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The Miscellany News

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CL | Issue 3

September 21, 2017

Students, staff rally for better ACDC working conditions Clark Xu

Assistant News Editor

A

ter Vice President Cathy Bradford elaborated, “I worked here for 21 years.

Throughout these years, we had experience with different issues, but this year we have experienced serious job security threats.” The friction between SEIU and Bon Appétit has ranged from union bargaining and contract negotiation to labor-management relations and the work environment. Bradford continued, “Bon Appétit here does not listen to us or respect us. It’s either their way or no way. We have had meetings over and over, week after week, with administrators, but nobody seems to be getting or listening to our main concerns.”

Dean of the College Christopher Roellke reflected, “We have been working diligently on these issues and will conSee RALLY on page 3

Courtesy of Laura Zapien

midst rising concerns about the health and safety of Vassar’s dining service workers, a coalition between Student/Labor Dialogue (SLD) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) pressed for change on Friday, Sept. 15, in a rally at the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC) that occupied the building and presented worker demands to management. SLD and SEIU called for Vassar College and Bon Appétit administrators to reply to demands for safe working conditions, organized schedules, transparent hiring and respect for workers before Friday, Sept. 22.

An SLD member who wished to remain anonymous elaborated on the

org’s involvement, saying, “SLD is about students building relationships of trust with workers over long periods of time.

We try to show them that we care and are here to listen and advocate as students for their concerns.”

The controversy developed out of the transition in dining service providers from Aramark to Bon Appétit at the beginning of the school year. As President of the College Elizabeth Bradley explained, “This is an ambitious transformation of our dining services, one we think will give us healthier and more exciting dining options, as well as create a new gathering space for our community. Because of the magnitude of the change, we knew there would be some challenges at the beginning.”

At the ACDC rally, local SEIU chap-

Students and workers gathered in the ACDC on Friday, Sept. 15, to protest unsafe working conditions and understaffing at the Deece.

Tennis finds success in Harmon voted in as Scramble, takes three VSA Vice President Kelly Pushie

Guest Reporter

he Vassar Women’s tennis team hosted three opponents this past weekend on the Josselyn tennis courts in the Vassar Scramble. The Brewers matched up against Connecticut College, New York University and New Paltz on Saturday and Sunday.

Despite having several players out of play due to illness, including seniors Dasha Ivenitsky and Kate Christensen, as well as sophomore Ashley

Dylan Smith Reporter

S

unday, Sept. 17, marked the end of the Vassar Student Association’s (VSA) annual fall elections, which appoint first-year representatives to different positions within the student association. 20 positions within the VSA were filled, including the VSA Vice President position. Cody Harmon ’19 was elected as VSA Vice President, his election coinciding with the other first-year positions announced this past Sunday night.

As per usual in fall VSA elections, three VSA Senate positions, two Committee positions, nine House Team positions and four judicial board positions were up for grabs. More unusual, however, was the recent resignation of VSA President Miranda Amey ’19, prompting current VSA President Anish Kanoria ’18, to step into the role, leaving his former Vice President seat vacant. Thus, in addition to the regularly scheduled fall election cycle, the VSA conducted a See ELECTIONS on page 4

Courtesy of Olivia Feltus

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Fair and first-year Frances Cornwall,, the Brewers put together a great weekend. “I think we did really well as a team of staying focused and playing hard even though we were battling some injuries and sicknesses,” sophomore Tara Edwards mentioned in an interview with Vassar Athletics communications after her match.

Sophomore Vista Grinde attributes the team’s success over the weekend to their hard work during practice.

See SCRAMBLE on page 18

Cody Harmon ’19 was elected as the new VSA Vice President last Sunday.

Circus troupe turns fire into art VC professor ‘psyched’ for sabbatical projects A Sasha Gopalakrishnan Assistant Arts Editor

Kaitlynn Vo

[Editor’s note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.]

W

Every fall, Barefoot Monkeys puts on a performance for students and their visiting families. The show delights all, combining acrobatics, fire art and detailed choreograpnhy. It is an absolute must-see for every VC student.

Inside this issue

3

NEWS

long time?

Randolph Cornelius: This January I

guest reporter

Courtesy of Hannah Benton

s we meander through the semester, the end of September is always marked by assignments picking up their pace, readings being left unfinished and an action-packed Families Weekend. However, the very thought of Families Weekend is incomplete without The Barefoot Monkeys’ annual Fire Show. On Saturday, Sept. 16, Vassar’s one and only circus arts troupe presented their highly anticipated fall performance.

Known for their repertoire of skillful stunts and ingenious acrobatics, the Monkeys captivated the massive gathering of people on the residential quad as they spun, juggled and danced with a diverse range of props that were united in one common factor: they were all on fire.

Choreographed to a selection of old rock songs, pop and dance music, with many of the lyrics being fire-themed, the Monkeys expertly navigated hoops, spun poi and twirled staffs that burned bright and dazzled onlookers.

Whether they individually juggled props or playfully partnered up and swung actual balls of fire at each other, they did so with a baffling level of synchronization that never failed to blow the audience away. We gasped and cheered as the performers traced rings of fiery flames along the grass and spun burning hula-hoops around their waists.

When asked about her favorite part See CIRCUS on page 14

Happy New Year! Jewish Life Director starts VC career

7

It’s no lie, you’ll want to try this Eastern black FEATURES walnut pie!

hile you see your professors multiple times per week, it is rare to get to know their background in depth.

Professor of Psychology Dr. Randolph Cornelius, currently on sabbatical, devotes the majority of his research to the study of human emotions and emotional expression, and he is particularly interested in the social and communicative function of tears.

His other favored research topics include close relationships, conceptions of emotion in American popular culture and scientists’ religious beliefs.

Cornelius attended the University of Florida for his undergraduate studies and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst for his master’s and doctoral degrees. Though his primary department is psychology, he also teaches in the American Studies and Environmental Studies Programs. More recently, he has crossed disciplines to teach dual-department classes with another professor in philosophy.

The Miscellany News: How long have you been a professor at Vassar, and is this the first educational institution you’ve been established at for a

14 ARTS

will have been here for 36 years, and this is my first and only job outside of graduate school. When I came here, I was married to someone who had a post-doctorate in the Biology Department, and I had actually interviewed for a job the year before knowing that she was coming here. I ended up not getting that job because they hired someone else who left after a year.

In December ’81, I was shopping at Adams and ran into the department chair, and he asked me if I was still looking for a job. I was, and told him so, so he asked if I would like to come and teach a few courses at Vassar in the spring; I said yes. That meant I had less than a month to prepare for these two classes I had to teach: Methods and Statistics. The next year I was hired again for a temporary position, and I taught more courses then as well.

It was after this time that a tenure track position opened up, and I applied for and got it. Six years later, after I had become an assistant professor, I applied for a full professor tenure position and got that as well. It was a long process because after each of these steps you have to assemble all your materials before being evaluated, but I can’t imagine being at any other job.

The Misc: What’s the most valuable See PSYCHOLOGY on page 6

Palmer exhibit

by CAAD proves student art is rad

The Miscellany News

Page 2

September 21, 2017

Editor-in-Chief

Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson

Senior Editor Noah Purdy

Contributing Editors Sarah Dolan Eilís Donohue Rhys Johnson Anika Lanser

News Laurel Hennen Vigil Humor and Satire Leah Cates Yesenia Garcia Arts Matt Stein Patrick Tanella Sports Mack Liederman Robert Pinataro Design Yoav Yaron Online Jackson Ingram Copy Tanya Kotru Gode Sumiko Neary

Courtesy of Elena Schultz

A blast from the past! Elena Schultz took a photo in front of the Eiffel Tower this year (left), and reflects on how much has changed since visiting four years ago on a high school exchange program (right). Of her experiences in Paris, she says, “In French, I’ve learned, there’s no perfect translation for being fluent in a language. One might ‘parle couramment’ (speak fluently), but as far as actually being fluent, the word doesn’t exist. Surprisingly, this gives me a mighty amount of hope. If learning a language doesn’t exist upon a binary of either mastery or complete inarticulacy, then whatever progress I make over the next few months will undoubtedly feel worth celebrating—even if it takes a few tries to get there.” To read more about Elena’s exciting JYA experience and read more about other student’s travels, visit farandaway.miscellanynews.org!

The Miscellany News 21

September

Weekender_ 22

Thursday

September

Blueprint for Counter Education

Friday

The First Students

10:00am | College Center Palmer Gallery | Campus Activities

10:00am | Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center | The Loeb

Workshop: Handling the 5 Most Terrifying Interview Questions 12:00pm | NE 206 | Career Development Office

Rugby (M) vs. Monroe College

September

Saturday

The Inauguration of Elizabeth H. Bradley

Panel Discussion: Liberal Education in a Globalized World

Reception

1:00pm | Kenyon Hall Gym | Athletics

1:30pm | Skinner Recital Hall | President’s Office

Field Hockey (W) vs. RPI

2:00pm | Weinberg Field | Athletics

Volleyball (W) vs. Rochester Institute of Technology

Soccer (W) vs. RIT

BNI Escape the Room

8:00pm | College Center Mug | Big Night In

September

1:00pm | Thompson Memorial Chapel | President’s Office

3:00pm | Tent on the Chapel Lawn | President’s Office

Paper Critique

Panel Discussion: Health and Health Care... Where are we going?

3:00pm | Skinner Recital Hall | President’s Office

9:00pm | ACDC | President’s Office

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.

9:00pm | Rose Parlor | The Miscellany News

3:00pm | Gordon Field | Athletics

Inauguration Student Celebration

Reporters Dylan Smith Kaitlin Prado Andrea Yang Columnists Izzy Braham Jimmy Christon Jesser Horowitz Steven Park Sylvan Perlmutter Andrew Solender Design Maya Sterling Copy Andrea Yang Anna Wiley Gabriela Calderon Isabel Bielat James Bonanno Jillian Frechette

Sunday

Volleyball (W) vs. Ithaca College

3:00pm | Rugby Field | Athletics

7:00pm | Kenyon Hall Gym | Athletics

24

Courtesy of Vassar College

Courtesy of Max Pixel

Join Big Night In this Friday for Escape the Mug! Come by from 8 p.m. - 11 p.m. to see if you can get out in time. There will also be board games and snacks in the Retreat.

23

Assistant News Clark Xu Assistant Features Laila Volpe Assistant Arts Sasha Gopalakrishnan Assistant Copy Claire Baker Assistant Social Media Hannah Nice Web Master & Technical Advisor George Witteman

Witness and partake in a historic moment for Vassar College at the Inauguration of Elizabeth H. Bradley this Sunday in the Chapel.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

CORRECTION In last week’s article, “Org of the Week: DRC envisions broader dialogue,” we incorrectly stated that DRC is an organization that replaced ACCESS. In fact, DRC is a pre-org and ACCESS maintains its status as a full org.

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.

September 21, 2017

NEWS

Page 3

VC community calls for fair treatment of dining workers RALLY continued from page 1

would help Vassar listen to the demands.”

Addressing Vassar College and Bon Appétit administrators, Bradford said, “If they feel they need three months to get this together, take as long as you do. But they need to know and understand that we are not going nowhere without a fight.”

A driving force for bringing the plight of dining service workers to public attention was the organized protest by SLD. At 5 p.m. on Friday, hundreds of students gathered in front of the ACDC and chanted, “1, 2, 3, 4, dining staff deserves more.

5, 6, 7, 8, Deece cannot retaliate ... Hey there Vassar, you’re no good, treat your workers like you should ... There’s no excuses for human rights abuses.”

Students and workers occupied the building for approximately an hour before leaving in a peaceable and organized manner under the guidance of three student peacekeepers. The protest also featured a heavy use of social media. An SLD member announced through the loudspeaker, “Feel free to Facebook live, Snapchat, Instagram, make sure you tag Bon Appétit, make sure you tag Vassar College, let the parents who are here on campus know what’s going on.”

Considering the effect on public image during Families Weekend, Roellke commented, “As I am a Vassar parent of an alum and also of a current student, I can certainly understand the importance of high-quality food service and the role it plays in building community. I would hope that neither parents nor alumni would be overly concerned as they should share our confidence in our collective bargaining process and our commitment to remedying concerns as they emerge.”

In addition, the College feels that the switch in dining service has represented a significant boost to the Vassar community’s welfare. Roellke continued, “It is my sincere hope that the overall very positive feedback we have received on this dining transformation in terms of food quality, flexibility, farm-to-table, expanded hours and our other programmatic objectives are not lost at all in the discussion as we move forward to remedy some of the labor challenges associated with our roll-out.”

In terms of student activism, Bradley comment-

Courtesy of Laura Zapien

tinue to work on them in earnest, in good faith and in alignment with our collective bargaining agreement. My advice for students and workers is to continue to allow the dialogue to proceed as it should via the processes outlined in the collective bargaining agreement.”

This agreement, effective from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2018, outlines a four-step procedure for the redress of grievances between the SEIU and the Office of Human Resources and concludes with a binding arbitration. With regard to the time horizon of the administration’s response to SLD and SEIU, Roellke said, “At semester recess, a full comprehensive assessment will take place, and we will have a much better sense of additional steps we need to take to make this dining program fly.”

But for dining service workers, the situation remains urgent. Bradford said, “We have had staff that was carried out of here in an ambulance, and not only carried out of here in an ambulance due to the stress and the blood pressure going up sky high, but now have to go see a therapist, a psychiatrist, because of what they had to endure here.”

A separate incident reportedly involving overloaded dish stacks and standing water on the floor led to a health hazard call from the local fire department. The SEIU also reported incidents of workers being denied access to health supplies by management, as well as race-based discrimination. After being promised 12 new full-time positions to help cover new labor demands in the ACDC, the SEIU only received three new hires this school year.

“From my perspective, many, if not all, of the Deece employees have been stressed and overworked, even if they don’t show it,” said Kenji Nikaido ’20, who has worked at both the ACDC and the Kiosk, in an interview. “I’ve talked to employees who arrive at 9 a.m. and leave at 11 p.m. ...The Deece must hire new workers as soon as possible and fix the unsafe working conditions, as those are the two the clearest and most dangerous issues they have currently. I believe that, should the demands not be met, another form of action

Hundreds of students attended a rally at the ACDC on Friday, Sept. 15. The rally was organized by Student/Labor Dialogue and Service Employees International Union. ed, “I am enjoying the conversations I am having with students about their political engagement.

Staying at the table to discuss issues as they arise is important. I like the engagement and really appreciate the honesty with which students express themselves ... My advice would be for students to support this process, allowing everyone to work toward a constructive conclusion.” “[My colleagues and I] are always fully supportive of student voices. I thought today’s event was well organized and peaceful, and the concerns outlined by the Student/Labor Dialogue are important,” Roellke added, reflecting on Friday’s rally. “I am very appreciative of the tremendous effort our dining colleagues have put forth in this transformation of dining services. They, along with our own facilities operations staff, our dining leadership team and so many others on campus

have really worked hard to make this dining transformation the best it can be for our community ... It takes so many dedicated and hard-working people to bring a project like this to fruition, and I know our student body, our faculty and all members of the community are deeply appreciative of this incredible effort.”

The SLD member who requested anonymity commented, “Students benefit from the labor product of food service workers, but they also have a say in ameliorating conditions for workers and supporting workers on a number of issues.”

Student involvement has changed the tone of the discussion, but concerns over the final outcome remain. Bradford concluded, “We need dignity, not small talk, but resolution. We should stand and not fall ... We have respect and dignity in our contract. And we demand it.”

Vassar welcomes new Rachlin Director of Jewish Life Laurel Hennen Vigil News Editor

[Content warning: Mention of anti-Semitic hate speech]

A

Courtesy of Vassar College

fter a nation-wide, yearlong search, Vassar recently welcomed a new Rose and Irving Rachlin Director for Jewish Student Life, Elizabeth Aeschlimann, who will also serve as Assistant Director for the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL).

RSL Director Samuel Speers commented, “We had an extensive search process, and [Aeschlimann] emerged as our clear front-runner. We were delighted that she accepted the offer and that it’s worked out for her to be here.”

“At the beginning, having someone in a new role can feel transitional, but Liz immediately jumped into her job and made that transition feel smooth,” added Vassar Jewish Union (VJU) President Josh Schwartz ’18.

Indeed, almost immediately after Aeschlimann started at Vassar, she began organizing multiple celebrations for the Jewish High Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. A full list of celebrations can be found at a Facebook event titled “High Holy Days with the VJU.” Originally from Madison, WI, Aeschlimann studied cognitive science at Carleton College—“a Vassar sibling of the Midwest,” she noted—before moving to Boston, where she attended Harvard Divinity School, graduating with a Master of Divinity with Judaism Concentration, and working as a community organizer with congregations.

Aeschlimann was initially told of the open position at Vassar by friends, and was attracted by the enthusiasm of Vassar’s students. “I can’t think of another place where students take so much ownership of the community and make everything happen and seek out what they are interested in learning, as well as being deeply passionate about social justice,” she said.

Much of Aeschlimann’s previous work was social justice-oriented, particularly her participation in an interfaith coalition that worked to provide sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. The coalition was started by friends of Aeschlimann’s who were either undocumented themselves or had

Elizabeth Aeschlimann recently started as the new Director of Jewish Student Life. undocumented family members. A major component of the coalition’s work was assisting a family that had taken refuge in a church in Cambridge, MA, while fighting a deportation order.

“It’s been a really interesting experience,” Aeschlimann reflected, “to learn how to actually help this family, what’s helpful, what’s not, and how to balance this incredible resource of the interfaith community and the really complicated dynamics of race and privilege. [We wanted to] make sure that it’s truly driven by the people who are experiencing these issues.”

In addition to interfaith community organizing, Aeschlimann’s work with young Jewish people has also been motivated by her desire to help others.

Her enthusiasm for Jewish community work arose out her own experiences during periods of her life when she felt varying levels of connection to and disconnection from Judaism. It was through others she met who were also going through that process of discovery and questioning that she was able to find the aspects of Jewish tradition and community that she felt were meaningful in her life. Now,

Aeschlimann said, “I feel really passionate about supporting students, however they connect or don’t connect to Jewish life, and helping them see ways that different religious and spiritual practices can be resources for the things that they care about and the questions they’re struggling with.”

Beyond enduring questions about religion and spirituality and their place in one’s life, the current political climate makes it extremely difficult to be a part of any marginalized group, a fact that many in Vassar’s large Jewish community—which Speers estimates comprises 10 to 20 percent of the student body—can attest to. Two years ago, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at Vassar caused considerable strife between students who supported Israel and those advocating for Palestine, and the College experienced several incidents of hate speech last year, some predominantly featuring graffiti of swastikas.

Aeschlimann commented that if such incidents happen again, “I want to support the work that’s been happening to understand the dynamics of how [white supremacy and anti-Semitism] and other oppressions are interlocking and how they operate and how we can fight them,” she said.

“There are a lot of resources to bring to that. I’m interested in thinking about resources that religious and spiritual traditions have developed to support us when we experience oppression and need healing and to provide structures and practices that support us in changing when we are in positions of privilege or when we do something wrong.”

Of course, while many of Vassar’s Jewish students are able to depend on the Rachlin Director for support during trying times, some have pointed out that members of other marginalized religious groups, particularly Vassar’s Muslim community, would benefit from having their own advisor.

In a Miscellany News article covering one of the hate speech incidents last November, former VJU President Abigail Johnson ’17 commented, “It is long overdue for Vassar to hire an advisor for Muslim students. From personal experience as a Jewish student at Vassar, I have leaned on our advisors over the years and I think that in the next four years students will need even more support” (The Miscellany News, “Pro-Trump hate speech shocks, saddens Vassar,” 11.30.2016).

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

As Speers commented, “It’s critical that we make sure that all the communities on campus are supported and have the resources they need to thrive. We know both our Jewish community and Muslim community are vulnerable and feeling threatened. We try hard to pay attention to that and to what that means in this moment. We have a small but growing Muslim community here on campus and I’m committed to providing them the resources they need.”

However, the Vassar Muslim Student Union (VMSU) said that, despite their requests for an advisor, the College doesn’t have immediate plans to hire one.

VMSU member Victoria Majarali ’18 elaborated via email, “While RSL continues to provide much needed support for Muslim students at Vassar, there needs to be a concerted effort to find someone who can fill the role of Muslim advisor ... The Muslim community at Vassar has definitely suffered from the lack of an advisor.”

This discrepancy likely comes down to the fact that Aeschlimann’s position is endowed—it’s funded by alumni, Jerry and Paula Gottesman ’56, P’92, in memory of Paula’s parents, Rose and Irving Rachlin—as well as the size difference between the two groups. Speers estimates that there are between 250 and 500 Jewish students at Vassar, and only 25 to 30 Muslim students. Additonally, there are many other religious groups on campus, such as Buddhist Sangha, Hindu Heritage and Unitarian Universalists, that are smaller and likewise don’t have their own advisor.

