Misc9 29 16

The Miscellany News

Volume CXLIX | Issue 3

September 29, 2016

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

College to update policy Wilderness Fair nurtures discussion on Title IX reporting S Emily Sayer

Guest Reporter

Eilis Donohue News Editor

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weatered and sandaled 50-somethings mill about the Farm en masse, their eyes alight with talk of vermicompost and stormwater pollution reform. Students and other community members peruse the scene with ice cream in hand, pausing to examine soil samples and taste fresh veggies while a klezmer band serenades onlookers. Such is the scene at the Urban Wilderness Festival and Environmental Fair, coordinated by the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve and Dutchess County Environmental Management Council.

The organizations came together to co-host the event with the hope of promoting environmental awareness and activism among residents of the greater Dutchess County area, inviting 20 local groups to participate See WILDERNESS on page 6

Emily Sayer/The Miscellany News

he term “Title IX,” which stems from the Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 prohibiting sexual discrimination in educational institutions, has become a proxy for talking about everything regarding gender and sex discrimination. At Vassar, Title IX compliance falls under the auspice of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action.

The current status of confidentiality and reporting on the EOAA page reads as follows: “At Vassar, some individuals and campus resources can offer confidentiality while others have specific obligations to respond when they receive a report of a crime or a campus policy violation. Most resources on campus fall in the middle of these two extremes.

Neither the college nor the law requires them to divulge private information that is shared with them except in certain circumstances.”

However, the administration is currently aiming to shift this policy, in order to make all Vassar employees mandated Title IX reporters; the alteration will need to pass by a simple majority, likely at the October or November faculty meeting, in order to become standard policy. Should it be passed, all employees will receive training to be adequately equipped to respond appropriately to a potential Title IX case.

“We will be conducting training sessions for all members of our community

on Title IX and responsible reporting, including how to respond to a report of a sexual assault and how to steer students to professional resources for support,” Interim President Jonathan Chenette described. VSA Chair of Student Affairs and Chair of Equity and Inclusion Cecilia Hoang ’18 agreed that good training will be necessary to a successful implementation of the policy. “[T]he reality of it is, not all professors are going to be equally prepared to have those really serious conversations with a student, a student who’s seeking support and care,” she noted. “[I]f you’re saying these professors are going to be resources now, and that they’re going to handle it right, make sure they handle it right.”

Vassar would be in good company with this policy shift. As Chenette observed, “Other [higher education] institutions have moved to designating faculty and almost all employees as responsible reporters. In our region, the following is a partial list of institutions designating all faculty as responsible reporters: Wesleyan, Bard College, Marist College, Mount Saint Mary College and Sarah Lawrence.”

The EOAA and other sexual violence prevention programs at Vassar have also been undergoing changes in recent semesters. In January 2016, Rachel Pereira joined the EOAA Office as the new Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action and Title IX CoorSee TITLE IX on page 3

Community members and students gather to watch klezmer band and browse the displays at the Urban Wilderness and Environmental Fair..

Patel lectures on education, equity Imaan Lamba Guest Reporter

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he topic of this year’s Elaine Lipschutz biennial lecture, given

by Dr. Leigh Patel of Boston College was, “Intersectionality in Education: Are we ready?” The Elaine Lipschutz lecture on multicultural issues takes place in honor of namesake Professor Emeritus Lipschutz once every two years and includes speakers who make current contributions to the

field of education.

Elaine Lipschutz was one of the co-founders of Vassar’s Education Department in 1972 and taught full-time at Vassar until 1992. Before joining the Vassar faculty part-time in 1966, Lipschutz was a teacher at a public school in the nearby Arlington district. She first started work at Vassar as part of the “5 College Project,” which was a program created to develop a framework for the education of teachers in

small liberal arts colleges.

Dayle Rebelein of the Education department described Professor Lipschutz’s teaching style as a unique combination of theory and practice which pushed her students to excel, several of whom now teach all over the country She has also been a source of support to the community by making consistent contributions over the years.

See EDUCATION on page 5

CAAD offers dynamic event lineup Vassar lifting coach pushes athletes farther I Noah Purdy and Elena Schultz Arts Editors

Fiona MacLeod and Kelly Pushie Guest Reporters

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Courtesy of Annemone Taake/Costa Compagnie

n 2014, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation gave Vassar a $750,000 grant to develop the Creative Arts Across Disciplines (CAAD). The grant is multifaceted in nature, providing for visiting artists and residences, summer student projects, multidisciplinary course development and many events throughout the year.

This past summer, CAAD sponsored three multi-arts collectives, with students collaborating on projects bridging art, science, philosophy and psychology.

The groups have started presenting their projects this semester, starting with the Mug installation called “You’re Data,” an exploration of the connection between science and art.

Next came Create and Control’s interactive theatre piece “In the Case of a Person.” Up next is “Seeing Shadows, Hearing Echoes,” an immersive experience based on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, premiering Oct. 3 through 7.

One of the first big CAAD events of the year, coming up on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, is COSTA COMPAGNIE’s multimedia “Conversion/After Afghanistan.” In collaboration with Vassar dancers and Posse veterans, it examines the impact of NATO forces leaving Afghanistan.

CAAD provides the Vassar campus with a wealth of thought-provoking arts events, and they have started this year off with a bang.

See CAAD on page 15

The upcoming performance, COSTA COMPAGNIE’S “Conversion/After Afghanistan,” is just one of CAAD’s exciting multidisciplinary productions.

Inside this issue

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NEWS

New drinking regulations hard to swallow

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So politics very election much OPINIONS liberal

o most people, the thought of trekking across campus to spend time doing burpees, squats and inverted rows may not seem appealing.

But Vassar College’s varsity weightlifting coach, Cameron Williams, has been able to inspire hundreds of student athletes to prioritize and enjoy lifting for the last three years, enabling them to perform beyond what they ever thought was possible.

With Coach Williams’s knowledge and experience in strength training as well as speed and agility work, many athletes become even more equipped to conquer and thrive in their respective sports.

An All-American indoor track and field star in NCAA Division III high jump, Coach Williams has been athletically successful starting early in his life. “I started strength training with bodyweight exercises when I was in middle school, and started using weights when I was 14,” he explained.

Williams had similar jobs at Georgetown University and the Potomac School in McLean, VA prior to making the switch to the head of varsity weightlifting at Vassar.

“I’m originally from southern Connecticut,” Williams said. “I was coaching in Washington D.C. at the

17 ARTS

time I saw an application for the job at Vassar, and I saw it as an opportunity to move closer to home.”

Coach Williams emphasizes the importance of strength training for athletes of all different sports. There are various aspects in each that can be enhanced through the addition of strength and agility.

“It benefits athletes in two ways.

The first is that strength and power are the base upon which many athletic attributes are built,” Williams articulated. “Running quickly, jumping high, changing direction and throwing an object all require one to generate force generally as quickly as one can. The second and less obvious benefit is injury prevention. Put simply, a stronger body is often harder to break.”

Vista Grinde, a freshman tennis player, not only has the privilege of lifting with Coach Williams, but also of working for him.

Her job consists of cleaning benches and mats, returning weights to their proper locations, printing out workout instruction sheets and taking attendance of the athletes that show up to each scheduled lift session.

This outside perspective permits her to observe Williams’s ability push the student athletes that he instructs.

Although she has only worked for a few weeks, Vista explained that WilSee COACH on page 18

Beyoncé’s stage presence doesn’t sour on tour

The Miscellany News

Page 2

September 29, 2016

Editor-in-Chief Rhys Johnson

Senior Editors Zander Bashaw Emma Jones

Contributing Editors Elizabeth Dean Yifan Wang

News Eilis Donohue Opinions Nick Barone Arts Noah Purdy Elena Schultz Sports Hanna McGuire Design Talya Phelps Charlotte VarcoeWolfson Online Kelsey Quinn Copy Jackson Ingram Humor and Satire Evelyn Frick Courtesy of Antigone Delton

Antigone Delton just began classes for the semester in Paris, and is taking advantage of sightseeing in the city. From one Instagramable campus to another–this photo is inside the Sorbonne’s Latin Quarter building. To learn more about Antigone’s travels, visit farandaway.miscellanynews.org!

The Miscellany News 29

September

Thursday

Late Night at the Lehman Loeb

5:00pm | Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center| Art

John Burroughs and the North American Review panel discussion 6:30pm | Taylor 203 |Library

Volleyball (W) vs. Hunter College

7:00pm | Kenyon Gym | Athletics

Weekender_ 30

September

Friday

Scholarship Ambassador Pizza Party

4:00pm | Faculty Parlor | Office of Alumnae/i Affairs and Development

Soccer (W) vs. Clarkson University

4:00pm | Prentiss Field | Athletics

CAAD- Costa Compagnie 7:00pm | Kenyon | Dean of the Faculty

VHP Bonfire

7:00pm | South Commons Lawn | VHP

No Offense First Show of the Year!

8:00pm & 10:00pm | Blodgett Auditorium | No Offense

Lathrop LUV

10:00pm | Villard Room | Lathrop House

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October

Saturday

Tennis (W) vs. Bard College 9:00am | Joss Courts | Athletics

Volleyball (W) Tri-Match vs.

John Jay College & Rutgers University -Camden 11:00pm | Kenyon Gym | Athletics

Lacrosse (M) vs. Alumni

1:00pm | Prentiss Field| Athletics

Soccer (W) vs. St. Lawrence University

2:00pm | Prentiss Field | Athletics

Vassar College Majors and The Pianists Concert 4:00pm | Villard Room | Vassar College Majors

CAAD- Costa Compagnie 7:00pm | Kenyon | Dean of the Faculty

The Gaels’ Honour: Early Music for Voice and Harp from Gaelic Scotland and Ireland

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October

Sunday

Fencing (M/W) Alumnae/i Match 10:00am | Walker Field House Bays | Athletics

Assistant Arts Assistant Sports Assistant Copy Assistant Social Media Web Designer Web Master

Patrick Tanella Olivia O’Loughlin Claire Baker Hannah Nice George Witteman Andy Carrera

Reporters Sieu Nguyen Sabrina Oh Clark Xu Columnists Jimmy Christon Jillian Elkin Saachi Jain Steven Park Jesser Horowitz Design Scarlett Neuberger Samana Shrestha Copy Laila Volpe Jessica Roden Laura Wigginton Gabriela Calderon James Bonanno Leah Cates Sumiko Neary Diana Henry

Rugby (W) vs. Marist College

11:00am | Rugby Field at the Farm| Athletics

Rugby (M) vs. SUNY Maritime

2:00am | Rugby Field at the Farm | Athletics

Sanchita Bhattacharya: Odissi Dance 2:00pm |Villard Room | ASA

Abendmusik

3:00pm | Skinner Recital Hall | Music Department

Rosh Hashanah Sedor 6:00pm | UpC | CJC

Rosh Hashanah Dinner

6:00pm | the Aula | RSLwww

8:00pm | Skinner Recital Hall | Music Department

Raymond Under the Stars 8:00pm | Blodgett Courtyard | Raymond House

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

CORRECTION POLICY The Miscellany News will only corrections for any misquotes, resentations or factual errors for ticle within the semester it is

accept misrepan arprinted.

September 29, 2016

NEWS

Page 3

Stephens, Schreier rekindle Israel-Palestine VC discussion Clark Xu Reporter

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group, but rather for equal rights.”

The rhetoric of individuals like Stephens, a journalist at a renowned publication like the Wall Street Journal, carries weight in forming U.S. foreign policy and public perceptions of the Middle East. Acknowledging this influence, SJP reported in an emailed statement, “It is important to respond to Bret Stephens, because his opinions do not sit on the racist fringe where they belong, but rather represent more or less the mainstream perspective on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the U.S. The new, 38 billion dollar aid-deal to Israel is evidence enough of this. It should never be forgotten that the Occupation of Palestine exists only with the complicity [of] Western governments and corporations, and that Bret Stephens and others like him have an important role in normalizing the Occupation in the mind of the American public. It

Laurel Hennen Vigil/The Miscellany News

he arrival of a pro-Israel speaker on campus on Sept. 20 rapidly reignited students and faculty in the debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Continuing the series of events supported by the President Office’s Dialogue and Engagement Across Difference Fund, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Steven Cook hosted the interview “Why I Support Israel and You Should Too” with Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens.

Two days later, the campus community responded with the event “Reflecting on Bret Stephens” hosted by Professor of History Joshua Schreier.

Cook began the session by asking Stephens to respond to the titular question: why one might support Israel in this contentious debate. Stephens said, “Look, it’s actually...a very complicated question. It involves two main points: one is identity, and the other is values.” Explaining that his own Jewish ancestry and love of Israel motivated him to argue for the integrity of its political borders, Stephens argued that negotiation for a two-state solution has stalled from the refusal of groups like Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organization, to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Interim President Jonathan Chenette explained that President Emerita Catharine Bond Hill decided to invite Stephens and Cook to campus to encourage intersectional, respectful thought. Chenette continued, “Cook did a good job of asking questions that audience members might have had about the topic. Stephens had a clear position that he articulated with conviction while acknowledging some contrary viewpoints.”

During the second half of the session, the audience was invited to pose questions to the speakers. Chenette commented, “The questions from students were well-informed, engaged and challenging. I appreciated one student’s willingness to challenge some assumptions about the audience conveyed by Stephens in his opening remarks and Stephens’s sincere apology for those remarks.”

For example, Stephens suggested that the youthful idealism of students in activist movements

could disconnect them from political realities.

Schreier, however, disagreed. “I am continually impressed by the intelligence, engagement and curiosity of so many Vassar students,” he declared. Citing student challenges to Stephens’s arguments, he explained, “As for questions, a number dealt with Stephens’s implicit argument that JVP [Jewish Voice for Peace] / SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine]’s activism is to be condemned because gay rights and women’s rights are respected in Israel.

Other questions related to his vague, straw dog arguments resting on the false dichotomy between those who are ‘pro-Israel’ and those who feel Israel ‘does not have a right to exist.’ He was ignoring, of course, the fact that the major student movements at North American campuses advocating a boycott (notably SJP and JVP) are not calling for the elimination, expulsion or subjugation of any national

On Sept. 20, speakers Steven Cook and Bret Stephens engaged Vassar students and faculty alike on a familiar topic with a seldom-heard approach: why to be pro-Israel in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

is for these reasons that it is necessary to constantly challenge him and his viewpoints.”

Chabad on the Fulton Directors Rabbi Daniel Sanoff and Dalia Sanoff reflected, “In thinking about this issue, we are reminded of a section of the Talmud which relates to the manner in which scholarly debates were conducted two thousand years ago between two competing Jewish groups–the House of Shammai and the House of Hillel. The Sanoffs continued, “The Talmud (Mishnah, page 13b) notes that when one group borrowed utensils used for ritual food preparation, the borrowing group would follow the lending group’s rules even where they contradicted their own practices. Both groups understood they could be respectful of the other’s beliefs without diminishing their commitment to their own principles.”

Some members of the community, however, prefer to focus on the College’s ethical obligations to human rights. SJP stated, “SJP’s goal is not to resolve tensions, because tension is not the problem.

The problem is the Israeli Occupation of Palestine and the human rights violations that occur there.

SJP hopes that the administration, faculty and student body will altogether realize the moral imperative of the situation and collectively decide to fight the Occupation through BDS and other methods.”

Keeping the focus on morality, Schreier added, “For those looking to make a ‘positive contribution,’ I suggest rejecting all overt or veiled racist, anti-Arab or antisemitic assumptions and supporting the non-violent movement to pressure Israel to change their laws and guarantee equality for everyone, regardless of religion, race or ethnicity.”

The Sanoffs reiterate the importance of developing mutual understanding through dialogue saying, “Our hope for this school year is that everyone can take a lesson from Shammai and Hillel; have strong ideas and be passionate about your beliefs, but in doing so ensure that your neighbor also has a safe space to do the same. Push yourself to critically examine your own views, engage your neighbor in challenging conversations, allow each person’s voice to be heard and through this come to a greater understanding of each other.”

College employees to be designated “responsible reporters” TITLE IX continued from page 1

dinator. In May 2015, a group of faculty, staff and administrators were trained to participate in the Mentor In Violence Prevention (MVP) program.

The EOAA works alongside MVP, Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention and other organizations and offices on campus to reduce incidences of and increase education about sexual violence and assault. “Our goal in all we do is to decrease the number of sexual assaults and instances of sexual misconduct that occur on campus and to keep our campus community safe. Our desire is that everyone on campus will work on concert to help us achieve these goals,” noted Interim Title IX Coordinator and Assistant Director of Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action/​Title IX Investigator Brittney Denley in an emailed statement.

The College conducted a voluntary survey of all students in Spring 2015, called the Vassar College Campus Climate Survey, regarding Sexual Assault and Misconduct, Dating Violence, Stalking, and Vassar’s Title IX Processes and better known as the “What Happens Here” survey. After analysis, the results revealed that very few survivors of sexual assault file an official report with the College.

According to that survey, just 10.3 percent of cisgender women, 6.3 percent of cisgender men and 25 percent of non-cisgender people surveyed filed reports with the EOAA. Furthermore, this does not take into account all of the potential survivors among the student body who did not respond to the survey. Additionally, of the 1,172 students who responded, only 60 identified as non-cisgender or did not respond to current gender identification.

This very low reporting rate was one of the reasons the administration decided to enact the new reporting policy. “The disproportion the campus climate survey documented between the number of cases of sexual assault indicated on the survey and the number reported to the Title IX Office was an important reason for considering changes to campus reporting policies, but not the only reason,” commented Chenette in an emailed statement.

The survey also shone a light on students’ satisfaction, or lack thereof, with the performance of the Title IX processes. In a section of the survey results report titled “Perceptions of Vassar’s

Title IX Sexual Assault/Misconduct Procedures, Outcomes, and Information,” students ranked which services provided by the Title IX Office they thought were best fulfilled at the current moment. The results indicate that students consider reports filed by or against faculty and higher administrators more serious than reports filed by or against students.

The survey also revealed that students who participated in the poll have the most confidence in Title IX actions in categories such as “keeping information confidential,” “limited to those who need to know,” “taking a Title IX report or incident seriously” and “taking steps to assure the safety of those filing a complaint/report.” On the other hand, they reported low confidence in areas such as “conducting thorough and unbiased hearings,” “thorough and unbiased investigations,” “accurately determining what actually occurred” and “taking appropriate action(s) against perpetrators found responsible.”

While the survey provided some insight on how students feel they are being supported, it also served the purpose of getting numbers on these procedures and filings for the College. Hoang remarked, “[W]hat I really want to see from the institution is for them to figure out how they can provide institutional support for survivors that’s centered on their needs first and foremost, above the facts and figures of your reporting rates.” A member of CARES who wished to remain anonymous responded to the issue as well in an emailed statement, explaining their qualms about this policy change. They agreed that while the administration may have good intentions, the way they are proceeding with making change in the Title IX investigation process can be harmful to students.

“CARES understands that the administration would like to increase reporting levels, and that this new policy is in response to the gross underreporting that occurs on college campuses,” they conceded. “However, instead of addressing the root of the problem that leads to underreporting (a Title IX process that historically retraumatizes survivors, keeps perpetrators on campus and ultimately serves the interests of the College), the administration is attempting to artificially milk reports in a way that will invariably stunt student

healing and create an increasingly awkward student-professor relationship.”

Given the recent loss of confidential resources on campus, including the dissolution of CARES and TLC as on-call peer listening services, some students expressed concern that enforcing mandated reporting will further reduce survivors’ options. Hoang stressed the need for professional, confidential and safe confidants, saying, “I don’t know about you, but none of my friends are licensed social workers. If we’re saying we need institutional support, that’s what it means.”

Hoang argued that resources like this are essential to providing adequate support for survivors. “[T]his is a student life issue, because unfortunately there are so many survivors on our campus, and we’re seeing that more and more confidential and private resources are being taken away; first CARES and TLC and now this,” she explained.

“So when those kinds of support services for survivors are dwindling, I’m just worried that there needs to be something put up in the place of those things that are now missing.”

