The Miscellany News
Volume CXLVIII | Issue 3
September 24, 2015
Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org
Slahi’s voice heard through diary Amanda Su
Guest Reporter
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Guest Reporter & News Editor
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t Vassar, traditions are constantly changing, taking on different meaning to students and evolving with the campus culture. Serenading is one such tradition, constantly in flux due to its controversial reputation on campus. This year’s Serenading, which took place on Sunday, Sept. 20, proved little different, as students and administrators grappled with where the century-old tradition was to go in the future in light of decreasing student
Guest Reporter
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Sarah Sandler Columnist
Writer and human rights activist Larry Siems gives Starr Lecture entitled Finding Mohamedou, Finding Ourselves: Uncensoring the Guantánamo Diary.
season, they are just considered students, like everyone else at Vassar. By having access to the weight room in their offseason when non-athletes do not, they are being granted a sort of preferential treatment that the NCAA discourages among Division III schools. Since the violation was announced over the summer, key players such as Culligan, the Director of Athletics and Physical Education Michelle Walsh, Head Athletic Trainer Cameron Williams, President and Vice President of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), senior Colleen O’Connell of women’s basketball and junior Trey Cimorelli of men’s volleyball have been frequently meeting to try to come up with a viable solution. In the email sent to athletes over the summer, Culligan stated, “To correct this violation, we are implementing a new policy that will limit student-athlete use of this room to those sport teams and programs that are currently in their declared playing and practice seasons. While you are in your traditional season you may use the room at will and freely. During your non-traditional segment, you may use that room only on the 16 dates that you will also be practicing with the entire team and See VWR on page 18
Inside this issue
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Support animals welcome FEATURES in ResLife
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ime in the water, whether it’s a beach, pool or lake, is often a big part of most people’s summers, but it rarely means weeks spent in a boat at sea. This past summer, Katie Hoots ’18 and Ben Lehr ’16 participated in two very different SEA (Sea Education Association) programs. SEA is an organization that coordinates a variety of sailing and ocean education trips during fall, winter and summer semesters.
Hoots’ program in particular was called “Aloha ‘Aina: People and Nature in the Hawaiian Islands. It was a collaborative study abroad program with Sea Education Association and Hawaii Pacific University” (press release). During her five week long program through the islands of Hawaii aboard a 134 foot sailboat called Robert C. Seamans, Hoots said, “We spent the first few weeks on land doing coursework and island hopping to learn about the culture and enviSee SEA on page 7
Exhibit examines race in media Sabrina Oh
Guest Reporter
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broken window concedes to the deluge of sunlight. The light enables one to only make out his austere visage. Fit snugly at the corner of his mouth, his half-smoked cigarette fumes away. He has a firm grasp on the left side
of the window. Has he just opened the window, or is he in the process of closing it? He leans forward, a gesture of impending action, or is it? Does he find respite in this urban vantage, or is it a vantage point, where he plans to target his next quarry? Meet Red Jackson, a subject of African-American photographer Gor-
don Parks. In many ways, Jackson is a typical teenager–he reads to his younger brother, does his chores and relaxes at home. But Jackson is also gang banger. Parks follows the prosaic details of this seventeen-year-old Harlem gang leader during the 1940s; his attraction to the subject See PARKS on page 17
courtesy of Vassar College Media Relations
owards the end of the summer, student-athletes received an email from Associate Director of Athletics Kim Culligan announcing a situation regarding compliance with the NCAA rules and regulations. The issue involved use of the Varsity Weight Room (VWR) when athletes are not in their playing and practice season. To the disappointment of many athletes and avid VWR goers, the NCAA rule in question had been widely misinterpreted by many Division III schools, Vassar included. The email from Culligan continued, “The use of our VWR is currently restricted to members of our teams only and is not open to the Vassar Community and other students attending Vassar College. By imposing this restriction, we are making it a benefit for student-athletes only. While you are out of season and not practicing and competing with your team, it would therefore be considered an extra benefit and a violation of the NCAA rules to use the VWR as you would need to be treated like every other student on this campus.” In the email Culligan explained the misunderstanding with the NCAA legislation to student-athletes. When student-athletes are not in their regular
interest and rising concerns among students about the event’s historical connection with hazing. Serenading is among the oldest extant traditions at Vassar, along with other events dating back to the 19th century such as Founder’s Day, the Daisy Chain and Salve Night. Originally called “step-singing,” Serenading began as an oral tradition in which the junior class sang to, and passed along marching songs to, freshmen, who would repeat the process in their junior years. See SERENADING on page 3
Pursuing knowledge on the high seas
NCAA policy cuts weight room hours Winnie Yeates
Serenading attracts dwindling crowds Derek Sonntag & Rhys Johnson
courtesy of Donna Aceto
ohamedou Ould Slahií’s voice can just barely be heard from behind the tightly sealed gates of Guantánamo Bay. Although his words passed through the bars almost ten years ago, Slahií reamins there, fourteen years after his incarceration. The freshmen class read Slahií’s story over the summer. In this year’s freshman common reading, the incoming Class of 2019 was presented with the book, “Guantánamo Diary,” written by Mohamedou Ould Slahi. Writer and human rights activist Larry Siems who edited, introduced, and annotated the book, presented this year’s STARR lecture, “Finding Mohamedou, Finding Ourselves: Uncensoring the Guantánamo Diary” on Sept. 24 in the Villard Room In addition, Siems gave a short background introduction of the book for incoming freshmen on the Freshmen Common Reading Program 2015 Moodle page. “It’s remarkable that we even have this book, really,” He said in the video. He went on to say, “Mohamedou, who wrote this book in 2005 in an isolation cell in Camp Echo in Guantánamo, wrote the 466 page manuscript by hand in English, his fourth language, a language that he learned almost entirely in Guantánamo.” Whenever a prisoner writes anything, Siems said, it is considered classified from the moSee STARR on page 6
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
After Life Magazine published a skewed version of Gordon Parks’ photographs, he dedicated his life to reclaiming his work. The Loeb will showcase Parks’ original collection of photographs, alongside the infamous Life Magazine article.
Humor Editor still striving to be a HUMOR Pokémon Master
14 ARTS
Students take Time Square with one-act play