Majarali said that this estimate of the Vassar Muslim population sounds correct, but that there may be more Muslim students who choose not to openly identify as such. According to Speers, the College doesn’t keep records of students’ religious affiliations.

However, while many feel that the College could do more to support a wider range of students, in her role as Assistant Director of RSL, Aeschlimann is happy to talk to and advise any and all members of the Vassar community.

“I’m so excited to keep getting to know students and support them in creating opportunities to learn and build community,” she said. “I really welcome anyone to reach out to me for any reason.”

NEWS

Page 4

September 21, 2017

VSA Vice President and 2021 representatives elected

Po

up

al Roun c i t d li Talya Phelps

[Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault] In this week’s headlines...

The White House is considering decreasing the number of refugees admitted to the United States over the next year from 110,000 to below 50,000, which would be the lowest quota since at least 1980 (The New York Times, “White House Weighs Lowering Refugee Quota to Below 50,000,” 09.12.17).

The Islamic State took responsibility for the bomb that exploded in the London Underground on Sept. 15, injuring 29 in Britain’s fifth terrorist attack of the year (The New York Times, “‘Bucket Bomb’ Strikes London’s Vulnerable Underground,” 09.15.17).

North Korea fired another ballistic missile over Japan on Sept. 15, reacting to new U.N. sanctions intended to force the country to halt its missile tests and enter negotiations. Neither the United States nor Japan attempted to shoot

Courtesy of Olivia Feltus

ELECTIONS continued from page 1 special election to fill the seat.

Chair of the Board of Elections and Appointments (BoEA) Nora Eigenbrodt ’18 said, “I think the election went really well. I appreciated the enthusiasm that the first-year students showed and how eager they were to learn about the positions and the process.” She added, “For both elections, I’m glad that BoEA was able to get them done so quickly because that was one of our top priorities.

Anish and I agreed that it was important to have a full [executive board] as soon as possible.”

Harmon, a junior at Vassar, is a member of the Posse program, which enrolls U.S. veterans in elite schools across the country. Cody is among Vassar’s third Posse cohort. He has previously worked as a Transitions sophomore advisor and is currently the student liaison for the Office of Campus Life and Diversity.

Harmon, in his campaign statement, wrote, “As a proud nontraditional, first-generation and low-income student, we have much work to make our campus and community more inviting and attracting to those who have and have not heard of Vassar ... You have my pledge of commitment for accountability, transparency and inclusiveness that you deserve and require!”

All students were eligible to vote in the vice-presidential election, while only first-years voted for the first-year positions. Harmon was elected from a field of four candidates to fill the position of vice president.

Four first-year students were elected to the VSA Judicial Board: Josephine Schermerhorn, Mohamad Mounir Safadieh, Audrey Godwin and Ali Sadek. All judicial board positions were uncontested.

Three first-year VSA Senators were named as well: Sara Shirodkar as the 2021 Senator for Activities, Diego Betancourt as the 2021 Senator for Strategic Planning and Miles Mitchell as the 2021 Senator for Student Affairs.

Shirodkar is an international student from Mumbai, India. “My goal here is simple,” she said in her statement of candidacy, “to give you a memorable Vassar experience. Furthermore, as an international student, I would focus on bridging any cultural gaps in Vassar activities and ensuring that everyone has equal access to them.

Betancourt is from Keene, NH. He hopes to bring a bicultural perspective to the VSA. “Perspective and understanding is paramount in working with others, and with these qualities I feel I can best represent your interests and get things done,” Betancourt wrote.

Mitchell is from Pasadena, CA. In his statement, he wrote, “Public service has been a passion of mine from a young age, and it would be both an absolute honor and privilege to continue that journey representing you in our Senate.”

Next, Sicily McLaughlin ’21 was elected to the

Diego Betancourt ’21 (left), Sara Shirodkar ’21 (center) and Miles Mitchell ’21 (right) were elected as the 2021 Senators for Strategic Planning, Activities and Student Affairs, respectively.

VSA Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid, and Sanaya Shikari ’21 was elected to the VSA Committee on College Life.

McLaughlin, a QuestBridge scholar, is concerned with flaws in current admissions and financial aid practices at Vassar. “While our financial aid policy meets 100 percent of demonstrated need now,” McLaughlin wrote in her statement, “political and socioeconomic changes in our country may change how we deal with giving new students access to Vassar’s top tier education ... It is my firm belief that education should empower students from all backgrounds and I want to help Vassar in empowering students whether they come from an upper-middle-class background of are part of the FLI [first-generation and low-income] community like me.”

Shikari, in her statement, wrote of the many extracurricular opportunities at Vassar. She suggested that our busy schedules are what allow us to become the best possible versions of ourselves.

“These are supposed to be the ‘best four years of our lives,’” she wrote, “and I hope that as a firstyear representative on the committee on college life, I can help provide that.”

In addition, Ivan Gong ’21 was named as the Board of Elections and Appointments First-Year Representative. Gong is not new to elections; as secretary of his high school’s student council, he reformed and oversaw the council’s election process. In his statement, Gong wrote, “My obsession with electoral fairness is the best assurance that in electing me as your representative, your right in elections will be ensured.”

Nine house team representatives, one for each residential house, were named Sunday as well.

Emily Frank is Strong’s new first-year representative. Nicholas Gorman will be representing Raymond, Emily Chong has been elected to represent Noyes house and Main’s first-year representative is Joshua Lacoste. Lathrop’s is Andrew Luo, Samantha Steeves was named Jewett’s first-year representative and Natalie Kim will be representing Davison. Finally, Prashit Parikh will be representing Cushing.

VP and Senatorial candidates sat for a question-and-answer session Thursday night, taking questions from The Miscellany News regarding their goals as elected representatives. The evening began with the Class of 2021 Senator for Activities candidates, with each of the three delivering a one-minute opening statement.

The candidates then answered a question about safe and inclusive programming. Shirodkar reflected on her own experience coordinating activities and organizing events since she was in eighth grade. She expressed hope that she could represent her class in organizing activities at Vassar.

Next up were the candidates for 2021 Senator for Strategic Planning. Betancourt, in his opening statement, remarked, “The most important question of this election is that of the direction you want to see Vassar going toward.” He further indicated that he hopes to see Vassar move in the direction of inclusivity: “I will work to ensure that the VSA’s decisions are in everyone’s best interest.”

Candidates for 2021 Senator for Student Af-

down the missile, which American officials say was intended to demonstrate that North Korea could easily hit Guam (The New York Times, “North Korea Launches Another Missile, Escalating Crisis,” 09.14.17).

President Trump convenes with world leaders and diplomats in New York for the the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Hot-button issues include how to move forward with North Korea, Trump’s nationalist “America First” agenda and how it fits into the mission of the U.N., the reported ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and the future of the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran (The New York Times, “The Big Question as the U.N. Gathers: What to Make of Trump?,” 09.16.17).

In a conversation with Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) on Sept. 14, Trump stood by his claim that violence in Charlottesville was caused by “pretty bad dudes” on the left as well as the right. That evening, Scott signed a congressional resolution that called on him to condemn hate groups (The New York Times, “Trump Resurrects His Claim That Both Sides Share Blame in Charlottesville Violence,” 09.14.17).

with more than 458 veteran families since 2012. It currently has 30 open cases of homeless veteran families, and last year’s grant money is expected to run out by Sept. 30 (Poughkeepsie Journal, “Hudson River Housing lose federal funding for homeless veteran program,” 09.14.17).

The Dutchess County Legislature may censure Legislator Joe Incoronato (R-Wappinger) after an email exchange between Incoronato and a county resident over comments about sexual assault he made during a June 2016 legislature meeting, when he stated that women become more susceptible to assault when they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He defended his point in the email exchange—which was initiated on Sept. 12 by Staatsburg resident Robert Dorn—writing, “[T]o the extent a woman is thereby incapacitated, it should even be apparent to you that she is making herself susceptible to potential rapists.” Incoronato apologized for his remarks after they were condemned by Legislature Chairman Dale Borchert (D-Lagrange) (Poughkeepsie Journal, “Legislature may consider censure after Incoronato’s sexual assault remarks,” 09.15.17).

The City of Poughkeepsie announced the start of a federally funded parking study of the downtown area, to be conducted in conjunction with the Dutchess County Transportation Council. The effort will seek to ensure that the parking system is being managed effectively by assessing parking supply and demand and prioritizing improvements to parking facility operations and maintenance. The first step of public outreach is an online parking survey, which can

In our backyard...

Hudson River Housing, which has provided outreach services for homeless and at-risk Dutchess County residents since 1984, may lose its program serving homeless veteran families by the end of the month. This year, the program was denied the approximately $500,000 Support Services for Veteran Families grant, which has been its singular source of funding for its work

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

fairs answered questions next. “I really enjoy the strong sense of community that Vassar provides,” said Mitchell. He stressed that student affairs should address campus concerns on a broad yet personal level, reminding his constituents that politics is local.

After the first-year candidates, the vice-presidential candidates took the stage. Harmon ran against three other vice-presidential candidates: Pietro Geraci ’18, Bryan Fotino ’19 and Allison Breeze ’19. Harmon himself could not make it to Thursday evening’s session, as he was attending a military ceremony in Washington, D.C. He did, however, prepare responses in advance; those answers were read via a proxy Thursday night.

“Even though I am not physically there, my commitment to transparency, inclusivity and bettering our community—for us, by us—is still intact,” wrote Harmon.

The Miscellany News, while moderating the debate, inquired about the candidates’ concrete steps in realizing the VSA’s principles of accountability and transparency. Harmon’s response read as follows: “To its credit, the VSA is fulfilling its commitment to accountability and transparency this year. As vice president, I will continue to encourage the standards already in place.” Harmon also stressed the importance of student feedback.

“I would love to add more community conversations with students,” he remarked, emphasizing communication between students, administration and faculty.

The next question from The Miscellany News asked candidates what challenges they expected in executing their vice-presidential duties. “I see challenges of patience and time,” Harmon wrote.

“I hope to rely on my own accountability buddies: you all.” He revealed that communication and being with people is a priority for him. “Your voice is powerful, valuable, and needed and respected ... I believe in teamwork.”

Next were candidates’ closing statements, in which Harmon began with praise of VSA President Anish Kanoria ’18: “Everyone knows me as a fan of Anish, because of his consistent passion to make lives better. I learned a lot about the things I am passionate about in my first year in Cushing House [when Kanoria served as house president].” Next, Harmon reflected on his passion for people. “Most people do not know that I am an introvert and shy. But people give me their energy so often that I lose track of my insecurities. I love people, I really do.” Harmon touched also on the importance of voting, adding that he is indebted to the Vassar community.

Candidates then responded to a few questions from constituents in the audience before ending the session for the night.

Students voted for their peer representatives from Friday until Sunday afternoon, when voting closed.

be found on the City of Poughkeepsie website (City of Poughkeepsie, “City of Poughkeepsie Announces Start of Parking Study, Seeks Public Input,” 09.14.17).

Keeping up with 2020 hopefuls...

On Sept. 16, California lawmakers voted to move the state’s 2020 presidential primary up to March in order to exert greater influence on the nomination; the proposed date places the primary right after those of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. If approved

by Governor Jerry Brown, the decision could aid presidential prospects Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, while endangering candidates who would have trouble raising enough funds to campaign in the state’s highly priced media markets (Politico, “California lawmakers greenlight early primary in 2020,” 09.16.17).

The annual legislative conference for the Congressional Black Caucus began on Sept.

20; Senators and 2020 Presidential prospects Harris and Cory Booker (D-NJ) are both CBC members (CNN, “#2020Vision: Going back to Cali; Biden blasts Trump; Harris backs Feinstein despite left’s grumbles,” 09.15.17).

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) revealed his single-payer healthcare bill with support from 16 Democratic co-sponsors. Senators who did not sign on included Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Chris Murphy (D-CT), who is working on an alternative healthcare bill (CNN, “#2020Vision: Going back to Cali; Biden blasts Trump; Harris backs Feinstein despite left’s grumbles,” 09.15.17).

NEWS

September 21, 2017

Page 5

Updates from the VSA Project Period Project Period is up and running thanks to the Committee of Health and Wellness! Dorms were stocked with supplies last Thursday and are expected to be continuously replenished about every two-and-a-half to three weeks! Decomposable products were ordered and will made available within three weeks as well.

What To Do? The “What To Do List” is almost complete for students to have access to answers about FAQs about residential life. It will include answers to questions spanning from where to go if you get sick to who to contact if your room needs a repair!

DACA Some students are contributing to a DACA letter, which is a formal letter to the college administration asking them if they would join the University of California lawsuit in opposition to ending DACA. We in the VSA would also like to have President Elizabeth Bradley use her position as president to encourage the other Seven Sisters to join in to the suit to gain power on this movement.

until Friday, Sept. 22, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Make sure to bring your ID. 3:00 p.m. Reception for all on the Library Lawn!

Tasty Tuesday is back!

Tasty Tuesday started on Tuesday, Sept. 19, in the College Center. You can use Arlington Bucks with any vendor who accepts VCash! Make sure to take a look if you missed it last time and scope out delicious treats!

Mental Health Fair Health and Wellness will be holding a Mental Health Fair on on Thursday, Dec. 7, from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. Activities for the fair are still being brainstormed, after which they will be reviewed by Metcalf for approval!

—Matea Mezic ’19, Board of Student Affairs Intern VSA Committee meeting times (at VSA office): Equity and Inclusion: Fridays 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.​ Orgs: Fridays 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Planning: Fridays 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Operations: Thursdays 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Finance: Wednesdays 3:00 p.m. onwards Health and Wellness: Mondays 3:30 to 4;30 p.m.

Programming: Saturdays 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.

Board of Residential Affairs: Sundays 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.

Courtesy of VSA

Inauguration The Presidential Inauguration is happening this weekend! Here is a brief version of the agenda: Saturday: 1:30 p.m. A Panel Discussion in Skinner on “Liberal Education in a Globalized World” moderated by Elizabeth Bradley and featuring many other speakers.

3:00 p.m. Discussion panel in Skinner on “Health and Health Care...Where are we Going?”

9:00 p.m. Celebration in the Deece! Come have fun, listen to music and eat food!

Sunday: 1:00 p.m. Inauguration in the Chapel! It will be livestreamed for those who cannot come. Tickets are required for the Ceremony and can be picked up at the Campus Activities Information Desk in Main Building

VSA Senate: Sundays 7:00 p.m. onwards​(New England 105) —Anish Kanoria ’18, VSA President

News Briefs Students present at math conference

O

n Saturday, Sept. 16, Smith College held its annual Women In Mathematics in New England conference, a one-day colloquium in mathematics and statistics. The conference features undergraduate, graduate and high-school students, as well as old and new professors and high-school teachers. Although the focus of the conference is on women, all are welcome.

(Smith College, “WIMIN17,” 9.10.2017) The conference featured two speakers: Elizabeth Stuart of Johns Hopkins University, who gave the Dorothy Wrinch Lecture in Biomathematics, and Ina Petkova of Dartmouth College, who gave the Alice Dickinson Lecture in Mathematics. (Smith College, “WIMIN17,” 9.10.2017).

Students were invited to give roughly 15-minute-long talks about the results of their summer research projects, including four Vassar students: Lia Bozzone ’20, Serenity Budd ’19, Rachel Matheson ’19 and Yanjie Zheng ’18, a later addition to the schedule.

Budd completed her research in a team at the Iowa Summer Institute in Biostatistics (ISIB) under the advisement of a faculty mentor. ISIB is funded by the National Heart and Blood Institute and hosted at the University of Iowa.

She spoke in a session on statistical modeling about the effect of interhealth care facility sharing networks on Clostridium difficile infection rates.

“Presenting my summer research to a group of undergraduates, graduates and professors at WIMIN was an amazing opportunity,” stated Budd. “I loved taking my summer experience and sharing it with other like-minded students and professionals. The most rewarding part was that after my presentation, a professional statistician came up to me and expressed that he was impressed with my work and presentation.

We continued to have a conversation about my project and statistics in general. I am so thankful to have had this opportunity to attend and present at WIMIN.” Bozzone did a pREU (pre-Research Experi-

ences for Undergraduates) program at Clemson University in coding theory, number theory and cryptography. She spoke in a session on computer science. Her speech, titled “Error-correcting Capabilities of Various Algebraic Geometric Codes,” discussed distributive storage (storing information in different places on a computer) and how if too many people try to access the same information at once, it may make it so no one is able to.

“The conference was a really great experience, especially since this was my first time giving a talk,” stated Bozzone. “It was also nice discussing research and interests with students and professors with other universities.”

Matheson spoke in a session on economic modeling. Her speech was titled “Transportation Networks Optimized for Various Income Groups and Their Impact on the Spread of Airborne Disease.”

All four students were supervised by Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Kariane Calta, who coordinated efforts to bring several students to the conference.

—Abby Tarwater, Guest Reporter North Korea launches another missile A day after North Korea threatened the United States and its closest Asian ally, Japan, to reduce them to “ashes and darkness,” it launched another ballistic missile on Friday, Sept. 15, flying over Japan. Similar to the latest incident prior to this one, the missile was fired from a close proximity to Pyongyang and flew over the Japanese island Hokkaido. However, this time around, the missile flew higher and further than Hwasong 14, the most recent missile that was fired late last month (Reuters, “North Korea threatens to ‘sink’ Japan, reduce U.S. to ‘ashes and darkness,’” 09.14.2017).

The missile was launched a little before 7:00 a.m., reaching a height of 770 kilometers and traveling a distance of 3700 kilometers before crashing into the sea 2000 kilometers away from Hokkaido. The launch was more powerful

than North Korea’s previous missile, fired on Aug. 28, which was able to reach a height of only 550 kilometers and a distance of 2700 kilometers (The Telegraph, “North Korea fires second missile over Japan as US tells China and Russia to take ‘direct action,’” 09.15.2017).

According to its reach, this missile could have hit the American territory Guam (The Telegraph, “North Korea fires second missile over Japan as US tells China and Russia to take ‘direct action,’” 09.15.2017) However, due to the course of its flight, the U.S. military command confirmed that neither the security of the local military base nor that of the mainland U.S. had been compromised. The government in Tokyo also confirmed that there were no dangerous pieces falling off of the missile that could have caused serious harm to airplanes and ships under its trajectory.

The Japanese once again had to hide in shelters after the city of Kamasi’s alarm went off and the authorities urged residents to run to shelters or solidly built buildings. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga issued a statement saying that the continuous provocation of North Korea is unacceptable. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis responded as well, saying he was outraged that the missile “drove millions of Japanese into the duck and cover” (Reuters, “North Korea Launch Put Millions in Japan Into ‘Duck and Cover’: Mattis,” 09.14.2017). However, after the missile ended its 19-minute flight in the water, the Japanese island calmly resumed its day, as if nothing had happened.

Even the financial markets of the region have already gotten accustomed to North Korean missiles and nuclear tests. Although Thursday’s indexes in the South Korean, Japanese and American capital markets fell after satellite images revealed an increase in activity on Mount Mantap, on which North Koreans are carrying out nuclear tests, Friday’s impact on shares, bonds and Japanese yen was very slight. While the financial markets do not generally do well during outbursts such as the one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, they have become common enough that they do not affect the level of

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

investor optimism too much (Financial Times, “Asia markets shrug off latest North Korea missile launch,” 09.14.2017).

While everything is going on as usual on the Korean Peninsula itself, anxiety can be felt at the UN Headquarters in New York, where the Security Council met Friday afternoon. They condemned the “highly provocative” missile launch and demanded that North Korea prove its commitment to the denuclearizing process.

The UN has already imposed sanctions on Pyongyang, establishing a ban on North Korea’s textile exports and capping its imports of crude oil (The Washington Post, “The Latest: UN Security council condemns North Korea’s test,” 09.15.2017).

North Korea’s latest missile launch promptly triggered angry responses from Tokyo and Seoul, while U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that new sanctions should be imposed and that previously imposed UN sanctions presented just the foundations for the future actions. He continued, “China supplies North Korea with most of its oil and Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labor.” The Secretary of State made it clear that now it is up to the two veto members of the Security Council to decide how they want to influence the regime of North Korea. In his words, both countries must show by direct action that they will not tolerate such provocation (The New York Times, “China, Russia Must Take Direct Action Against North Korea: Tillerson,” 09.14.2017).

According to David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists, the new launch raises new concerns, as it proves that North Korea can reach Guam. However, it is unclear whether the rockets were carrying cargo, which significantly affects their reach. Analysts agree that with the new missile tests Pyongyang is testing the trajectories of its missiles, although it is currently not expressly targeting U.S. territory as it initially threatened (Los Angeles Times, “UN condemns North Korea’s ‘highly provocative’ missile test,” (09.17.2017).