The CARES representative asserted, “CARES is very concerned with the proposed change that would require all faculty to become mandated reporters. We believe that this new policy will limit academic freedom, personal healing and valuable faculty mentorship.” Hoang agreed, “[T]here’s a lot of reasons why survivors aren’t ready for the whole process right off the bat, or even sometimes ever, and that should be respected.”

Although most faculty will be made mandatory reporters, should the policy change be approved, administrators involved in these discussions maintain that this will not mean an end to confidential resources. “There will be specific exceptions of people to whom students may speak confidentially with no required reporting, including professionals in the Counseling Center, Religious and Spiritual Life and the SAVP Office,” assured Chenette.

In the case that this policy is adopted, a professor, administrator or other employee conversing with a student about an issue that they feel violates Title IX rights is required to inform the student with whom they are speaking that they will be contacting the Title IX Coordinator. However,

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

this does not mean that a full investigation will proceed. The student will receive an email from the Title IX coordinators, with a list of resources they could seek out as well as details about how to proceed with filing an official investigation if desired. That process, as laid out on the EOAA website, follows these steps: report the incident; meet with a Title IX investigator; formal notice of investigation; formal resolution process; another meeting with a Title IX investigator; finally a Title IX hearing and afterwards an appeal, if necessary.

The VSA only learned about the potential change in a meeting with Chenette, and the information is not yet public knowledge among the student body. Hoang pointed out that the administration did not inform students of the possible change in policy until they were practically certain that they would present it for approval, which she believes is a recurring pattern of interaction between students and the administration. “I think that’s part of a bigger issue. If you compare that with how the smoking ban went–they did two years of surveys and they asked the campus what they wanted, they conferred with New York State health departments and that was a huge process and there was room for student feedback, even if they were going to make the decision all along.”

She maintained that the VSA, as the representative voice for the student body, should have more input on these decisions. “Because we are meant to have a shared governance at this school, at least on paper, it does say that the VSA is supposed to have a stakes in how the school is run. That’s why the VSA is the way it is. So what we were saying in a lot of meetings [with administrators] is that, you can’t present these things as small changes even if they seem that way to you, because in reality both of these policy changes have a great influence on how actual student life is. That’s going to really impact how people are operating on this campus, for better or for worse.”

Representatives from the VSA has been meeting with administrators involved in the decision in the past few weeks, and will be meeting with others in the coming weeks. The relevant administrators include Denley, Chenette, Dean of the College Christopher Roellke and Anthropology Professor and Faculty Chair of the EOAA Colleen Cohen.

NEWS

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September 29, 2016

Updated party rules strive to improve student safety Laurel Hennen Vigil Guest Reporter

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ny freshman who arrived at Vassar last month expecting wild parties may find their fantasies dashed by new restrictions enacted this semester by the college administration. The number of attendees is now limited to 25, hard liquor is banned and members of Campus Patrol—rather than Safety and Security officers, as was the prior case—are required to monitor gatherings. The existing rules, which include a campus-wide ban on beer kegs and the mandatory registration of all parties, will remain in effect.

When asked about the changes, Vassar Interim President Jonathan Chenette explained that the 25-person limit is simply an effort to adhere to state fire codes that had previously been ignored or forgotten. Vassar Student Association

(VSA) President Calvin Lamothe ’17 added that hard liquor was banned in an attempt to avoid dangerous amounts of alcohol consumption. “It is harder for hosts to control how much liquor their guests are drinking [compared to] beer or wine, and it’s easier to get drunk quickly, which can lead to dangerous situations,” Lamothe wrote in an emailed statement.

Though the intent of the regulations is increased student safety, some worry that the new rules may prove unrealistic. While the VSA has not taken an official stance on the matter, Lamothe commented, “I’m not sure that any amount of regulation will change the amount of partying on campus, and I am concerned that the situations these new rules are trying to prevent will manifest in less controlled settings.” He added, “I don’t think placing an outright ban on hard liquor is going to curtail problems surrounding

Charlotte Varcoe-Wolfson/The Miscellany News

The new party regulations, if passed, would reduce the number of people permitted in one party and prohibit hosts from serving hard liquor, in an effort to create a safer experience.

alcohol, since there are many other settings in which people can consume [it].”

It’s true; if students can obtain alcohol for parties, either because they’re over 21 or their fake I.D.s claim they are, there’s nothing to stop them from downing several shots before going to a party where beer and wine are being served.

Pre-gaming, as this practice is known, can in fact be more dangerous than drinking at parties, according to a study entitled “Drinking Before Going to Licensed Premises: An Event-Level Analysis of Predrinking, Alcohol Consumption, and Adverse Outcomes” that was published in the scientific journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research in February 2013.

The danger stems from the consumption of a high concentration of alcohol in a short period of time, rather than over the course of several hours.

A sophomore who wished to remain anonymous expressed concern that the potential increase in pre-gaming will lead to a rise in the number of students requiring alcohol-related treatment from Vassar’s Emergency Medical Services. According to Chenette, “Our [number] of medical transports is very out of proportion to the size of our student body,” which may have been part of the rationale for creating the new restrictions.

Noyes House President Takunda Maisva ’19 echoed these apprehensions about unsafe alcohol consumption and added that he worries the ban on hard liquor could lead to an increase in drug use on campus. He stated, “I don’t think that them banning [hard liquor] is going to do anything, I don’t think it’s going to make a difference. And also, the party limitations, the number of people [allowed to be present], that’s not going to change. I don’t think that they’re going to be able to enforce [the rules] very well.” Chenette acknowledged, “I know that [the rules] will change the party culture in some way,” but that he hopes these changes will move partying in a “healthier direction.”

In addition to students’ concerns about possible negative consequences, there has been a

serious lack of communication about the new rules, both between the administration and students and within the administration itself.

Chenette said he had been unaware of the ban on hard liquor and had found out about the limit on party attendees only a few weeks before, when the VSA brought it to his attention. Furthermore, in a casual poll of 152 mostly first-year Vassar students conducted on Facebook, only 37.5 percent said they knew about the new regulations.

One freshman, who also requested anonymity, received a conduct write-up for attending an unregistered party in early September, despite the fact that she wasn’t drinking there. While she had heard about the new rules from friends, she said, “I didn’t hear that from the administration.”

In fact, much, if not all, of the communication about the new regulations seems to have been through word-of-mouth. Maisva ’19, for example, said that he learned of them from Noyes House Advisor Christina Winnett and that it was mentioned at a Board of Residential Affairs meeting. However, “[T]he house teams didn’t get any [official] information about party regulations changing,” he added.

Despite these miscommunications, the administration is increasing its efforts to get students more involved in these types of decisions.

Chenette said that he has spoken with the Dean of the College Christopher Roellke about creating an alcohol task force to examine school policies on this subject. “I fully expect there will be student representation in that group,” he said.

Lamothe, for one, would welcome this change.

“Far more often than I or the VSA would like, major policy changes that affect students directly are made without any student consultation,” he said. “Perhaps with a seat at the table, we would be able to enact more productive policies or at least understand the changes better and be able to communicate that reasoning to our constituents.” The VSA Executive Board will be meeting with Vassar Dean of Students Adriana di Bartolo on Oct. 6 to discuss the regulations.

Police violence shakes Tulsa Trigger warning: police brutality Terence T. Crutcher’s final moments were spent on the sunbaked asphalt of 36 Street North, in Tulsa, OK. His SUV had broken down before he could make it home from a music appreciation class, and a police encounter turned deadly for the 40-year-old.

Officer Betty Jo Shelby, who was charged with Crutcher’s death last Friday, had been on her way to handle a domestic violence call when she spotted Crutcher’s stalled car blocking the road. The officer got out of her cruiser and began questioning Crutcher about the vehicle. An affidavit published on Sept. 22 reads, “He was mumbling to himself and would not answer any of Officer Shelby’s questions” (The Daily Beast, “Tulsa DA: Cop ‘Overreacted’ by Shooting Terence Crutcher,” 09.22.2016). He then began to walk back towards his vehicle, hands in the air, allegedly ignoring Shelby’s calls to stop.

Many more officers arrived on the scene soon after: three by cruiser, two–one of whom, David Shelby, is Officer Shelby’s husband–by police helicopter. Video recording taken from the helicopter shows how Shelby, a white police officer, ultimately gunned down Crutcher, an African-American civilian (The Daily Beast).

In a video tweeted out on Sept. 19 by the account Unstripped Voice, a platform advocating racial, social and economic equality, the officers can be heard discussing the series of events. An abrupt shift in the camera angle obfuscates the moments between Crutcher reaching his car and the time up until Shelby shot him. “Time for the Taser, I think,” says one officer. “I got a feeling that’s about to happen,” responds another, adding, “Looks like a bad dude. Could be on something.” “Shots fired!” Shelby can be heard yelling as Crutcher collapses.

The Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that Crutcher had died from a gunshot wound to the chest. His death was promptly ruled a homicide, thus catapulting

the Sept. 16 shooting into the national limelight (News Channel 4, “Oklahoma Medical Examiner Releases Terence Crutcher’s Preliminary Autopsy Reports,” 09.23.2016).

After Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler declared Shelby responsible for “unlawfully and unnecessarily” gunning down an unarmed man, he officially charged her with one count of first-degree manslaughter a week after the initial incident. She turned herself in promptly thereafter. While the charge for first-degree manslaughter in Oklahoma ranges from four years to life, Shelby was released on $50,000 bail later that day (CNN, “Tulsa Police Officer Charged with Manslaughter,” 09.23.2016).

Shelby’s troubling history of domestic disputes and excessive force complaints were brought to light after video of the shooting was made public. The discoveries highlight the contrived nature behind efforts media outlets take to demonize minority victims of police brutality while humanizing the accused.

Such stories include Times reporter John Eligon proclaiming that Michael Brown, a Black teenager killed by then-officer Darren Wilson, was, in fact, “no angel” as well as the repeated references to Trayvon Martin’s drug use by countless news sources.

Adding to this recurring narrative, public scrutiny of Shelby’s character changes the paradigm of how racially motivated police violence is being reported (The Huffington Post, “Cop Who Shot Terence Crutcher Has History of Drug Use, Domestic Disturbances,” 09.22.2016).

However, despite these hints of a possible change in public mindset, the problem of police brutality still remains, its frequency seemingly unchanged. The ongoing occurrence of deaths similar to Crutcher’s was made even more apparent as news of yet another police shooting rocked Charlotte, NC (The New York Times, “Yielding to Pressure, Charlotte Releases Video of Keith Scott Shooting,” 09.24.2016).

News Briefs Obama gives final address at U.N. On Tuesday, Sept. 20, President Barack Obama addressed the U.N. General Assembly in New York for the last time. His remarks covered a wide range of issues, from domestic disputes to international relations stagnation to reflecting on his legacy as an international policy maker. His tone was of a nature that reflected a “deeper urgency...for international order,” a departure from the often lighter tone of his previous seven addresses to the international organization (New York Times, “Obama, in Farewell to U.N., Paints Stark Choices for Unsettled World”, 09.19.2016).

Obama also devoted some of his speaking time to discuss the role of nationalism domestically and internationally. In regards to American popular opinion, the President noted that there existed a sharp divide between “aggressive nationalism” and “crude populism.” The President anticipated that there would be a hard road ahead if the world consolidated into these two factions.

Building on this comment, the President alluded to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his plan for constructing a wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico, without explicitly mentioning him. “A nation ringed by walls would only imprison itself,” he declared (CNN, “Obama at UN warns Americans against walls and nationalism”, 09.20.2016).

Many news outlets commented on the President’s unusually pessimistic tone, especially in comparison to that of his first address in 2009, which was full of promise and hope for the future, hope to solve issues like the tension between Israel and Palestine. In last Tuesday’s speech, however, he addressed the issue in only one brief sentence, noting, “[Both states would] be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel, but Israel recognizes that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land” (New York Times).

Obama also spoke about the conflict in Syria, a favorite focus for other speeches and dis-

cussions at the U.N. last week. The same day of Obama’s speech, Secretary of State John Kerry was working with international leaders to re-establish a cease-fire in the region.

Obama emphasized that in such a violent, tumultuous and dangerous situation, no one will emerge the victor; there is nothing to be won.

Instead, he argued, “We’re going have to pursue the hard work of diplomacy that aims to stop the violence and deliver aid to those in need and support those who pursue a political settlement and can see those who are not like themselves as worthy of dignity and respect” (New York Times).

Russia was another topic of contention that day, specifically, the nation’s encroachment on Ukraine–an ongoing military conflict that began in 2014. Obama provided a word of advice, saying, “If Russia continues to interfere in the affairs of its neighbors...over time, it’s also going to diminish its stature and make its borders less secure” (CNN).

This being Obama’s last speech to the general assembly, he spent some time reviewing the progress made under his administration.

In addition to the reversal of the international economic recession at the beginning of his first term and the nuclear arms deal with Iran, he recounted, “We opened relations with Cuba, helped Colombia end Latin America’s longest war, and we welcome a democratically elected leader of Myanmar to this assembly” (The Guardian, Obama’s final UN assembly address: ‘At this moment we all face a choice’, 09.20.2016).

The main underlying theme of his address was that the world today is at a crossroads, one which will have profound impact on the future.

He claimed that the whole world now faces a difficult choice. “We can choose press forward with a better model of cooperation and integration,” he proffered. “Or we can retreat into the world sharply divided, and ultimately in conflict, along age-old lines of nation and tribe and race and religion” (The Guardian).

—Maya Sterling, Guest Reporter

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

—Megan Howell, Guest Reporter

September 29, 2016

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Campus construction will upgrade landscape, Main Emily Hwu

Guest Reporter

A

Courtesy of Emily Hwu

s students meander across campus between clubs and classes, they are met by the persistent hustle and bustle of the construction site where Mudd Chemistry used to stand. They pause at the end of the sidewalk to let a bulldozer pass them on the street and continue on their way, glancing over at the tireless workers, piles of dirt and gaping pit with a bit of intrigue. Construction presents itself as a kind of nuisance, breaking the generally peaceful atmosphere of Vassar’s campus and creating obstacles on students’ and staffs’ normal routes. Maybe people are simply naive, or just uninformed, but it seems as if most have absolutely no clue what is going on with all of the construction at Vassar.

What’s changing now, and what will become of Vassar’s campus and buildings in the future?

Bryan P. Corrigan, a project manager for Vassar, is integral to the planning and building processes that result in construction and change on campus. Corrigan has been working at Vassar since 2005 and his job is to coordinate any capital projects and renovation projects from origination to design—serving as the conduit between the construction project and the campus.

Corrigan was not only able to provide insight to the future of Vassar’s campus, but also to the layers and complications of these construction projects that are not initially apparent.

The plot where Mudd Chemistry used to be— the one that now has the giant pit—is simply a landscaping project. It is part of a campus-wide landscape master plan to help guide the college in a more unified direction; in essence, work is being done to integrate buildings into the landscape around them. As for the construction work near Swift, that is merely a matter of fixing infrastructure and sidewalks.

So, not too much is happening now, but what can students and staff expect to change in the near future? According to Corrigan, the College is currently reviewing the elements of a new master plan study that will guide construction

on campus for the next 10 to 15 years. This master plan will likely be finalized within the next year but, while no plans are finalized at this time, Main Building is undoubtedly the main objective. The interior will be completely redone and reorganized; last school year, open town-hall like meetings were held to gauge students’ suggestions on opinions on what is important to have in Main, and the information collected is being analyzed and taken into consideration.

Corrigan noted that the tricky part of figuring out how to completely renovate the interior of the building is strategizing how to do so without completely disrupting the staff and students.

This process is more complicated than most students would probably assume. For instance, where would all 300+ students who make their home in Main live during renovations? When Davison was renovated back in the 2008-2009 school year, swing space could barely be found for all 150 students, much less than the much higher number of students in Main. Similarly, space would need to be sought out for key administrators whose offices are in Main. A solution could be to do the renovation in stages, but that would extend the cost and timeline of the project, overlapping with some students’ entire Vassar experience.

But, as Corrigan points out, “Construction by itself is disruptive, there’s no way around it. It’s simply impossible to not be disruptive.” Essentially, although the primary goal is to renovate Main, there are a lot of small pieces that still need to be considered and sorted before designs for a renovation of Main can even begin, which means that at least another three to five years before any noticeable changes can be expected.

Corrigan stated that many new construction, renovation and restoration projects are planned for the next few years. He says that he and his team recognize that Blodgett–with its infamously perplexing staircases and circuitous hallways– is in need of attention, as is Walker Field House and many residential houses, including Raymond. However, the basic issue is that there are

The construction activities ongoing outside of Sanders Classrooms and the Sanders Chemistry building will continue as part of an ongoing landscaping project throughout campus. a lot of projects but limited funds, so it’s a matter of making do with what spaces and resources are available. Regardless, there is a great awareness of what needs to be fixed, and goals to improve all of the aforementioned facilities.

Corrigan predicts that, no matter how far into the future one looks, Vassar College will look essentially the same from the exterior. In addition, there is a great, campus-wide awareness of the importance of its older structures, and the impact that their histories have on its students and staff. Main Building and the Mariah Mitchell Observatory are even listed on the National Historic Registrar. While the historical frameworks of buildings will likely remain, the interiors will continue to be renovated, renewed and modernized, as Sanders Physics and New England recently were. In addition, as the school has no

plans of expanding the student population, there are no plans for new buildings, which would create unnecessary, extra square-footage.

Essentially, each large-scale construction project takes an extensive amount of time for planning before execution; plans for the Bridge Building began a whopping 10 years before its completion. Thus, although students cannot expect any monumental changes in the next few years at Vassar, there are still workers who are constantly renovating, renewing and fixing tiny components of Vassar’s campus. It is an ever-changing place that evolves and progresses piece by piece, so slightly that people often don’t stop to notice. In addition, there are teams of people constantly planning and coordinating Vassar’s next steps, with the goal of making the campus a better place for everyone.

Biennial Lipschutz lecture focuses on intersectionality EDUCATION continued from page 1 Previous speakers at this lecture have included Betty Reardon (2009), Neal H. Shultz (2007), William Ayers (2005) and Carl A. Grant (2003).

From the minute she took the mic, this year’s speaker, Dr. Leigh Patel, had the audience in UpC captivated by her easygoing humor and engaging discussion of “intersectionality” and “constructs” in education. She was introduced

by Professor Maria Hantzopoulos of the Education Department as a “consistent voice in educational policy making and policy analysis over the years”.

Patel has a background in sociology and currently researches and teaches about education as a site of social reproduction and potential transformation. As described by Rebelein, “Dr. Patel is an interdisciplinary researcher, educator and writer. Her work addresses the narratives that facilitate societal structures. She is an Associate Professor of Education at Boston College and works extensively with societally marginalized youth and teacher activists.”

Prior to working in the academy, Patel was a journalist, a teacher and a state-level policymaker. Across all of these experiences, her focus has been on the ways in which education structures opportunities in society and the stories that are told about those opportunities. Her daily work has been with youth whom these structures marginalize.

Patel began her lecture by explaining the term “intersectionality”—borrowing from the definition by Professor Kimberle Crenshaw of Columbia Law School—as the specific locations at which “vectors of oppression” intersect. In other words, it refers to the intersection of different categories and social constructs, in this case pertaining to the field of education.

She used the analogy of several toys hanging from a ring above a baby’s crib to describe intersectionality and how constructs interact by being distant, yet connected.

She went on to establish her thesis, which is that schools are a place where categorization of individuals is common, and thus academia is susceptible to recreating structures of oppression. By this, she meant that most teaching is

done by dividing children into categories based on their ability or their background.

She recounted her experience in elementary school in the 1970s and 1980s, during which fellow teachers would categorize the children in the class into good readers, average readers and not-so-good readers in order to teach them at the level best suited for them. In her view, this categorization—which very much still exists— needs to be broken down in order to create a liberal learning environment.

Highly contested issues prevailing in schools around the country, such as dress codes and codes of conduct, were touched upon when she displayed a picture of an African-American mother’s tweet about how her daughter’s natural hair was considered outside of her school’s code of conduct. According to Patel, this constitutes a contemporary example of intersectional oppression. Patel asked, can we really consider natural hair growth unacceptable according to any code? Drawing from this example, Patel made the observation that “Schools are often places of harm for marginalized communities.”

