewers secure a spot in the Liberty League playoffs. While playoffs are not completely out of the question, much more is riding on the women’s final conference games. “Despite our recent losses to Skidmore and RPI we still have a shot at making it to the playoffs,” said Trudell. “Unfortunately though, these losses have not put us in a great position. Not only do we need to win both of our next games, but we need certain teams to lose as well.”

To give the Brewers the best shot at qualifying for playoffs, RPI and the University of Rochester would both need to lose their upcoming games, RPI against Skidmore and Rochester against William Smith College.

While the future of the Brewers’ 2017 season is not entirely in their control, they need to focus on the variables that they can influence. As they ap-

proach their last two games of the regular season, the Brewers will have to put the recent losses behind them and focus on giving strong performances if they want a shot at accomplishing their goal of gaining a spot in the playoffs.

“I think I can speak for the team when I say that we are disappointed with the outcome and our overall performance this past weekend. All we can do now is focus on this upcoming weekend and just try our best to come out with a couple of wins,” shared Trudell. “Practice this week will surely set the tone for how we come out against Clarkson and St. Lawrence.”

The Brewers will play Clarkson University on April 28 and St. Lawrence University on April 29, both home on Weinberg Turf Field. Additionally, Friday will serve as Friends of Jaclyn Day for the team, while Senior Day will be celebrated on Saturday.

Women’s rugby champions Division I Beast of the East RUGBY continued from page 1 patterns as well as a good example. Specifically, Ellen Quist, Lizzie Bennett, Claire Fondrie-Teitler, Megan de Konig, Andrea Ramsay and Kayla Lightner, but the whole squad gave it their all and it was so awesome to see how much they’ve learned already.”

Captain Mariah Grant ’17 echoed these sentiments, “Our men’s team and B-side squad also did some amazing work. I think their performances this weekend foreshadow a continuation of impressive wins for Vassar Rugby in the next years to come.”

Against New England, the Brewers continued to dominate. Emery was back at it again with two conversions while senior Ellen Quist scored two tries and first-year Kayla Vasquez and junior Andi Ramsay added a try each.

It was then time for the A-side team to show its prowess and finish with one incredibly high scoring shutout win for Vassar in the Division I league.

McElduff explained, “Coming back from a win in the division 2 bracket last year, we would have been expecting to take the title again. However,

the tournament coordinators contacted our coach the week before the games and asked us to move up to the division 1 bracket, as a couple of teams dropped out.”

The Brewers took the field to demolish Northeastern University 62-0. Senior captain Mary Margaret McElduff was particularly impressive, tallying six conversions and scoring one try. Five more Brewers added tries to round out Vassar’s scoring: senior captain Nathalie Freeman (3), junior Abigail Alexander (2), sophomore Jennie To (1), sophomore Rachel Elson (2) and senior Laila Blumenthal-Rothchild (1).

In the last game of the day, the VC A-side topped the University of Massachusetts Amherst 36-5. Elson was back with two more tries, as Blumenthal-Rothchild, Ramsay and Alexander added one more each. Sophomore Oshana Reich also contributed one try. McElduff continued her impressive prowess with three more conversions.

To round out the day, the men headed into battle against Maritime—another physically imposing group—destined to give the more skillful, yet smaller Vassar men a run for their money.

Courtesy of Tony Brown

Mens and Women’s Rugby teams gather together at the Beast of the East Championsips last weekend. The Women’s team earned the title of Division I Beast of the East Champions!

For the second time that day, the Brewers were able to get on the board first as they went up by 10 points before the Buccaneers were able to score at all. Vassar’s points came at the hands of Roberts and first-year Theo Lewis Lawrence. Through the rest of the game, Maritime was able to battle back, scoring two tries to tie the game at 10. Despite drawing, both teams advanced to the championship bracket to be held on Saturday.

All three Brewer teams advanced to Sunday’s elimination play. Unfortunately, the men’s squad was unable to keep up with its opponent, Colby, and eventually fell in the quarterfinals 10-29.

Hooghkirk put up a heroic effort, scoring two tries against the Mules.

Junior Caleb Zachary commented on the loss, “going into the quarterfinals, we knew Colby would be fast and athletic, and they didn’t disappoint. Though our forwards made excellent progress against them, whenever they could get the ball to their backs they were much quicker and were able to get around the edges to score several times in the first half. In the second half Vassar was much more disciplined and was able to score twice before the whistle blew, but the damage was already done.”