—Marusa Rus, Guest Reporter

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September 21, 2017

Vassar Student Musicians Union bands artists together Andrea Yang guest reporter

V

Courtesy of Vanessa Achoy

assar Student Musicians Union (StuMu), formerly separate from Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) Student Music, is an organization that orchestrates events for student performers and provides a platform showcasing musical talents. Student Music has officially seceded from ViCE after their rebranding effort last semester.

Co-leader of Vassar Student Musicians Union Nicole Lipman ’19 spoke about her responsibility as the communications chair in an email: “I’m the point contact-person for the org: I send emails, manage our social media accounts and help organize our meetings and events. I’m also a regular performer at StuMu showcases throughout the year.”

Lipman continued, “In the past, StuMu has chiefly organized performance opportunities for student musicians on campus—we’ve put on open mics and band showcases, and we’ve collaborated with other orgs to help student performers get gigs at various campus events.”

This year, StuMu is planning on implementing many changes. As Lipman explained, “[We] want to expand the org’s purpose to include serving as a real ‘union’ for student musicians on campus (hence the name change).”

She continued, “A big goal of ours is to make the Student Music community on campus more accessible in every way. The practice room is a big part of this—if we can secure that space, that’ll mean that every musician on campus can have access to a practice space with gear, regardless of what they personally own.” In addition, StuMu will be holding workshops on how to run sound and how to screenprint band t-shirts among other things.

Co-leader of StuMu Vanessa Achoy ’19 discussed via email her involvement with a student band: “Formerly known as Lizard Pile, we’re now rebranding into Midway. Our members at the moment are guitarist Jack Fischer ’18, drummer Jack Yaworsky ’18, guitarist Maya Morrison

’21 and bassist Ella Johnson ’21.

“Along with the new name, we’re moving towards a bit of a different sound than we had in the past—more serious pop-punk music. Jack Fischer is the main songwriter, but typically we’ll all meet for a session, listen to what’s been written, and then everyone bounces around ideas and changes until we’ve perfected it.”

Midway finds both on- and off-campus opportunities to perform. Achoy shared, “Last semester we had our first show at Ferry House which was super fun to play. We also had gigs at Darkside Records and My Place Pizza.”

With the support of the Musicians Union, students often find themselves readily bonding over a mutual passion for music creation. Several sophomores—Joseph Abriatis, Yase Smallens and Yoav Yaron [Disclaimer: Yaron is the Design Editor for The Miscellany News]—recently formed a band named “Bengal Newpaw.” They meet regularly in the basement of Raymond to learn and practice songs together.

The band focuses on original music, experimenting with different musical genres like surf and indie/rock and with punk and synth pop influences. Singer, guitarist and songwriter of the band Joe Abriatis ’20 remarked, “We have covered songs, but very early on, we’ve decided that we wanted to write our own. As of right now, it became an outlet for my songwriting. Everyone in the band is super acceptive of what I write.”

Reflecting on participation in band shows and StuMu activities, he shared, “Last year I played in a couple of shows, either by myself or in collaboration with Tieren Costello [’20].”

Abriatis acknowledged the importance of the band’s name to its identity. He explained the thought and creativity that went into their album cover design: “It’s a collage that I made, and I Photoshopped the band name over [the] top of it. The name was inspired by this font that was part of the logo of a railway that my friend’s great-great-grandfather worked for. I loved the font, so I came up with the name to match it. ‘Bengal’ comes from the Bengal region

Vanessa Achoy ’19 and her band, Midway (formerly known as Lizard Pile) pose for an official band photo. As some members have graduated, the new members are not pictured. and ‘Newpaw’ is a made-up word that worked with the font and sounded nice.”

Abriatis also noted the difficulties that StuMu faces. The organization’s deficient budget limits its capacity to purchase equipment, which proves to be a decisive factor for student musicians. For instance, he mentioned the only set of drums on campus and its inconvenience for practice purposes.

In spite of these obstacles, Student Music is working diligently on fostering a more inclusive environment. Achoy stated, “We’re hoping to create a music scene that’s open, inviting and not super intimidating for new bands, especially since in my personal experience the music scene has been at times toxic and competitive.

Some of these efforts include running workshops for feminine-identifying individuals since the music scene is also rather masculine here.”

Lipman echoed the concerns, “We also want to make student music meetings and showcases welcoming and supportive for all musicians on campus, especially queer folks, female/femme/ non-binary students and musicians of marginalized identities. As a female student musician, I’ve experienced how daunting StuMu showcases can be when it’s just cis-straight-white dudes running sound and dominating the lineup.”

She went on, saying, “We hope that holding workshops in addition to performance events will democratize the tools of Student Music and help foster a greater sense of a ‘music community’ on campus, key components of improving the accessibility of the music scene this year.”

Abriatis agreed, adding, “I think it would be a great idea to have student bands be openers for the ViCE Weekly guest performers. It’s a great way for bands to get exposure and gives them a cool experience playing with experienced musicians.”

Achoy expressed that StuMu hopes to spur interest and increase attendance. She voiced, “Our goal this year is to have student music be a big deal on campus that everyone knows about and everyone feels comfortable enough to be a part of. It seems as though we might even be getting there already, considering we’ve had 1520 people show up to our most recent meetings, which is a huge uptick in interest!”

StuMu is hosting their first showcase of the year on Sept. 28 in the Mug. The show welcomes all types of music and gives priority to performers with fewer opportunities playing at Vassar. If you would like to sign up and perform, Student Music invites you to email nilipman[a]vassar. edu.

Professor discusses his notions about human emotions PSYCHOLOGY continued from page 1 aspect of teaching you’ve experienced thus far?

RC: It’s amazing to be in a place where I get

to interact with so many smart, promising, sharp people and have incredibly interesting classes to teach. I have great colleagues, it’s just a wonderful place. Vassar’s so different from so many places.

I was never prepared to be a teacher, since graduate school never teaches you anything about teaching. The main focus was research, so that was what I was trained in, so I didn’t really feel prepared to be a teacher.

When I came to Vassar, I was thrown into the classroom right away, and that wasn’t something I was ready for. Now I’m friends with about five members of that first research methods class, so something turned out well. One of the wonderful things about Vassar is that students keep in touch with you after you’ve left.

The Misc: Was there a formative experience that inspired you to the field of teaching? What was it that moved you into the specific subset of social psychology you now do the majority of your research and teaching in?

RC: I went to graduate school because, as an

undergraduate, I had a couple of great teachers and a couple of really, really bad teachers.

These two [really good teachers I had] were in psychology and were my mentors. I was an undergraduate and took their classes because they invited me to.

In grad school I did research with pigeons and humans and their reactions; I became interested in fear because my mother, while I was an undergraduate, got into a car accident and developed a phobia of seat belts. From that moment to her death she never wore her seatbelt, and it intrigued me that an emotion could be so strong—a conditioning process could be so strong—it would change a person’s life forever.

I wanted to go to graduate school because I loved the research process and loved what I was studying. I went to research with someone studying fear but realized he was interested in many things apart from fear, so I ended up adopting his work. My mentor challenged me to read some of Darwin’s work in relation to my re-

search, and from that point on I started studying crying and other emotions like anger.

I recognized at this time that emotions occur always in the context of other people; emotions are about relationships. That got me studying the social psychology literature, and when I was hired at Vassar, I saw a social psychologist was needed. In graduate school, I had studied personality psychology, but the year I graduated, the personality and social psychology departments merged. So I was able to call myself a social psychologist.

Five or six years ago, the department needed someone to teach Individual Differences in Personality. I had never taught this at Vassar, but I loved teaching it so much I teach it every year now. Some students marvel at how different I am when I’m teaching different courses, and a couple years ago I had a student in two of my classes ask me how I was able to make a 180-degree turn when I’m teaching different subjects.

My response was that it’s all a matter of perspective.

The Misc: I understand you’re on sabbatical right now. What is it you’re doing with this time, or what is it you plan on doing in the meantime before you return to teaching next semester?

RC: I felt I needed to take this sabbatical

now; teaching’s very intense. I throw myself into the classroom [...] You’re very vulnerable in the classroom as a teacher because you open yourself up—it’s very personal for me. It can be emotionally exhausting, and I needed to have a little more time to myself as I’ve gotten older. I needed more time to write up my research, since I’m working on four projects at once right now.

Just this month I agreed to help someone write a paper for publication.

Sabbaticals are really wonderful because you get time to think, which is often something that is hard to do. When you’re teaching all the time and grading papers and going to committee meetings, it takes it all out of you. On sabbatical you can think through all the problems you’re working on. I’ve made so much progress.

Over the summer I spent almost all my working time on a presentation with Clara Ashley, [which] I presented at the International Society

for Research in Emotion’s (IRSE) Conference this past July.

That’s another thing that’s really important to professors. When I got to the conference, the morning it started, I met all these people from all over the world that I know from past conferences. I sent a message to Kathy [my wife] about how “I was in my tribe again.” It was a very energizing experience; it’s really fun to bring a student or someone whom you’ve mentored because it shows what scientists do, this massive part of life.

For right now, I’m involved with four major projects. I’m writing an article on the presentation I gave this summer at IRSE about the methodology involved in studying tears. My students and I (in 1999) started developing [a] method [for] erasing tears from faces in Photoshop, and we wanted to study how aware people are when looking at faces with tears on them.

I’m looking at and working on how works in psychology become part of the canon in psychology.

I wrote a book in 1996 called “The Science of Emotion,” and I’m working now on updating that.

I’m also writing a book on emotions and human nature. Specifically, it’s the process of trying to figure out what human nature means. I was deep into literature regarding early human origins, and I wondered what life was like during the Pleistocene. I was an anthropologist in my undergraduate studies, and this is kind of like going home.

The Misc: Are you working with students now as well? What is it like balancing personal research with students’ research and responding to the needs of the Vassar community?

RC: I’m working with students right now from

last year who are doing projects. I have four or five students who are working with me.

Sabbaticals are sometimes busier than teaching, but you still have time to sit [and] immerse yourself in a project.

The Misc: Is there a favorite class or discipline you enjoy teaching the most? Have you ever been challenged to teach a class in combination with subjects not familiar to you?

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

RC: I love teaching all my courses, though some courses stand out as very special. I love teaching Research Methods [in Social Psychology] because that prepares students to be scientists and includes what science is all about. I treat my students as colleagues in that class and do research with them.

One of [the] special things about Vassar over the years is [the] opportunity to teach with people in other disciplines. I can participate in the American Studies Program, and I’m one of the founders of the Environmental Studies Program here. Teaching with people outside of my typical discipline is so mind-expanding and such an amazing experience.

The Misc: What’s the most challenging aspect of teaching?

RC: I connect pretty well with students, but

sometimes it is a challenge because I’m a naturally reticent person. Part of it is just keeping up; there’s so much in the discipline you want to convey to students and the knowledge base grows every year, it’s an issue of trying to fit things in.

You try something different if goals in [the] classroom [are] not met. I always make this joke when something atypical comes up: “Alright class, it’s time for some creative pedagogy.”

At that point, I like to break students up into groups, have students do a debate, something like that. You really just have to keep trying. After a while, you take it as a given that things in class won’t go your way.

The Misc: Has there been a particular observation you’ve noticed in your years of teaching you wouldn’t expect?

RC: I think that happens relatively often.

Students will ask questions I’ve never thought about before. I’ve taught classes at other places, filling in for people or helping people out, so I don’t know if it’s peculiar to Vassar, but Vassar students are just great at coming up with amazing insights. It’s great to be challenged in that way.

I can’t imagine having any other job than being professor at Vassar. It’s the best job anyone can have—it’s the best job I’ve ever had, but it’s also the only job I’ve ever had.

September 21, 2017

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You will ‘fall’ for this unconventional autumn dessert Aidan Zola

Guest Colunmist

A

Courtesy of Aidan Zola

s I set out for a jog last Monday morning, I really can’t say I had any intention of ending up flat on the ground somewhere in the middle of the Vassar Farm wilderness. But alas, as I felt my feet wipe out from beneath me and my headphones go flying into the weeds, I had a sort of revelation. Pie. To be fair, the thought of pie was also accompanied by a silent shriek and flailing arms, but nothing had ever seemed so clear to me.

I had slipped on none other than an Eastern black walnut the size of a golf ball, the kind my great-grandmother would collect from her backyard to make her famous fall dessert.

As I lay sprawled on the ground, I recalled the comforting scent that would waft from her Pennsylvania kitchen in the autumn months.

She was a master of foraging for raw fruits and nuts, and each season brought a new ingredient to the table—from dandelion salad in the spring to wild blackberry preserves at the end of summer.

She taught me that food doesn’t just magically appear in the grocery store. I learned about the actual growth and patience that goes into growing and finding your own produce.

You can imagine the utter excitement I would feel as a kid when the wild blackberries in her backyard were finally ripe enough to pick after months of waiting. The fat berries became all the more precious and the reward even sweeter when I had to crawl under thorny branches to collect them. A few states and years removed from those fond memories, as I looked around at the walnuts scattered around me, I felt the same thrill.

After picking myself up and glancing around to see if anyone had possibly seen the wild spectacle that had just occurred, I headed back to the dorms with a new purpose—I would figure out how to make my great-grandma’s black walnut pie.

With some research, I found a recipe similar

enough to my childhood favorite. So, if you love the outdoors and baking and find that you’re a relatively patient person, I have a great suggestion for a new fall activity for you.

Black walnuts are relatively easy to find in this area, especially on the Vassar Farm. As I learned, they sometimes like to hide under fallen leaves and other debris, so be sure to take it slow when you’re foraging. They can be various sizes and colors, but the best time to forage is when they’re green, and you can leave a slight indent by pressing the fruit with your thumb.

Once you’ve collected enough green walnuts, remove the outer hull. You can use one of multiple methods—running them over with a car, stomping them with your feet or cutting all the way around the hull with a sharp knife and twisting off the outer layer. While you’re doing this, make sure to wear gloves of some sort, as the hulls can easily stain clothing and skin.

After you’ve removed the outer hull, wash the nuts clean and set them to dry. The nuts can either dry by roasting in the oven for 12 hours at 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or by sitting in the sun for the same period of time. Once the walnuts are dry, lay them out evenly or hang them in a mesh bag for two to six weeks (the longer the better).

To actually harvest the meat from the nutshell, place the cured walnut on hard surface and strike it with a hammer with force. Pry the meat from the shell with pliers or another sharp tool.

Finally, after weeks of waiting, it’s time to make the pie! Collect your ingredients and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Tuck the piecrust into a pan, molding the edges two to four inches above the rim to prevent the walnut mixture from bubbling over.

Combine the ingredients in the order listed, but avoid over-beating. Pour the mixture into the unbaked crust, bake for around an hour until the center is no longer loose and go out for a jog. When you come back, enjoy your foraged black walnut pie!

Ingredients 3 eggs, lightly beaten 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 cup maple syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup dark brown sugar 1.5 to 2 cups black walnuts 2 tablespoons butter, melted 9-inch pie crust

Org of the Week raises awareness of human trafficking Nicholas Garcia guest reporter

A

will] work mainly to facilitate the connection between Vassar and the play, ‘Broken Dolls.’”

Roebuck added, “We will be doing workshops with drama students on social justice and how to create a play that is oriented towards social justice.” The Underground will also create posters and pamphlets to use for the play and use these tools as an educational resource for students.

Through organizing events such as these, The Underground hopes to interest the Vassar student body in spreading the importance of bringing up human trafficking in everyday conversation. In addition to raising awareness, The Underground is partnering with The Vassar Haiti Project to develop a curriculum for a local secondary school in Chermaitre, Haiti, combatting trafficking and teaching children about it.

Roebuck, who will be directing the Anti-Restavek Haitian Curriculum, noted, “Haiti is the seventh most trafficked country in the world in that so many children are falling into trafficking, especially into a form called restavek, in which parents think they are sending their child to a better home, but children are ultimately a domestic slave, receiving no form of education.”

The project has already been approved by partners in Haiti, and The Underground hopes that it can expand this curriculum outwards so that other countries can utilize this resource to the best of their abilities to inform their own young people about this issue.

In keeping up with their commitment to teaching students about the dangers and realities of human trafficking, Watson and Roebuck are both in the process of proposing a Vassar course on human trafficking. Watson commented on the idea, stating, “Vassar is one of the best places to implement this course because we offer a liberal arts education and people can get multi-disciplines in a variety of subjects.”

So far, Watson and Roebuck have a dean and professor on board and are hoping to find

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Courtesy of Grace Roebuck

s defined by the United Nations, “[Human trafficking is the] recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

The Underground at Vassar College is a student organization dedicated to spreading awareness of the 30 million victims who are subjected to human trafficking across the country and globe. The group, like many Vassar student organizations with a passion for activism, inspires students through initiatives to help eradicate and raise awareness for human trafficking. All interested students are welcome to join The Underground.

Grace Roebuck ’20 and Jamelia Watson ’20 co-founded The Underground when the two sent in the same application and proposal to the Vassar Student Association (VSA).

According to Roebuck, both of them wanted to use art as a means of effecting social change, specifically on the issue of human trafficking.

The duo, along with their executive board, composed of Josh Carreras ’20, Jaewon Kang ’20, Jillian Hornbeck ’20, Victoria Wilk ’20 and Sonali Shah ’20, all came together to execute the Red Sand Project last April. Students may remember the striking veins of red sand filling cracks in the sidewalks around campus, which served as a means to recognize human trafficking as one of the most overlooked issues across the world.

Later this year, The Underground will be planning another Red Sand Project at Vassar.

In the upcoming months, The Underground will be hosting the Red Sand Gala in the Villard Room. As Roebuck described it, “People can have intellectual dialogue on the issue [human trafficking] and talk about all of its facets.”

Roebuck continued, “We [will] collaborate with different orgs around campus and decorate Vassar with red sand on the sidewalks.”

The gala will feature an interactive presentation on human trafficking, and each guest will receive a bag of red sand to take home after enjoying a fair-trade dinner and dessert.

This semester, The Underground hopes to meet monthly, focusing on the six initiatives that Watson and Roebuck have planned for the upcoming year. The first initiative that The Underground has planned is coming this fall, titled Art for Abolitionist.

Watson elaborated: “Artists from the Vassar and surrounding communities will be able to submit work that is centered around human trafficking, which will then be displayed for a silent auction, signifying the importance of consumer and producer, victim and oppressor and the historic symbolism of the American slave trade.” All proceeds will go towards nonprofit organizations that focus their attention on human trafficking.

In addition to the Art for Abolitionist auction, The Underground hopes to collaborate with the Frederick Douglass Family Initiative (FDFI) book drive; Watson described its mission, stating, “[Their goal is to] advance freedom through knowledge and strategic action.”

With this collaboration in mind, The Underground will play an important part with the organization.

As Watson commented, “[The Underground will] distribute 1000 books written and bought at cost from the Frederick Douglas Foundation to people at high risk for trafficking—particularly those coming out of the prisons, youths and females.” These books will be distributed across secondary schools in Arlington, Poughkeepsie and other Dutchess County communities.

While taking advantage of Vassar’s theatre program, The Underground will also be taking part in a play with the Mirage Theatre Company from beyond the Vassar community. Roebuck commented, “[The Underground

Co-founders of The Underground Jamelia Watson ’20 and Grace Roebuck ’20 pose for a picture during the Red Sand project that took place in April 2017. more professors and advisors to get on board with the proposal, as well as compiling relevant texts for the course.

As the semester gets off to a start, The Underground is excited and prepared for the initiatives that they will be taking on in the upcoming months. Watson noted, “We are really excited to get started and see how far we can go to keep going until there is no ceiling to stop our potential.”

As Roebuck stated, “[The Underground gives students the chance to] put their imprint on the campus and a chance to educate themselves on human trafficking so that they can educate other people.” She continued, “The people are my favorite part, and the shared passions.”

Over the past semester, The Underground has made a tremendous impact on Vassar to create dialogue on issues such as human trafficking. Speaking about what she loves about The Underground, Watson concluded, “The best thing about this organization is that other people have the same interests, ideals and values about what is wrong in the world and how we can fix it.”

FEATURES

Page 8

September 21, 2017

Escape the Vassar strife and discover the hiking life Talya Phelps

Guest Reporter

H

iking tends to be a divisive issue: For some, it’s (literally) a breath of fresh air after a week of being cooped up indoors studying; for others, it’s a torturous slog punctuated by blisters, mosquito bites and other unforeseen dangers lurking in the forest. Luckily for those in the former group, the Hudson Valley is replete with hikes scenic and exhilarating enough to convert even the most ardent critic of the outdoors. Vassar Outing Club Co-President Charles Hooghkirk ’19 recommended a few choice spots, some ideal for a spontaneous afternoon picnic and some better suited to a full-day expedition. This is a small sampling of all the gorgeous hikes in the region, so stay tuned for a follow-up feature.