Another example she used was one that many Vassar students have themselves reported experiencing, which often goes as follows: Person: “Where are you from?”

You: “I’m from (insert place)”.

Person: “No but where are you from from?”

This kind of behavior is what Patel classifies as categorical oppression. A straightforward question such as “Where are you from?” can be interpreted on so many different levels, including: Where do you belong? Why are you here?

According to Patel, these questions represent our attempt at categorizing people into convenient slots according to race, gender and economic background.

In response to these hypothetical questions, Patel said, “I am a South Asian, upper-middle class, cisgender female—tells you something about me and nothing about me.” We simply use these categories to tick off boxes, and they represent social constructs. If they are social constructs, are they real? The answer is yes, social constructs are real and according to Patel can have, “devastatingly real material consequenc-

es.”

Further analyzing this common question we are faced with all the time, “Where are you from?,” Patel pointed out that this question reflects the importance of hierarchical order in the modern day nation state. She went on to discuss transnationality, which she defines as a cultural movement across nation state borders rather than a physical one, and continued to describe how nation state building helps map intersectionality in society.

Patel moved on to explain some historical examples of intersectional oppression. To support her next point, she displayed a quote by Thomas Jefferson relating to the justification of slavery in a supposedly free society. The quote weighed equality in a free society against the economic construct of “racist capitalism.”

This contradiction in the words of a founding father sheds light on the contradictions in constructs which Patel focuses on. These contradictions are also shown by a study of one of Patel’s favorite scholars, Dorothy Roberts, which she cited in her lecture.

Patel also referred to the “One Drop Rule,” a social construct which holds that even a single drop of African-American blood makes a person African-American, and is used to justify existing social order. She elaborated on this: “We over-rely on certain constructs which don’t let us understand differences between those constructs.” She said that instead of asking “What’s contributing to poverty?” and trying to fix the social order that causes poverty, we as a society try to “fix” people living in poverty or people of color. This is where intersectional analysis comes in; it allows one to differentiate rigid constructs and encourages us to pushback against preexisting social constructs.

Patel reinforced that even though education is currently subject to categorical and intersectional oppression, there are organizations advocating change in this field. One such organization brought to our attention by Patel is the Baltimore Algebra Project.

Their primary goal is to provide quality education, proper healthcare and adequate employment to Baltimore youth, and they said that

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Education is a tool for liberation.”

She expressed her view that education has potential for opportunity and liberation by ending the lecture with what she referred to as a “Moment of Otherwise,” an experience reflecting change or liberalism. By doing so she brought to the audience’s attention the possibility for major and meaningful change in this field that lies ahead.

The lecture was followed by a question and answer session in which students challenged Patel with solution-oriented questions: How do we introduce narratives of resistance into standardized curriculums? How do educational systems reduce the gap between teachers and outside school youth groups advocating liberalism such as the Baltimore Algebra Project? How do we introduce radicalization into natural science classrooms?

Patel responded by speaking about the kinds of things teachers must know about children in order to teach effectively rather than categorizing them based on background or ethnicity. She also touched upon the issue that science can be seen as a cultural practice and a physics classroom would be the ideal place to discuss relativity even in terms of bringing about changes in education.

Students and faculty were both full of praises for Patel and the lecture. Associate Dean of the College for Campus Life and Diversity Ed Pittman said that “[The lecture] was provocative, in a sense of explaining how education propagates the very oppression it seeks to remove” and that he was struck by the way in which people in the field of education need to reimagine their practices. He shared similar views with Professor Hantzopoulos in that they both thought the students resonated with the material discussed.

Professor Hantzopoulos also said that she appreciated the lecture, especially its optimistic ending.

As for Patel, when asked about the experience of lecturing at Vassar, she simply replied by saying, “Wonderful. Such enthusiasm, such energy.

Even though it is such a hard time in education, it’s not going to stay that way. These are the teachers who are going to reimagine it for us.”

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September 29, 2016

At Vassar, summer work means research collaboration Mit Patel

Guest Reporter

D

eep within a biochemistry lab filled with test tubes, petri dishes and centrifuges, wearing goggles and busy manipulating sample genes, Katharine Sworden ’19 had an exciting summer.

Sworden was a scholar in The Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI). Started in 1986, the 10-week stem-based research experience groups approximately 60 students together with over 30 faculty members during the summer to nurture an analytical and experimental thought process amongst its participants.

This student research profram also serves to foster student-faculty collaborations at Vassar. Their research has often led participants to conference presentations and publications in leading scientific journals. Students apply to the program during their early spring semester and, if selected, are given a stipend for their participation. Priority is given to members of groups who are traditionally under-represented in the sciences.

This past summer, Sworden worked with Associate Professor of Chemistry and Director of Biochemistry Teresa Garrett on a project entitled “Construction of Escherichia Coli PldB Mutants to Investigate its Catalytic Mechanism.”

The research is essentially an attempt to further understand the mechanism of the reaction through which PldB, a protein, catalyzes the formation of PG, a type of phospholipid found in the E. Coli cell membrane. Specifically, Katharine genetically mutated, or changed and deleted base pairs in the DNA of, PldB to see how this would affect the catalyzation of a reaction that forms Acyl PG, a lipid found in the cell membrane of E. Coli. This research aims to lead to a better understanding of the biochemical role of PG in cell division.

For Sworden and many other URSI scholars, research was a new experience: “I had never been in or worked in a lab setting prior to this, so everything was extremely new and exciting.”

Nevertheless, Sworden managed to climb the steep learning curve. “I hadn’t had her as a pro-

fessor before, so I did not really know what I was walking into. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up in the lab or I’d disappoint her. That all went away the more I worked and learned and as she happily answered everything I asked.”

By the end of her URSI experience, Sworden described the true significance of being an URSI scholar: “I realized URSI is more about learning than it is about impressing everyone with these awesome science skills that you somehow managed to acquire without ever having worked in a lab before.”

In addition to URSI, the Diving Into Research (DIR) program reflects Vassar’s commitment to give underclassmen the opportunity to conduct research. This five-week immersive research experience, together with a stipend, is offered exclusively to incoming freshman from low-income, underrepresented and first-generation backgrounds who are interested in the sciences.

“The programming is designed to help the pre-freshman transition to college life. The DIR program helps to create a network of peers, faculty and administrators that the DIR students can reach out to as they continue their time at Vassar,” stated Associate Professor of Physics and Programming Director for DIR David Bradley.

DIR scholars are paired with both a faculty member and a peer mentor. Faculty mentors supervise all the participants’ research, while returning Vassar students serving as peer mentors work to facilitate their transition to Vassar by helping the scholar get acquainted with various campus services and the community as a whole.

“I was really hoping I could make someone’s transition a little easier,” remarked Miranda Hulsey-Vincent ’19, who served as a peer mentor for the past summer’s DIR scholars. “I felt like the experience was very enriching! The incoming freshman had a great energy and really imparted it on me. I was reminded of how excited I was when I was a freshman, which really made me appreciate what I have at Vassar!”

During the DIR program, scholars are also invited to meet other Vassar science students and participate in skills workshops and societal

activities.

For most scholars, the DIR program is their first research experience. This was no exception for Robert Elizardo ’20, who conducted acoustics research along with Associate Professor of Physics and Chair of Physics and Astronomy Brian Daly. The research involved creating 3D models on SketchUp, a type of modeling software, and running the acoustic program Odeon to study and graph the extent to which sounds are of the same level when measured from different directions. He then studied sound diffusers in a reverberation room and graphed the rate of decay on MatLab. Beyond the world of STEM, Vassar is also one of the few institutions to offer research positions for students in social sciences and the humanities. Established in 1988, the Ford Scholars program encourage mentoring relationships between students and faculty and a high level of student participation. This past summer, the program accommodated 23 projects that focused on subjects including Chinese, education, political science, economics, psychology and sociology.

Many research projects involve course preparation and teaching-related research. One such project involved forming a syllabus for a course that will be offered in the spring semester of 2017 entitled “The Narratives of Japan: Fiction and Film.” Reina Miyake ’18, a Japanese correlate, worked on this project with the Chair of the Chinese and Japanese Department Peipei Qiu. The project involved examining Japanese narratives in literature and cinema. Miyake researched, evaluated and collected relevant materials and works of scholarship on Japanese film and literature including “Rashomon,” “Ugetsu,” “Monogatari,” “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” “The Makioka Sisters” and “Fires on the Plain.” After finalizing the syllabus, she digitized the readings and ripped the DVDs of required films into video files.

As she assisted Qiu in creating the syllabus, she conducted her own research on films by Hayao Miyazaki, including “Spirited Away,” to create a visual presentation called “Environ-

mentalism in Miyazaki’s Animation,” which is to be shown in the upcoming spring class.

For Miyake, the motivation behind her first research experience was as educational as it was personal. As a Japanese-American, she felt that the Japanese literature and culture she studied formed a integral part of her childhood. She also thought it was interesting to study non-contemporary Japanese culture because she previously had not been exposed to as much older Japanese films and culture.

Despite its focus on the humanities and social sciences, participants in the Ford Scholar program may have significant relationships and experiences with STEM disciplines as well.

“Music and math are closely related,” says Alison Breeze ’19.

For her project titled “Choral Music for Treble Singers: Repertoire, Curriculum, Conducting,” Breece was responsible for selecting music that the Cappella Festiva Treble Choir would sing for their Summer Choral Festival, a twoweek choral festival for treble voices ages 8-17.

The final two weeks of her project were spent teaching the music that she selected to a choir of 27 girls from around Hudson Valley. Unique aspects of Breece’s project included playing piano and working closely with her mentor, Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities Christine Howlett. Breece plans to use the knowledge gained from her experience to help pick a repertoire for the Vassar College Women’s Chorus in the future.

As Breece’s experiences reflect, it could be helpful and beneficial for students to be exposed to education and research in the humanities, even if they are STEM majors.

As Associate Professor of History and Director of Africana Studies Quincy Mills emphasizes, “STEM majors should certainly look to study and conduct research in the humanities and social sciences. This would certainly enhance their liberal arts education. By extension, I imagine STEM majors would gain a more holistic perspective on society by studying and conducting research in the social sciences and humanities.”

Urban Wilderness Fair at farm encourages green living Poughkeepsie’s dearth of accessible groceries and produce, I ask about their operations. Maria Cali ’18 responds, “Poughkeepsie Farm Project really focuses on counteracting the hunger in the area and the food desert that Poughkeepsie is, so we have vegetable shares and we have a mobile market which goes into the community a few times a month...and that’s a farmers’ market in a sort of food truck, and there’s recipes and free samples of food to get people in the community who can’t make it out to the Farm access to fresh fruits and vegetables.”

Considering our urban/suburban setting in Arlington and Poughkeepsie, I’m curious about the ways in which the Environmental Co-op and the EMC have integrated city planning into the fair’s program. I spot a table promoting the Middle Main Initiative, an affordable housing center that manages a homeless shelter and

housing units while striving to reinvigorate the robust cluster of businesses in downtown Poughkeepsie. Discussing Middle Main’s current projects, Volunteer Coordinator Ted Marrinan explains, “Specifically, we’re focusing on the underwear factory, which has been closed for years, decades. It’s some affordable housing units, community spaces, community kitchens, workshops and art studios.” I ask Ted if he can foresee further collaboration with Vassar orgs in Middle Main’s efforts to promote food and financial security. He replies, “We’ve been working with the Cooperative on organizing cleanups in downtown Poughkeepsie. I personally coordinate the volunteers that we have ... We’ve been talking to the Vassar Catholic Community, the Co-op, and we’d love to get more individual students involved. The Poughkeepsie Farm Project donates produce to our kitchen.”

Emily Sayer/The Miscellany News

WILDERNESS continued from page 1 in the fair and advocate various platforms for change; these groups include Riverkeepser, Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Environment Program, the Poughkeepsie Farm Project and more. The Environmental Cooperative’s newly-appointed manager Jen Rubbo noted, “The Festival’s objectives are to increase awareness of ways residents and students can connect with the environment around them despite living in an urban or suburban area. We hope to accomplish this by helping people become more aware of local organizations that they can get involved in, teaching about ways they can improve the habitat in their own backyards and giving them specific methods and ideas they can use at home that will have a positive impact on their environment.”

I concede that I knew very little regarding Dutchess County’s ecological concerns prior to attending the fair and I still have much to learn.

However, after looking into the mission statements and research efforts of both the Vassar Farm and Preserve and the Dutchess County EMC, I was able to establish a few of the top-priority issues that local organizations are currently working to combat. In a 2012 environmental report issued by the EMC, water quality ranks highest in a list of the area’s preeminent worries, along with biodiversity conservation and waste management. The Farm and Ecological Preserve has been focusing on related conditions over the past couple of years, studying the quality of water in the Casperkill, a stream that runs through the Farm and the overpopulation of white-tailed deer in the area. Overall, from what I could glean from a surface-level investigation of their causes, both organizations are deeply invested in improving not only the ecological state of Dutchess County, but also community health and wellness.

One of the topics pertinent to the locale that I am relatively versed in is food security, so I head straight for the Vassar Food Project’s stand upon entering the fair. Curious as to whether or not their work corresponds with solutions for

Kitana Zachary, Liza Ayres ’18 and Maria Cali ’18 represent the Poughkeepsie Farm Project with fresh veggies and pamphlets at the Urban Wilderness and Environmental Fair.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Groups concerned primarily with climate change action are in abundance here. I watch as an effervescent local teacher connects with some volunteers at a table marked “Solarize Wappingers,” pitching a collaboration effort that she’s trying to put in the works with her students. I interject, sorry to intrude on the fruits of Vassar’s community assimilation efforts but intrigued by the discussion of alternative energy. Duncan Gilchrist addresses my interest with the following: “So, we’re tabling for two different organizations today, but the two organizations are working in conjunction with one another to launch Solarize Wappingers. Solarize Wappingers is a campaign to make it more affordable and easy for residents and businesses to install solar energy. We’re also tabling to educate people about Wappingers Climate Change Action, which is a grassroots, youth-led organization advocating for local solutions to climate change.” Of course, my first question surrounds both the affordability and feasibility of a widespread transition to solar power. Thea Bjornson jumps in, simply stating, “It’s worked in a lot of other communities before, so it’ll probably work here too.” Hannah Karp elaborates, “Solarize Wappingers is a program of Solarize Hudson Valley. We’re a three-year program funded by a grant from NY state. Currently, or in the last year, there’ve been dozens of solarize programs running throughout the state, and this is a program that’s in multiple states. So far, we’ve gotten almost 400 contracts for solar, and people have a lot better understanding of how solar works and how we can make it work for them.”

Leaving the event, I’m reminded of the school science fairs of my youth. I picture the jubilation of second graders scrutinizing ant farms and rubbing their hands in compost, and somehow, seeing the same, albeit inhibited form of passion present at the Farm comforts me. Perhaps I’ve just forgotten that the message of community betterment espoused in my childhood has not disappeared with the years of Crayola and PlayDoh, but persisted among my compassionate, forward-thinking peers.

September 29, 2016

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English Professor Kumar wins Guggenheim Fellowship Jakob Eckstein

A

Guest Reporter

Sam Pianello/The Miscellany News

mitava Kumar is a prize-winning author and the Helen D. Lockwood professor of English at Vassar, but he’s taking this year off of teaching to write. He’s been awarded a fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation for a project he calls “Every Day I Write the Book.” This year, the Foundation awarded 175 fellowships to scholars, artists and scientists from a group of nearly 3,000 applicants. His book “Lunch with a Bigot” was included in a list of “10 best books of 2015 published by university presses”; “A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm A Tiny Bomb” was judged the best nonfiction book of the year by the Page Turner Awards in 2011; in 2007, “Home Products” was short-listed for India’s premier literary award, the Crossword Award; and “Husband of a Fanatic” was an “Editors’ Choice” book at the New York Times.

The idea for “Every Day I Write the Book” came to Kumar eight years ago. It arrived, fueled by prosecco and the company of academics, at a viewing party for President Obama’s inauguration. That morning, Kumar remembers telling his colleagues, “My book is a meditation on writing. But I’m also talking to people who are writers. On one hand, novelists, essayists, you know, Jonathan Franzen, Marilynne Robinson, Junot Diaz, Rivka Galchen. And on the other hand, academics, whose work I think challenges conventional academic writing ... Who, on one level have a broader audience, but at another level do work that is artistically innovative and challenging.”

Kumar is no stranger to academia. He studied at three universities, taught at the University of Florida, Yale and Penn State before Vassar and expresses sincere respect for academic work. But he has also worked as a journalist in the field. Kumar has interviewed murderers, fanatics, people accused of terrorism and victims of tragedy. He says that he has gotten to know the people he writes about on a personal level, a vital practice he believes too many academics forgo. “[In ‘Every Day I Write the Book’], I want to say that there are many academics who arrive at their sense of the world, and unfortunately many of our students do too, without

ever stepping out of the classroom. I want to say no. If you have an idea, go out and test it in the real world! If you have a certain view about how some people are suffering, go to some people and talk to them about it,” said Kumar Kumar cites sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh’s book “Gang Leader for a Day” as an example of the kind of academic work he’s looking for.

When Venkatesh was a first-year graduate student, he befriended the leader of a crack-dealing gang in Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. He lived with this gang for almost seven years before publishing a book about them. This is the kind of bold, personal academic writing Kumar covets. He explains Venkatesh’s work as having an urgency that has taken eight years to grow.

Now, with the Obama’s second term coming to an end, Kumar is haunted by the thought of disappointing his tipsy and excited 2008 self. He can’t resist the idea of finishing this project, born on Obama’s first day as president, before his last. So he’s working frantically. “I’ve done some books in between, two books. I’ve written a novel recently. But, you know, I still feel... damn! I’ve got to get it done before Obama’s out of office, that’s my deadline,” Kumar said.

Kumar does his best to work by a list of rules.

Kumar began using his idol V.S. Naipaul’s list about a decade ago before writing his own. He now passes this list on to his students and published it in Lit Hub last year. Kumar’s first rule, by his own admission, is a cliché: “Write every day.” So, given the title of his current book, I asked Kumar if he follows his own idealistic rule. If “Every Day I Write the Book” is a meditation on writing, what has it taught him about the process? He smiled and said, “For stretches I [write every day], and then I don’t. And that’s the most frustrating part of being a writer.

When I’ve sent my children off to school, that’s the best time for me to sit down and write. But today I had to see you, and I have to see that other former student.” But he remains optimistic, “Life happens. And you can’t say no to life because it opens things up. It opens you up to experience.”

He continued, launching into an anecdote, “Two days ago, I was at the Brooklyn Book Festival reading from [“A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of his Arm a Tiny Bomb”], a book

Professor Amitava Kumar (right) has been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to work on the completion of his book. He is pictured here hosting a panel with scholar Ashis Nandy in 2014.

I wrote about terrorism. And if I had said no because I’d just wanted to sit in my room [and write], I would not have met a woman on my panel called Masha Gessen, whose last book was about the Tsarnaev brothers who were the Boston Bombers ... She advises journalists to talk to academics so that their ahistorical views can be challenged ... I’m mentioning this little detail to you because I think I’ll use it in the book I’m writing. I’m interested in academics being more like journalists, going out into the world, exploring. And then when I encounter someone who says no, journalists should be more like academics, I get a little bit of a corrective.”

The student Kumar mentioned is Sunil Yapa, author of “Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist,” a globally successful novel about the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. Yapa is in the middle of a six-continent book tour. and he used a rare day of downtime between trips to South Africa and Montana to meet Kumar to ask for advice on writing profiles. It’s been over two decades since Yapa was in Kumar’s Penn State classroom,

but the two have stayed in touch. They’re at ease with each other, they laugh a lot. Yapa asks a few questions about profiles, but the conversation eventually drifts back to the Guggenheim. To explain “Every Day I Write the Book” to Yapa, Kumar turns to another example; Geoff Dyer’s book “Out of Sheer Rage” about D.H. Lawrence.

