The Miscellany News
Volume CXLIX | Issue 2
September 22, 2016
Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
McCoy lecture bridges identity gap Reinstatement of ASL meets student demand Clark Xu Reporter
With additional reporting by
Will Kyle
Sarah Henry
O
Guest Reporter
T Courtesy of Vassar College/Karl Rabe
ver the course of her visit to Vassar, social activist Yavilah McCoy proved that genuine discussions about faith-based, racial, class and gender identities are not just possible, but completely necessary. McCoy delivered a lecture entitled, “Faith, Race, Power, and Privilege” on Sept. 7 and led anti-oppression workshops on Sept. 8 and 9. Discussing her identity within Jewish communities and in the broader context of contemporary American society, McCoy emphasized that any solution or compromise must be born out of open-minded dialogue between people with different backgrounds and personal histories. McCoy began, “When people get together to share, when they open their hearts, when they say something that you haven’t See IDENTITY on page 3
Social activist Yavilah McCoy gave a lecture on Sept. 7 and led workshops on Sept. 8 and 9 dealing with intersectional identities.
Vassar junior launches social app Emily Hwu and Imaan Lamba Guest Reporters
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re you ever sitting in your dorm room on a Friday night, wondering what the heck there is to do on campus? Sure, you could go check out the Mug, but then you risk having to trek all the way to Main and back if it ends up being a bust. If
only there were a quick way to see which events are currently hot and which are definitely not. Sule Marshall ’18 has set out to address this very issue through his app, Vybz. The creation of the app began the summer before Sule’s freshman year when he and his friend were discussing a different app that locates and rates restaurants in
his home country of Trinidad and Tobago. Sule realized that the base ideas of this app could be refocused to better apply to the needs of the Trinbagonian youth. Just like students at Vassar, their interests lay more toward concerts, comedy shows and themed parties than expensive dining options. The app he imagSee APP on page 6
his fall, American Sign Language (ASL) joined the long list of languages available for study at Vassar as a part of the Self-Instructional Language Program (SILP). SILP aims to allow students to study languages that are not commonly offered at colleges and universities. As such, it is structured very differently from the traditional classroom setting. As the name of the program suggests, the majority of the responsibility is placed on the student to learn the language through a combination of audio and visual resources. Twice a week, students meet with a tutor who is a native speaker of their language of study in order to practice and perfect what they have learned from the book. This all may sound very daunting, but many students attest that it is also rewarding, allowing the student to have practical experience in communicating in their language of study. Serving as the coordinator of the SILP since the fall of 2014, Lioba A. Gerhardi said, “By providing contact with native speakers and exposure to other cultures, the program also contributes to diversity on campus.” Gerhardi submitted her proposal to add ASL in January and September of 2015 with the support of faculty from the Department of Education and Director of the Office of Accessibility and Educational Opportunity, Mary Jo Cavanaugh. The SILP
now consists of ASL, Gaelic, Hindi, Korean, Portuguese, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish and Yiddish. Students’ enthusiasm in the course was vital in making bringing the course to Vassar. As Gerhardi noted, “The addition of ASL was set in motion by strong student interest ... ASL is an important addition to our curriculum, as it recognizes the importance of deaf culture in society and our commitment to be inclusive.” The ASL class received overwhelming interest when it first launched this fall. About 30 people showed up to the orientation meeting for the class which was meant to be capped at 20, and I was excited to be included as a member of the class. Sophie Cash ’19 is one of these excited students. After taking two years of ASL in high school, she was disappointed to learn that Vassar did not offer it during the 2015-2016 school year. She went to speak to Gerhadi about her love for ASL and was delighted to learn that a plan to add ASL to the program was in the works: “I wish I could say I had a hand in making it happen, but I was really on the periphery of the initiative– just kind of on the side lines going ‘Yay! Thank God this is happening!’” Last fall, Associate Professor of English Leslie Dunn’s media studies course on The Arts of Silence invited the sign language poetry group Flying Words to perform on campus, connectSee ASL on page 7
Fall season in full Jazz prodigy to perform with trio swing for VC tennis E Sasha Gopalakrishnan Guest Reporter
Lindsay Wolk
Guest Reporter
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Inside this issue
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Event to fire up international FEATURES students
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very year, Vassar’s Music Department carefully selects artists to be a part of its concert series. One annual concert is designated a Dickinson-Kayden Event that primarily brings jazz concerts to the Skinner Hall stage. This year, Vassar presents the Julian Lage Trio, made up of esteemed jazz guitarist Julian Lage, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Kenney Wollesen. This acclaimed group was recently on an international tour.