“While I was happy with how I played this weekend, I was even more happy with how the team played. We were presented with huge challenges and rose to the occasion with powerful, smart play, as well as good sportsmanship, despite some dicey situations in the games,” sophomore Louis Brown commented. “It was a collective effort from a great group of guys and a great group of friends who all helped one another stay ready for our games physically, mentally and emotionally.”

Following the elimination of the men’s squad, the Vassar B-side team took the field for the quarterfinal round against Southern Connecticut State University. Despite the low scoring nature of the march, Vassar ended on the victorious side with a 12-5 win. The Brewers reached the boards with one try each from Quist and James while Emery contributed two conversions.

With a quick turnaround, Vassar B-side headed into the semifinals against the University of Connecticut B-side. Although the Brewers fought

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

hard, the Huskies ran away with a 20-7 win. Nevertheless, sophomore Meredith Leder scored a try while Emery tallied two conversions.

Then, it was finally time for the Division I semifinals, in which Vassar A-side took on the University of Rhode Island. Despite the strength of the Rhode Island squad, Vassar handily earned the 24-5 win. Elson led the scoring efforts with two tries, while Freeman and Reich tabbed one try apiece. Yet again, McElduff was successful in conversion attempts, tallying two in the match. With this win under their belts, the Brewers headed into the championships.

Regardless of a particularly rugby-packed weekend, Vassar showed no signs of fatigue in the finals. With points from senior Lauren Workman, Elson and McElduff, the Brewers bested the University of Connecticut 12-7 to become the Beast of the East Division I Champions! Elson and Workman each scored a try while McElduff added a conversion in addition to executing a penalty kick.

Captain Mariah Ghant ’17 reflected, “As a senior on the team, I was really excited to spend my last game at Beast of the East. It was so impressive to see everyone on the A-side team working incredibly hard to make this big win in the DI playoffs at the tournament.”

She added, “I think what was most crucial to our wins was the team being able to keep composure. We play best when have the ball in our possession, so we made sure that our defense was working extra hard to ensure this could happen. ” Commenting on Vassar rugby’s performance as a whole, Wood stated, “I think the men’s team did pretty well. We definitely didn’t go as far in the tournament as we hoped, but we held our own against some tough teams. The women’s team did amazing though. The A team took first in Division I, and the B team came in second in Division III. It was awesome to watch the women totally out-compete much larger schools with very great programs. They really don’t get enough recognition for how successful they are.”

The Vassar rugby teams will compete in their season-closing games against Siena College on Sunday, April 30 at home. The Brewers’ season will then conclude with the annual alumni game held the following Saturday on Founder’s Day.

April 27, 2017

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Page 19

Minnesota Vikings set to NFL turns its back, kicks revamp with Peterson trade Colin Kaepernick to curb Robert Pinataro Guest Columnist

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arlier this week, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson announced that he would be signing a two-year deal with the New Orleans Saints. The contract is worth $7 million , but it is not all guaranteed. His salary in year one will be $1 million and his signing bonus will be $2.5 million. However, the rest of the money in the contract is not guaranteed. His year-two compensation comes in the form of bonuses and is contingent on whether he is actually on the active roster in 2018 and whether he is working out in the manner expected.

Peterson is very excited to join the New Orleans Saints, and feels that he can contribute in a positive way to this team. In a quote for ESPN, he said, “On offense, it goes without saying that the Saints are really solid behind Drew Brees. I feel like my skill set can make them even more dominant as a unit. They have a great offensive line, which is something that stood out to me as well.”

The Saints offensive line, with the talents of Terron Armstead and Max Unger, is an extremely important reason why the Saints have been so successful and why Adrian Peterson will make a successful New Orleans Saint.

Peterson is a fast power back, strong enough to break through a linebacker’s tackles, but faster than a safety. This combination is extraordinarily difficult for a defense to handle. With the help of a strong offensive line, Peterson will have more opportunities to break through opposing defenses and have some big gains. It is foreseeable that he will have one of his best years this year, because even with a weak offensive line in Minnesota, he founds great success.