1. Alander Mountain

is steep, it takes less than an hour to journey from the base of the hike to the fire tower, and the time spent admiring the view will give you a chance to catch your breath. The trail is a loop without much possibility of getting lost, but make sure not to miss the final right turn off the old woods road (Hike the Hudson Valley, “Stissing Mountain”).

3. Nuclear Lake

In 1972, a chemical explosion blew out two windows in the nuclear research lab that sat by the shore of this lake, spreading bomb-grade plutonium over the water and surrounding woods and giving the location its rather alarming name. Have no fear: The area was cleaned and declared safe long ago, and it now offers a serene four-mile hike that includes sections of the Appalachian Trail.

From the Blue Trail at the beginning, switch to the white-blazed Appalachian to head towards the lake and turn right onto the yellow-blazed Nuclear Lake Loop. On the far side of the lake, you can take a four-mile detour up the Appalachian to the Cat Rocks overlook, or you can turn left to head back towards your car or, better yet, take in a lakeside picnic (“Hike the Hudson Valley, “Nuclear Lake”).

19. A ruby, sapphire, or emerald 20. Ottoman honorific 22. Layer below enamel 23. Leeches or weakens “Meddling Kids” 25. Wonder Woman's Gadot by ACROSS A spider’s egg storage 26. 47.

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Like, Zoinks, a mystery 60. Enter; go ____ solver!

44. Rip paper Northwest Florida or Oklahoma 62. 5.Adam's counterpart 46. A group of mountains 6. White clerical vestment 63. Two lines of Shakespeare 7. Struggle or adversity Answers The Hills Are Alive to last week’s puzzle 8. For each person or dappled P L U G 65. Tortoiseshell L A B O R E 9. Powerball or Mega Millions (abbr.)

L O G E 67. Sing A R E A F L U S "mmmmm" S C A R E A W A Y F L O S S 10. Make up on the spot Records Act (abbr.)

A U C T O R I A L K I L N S 68. Open 11. Itsy-bitsy teeny-____ R A N T E A B E T I D E 69. After summers, before winters 12. Hogs or boars F A R E N T I T Y A G E S 13. A thought S T E R E E M I T K E N S 70. A dwarf's drink 18. Something unique and frozen A D U M B R A T E 71. A joke or prank 21. Sheltered from the wind S I L L H E L P S E L A N bypass S E W M E R E D A N I E L 72. Intestinal 24. Unethical factory

10. Make up on the spot 11. Itsy-bitsy teeny-____ 12. Hogs or boars 13. A thought Benjamin Costa 18. Something unique and frozen The feast of St. Martin 21.34.Sheltered from the wind 36. Weasley, Swanson, Stoppable, or Burgundy 24. Unethical factory 37. Omelet ingredient 28.38.Limb attached to a shoulder Hair colorant 40.

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Ben Costa

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Divisible by two 52. Get on one’s bad side; run 58. Brick, scarlet, blood, and 53. Ostrich feather crimson 56. Glasses-losing mystery solver 57. Divisible by two 61.

German Von Bismarck 58. Brick, scarlet, blood, and crimson 64. Not it!

61. German Von Bismarck 66.

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Courtesy of Talya Phelps

If you’re hungry for a steep scramble and not alarmed by the possibility of rattlesnakes, Alander Mountain is the place for you. Located just across the border in the Taconic Mountains of Mount Washington, MA, this hike offers several ways to make it to the summit, which rises 2,234 feet above sea level. To try out a four-and-a-half-mile loop 4. Storm King Mountain route, start on the blue-blazed Alander Brook Trail Located across the river in Cornwall-on-Hudand then switch to the white-blazed South Taconic son, NY, Storm King is a moderate two-and-aKids Trail, which opens onto several hundred yardsMeddling of half-mile loop trail with a few steep sections and trail with views on all sides. Continuing on, if you a plethora of picture-perfect overlooks. While turn right at a sign for “MASS. PARK HQ ,” you the name may be familiar because of the Storm will come across a small cabin, which you could King Art Center, the sculpture park (which is also2. ___-dee-dah ACROSS use for a power nap. To hop on the Alander Loop worth a visit) is about a 10-minute drive from the 1. Necklace Trail from this spot, leave the cabin and retrace hike and the fastener surrounding Storm King State Park.3. Tropical water buffalo your steps uphill until you see a sign with arrows Begin on the designated Orange Trail and ascend4. Like, Zoinks, a mystery solver!

6. Sound of discovery pointing right; turn left instead and follow the blue toward Butter Hill; you will pass the ruins of a order blazes to a left onto the South Taconic Trail. 9.

Fi- ___ smalland building.

Turn right when the Orange Trail5. Northwest Florida or Oklahoma nally, turn right onto the red-blazed Robert Brook ends and continue onto the trail marked with blue 12. Flesh-eating fish 6. White clerical vestment Trail to begin the last leg of the journey (Hike the and yellow blazes, which opens out onto views 14. of One circleBay, ofBannerman’s the trackCastle, the New-7. Struggle or adversity Hudson Valley, “Alander Mountain”).

Newburgh 2. Stissing Mountain burgh-Beacon Bridge, the Catskills and the Hud15. Beethoven's was to Joy 8. For each person If you’re not quite up for the lengthy Alander son Highlands. When the Blue/Yellow Trail takes hike but still crave a bird’s-eye view of the Hudson sharp left, switch to the White Trail to finish out9. Powerball or Mega Millions 16. a"Gem State" resident Valley, make tracks to Stissing Mountain and its your journey (Hike the Hudson Valley, “Storm 17. Toothbrush fiber (abbr.) eponymous 90-foot-tall fire tower. While the climb King Mountain”).

The Miscellany Crossword

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September 21, 2017

OPINIONS

Page 9

The Miscellany News Staff Editorial

‘Medicare for All’ Act necessitates public mobilization

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he health care debate has gone back several presidencies, with party leaders unwavering in their opinions on the issue. Supported by 17 of his colleagues (as of print), Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been the leading voice for a proposal of a single-payer system of health care that would ensure that every American would be given the coverage they need. Sanders’ proposal involves placing every American under one insurance system paid for by the federal government, rather than leaving them to obtain coverage through their employer or, more problematic still, to locate their own individual plan from any of the multitudes currently available on the private market. This would, hopefully, reduce the immense sums of money insurance companies are prone to charge for health care necessities, and cut out the middlemen involved in the industry.

Sanders’ proposed “Medicare for All” Act would expand Medicare coverage, with the federal government creating a budget allocated for covering health services. It would also cover reproductive and maternity health, both of which are often not included in insurance companies’ plans. Likewise, the government would issue a standardized list of drugs covered under insurance, with the Secretary of Health and Human Services discussing appropriate prices with drug companies; doctors would be reimbursed by the government rather than through private insurance companies; and providers would have to apply to be under the program each year (New York Times, “Bernie Sanders: Why We Need Medicare for All,” 09.13.17).

Sanders has proposed several strategies to pay for this program, including higher taxes on the top one percent of earners. However, the cost will be immense, and potential limits may emerge. Republicans, who remain steadfast in their long-held goal of repealing the Affordable

Care Act, are in control of both the House and the Senate, and the likelihood that this bill will pass in the near future is slim. The United States already spends over 17 percent of its GDP on health care, which is, in spite of its arguably inadequate health outcomes, more than any other country (CNBC, “Trump Calls Single-Payer a Curse but it Makes Health Care Better,” 09.15.17).

No matter the cost, however, this country must head toward a single-payer system to ensure universal access to basic health care.

It bears mentioning that in this fight, Democrats are not proposing a radical idea. In fact, most Western countries have had universal health care for decades. According to the World Health Organization, the United States has the 37th best health care system in the world, ranked between Costa Rica and Slovenia. While we struggle with a health care crisis, other countries such as France, Japan and Singapore—all of which have some form of a single-payer system—are thriving, and all the while their citizens pay less than Americans do (World Health Organization, “Measuring Overall Health System Performance for 191 Countries,” 2013).

While Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act isn’t perfect given its complex and unsatisfactory combination of private and government health insurance, it established a precedent that set us on course to acknowledge the right of every American to have access to health care.

With insurance prices steadily rising along with our national debt, a shift in health care policy is essential to keeping the United States and its citizens afloat. Although often overlooked, this discussion is critical, and the idea that some people deserve health care more than others is absurd. Health care should be a universal right for every individual, and this country—and both parties—must collaborate in solving this crisis.

This past July, the GOP’s “repeal and replace” mentality toward Obamacare gained an alarm-

ing amount of ground in the Republican-controlled Congress. “Trumpcare” seemed like a grim inevitability. The Better Care Reconciliation Act, proposed earlier this year, was an affront to the American people, and would have left many millions without coverage, slashed Medicaid, drained special education funds and priced individuals out of insurance for outrageously defined “pre-existing conditions.”

In their most successful and dangerous bid to replace Obamacare, the GOP came under heavy fire for drafting their legislation behind closed doors, foregoing Congressional hearings and limiting the press’ ability to request details on the bill. The Los Angeles Times, one of countless publications that spoke out against the bill, wrote, “The GOP’s secretive process marks a sharp departure from the traditional way the Senate has developed large, complex bills, which are often debated for years with multiple committee hearings to ensure broad input and careful analysis” (“Republican secrecy faces mounting criticism as GOP senators work behind closed doors to replace Obamacare,” 06.16.17). In retaliation, citizens organized en masse to publicly voice their opposition, staging rallies and calling their senators. This outcry led Republican dissenters Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and, eventually, John McCain to cast the decisive votes against the bill in response to their constituents.

Public opinion clearly makes an impact, a critical fact to keep in mind as Republican senators continue pushing misguided and wildly dangerous health care plans whose offenses barely differ from those of their predecessors (NY Times, “New Trumpcare Deserves a Quick Death,” 09.13.17). Now more than ever, we must lift our voices in defense of fundamental rights.

The “Medicare for All” Act is an opportunity to flip the script, to push for the idealistic progress that once buoyed support for Bernie Sanders on

Vassar’s campus and across the country during the 2016 primaries. Those ideals may feel less attainable in the current political climate, but they are far from dead. Now is not the time for silence, especially in light of the bill’s sponsorship

by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, all of whom are rumored to be hopefuls in the 2020 presidential election. A progressive backlash with universal health care at its ideological core could be the first step towards victory and justice after or even during the Trump presidency.

“Trumpcare” falls directly in line with our worst fears for this country. Limiting access to life-saving medications and treatment is economically unreasonable at best, and at worst a slippery slope towards eugenics tactics. It is a direct attack on the poor, the disabled and, according to Trumpcare’s infamous list of pre-existing conditions, every transgender person in America. While it is vital that opposition to this unconscionable movement remains mobilized, we must proactively push for the equitable America we continue to envision. It is still possible, as long as we continue to fight for it.

The public can and must do far more than just react to Trump’s America. We as a campus must speak out for progress, not only as individuals, but also as an institution. It is Vassar’s job to ensure that all of its students are safe and supported, and advocating for the “Medicare for All” Act is one important step in fulfilling this obligation. We at The Miscellany News support Sanders’ proposed plan in the strongest possible terms and call on the Vassar College administration to publicly join us in the fight for universal health coverage for every member of our community and our country.

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

Democrats, continuing to resist, must work with Trump Jesser Horowitz Columnist

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he past few weeks have been somewhat confusing for me as a longtime critic of Donald Trump. In the early days of September, Trump announced a decision to terminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which would end protections for nearly 800,000 children who were brought to the United States by their parents. For many Americans, including myself, this was Trump at peak heartlessness. In ending this program, he is trusting Congress, a body that was unable to repeal Obamacare despite clearly having the votes to do so, to ensure that these individuals are protected. This allows him to pin the blame for future deportations on Congress for failing to act.

Yet, since then, something surprising has happened: Trump has started working together with Democrats. Eschewing the Republican Party and the voter base that got him elected, Trump has started meeting with both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to work towards protecting the status of the undocumented immigrants formerly protected under DACA. There are, of course, reasons to be wary of such a deal. As The Washington Post pointed out, “in exchange for permanent protections for dreamers,” Trump could gain “broad new powers and resources to enforce immigration laws that go beyond adding more agents or technology along the border. The cost of a permanent Dream Act...could be a new and emboldened deportation force across the nation that undermines civil liberties and terrorizes law-abiding immigrants” (The Washington Post, “With little to lose, Democrats cautiously share the driver’s seat with Trump”, 9.16.2017).

Yet, the left would be unwise to ignore the advantages of such a deal. By codifying these protections into law, the Democrats allow these immigrants to live safely in the knowledge that they can remain in this country and that they do not have to fear that another president could change that.

If the Democrats could achieve a plan that protects undocumented immigrants without

empowering United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), this could be a massive improvement in the lives of immigrants in this country.

Schumer and Pelosi should continue to work with the president on these issues as long as they’re able. No one is served by digging our heels into the ground and, regardless of Trump’s motivations, protecting the status of 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came here as children could only be construed as good for America.

I fear, however, that this cooperation may send an unfortunate message to those on the left about Donald Trump. If such a deal were to go through, it is troublingly possible that the effort to investigate Trump’s suspicious ties with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, and the attempts to hold him accountable for it, may fizzle out.

To a certain extent, this does show the advantages of holding out with Trump for four years instead of trying to impeach him. His willingness to buck his own party and abandon the right could be an advantage. Recently, he’s acted more like an independent than a traditional Republican. For the Democrats, that’s very good news. It means that he’s not beholden to the Republican Party leadership and is more likely to make deals if he feels that will make him more popular.

On the other hand, Mike Pence is a much less appealing option. He’s a longtime Republican whose ideas are deeply ingrained in conservative ideology. Unlike Donald Trump, who’s willing to say whatever he needs to get ahead, Mike Pence truly believes everything he says.

When Pence says he opposes marriage equality, he means it. When Pence says he opposes abortion, he means it. When Pence advocates hardline Christian fundamentalist conservatism, he means every word he says. And, more importantly, he actually cares about these issues. He is much less likely than Trump to meet with Democratic Party leadership simply because he’s frustrated with the Republicans. He’s much less likely than Trump to change his mind on any substantive party issue. And he is much less

likely to screw up to the extent that Trump has in terms of dealing with people from his own party.

There is a tempting case, therefore, for working with Trump and not seeking to remove him prematurely from office. The Democrats could work with Trump on certain issues, while at the same time broadly attacking his efforts at every opportunity and focus their energy on the 2018 midterms and the 2020 presidential election. A reasonable person could accept this logic.

But we shouldn’t. The Democrats must do what we can to pursue the Russia investigation and, if the evidence suggests it’s an appropriate course of action, remove Donald Trump from office. Doing otherwise could be disastrous for the party, for the American left and for the country as a whole.

Firstly, the Democrats have a moral obligation to the American people to pursue the Russia investigation and impeach President Trump if sufficient evidence emerges to warrant it. This is a nation of laws, and it is the responsibility of our elected representatives to uphold these laws. Therefore, if Donald Trump is found to have been in violation of the law during the 2016 election, which there already is plenty of evidence to suggest, then it is the obligation of the Democrats in Congress to do everything in their power to remove him from office. To do otherwise is cynical, unethical and would betray the trust of their constituents and the American people.

Frankly, as far as I’m concerned, Donald Trump should already be impeached considering the myriad of sexual assault allegations against him. Why there isn’t an investigation regarding these accusations is beyond me.

But let’s assume that no one in Washington ever does the right thing for the right reason, which isn’t much of a stretch. Let’s assume the Democrats are motivated purely by what is in their party’s best interest. Even then it does not make logical sense for the Democratic Party to allow Trump to finish his term.

Too many on the left have taken it for granted that, because of the president’s low approval ratings, he will most certainly fail to be re-elect-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ed in 2020. Considering the results of the 2016 election, I can’t imagine why the left would take anything for granted anymore. The Democrats should not operate under the assumption that no matter what they do, Trump will lose; with this mentality, they are setting themselves up for failure as well.

Donald Trump, as awful a person as he may be, is a good salesman. He excels at campaigning. My dislike of him doesn’t change his success as a public speaker; if nothing else, he is excellent at exciting a crowd. He could very possibly win re-election the same way he won last time— by winning over the crowd from the soapbox.

There is no reason to believe that Mike Pence would fare nearly as well. Pence, unlike Trump, is a boring person. He’s not charismatic, he doesn’t excite people, he has no way of distinguishing himself from every other politician out there. Had he not been chosen to be vice president, his political career would have been all but dead.

Mike Pence could never win a national election because he has all of the baggage of Donald Trump and none of the charm. Democrats would still be motivated to vote against him, but no one would be motivated to vote for him.

No Republican would be excited about voting for him. Only 26 percent of likely voters even believe that he would make a better president than Donald Trump (Rasmussen Reports, “Voters Don’t See Pence As A Trump Replacement,” 07.18.2017). This doesn’t even take into account the fact that if Pence was the president, he’d be dealing with all the issues that would stem from the fallout of his predecessor leaving office prematurely. He’d be in the same position that Gerald Ford was in, except he’d be associated with a president who was never popular to begin with.

The Democrats have good reason to hope that Pence is president in time for the next election.

The Democrats need to try and work with the new administration whenever there is an opportunity, but they cannot lose sight of the ultimate goal. The Democratic Party ought to work to remove Donald Trump from office both because he violated the laws of this country and because it’s good politics.

OPINIONS

Page 10

September 21, 2017

Experiments on mice should not be generalized to humans Steven Park Columnist

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et’s do a little experiment. Read the following headlines from these recently published scientific articles and try to find the one thing that all of them have in common: “The Pancreas Provides a Potential Drug Candidate for Brain Disease” (ScienceDaily, 08.25.2017), “Chimera Viruses Can Help the Fight Against Lymphomas” (Medical Xpress, 09.15.2017), “What Was Once Considered Cell Waste Could Now Treat Pancreatic Cancer” (Futurism, 09.17.2017), “Cellular Tango: Immune and Nerve Cells Work Together to Fight Gut Infections” (ScienceDaily, 09.07.2017), “Scientists Reveal Fire Ant Venom Could be Used as a Skin Treatment,” (Inverse, 09.15.2017). The answer? All of the listed studies are based on the results of experiments conducted on mice. And that is a huge problem.

Using lab mice to understand how the human body works is nothing new. This practice officially started in 1902 when French biologist Lucien Cuénot used mice to research the nature of genes (AnimalResearch.info, “Mice & Genetics”). Inspired by the works of Gregor Mendel, the father of modern genetics, Cuénot wanted to see if Mendel’s laws of inheritance applied to more than just sweet peas. Beforehand, Mendelian genetics only applied to tested plants, so the Cuénot discovery that animals follow the laws of inheritance sent shockwaves across the scientific community.

Not long after, more scientists began to use mice to explore the field of genetics, establishing mating programs that created inbred strains of mice and leading efforts to fully map the mouse genome (National Institute of Health, “Background on the History of the Mouse,” 12.2002). As decades went by, lab mice skyrocketed in popularity and ended up contributing to numerous award-winning discoveries. Out of the 106 times the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded so far, 42 of them involved research on mice or rats in some major way. These studies include the discovery

of penicillin, the yellow fever vaccine, the polio vaccine and the HIV-AIDS virus (The Guardian, “Mice Losing Their Allure as Experimental Subjects to Study Human Disease,” 03.20.2015).

It is easy to see how the lab mice became such an iconic symbol of biomedical research. Xavier Montagutelli, the head of the animal facilities at Institut Pasteur in Paris, explains, “[Mice] are small and inexpensive, they reproduce quickly... and they age quickly too, making them ideal for studying age-related complaints. We know how to freeze their embryos, sperm and ova. We now know how to manipulate their genes...They are remarkable tools” (The Guardian).

Unfortunately, the acceptance of mice as the ideal test subject has led to the rigid assumption that they are some kind of prototypical “blank slate” mammals rather than a species with its own unique features and body mechanisms. As a result, the field of biomedicine has built an entire infrastructure of knowledge around these rodents and has become dependent on their bodily responses to measure clinical success.

But they simply don’t work as models of human disease, much less for human drug treatment.

For instance, scientists have used mice to find treatments for tuberculosis for decades. However, mice respond in a drastically different manner in comparison to humans (The Guardian).

For one thing, mice don’t cough and aren’t contagious when they have the disease. In addition, the human body triggers an immune response when the bacteria responsible for the disease is detected. Mice don’t have this immune response—they get the disease and die. So it’s no surprise that scientists have found an antibiotic called Linezolid that works spectacularly well on human patients but not on mice.

The opposite can happen as well. In the late 1950s, German doctors prescribed Thaliomide under the drug name Contergan to pregnant women to alleviate morning sickness. Since the drug was successful in mice, they assumed that the same would happen in humans. Instead, Contergan led to countless birth defects and

only 40 percent of the children survived (The Guardian). And this isn’t just a fluke, either. Dr. Jean-Marc Cavaillon, head of the cytokines and inflammation unit at Institut Pasteur, explained how researchers have discovered a monoclonal antibody that treats inflammatory conditions in mice but would send human patients to intensive care. “Mice are great for basic research, for understanding overall patterns and grasping mechanisms. But once you start modelling a human disease to find the right treatment, you run up against major differences between us and mice,” he said (The Guardian).