Kumar said, “I am enthralled by Dyer’s ability give us D.H. Lawrence while pretending not to give a fuck about D.H. Lawrence.” For example, “[Dyer] goes looking for [Lawrence’s] house during the time when D.H. Lawrence was in Mexico. He doesn’t find the house. Still, he tells us a lot about D.H. Lawrence, Mexico and how D.H. Lawrence thought. Subterfuge.” Dyer expresses the frustration at the heart of Kumar’s book, “That is the hallmark of academic criticism; it kills everything it touches.” With “Every Day I Write the Book,” Kumar is trying to unite the two sides of his professional self: the lively writer and the thoughtful academic. He only has a few months to do it, it’s why he’s in such a hurry these days.

Celebrate autumn with hearty pumpkin spice pancakes Sarah Evans & Rafaela Vega del Castillo Guest Colunmists

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Courtesy of Wikipedia

ittle by little, the degrees start to drop; my pine green jacket comes out of the closet, still infused with the sweet smell that reminds me of last fall. Cup after cup of tart-smelling tea get brewed on campus tabletops and I start looking forward to pumpkin- and apple-everything.

With this autumnal sentiment in mind and the urge to escape campus for a few hours, I drove through the streets of Poughkeepsie, already lined with trees that show hints of yellow and orange, towards Barnes & Noble. Upon entrance, the doors were papered with inviting signs advertising Starbucks’s famous pumpkin-spice drinks.

As an international student from Ecuador, I hadn’t tried the pumpkin-spice concoction before, so after taking my seat I ordered Starbucks’s fall specialty in frappuccino form.

After a few minutes and with a pleasant smile, the barista presented me with a coffee drink whose festively strong orange color I wasn’t expecting. With a tingling adventurous feeling, I sat down and admired the popular tradition I was about to experience.

I closed my eyes and took a big sip out of the green straw we all know too well, and with my mouth full of orange concoction, my face wrinkled into an expression of revulsion. Without knowing what to do, I swallowed the liquid sugar as I walked back to the barista to politely ask for a different type of drink.

After discussing this experience with a few friends who claim to be pumpkin spice-enthusiasts, I’ve reached the conclusion that there must have been something wrong with my drink and that I probably ordered the wrong kind of pumpkin-spice drink, therefore I’ve decided to give it another chance (I will let you all know how that goes).

In the meantime, I will keep on filling my autumn days with tea and apple dreams while giving pumpkin an infinite number of chances to surprise my South American palate.

As a means to eradicate my first impression of pumpkin spice, I’ve been experimenting with recipes using the most easily accessible form of pumpkin: puree. Canned pumpkin puree is possibly the most versatile fall ingredient, and it can be added to almost any recipe to give your yearlong favorite dishes some autumn spice!

Here is a breakfast recipe that has already changed my life fall-wise; get your friends together and try these pumpkakes (with a healthy twist) for weekend brunch, or try them on your own before grabbing your jacket and heading out the door for class!

By keeping the sugar content low (or opting to replace the sugar with Stevia, which bakes well) you can avoid other sugary breakfast treats like cereal or granola bars and replace them with this filling alternative.

To make these pancakes, start with the batter. Whisk together pumpkin puree, eggs, egg whites, vanilla extract and Stevia. In another bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and the optional pumpkin pie spice. Mix and whisk together the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.

Prepare the pan by placing it over medium-heat and spraying cooking oil of choice.

Spoon pancake mix in pan; flip pancake over once surface bubbles appear and cook the other side for approximately two minutes. Serve immediately and top with maple syrup, honey or your favorite pancake toppings.

It turns out, first impressions are not always the ones that count! Go ahead and give these a try; you could even accompany them with your favorite pumpkin-spice drink. Hooray for second chances!

Ingredients 1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree 2 eggs 4 egg-whites 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 4 packets Stevia or brown sugar 2 tablespoons flour (to make these pancakes gluten-free, you can use any gluten-free flour substitute!)

2 teaspoons cinnamon (you can add more or less cinnamon to fit your taste!)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder a pinch of salt optional: you can add 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice if you’re a real pumpkin lover!

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

OPINIONS

Page 8

September 29, 2016

The Miscellany News Staff Editorial

AU incidents reflect need for administrative action on bias

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ncidents of bias and discrimination are all too common on college campuses in the United States. In recent history, occurrences of racially-charged discrimination conjure memories of last year’s well-publicized protests at the University of Missouri and Yale University. And, as the academic year has started to gain momentum at American colleges and universities, there has unfortunately been a recurrence of discriminatory and racist behaviors. On Monday, Sept. 19, students at American University (AU) gathered to protest the response of the university’s administration to racially-charged incidents on campus. According to the Washington Post, two incidents occurred earlier in the month where Black students had bananas thrown at them and one student even had a rotten banana left outside her dorm room with obscene sexual images left on her whiteboard (The Washington Post, “‘Racism at AU is bananas’: Hundreds protest incidents on American U. campus,” 09.19.2016). These incidents have specifically targeted black women.

As evidenced by the protests, the response from the AU administration has been less than satisfying for students. Although the college was looking into the incidents, which were immediately reported, on Sept. 17 AU released a statement saying that they were not initially going to investigate the first incident as bias related, though this position has since been reversed (WTOP, “American University: Dorm incident not being treated as ‘bias-related,’ 09.17.2016). Later on Friday, the university’s administration announced plans for a town hall meeting for later that night; a course of action that seemed ill-prepared and gave students little notice to attend.

American University’s President Neil Kerwin also entered the conversation, releasing a statement condemning the incidents and

stating that both cases either had been investigated (with involved students being held accountable through the student conduct process) or were currently being investigated.

Then, on Sept. 23, AU’s Twitter page posted a link where people could send messages of support to AU students. AU’s Black Student Alliance (BSA) retweeted the link, stating that while they appreciated the gesture, the university needed to do more.

As a part of the protest on Monday and students’ response to the administration, American University’s BSA has been vocal and clear about what AU can do to make their campus safer and more inclusive not just for Black students, but for all students of color. In a letter to the administration the BSA suggested seven steps. First, the students involved should not only be held accountable through a less-than-transparent student conduct process, but rather be suspended. Moreover, alert students when acts of racial or any other form of hate violence occur on campus. BSA also demanded that the University fire any faculty members who joke about or call for violence against people of color, while hiring more people of color, preferably alumnae/i in their office of Campus and Student Life. The fifth point made by BSA calls for the University to implement a way in for students to file complaints against Public Safety Officers for “unnecessary enforcement and over-monitoring of social media.” Sixth, make counseling and mental health resources more accessible and reasonably priced. And finally, the BSA requests that the Vice President of Campus Life schedule a meeting with them, as she was absent from the town hall meeting (American University Black Student Alliance, “Seven Steps to Make American University Safer and More Inclusive, Twitter, 9.20.16).

These demands, together with the admin-

istration’s inadequate responses, highlight a significant structural flaw at American University in that there is no official system established specifically for responding to racial or other forms of discriminatory violence.

Without such a system, the AU administration was not able to identify the nature of the two incidents, did not notify the campus in time about the follow-up meeting and failed to involve relevant staff members in the process. At Vassar, the Dean of the College division has established a Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT), which responds to reported acts of discrimination and violence. Convening weekly, the team is responsible for ensuring that affected students have access to appropriate resources, facilitating relevant campus dialogues and discussions and taking measures to improve campus awareness and prevent future incidents.

While we acknowledge the crucial role of BIRT for Vassar students and the campus at large, it must be emphasized that the system is defective in important respects. On April 8, 2016, it was reported that an anti-semitic graffiti was placed on a sign-up sheet at the dorm room door of a student living in Main Building. On April 14, BIRT sent out a “Not in My House” message alerting Main residents to the incident. It was not until four days later that BIRT sent out an all-campus email informing the larger community about this matter. An act like this would not only affect many individuals beyond Main residents, but also have an important impact on the entire community and campus climate in general. However, the very notion of “Not in My House” suggests the belief that if such incidents take place in the dormitories, then they should only be of concern to those living in the same building. Thus, the current BIRT system fails to recognize and address the

Bret Stephens’ ‘pinkwashing’ ignores Israeli state violence Joshua Schreier

Professor of History

The Pulitzer prize-winning Wall Street Journal journalist Bret Stephens, in his public interview at Vassar College on September 20th, argued that we should “support Israel” because, among other things, “Israel is the only country in the Middle East that respects (gay and women’s) rights.” As a result, he said, Israel was the best place in the region to be gay. To “support Israel,” we gathered from his response to student questions, meant, among other things, rejecting the activism of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.

This is a cynical argument that demonstrates disregard for Palestinians, LGBTQ individuals, and especially those who fall into both groups.

Yes, LGBTQ Israeli Jews are in a better place than they were a generation ago, and their efforts to secure acceptance and equal protection should be celebrated. But Israel has not expanded this protection to LGBTQ Palestinians.

In fact, in their efforts to crush resistance to the occupation, Israeli security forces collect information on gay Palestinians, whom they threaten to “out” if they refuse to collaborate with them. Surely Stephens would agree this is not an example of “respect(ing) gay rights.”

If we took Stephens at his word, and assumed he was concerned about all LGBTQ individuals in the region (and not just Israeli ones), his argument would imply occupied Palestinians would gladly put up with land seizures, mass arrests, imprisonment, torture, mutilations, and killings… if only Palestinians were all gay. This is absurd. We must recall that Israel expelled 750,000 Palestinians in 1948 (and continues to refuse to readmit these refugees or their descendants), regardless of their sexual or gender identity.

What if we trained Stephens’ logic on our own country? Are the demonstrations, boycotts, and other forms of activism mobilized against racism, police brutality, and mass incarceration unfair to the US because the US

respects women’s and LGBTQ rights? Would Stephens dismiss protests following the police killings of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Terence Crutcher, Keith Lamont Scott, and so many more with a comment like “hey, don’t those people appreciate gay marriage?” I hope not.

Furthermore, Stephens’ consistent comparison of the status of LGBTQ Israeli Jews to that of LGBTQ individuals living elsewhere in the Middle East is deeply flawed. Of course, LGBTQ people in many places face real problems. After a period of increasing acceptance during the revolution, for example, the USbacked al-Sisi regime in Egypt has raided many of Cairo’s gay clubs, broken up parties, traced people on hook-up apps such as Grindr, and arrested hundreds. But it is nothing short of racist to build an argument that assumes this intolerance has always been, or always will be, the rule in Egypt.

The great Islamic modernist thinker Rifa’a Rafi al-Tahtawi provides an example of how attitudes change. Writing after a visit to Paris in the 1820s, Tahtawi praised the French for their intolerance of homosexuality. He implored his fellow Egyptians to embrace the French example by condemning such behaviors, and hoped Egyptian men would start speaking more of women in their erotic poetry. In France, he gushed, “one doesn’t even hear conversations about this subject.”

Times have clearly changed. Attitudes toward sexualities are not immutable cultural attributes, but rather rooted in specific historical circumstances.

I urge fellow members of the Vassar community to reject Stephens’ exploitation of genuine concern for LGBTQ rights to attack SJP or JVP and defend Israel’s racist policies. His argument is a cynical effort to link support for LGBTQ rights to support for an oppressive and racist regime. It is disingenuous and harmful to Palestinians, LGBTQ individuals, or anyone hoping for true equality.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

broader implications of these acts, despite its later all-campus notification in this particular case.

In light of the events at American University, it has become especially imperative that Vassar critically reflect upon its own response system toward antisemitism, racism and other types of bias and hateful behaviors, in terms of fact sharing, supporting affected individuals and beyond.

Regrettably, the incidents and protests at American University have not received much media coverage and public attention. The absence from mainstream news media of acts of violence, bias and discrimination on college campuses is not an isolated issue. This August, when the University of Kentucky planned to sue its own student-run newspaper to avoid releasing information of a sexual harassment and sexual assault investigation against a professor, there was also a lack of mainstream media attention (The Miscellany News, “In silencing survivors, UKentucky threatens free speech,” 09.14.2016). Consequently, we at The Miscellany News wish not only to express our support for students at American University and to bridge the geographical gap between our two campuses, but also to recognize the importance to raise public awareness about these incidents and the appropriate responses to them.

At the end of every email sent out by BIRT at Vassar, there is a respectable message: “Vassar College strives to provide educational, working, and living environments free from discrimination, harassment, intolerant and hateful behavior.” But it takes more than words to realize this.

— The Staff Editorial expresses the opinion of at least two-thirds of The Miscellany News Editorial Board

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September 29, 2016

OPINIONS

Page 9

Rhetoric of paranoia pervades discourse around GMOs Steven Park Columnist

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mong the many controversial issues that science has generated over the years, the debate over genetically modified food has been quite popular in the public, leading many to throw their hands up in disgust and fume over the topic for the rest of the day. According to a 2015 study by the Pew Research Center, only 37 percent of U.S. adults said that it’s generally safe to consume genetically modified foods as opposed to the 57 percent of U.S. adults who disagreed (Pew Research Center, “Chapter 6: Public Opinion About Food,” 07.01.2015). These opinions are inherently contradicted by the vast amounts of scientific literature which claim that GMOs are not dangerous whatsoever.

By definition, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) refer to food that comes from genetically engineered organisms (WHO, “Food, Genetically modified,” 2016). Essentially, scientists select and transfer specific genes from one organism to another to produce a plant with a desirable trait like pest resistance or higher concentrations of vitamins.

The source of the controversy comes from the belief that these “Frankenfoods” pose a threat to our health and well-being. The anti-GMO side has argued repeatedly that the foreign genetic material from bacteria and viruses that are added into the GM food could find its way into our digestive tract once we eat them (World Health Organization, “Frequently asked questions on genetically modified foods,” 2016). They worry that tampering with the genetics of what we eat could potentially introduce harmful substances or even a genetic mutation into our body. It is important to note that opponents of GMOs are not just limited to health-conscious parents and eco-activists.

“I don’t want to eat those foods that have been sprayed or modified and don’t want my grandchildren to eat them either–I don’t think they’ve been proven that they’re safe [sic], and in fact, it’s been proven that they’re unsafe,”

stated renowned primatologist Jane Goodall, who has been actively opposing GMOs (U.S. News & World Report, “Are GMOs Really That Harmful to Eat?” 04.29.2015).

“It is important to note that opponents of GMOs are not just limited to health-conscious parents and ecoactivists.”

But despite the facade of being a complex, multifaceted issue, the actual debate over these GM foods is as clear cut as it gets.

The World Health Organization states as follows: “GM foods currently available on the international market have passed safety assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health. In addition, no effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved” (World Health Organization).

And the World Health Organization isn’t the only scientific institution that is making this claim. The majority of credible organizations agree that genetically modified food is not dangerous or even remotely harmful. The American Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have all confirmed that GM foods do not pose a threat to our health (Slate, “Unhealthy Fixation,” 07.15.2015). Not only that, hundreds and hundreds of studies have all reached that same conclusion. “[GM food] has increased farmer safety by allowing them to use less pesticide. It has raised the output of corn, cotton and soy by 20 to 30 percent, allowing some people to survive who would not have without it,” says David Zilber-

man, an agricultural and environmental economist at U.C. Berkeley (Scientific American, “The Truth about Genetically Modified Food,” 09.01.2013). “If it were more widely adopted around the world, the price [of food] would go lower, and fewer people would die of hunger.”

However, many people on the anti-GMO side remain unconvinced. Instead, several critics have pointed to the results of a 2012 study published in the Journal of American Science as proof of GMOs’ harmful effects. In this experiment, researchers fed rats GM corn and nonGM corn and found that the rats who ate GM corn went through lost or gained weight and experienced changes in their organs and biochemistry (U.S. News & World Report). However, what they don’t mention is that the researcher leading the study, Gilles-Éric Séralini, has been a long-time advocate against GMOs and has been accused of personal bias in his analysis (Scientific American). In fact, the lack of key details in his experiment was so questionable that the European Food Safety Authority dismissed the study’s findings entirely.

More importantly, we have been eating food containing genetically modified ingredients all our lives, and not a single case of medical illness has occurred as a result of genetic alterations (Scientific American). Ironically, all the major deaths caused by food have come from non-GM crops. In 2011, Germany experienced one of the worst E.coli outbreaks in world history thanks to organic bean sprouts that were contaminated by the bacteria (New York Times, “Germany Says Bean Sprouts Are Likely E. Coli Source,” 06.10.2011). A total of 3,517 people were infected thanks to the contamination, with more than 39 people dead and about 839 people stricken with a deadly kidney disease known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (Food Safety News, “Germany’s E.coli Outbreak: A Global Lesson,” 06.18.2011).

Yet, the anti-GMO lobby argues that adding foreign DNA to food ingredients just isn’t natural. But that isn’t true either. It’s not uncommon

for viruses to inject their own DNA into crops and other organisms. Rather, it’s been a common occurrence that has persisted for millions of years. For instance, pea aphids contain genes from fungi and wheat itself is a cross-species hybrid (Scientific American).

Just recently, scientists discovered that the world’s first GMO wasn’t manufactured by humans; nature created it 8,000 years ago with sweet potatoes (NPR, “Natural GMO? Sweet Potato Genetically Modified 8,000 Years Ago,” 05.05.2015). Beforehand, sweet potatoes weren’t edible. It was because bacteria from the soil inserted their genes into the plant that sweet potatoes became the popular food item that our ancestors farmed.

“When GM critics say that genes don’t cross the species barrier in nature, that’s just simple ignorance. Mother Nature does it all the time,” states Alan McHughen, a plant molecular geneticist at U.C. Riverside (Scientific American).

So why do people hold onto their fears about GMOs? Are they worried that the industry lacks proper safety tests and regulations and that humanity’s hubris will crumble once a mutant plant causes a worldwide epidemic? Again, this is just ill-founded paranoia.

“In response to what they believed was an information gap, a team of Italian scientists summarized 1,783 studies about the safety and environmental impacts of GMO foods ... The researchers couldn’t find a single credible example demonstrated that GM foods pose any harm to humans or animals,” reported Jon Entine, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Food and Agricultural Literacy at the University of California, Davis (Forbes, “2000+ Reasons Why GMOs Are Safe To Eat And Environmentally Sustainable,” 10.14.2013).

All the science shows that genetically modified food is safe. Scientific institutions have said they are safe, the FDA has approved it and have occurred naturally over evolutionary history. At this point, fear and paranoia drives this controversy, not science.

Johnson’s ideology misrepresented in popular imagination Jesser Horowitz Columnist

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ast week, I spent a considerable amount of time examining the record of Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee for President, with a particular emphasis on her pandering to anti-vaxxers in order to dissuade Vassar students from voting for her. I stand by every word of that article. While I recognize why some progressives might find her platform appealing, her toxic and dangerously problematic beliefs relating to various issues relating to health and science are too far off into the ideological stratosphere for me to supporter her. But the fact of the matter is that of the two major third-party candidates, Stein is the lesser force.

In a recent poll, Quinnipiac listed Stein as having the support of merely two percent of the national electorate, which should make her insistence on being allowed into the debates at least somewhat unfounded. That same poll listed former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee, as having eight percent of the vote.

A former Republican, Johnson is not merely drawing his votes from the right. Many disillusioned Democrats, from Bernie Sanders supporters to disaffected moderates, are turning to the Libertarian nominee out of disappointment with Hillary Clinton and the party establishment.

It’s understandable. Johnson, more than any other candidate, comes across as a genuinely good person who only wants what’s best for his country. In this roller coaster of an election, Johnson appears to be the sensible conservative option to those disillusioned with Donald Trump.

However, at the same time, many of his policy proposals align with liberal ideals. Johnson supports women’s right to choose, supports gay marriage, supports separation of church and state, wants to legalize marijuana, is pro-immigration and wants to reign in American military intervention abroad. He describes himself as socially liberal and pitches Libertarianism as the best of both political parties. Additionally, Johnson markets himself as being more relatable than other candidates, talking candidly about

his marijuana and alcohol usage in various interviews. It’s no surprise that some millennials would identify with him.

But for former supporters of Sanders, supporting Johnson would be an odd choice, one that indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of both Sanders’s movement and Johnson’s policies. There are clear, irreconcilable differences of ideology between these two candidates.

Sanders’s campaign focused heavily on economic issues. A Sanders administration would break up the big banks, increase taxes on the rich and fight corporate greed. Yes, Sanders did also support socially progressive causes, but it was his radical economic proposals that distinguished him from Clinton and other democrats.