Peterson’s talent as a halfback is unquestionable. In eight of his last 10 seasons, he has rushed for more than 1,000 yards. The two exceptions were in 2011 and 2016: in 2011 he fell

just short with 970 yards, and in 2016 he only played in one game due to injuries. His best season came in 2012, when he came just eight yards short of the single season rushing record, racking up 2,097 rushing yards.

The New Orleans Saints are coming off of three sub-par seasons in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

These three seasons came after a great playoff run in the 2013 season. Historically, the Saints have been a playoff-caliber team, especially during the Drew Brees era. This has made the past three seasons that much more disappointing for Saints fans. The team needs a spark, and while most of their struggles are defensive, the acquisition of Adrian Peterson could be exactly the spark that this team needs.

The Saints already have a great passing offense led by quarterback Drew Brees and a talented receiving corps. The rushing attack has been led by Marc Ingraham, a 2015 and 2017 pro-bowler, who rushed for 1,043 yards and had 319 receiving yards.

Adding a future Hall of Fame running back, Adrian Peterson, to the Saints roster adds depth that no other NFL team can match. It will allow the Saints to rush more often and more effectively because there is no longer such a steep drop off in talent between the first and second string running backs.

The Saints will need to spend the remainder of their offseason focusing on building a better defense, so that they can return to their previous status as a playoff team. Last season, their passing defense was ranked 31 out of 32 teams in the NFL, and their rushing defense was 14th.

These numbers are not those of a championship program, and they will need to be improved be it through acquiring new players or developing current ones. This, combined with what should be a stellar Saints offense would make the Saints a serious playoff and championship contender in 2017.

Mack Liederman Guest Columnist

T

oday, the NFL will induct college football’s brightest players into its fraternity, with the opening round of the 2017 draft. For 49ers fans, today might be the day they finally get their new quarterback.

But what ran the last guy out of San Francisco? Simply put, Colin Kaepernick just took a knee.

It’s the story that the NFL wants you to forget about. While known domestic abusers and players with rap sheets as long as paper towel rolls are consistently given second chances in the league, Kaepernick, the man who was brave enough to do what so many athletes won’t, is out of a job.

Colin Kaepernick was virtually kicked out of the NFL following his national anthem racial injustice protests during the 2015-2016 season.

The current blacklisting of Collin Kaepernick has firmly cemented the NFL as the most conservative institution in all of professional sports.

And this conversation, that looked to be finally fading away off of the NFL’s long list of PR issues, has now been given new life. The free agent quarterback was recently named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2017. That is a pretty strong accolade for an athlete who is unlikely to throw a pass in 2017.

Jim Harbaugh, who coached Kaepernick in San Francisco from 2011 to 2014 during some golden years for the niners, wrote the article that appeared alongside Kaepernick in Time Magazine.

“At times in our nation’s history, we have been all too quick to judge and oppose our fellow Americans for exercising their First Amendment right to address things they believe unjust,” Harbaugh said on Kaepernicks’s protest. “Rather than besmirch their character, we must celebrate their act. For we cannot pioneer

and invent if we are fearful of deviating from the norm, damaging our public perception or-most important-harming our own personal interests.”

Harbaugh was not alone in his not-so-subtle shots at the NFL for not embracing Kaepernick.

Appearing on ESPN’s First Take last month, outspoken Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Richard Sherman asserted Kaepernick’s free agency was unfair treatment.

“Obviously he’s going to be in a backup role at this point. But you see quarterbacks, there was a year Matt Schaub had a pretty rough year and got signed the next year,” Sherman said. “So it has nothing to do with football. You can see that. They signed guys who have had off years before.”

It is true that Kaepernick has not been a particularly good quarterback for the last couple of years now. But for a still relatively young player who once helped a team to two NFC championships and a Super Bowl appearance, his unemployment status just does not add up. Additionally, with such a dearth of versatile quarterbacks currently in the league, it is almost unfathomable how no team has given Kaeapernick a workout or even a glance.

All this boils down to an unfortunate fact: the NFL’s brand and fan base is too deeply attached to overt displays of patriotism. Kaepernick thus becomes the ultimate poison.

Consider this in the current scope when other pro leagues like the NBA have openly encouraged players to use their position as influential public figures to speak out on issues, especially those of racial inequality.

So here’s a message to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the 32 league owners. Don’t turn your back on your Black players.