As a result, drug treatments that were successfully tested in mice have a high chance of failure when tested on humans. According to a 2014 study on animal models, researchers have found that, on average, less than eight percent of experimental cancer treatments have successfully transitioned from animal testing to clinical cancer trials (NCBI, “Lost in Translation: Animal Models and Clinical Trials in Cancer Treatment,” 01.15.2014). Similarly, researchers trying to find a cure for ALS have submitted about a dozen experimental treatments for clinical testing over the past decade after finding success in mice. But when tested on humans, all but one of them failed and the one that didn’t only showed marginal benefits (Nature, Preclinical Research: Make Mouse Studies Work,” 03.26.2014).

It also doesn’t help that these clinical trials are ridiculously expensive—we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars and years’ worth of time. In October 2014, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report about how the clinical trials of three tuberculosis treatments ended in complete failure, despite promising results on lab mice (The Guardian). According to the head researcher, the clinical trials alone cost more than $200 million.

But that raises the question: Can we find a suitable replacement for the lab mouse? Unfortunately, no one can say for sure. It’s not like replacing mice with a different animal will solve everything, since animal testing as a whole is

still rather dubious. So far, there are only two major possible alternatives, computer models and in vitro cell culture, neither of which offer much of a substitute since they don’t provide a lot of information regarding the complex interactions of living systems.

In addition, the push to stop the use of lab mice has been very controversial within the scientific community, especially for those who would rather turn a blind eye to the issue. Simply put, lab mice are incredibly cheap, convenient and easy to handle. The initiative would also place a large bulk of biomedical research into jeopardy and cast a shadow of doubt across countless pre-existing studies on disease treatment. Scientists today still continue to experiment on mice and spend millions of dollars on clinical trials, only to wonder why their product didn’t work. But what other choice do they have?

A survey of the National Library of Medicine’s database showed that experiments conducted on mice and rats make up almost half of the 20 million academic citations across the field of biomedicine (Slate, “The Mouse Trap: Can One Lab Animal Cure Every Disease?,” 11.16.2011). Despite all the problems they have caused, lab mice remain deeply entrenched in the field of medical research. Clearly, this isn’t a problem that can be solved in a single day.

But what’s even worse is that many news publications are making it seem as if these experimental treatments have worked on human patients and are bound to hit the shelves in the near future. Remember those headlines mentioned in the beginning of this article? All those articles were based on mouse studies and yet none of them mentioned the word “mice” in the headline. It’s sloppy journalism like this that helps fuel people’s doubt and confusion toward the sciences. In the end, one must always remain diligent when reading about the latest discoveries and findings. Science is already a difficult field to grasp, and diving into the literature blindly won’t make things any easier in the long run.

Clinton rightly criticizes election coverage in latest book Andrew Solender Columnist

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hile this was not the inspiration for this article, I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the recent news coverage of Hillary Clinton’s new book “What Happened,” presented as an autopsy of the 2016 election and a look at the forces that elevated Donald Trump to the White House. That is because this coverage has not only been flawed and biased, but has served the interests of ratings and self-preservation rather than the dissemination of information. As Hillary Clinton began making public statements about the causes of the surprising outcome of the 2016 election, reputable publications like Vanity Fair and The Washington Post ran headlines like “Can Hillary Clinton Please Go Quietly Into the Night?” (Vanity Fair, 06.09.2017) and “Hillary Clinton Still Doesn’t Get ‘What Happened’ in the 2016 Election” (Washington Post, 09.13.2017). They are not alone; almost every major publication has blasted Clinton for speaking out about the election outcome.

While these articles played to the sentiment of many—Clinton has an approval rating lower than Trump’s with a vast majority of voters believing her time in the political spotlight has come to an end—ultimately, ratings are not their primary motivation. Rather, publications wish to shield themselves from the reality that Hillary Clinton wishes to hammer into the American conscience; the cowardice and flawed reporting of the media played as large a role in Donald Trump’s upset victory as Hillary Clinton’s electoral strategy, if not more so.

To be clear, this column is not meant to be a defense of Hillary Clinton as a candidate or as a person. I too believe that Hillary Clinton should step up and begin to answer the curtain call and make way for a new generation of leaders in American politics. I think, in many ways, she is already doing this. That said, there are many issues with the way Hillary Clinton’s post-election statements and book are being reported that must be addressed if our media and political institutions wish to truly be prepared to handle what the Trump era throws at them.

For one thing, it is very normal for major

political candidates—yes, even losing ones—to write books following elections. Mitt Romney did it with “No Apology.” Bob Dole did it with “Great Political Wit: Laughing (Almost) All the Way to the White House.” Hell, Al Gore wrote one—“An Inconvenient Truth”—that was adapted into an Oscar-winning documentary! None of them received criticism nearly as harsh, either before or after their releases, that Hillary Clinton’s book has.

Why is this? There is no doubt that the sexism that is ubiquitous in our society plays a role in the unusually poorly reception of Clinton’s account. Ultimately, however, the reason is that the media is unable to face the effects of its many missteps in the 2016 election—missteps that Hillary Clinton strives to point out.

This is indicative of a much larger problem: The media has trouble adapting to new realities and putting aside things like ratings, website hits and easy shots for the greater good. I wish to use this column to discuss issues that the current state of news coverage has created within our national political discourse, as well as their deficits in the coverage of the 2016 election which ultimately contributed to Donald Trump’s rise to power.

First, there is the issue of an increasing amount of bias and partisanship in the news.

As the United States grows more partisan, the demand for more partisan and biased news coverage grows, too. For a time, many outlets strove to resist the urge to become more openly partisan in their coverage. Then came outlets like Fox News and MSNBC, which unabashedly and freely editorialized their presentation of the news. As these cable news stations quickly garnered huge viewership numbers, wildly biased publications like Drudge Report and Breitbart began to take in of millions of right-wing and far-right news consumers. Soon, most major publications had at least a little partisan twinge in everything they wrote.

So how did this radicalization of the news media impact society? Well, besides the lack of political nuance helping to facilitate more straight-ticket voters, leading to a more polarized electorate and Congress, it also pushed

people into the arms of fake news. What purveyors of fake news saw in the American electorate was a group that was so saturated with editorial think pieces and biased news reporting that it could be easily manipulated into believing mistruths if they supported each individual’s own opinions. Thus, fake news was born.

Millions of people began to share disreputable and false news articles online in order to spread their ideologies, and many unsuspecting readers believed the sensationalist headlines to be true. Factuality is no longer the priority for the majority of consumers. Only the angle matters.

Yet, beyond just creating a more polarized society vulnerable to manipulation by liars and frauds, the media also helped to more directly influence the election, so that voting tipped in favor of Donald Trump. This was perhaps unintentional, for the most part. I’m not just talking about Fox News and Breitbart either, but most publications ranging from the CNN to the Wall Street Journal. Everyone is, to some extent, to blame.

In her book, Hillary Clinton writes that journalists “can’t bear to face their own role in helping elect Trump” (FiveThirtyEight, “Is Hillary Clinton Right About Why She Lost?” 09.13.2017).

She explains that they helped Trump in a wide variety of ways, “from providing him free airtime to giving my emails three times more coverage than all the issues affecting people’s lives combined” (FiveThirtyEight). This should be a glaring revelation into the motivations of the media to criticize Hillary Clinton’s book. Political guruand FiveThirtyEight editor-in-chief Nate Silver put it best when he succinctly asserted that “the media doesn’t want to debate the reasons for Clinton losing because it potentially makes them look really bad” (FiveThirtyEight).

To understand the scale of the media’s impact on the election, look no further than the ubiquitous coverage of the dreaded email scandal.

Without a doubt, the email issue was a huge misstep by Hillary Clinton. Her failure to adhere to government protocol is one of several unfortunate examples of her arrogance getting in the way of her judgement. That said, there is no evidence that anything illegal or illicit was done

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

using her private email. Despite this, it received Watergate-level coverage.

According to a study done by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, between May 1, 2015, and Nov. 7, 2016, there were approximately 70,000 sentences written in the news media about Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. To put that in context, the next most covered political topic was Trump’s statements on immigration, a topic which was written about in just 40,000 sentences. In terms of policy, Clinton received the most coverage on her proposals for creating jobs, which got just 15,000 sentences of coverage. That is nearly twice as much writing devoted to a Clinton scandal as any issue, and nearly five times as much writing than that devoted to Clinton’s issue statements. In the study, the attached graph further demonstrates the disparity between coverage of Clinton scandals and her issue statements, as well as between Trump scandals. In the graph, we see a clear bias towards covering Hillary Clinton’s flaws, while covering Donald Trump’s “substance” (Berkman Klein Center, “Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election,” 08.16.2017).

Why did news organizations make this colossal mistake? One word: ratings. Covering hot topics such as Clinton scandals and Trump issue statements garnered the most viewership, the most social media shares and the most money in their pockets. Some, like CNN’s CEO Jeff Zucker, took this a step further. Zucker stated, “The idea that politics is sport is undeniable, and we understood that and approached it that way” (New York Times, “CNN Had a Problem.

Donald Trump Solved It,” 04.04.2017). He and his contemporaries pitted political pundits against each other in ridiculously lowbrow roundtable discussions, had his reporters talking nonstop about the most attention-grabbing stories of the day—as opposed to ones we needed to know—and treated politics like it was a game.

But the winner of this game wasn’t the Republican Party and the loser the Democratic Party.

The winners were media CEOs like Jeff Zucker, and the losers were the American people.

September 21, 2017

OPINIONS

Bitcoin exemplifies ideal online community Griffin Berlstein Guest Columnist

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itcoin—a popular cryptocurrency—has something of a bad reputation. Anonymous and digital, it is a popular choice for illicit exchanges, particularly those operating out of the dark web, such as the infamous Silk Road. But Bitcoin is not inherently unsavory, just anonymous, and that anonymity is a major draw. Regardless of your personal take on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, the design of Bitcoin suggests a methodology to create communities rather than services—a design pattern that perhaps ought to be considered by other corners of the internet.

More than most services, Bitcoin relies on trust. The users must trust the algorithm underlying Bitcoin, blockchain, to have any faith in the value of the currency, but there also needs to be an aspect of trust within the community. A paper by Sas and Khairuddin surveyed the Bitcoin community—and it is indeed a community—about why they used Bitcoin and how they related to it. In all their interviews the topic of trust kept reemerging. People expressed a certain trust in blockchain, either a faith in this particular use of it or just the algorithm in general.

People expressed trust in the creator of Bitcoin and the vendors that use it. But interestingly, people most frequently reported putting trust in particular users of Bitcoin, individuals seen as knowledgeable and influential by the community itself.

The idea of placing trust in an algorithm is an important one, and one designers should internalize, but it can be somewhat abstract. When we say we trust something, it usually means that we expect a certain range of behavior. This is often rather general, e.g. I trust that my family and friends are not trying to hurt me. But matters are complicated by the mutability of algorithmic services despite their typically narrow set of objectives; that is to say, algorithms are typically useful for specific tasks where they constantly iterate on and tweak parameters to

optimize performance. The algorithms we interact with regularly—Google, Facebook, email filters—are not static. Their workings change daily, sometimes slightly—like altering a filter on your Facebook feed—and sometimes dramatically—such as the roll out of new features like facial recognition.

Since we cannot place our trust in the ever-changing codebase of an algorithm, we must instead trust its behavior. We then believe that it will continue to function in the way that it has, or that it will improve features without bringing harm to the user experience. This type of trust is very akin to faith; we users can do very little to affect change on the algorithms we use.

The only situations where we have bargaining power is in our collective outrage, which seldom does more than erase a few poorly thought out design choices and cause a series of lukewarm apologies.

Bitcoin does something different, though: In its crowdsourced nature it has effectively created a community of users with a sense of agency.

From a design perspective, this is both completely obvious and yet strikingly elegant, but it does require something that most algorithms are unwilling to have: transparency.

Bitcoin can create this sense of trust because, while the individuals using Bitcoin are anonymous, blockchain, the ledger of all Bitcoin transactions, is completely visible. The visibility of this ledger is how Bitcoin functions, as users donate their computational resources to assess the validity of transactions and ensure that money is not being stolen or duplicated through poor record-keeping. In exchange for donating their resources, the user can be awarded some number of Bitcoins that are given out at decreasing rates. This process is known as mining, and the miners who are the most dedicated are often viewed as pillars of the community.

This works because blockchain is transparent by nature, but in many cases large algorithms are almost inexplicable. No single person will be able to tell you how all of Google works. This

is in part because of intellectual property rights, but mostly because no single person will understand it completely. Google operates at such a large scale and iterates so rapidly that the algorithm never stays static enough for an individual to grasp the workings of it.

Most of us do not feel any particular attachment to Google, though we all use their products regularly. Similarly, despite their size, there is not a community of users built around the use of Google services. Consider Facebook: It is built around creating a sense of community, but that community is built entirely out of existing social networks. As much as Facebook likes to portray itself as connecting people, it mostly connects people who were already connected.

Similarly, I doubt any of us feel particular loyalty toward Facebook; it just happens to be the most convenient.

This model cannot possibly work for Bitcoin, nor should it. There is far too much competition—DogeCoin, PotCoin, Etherium, to name a few. Burger King has even created WhopperCoin. It is not just a good thing that Bitcoin operates on trust, it is essential. Transactions depend on the trust between people, the belief that individuals will render services promised based on goods received. Trust is essential in all our commerce, as we all use fiat currencies that are not inherently valuable—though we simply do not have time to dive down the rabbit hole of what gives objects value in the first place.

But from a design perspective, this sense of community and trust should be more present.

People certainly form communities online— places like Reddit are a good example—but that is because community-building and interpersonal interaction is specifically fostered by these services. What would the internet be like if everyone had a stake in the various services they used, if we found kindred spirits based on browser clients? It could be an absolute nightmare, but maybe, just maybe, it would bring a few of us out of seclusion. And if nothing else, it would be a thoroughly interesting ride.

Nuclearization beneficial for South Korea Roger Han

Guest Columnist

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he United States and South Korea have always kept great economic and political relationships. In 2016, trade total between the two countries neared $145 billion and South Korea ranked as the seventh largest importer of U.S. goods (USTR, “Korea”). Whether due to ideological or purely strategic reasons, or both, South Korea has always been a friend of the United States.

With the current North Korean crisis, as history may come to remember it, South Korea’s presence to the United States is as critical as ever.

Within weeks, North Korea’s nuclear missile range has increased up to 3,700 km, far enough to hit Guam (JTBC, “North Korean missile range reaches 3,700km... possibilities of Guam attack drills,” 09.15.2017). North Korea has also developed a hydrogen bomb with destructive power greater than that of two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined (CNN, “North Korea says it can make new bomb in volume,” 09.03.2017).

Donald Trump reacted to North Korea’s missile tests by saying that the United States will respond with “fire and fury” to further North Korean threats (Guardian, “Trump threatens North Korea with ‘fire and fury’ — video,” 08.08.2017).

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea remarked that dialogue with North Korea is “impossible” and that sanctions will pressure North Korea into seeking dialogue (JTBC, “President Moon: ‘conversation impossible in this situation... North Korea can be made unrecoverable,’” 09.15.2017).

But let’s face it: these responses are not threatening to North Korea; they won’t change North Korean opinion regarding the development of its nuclear weapons. At the moment, there seems to be nothing that the U.S. could do to influence North Korean behavior.

A seemingly effective approach would be to economically pressure North Korea. However, North Korea’s near-exclusive economic relationship with China means that the U.S. has to go through a powerful yet reluctant country. North Korea is a crucial buffer for China against U.S. troops in South Korea (CFR, “The China-North

Korea Relationship,” 07.05.2017).

Russia would not help either. Putin opposed the idea of an oil embargo on North Korea, stating that there is a lack of “political and diplomatic tools” (New York Times, “Putin Rejects cutting Off Oil to North Korea,” 09.06.2017). Without Chinese or Russian support to implement diplomatic measures, the United States must turn to South Korea. North Korea has no soft power; nuclear weapons are its sole threat, which can be nullified by South Korean nuclearization.

Of course, South Korean nuclearization is controversial and risky, and there are indeed blatant negatives to it. Looking from a strictly South Korean economic point of view, nuclearization wouldn’t make sense as it would require significant government funding and discourage investment into South Korean markets (Huffington Post Korea, “Explaining why it’s ridiculous to voice for South Korean nuclearization,” 02.15.2016). From the international perspective, further nuclearization of East Asia would mean greater likelihood of another global war.

Unsurprisingly, no political leader seems to support the idea of South Korean nuclearization.

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis opposed establishment of tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea (Huffington Post Korea, “Mattis, U.S. Secretary of Defense, opposes re-establishment of tactical nuclear weapon in the Korean peninsula,” 09.15.2017). Even President Moon has opposed nuclearization (Huffington Post Korea, “Everything that President Moon revealed in an interview with CNN,” 09.14.2017).

But South Korea’s nuclear weapon would be different from that of North Korea. South Korea is not a threat to the U.S. nor to the world (Monthly Chosun, “What would happen if South Korea nuclearizes?” April.2013); its nuclear weapon would be a direct deterrent against North Korea, acting as a much more powerful tool than the empty political statements that have had little success in preventing North Korea’s missile tests.

Yes, South Korean nuclearization would benefit the United States. It would mean less burden for U.S. troops in South Korea. (NK News, “Reason why South Korea should nuclearize,” 10.25.2016). In addition, nuclearization makes

South Korea the first and foremost threat to North Korea, reducing the need for North Korea to delegate excessive funds into developing long-distance missiles aimed at the United States (NK News, “Reason why South Korea should nuclearize,” 10.25.2016).

Although South Korea is a part of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which prevents member nations from developing nuclear weapons, Article 10 of the treaty states that member nations may drop out of the treaty under emergency circumstances in which national security is threatened (JTBC, “Is South Korean ‘nuclearization’ really possible?”

02.15.2016).

It’s hard to see how South Korea’s national security is not under threat; North Korea, if they decide so, can destroy Seoul without much resistance, which would do nothing to help U.S. efforts against North Korea either. Hence, South Korean nuclearization not only meets legal legitimacy, but also makes tactical sense. The United States allowed India to nuclearize in a collective effort to counter China, so why can’t the same apply to the current situation, which is arguably more urgent? (JTBC, “Is South Korean ‘nuclearization’ really possible?” 02.15.2016) Another opposing view would say that South Korean nuclearization would lead to further nuclearization in Asia, starting with Japan. This is unlikely, because the Japanese public, having been victims of atomic bombs, is generally opposed to the development of nuclear weapons (Al Jazeera, “A nuclear arms race in East Asia?”

06.03.2016).

As a South Korean citizen, I support nuclearization primarily because it brings heightened security to South Korea. Yet, as I have been arguing throughout this article, nuclearization is beneficial not only for South Korea, but also for the United States, and perhaps for the entire world.

South Korean nuclearization would contribute to, rather than disrupt, the balance of power in East Asia. It would be a logical exception to global peacekeeping norms, given South Korea’s proximity to North Korea and the current crisis—one that could very much replicate World War I if North Korea is left alone.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 11

Word on the street Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

“Fred. He was good at complimenting...

He stayed in a bubble I made with my imaginary wand.”

— Lindsay Craig ’20

“No, I didn’t have an imagination” — Penelope Mort Ranta ’20

“No...I’m the youngest of six, so the notion of having an imaginary friend is kind of weird to me” — Romario Ortiz ’21

“I had a litany of imaginary friends when I was a youngin... there were many characters” — Zoe Seay ’21

“It was a schnauzer [named] Schnauzee. We had a good thing going for a couple years.

It was lit” — Abram Gregory ’21

“His name was ‘Ain’t.’ I told [my parents] he died of cancer...my mom is a radiologist” ­­— Sam Greenwald ’19

Leah Cates, Humor & Satire Yesenia Garcia, Humor & Satire Olivia Feltus, Photographer

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 12

September 21, 2017

Breaking News From the desk of Leah Cates and Yesenia Garcia, Humor & Satire Editors Three first-years found wandering around Blodgett Hall after getting lost en route to Central Receiving Every course under open Professing love: student curriculum about capitalism ponders hugging professors Blair Webber

Capitalism Major

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iversity of thought and multidisciplinary approaches to various topics are cornerstones of a Vassar education. Since the school requires students to take at least one-fourth of their classes outside of their concentrations, finding courses of interest that reach beyond their declared majors can be difficult for many students.

Junior Nick Liebniz, after carefully choosing classes from the several categories listed in Vassar’s course catalogue (Arts, Foreign Languages and Literatures, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences), realized that perhaps the letter of the law was easier to follow than the spirit.