Talking about the economy the way he did was the foundation of his movement. If you’re not behind that, you’re not truly behind his campaign.

And if you weren’t behind that and claimed to be a Sanders supporter, you misinterpreted the very crux of his movement.

For one, Johnson stands ideologically opposed to most if not all of Sanders’s economic proposals. Johnson does not support breaking up the big banks, would not increase taxes on the rich and supports eliminating the corporate income tax.

Democratic Socialism and Libertarianism are about as incompatible as two ideologies could possibly be. Clinton and Stein align closer to Sanders’s positions on economic issues than Johnson does.

But perhaps you didn’t support Sanders. Or perhaps you supported Sanders but did so mainly because he felt “authentic,” which is a stupid thing to do. Perhaps you’re willing to deal with some light economic conservatism for four years. Perhaps you are an economic conservative. Even then, voting for Johnson as a Liberal represents a considerable misunderstanding of the tenets of Libertarian ideology and Johnson’s political goals.

Firstly, Libertarianism has often been defined as being a combination of social liberalism and fiscal conservatism. However, many Libertarians would reject this label.

According to Target Liberty, Libertarians are

not fiscal conservatives. According to them, Libertarianism is about “radical freedom from government” (Target Liberty, “Libertarianism Is Not About Being Fiscally Conservative and Socially Liberal,” 06.01.2016). “Radical freedom from government” in no way resonates with the New Deal-era progressivism that Bernie Sanders so eloquently described during his presidential campaign. In fact, these two ideas could not be more diametrically opposed.

Johnson would like you to believe that Libertarianism is a happy marriage of everything mainstream America loves in their politicians, but in actuality, it’s a radical social movement closer to anarchism than conservatism. In a strictly American context, Gary Johnson is way closer to someone like Ron Paul than he is to someone like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.

That distinction is crucial. I imagine that none of my readers are under the delusion that Johnson will be elected President. Therefore, a vote for the Libertarian Party sends a message that this particular ideology deserves to have a say in crafting government policy, which is a scary prospect.

The Libertarian Party platform advocates removing the government from education, removing the government from health care, ending social security and opposes environmental regulations of all kind. Libertarian ideology means an end to all social progresses the government has had any hand in.

Its supporters can drift even further from the mainstream. In 2008, Jeffrey A. Tucker of the Libertarian Mises Institute published a piece detailing his opposition to child labor laws. Libertarian economist and political theorist Murray Rothbard once argued that parents “should not have a legal obligation to feed, clothe, or educate his children” (Mises Institute, “Children and Rights, 05.09.2007).

In all fairness, Johnson is comparatively more moderate than most Libertarians. Unlike many in his party, for example, he supports mandating drivers’ licenses. But even he holds opinions that should make American progressives recoil.

For example, Johnson, according to On the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Issues, wants to abolish both the Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, doesn’t believe in a government solution to climate change, at least at one point opposed mandatory vaccination, and he believes ObamaCare is unconstitutional.

And even as a candidate, Johnson has occasionally given off the impression that he would be unprepared for presidency even if he were a serious candidate. The most notable example of this is a news interview in which he was unable to answer a question about Aleppo, a city in Syria that is the heart of the refugee crisis.

This would be the equivalent of not being able to mark Seoul on a map during the Korean War. While this alone doesn’t make him a bad candidate, it is indicative of a lack of expertise in foreign policy. You’d think this would be something he’d be briefed on.

None of this is to say that Johnson would be the worst thing to ever happen to America were he elected President. Most likely, he’d be fine, and the more extreme aspects of Libertarian ideology would be filtered out by Congress. Keep in mind, he was a fairly well-liked Governor of New Mexico, and thus he has considerably more experience than most third-party candidates. He even has more leadership experience that the current Republican nominee.

But when you’re voting for Johnson, you should understand exactly the message you’re sending. Firstly, you’re sending a message that Johnson should be President of the United States, but more importantly, you are sending a message that Libertarianism, as an ideology, deserves a place in forming government policy. While I thoroughly reject many facets of Jill Stein’s campaign, I can at least understand why progressives would be drawn to her. A vote for him legitimizes the vitriolic belief in radical departure from how the federal government has come to be defined over the last century.

That is what your vote means. It’s not just a meaningless protest vote. It’s a promotion of an ideological worldview that is incompatible with progressive thought, outside the comfort zone of the electorate and unfit as a basis for government.

OPINIONS

Page 10

September 29, 2016

Hilllary Clinton, though flawed, must be next president Nick Barone

Opinions Editor

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n April 21, 2016, I expressed my support and admiration for Senator Bernie Sanders and his groundbreaking campaign to become the Democratic presidential nominee. Sanders was not and is not perfect, but I found his vision to be inspiring and his platform to be the only one that even attempted to properly acknowledge how deeply embedded economic and racial inequality are “in the institutional framework of American society” (The Miscellany News, “United States in dire need of Sanders’ radical platform,” 04.21.2016). Sanders, to me, represented a lot of ideals that I felt had to traditionally be compromised or suppressed when voting in an American election.

Though Sanders had his flaws (his lack of support for slave reparations, his excessive reliance on economic vagaries, etc.,) the promise of a true progressive movement revitalizing the American sociopolitical landscape gave me hope for the future of this country.

On July 26, 2016, to the surprise of perhaps no one (including myself), the Democratic National Convention nominated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine for president and vice president.

I was angry. I was disappointed.

Nonetheless, this November, I am, begrudgingly but confidently, voting for Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton has baggage. A lot of it. Her support for the deplorable Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (which disproportionately targeted Black people) among other ill-fated neoliberal endeavors that ultimately hurt the most marginalized and vulnerable members of our society, needs to be addressed, readdressed and remembered.

Her hawkish foreign policy tendencies, from voting for the Iraq War back in 2002 to her support for the military-backed removal of Honduras President Manuel Zelaya in 2009 to her uncritical attitude towards the Israeli occupation of Palestine, cost many innocent lives and ad-

vanced what many critics see as a prettily packaged imperialist agenda across the globe.

Her complicity in transnational violence needs to be remembered, too.

Accordingly, this history renders it difficult for anyone (impossible to some) who considers themselves to be progressive to vote for Clinton. Many are turning to third-party candidates, while some are refusing to vote altogether.

While I am admittedly practicing a degree of political pragmatism by voting for Clinton in November, I thoroughly dismiss the popular notion that voting third-party is a “wasted vote.” In some elections, a protest vote can be productive and necessary.

For some folks who have been or will be harmed by the mainstream presidential candidates, this is entirely understandable.

Personally, I love the Green Party. I think they have an excellent platform that addresses the nuances of American inequality across racial, class and gender lines. I have many friends who are long-time supporters of the Green Party. To those who are lifelong supporters of the Greens, I say, more power to them. Dr. Jill Stein, though deeply flawed, acknowledges the toxic impacts of unfettered capitalism and military aggression on both our nation and the world. Clinton does not. Donald Trump certainly does not.

I have less patience for left-leaning moderates, disillusioned progressives and disgruntled Democrats.

While my opinion on the matter of third-party voting has shifted a tad, I wrote an article back in April dismissing the rhetoric of “Bernie or Bust” as misguided. I still believe disillusioned progressives and left-leaning moderates should vote for Clinton. As I said then, “the [Bernie or Bust] campaign underestimates how Trump’s lack of political qualifications could di­sastrously undermine the office of the presiden­cy and the ability of the government to properly serve the people it is supposed to represent. Don­ald Trump is a pathological liar whose toxic be­liefs often change within minutes

of him dictating them. The absurd and utterly terrifying concept of a Trump presidency could very well become a reality in eight months if liberals and left-leaning moderates don’t back the Democratic nominee” (The Miscellany News, “‘Bernie or Bust’ rhetoric proves toxic to election discourse,” 04.01.2016).

A Trump presidency could very well become a reality in two months.

For those who would have traditionally voted Democrat this year and refuse because of Clinton’s history, 2016 is simply not the time for a protest vote. The notion that any progressive or revolutionary movement could flower or prosper under President of the United States and former host of “Celebrity Apprentice” Donald Trump is delusional. Trump mines out and serves on a silver platter the absolute worst aspects of American society and calls it a political platform. The entire basis of his campaign, from day one, has based itself around xenophobia and an Americanized brand of proto-fascism. On the day he announced his presidential bid, Trump said, “When do we beat Mexico at the border?

They’re laughing at us, at our stupidi­ty. And now they are beating us economically ... When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best ... They’re sending people that have lots of problems...they’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists” (The Washington Post, “Full text: Donald Trump an­nounces a presidential bid,” 06.16.2016).

I have eviscerated Trump over three times in this publication. The real life, clear and present, this-is-not-a-drill dangers of his presidency would be unprecedented and irreversibly damaging to our nation.

Contrastingly, an administration under Clinton would foster conditions conducive to a productive, nuanced and effective progressive movement. The influence of Sanders’s campaign proved the malleability and “progressiveness” of Clinton’s views and policies when under political/popular pressure.

As Robert Reich, who endorsed Bernie Sand-

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ers for the Democratic Primary, put it, “We don’t fight that [systematic inequality] by simply saying, ‘All right, let’s just have Donald Trump and hope that the system improves itself and hope that things are so bad that actually people rise up in armed resistance.’ That’s insane. That’s crazy ... We’ve got to be very, very strategic as progressives. We’ve got to look at the long term” (Democracy Now!, “Chris Hedges vs. Robert Reich on Clinton, Third Parties, Capitalism & Next Steps for Sanders Backers,” 08.04.2016).

The moment that did it for me was the case the Mothers of the Movement, nine Black women whose unarmed children’s lives were taken at the hands of police officers, made on the Tuesday of the Democratic National Convention. Lucia McBath said, “Hillary Clinton isn’t afraid to say black lives matter. She isn’t afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish. She doesn’t build walls around her heart” (Time, “Read What the Mothers of the Movement Said at the Democratic Convention,” 07.26.2016).

It would be unwise to neglect the fact that Clinton’s platform encompasses many policies that resonate with progressive values, such as valuing and upholding LGBTQ+ rights and protection from discrimination and calling for paid family leave. Her long-term commitment to these ideals will surely be thoroughly tested with the increasing polarization of our country.

But for now, her ideology is implicitly carving out space for progressive movements like Our Revolution (Sanders’s grassroots organization to carry out the mission spawned from his political campaign), Black Lives Matter and even the Green Party to potentially flourish.

Hillary Clinton has a lot to answer for. We, as American people, have a lot to answer for. You have a lot to answer for. I have a lot to answer for.

Nothing will be answered for if Trump is elected president.

And that’s why this November, I am voting for Hillary Clinton.

September 29, 2016

OPINIONS

Adolescence must be seen as growth phase Zhuo Biao Cai Guest Reporter

T

he lives of young people have drastically changed. The typical 18-year-old person in the 18th century was responsible for milking cows and feeding chickens. Currently, the average 18-year-old individual spends time taking selfies or drinking coffee to cram for tests.

In fact, former professor at University of Waterloo Frank A. Fasick, in his “On the ‘Invention’ of Adolescence,” argues that adolescence actually didn’t exist in the past. He proposes that urbanization and industrialization have changed society such that youngsters now focus on education and indulge in a new lifestyle with its own behavioral norms and forms of entertainment, thereby giving birth to the invention, or social construction, of adolescence.

I understand why Fasick and other inventionists believe that adolescence is essentially a social concept characterized by extensive schooling and a new way of living. However, they’re mistaken. Adolescence is actually better regarded as a real and natural phenomenon involving physical and mental growth that takes place during one’s teenage years. As a science student, I’m adamant that the physiological and psychological developments should be considered as the main elements of adolescence, as these changes prepare the youth for survival as adults. Adolescents across cultures, religions, socioeconomic statuses, genders, ethnicities and other identity-determining backgrounds have a particular aspect in common: biological changes. We’re all familiar with the pubertal changes during adolescence.

Males develop larger testicles and start to create sperm, while females begin menstruation. Both sexes gain pubic, facial and armpit hair, turn taller and more muscular, alter their vocal ranges, continue bone growth rapidly and so on.

What some of us may not know are the changes we can’t see with the naked eye: the internal developments in the brain. In “Adolescence,” Laurence Steinberg, professor of psychology at Temple University, writes that the brain func-

tions via a network made up of cells that communicate through electrical and chemical signals.

The part of the network that is responsible for reasoning, abstract thinking and planning is the frontal lobe. Whenever people plan for tomorrow’s agenda or contemplate which presidential candidate is better, they’re using their frontal lobes. Frontal lobes are still developing during adolescence, meaning that teenagers physiologically cannot think in the same way as adults.

“What some of us may not know are the changes we can’t see with the naked eye: the internal developments in the brain.”

Essentially, adolescents are learners. They are learning how to think for themselves and what they should do in practical and social situations, such as how to react when they witness a robbery or what to do when they are peer-pressured to engage in underage drinking. They need guidance to arrive at a mature decision because their reasoning skills are still expanding. In The New York Times, Lisa Damour’s “Gossip: The Best Gift Your Teenager Can Give You” stresses how important it is for parents to serve as advisors to their children during times of unease and treat them as individuals who are capable of reasoning to some extent during discussions about serious matters, such as drug consumption. Parents may be possible advisors, but teachers and other more developed adults can be of assistance to adolescents as well. This is why some schools, including my high school, have guidance counselors. They are there to help students make mature decisions when they may not be able to do so by themselves.

What is the point of all these adolescent de-

velopments? From a biological standpoint, the changes during adolescence render oneself more capable physically and mentally so that they can more effectively compete with others for resources, including shelter and sustenance, in order to survive and possibly reproduce. In everyday terms, it translates to adolescence being a period in which people start gaining fundamental abilities to survive independently as grown adults in the world.

Let’s think about it. Without bodily growth, the next generation would be four-foot 20-year-olds who don’t have enough stamina or strength to effectively build bridges, construct skyscrapers or even be strong enough to carry heavy groceries.

Without cognitive developments, the next generation would be five- or six-foot 20-year-olds who can’t efficiently run companies, handle relationship issues, enforce political policies or even do math, the topic that many students hate even though it’s the basis for the current technological era. Without both bodily growth and cognitive developments, the next generation might as well be a sign of the impending doom of humanity.

The physiological and psychological enhancements are programmed within DNA, the material that greatly influences who and how we are physically. Since DNA is passed down from generation to generation, adolescence has existed throughout history. Remember the 18th-century adolescent who was busy milking cows? He, she or they also experienced physical and mental improvements; they became stronger and smarter.

This means that people from all backgrounds can have similar physiological and psychological developments. To an extent, these developments are a universal marker of adolescence.

Indeed, adolescence should be treated as a natural phenomenon, a phase of biological and mental growth rather than a social invention. Growth during this phase is pivotal to adolescents’ futures. Because youngsters undergo such crucial changes, people should perceive adolescence as a phase of growth and try to ensure proper development into mature and rational adults.

Leftist memes hold untold political potential Sylvan Calko Perlmutter Guest Reporter

O

ver the past week, Donald Trump Jr. has been widely condemned for tweeting a meme captioned, “If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem” placed over a picture of the brightly multicolored candies. While we must focus on the absolute callousness, xenophobia and lack of basic quantitative skills reflected in Trump Jr.’s post, we must also take time to situate it in the far-reaching developments in political discourse precipitated by the 2016 presidential election. As formal politics increasingly rely on the medium of the meme for propagandizing, it becomes increasingly susceptible to the influence of factions of marginalized opinion and identity that are among the most prolific meme creators.

The most iconic example of this emerging relationship between politics and memes, and the communities that circulate them, is none other than Donald Trump Sr., who has retweeted images and posts from the “White-supremacists of the AltRight” internet subculture. Every time the racist roots of his retweets are brought to light, Donald Trump maintains that he was not aware of any such connections. For example, after Trump got into hot water for retweeting an image of Hillary Clinton next to a filled in six-pointed (Jewish) star over a background of money, he claimed that it was just a sheriff’s star. Crafty excuse, except for that fact that sheriff’s stars are five pointed. The origin of the meme was eventually traced to a Twitter account littered with white supremacist content from dark corners of the internet like 4chan and 8chan.

The increasing prominence of memes in today’s campaigns can not only be ascribed to the Right, but must also be recognized on the Left. Memes played an influential role in the Bernie Sanders campaign.

The “Bernie Sanders’ Dank Meme Stash” still has roughly 430,000 members while far-Left meme pages like “Marxist Memes” and “Comemenism” have 100,000 and 68,000 members respectively.

The political instrument of the meme, rather than being the exclusive preserve of Trumpizoids, can be seen as a practice especially apt for populism.

This practice is at its most extreme in the Trump

campaign because unlike Bernie, he is incredibly active on his personal social media.

But how does this barrage of memes, dank or otherwise, translate into influence from the ideological fringes of the internet into mainstream debate? The answer lies in the changing nature of public space in the internet age. Before the rise of the internet, the strength of a social movement depended on the amount of bodies it could mobilize.

Now, although there is no substitute for physical mass action, a type of online mobilization takes place that can propagate opinions that for decades remained anathema in mainstream political discourse. The anonymity of the internet has allowed many people to express contemptible opinions.

Though the Alt-Right is small in numbers, it has so thoroughly staked its claim to certain parts of the internet, and been so often mobilized to harass people ranging from female game developers to Jewish reporters to Black actresses, that it can present itself as a force to be respected and utilized.

Donald Trump and his campaign retweeting the Alt-Right is not a result of the campaign becoming unwittingly sucked into an ideological blackhole, but should rather be seen as a conscious effort to co opt an influential segment of the internet and its corresponding younger demographic. It was evident that parts of the Alt-Right recognized and welcomed this when they popularized the meme caption, “Donald Trump will make anime real.”

Nevertheless, this attempt to co-opt can often go wrong, as was the case with the Hillary meme.

Donald Trump had nothing to gain by retweeting such an item when he’s already got the white supremacist vote in the bag. Perhaps, and maybe this is giving him too much credit, he did not automatically grasp the antisemitic implications of the tweet. After all, many memes circulated by internet subcultures are meta-memes that refer to previous memes and so on and so forth. If you do not spend a considerable chunk of time frequenting parts of the internet where such a group symbolic language develops, then you always miss something of the full meaning encased in the meme. In other words, you have got to grow a little “dank” yourself before you measure just how “dank” a meme is. Trump is not only using the Alt-Right to boost his campaign, but the Alt-Right itself is using him to popularize a

chat room-based racist subculture that is off brand even for The Donald.

But this elaborate waltz in the Twitterverse, once it becomes central enough to the image of the campaign, can result in real changes on the ground. By establishing itself strongly enough on the internet, the Alt-Right was able to impress its cyberpolitics on the “real world” by giving its main avatars enough cultural capital to enter the orbit of Trump’s campaign. Milo Yiannopoulos, the technology editor at the unofficial mouthpiece of the Alt-Right, Breitbart News, made quite a splash at a private press conference at the Republican National Convention when he announced that he had just been banned from Twitter for inciting his followers to harass African-American actress Leslie Jones.

He supplements his income with speaking tours where he rails against PC culture and, in the most Freudian fashion, calls Trump “Daddy.” Others like Steve Bannon, the current Trump campaign CEO and executive chairman of the aforementioned Breitbart News, are simply sinister. Bannon’s effective replacement of the savvy but orthodox political consultant Paul Manafort signaled a further shift from the Right to the Alt-Right. Could the emergence of these figures into the Trump campaign have happened without the murky world of white supremacy and memes in which they cultivated their audience and notoriety? I think not. We have reached a point in the world where the virtual can increasingly intervene in the norms of day to day life and make the unsayable sayable again.

An immediate visceral reaction to these political developments would be to reject this new relationship between the browser and the ballot box, but this is a short-sighted approach. There are radically progressive possibilities inherent in this relationship. What could an Alt-Left do, going much further than “Bernie Sanders’ Dank Meme Stash,” if properly mobilized and presented with another populist opening in political discourse? There are hints of these potentialities in how social media is used to organize grassroots protests against police violence or the hike of drug prices. What is highly pressing is that we absorb important organizational lessons from the Alt-Right in addition to refuting it. The Revolution will not be televised, but perhaps it can still be memed.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 11

Word on the street If you could give up your first-born child for anything, what would it be?