Someone take a stand: give Kap a second chance under center. Your team can become a league pioneer for racial justice. Just let him take a knee on your sideline next season.

VC claims fourth in Liberty League Championships Fiona MacLeod Guest Reporter

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run with a finishing score of 1:55.23, while firstyear Adin Becker continued to show his skill in the 5,000-meter, finishing third overall with a time of 15:28.17. Becker has secured numerous Liberty League Honors throughout the year as one of the best distance runners in the conference.

The men took second in the 4x100-meter relay, with a season-best time of 43.47. Freshman Jonah Goldenbird took fifth in pole vault, clearing 3.53 meters, while fellow newcomer Cole Derksen took seventh in javelin throw (43.28 meters) and ninth in high jump (1.7 meters).

Widman ended up taking second place honors for fastest male runner in the Liberty League. “Skylar was someone we know could, and were hoping would, make an impact for us immediately,” said Coach Harris. “With work on his technique and his effort at practice, he will have the possibility to truly leave a legacy behind. We are all looking forward to watching the choices he makes moving forward.”

The Vassar College women’s track & field team rosters just as many gifted runners as the men’s team proves to have. Impressively, 25 different performances earned points for the team on Saturday, allowing them to earn 93 points, the highest point

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

oth the men and the women of Vassar College track & field placed fourth in the 2017 Liberty League Championships this past Saturday at home, earning 67 and 93 points, respectively. The event was filled with astonishing performances, including multiple broken school records.

Head Coach Justin Harris explained that not only the coaching staff, but also the team, felt that the Brewers performed excellently in the competition. “We feel that we had a successful meet,” Coach Harris stated. “While this is the first year we leave without a conference champion, our men finished in the middle of where they have in the past, and our women finished with their second highest point total ever.” He referenced the improvement of the team throughout the most recent couple of years, stating, “These past two years we have had a much better distribution of points scored amongst the events, which really shows how talented and diverse our team truly is.”

Senior captain Saparja Nag seconded this mentality, “We’re definitely content with fourth place this year, but we’re definitely more so excited to have people scoring points in almost every event, particularly the field.”

For the men, junior Philip Brown opened the day on the 10,000-meter run. With a time of 31:40.15, Brown was able to secure third place, securing six points for the Brewers. Not far behind ran junior Jesse Schatz, who finished the length in a personal-best 32:14.71, earning fifthplace overall, Newcomer Skylar Widman did not disappoint following these two impressive runs. He narrowly beat Vassar College’s existing school record for the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.17. Prior to this feat, the record was held by Taylor Vann, who ran the distance in a time of 11.19 last season, before graduating from the team. “I was elated when I found out I broke the 100-meter record at Liberty Leagues,” reported Widman excitedly. “I’ve had my eye on that record since beginning track here, and now that I’ve landed myself on the record board, I already feel as if I’ve accomplished a lot as an athlete under my coaches.” But the hard work does not end there, as Widman continued, “The 200-meter record is next for me!” In this event,

he posted a 22.75 time, earning fourth place for the Brewers, his season-best.

Widman believes that performing at home helped him compete at his verybest. “I am sure holding the championships here made a difference. Competing in front of friends and family put me, as well as everyone else on the team, in good spirits. It kept us in the mindset that we truly needed to perform at our very best.”

Fellow freshman Anthony von Steuben took the track next for the Brewers. Though he just narrowly missed the finals with his 100-meter dash performance, earning a time of 11.46, he accomplished his season-best time with this figure. The next Brewer, junior Joel Johnson, finally clinched his heat, earning a 23.69 time in the 200-meter dash.

The team continued posting impressive times in each of the races. In the 400-meter dash, senior Elijah Winston, sophomore Dan Melody and sophomore Ilya Rozenblat all either placed for the Brewers or secured season or personal bests. Clocking in at 50.31, Winston placed fourth overall. Melody ran his season-best time with a 55.56, while Rozenblat tied his personal-best time of 56.53.

Accomplished senior Gabe Fishman earned second place for eight points in the 800-meter

First-year Penelope Mort Ranta leaps to beat Vassar’s school record in the high jump. Mort Ranta and the rest of Track & Field earned fourth place in the Liberty League Championships.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

count in program history.