“I didn’t mean for this to happen. I was just picking courses that sounded interesting and would technically fulfill the breadth part of the graduation requirement, but I’m not sure they’ve thought the graduation requirement through totally. Every single one of my classes is about capitalism,” said Liebniz.

Looking back on his previous courses, Liebniz realized this problem may run deeper than he originally thought.

“Every class I’ve taken for the past three years has been about capitalism. My freshman writing seminar was about the influence of capitalism on the science fiction genre, my foreign language proficiency course was about capitalist values in German children’s stories and my quantitative analysis course was just an introduction to principles of economics, but you could tell my professor was a big fan of the free market.’”

Liebniz continued, “My major is a self-designed concentration about the intersection of capitalism and environmental studies. So, like, I was wondering: does this actually fulfill the graduation requirement? Will I be allowed to graduate?” said Liebniz.

Panicked that he would have to spend an extra year, or four, attempting to take classes unrelated to capitalism and the inequality created by the competitive economic system, the junior set up a meeting with his advisor, Mike D. Hathaway.

Hathaway commented, “He has nothing to worry about. We’ve handled this kind of thing before. The only thing he’s really missing is a natural sciences course, since his major is independent. He has a lot of options for classes he can take.”

He continued, “For example, there’s a cool astronomy course about corporations in space

exploration, and a great physics course about electricity and electrical resource distribution in a low-regulation political climate. He could even take a computer science class about how to commodify programming skills in a market that is currently expanding. He’s got a lot of options.

I don’t know what he’s so worried about,” said Hathaway.

This answer seemed unsatisfactory to Liebniz, who stated, “All those classes are still about capitalism! Even my social activities are capitalism based. I should never have joined The Young Economists org,” said Liebniz.

This junior isn’t alone in his single-issue course load, but he does seem to be the only one at all concerned. One sophomore enjoys only taking multidisciplinary classes about gender in early 20th-century France.

“I was so happy when I found a biology class about dog breeds popular among pre-World War I French aristocrat’s mistresses. I now have a great understanding of the genetics behind which dog breeds were seen as status symbols. I know the relationship between recessive genes and coat glossiness, which was a huge deciding factor in which dogs were raised by which mistress,” said the sophomore.

A senior also weighed in with her opinions about single-subject heavy schedules: “I refuse to take a class that requires me to take a final or write an essay. I will only take project-based classes that accept short documentary films as cumulative projects,” she said.

A second meeting with his advisor proved a little more fruitful for Liebniz.

“Eventually my advisor said if I really wanted to take a class unrelated to my area of study, she’d help me find one. So, we read the entire course catalogue, took out the classes that had prereqs and any English Department classes ’cause I hate overanalyzing poetry, you know?

Why do you have to know what it means? Just, like, enjoy it. Anyway, I was pretty happy with what we figured out.”

Liebniz explained, “We found a class on elements of utopian community political structure found in modern-day European socialist governments, so now I have a class about socialism. It feels good to have a little variety in my schedule, shake things up a little, get me out of my comfort zone.”

More recently, Liebniz was overheard saying he was considering dropping his class about socialism because he already understood the benefits of socialist systems over capitalist systems, and the coursework just felt redundant.

Ivanna Guerra

President of Vassar Professors Fan Club

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he saying goes that you should never meet your heroes. I would agree with this saying if my heroes happened to be multi-million-dollar artists, but they are not. My heroes are my professors, the people who never cease to amaze me in class.My dumbfounded look is not because I am confused about the material. It’s because I am awed by their carefully orchestrated performances.

I cannot help but be mesmerized by the way they pace the room as they elaborately explain the course material. If I pay close enough attention, I can see the intelligence seeping out of their pores, giving them a god-like glow.

These luminescent creatures that roam the campus have the power to make everything sound compelling. I sometimes feel that even if they were giving me instructions on how to make a sandwich, I would still stand up at the end of the class and give them a standing ovation (I swear that I don’t actually do this in classes, but in my head I’m throwing roses. Seriously. Keep reading for more outrageous forms of reverence.)

It is always thrilling to get an email from my professors. I think about every email as evidence that they acknowledge my existence.

Sure, everyone else in the class might get the same emails, but I like to pretend that when compiling the email list, the professor remembered that I am in their class. And if you have ever met your hero, you might know that getting acknowledged is a big step.

But how will I ever be able to show my professor how profoundly inspired I am by their work? Of course I could devote my time and effort to getting the best grade in the class, but so is everyone else (probably for some different, mundane reason, like their GPAs.) Or I could visit the professor’s office hours to get to know them, but is it weird if I start off the conversation by asking for a bunch of used tissues so I can build a shrine?

Perhaps at the end of the semester, I can gift the professor a travel mug stamped with “Best Professor,” but that won’t suffice either. It just doesn’t get the message across, and I think “OMG YOU’RE MY HERO. I LOVE YOU! I’LL NAME MY FIRST CHILD AFTER YOU” is too long to be on a travel mug. So, how can I let my professors know that they are downright inspirational?

Thankfully, Vassar makes all students fill out teacher evaluations at the end of every se-

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mester. Unfortunately, we usually do not have enough space to profess our love to our professors in these wide-ruled, eight by 11 inch pieces of paper that constrict what you can say. And I am guessing professors would like actual constructive criticism as opposed to a student’s mediocre version of one of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

Also, leaving a very thoughtful and ravishing 350-character review on RateMyProfessor does not guarantee that the beloved professor will actually read it.

You see, I have thought about this quite a lot, and I always end at the same conclusion. I really want a hug from my professors. Just one. That is it. Is that too much to ask? I think that with a good, tight hug I will at last be able to really tell them how much they mean to me. You know what I am talking about.

Just think about all those times you have visited their office hours in desperation, presenting questions that prove nearly impossible to answer. You probably spent hours trying to Google the answer, only to fail. But, just as you are about to pull out that last strand of hair left on your head, your professor explains it to you and all you want to do is hug them.

I mean, a hug, the universal sign of affection, would serve various purposes. First, it would confirm that my professors are real and not figments of my imagination. Second, a hug would be a very easy, nonverbal form of communication through which I would avoid embarrassing myself with words.

I can just imagine putting my arms around them and getting close enough to get a whiff of true genius. I imagine they smell like all things good–like peppermint, rain and soap. Maybe some of the residue of their golden glow would stick to me and with it I could achieve their level of brilliance.

Until the time comes when I get to hug all my heroes on this campus, I will continue to learn as much from my professors as possible. It’s the opportunity to see them every other day that gets me up every morning after spending an entire night finishing my readings.

I hope that everyone on this campus feels the same way about their professors. They are the best people I’ve had the privilege of meeting, and to all the first-years out there, go introduce yourself to your incredible professors during office hours!

To all my professors, past and current, if you are reading this, can you please pretend you didn’t? It might prevent any half-hug awkwardness in the future.

Tired of Po-town mosquitoes snacking on your blood?

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

HUMOR & SATIRE

September 21, 2017

Page 13

Grandma visits campus, unfazed by disheveled apartment Zander Bashaw

Amateur Tour Guide

I

amateur astrologists

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

Senior Zander Bashaw took his grandmother back to his unkempt apartment after giving her an amateur tour of Poughkeepsie, featuring average coffee and questionably factual information. while I finished up my week at Vassar, my Nana was hiking with a couple of her friends around Lake Como, just north of Milan and heading back west to the continental United States.

Hopefully that description is indicative of the active spirit of my grandmother. Even at her age, she is still exploring, shifting the definition of retirement from Jaguars and country clubs to hikes through northern Italy. Yes, she’s refined, but is still willing to hop on the gritty Metro North and come out to Poughkeepsie, which, it goes without saying, is a slight downgrade from Como.

Regardless of how down-to-earth she is, I wanted to spare her the “I might get murdered” vibe that comes with taking a taxi from the Poughkeepsie station to campus. Therefore, I borrowed a friend’s car and left the THs at the collegiate crack of dawn (9:30 a.m.) with the mist of the night before still covering the red Solo cups and Nattys from our neighbors’ rager.

The first part of our adventure involved a stop at Crafted Kup, a mediocre cappuccino and catching up on photos from Nana’s trip. In

a gallant gesture, I covered our coffee and food, which really was quite the wrong call for my financial situation.I digress. I still find it absolutely hilarious that though she can text and is fully literate in the fantasy football app for our family’s league, my grandmother still gets audibly frustrated when her phone is in portrait lock mode.

What followed next was a tour of our campus, which helped me realize two things: The first is why they put Families Weekend this early in the year. The campus shows really well in September, possessing that ephemeral verdant look the Northeast always has, soon to be laid to waste.

I won’t turn to a proverb from that HBO show everyone keeps crowing on about, but it must be said that winter is right around the corner.

The second thing I realized is that I know extremely little about the campus. Who was Maria Mitchell again? How the fuck do you pronounce Ely Hall? What even is political science? Independent of my ineptitudes, we had a fun time, both being weirded out by Vassar students and their fashion as the campus slowly woke up

HOROSCOPES

For a while now you’ve felt as if no one takes you seriously. Sure, you might be a stoner movie maker and award-winning actor, but you were also a professor at NYU, an Academy Award nominated person, and a painter. Keep on working on your book of poetry, Aries. You can do it all. We believe in you.

Now that your soccer career is over, you’ve been feeling a bit bored. You have a lot of security thanks to your bomb ass wife, but it’s time to explore your other passions. Retirement opens up so many doors. This route of publicly making fun of your children on social media seems promising.

Because many people do not supply you with the validation you need, you feel compelled to overcompensate. Yes, darling, you are a genius of our time.

Part of what makes you, well, you is that you understand your worth and let everyone know. Other people may not understand why a plain white t-shirt would sell for so much, but you do. Stick by that.

You’re on a role lately with expressing yourself, Cancer, showing people that you can do the impossible. Here’s your next mission: publicly denouncing Scientology. Honestly, it should have happened long ago. What’s taking you so long? Get off your high couch and do something good for once.

You’ve been on a path of self-discovery and soul searching, and you’ve realized why you’re unhappy.

Do something about it. Quit reality TV. Yes, you’re Kris’s favorite now that you’re worth more than Kim, but don’t let that pressure you into bad choices.

You’re in a relationship that seems to be going royally. But you’re facing a lot of pressure from the family about “maintaining family lines.” Remember to preserve your relationship. Keep moments that are for just you and not the cameras, and you’ll be able to keep the passion as fiery as your hair. Don’t get too caught up in titles.

Celebrity Edition: Put on your star-studded thinking cap and try to figure out to which VIP each horoscope is referring.

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

Stop being so fucking judgmental of people who eat spray cheese. Check your privileges. Stop mom-shaming. We don’t all have time to blog about fancy ass goat cheese. We know you were in “The Avengers.” But you were also in “Country Strong.”

You’ve been having a lot of fun on yachts packed with models lately. It’s great to have fun in the sun, but don’t forget your priorities. Maybe it’s time to make another environmentalist documentary. I know you finally got the recognition you’ve been craving for so long, but that’s no excuse for slacking.

You’ve gone through a lot of ups and downs with your public image. You had one of the greatest come-backs of all time, but even if the press hits you one more time, baby, personal relationships matter most, not your relationship with the press. Concentrate on your own health and personal relationships rather than your reputation in the press.

You’ve always been a natural leader, Capricorn, and no one has more poise and charisma than you. But just remember, dear, that even though you are a beautiful, wonderful, presidential role model with kickass biceps, you don’t need to be perfect all the time. Remember to relax with the fam.

You’ve been working very hard to establish your image as an individual and disassociate yourself from your old crew. Even though your solo career has been very successful, that may just be a sign of these current times, so don’t forget your homies.

Stay humble. You’re ego’s been getting a bit bigger ever since New York.

Pisces, you’re always who we want to turn to when time gets tough. We’ll never forget your iconic advice: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ ” Remember to be a helper.

In order of dates: James Franco, David Beckham, Kanye West, Tom Cruise, Kylie Jenner, Prince Harry, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leonardo Dicaprio, Britney Spears, Michelle Obama, Harry Styles, (Mister) Fred Rogers

Theresa Law and Natasha Sanchez

Courtesy of Flickr

am always a little bit confused by the timing of Families Weekend. After all, it was only three weekends ago that many families dropped off us ungrateful kids for another year in Po-town.

They helped us lift boxes containing the entire Harry Potter series and that Arctic Monkeys poster (you all know what I’m talking about) into sweltering, dusty dorm rooms. They were sweaty and proud and bored as they helped us hang up our whimsical little lanterns that will cause a fire drill at 3 a.m. the next week.

Soon we were moved in, so all that was left to do was complain about Twisted Soul being closed on Sundays. Because, as your precocious little brother points out, they really would make so much more money, and, as your mom chimes in, I need to have some of that goddamn Vassar Noodle.

For me, Families Weekend seems redundant: if you’re going to have your family come around this time of year, it may as well be to capitalize on some manual labor. Evidently, my family feels the same way, because I have never had a family member come up during Families Weekend. That is until this year.

Earlier this summer, I got a call from my grandmother saying that she wanted to come visit me at Vassar to “see where all that tuition money has been going.” Though I was thrilled by this prospect, I couldn’t help but question the logistics. After all, she is from the sunny, perpetually 75-degree Bay Area of Cali, and Poughkeepsie around this time of year is a sweltering, humid area and nowhere near any useful airports.

However, I soon learned that, though she loves me a lot, she would not venture just to the Hudson Valley for a weekend, but rather couple the visit with a trip she had been planning. Thus,

from its hungover stupor.

Once the bell tolled 12, and there really was no excuse for being asleep, it made sense to head over to my TH to show her that I don’t entirely live in squalor. I was slightly worried about this, though, since our house is—how do I put this?—not clean in any sense of the word.

For starters, we have a near life-size charcoal drawing of one our friends hanging on the wall of the common room. This might seem merely strange and a little obsessive, if it weren’t for the fact that this friend sometimes works as a nude model for the art students, and thus is rendered completely in the nude.

In addition to the definite naked man drawn above our sofa, there was the chance for in vivo nude housemates rising for a late shower. I think Nana recognized this, too. She’s no stranger to sharing space with dudes, having had two brothers, two sons and now four grandsons, but all that being said, she still asked me if I wanted to go forth as a sentinel before her: “I just remember visiting your dad or uncle at college and having to brace myself for what was waiting inside their rooms.”

Luckily, the carnage of our neighbours’ party hadn’t spread to our house, so save a few legally purchased beer bottles and bleary-eyed housemates, the house was presentable. Later, at a classy BurgerFi lunch (curse you Twisted Soul), she said, “I think you could take a shower there without shoes on,” which I will consider a win.

While this article may overall appear more sappy than funny, I would call that the transparency of who I am as a writer and person. I love my grandmother, and I was thrilled to show her campus before, as she put it, the “haze of graduation,” which, coincidentally, she told me that my parents had each been violently hungover for back in the day. I’ll be sure to bring that up with them when I see them next.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ARTS

Page 14

September 21, 2017

CAAD summer program synthesizes arts and technology Matt Stein Arts Editor

W

Courtesy of Courtney Starrett

hat is an artist without a space? Someone constantly in practice but never in presentation. In order to grow or receive attention, the artist needs a space—whether it be a stage, a gallery or even a website—to showcase their talent.

This is especially difficult when countless other artists are competing for the spectator’s attention.

At Vassar, fortunately, we have the Creative Arts Across Disciplines (CAAD) initiative.

Students who participated in CAAD’s Summer Multi-Arts Collectives program had their works previewed in the James W. Palmer III Gallery from Sept. 12 to 17. Also featuring works by artists-in-residence Courtney Starrett and Susan Reiser, “Remix: Interdiscipinary Exploration by the 2017 Summer Multi Arts Collectives” included projects by Jake Brody ’18, Charlotte Foley ’18, Audrey Keefe ’18, Antoine Robinson ’18 and Noah Trueblood ’18.

For their installation “Windswept,” Brody and Trueblood wanted to incorporate computer science and engineering to further their artistic vision. For the project, the artists created an app that allows users to enter the coordinates of any place in the world on a certain date and animate the real-time wind movement anywhere on the globe, projecting the image onto a screen. During the summer, they met with Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and American Studies Lisa Brawley of the Media Studies Program to determine how to develop their ideas.

Trueblood elaborated on how their project amalgamated technology and art into a unified effect: “The goal of ‘Windswept’ is to explore the relationship between nature and mechanics by using mechanical motion to animate the natural phenomenon of wind. When thinking of ideas for a project, we were drawn to the unique experience of the touch of wind and the contrast between a gentle breeze and a hurricane gust. The project was created through exploring and honing a visual that can convey and, using machine learning, accurately predict wind patterns for any location or point in time in the world.”

Brody appreciated the collaborative aspect that the Summer Multi-Arts Collectives program provided. “Noah actually brought CAAD to my attention. He came to me with a concept which would develop into ‘Windswept,’” Brodey stated.

“CAAD was a great opportunity for me to work in a more structured way—I typically work on a less mapped-out schedule. The experience also reminded me of the importance of communication, whether between Noah and I or the entire CAAD group, during critiques. I had to learn how to explain an idea so that it made sense to any person.”

Starrett and Reiser’s piece “Installations” consisted of multicolored lights, which were frequently adjusted throughout the day, shining on polygonal figures and a suspended lattice-patterned structure. An artist in her own right, Starrett is also an assistant professor of fine and digital art at Seton Hall University and the co-owner of Plural Studios, whose mission is to create objects for the home or body that integrate technological elements. Reiser has a background in software development and is the Associate Dean of Natural Sciences and a lecturer for UNC Asheville in North Carolina.

Interdisciplinary Coordinator for CAAD Tom Pacio first discovered Starrett and Reiser’s works at a local exhibit in New Paltz, seeing their potential benefit to CAAD’s Summer Multi Arts Collectives: “The Summer Multi-Arts Collectives are a proposal-based program in which students from different disciplines submit ideas that are approved by the CAAD committee,” Pacio explained. “Courtney Starrett is a local artist who I met at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art last fall. Her piece there, ‘Clever on a Sunday,’ had wonderful interdisciplinary roots—specifically integrating visual art with computer science and data. Luckily, both Starrett and her collaborator, Susan Reiser, were interested and available to be artists-in-residence for the summer of 2017. Not only did they work on what you saw in the Palmer, they also were available to the students as mentors for their work.”

CAAD, since its inception in 2014, has centered its yearly programming around loose themes of the five senses, with 2014-15 focusing on vision and the

From Sept 12 to 17 in the James W. Palmer III Gallery, student and guest artists displayed the projects they worked on over the summer through CAAD’s Summer Multi-Arts Collectives program. last academic year centering around touch. One of the most distinct parts of CAAD is their Collaboratory, a nifty little trailer that is always spotting up in random places around campus.

As CAAD’s Production Manager Omri Bareket ’19 expressed, “We are a resource that has access to some extraordinary resources, such as the Collaboratory, with a clear goal of expanding the interdisciplinary arts on this campus. What’s exciting about this goal is that the interdisciplinary sect is more often than not on the pulse of the latest technology or new trends in the arts, giving the Vassar community exposure to such great work as well as the opportunities to create this kind of work...”

This year, CAAD’s programming has broadened to revolve around the theme of “The Senses.” At Late Night at the Loeb, CAAD will collaborate with the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center for two

events, “Blueprint for Counter Education” on Sept.

28 and “The Art of Protest: Faith and Power in the Age of Martin Luther’s Reformation” on Nov. 2.

Pacio has been involved with CAAD since the beginning and has witnessed the program’s growing enrichment of Vassar’s artists. As he reflected, “I believe CAAD has gained some real momentum since it began ... What is really encouraging to me is seeing ideas coming from departments, faculty and students who may not normally work together collaborating on projects that are complicated, sophisticated and that fit into the mission of the college. I think of Vassar as a place that encourages those who work and study here to ask questions that could change the world, that ask the world to be a better place. My hope is that CAAD, and the creative arts in general, can be part of this conversation—that feels like something special.”

Barefoot Monkeys present stunning fall performance the moment when you finally master something you’ve been working on, be it balance, body control spinning poi or just using fire for the first time.”

Comparable to Deuser’s experience, a new member of the Monkeys, Meeraal Zaheer ’20, commented on her experience so far. She said, “It really puts me out of my comfort zone. Being part of an entertainment and performance group like this brings a rush of adrenaline I felt like I kind of lacked last semester. It’s just crazy that it’s been two weeks of learning a new toy and one week of spinning it on fire and I’m already in a show. I’m really excited to see where I’ll end up at the end of the year.”

Moreover, the group takes fire safety very seriously. They have extensive and thorough procedures that address fire usage. In addition to safety talks, each time a member wants to attempt a new move or stunt involving fire, they have to be cleared by the “Keepers of the Flame,”

Courtesy of Hannah Benton

Pictured here is one of the group’s fire acts, but the show also features several non-firerelated performance pieces that are just as successful in capturing the crowd’s attention.

who are responsible for fire safety, before they are allowed to do so. In fact, even before entering tech week, members need to successfully and safely carry off a particular stunt on fire at least three times to be allowed to perform it in the show.