“An extended trip around the world.”

— Megan Jackson ’18

“Literally anything.”

— Lisset Magdaleno ’19

“For 1D to get back together” — Christa Haryanto ’19

“Lifetime VIP Chance tickets.”

— John MacDougall ’19

“I feel like anything I say will be super cynical and creepy.”

— Sophie Blumenstock ’19

“I cannot think of anything specificI don’t want kids #nokids.” ­­— Rachel Ludwig ’18

Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 12

September 29, 2016

Breaking News From the desk of Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor In Monday’s Presidential Debate, Donald Trump revealed to supporters that his favorite movie is “Girl, Interrupted.”

In solidarity with Brangelina, Student uses newspaper to famous couples call it quits search for friends in 2016 Lily Horner

Follywood Reporter

BREAKING NEWS: Love is dead. That’s right, my dedicated Misc readers (Mom and Dad), the split of Brangelina on Sept. 21, 2016 marks the end of love for everyone everywhere. The couple that was once the shining beacon upon the daunting seas of Realistic Romance has gone to sleep with the fishes.

If Brangelina can’t make it, then we might as well all just give up. I can honestly say without exaggeration or hyperbole that we are now doomed to long, painful and lonely deaths.

Many may point out that there are some last vestiges of love left in Hollywood. This is just the result of a lack of foresight from some ignorant, non-People readers. Brangelina is only the first domino in the effect that is the crumbling of our Hollywood Power Couple (HPC) culture. After Brangelina, Wada is going to crumble to our feet. Their children, Jaden and Willow, will manufacture multiple tweets that will prove to be both confusing and tear-jerking. Will Smith will go down a dark path that will lead up to him being caught scarfing down chicken fingers at a bowling alley in Arkansas.

Jada Pinkett-no-longer-Smith will bounce back with her own fragrance for women of divorce called Prenup.

The next couple to split after that will be Mary-Olivier. Despite their huge age difference, many thought that the couple would make it work. This reporter begs to differ. I judge them not because of their age difference.

I don’t care about that. Nor do I care that she is a pure American fashion designer while he is a grimy French banker. The real problem with them is their couple name. There is no way a couple with such a half-assed portmanteau could make it in the modern age of love.

Granted, I came up with the name, but it’s only because I have so little faith in this couple.

The most surprising divorce after Mary-Olivier will be Porllen. How can such a funny woman (Portia) and such a pretty woman (Ellen) not make it work, you ask? Portia will want to name their new dog Scrappy but Ellen

will let her viewers name the dog; they will choose the name Harambe. After that, Portia will call the meme racist and Ellen will evict her. They will divide up their assets evenly, and Portia’s divorce party will be the red carpet event of 2018.

Finally, after 35 years of marriage, Drhea will be the last HPC to leave us for good. The “It’s Always Sunny” actor and “Cheers” actress will be torn apart by his jealousy over her fling with Kelsey Grammer during their brief separation in 2012. Rhea Perlman will get half of the “Matilda” royalties in the divorce, while Danny Devito will acquire the rights to write a memoir of their relationship. Are we too young to know who these two are? I don’t think so. Part of celebrity literacy is knowing your history; it’s just like academic history except a lot less important and a lot more fun.

There will be many HPCs that will break up, but the only one that will survive is going to be, of course, Kimye. Their legacy will continue because their media empire is actually killing off all other HPCs in order to absorb their energy into themselves, similar to how Keith Richards has been killing off young musicians for decades in order to keep up his unsustainable lifestyle. Kimye will never break up, but unfortunately both will die of a Romeo and Juliet-esque mixup that involves all their cell phones dying at the same time. It’s true, my psychic told me. And she predicted the rise of the Scrub Daddy, so I don’t fuck with her.

Once all the HPCs are gone, how will we govern ourselves? How will we be able to survive in a world where notable people can’t make love work for the cameras? If we aren’t able to have performative love, then what is the point of having love at all? These are some of the questions I will be addressing in my Children of (Brangelina’s) Divorce meeting, on Thursday at 9 in the attic of Chicago Hall.

Please bring your favorite Brangelina headline from any issue of People. Anyone who mentions Jennifer Aniston will be escorted off the premises, this is not about her.

Sophie Blumenstock

Friend Without Benefits

Friend seeking friend with an on-campus pet Animal lover with a big heart. I’ve really been missing my pets at home lately. Mostly I just want to find a person to kind of hang around with as I play with their pet. Anything with fur is okay, preferably a rabbit or a ferret.

Hamsters are fine, and rats are kind of pushing it. If you have access to a dog, contact me ASAP. Fish owners need not apply.

Friend seeking friend with a car I need someone to bug about rides when I don’t feel like the bus and I don’t want to spend money on a taxi. Would be expected to drive me to the train station, the mall, Stop & Shop and maybe the airport. Pick ups at the end of breaks would be a plus. I may also request help moving my stuff at the end of the year, as well as storing it in your house. As for time commitment, we would also need to go on a few obligatory Deece dates, just to keep up the illusion that we actually like each other so I don’t feel so badly about my blatant exploitation. Chauffeur uniform provided upon request.

Friend seeking friend to go to the Deece with I mean, I don’t MIND deecing alone. It’s fine.

I can DO it. Just sometimes I don’t want to.

I’ve run out of good podcasts and sometimes I can’t find a place to sit without asking a group of friends if I can sit at the end of their table, and it just makes me a bit anxious sometimes.

I have a lot of extra meal swipes! Applicants with stir fry experience preferred.

Friend seeking friend with food I’m hungry and a little clingy, but fun to hang out with. Care packages from home are always good, especially ones that include baked goods.

I’m constantly forgetting my V-Card, so swiping for me in the Deece and Retreat will happen on the reg. I’ll always promise to pay you back, but it’ll never really happen, and what’s a few bucks amongst friends, anyway? I’ll also take care of any of your leftovers.

Friend seeking friend to watch “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” with So it just seems like a really good movie?

And you know, since it’s about friends and stuff, I don’t really want to watch it alone. All of my friends have already seen it, so I just kind of want a viewing buddy. I have a projector and everything. Will provide snacks and drinks.

Friend seeking friend to help befriend another friend I just want them to think I’m cool. But I don’t really know how to approach them. So help on that front would be appreciated. A lot. I need someone to help me come up with ideas of things to do. And if we do the things, then of course you can come, too! Maybe we can all be friends together! That would be nice. I just need an extra push to help me to reach out.

Friend seeking friend with a house near campus I really need a cheap place to crash during breaks. I live kind of far away and don’t really enjoy going home that often, but campus during breaks is so boring. The ideal situation would be a drive to and from the house and room and board provided. I’m not fussy and I don’t need anyone to entertain me. I would stay out of the way and just watch Netflix the whole time. We could even hang out a bit when we’re back on campus, but that seems a little unnecessary.

Friend seeking womp womp I just really want to be friends with a womp womp. Mostly it’s the prestige. They’re practically campus celebrities! But also, they’re just so cute and chubby. They seem pretty chill, like I’ve never heard about any womp womp drama on campus. It might be a little tough to work around their hibernation schedule, but with any luck, it’ll mostly line up with winter break.

I’m totally down with any scampering, waddling or just chilling and eating food. If anyone has any connections, hmu!

Mug experience weird and uncomfortable, no one surprised Evelyn Frick, Countess Dracula

The following story is a completely true one. In no way am I lying or embellishing and exaggerating the facts. This is also a very serious matter. It all began last Saturday night, when I was bitten by a vampire in the Mug. I can practically hear you rolling your eyes as you read that last sentence. You’re probably saying to yourself, “Evelyn is batshit.” Well, that’s not that far from the truth, actually. Because I’m now turning into a vampire too. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last Saturday night, that fateful night, Strong House Team was in our House President’s room “eating milk and cookies” and “having a very structured and respectable night.” We were just “listening to Debussy’s ‘Arabesque’” and “playing crosswords” when someone suggested that we all go to the Mug together. “Nothing weird, awkward or uncomfortable has ever happened in the Mug!” I thought to myself. (My judgment clearly impaired by the five shots of milk I had had.) So I decided that I would go along.

Returning to the Mug for the first time this semester, I felt like I was running into an acquaintance from high school. I recall a

few good memories. I recall a few bad memories. There are a lot of memories that I can’t even begin to recall. But mostly, after approximately two minutes I’m ready to be literally anywhere else. I should’ve listened to that instinct, but alas I did not. That sweaty den of sin lured me to stay with its shitty club music (you’re right Sia, I do love cheap thrills) and I paid for it. You see, The Mug is literally the perfect hunting ground for a vampire.

It’s worryingly dark, there are no mirrors, no wooden stakes and with the exception of some highly aesthetic people who wear chokers, necks that are readily available to chomp on. Like mine.

Basically what happened was this: this vampire successfully disguised himself as a skinny white boy who was dancing pretty close to me. After the normal formalities of awkwardly bumping into one another, and then bumping into one another again a little more on purpose, then bumping into each other to the beat of the music, we were grinding. At first it was pleasant, but this was clearly because of his vampiristic charm. A few minutes into it, I turned around to kiss

him and weirdly enough his breath was a tinge garlicy, but surely this was a trick just to disguise his undead state. For then, in what must’ve appeared to onlookers as a weird white boy trying to be sexy, the vampire turned his attention from my lips and went in for a midnight snack. He started to gnaw on my neck. At first I thought that I could get into it, like it were handcuffs or calling someone “Daddy.” But he just kept chomping on my neck like it were a particularly tough steak. Clearly he had to be looking for my jugular, because there is no other explanation for this behavior. I mean, it’s not like any other male person on this campus would treat me, a woman, as if I were merely a piece of meat, right? To be fair I never saw any fangs, but I also didn’t really see his face either.

Luckily, I pulled out my handy-dandy vial of holy water (no, that’s not a euphemism for a flask) for protection and made my escape. Heading to the nearest mirror, I went to check out my neck in hopes that the vampire hadn’t drawn any blood. It did not appear that he had. However, a hickey-looking bruise had started to form at the base of my neck. But

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

there’s no way it could have been a regular hickey, because any normal human would have known that biting someone’s shoulder isn’t anywhere close to sexy. Simply more proof that I was attacked by a member of the undead.

In the aftermath of such a gruesome attack, I thought I was okay. Until the next morning I started exhibiting symptoms. I was light-sensitive, slept for the majority of the day, was very pale and dressed in all black. Some of my friends said that I was just extremely hungover and being emo. And that I had always been that pale. But I’m not so sure. Then a few days later, I started to feel ill. My throat itched, I became very congested and was irritable. I knew this meant that the vampire must have sucked my blood and that I was dying. I went to say goodbye to my friends and once again they told me that I was always irritable and that I probably just had the cold that was going around. I suppose only time will tell if I am transforming Count Dracula or merely have the common cold. I’ll keep all my avid readers updated. In the meantime, fuck the vampatriarchy.

HUMOR & SATIRE

September 29, 2016

Page 13

“Vassar is sick!” everyone ironically exclaims, mid-sneeze Amanda Su Patient X

I have started a diary to document the sickness that has encompassed the majority of the school recently. I am writing this in the hopes that the vital information I share in my account of the infamous “Vassar Plague” can provide students and administration with the tools necessary to reduce the casualties that have been inflicted thus far. I also write because in the off chance that I receive the plague myself, I need something to be remembered by. This will be my legacy.

not looking well for me. I will continue to observe and report my symptoms. In the meantime I shall be googling the nearest church, synagogue, mosque, temple and satanic altar so I can go, pray and prepare for what is about to happen to me.

Day 4 I AM INFECTED. The Vassar Plague has struck me. I feel like I’m in the movie “Contagion.” In all honesty I’ve never actually seen that movie, but I think it has something to do with pandemic? Anyway, that’s one of the only glamorous parts about being ill. There are far more disgusting things. For example, I woke with a runny nose and I now have a quickly depleting supply of tissues. My throat has begun to feel raw and sore. Many other students have cited this common symptom. Soon to follow is the terrible fever and lack of energy. The future does not look good for me. On the bright side, my sore throat has given me the voice of an

Day 3 Today, I uttered a single cough. Things are

Sanana Srestha/The Miscellany News

Day 1 An infectious virus has gone rampant, plaguing scores of students and faculty and womp womps and creatures. The cause of this virus has not yet been identified. Some have blamed the Deece for their sickness, others have accused the Biology and Chemistry Departments for releasing potentially hazardous toxins into the Vassar bubble. Whatever the case, the virus is currently uncontained. Students and faculty have been left to their own devices, and administration seems rather unaffected by this new strain of sickness—which, in my opinion, is highly suspect. It is only Day 1 since symptoms of the sickness have become prevalent, and people have quarantined themselves in their rooms. Walking to class, I see considerably fewer faces, and the ones I do see are grayed and tired. (Plus the people I am seeing aren’t the ones I want to be seeing ... If only the Vassar Plague would affect my enemies and not my friends.) Their eyes sagging under the weight of their impending sickness, their steps lacking the gait that was once present. In anticipation of the plague, I have stocked up on Advil, Tylenol, Cough drops, hand sanitizers, Green tea and a renewal of my Netflix subscription.

losophy and political science classes today.

That’s not that uncommon actually, they’re pretty boring. But students were also scarce from my English class, which isn’t a good sign.

The professors have also started to look ill.

Coughs and sneezes and runny noses can be heard throughout campus. I have taken extra precaution by purchasing a gas mask from Amazon. It should be here in two days—but will it be too late by then? I have been popping Airborne pills and taking shots of OJ like there’s no tomorrow—and honestly, at this rate, there might not be a tomorrow! (If anyone has any good suggestions of lawyers to help me compose my last will and testament, hmu.) Peers have accused me of being overdramatic, but I think the virus has made them all delusional. I can only hope that I can maintain my sanity in such trying times.

Day 2 Half the students were absent from my phi-

“Dad Jokes”

older Scarlett Johansson with a terrible smoking addiction. It’s pretty hot, actually.

Day 5 I have just woken from a 14-hour nap—it was great. (I’ve attempted to take a nap of that duration before, but failed miserably. I only was able to clock in at 7.5 hours.) Let the records show that I am currently sitting on my bed, curled in my blanket like a lil’ burrito. Being affected by the sickness have given me a rare, firsthand glimpse into the symptoms of this elusive and enigmatic disease. My energy levels have quickly dropped. I was not able to make any of my classes. I turned to Baldwin for help, but alas, they were no use. First, they asked me if I needed to go to the emergency room. Which I did not. So they made me schedule an appointment for next month. I came in because that was ridiculous. In retaliation, they subjected me to various pregnancy tests, despite my insistence that I have received no action in the weeks leading up to my ailment. Additionally, my symptoms have worsened severely, and I no longer sound like Scarlett Johansson with a smoking problem. My sore throat has developed and my voice now sounds like an angry Bernie Sanders. It is embarrassing to speak.

Day 6 I think I have suffered the worst of the plague. I feel considerably better today. (Although I’ll most likely stay bed for the rest of the week, in case The Plague strikes again... and for safety of course...not because I’m lazy or anything...) My voice has returned to normal and I am no longer coughing my organs out. It turns out, the Vassar Plague was simply a cold.

Nothing special or life-threatening. Students need not fear the plague. In fact, we should all welcome it. Bedrest has allowed me to catch up on both “The Office” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Thank you, Vassar Plague, for a needed rest!

The Miscellany Crossword

by Kim Carlson and Mackenzie Little

ACROSS

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Mackenzie Little and Kim Carlson 1

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ARTS

Page 14

September 29, 2016

London fashion confronts colonial image of homogeneity Kirk Patrick Testa Guest Columnist

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Courtesy of Cleo Glover/Wonderland Magazine

nlike the troublesome nature of some of the runway shows of New York Fashion Week, London Fashion Week was filled with runway shows that knocked it out of the park in the best ways possible. The mistake known as Brexit has proliferated racist sentiments within the U.K., leaving many people of color pushed to the outskirts of the national identity. Regardless of varying stances on Brexit, the U.K. cannot deny that it is inextricably linked to other cultures. I hate to point out the obvious, but the British Empire did, at one point in history, hold almost a quarter of the world’s total land area.

Because of this, the U.K. must understand its identity as one that is composed of a multitude of the cultures that it colonized.

The most striking reminder of this from the runway was Indian designer Ashish Gupta’s show for his brand, Ashish. The show was titled “Bollywood Bloodbath” and served as a way for Gupta to highlight the political and cultural unrest in England. The show opened with a blind sitar player delivering a live performance.

The first look was a male model robed in a glittering golden dress (with a thigh high slit, of course) strutting down the catwalk with a python draped over his shoulders. Upon this first look, the direction of the show was established: Indian culture and ways of dress married with a modern elegance yet unapologetically badass attitude.

My favorite look was an ensemble of a red-sequined graphic T-shirt with the words “Love & Devotion” printed across the chest, an intricate gold headdress holding a cerulean silk veil in place and a red sari skirt embroidered with simplified floral patterns. The show was literally and metaphorically dazzling thanks to Gupta’s mastery of sequined fabrics. What was even more spectacular was the gender-fluid nature of the show. The models were dressed in traditional Indian fabrics adorned with embroidery and embellishments. The marriage of East and West

was achieved in the use of Western silhouettes in treating the Indian fabrics. There were sequined tracksuits and double denim, slip dresses and saris, all with a romantic air about them.

The Ashish show, overall, had an ethereal quality to it. The traditional Indian garments mixed with Western tailoring donned by models in Indian makeup styles and accessories were almost an homage to the deities of the Hindu faith. The models were a modern translation of the figures of Hinduism. They embodied faith, culture, tradition and power. They called attention, but were otherworldly. They were their own group of characters in a larger spectrum of London Fashion Week, but not separate. This bold visual statement reflected how the Indian people find themselves unwelcomed by the hateful sentiments in the political sphere of the U.K. at this very moment. One thing is for sure: they are undeniably a part of the U.K. and it will not be forgotten that this is so. Ashish Gupta proved this in his finale greeting of the audience in which he takes a bow in a white long-sleeve T-shirt with the word “Immigrant” printed across the chest, a word linked to both his own identity (he immigrated to London from Delhi in 1996) and to the impact Brexit will have on the country’s borders.

Another standout show from London Fashion Week was by J.W. Anderson. His collection was inspired by King Henry VIII. The Tudor king defined a particular shape for the garments in the collection, which British fashion critic Suzy Menkes described as “narrow, elongated to below the hips, then flowing into a skirt that might swoop short or twist for part of the fluted hemline. The shoes were balanced on hefty heels that were sliced as if coming apart.”

Anderson gave a nuanced explanation of his inspiration and the effect of its translation on the modern female body: “It’s from the Henry VIII period, but it’s part of a whole idea about relics, the idea that a woman would take something from the aggressive masculinity of a period of bygone days and be, not a warrior, but

Designer Ashish Gupta presented “Bollywood Bloodbath,” a collection inspired by Hindu deities at London Fashion Week. Other designers explored similar themes of cultural identity. wear a shape that is very empowering.” Indeed the show was a tour de force cut-and-paste mélange of different textured fabrics, dye colors and patterns, geometric shapes and accessories.

The spirit of the collection was the empowered woman unbound by any and all expectations of how to present herself to the world at large.

Finally, Mary Katrantzou also delivered a show that truly showcased her vision as a Greek artist. Her collection fused classical references and Futurism by unearthing Minoan artifacts and giving classic frescoes new life in juxtaposing it with 1960s pop art patterns and details.

The collection was undoubtedly full of quotations from classical Greek art: chariots riding at an angle across A-line dresses, sun rays striping on narrow trousers and patterns exploding around Grecian amphora decorations on

the breast of a dress. The designer explained, “There’s an infusion of very optic, kinetic, psychedelic ways of distorting and warping the Minoan deities, priests and all the females of Minoan times.” Hence despite the very old references, Katrantzou’s collection was signaling towards a direction of the new. What better way to do so than with an authentic reference to one’s own culture and heritage?

Ultimately, London Fashion Week was filled with remarkable collections that deserve to be recognized. It was refreshing to see designers challenge cultural norms without co-opting.

The appeal of these designers stems from their awareness and pride in who they are, how they manifest their complex identities in fashion and the thrill in the unexpected possibilities of what is to come.