Saparja Nag had multiple impressive feats throughout the day, earning a multitude of points for her team. Nag finished fourth in the 100-meter dash, with a time of 13.32, before taking home fifth place in the 200-meter dash with a 27.31. This distance proved to be her most satisfying, as Nag relayed, “My 200-meter was the race that pleased me the most.” Despite the weary circumstances of the race, she ended up placing higher than she was originally seeded. “At that point of the day, I was pretty exhausted,” she admitted. “But I knew everyone else in my heat was in the same boat, and I just wanted to have some fun with it.”

Continuing the day, seniors Alex Gittens and Molly Crowell earned third and fourth place, respectively, in the 400-meter dash with times of 1:00.26 and 1:00.99. Five Brewers then found their way to the top 13 slots of the 800m dash, with senior Lucy Balcezek securing fourth place in 2:21.67.

The Brewers continued their prowess in the field events. Newcomer Penelope Mort Ranta earn third in the high jump, clearing a height of 1.51 meters and breaking the Vassar College school record.

“We recruited Penelope to be a long hurdler and high jumper, even though that combination does not always allow for optimal performance in a meet since they contradict each other athletically in a sense,” explained Coach Harris.

Her efforts certainly proved to translate into rewards throughout the championship day. “Some of the most rewarding, memorable moments of the day were being able to stand on the award platform twice,” Mort Ranta told. “Both times I got to stand next to my teammates, Zahra Crim and Sophie Sharp!” Sophomore Sophie Sharp cleared a season-high height of 1.46 meters in the high jump, securing fifth place in the event.

After their strong showing in the Liberty League championships, a select group of the men and women’s teams will travel to the esteemed Penn Relays this upcoming week. “With only a small number of us heading to Penn Relays, I think we will try to take maintain the hype and support from this past weekend,” captain Nag strategized.

“Keeping that in our minds as we compete against some extremely fast competition will help us find success.”

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Page 20

April 27, 2017

Bittersweet endings: spring sports celebrate Senior Days Olivia O’Loughlin Sports Editor

Women’s Golf

Baseball

After the team’s impressive sweep of Union College, Vassar faced Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in four games over Saturday, April 22, and Sunday, April 23. The Brewers earned 8-6 and 5-2 wins on Saturday, but later fell 0-11 and 1-10 on Sunday.

During Saturday’s first game, Vassar took a 1-0 lead in the third inning thanks to senior Denis Shanagher, who sent first-year Connor Levchuck home. However, RPI answered back and led 4-1 after the fourth inning.

Nevertheless, Vassar answered with seven runs in the fifth inning to take the lead and eventually the game. First-year Evan Trausch started the efforts with a walk, earning a run from junior Matt Hernandez. Fellow first-year Daniel Bonfiglio then singled to bring home both Shanagher and junior Bobby Kinne.

Vassar’s fifth run was due to an RPI error, as sophomore Jake Doyle helped Trausch home after being hit by a pitch. Next up, although sophomore Matt Schwartz grounded out to the pitcher, he earned an RBI with a run from Bonfiglio. Hernandez then rounded out the scoring efforts with a single, bringing home sophomore Taylor Smach.

With the win awarded to senior pitcher Adam Erkis, the Brewers headed into the second game of the doubleheader.

First-year Jake Silver then took the mound to earn the 5-2 win. Fellow First-year Matt Martino earned the first run of the game with a walk, sending Hernandez home. After RPI tied it up, Martino lifted Vassar to a lead once more with a single and a run from Shanagher.

First-year Erik Rubin continued the freshmen prowess as he earned an RBI with a run from Trausch. Smach followed suit, hitting a single and bringing Martino home. Lastly, Hernandez singled to earn the final run of the game from Martino.

After this win, VC traveled home to host the second doubleheader of the weekend against RPI. Unfortunately, the success did not continue through the weekend and the Brewers lost the next two games. The sole run on Sunday came at the hands of Trausch, who singled to bring home

Men’s Lacrosse

The Brewers faced a tough loss against No. 4 Rochester Institute of Technology on Saturday, April 22. After RIT scored the first seven goals of the contest, VC was unable to keep up and eventually fell 8-21.

Frequent Liberty League honoree senior Liam Moriarty ended RIT’s scoring streak with an unassisted goal with 3:40 left in the first quarter.

Moriarty then notched two more goals to complete his hat-trick before halftime.