Headkeeper of the Flame Wenfang Zhou ’18 asserted, “For us, their safety is our first priority; if we feel they are shaky on their fire use, no matter how much they may want to perform on fire, we simply can’t allow it.”

Zhou continued, “People do often get burned, but it’s nothing serious; usually just hair getting singed or minor scalding. In fact, each year we get a surprising number of pyrophobic people. I swear they are really, really scared of fire when they join, and we help some of them get over it.”

Zhou stressed that he didn’t want new members to be daunted because the group truly does everything they can to mentor and help out anyone who gets involved. He insisted that with active involvement and practice, an incoming member with zero experience would be able to do almost every move in the Monkeys’ repertoire by the middle of their second year in the group.

Zaheer, as a new addition, corroborates Zhou’s words on mentorship: “My experience has been amazing - I’ve been a part of the group for two weeks and everyone is great - they’re super relaxed and so willing to help you out. They really try to make you feel at home and put in a real effort to get to know everyone - it’s really casual. Sometimes, when you’re struggling to learn something new it can be hard to ask for help, but I’ve never really experienced that with the Barefoot Monkeys.”

The group is extremely accessible for nonfire users as well. Being first and foremost a Circus Arts troupe, the Barefoot Monkeys are inclusive of all acrobatics that their capabilities and equipment will allow.

“If people really do not want to try out fire, that’s completely fine. There’s more than enough to do in the Monkeys that doesn’t involve that,” explained Zhou. “In fact, straight off the bat, new members can try out pretty much anything as soon as they join, apart from fire

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Courtesy of Hannah Benton

CIRCUS continued from page 1 of the show, group member Kaya Deuser ’20 commented that she was particularly enthused about the rock music pieces: “They have very boyband-themed choreography that basically entails overacting and being super exaggerated and excited. You just dance and have a blast and you try to make the audience feel the excitement that you feel.”

Watching the Barefoot Monkeys is always an experience of downright awe intermingled with anxious disbelief; after all, they are playing with fire. But as daunting as performing in the group may seem, many of the members seem to share a common experience of overcoming fear and feeling exhilarated.

Deuser explained, “Being in the Monkeys, you’re so active, and you’re learning new things with people who teach you and mentor you, that you just start to feel happier and more confident in all aspects of your life. You feel so proud in

Even if you have no experience and are scared of performing with fire, this inclusive group is confident that it can find a place for you. They pride themselves on truly being a community. and balancing.”

Perhaps an example of the extensive opportunities this group has to offer is that during the Fire Show, there were several partner dances that didn’t involve fire – and audiences were just as mesmerized by the grace balance, and acrobatics of the performers as they lifted and spun their partners high above the ground. The group proves that they do not need fire in order to captivate an audience.

Currently, the Barefoot Monkeys have around 70 active members, 43 of whom performed on Saturday. Seven new members signed up this year, but the Monkeys hope to have many more first-years and even upperclassmen join them after watching the Fire Show. As Deuser noted, “We’re a community, at the end of the day.

We want people to join us so that they can find themselves and find their people.”

September 21, 2017

ARTS

Page 15

Supernatural subconscious of horror film delights viewer Kaitlin Prado Columnist

It Follows

David Robert Mitchell RADiUS-TWC

O

Courtesy of Fanart

n a lazy weekend night, I curled up in my bed to watch “It Follows” with one of my best friends. I was definitely hoping for the best but expecting the worse, as I am a total wimp when it comes to scary movies. When I saw the trailer for “It Follows,” I was definitely spooked, but I wasn’t especially excited by the premise and decided that it might just be campy enough for me to get through it without any flinching or lingering nightmares. After watching the film, however, I was completely taken by the supernatural subconscious horror of the film. Scary movie 1, Kaitlin 0.

Very early on, “It Follows” establishes protagonist Jay’s (Maika Monroe) idyllic suburban life—it takes a short while to figure out that it specifically takes place in Detroit, MI, which is one of the few definite bits of information we get about Jay’s life. Almost as quickly as it’s set up, this image is completely disrupted by the knowledge that what started as an average sexual encounter devolved into a brutality that thrust a senselessly malevolent demon into Jay’s life. A seedy supporting character informs our protagonist and the audience that “It could look like someone you know or it could be a stranger in a crowd. Whatever helps it get close to you,” That is almost the entirety of what our characters understand about this daunting, plodding creature. That coupled with the fact that it only ever moves at a walking speed directly towards you, and that if it catches you, it kills you and moves on to whoever was being followed before. I was immediately frustrated by how unhelpful and spooky all of that information was.

When I wasn’t overwhelmed by my fear for Jay and her friends, I was busy taking in some truly

beautiful shots throughout “It Follows.” In so many scenes there was an almost overwhelming richness of color and precision of staging—it was almost enough in some scenes to completely pull me out of the horror in a defamiliarizing manner, only to plunge me back into Jay’s reality a second later. In one scene, for example, arguably important expositive dialogue nearly took a back seat to Jay carefully placing blades of grass on her own leg.

When I type it out that way it sounds ridiculous, but I’m telling you, if you watch the movie you’ll understand. The precise pulling of equally-sized blades of deep green grass, paired with Jay’s particular placement of them (lined up in equidistant intervals on her thigh), contrasts with the total loss of control that is being alluded to at that point in the film. “It Follows” is full of these kinds of unsettling scenes.

The elements that struck me regarding the stunning cinematography did not always have to do with the overall horror of the film, but nevertheless spotlighted a visceral sense of unease. For instance, writer and director David Robert Mitchell impressively allowed for no perceptible timeline in “It Follows.” In part, Mitchell accomplishes this with a deliberate omission of any cultural references or any technology that the audience could recognize as modern throughout the film. In this world there are analog telephones existing alongside small television sets with antennae and devices that look something like if an iPhone and a flip phone had a seashell-shaped child. All of these elements are treated as familiar by the characters but would be consistently questioned by an audience.

On top of this, Jay’s fashion sense and room decorations oscillated between ’90s chic and selfaware 2015 hipster, but there were also many deliberate and specific choices outside of props and wardrobe that made this movie feel so uncomfortably transient. While the movie clearly follows the summer vacation of Jay and her four friends, it is unclear how old they are. There’s also a complete absence of adults—while watching the plot unfold around Jay, I kept wondering, “Where the heck is your mom?!” Even though there are reference’s to

“It Follows” is not a typical horror movie in that its cinematography paints a beautiful picture, which contrasts with superbly terrifying jump-scares that will have you dropping your popcorn.

Jay’s parents sparingly throughout the movie and the appearances by unimportant adult figures, it’s just another way for us to observe how alone Jay is in this world.

Aside from a timeless story of fear, it would appear that the formal components of the plot are only focused on the consequences of contracting a sexually transmitted demon, but the movie itself is concerned with much more. Mitchell and his team created a dream-like atmosphere with this film, and while it can be quite the nightmare, the dreaminess of it all prevails. A cool choice regarding the vague rules of the creature was the cyclical nature of the curse itself; this both serves to minimize the stakes for our protagonist but also compounds them for the world of “It Follows.”

I don’t think a deeper meaning in this movie was about simply starting a dialogue about safer

sex. Instead, I think “It Follows” hoped to speak to our instinctive anxieties surrounding intimacy, especially as it concerns the way young people are conditioned to treat virginity and sex. Ultimately,I think it succeeded. The film demonstrated that whether those around you can see that there is a monster following you or not—whether that monster is literally a demon or is a less tangible but just as horrifying sense of shame and uncertainty-paranoia and self-doubt will follow a person, and it can be violently terrifying.

I stand by my “I don’t like scary movies” mantra, but “It Follows” was freaking weird and totally thought provoking. Even though I fell for several jump scares, I liked it a lot. It even has a 96 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so if that means anything to you, go watch it on Netflix so we can have a long talk about survival and pretty colors.

Dream-like vocals infuse Norwegian group’s debut album Patrick Tanella Arts Editor

Lovers

Anna of the North Different Recordings

I

Courtesy of Flickr

f you have spent more than five minutes around me, you know that I’m obsessed with Norwegian pop culture. Back in December, Norway’s iconic television show “Skam” basically ruined my life, and if you haven’t read my review of the series, stop what you’re doing and read it right now! Anyway, “Skam” introduced me to a country that I had never thought much of before, and now one of their rising pop stars, Anna Lotterund of the band Anna of the North, is my new favorite artist.

I actually did not hear about Anna of the North through the magnificent “Skam” soundtrack. While driving around aimlessly in the great state of New Jersey, my friend was playing tracks off of her Spotify playlist.

At a specific moment I can still remember vividly today, this one song came on and I immediately became captivated. I interrupted the conversion and urgently asked what the song was called, and my friend replied that it was “Oslo” by Anna of the North. Of course I loved it, I said to myself. It was a song about Norway.

Upon arriving home, I listened to the artist’s entire discography, which at the time was a handful of singles and a remix by the vomit-inducing group The Chainsmokers. Yet I kept being drawn back to “Oslo.” Anna’s dreamy vocals are incomparable. If you looked up the term electronic dream-pop in the dictionary, you would see a picture of Anna.

“I never wanna leave / I never wanna go.

You’re the one that’s in my heart / And it makes me feel at home.” The track makes you picture freezing in a Scandinavian city, but you couldn’t care less because the person you are hopelessly in love with warms your heart. I know that may be the cheesiest sentence I have ever written, but I have no regrets.

After first hearing that insanely beautiful track in March, Anna of the North seems to be everywhere in the music scene and beyond. Lotterund’s dreamy vocals are featured on Tyler the Creator’s stellar album “Flower Boy,” particularly on “911/Mr. Lonely” and “Boredom.” She sings the “Ring, ring, ring” hook on “911” and you can feel her voice and airy presence throughout the rest of the track.

Tyler promoting Anna through the tracks and various tweets has led to an explosion in her popularity, going from about 4,000 followers on Instagram when I first became an avid listener to almost 30,000 in September. Anna is featured in countless music interviews (definitely check out ones with Complex and The Fader), has huge sets in Scandinavian music festivals and has befriended the cast of “Skam,” which has definitely helped her become one of the most popular pop stars in Norway.

Two weeks ago, Anna of the North, which consists of singer Anna Lotterud and bandmate Brady Daniell-Smith, released their debut album, “Lovers.” I will be the first to say that this is not the best album ever created. However, Lotterud’s voice has the capacity to make even the most mediocre instruments sound spectacular.

The 10 songs featured in the debut blend together, but not necessarily in a bad way. It feels as though the group is presenting their sound, which is breezy, electronic pop music, to the world and then retreating 40 minutes later back into their own pop dream landscape. The whole project feels very modern, combining dreamlike sounds with distinct synth instrumentals.

You can instantly tell when a song is by Anna of the North, and you don’t forget it.

“Baby” is the only song on the album that was previously released as a solo track. It embodies everything I love about the group, with its characteristic synth instrumentals, drifting pop vocals and heartfelt lyrics. The track opens, “Baby I just wanna know / I need to know if we’re still on. I know we’ve been hurting lately. You see, you came in like a thunderstorm / Electric shivers shooting through my bones. You make my heart start beating in my chest / Baby, hold

While I might be biased due to my everlasting love for Norwegian pop culture, Anna of the North’s debut album provides unique and gorgeous vocals in addition to modern synth instrumentals. tight.” It is definitely one of my favorite songs from the artist and would be a great first track to listen to if you really want to understand the sound of Anna of the North.

While I think the song “Lovers” is overshadowed by other promotional singles on the album, it is still a solid track and has a beautiful music video. I know that I’ve basically described everything by this artist as magnificent and beautiful, but it’s true! “Someone” is a much better single and has a faster tempo that really carries Anna’s voice well as she sings, “I’m only human, baby / Need someone to come and save me.”

“Fire” is an absolute jam, and before it was released, I saw a clip of the group closing with it at one of their festival performances. I have a feeling that this will be the track that launches the group into pop stardom. It’s catchy and is the only song that I would say has a Taylor Swift-esque pop music formula that virtually

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

guarantees a hit. “You were just a fire, adequate pain / Took it all to no return. Blinded by desire, caught up in the flame / Let you in and I got burned.” Channeling heartbreak into a pop hit is what Taylor Swift thrives on, and I hope Anna of the North can have similar success.

I’m so captivated by this group that I already bought tickets to see them in London at a clublike venue this February when I’m studying abroad. I know that if Anna sings “Oslo” I will absolutely lose it, and I hope to get a chance to meet her and ask whether growing up in Norway is actually anything like what “Skam” portrays it to be. Oh, and I guess I’ll ask about her music too.

“Lovers” is an excellent debut album, and I am excited to see what Anna of the North does in future projects to diversify the group’s sound.

No matter what it is, I’m sure I won’t be far behind, screaming about Norwegian pop culture to anyone willing to listen. .

ARTS

Page 16

September 21, 2017

New album a great addition to sad playlists everywhere Izzy Braham Columnist

Sleep Well Beast

The National 4AD

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Courtesy of Wordpress

f you are into melancholic music, then I recommend you listen to this little weeping willow of an album. On Sept. 8, The National released their new album “Sleep Well Beast.”

The album is very much within The National’s brand—the record features many dark and contemplative dirges with profound lyrics. However, there are subtle ways in which the band explores new sounds by incorporating quiet electronic beats and harsher guitar elements.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with The National, they are an alternative rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio. Since their first album in 2001, the band has been prolific, releasing seven albums total and solidifying their role as a staple of sad indie rock music alongside Bon Iver and Sufjan Stevens. There is nothing too crazy about this band, but they are remarkable in that they bring sadness to their songs like no other. This has resulted in a niche audience out there thriving off of the melancholic nature of The National’s tracks.

The best word to describe this album is downtrodden. While songs alternate between gentler melodies and more lively rock, there is an undeniable darkness that shades every track.

Compared to past albums, “Sleep Well Beast” continues The National’s discography in a predictable way. Almost every song in this album could be swapped with another song in their 2013 album “Trouble Will Find Me,” and nobody would know the difference. The album even maintains some of the same themes as “Trouble Will Find Me,” touching on ideas of heartbreak, guilt and the complexity of love.

The album begins with “Nobody Else Will

If you are ever in need of a good cry, be sure to check out The National’s new album, “Sleep Well Beast,” in which the band explores new sounds and solidifies their role as an indie rock staple.

Be There," a deeply troubling title you probably could have guessed. Even on full volume, I would describe this song as quiet. It starts slowly with a distant clattering rhythm keeping the pace of the song as a pretty piano melody rolls in. Lead singer Matt Berninger mumbles into the track like it is a sad lullaby, “You said we’re not so tied together / What did you mean? / Meet me in the stairwell in a second / For a glass of gin.”

The song ends with the utterly depressing lyrics “Goodbyes always take us half an hour / Can’t we just go home?” before Berninger moans the repetitive chorus once again: “Nobody else will be there then / Nobody else will be there.”

Even though the track is quite gloomy and hopeless, I thought that these lyrics held a understated brilliance. The imagery of meeting in a stairwell to talk about a broken love and then

skipping that ritual goodbye evokes that very specific but yucky feeling of being both restless and tired in a relationship.

The song really pinpoints that emotionally draining circumstance we are all too familiar with—having that very long conversation with someone and having nothing left to hash out but still being unhappy with the conclusion. The second track on the album, “Day I Die,” was a more upbeat song, believe it or not. The song is posed as a response to the first track, marking an acceptance of the trouble of Berninger’s relationship. It also incorporates a fresher sound with some electric guitar strums opening the song.

Other highlights include “Walk It Back” and “Dark Side of the Gym.” “Walk It Back” has an interesting bridge towards the end of the song

where The National includes some sampled audio of political analyst Karl Rove talking about political realities. The quote’s hopelessness about politics mirrors the hopelessness of the track and the relationship Berninger is singing about. Turning away from the defeated vibes of the previous tracks, “Dark Side of the Gym” has a more dreamy and sleepy melody. It takes a step back from analyzing the darkness of Berninger’s relationship and presents a more nostalgic approach, talking about the first time Berninger encountered his love.

Arguably the best song on the album is “Born to Beg.” Yes, it is dreary and talks about Berninger’s insatiable sadness over his love, but out of all the tracks on the album, I think it is the most alluring musically. The piano is desperately beautiful and there are delicate hovering sounds that give the song an ethereal quality, making it stand out from other dreary tracks.

Overall, the album is undoubtedly a cry fest.

It definitely has its beautiful moments and poetic lyrics, but I couldn’t help but feel a little bored with it. The problem is that “Sleep Well Beast” is incredibly similar to past albums, and while I respect The National’s consistency, it would have been interesting to see the band approach their songs or themes with a vastly different angle than incorporating one more electric guitar than usual.

Additionally, there were some times when I felt like the album—with all due respect—just needed to buck up. The sadness was a little ridiculous at points and did not enrapture me as much as the melancholic nature of Father John Misty’s newest album. However, I do understand that this signature despair is what the band was going for.

Regardless of the dullness and overwhelming depression, the lead singer’s voice is quite charming, and you can tell that the band put a lot of thought into the construction of their rhythms and lyrics. Check it out if you are in need of a good cry, as we all seem to be needing one at this point in the academic year.

‘The Night Circus’ provides reflection of modern romance Jimmy Christon Columnist

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern Doubleday

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not only to be an Iago-like manipulator, but that his concern for others is solely for selfish purposes.. This in itself isn’t a bad thing at all. You could level this claim at any male protagonist from any book ever.

What I find ridiculous about this book is how it doesn’t reconcile these obviously faulty traits of the character within the context of the romance. It just doesn’t make sense for this character to end up the way he does, and I can’t find any sort of reason for it from the author.

Another frustrating mishap is in how the novel’s antagonist is a liminal one. I got the feeling that Morgenstern couldn’t decide if she wanted to make this character a villain or not despite the narrative of the novel making it explicit that this character was the antagonist.

What develops is a sense of whiplash when the big bad villain who commits straight-up homicide is treated as a friendly sort of fatherly figure. An analogy would be if Luke Skywalk-

er had started treating Emperor Palpatine as a fellow Jedi at the end of “Empire Strikes Back.”

It just doesn’t fit and is a rather gaping hole in the plot.

I want to say that this bad taste doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the book, but it does. It’s not just that this book has some misfires, it’s that these misfires come at the most critical parts of the book. Not only does the central romance feel spoiled for me, but so does a large chunk of the book.

Going back to the trapeze analogy, it’s like this book was a botched performance: one that had a plethora of fantastic movements, but a couple of fatal mistakes will label this performance as the one where the performers “messed up.” Although it has some mishaps, I am hopeful for the future of the romance genre as a whole. I am certain that if Morgenstern develops further as a novelist, she will be able to successfullywrite a beautiful romance.

Courtesy of Flickr

his complex novel consistently gets labelled as a romance, and I’m fine with that. I think more books should be labelled as romances. I think it’s harmful to literature as a whole to sideline anything as some sort of “genre fiction.” Dante Alighieri wrote self-insert fanfiction, so why is that considered a bad thing (although he also wrote a literal romance, his “Vita Nuova”)?

I think that if more things were labeled romances, we would get a greater depth of discussion as to what actually constitutes a romance in fiction. Because if you tell people you’re reading a romance nowadays, the word on everyone’s mind is smut, and that’s not a good thing for the formerly-acclaimed literary genre.

This is all my justification for saying that I think that Erin Morgenstern’s “The Night Circus” is a troublesome romance. The book itself isn’t necessarily bad. I just think there were some significant missteps that leave a funky taste in my mouth, perhaps for other readers too. And this is a real shame, because I’m a sucker for books like these. I knew from the title alone that this book would interest me. Take any sort of wonderful Disney-esque idea/locale and place it at night and I’m sold.

What makes this taste sit even more heavily in my mouth is that the first parts of this book were so enticing. Morgenstern lulled me (and I’m guessing many others) into “The Night Circus” as if the readers were actually there. The descriptive language in this book was great: I didn’t just read about the colors of the circus tents- I could almost see these colors drench onto the pages.

Probably the biggest compliment I can give Morgenstern is that she’s probably the only author I’ve read that situated the central romance

so naturally within her novel. I’ve always found that with books where a relationship plays a central role, there comes a point where the physicalities of the relationships begin to take away from the novel or where the relationship gets sidelined for the plot. This is seen in many typical romances popular in the last couple of years, including “Twilight,” “Divergent” and really any other heteronormative teen romance work.

I think that in terms of the relationship itself, Morgenstern forms a solid ground in the story’s romance,although she successfully never lets these scenes take too much away from the plot, or vice versa. Everything in this book was plotted the way it needed to develop into a solid, grounded novel. And while I don’t think everything in the central relationship of this book is perfect, I do think that Morgenstern is able to write this relationship’s development in a very fulfilling manner.