No Offense presents new members, material in first show Sasha Gopalakrishnan Guest Reporter

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Courtesy of No Offense

lmost a month into the school year, I think it’s safe to say most of us are already drowning under our workload. Classes are hard, homework is piling up and none of us are really on top of anything. It’s pretty depressing.

You know what we need in our lives? Some comic relief, that’s what. Vassar’s oldest sketch comedy group, No Offense, will be performing its first show of the year this Friday, Sept. 30, at 8 p.m. in Sanders Classroom. So if you need a pick-me-up to save yourself from mounting academic stress, this is it!

Established in 1987, this long-standing group likes to bring “professionalism and kookiness” to all its productions, according to No Offense Vice President Carinn Candelaria ’18. “We want to explore all kinds of comedy, and we tend to go for a formal approach, but with a touch of silliness.”

Regarding what sets them apart from other groups, she continued, “No Offense is a great outlet for creating new things and laughing and just being happy. Being a part of the group is really an exercise in creative writing–we write a lot, taking different people’s inputs and just bettering ourselves. Many people from our group are planning on actually pursuing comedy. In fact, actor Justin Long was in No Offense during his time at Vassar.”

No Offense President Albert Muzquiz ’17 added, “I think what makes it special is the people. No Offense attracts a certain kind of person: very earnest, talented individuals, a lot of them with theatre backgrounds, making for a very professional group.” He further joked, “I would say we’re like theatre people, but more mellow.”

This year, the group accepted two new members, Aaron Linker ’19 and Anya Bernstein ’20.

Last year, the troupe had 12 members but, with numerous graduating seniors and only two new acceptances, No Offense is much smaller and tighter this year.

Candelaria explained the rationale behind a smaller expansion of new members the group this year: “We wanted to rebuild the group but

New members Anya Bernstein ’20 (left) and Aaron Linker ’19 join Fiona Agger ’19 (right) and the rest of No Offense, Vassar’s oldest sketch comedy group. Their first show is on Friday, Sept. 30. not go to as large a size, because it’s much easier to handle. Plus, we didn’t want to accept too many new people at once. After all, each new member should get their moment in the spotlight.”

Member Mark Lawson ’18 expressed excitement at working with the new recruits. “I’m looking forward to seeing the wickedly creative new talents of No Offense in action.”

He continued, “It’s always such a blast going through the creative processes of putting up a show, and I couldn’t feel more impressed by the current iteration of the group. After losing six seniors, I feel like we’ve gone through a type of comedic metamorphosis where we’ll get to emerge as a hilarious comedy butterfly for all of Vassar to laugh with.”

When asked how he felt about his new group, Linker mentioned, “They really take care of their sketches. I was in improv last year, so I’m familiar with them, and I genuinely appreciate

them as comedians and as people.” He also talked about how he had a chance to bring his work into the group for review, and how accepting they were of new ideas.

Going off of Candelaria’s description of No Offense’s inclusive style, Linker continued, “They go for straight sketches with a hint of the bizarre and the absurd. But honestly, style varies from writer to writer. They often play with form, but without losing the quality of the humor.”

In regards to the process that goes into selecting these new members, Candelaria stated simply, “We’re looking for people who like comedy, want to create comedy and want to perform comedy.”

Along the same line of thought, Muzquiz elucidated, “We have a pretty exhaustive audition process. In the first round, we kind of sift out who’s funny and who we like and in the second round, we have them write for us. We’re really

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

happy with the two people we’ve chosen this year.”

No Offense does two full-length shows per semester and Friday’s show is the first of these.

Group members are constantly generating content, and so in addition to their official shows, they also have one “secret” show (well not so secret now, I guess) every semester, during which they bring in a lot of the material that they wouldn’t be able to put into their fulllength ones.

Muzquiz commented on the changes to this year’s line-up: “We are always writing. In fact, we lost a lot of our writers when last year’s seniors graduated, so now the rest of us have to step up. But we’re excited by the prospect of doing that.”

He continued, mentioning the unique secret shows, “We’re also getting more experimental with our style, and we often try out our more risqué sketches in our secret shows, whereas we tend to stick to our surefire funny material for the big shows.”

For the show this Friday, Muzquiz revealed that they have a lot of great content, which they have carefully workshopped and practiced to perfection. As he described, “This performance is about presenting our new members; we’re so excited to have them. They get the first pick for roles, because it’s really just about showing them off.”

Linker divulged, “It’s the first show of the year, so the existing members have had a few whole months of summer to write some good material and many of them have written a lot, so it’s exciting to see what they’ve come up with.”

Candelaria joked, “We want to introduce our vibe to the freshmen, so hopefully it’s somewhat entertaining, if not funny.”

So come see Vassar College’s oldest sketch comedy group this Friday at 8 p.m., in Sanders Classroom. This troupe can’t wait to “unveil its newest and cutest members,” according to its description on Vassar’s website.

A word of advice from Muzquiz: “Come early, because seats tend to fill up quickly. We hope to see you all there!”

ARTS

September 29, 2016

Page 15

CAAD’s summer project recaps and upcoming events Mug multiInstallation encourages viewers War, in dance media exhibit to engage anew with philosophy and image Simone Johnson

Elena Schultz

Guest Reporter

CAAD continued from page 1

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n Sept. 12 to 14 from 5 to 9 p.m., the group Do You Hear What I Hear presented “You’re Data,” a multi-media installation in the Mug. The research project and artistic science exhibition was presented by Elizabeth Boyce-Jacino ’18, Maya Enriquez ’17, Gabrielle Miranda ’18 and Conor Flanagan ’17. With a mix of cognitive science, creative writing and art majors involved in the exhibit, strong interdisciplinary connections between arts and science were present as a representation of a scientific phenomenon was made.

The room was dim, with light focused on a row of “patients,” a row of painted styrofoam heads and their “brain waves,” which was a yarn creation that represented the brain waves of the patients. There were two projections, one with a series of short stories written in yellow on a black backdrop and the other showing lips making a “bah” or “fah” sound. An audio of surveys was being played in the background, as well as a slow and somewhat eerie metronome. A trail of printed Facebook messages were lined up on the floor for the audience to step over, portraying the “communication barriers that had to be overcome,” according to Enriquez.

Through brain wave scans, Facebook surveys, a collection of short stories published online and a live survey at the installation, the group was able to investigate broad questions such as “Is there a divide historically between art and science?” and “Will science save us?” As Enriquez summed up, “Art and science are interactive. Lots of people feel like science and art aren’t accessible, and we felt that making it interactive would make it more memorable.”

Arts Editor

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eeing Shadows, Hearing Echoes,” an art, music and multi-media installation designed to engage the viewer in new ways of thinking about philosophy, will be held in the Vassar Barns from Wednesday, Oct. 5 to Friday, Oct. 7 at 7 to 9 p.m. each evening. “Seeing Shadows, Hearing Echoes” is the culmination of a summer of research by a student and faculty team, and is one of three multi-arts collectives funded by a grant from Creative Arts Across Disciplines.

The installation, while dedicated to dismantling the layperson’s rigid notions of philosophy, is rooted in a classic philosophical text—Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Gordon Schmidt ’17, a student member of the project, remarked, “We decided to take a base text (really just a small passage from Plato’s Republic) and use it as a launching point to create our own original work that grapples with the questions that this text poses.”

By reimagining classic theory into something more artistic, “Seeing Shadows, Hearing Shadows” allows viewers to reconsider what philosophy might mean to them. Faculty Mentor and Assistant Professor of Philosophy Christopher Raymond noted, “Philosophy is often understood as being quite unartistic, but some of the central figures, like Nietzsche as well, are writing in a more imagistic way, rather than just giving premise, conclusion, argument, so I’m curious to see what [the students] can do with that.”

Over the course of the summer, the students’ visions changed on what the installation would be. “The project started off with the goal of creating an interactive multi-media experience to accompany/enhance specific philosophical prose,” student member Jonah Parker ’18 explained. “We

wanted to create a space where people could interact with philosophy in non-traditional ways (in this case through music and visual art rather than just text).”

Although “Seeing Shadows, Hearing Echoes” was initially conceived as a conglomeration of separate works inspired by the Allegory of the Cave, the students ultimately decided that an exhibit that actively walked the viewer through a specific narrative would be best. Group member Henry Krusoe ’18 clarified, “Our feeling now, and I think it took us the whole summer to figure this out, was that...the only way this was going to work well was if we put it into a narrative installation where people are moving linearly from one thing to the next, rather than just wandering around.”

Adjunct Associate Professor of Music Susan Botti expressed appreciation for Krusoe, Parker and Schmidt’s creative process: “I discussed the students’ work in progress, gave them feedback for their experiments, suggested music for them to reference based on their ideas ... I love the multi-dimensional way they were exploring sound and music and philosophy and all the creativity that grew from the intersections of their ideas.”

After months of work, the team looks forward to debuting the final form of “Seeing Shadows, Hearing Echoes” at the barn in the Vassar Ecological Preserve. Rather than expecting the audience to discover a singular truth about philosophy, the students instead hope that the installation will allow each viewer to reach their own conclusions.

“If there is one thing I hope that this creative work does teach its audience, it is that philosophy does not just belong to those who write and construct and teach, nor does it just belong to Plato or Hegel; it belongs to everyone,” Schmidt noted.

“We do not need ‘philosophers’ to philosophize.

We just need to question and to act.”

Naomi Davidson Guest Reporter

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his weekend, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, COSTA COMPAGNIE will premiere “Conversion/ After Afghanistan” at the Frances Daly Fergusson Theater here on the Vassar College campus.

“Conversion/After Afghanistan” is a multi-media performance piece incorporating documentary, contemporary dance and spoken word elements in order to explore the experiences of the Afghan people and of German and American soldiers immediately preceding the end of the NATO-led ISAF mission in 2014. “[They are] asking the bigger questions, who has the right to tell other people’s stories,” as dancer Saskia Globig ’19 explained. “Can dancers and documentary filmmakers and interviewers accurately represent what people in colonized or attacked nations are feeling? ... How should we have compassion? How should we be critical?” Saskia is one of a number of Vassar students from the Dance Department who are lending their time and talents to this collaborative storytelling event.

Other Vassar students are contributing in different ways as well. COSTA COMPAGNIE has incorporated the stories of some of Vassar’s Posse students into the performance for the upcoming premiere.

COSTA COMPAGNIE’s work appears to be collaborative in many ways. Not only have they incorporated the Vassar community, but also many varied forms of art into their performance.

With a subject as nuanced and difficult as this one, it is only natural for COSTA COMPAGNIE to investigate using many points of view and various media. It is also especially topical considering the fairly recent implementation of Vassar College’s Posse Veterans Program.

Experimental theatre piece puts plot in audience’s hands Sam O’Keefe

Guest Reporter

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Courtesy of CAAD

ow close are we to reaching artificial intelligence? What defines personhood? What distinguishes an android from a human? What makes us human? These are just a few of the stimulating questions posed in this weekend’s production of “In the Case of a Person,” a predominantly student-run show put on by one of the groups in the summer program run by the Creative Arts Across Disciplines (CAAD), and was written and directed by Omri Bareket ’19, Andrea Orejarena ’17 and Carson Packer ’17. Vassar students and faculty eagerly flocked to the five different showings of the play.

Three students collectively representing drama, cognitive science and computer science seamlessly wove together these seemingly unrelated fields into an hour-long play. The play explores many of the ethical questions that become relevant when science confronts societal views and values. And by giving the audience the reigns, the student-run production presented an ongoing debate in a creative way, giving spectators the illusion of witnessing an authentic, and not a staged, event.

After signing in 15 minutes before the play, show-goers received a seat number in the familiar lecture hall, Rocky 200, which became astir with curiosity. When asked about their expectations of the show’s content, Jimmy Pavlick ’18 could only offer, “I know it’s student-run and that the audience is given some control.” Stage Manager Elianna Scheide ’20 shared with me before the show, “It’s meant to be a bit of a surprise.” No one knew what to expect once they sat down to observe a courtroom scene with tablets displayed in the left front row, and a lighting crew in busy preparation.

A hush fell over the chatty audience as the actors descended the stairs and began their opening lines. Then, select audience members were perplexed to hear their names ominously announced via a faceless voice, sending them to the jury selection box near the front of the stage. As the play progressed, the audience and jury were presented with several different characters and stories, all culminating in a final, dramatic soliloquy and verdict. Yet what made the play stand out was that, to a large extent, the actors were spectators as well,

Pictured above are members of CAAD’s three summer multi-arts collectives, eight-week collaborative projects by students from various departments along with faculty members. unable to predict the subsequent scene and events.

In fact, the show’s plotline was largely in the hands of the jury, who consistently made decisions via their tablets concerning the next scene’s lighting sequence, characters and overall direction. As the show unfurled in the form of a tense murder trial, the jury specifically chose several characters to appear on the stand and give their crucial testimony.

Isa Pengskul ’19 commented, “It was kind of tense, there was no real music and it felt like I was in an actual courtroom.”

The style of the show put the actors at the mercy of their audience. Andrea Orejarena ’17, a writer and student director of the production, stated that one of the show’s main goals was “to play with interactive theatre-making,” a relatively untouched area in the theatre world. The interactivity of the show was undoubtedly deliberate, as Orejarena explained: “By giving the jury control over the plot, they resultingly became more invested in the show and its direction.” With this adaptability and au-

dience inclusion, challenges proved concomitant.

Since the jury is given multiple choices for the next scene’s content, logically there are many possible paths that the play can chart.

“Each branch was a new and complex permutation that had to be given a detailed script and rehearsal time,” detailed Orejarena. Surely it wasn’t any easier for the actors, either. Allegra Kaufman ’19, who played key witness Mrs. Newman, evidenced the challenges of her role: “What is hard is understanding the situation and how much your character knows [and] realizing the discrepancy between what I believe and what I’m fighting for.”

The trial centers around the question of whether Sam, an android programmed by a robotic engineer, should be condemned for killing a woman on account that she is superficially just a machine.

Kaufman offers, “The show really looks ahead to the future, and begs the question of how we will deal with these issues once they become relevant.”

Yet we may be closer to that future than we

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

think. In this day of omnipresent technology and innovations, Scheide observes, “the line between machine and human is becoming increasingly blurred,” and society’s definition of “personhood” is neither clear-cut nor unequivocal. Indeed, audience members discover that despite an android lacking the biological anatomy of a human, he or she can exhibit qualities that might be labeled as “human.” This goes hand-in-hand with Orejena’s hypothesis: “We judge intelligence and sentience on rationality. But her emotions that drove her to... murder are exactly why we cannot deny her personhood.” This project posits that humans retain personhood from both the empathic and hostile tendencies that define them.

The show was an irrefutable success, and its exploration of such a complex and often controversial topic only heightened its appeal. Ava Linvog ’19 commented, “It was so refreshing to be able to interact with the actors.” Isabel Sakarin ’19 a member of the jury, exclaimed, “Five stars. Being in the jury was so fun. I’ve realized that our capacity to create artificial intelligence is growing, and with that comes a growing lack of control.” Sakarin’s insight demonstrates the pensive power of the play.

As Orejena notes, “partaking in this production has made me more conscious about these issues that are relevant today.” For what deems a person a person? Who is deserving of life? The play poses and leaves unanswered such weighty questions.

And for those involved, it couldn’t have gone any better. The production of the show drew together an eclectic group of students, representing different backgrounds, intellectual passions and ideas. As a student-run project, the increased freedom was also met with an increased responsibility, which fell on the playwrights and stage-manager to ensure organization and progress. All challenges aside, the autonomy awarded to a student-run show is invaluable, as Kaufman shares, “We can mess around, change things up and ask questions and think...but then also get work done.” All those involved expressed their utmost pride and accomplishment, and each intend to pursue unique forms of theatre like this that are exhibiting the evolution of drama into a more fluid form. “It’s been fun,” Kaufman reports, and this fun looks to continue for the rest of the academic year.

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Page 16

September 29, 2016

“Mr. Robot” Season 2 a shift from knockout first season Jimmy Christon Columnist

Mr. Robot

Season 2 USA Network

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ally explored. This show is truly great at a lot of things, but it has always relied more on tension and plot twists to keep its hooks in you rather than meaningful explorations of any theme. Now, you could level this critique at any piece of art, but the reason it bothers me with “Mr. Robot” is that the show always feels like it’s about to say something meaningful, but it never follows through.

This frustration isn’t just limited to my bickerings either. You can see it in how some characters on this show are used and tossed away without being looked back upon. Season 1 had Shayla, who was a romance for Eliot and sort of a romance for Angela for a little. Then she got murdered and we got to see how her death affected Eliot, but then it was back to “who is Mr. Robot” for the rest of the season. This season, we had Ray who was played greatly by Craig Robinson. I loved his character,

and how his illusion of his wife paralleled Eliot’s illusion of his father. Unlike Dom, these two characters are great additions to the show, but they are never used to their full potential and are awkwardly just tossed away halfway through their respective seasons.

All this being said, “Mr. Robot” is still one of the best shows on television. I haven’t been this stressed out watching a TV show since “Breaking Bad,” and that’s great, I love being taken along for the ride on the stress-train. But it’s not always a smooth ride; sometimes the stress-train that is “Mr. Robot” gets derailed in the worst way possible by flat characters, boring episodes or just odd narrative decisions. And when you do compare it to a show as expertly executed as “Breaking Bad,” it’s hard not to notice that “Mr. Robot” isn’t living up to its full potential.

Courtesy of USA Network

eason 1 of “Mr. Robot” was a great season of television that had a cool edge to it in its fourth wall breaks and some pretty crazy plot twists. Season 2 takes this further and tries to mess with the viewer in every way possible. The fourth wall breaks are bolder, the plot convulses like it is epileptic and the viewer is always, always left questioning. That being said, the show falters when it tries to conform to TV norms and the faults are pretty apparent this season. I do think, however, that the good parts outweigh the bad. So go watch this show, and especially this season, if you haven’t yet because the rest of this review is ridden with spoilers.

Season 2 of Mr Robot isn’t just “Season 1, but bigger”; Season 2 of the show represents a pretty drastic shift in tone, setting and narrative from the first. Everything is bleak this season, everyone is more paranoid and everything is painted in shades of gray. This has to be one of my biggest joys with this season, while individual episodes might have varied in consistency, the whole season felt cohesive in tone, making it collectively feel like something more than just a bunch of episodes.

Along with this focus on tone, creator, director and writer Sam Esmail puts the focus on expansion: expanding on everything brought up from last season. Instead of just following Eliot around for another season which does happen quite a bit, we got a ton of screentime with characters old and new.

This isn’t all a good thing though. Whenever you have all these narratives happening concurrently, there’s always that one narrative that just isn’t as interesting or as fun to watch as the rest.

That would be Dom’s narrative. Dom just felt so flat throughout this season. Her character never had anything more than just being the good-intentioned FBI detective searching for the hackers.

I felt like there wasn’t enough to make her anything more than a sideline character. There were some hints dropped that there was an actual character behind her overacted facade, but that’s all they are: hints.

But Dom is the exception, not the rule. The other characters on this show really came into their own this season. Darlene and Angela’s stories played one another to great effect as the two of them tried to help one another in continuing the hack, and both spiraled to the bottom as the world forces them to change from who they once were. We also got to see more of Cisco, who quickly became one of my favorites.

And then there is the man himself. Far and away, everything that involves Eliot and his alter-ego Mr. Robot are the best parts of this show.

From the hilarious faux-sitcom bit, to the adderall binge, to the absolutely stellar last 10 minutes of the season finale, these two characters work fantastic together and are always involved in the best parts of the show.

Speaking of the last 10 minutes of the season finale: it was some of the best television I’ve had the pleasure of watching. The way Christian Slater (Mr. Robot) walks in and out of frame while the camera tumbles around Rami Malek (Eliot) as the absolutely stellar electronic score by Mac Quayle in the background convulses and ramps up in volume with this incessant ambient-ish synth was fantastic. And the tension just kept on getting ramped up until Eliot and his bug eyes walked toward the camera as he states, “It’s time to take back control,” and then it ends in one of the most satisfying pseudo-cliffhangers ever put on television.