First-year Michael Mullen added one more goal for the Brewers, with an assist from senior Chris Billups, to send both teams into the break with a score of 4-15.

In the third quarter, Billups then scored a goal of his own with an assist from sophomore Dekker Stebel. The seniors kept things rolling as Sam Houston-Read tallied a goal with an assist from Mullen, and Billups tacked on another, assisted by Brandon DeStasio, with 1:20 left in the third quarter. Houston-Read would score the last goal for the Brewers as he reached the back of the net with 3:44 left in the contest.

Despite the result, other Brewers had notable performances on the day. First-year Matt Lowrey won 15 of the 23 faceoffs, while senior Brandon Klein collected four ground balls and fellow senior Steven Mages caused four turnovers. In goal, first-year Matt Boyd contributed 10 saves, while junior Erik Mikelinich tallied four.

The squad hopes to return its Liberty League record to .500 as VC takes on Bard College away on Wednesday, April 26.

Women’s Tennis

Unfortunately, the No. 40 Vassar women’s tennis team was unable to upset No. 20 Skidmore College this past weekend. Despite valiant efforts, the squad eventually fell 2-7 to the Thoroughbreds.

The day was highlighted by a very impressive win from No. 1 doubles pair senior Shayna Becker and First-year Tara Edwards. The duo earned a 8-6 victory over Skidmore’s Michelle Fuca and Madie Ben, who are ranked No. 7 in the Northeast Region.

Then at No. 3 doubles, senior Connie Yoo and junior Dasha Ivenitsky earned another victory for VC as they topped their competition 9-7. Unfortunately, this would be the final victory for the Burgundy and Gray for the day. At No. 2 doubles, junior Kate Christensen and sophomore Morgane Flournoy were unable to complete the doubles sweep and fell 3-8.

In singles, although VC was unable to earn any wins, the squad fought hard. With scores of 7-5, 6-3, Skidmore topped both Christensen at No. 1 and Edwards at No. 3. Then at No. 4, Skidmore topped Flournoy 6-1, 6-0, while also defeating Ivenitsky at No. 6 with scores of 6-3, 6-0.

At No. 2 and No. 5, Becker and Yoo did not go out without a fight and sent both of their matches to three sets. Becker won the first set with a 7-6 (3) tiebreak victory, but later fell 1-6, 2-6 in the remaining two sets. Yoo, at No. 5, also earned a victory in the first set with scores of 7-5, before being topped 4-6, 1-6 in the remainder of the match.

The Brewers will next celebrate Yoo and Becker for their Senior Day against Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) on Saturday, April 29.

Men’s Tennis

On Sunday, the Brewers were full of smiles as

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

This past weekend, the Vassar women’s golf team wrapped up its season in the Liberty League Championships. Vassar (662) finished in fourth place, falling behind NYU (605), Mount Holyoke (648) and Wellesley (660) while defeating St. Lawrence (689), Union (719) and William Smith (762).

First-year Andrea Han shined once more, as she finished tied for fourth overall with a score of 156, shooting 78 on both days of competition.

Fellow first-year Qiwan Tan and senior Emily Prince also posted strong performances during the championships. Both Tan and Prince totaled a score of 85 at the end of day one, tied for 15th place.

Prince improved her performance on Sunday by four strokes, totaling a score of 166, tying for 12th place. Meanwhile, junior Annie Hsu improved her play by eight strokes to score a 168 and to finish tied for 15th place.

Tan shot a total of 173 to tie for 18th place, while First-year Evon Shay finished in 31st place with a total of 186.

As a collective unit, Vassar performed well on par 3 holes, averaging an impressive 3.43, the second best throughout the championships. VC also collectively shot 80 pars and three birdies.

After the team’s sucessful season, VC will return to the golf course in the fall of 2017.

Shanagher.

With this split against RPI, the Brewers will head into Senior Day and another set of doubleheaders against Bard College on Saturday, April 29 and Sunday, April 30.

Men’s tennis seniors Juan Felipe Laso, Alexander Luckmann and Nick Litsky pose for the camera. Competing on the Josselyn Tennis Courts for their very last time, all three found success. they honored their three seniors and defeated St. Lawrence 7-2 to solidify a spot in the Liberty League playoffs.