Awards at age 13 and was a member of Gary Burton’s band at age 16. Now, at 28 years, Lage has already had a successful musical career spanning two decades and has even been called the best living jazz guitarist. Micah Katz-Zeiger ’18, a jazz student and guitarist himself, expressed his agreement with that opinion, after he saw him play in Boston with Gary Burton in 2012. “Modern guitarists usually tend to rely on distortions, echoes and other effects in See JAZZ on page 17
Courtesy of Julian Lage on Twitter
oth the men’s and women’s tennis teams suffered huge talent losses from last season, but their futures look bright as they aim to improve upon last year’s results. Longtime head coach Kathy Campbell has returned to Vassar after taking sabbatical last spring. Over the last 35 years, Coach Campbell has led the Vassar women’s tennis team to winning over 70 percent of their matches. Last spring, the women finished 13-8 overall under interim head coach Bruce Levine. Levine and Campbell have very different coaching styles but the team remains strong despite the back and forth in leadership. “I don’t even think there was an adjustment period, everything just went back to the way it was before she [Coach Campbell] left. We all missed her last semester and are happy to have her back,” junior Morgan Fitzgerald said. The fall season serves as an opportunity for Campbell to evaluate the team and consider her starting lineup for the spring. Leading the way for the Brewers is junior Kate Christensen. She will continue to take the No. 1 spot after competing against some of the country’s top players as a sophomore last year. Christensen has lived up to her fourstar tennisrecruiting.net rating as both a freshman and a sophomore, with 13-4
and 13-11 singles records respectively. Last year’s No. 2 singles player, Courtney Geiss, will miss both the fall and spring seasons, as she is studying abroad at the London School of Economics for the entirety of her junior year. Other notable losses include Kelsey Van Noy and Lauren Stauffer, both of whom graduated as members of the Class of 2016. Senior captain Shayna Becker is looking to replace her former doubles partner, senior Hanna McGuire, who decided to not play for her last year. Becker and McGuire, who went 8-7 overall at No. 1, accounted for the biggest win of last season when they beat a pair of All-Americans from Skidmore in Liberty League play. Along with Becker and McGuire, No. 2 pair Van Noy and then-freshman Morgane Flournoy won their match against the Thoroughbreds. Then-sophomore Morgan Fitzgerald, Becker and Flournoy each defeated their respective singles opponents, bringing home the woman’s biggest win of the season 5-4. Since McGuire’s departure, Coach Campbell has tested out new doubles teams, pairing Becker with both Flournory and freshman Tara Edwards. “Shayna and I share a really good energy on the court and our styles of play work well together,” Flournoy expressed. “Shayna is very consistent and See TENNIS on page 18
They will be performing at Skinner Hall’s Mary Anna Fox Martel Recital Hall this Saturday, Sept. 24 at 8 p.m., and the concert is free and open to the public. Julian Lage, a child prodigy on the guitar, has such abundant musical prowess that he has performed with remarkable artists like Jim Hall, Herbie Hancock, Nels Cline and Carlos Santana when he was only nine years old. There was even a documentary about him entitled “Jules at Eight.” He went to Berklee College of Music, appeared on stage at the Grammy
The Julian Lage Trio will perform on Saturday, Sept. 24, at 8 p.m. in Skinner Hall’s Mary Anna Fox Martel Concert Hall. The jazz performance by the highly acclaimed trio will be part of the All Families Weekend lineup.
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