I was also quite fond of how the characters themselves interacted with one another in general. Morgenstern knows how and when to let her characters flirt, fight and mess with one another. It felt surprising the way these characters developed off of one another.

The characters interact with one another like the trapeze performers in the book: they push themselves farther than any one person could do alone. Some of the characters are also clear standouts: Widget, Poppet, Isobel and Billy are all joys to read. But it’s not all fun and friends at this circus; there’s some pretty glaring faults in some of these acts.

One thing that I think we all expect from romances more so than other styles of narrative is a focus on characters: not just on what the characters are doing, but what they are thinking when they do something, how they react to one another’s presence and thought and in how the relationships between characters changes as the plot progresses. One thing that I find astoundingly frustrating about this novel is in how it really drops the ball in this department in the final act of the novel.

Without spoiling too much, one of the most significant characters in the novel is revealed

While some people claim that romance is dead, “The Night Circus” proves that the genre is not necessarily dead, but rather struggles balancing plot with romantic dialogue..

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

September 21, 2017

Campus Canvas

ARTS A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Page 17 submit to misc@vassar.edu

Excuse me, How did you celebrate Families Weekend?

“I was jealous of all the people with their families” — Eura Choi ’21

“I went to the Arlington Street Fair and made friends with a ferret and a rabbit” — Maya MoiseyevFoster ’20

“I had fun with my parents, I had fun without my parents” — Sam O’Keefe ’20

“My family is from California, so I was all alone” — Christopher Triggs ’21

“[My mom and I] went to The CIA and ate in their cafeteria; It was pretty good” — Aisha Malik ’21

Olivia Feltus is a first-year student from Clemson, SC. Her hobbies include photography, buying antiques and watching horror-comedies. She is a prospective art history major. Intimacy is a concept best explored through the mind of an individual. These portraits, taken in different settings and times within friendships, show the bond between the subject and the artist. Two of the portraits were taken in a studio setting, two during relatively formal portrait shoots and two while out with new friends. This selection represents one of the most intimate photographs of each person that the photographer has taken.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“By failing my driver’s test” — Nic Penn ’19

Leah Cates, Humor & Satire Yesenia Garcia, Humor & Satire Olivia Feltus, Photographer

SPORTS

Page 18

September 21, 2017

Women’s tennis cracks an egg, scrambles three opponents SCRAMBLE continued from page 1

to knock off Connecticut College’s Warren and Aleksandra Drjaca with a score of 8-3. Grinde picked up another win for the day after partnering with senior Lauren Difazio and defeating their Connecticut College opponents.

On Sunday, the Brewers were up bright and early to start their second day of the Scramble.

The first-years pulled through for the Brewers, with Hahn and Rodick both starting off the day with wins. Edwards picked up another win for the Brewers on the first court as she took down Stephanie Simon from Connecticut College 6-2, 6-0. On court six, Difazio fought hard but ultimately fell to Anandini Chawla of NYU 4-6, 3-6.

On the doubles end of the match, Edwards and Rodick paired up to take down their Connecticut College adversaries 8-1, while Yekta and Grinde secured an 8-2 victory. Unfortunately for the Brewers, Hahn and Geiss lost a tough match against Connecticut College 8-4.

Edwards and Yekta faced up against New Paltz, where they asserted their dominance. The duo did not drop a game, walking away with an 8-0 win. This pair has been working well together this season, with this victory securing their third doubles win of the season.

The Brewers weekend ended on a high note, with Grinde and Geiss powering back from a 3-4 deficit to produce a thrilling 8-5 win over Connecticut College.

With such a tough schedule, it is impressive how well the Brewers were able to maintain their intensity throughout the weekend. Edwards, who has won three matches at the singles position and has won five of six matches at the doubles position, had a successful weekend for the tennis team. She attributes the team’s ability not to lose steam to its supportive nature.“Our teammates do a good job of keeping us up and supporting us, so that really helps us get through our long matches,” said Edwards.

This positive dynamic that kept the team motivated through the weekend is something Coach Kathy Campbell has been pleased with

GK D D F M D M M D M F S S S S S S S S S

team’s ability to play “pressure points, such as getting to the net more often, footwork on volleys and spin on second serves.”

The Brewers travel up to Saratoga Springs for ITA Northeast Regionals next weekend. Edwards believes the Vassar Scramble was a good way for the team to get some exposure before such an important tournament. Edwards said, “I think it lets us see a lot of different people, different games that we’ll see at ITA’s.”

Vassar College 6, New Paltz 0

Vassar College 1, SUNY Oneonta 1

September 19, 2017

September 16, 2017

Walsh Alvarez Trasatti Thayer Chroscinski Coughlan Seper Longo Lavelle McFarland Ferry Deitch DeBenedictis McMannon Saari Herrera-Ross Cutler Pillsbury Daley Martin

Totals.......

Walsh Martin

throughout the first few matches of the fall season. In addition to the unyielding support across the team, Campbell also mentioned how much progress everyone on the team has made thus far. “All eleven team members have demonstrated ongoing improvement and competitiveness on the court,” Campbell noted.

As far as what the Brewers will be focusing on heading into the next few weeks, Campbell wants the team to emphasize improving the

Men’s Soccer

Player

Goalie

Senior women’s tennis player Courtney Geiss sets her aim on a ace over the weekend in a match during the Vassar Scramble. Geiss returns to the court after a full year abroad.

Women’s Soccer

Vassar College POS

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

“Our areas of focus in practice lately have been lots of match play and fitness work, which has translated well into our matches. Many of us have had long matches which we have been ready for from all of our experience in practices,” said Grinde.

The Brewers kicked off the day with a singles win. First-year Meghan Rodick knocked off Stephanie Simon of Connecticut College in a 6-1, 6-2 victory. Edwards won her first match of the day 6-3, 6-2, but ended up losing in a close three set match 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 to her NYU opponent.

Senior Courtney Geiss fell short in her first match of the day but rebounded and pulled together a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Mariah Warren from Connecticut College. Grinde also lost her first match of the day but bounced back and came out with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Meredith Kenny of Connecticut College.

First-year Sarra Yekta lost her opening set of the day 2-6, but came back and won the second set 6-2 and finished off the third set in an exciting 10-5 victory.

Grinde commented on the team’s comeback wins. “In tennis you really need to learn to adapt to your opponent and constantly need to change your strategy, so sometimes it may take you a while to figure out how to beat your opponent, which is why some of us came back from behind,” said Grinde. “Personally both of the matches I came back from being behind in were my third matches of the day, so I think I just started out playing tired, but as I kept playing and getting more invested in the match my desire to win grew stronger, which was why I was able to come up with the win.”

Yekta went on to win her second match of the day in a similar exciting fashion, with a 6-2 win in the first set and a 7-6 win in the second set with a tiebreak score of 7-5. First-year Rachael Hahn went 1-1 on the day. After dropping her first match she rebounded to win her second match in a close three sets, 5-7, 6-4 and 10-8.

In doubles play, Geiss and Rodick teamed up

New Paltz

Sh SOG G

A

POS

Player

Sh

0 0 0 7 0 0 2 2 0 1 2 3 1 0 0 0 5 5 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 0 0

0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

GK F M M M F F D D M D S S S S S S S S

Tornatore Grossi Friedman Filippone Sheintul Morasse Cabello Blake Lasker Ferro Alviene Levinson Hawkins Fanni Burns Brown Connolly Purtell Rouse

0 2 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

6

4

28

0 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 5 4 0 0

17

Totals.......

8

Vassar College

SOG G 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

3

A

POS

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

GK D D M M D F M D D F S S S S S S

0

0

Player

Sh SOG G

A

POS

0 0 3 5 2 2 1 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

GK D D M M D F M D D F S S S S S S S S S S S

Marment Sands Gilmore Smith Stansell Olsson Novas Van Brewer Collins Lukasik Mrlik Goldsmith Bow Karaiskos Heitmann Davis Martinez

Totals.......

Minutes

GA

Saves

Goalie

Minutes

GA

Saves

Goalie

71:11 18:49

0 0

2 1

Tornatore

90:00

6

11

Marment

SUNY Oneonta (5)

18

Minutes 110:00

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

0 0 1 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Sh SOG G

Giordano Hughes Loos Santangelo Hoffman Hoff W. Hernandez Cebollero Martinez Kathuria Ventura Dillman Ritaccio Minogue Plate Leon Barabanov J. Hernandez Antunes Dabrowski Arango May

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4

Giordano

1

1

Player

Totals.......

12

Minutes 110:00

0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 0 2 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0

0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0

5

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0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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SPORTS

September 21, 2017

Page 19

U.S.A. men’s soccer turns Elliott case sheds light on blind eye to young players NFL’s misconduct policies Desmond Curran Guest Columnist

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he United States men’s national team (USMNT) has a big problem–a problem that has continuously plagued the team for as long as I can remember watching them play.

That problem has to do with stagnation, and a refusal to address that stagnation. The previous manager of the USMNT, Jurgen Klinsmann, was fired from his position in November of 2016. Since then, the United States has shown some life, winning the Gold Cup this past summer. Klinsmann’s replacement, Bruce Arena, steadied the ship during the Gold Cup victory, but has unfortunately made the USMNT regress more than progress since. Currently the team sits on the perilous edge of failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. If you were to look at the roster for the USMNT in their previous qualifying match-ups and compare it to the roster from the Gold Cup, you will notice that after the group stage was completed, many of the players who were rostered for the World Cup qualifier were integrated into the squad at the Gold Cup. You might ask, why is this a problem? What is wrong with bringing in some experienced players to help the U.S. to its eventual victory in the final?

By bringing in core players like Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, and co., Arena stubbornly contributed to the stagnation of the national team. The initial roster for the United States at the Gold Cup generally consisted of many younger, more inexperienced players who were eager to perform for their country and impress Arena. Their reward? Being sent home, so that the senior players could come in and seize the glory of winning what in actuality is a meaningless tournament.

This sets the USMNT back in so many ways.

First of all, it sends a message to the younger players that Arena appreciates their hard work, but won’t give them any of the credit. If the young U.S. roster had failed to make it out of the group stage, their inexperience would be blamed. The U.S. could maintain a semblance of respectability by saying, “Well, if our veterans had played this would not have happened.”

Instead, the U.S. made it out of the group stag-

Why

we

Joe Simon

Guest Reporter

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Jonathan Levi-Minzi Guest Columnist

[Content warning: This article makes references to domestic violence.]

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n the run-up to the 2017 NFL season kick-off, it was a surprise reversal in a controversial domestic violence case that dominated headlines.

U.S. District Court Judge Amos Mazzant blocked the NFL league office’s six-game suspension of star runningback Ezekiel Elliott. The NFL had banned Elliott after their in-house investigation concluded that the second-year player abused his former girlfriend Tiffany Thompson over the course of five days in July 2016. Thompson told NFL investigators that she called the police in February of 2016 after Elliott pushed her forcefully against a wall during an argument. Thompson later told the NFL that Elliott was physical on two separate occasions in that earlier timeframe.

Judge Mazzant issued a preliminary injunction, which checks the NFL’s ability to enforce their suspension of Elliott. Cornell Law’s Legal Information Institute defines an injunction as “a court order requiring a person to do or cease doing a specific action,” and a prelimary injunction as one, “that may be granted before or during trial, with the goal of preserving the status quo before final judgment.”

While appealing the league’s initial suspension ruling, the NFL Players Association, sensing a defeat in the making, filed a preemptive motion to block the final verdict. The suit claims that the league appeal process was one-sided and not in accordance with basic standards of a fair appeal.

NFL Director of Investigations Kia Roberts allegedly recommended no ban for Elliott.

Roberts was the only investigator from the league who interviewed Thompson. The NFL’s Special Counsel for Investigations, Lisa Friel, subsequently stopped Roberts from meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss her recommendation. Judge Mazzant, in consideration of these facts, among other concerns, found that certain elements of the appeal procedure were probably unfair, and thus decided that an injunction was necessary in the interim period before he could hear the NFLPA’s case regarding the NFL’s appeal process.

The NFL promptly responded to Mazzant’s district court ruling, filing an appeal of the injunction along with an emergency stay. Sports attorney Daniel Wallach speculated in a tweet on Sept. 11, 2017 that the accompanying stay was requested because “the median duration of a Fifth Circuit appeal is 8.8 months.”

This detail is very significant because the full effect of the now-granted injunction with no emergency stay could very well be that Elliott plays the entire 2017 NFL season.

Ultimately, Elliott suited up for and shined in the Cowboys’ comprehensive, opening-day victory over the New York Giants. He gained 104 yards on 24 carries behind the famously stout Dallas offensive line on the way to a 19-3 result.

Last year, Elliot led the league with 1,631 yards gained on the ground. While Elliot was taking the league by storm, though, the NFL was conducting a lengthy investigation only now coming to the forefront.

The NFL has a troubling record with judgments on domestic violence cases. Months after surveillance video surfaced of former runningback Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancée Janay Palmer in a casino elevator, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handed down to Rice a paltry suspension of two games to start the 2014 season. Responding to the predictable uproar, Goodell said in a press conference soon after the announcement, “We’ve dealt with it in a serious manner, and we’re very confident that this young man understands where he is and what he needs to do going forward.” The Rice debacle was one of many that have come to severely damage the league office’s reputation.

Crimes of domestic violence are as tragically law enforcement-resistant as they are staggeringly inhumane. In a 2015 National Domestic Violence Hotline survey of 637 women who had suffered domestic abuse, “two-thirds or more said they were afraid the police would not believe them or do nothing,” according to thehotline.org.

While the NFL has proven to be infamously dubious as an investigative body, fans should not conflate their poor record with the Elliot case.

Whenever news gets out that charges of domestic violence have been dropped, one must very carefully review the facts before coming to potentially faulty all-or-nothing conclusions.

Joe Simon, Men’s Rugby

play er’s Day. It’s something about perspective, playing with the people who shaped this program and who shaped me, I get to feel a part of something very much bigger than me. I don’t really care if that’s a cliché, because it’s a super warm feeling and it’s kept me grounded through all these years at Vassar. This place can be very isolating. It’s easy to feel awash in an amorphous group of friends.

It’s even easier to be stressed about what comes after these handful of years.

Where will I find a job? Will I still see my friends? Will I be okay?

The weight of these questions doesn’t necessarily go away, but this community, 50 years of an evolving tradition, certainly lightens the load. It’s gonna be fine. I’m gonna be fine.

I understand if you think I’m giving too much credit to the rugby teams for my existential security. I didn’t feel this strongly when I first started playing freshman year. I just liked to play, and some of the people seemed alright. But here I am watching a movie in my living room full of teammates, the people I love. Here I am, hanging out with people from both the men’s and women’s rugby teams pretty much every day. It is not just for me anymore. The alumni game expands this feeling, it shows that this feeling has a history, and that there are hundreds of alumnae still invested in this feeling.

At the start of this season, the current men’s and women’s rugby captains had dinner with Bear (the head of our unofficial alumnae association) and a few former captains. They gave us a lot of great advice, but what really stuck with me from that night was our conversation about what they realized after their last game at Vassar. All the work they put in for that season was also for the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that. As a senior player, I’ve come to see part of being on the Vassar rugby teams

is engaging in a labor of love that goes beyond your own four years. It’s just another part of the game for me. As a captain, all I really want to do is to leave the jersey and this program a little better than when I started.

It’s hard for me to imagine not having this amazing team (who often support me without even realizing it) around me at all times next year.

But the alumnae game is a testament to the fact that the team will never really leave me.

I’ve heard countless stories over the years about rugby alumnae continuing to support each other, everything from officiating each other’s wed-

dings to opening up homes when a teammate was hard on luck. Some of the alums are still playing together 30 or so years out of Vassar.

Playing and hanging with the alumni lets me see my teammates, all in our 20s, for who they will be.

These people that I tackle today will one day be my future child’s “aunts and uncles.”

Like vines, their lives are interwoven in mine.

That’s what happens when you grow together; that’s what happens when you play rugby.

Joe Simon is a senior captain and center on the men’s rugby team. He will “graduate” in this spring’s alumni game.

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

Vassar is fortunate to have so many talented and dedicated student-athletes on campus.

This year, The Miscellany News would like to highlight the voices and stories of these athletes.

“Why We Play” will be a weekly installment in the Sports section where Vassar players will have the opportunity to speak about what their chosen sport means to them. This week, senior men’s rugby captain Joe Simon writes about the culture and community of his sport at Vassar. e play rugby on Founder’s Day. I used to hate it. I thought it got in the way. The party at Ballantine was usually already tuckered out when I got there. I always missed out on the fun, the photo ops...everything.

But reflecting on this question—why I play—I feel the answer is tied up somewhere on that Founder’s Day each year, when the rugby team goes out to the farm to play our alumni, accompanied by sometimes good-but-muffled techno as the soundtrack.

It’s not like the game itself is more enjoyable than usual. The current student team usually gets beaten pretty badly. We have a lot of alums, and most of them are still very good at rugby, or at least try really hard (come at me, Brett). Not to mention that at halftime the seniors on the team “graduate” to play for the alumni. I guess that part is fun for the seniors.

Everyone on the team, first-year to super senior, leaves their mark on this program, because everyone leaves a lasting impression on each other. That’s what happens when you play rugby. You get tackled knowing that your teammates are on your back, ready to support and protect you. There is no way to play this game without that kind of trust and sacrifice, so you just naturally start to love everyone.

But why I play isn’t about playing on Found-

es, and the veteran players joined the roster and helped the U.S. to win the championship.

This is hardly the greatest motivation for young players to continue pushing themselves to improve,knowing that no matter how successful they may be, they won’t see the rewards of their work.

Secondly, not allowing the young players to gain more experience, and not giving them the opportunity to fail does absolutely nothing for U.S. soccer development. Some day, those players that Arena sent home will become the veterans that he relied on this past summer. However, they may not reach the same heights as some of the main leaders on the current national team because they were not given international experience early on in their career. These players will not learn the mindset necessary to compete in the grueling World Cup qualifying schedule.

They will not gain experience playing in hostile environments such as Honduras or Mexico.

This is not to say that these U.S. players will never have these learning experiences. Time will inevitably place them at the top of Arena’s list. But once they reach that point, the USMNT may be faced with a large struggle to perform.

Throughout this column, I have been ignoring the elephant in the room, Christian Pulisic.

The 19-year-old who has already earned himself a starting spot among the veterans and still has seemingly endless potential will likely be the bedrock for American soccer for the foreseeable future. Arena has given Pulisic all the experience and playing time he can handle, and he will likely develop into a leading player for the U.S. But this may be at the expense of the rest of Pulisic’s generation. Pulisic is well integrated with the U.S. veterans, but these veterans will soon be gone. Pulisic is a fantastic player, but he alone will not be able to carry the U.S. to meet our current and future expectations.

Arena and the USMNT are stagnating.

Younger talent is not being fostered at the expense of Arena’s loyalty to the older generation of American talent. The U.S. is struggling now to qualify for the next World Cup. But perhaps even further in the future, the challenge of qualification may be even greater, as USMNT’s once relied-on talent begins to age out.

Senior men’s rugby captain and center Joe Simon breaks a tackle in a match last season.

This week, Simon reflects on the camaraderie and brotherhood of Vassar’s rugby program.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Students: Be a part of Inauguration Weekend September 23 / Saturday

September 23 continued

Panel Discussions

Inauguration Student Celebration

1:30 p.m.

Liberal Education in a Globalized World SKINNER HALL / MARTEL AUDITORIUM

Elizabeth H. Bradley

president, vassar college / moderator

Hanna Gray

president emerita / university of chicago

9:00 p.m.— 1:00 a.m.

This elegant late night event will include a special menu, music, entertainment, with remarks by President Bradley at 10:30 p.m.

STUDENTS’ BUILDING (ACDC)

Azamat Kumykov

chairman, board of directors rusmoloko group

Ken Ofori-Atta

minister of finance / republic of ghana

Lynn Pasquerella

executive director american association of colleges and universities

3:00 p.m.

Health and Health Care …

Where are we going?

September 24 / Sunday

The Inauguration of Elizabeth H. Bradley 1:00 p.m. / Doors open at 12 noon Required tickets will be available at the Campus Activities Information Desk THOMPSON MEMORIAL CHAPEL

SKINNER HALL / MARTEL AUDITORIUM

Jeffrey Brenner ’90

founder and executive director camden coalition of health care providers macarthur foundation award recipient

Helene Gayle

ceo / mckinsey social initiative

Patrick Geoghegan O.B.E.

professor of mental health and social care anglia ruskin university / moderator

Ellen Silbergeld ’67

professor of environmental health services johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health macarthur foundation award recipient

Reception 3: 00 p.m.

TENT ON THE CHAPEL LAWN