Senior Nick Litsky and sophomore Nick Zuczek opened the day with a win as the duo surpassed their competition 8-4 at No. 3 doubles. However, VC fell at both No. 1 and 2 singles as first-year Allen Sokolov and senior Juan Felipe Laso fell 5-8, and first-year Jeremy Auh and senior Alexander Luckmann were topped 7-9. After falling into a quick 1-2 deficit in doubles, the Brewers bounced back to earn the next six points and clinch the victory.

In his last match at home, Laso swept his competition at No. 3 singles with a 6-0, 6-0 victory.

This singles win marked the 13th of the season for Laso. Next up, first-year Zamir Birnbach lifted Vassar ahead with a 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 6 singles.

Playing on the Josselyn courts for the last time, Litsky earned yet another win at No. 1 singles with scores of 6-0, 6-3. With this win, Litsky leads the team in victories with 17.

Sokolov would seal the win for the Brewers as he earned Vassar’s fifth point, defeating his opponent 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2. At No. 4, Auh then clinched a 6-1, 6-4 victory over the Saints.

In the last match of the day, Luckmann took to the Vassar courts one last time. After falling 1-6 in the first set, Luckmann recovered to earn the victory win a super-tiebreaker with scores of 6-5, 12-10. All three seniors wrapped up their collegiate home court play with victories.

With this impressive feat, Vassar has earned a spot in the Liberty League playoffs in early May. However, for now, the Brewers will focus on their last regular season match against Hobart College on Saturday, April 29, in Geneva, NY. Men’s Rowing

This past weekend, the Brewers traveled to both Albany and West Point to compete in numerous races and earn multiple wins.

To start the day on Saturday, Vassar boarded two boats to race in the Varsity 4+ event. VC took home third and fifth place with respective times of 6:25 and 6:34. Up next, the Novice 4+ clocked in at 7:32 to claim second place, being edged out by Skidmore but surpassing RPI by 20 seconds.

Lastly, the Varsity 8+ nabbed a third place finish with a time of 6:36. Skidmore won the event, finishing just six seconds before the Brewers.

Vassar then traveled to West Point to race in the

President’s Cup to take on Division I opponents Marist College and Fairfield University in addition to conference foe RIT and event host West Point.

To start the day, Vassar claimed second place thanks to the 4+ crew headed by junior Coxswain Janet Ortiz. With a time of 6:28, Vassar clocked in before two Division I Marist boats and only a mere second behind Army.

Soon following, the Novice 4+ finished the course in 6:12 to earn fourth place in ront of a Fairfield crew. Finally, the Varsity 8+ nabbed fifth place with a time of 7:05.

The Brewers now look towards the Spring Metropolitan Championships held on Saturday, April 29.

Women’s Rowing

This past weekend was a busy one for the women’s rowing team as the squad faced the University of Albany, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Skidmore College on April 22 before competing in the President’s Cup at West Point.

On Saturday, the women’s 3V 8+ was up first.

The squad earned the victory as they finished the 2000m course in 6:49.80, edging out Albany (6:54.30) and RPI (6:54.80). The Varsity 8+ continued the success of the Burgundy and Gray as the team earned an impressive 16-second victory, clocking in at 6:53.70.

Vassar then claimed yet another win at the hands of the 2nd Varsity 8+. The crew surpassed both Skidmore and Albany by at least five seconds with a final time of 7:47.9.

For the last race of the day, the Varsity 4+ hopped in the Hudson River. VC earned third place in the event with a time of 8:08, defeating Albany.

On Sunday, the Brewers then traveled to West Point to compete in the President’s Cup, taking on Army and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

Vassar’s captains, senior Lianne May and sophomore Julia Blass, raced first in the women’s pair.

The duo had a strong performance and finished in second place. Up next, the 3V 8+ earned fourth place with a time of 7:22, being edged out by RIT by a mere four seconds. VC then went on to claim two more third-place finishes, one from the Varsity 8+ and the 2V 8+.

The Vassar squad will return to the water on Saturday, April 29, for the Spring Metropolitan Championships in New Rochelle, NY.

Weekend Scoreboard MEN’S LACROSSE VASSAR

8

VS

WOMEN’S TENNIS

RIT

VASSAR

21

2

VS

BASEBALL

SKIDMORE

VASSAR

7

5

VS

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

MEN’S TENNIS RPI

VASSAR

2

7

VS

ST. LAWRENCE

2