This brings me back around to some critiques.

This whole season has been about Eliot trying to regain control, and control could be seen as the theme of this entire season. But while this makes for great television, nothing about control was re-

The second season of huge hit TV show “Mr. Robot” further develops the exhilarating plot twists of Season 1. While it cannot live up to the initial hype, fans are on board for new developments.

Mac Miller improves with latest realease, a tribute to love Adam Westerman Guest Columnist

The Divine Feminine

Mac Miller Warner Bros. Records

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with sexual pleasure.

In “The Divine Feminine,” the background singers often overshadow Miller, which is not a discredit of his voice as much a credit to the album’s lush production. “Cinderella” is ambitiously eight minutes long. A minute-long guitar solo transitions into vibraphones and violins with Miller claiming that his “only way out is the way in.” The album is full of saxophone riffs stylistically akin to J. Cole.

My favorite track on the album is by far “Planet God Damn.” The beat breaks seamlessly into scattered 808s. The production is right up Aubrey “Drake” Graham’s alley with its unintelligible vocals and sharp bass. Ironically, Miller raps over a Drake-type instrumental after claiming on an earlier project that he “did it [achieved stardom] without a Drake feature.” Even so, Miller comes through with some of his deepest lines (“I think I’m stuck inside nostalgia”) as he pens another conflicted love letter.

Courtesy of GL Askew II

he Divine Feminine” is gentle, chock-full of erotic choral arrangements, and ultimately unique to Mac Miller’s previous works.

Here Miller is experimenting with muse as inspiration for creative expression, and this project follows the tender vein of love to genuinely display poignancy. The final half of “God is Fair” finds Miller’s grandmother describing her marriage and love for her husband. This interview draws stark contrast to the prior 50 minutes of the album. Miller’s grandmother says that the key to love is respect and understanding one another’s feelings. This doctrine is hard to swallow after hearing Miller define love through the lens of sexual pleasure.

It isn’t that Mac Miller can’t sing, but he’s no Anderson .Paak, which is perhaps why he enlisted the aforementioned’s talent. He has a relatively unique voice, and he appeals to the love-stricken market without sacrificing his lyrical sharpness.

It’s just that Miller’s beat production has evolved to outpace his vocal ability. Many tracks I found myself thinking that I’d rather just hear the instrumental. During many tracks, Miller is a true artist, and the painstaking degree of work he puts into developing and maintaining a certain sound is apparent. It’s very easy to dislike his sound. At only 24 years old, he has already had one of the more interesting career arcs of our generation. What I take from this project is his desire to expand his sound. The project comes off as monochromatic, but it’s a shade Miller has not before used, which is artistically commendable.

As with “Watching Movies With The Sound Off,” Mac Miller has cinematic influences, with the first lines of “Congratulations” announcing the album title like some white-block-lettered Warner Brothers overture. His orchestrations aspire to Kanye’s “Dark Fantasy” with synthed-up

vocals that later fade into minimalistic piano and strings. The piano riff that accompanies Miller’s first verse is eerily reminiscent of J. Cole’s “Sideline Story.” The singing itself is on key and imperfect but aided greatly by Bilal.

One of the grooviest cuts on the album is “Dang!” Anderson .Paak lends his exquisitely soulful vocals to a chorus over which brass and baseline intertwine smoothly. Miller jumps in with a cogent verse that strikes playful notes but depressingly belies a notion of emotional helplessness.

The track “Stay” sounds like it came straight off “Surf.” While Donnie Trumpet rips off stellar licks over ID Labs production, lyrics like “You so complicated, I swear that pussy Grammy-nominated” hinder the laidback vibe Miller intends to exude. The song ends with a female faking an orgasm, bearing resemblance to Lamar’s “These Walls” or Biggie’s “Ready to Die” interlude. Miller’s definition of love sure seems interchangeable

Mac Miller’s new album, “The Divine Feminine,” utilizes minimalism, a style he has not previously explored, to delve into the ever-complex subject of love with rich vocals and erotic elements.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Soulmate” begins with a quote from “Good Will Hunting” defining the word from which the song draws inspiration. Laden with futuristic synths and clever lines concerning immortality, the song is unabashedly lusty. Miller compares his love to a deity, an impenetrably beautiful soul and experiencing the high of a drug.

Miller has always wanted to be a rockstar, and during his “Blue Slide Park” days, videos of him surfaced covering Oasis’s “Wonderwall.” The most striking line from this track is “Time will tell if I’m alive and well / cuz when I’m by myself” denotes an ignominious self-consciousness which recedes slowly into a drug-induced haziness.

“My Favorite Part” has a great instrumentation which fits the overall idea, hopeful, infatuated, lackadaisical. The track is produced by Larry Fisherman, a pseudonym under which Miller has been producing beats since 2013. The lyrics echo a strained, trite sentiment, with Grande’s poppy vocals overpowering Miller’s, leaving him sounding like he’s humming along to a top-40 radio tune.

Equipped with a King Kendrick chorus and a boatload of sexual imagery, Miller concludes his album with the sultry “God is Fair, Sexy Nasty.”

One can never be too effusive when describing the genius that is Kendrick Lamar, but suffice to say his 12-bar chorus is the most interesting snippet of the track. Miller delivers on his verses, displaying a coherence of thought some of his earlier projects have lacked.

In November 2012, Miller released the album “You” under the pseudonym Larry Lovestein.

“You” is a foray into jazz, and a good deal of the sound with which Miller experimented made the final cut of “The Divine Feminine.”

Overall, notwithstanding its repetitive sound, “The Divine Feminine” is an enjoyable listen. It’s hard to believe this is the same man who put out “Best Day Ever” or “K.I.D.S.” but if there’s one thing common among good artists, it’s adaptability. With his fourth album, Miller has provided listeners with a first-person view of his malleable doctrine on love. Miller is a talented workaholic, and this album shows improvement in cohesion if not ability. He is five years younger than both Graham and Lamar, and I look forward to seeing what he’ll produce in the next five years.

ARTS

September 29, 2016

Page 17

Bey slays with “Formation” as expected Patrick Tanella

Assistant Arts Editor

Formation World Tour

Beyoncé Parkwood/Columbia

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eeing an artist like Beyoncé live is not your average concert experience. It is something people check off their bucket lists and spend upwards of 1,000 dollars to be given the chance to have that special fan-artist moment. Sadly, I cannot spend that much on a single concert, even if it’s Queen Bey herself. I settled for an outrageously priced 100-level section at Citi Field Baseball Stadium in Queens. Bey had sold out two nights at the stadium and had additionally sold out most of her world tour to promote her visual album, “Lemonade.”

We all knew “Lemonade” was coming. There were rumors that Beyoncé was about to drop the album of the year for months, but nobody knew when. I felt as though the excitement for this album was different than for previous releases, as Beyoncé had not been known to be too controversial. However, the release of the single “Formation” illustrated that the countless murders happening across the country against Black men and women would not be silenced. Bey acknowledges her power as a strong Black woman through affirmations such as “I slay,” references to the Black Lives Matter movement and her parents’ heritage. It also features a barrage of police officers in riot uniforms in front of a Black boy in a hoodie, with the words “Stop Shooting Us” on a wall in the background.

In addition, Beyoncé’s performance of “Formation” at the Super Bowl spurned a discussion over her backup dancers wearing outfits that resembled those of the Black Panther movement.

Beyoncé is emerging as an outspoken activist, as opposed to the mainstream artist that appealed to all audiences through her friendly pop singles.

Saturday Night Live’s skit, “The Day Beyoncé Turned Black,” perfectly exemplifies the absurdity of supporting an artist when she does not display her opinion on the injustice occurring

Campus Canvas

throughout the country. The sarcastic skit features white people freaking out after realizing the singer is Black after watching the “Formation” music video.

Beyoncé’s shift as an artist of mainstream pop music to using her platform for social justice was fully realized through the release of “Lemonade,” a visual album that debuted on HBO and was then released on iTunes. “Lemonade” contains many different layers. It features the deterioration and later improvement in the relationship between Bey and Jay-Z, but it is more than an album about cheating. The visual aspect of the album highlights Black excellence, and includes influential Black women such as Quvenzhané Wallis, Zendaya, Winnie Harlow and Amanda Stenberg. However, it also shows vulnerability through the mothers of those who have lost their children due to police violence such as Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin. Additionally, one can see this through Beyoncé’s spiral after Jay’s supposed infidelity.

The Formation Tour showcases “Lemonade” while also taking songs and visuals from Bey’s long history as an artist. As I got on the 6 train to get to Citi Field with my cousin and her work friends that all adored Bey as much as I did, I was ready. Carrying my homemade lemonade slushie, I stepped off of the subway and was immersed in a crowd of large, black hats and more Beyoncé merch than I had ever seen before.

DJ Khaled, the opening act, introduced Bey for all of her North American shows, and brought out the likes of French Montana, Tinashe and about a dozen other rappers I had never heard of.

The creator of “major key” himself does nothing original, as he just uses hype words and brings out other artists for his entire set. I found myself bored and ready for the real show to start.

The sold-out stadium felt packed, and every line seemed too long to bother waiting on. The crowd’s energy was contagious and each time a popular song came on, the audience around me would get really into it. Everyone was excited to see what Bey had prepared for us. As the lights dimmed, an enormous screen on the stage began moving, and the flower seen in the “Formation” promotion art appeared. As the screen continued to rotate, the first notes of “Formation” started

playing, and I don’t think I had ever screamed that loud before. Beyoncé emerged with her dancers behind her, all donning the large black hats synonymous with the song. It was a bold move starting with the lead single of the newest album, and the song the tour was named after, but this is Beyoncé. She doesn’t have anything to prove or rules to follow.

The next song, “Sorry,” was also off of “Lemonade,” and after the momentum of “Formation,” I felt that this was the best song of the night, although I am probably biased because it is my current favorite song by Bey. Each song had visual imagery from either “Lemonade” or newly created visuals, with some of my favorites being a flickering “Bow Down” during “Flawless” and pink/black- printed “Hustler” appearing on the screen during “Diva.”

You don’t go to a Beyoncé concert just for the singing. Bey has perhaps the greatest stage presence I have ever seen. In a sold-out stadium, she still makes you feel as though she is singing directly to you. In addition, her dancing is perfected to the second and her dancers feel like an intrinsic part of the show. Yet she doesn’t fail to show her vulnerability during a slowed-down version of “1+1” and the iconic “Halo” as a finale. For almost two hours, Bey did not ever lose my attention with her packed 34-song set, including snippets of some songs and others as full versions.

Particularly powerful aspects of the show included hearing “Don’t Hurt Yourself” live, in which Bey is not fucking around when she says, “Tonight I’m fucking up all your shit boy.” While other artists rely on encores and crowd-pleasing singles for the finale, Bey laying in a pool of water after “Freedom” to sing a moving performance of “Halo” was overwhelmingly beautiful.

Overall, Beyoncé is a performer that provides not just a concert but a visual experience. Her dancing, connection with her fans and iconic songs all combine to making it the night of your life. While I was disappointed with the opening act and how crowded the stadium felt, it is all worth it once you see Bey come out, bopping to the beat of “Formation.” If you want to see Queen Bey live, she is bringing the Formation Tour to MetLife Stadium on Oct. 7. I promise it is not something to miss.

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Excuse me, What’s your safe word?

“Harder.”

— Jaimeson Bukacek Frazier ’19

“No.” — Christa Ventresca ’17

“No funny business.”

— Laura Price ’19

submit to misc@vassar.edu

“Banana.”

— Jeffrey Kuate ’19

“This is weird...we should stop.”

— Katlin Prado ’19

“Onomatopoeia.”

— Cecil Carey ’17

Tika Peterson ’19 grew up in Nyack, New York but her family recently moved to New York City. Art making has always been an intuitive and instinctual process for her. She studied at the Art Student’s League of New York from ages eight to seventeen.

She has also taken classes at Cooper Union and The New York Academy of Art. She loves to work from the human figure and much of her work is centered around describing the body through a variety of different styles and media. Tika currently works at the Francis Lehman Loeb Center on campus, and worked at a small gallery over the summer called “Planthouse.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Evelyn Frick, Humor & Satire Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

September 29, 2016

Sophomore class fills up field hockey leaderboards Mack Liederman Guest Reporter

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can dominate the Liberty League.”

Amico currently holds 26 saves on the season and has only surrendered two goals, both coming in the Brewer’s sole loss of the season against a talented Kean University team 1-2 at home on Sept. 7. Amico’s eight other games were all shut-out victories.

“Being competitive as a young team also shows a lot of promise for the years to come,” Amico said. “The confidence that each of us share has been critical in our past and current success as a team.”

The team’s success has turned into an active six-game winning streak, with victories over The College at Brockport (9-0), Western Connecticut State (6-0), Ramapo College (60), William Patterson University (6-0), No. 10 Montclair State University (1-0) and the Liberty

League opener on against St. Lawrence University (3-0).

The Brewers’ offensive strength has also been aided by sophomores Gracie Tavakkol and Mikyla Young. Tavakkol never reached the back of the goal last season, but has already proven her strength with four goals and nine points.

Young has also improved on her freshman year season of two goals and five points with three goals and eight points so far this year.

“The team unity and chemistry of the sophomore class is unparalleled. We are more than teammates to each other; our relationships go so much deeper than on the field. I am so honored to be part of a group of ten amazing, unique, inspired women,” More articulated.

The team will next play Hartwick College at home on Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 4:00 p.m.

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

hat do the top three leading scorers, the leader in assists and the leader in saves on the women’s field hockey team all have in common? They are members of Vassar’s Class of 2019.

For head coach Michael Warari, his 10 returning sophomores have been a huge part of this season’s success. The field hockey team currently sits with a record of 8-1, with its most recent non-conference win last Wednesday coming against No. 10-ranked Montclair State University on the road.

In that matchup with the Red Hawks, sophomore Megan Caveny found senior Hayley Beach in the fourth minute to give the Brewers a 1-0 advantage. With strong team defense, Vassar was able to hold on to the shutout and walk off its home turf with an upset victory.

“Our class of 10 came in at a great time, there has been so much hard work put in by the classes before us to help get to the success that we have seen,” said Caveny, who is tied for the team lead in goals at five and is the leader in points with 15. “We are also an extremely close group which leads to great chemistry on the field.”

Caveny is the reigning Liberty League Rookie of The Year, and said that her transition from last year to this year has been a smooth one.

“Winning the Rookie of the Year definitely puts a target on your back and more pressure to perform,” Caveny said. “But I like to think that I am capable of rising to the challenge and upholding that honor this season.”

Caveny is not the only sophomore that has stepped up on offense this year. Alyssa More is currently tied with Caveny for the lead in goals at five, and is second in points with 13.

“I believe the biggest difference in this season from the last is experience. The transition from high school and club to college field hockey is a huge one, so there definitely is a learning curve,” More said. “Now, with one year under our belts, we’re far more equipped to take on

the speed and high level that the college game demands.”

In More’s best game the season, she scored the game winner against Western Connecticut State on the road on Sept. 14. More also scored two more goals in the first period, guiding the Brewers to a 6-0 victory.

“When they came in as freshmen, they doubled the team in size, which was exciting for the program,” senior captain Sophie Arnold said.

“Each of them contributes in such positive ways and brings so much fun to our team.”

Other Brewer wins include 1-0 and 2-0 victories over SUNY Geneseo and Smith College respectively in the Betty Richey Tournament at Weinberg Field. Vassar captured the Betty Richey championship for the third year in a row.

Defender Monica Feeley, also a sophomore, was awarded the tournament MVP award.

“It’s great to know that my sophomore class is a large part of the team’s success,” Feeley said.

“I think it motivates everyone to work as hard as they can on the field. It’s great knowing that I am going to be playing with an amazing group of girls here for all my four years.”

Although as a defender Feeley will not show up in the stat books, she has quarterbacked the Brewer defense with aggressive pressure, forcing turnovers by opposing teams.

“I think my success stems from a team effort,” Feeley said. “Field hockey is not an individual sport; it takes an entire team to win a game. I go out on the field and try to perform the best for my teammates so that we successfully advance in the season as a cohesive unit.”

Feeley, however, has not been the only sophomore to step up on defense. Molly Youse and Haley Cubell have also contributed, along with Paige Amico, who has started all nine games in goal for the Brewers.

“This season we are expecting to make a big presence in the Liberty League,” Amico said.

“We caused a few big upsets last year which gave us momentum coming into this season.

Over the next two years I am confident that we

Sophomore Paige Amico defends the Brewer goal in home game contest. Amico and her fellow sophomores have largely contributed to the field hockey team’s success this season.

Coach Williams helps Brewers reach highest potential COACH continued from page 1

liams’s impact on the athletes is already visible.

“He pushes the athletes and doesn’t allow them to give up. He motivates them positively, rather than putting them down,” she emphasized.

“There is a mutual respect and trust between Coach Cam and the students that he trains since he makes an effort to get to know every individual personally.”

This powerful relationship allows athletes to prosper in the weightlifting environment, as each one feels completely safe and comfortable working with him.

Williams’s positive attitude and determination stems from himself to the individuals that he instructs. His energetic excitement is contagious, making athletes want to continue coming back to the weight room and beat their records.

“I really enjoy what I do, so I think that helps me bring energy to it everyday. Other than that, I just try to keep the environment as positive as

possible because not every person enjoys lifting like I do,” noted Williams.

Coach Williams has been instrumental in assimilating freshman athletes into the habits of lifting. Even those who come to Vassar with weight lifting experience under their belt have already learned and improved with his training.

Colette Cambey, a freshman volleyball player, has increased her strength under his instruction. “Before Vassar, I took a weightlifting class during my senior year and loved it, so I continued it throughout the year and the summer. But since coming here, Coach Cam has taught me a lot,” illustrated Cambey.

She recognizes the difference these workouts have had on her athletic performance even so shortly into the season. “Lifting with Cam has helped me to increase my vertical by strengthening muscles that allow me to jump explosively,” she tells. “By focusing on full body exercises, like cleans, lift helps improve many different

Courtesy of Cameron Williams

The Vassar varsity weight room is run by Coach Cameron Williams. In his three-year tenure, Williams has already significantly improved athletes’ strength and conditioning capabilities.

aspects of my volleyball game.”

To further motivate athletes and incorporate competition among them, Coach Williams maintains a leaderboard at the entrance of the weight room. It provides recognition for the athletes who are performing exceptionally and prompts others to improve their lifting skills.

Robert Nisbet, a sophomore men’s lacrosse player, is the epitome of a successful student athlete who has worked out with Williams and reaped the great benefits that the weightlifting program has to offer. He impressively holds a spot in all three categories of the leaderboard, bench press, back squat and hang clean.

“Coach Cam has helped me improve my technique on cleans and squats,” Nisbet says.

“His advice to keep my back straighter and tighter has enabled me to lift heavier weights than I had been able to before.”

“Lifting with Coach Cam has definitely helped me to become more explosive on the lacrosse field,” he tells. “He believes that the positivity, energy and support of Cam, along with his motivation to consistently work at such a high-intensity level, will continue to aid him in his spring season.

Coaches also recognize the large impact Coach Williams and weightlifting have on individual and team success. “The spirited atmosphere he creates in the weight room makes the workouts a positive experience that not only connects the athletes to one another but that also enhances their performance and physical resilience,” head women’s lacrosse coach Judy Finerghty iterated.

A junior member of the women’s basketball team, Ariella Rosenthal, has also benefited greatly from Cam’s role as the varsity weightlifting coach during her time at Vassar so far.

She is a consistent standout player for the Brewers, having an immediate impact since her arrival to the team, when she was nominated Co-Rookie of the Year. She continued to improve her team sophomore year, leading the team in minutes played.

Rosenthal contributes much of her success in basketball to the access that she has had to Coach Williams’ weightlifting program. “My

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

strength has definitely increased, which is a huge advantage to a basketball player. If you can grab a rebound from somebody or body someone up it’s a huge gain. Lifting has 100 percent contributed to my abilities to do this,” Rosenthal elaborated.

Though she had minimal lifting experience prior to Vassar, Rosenthal now makes it a priority to lift several days a week. She enjoys the individual competition that lifting creates, saying that it drives her to push herself and beat her own records.

“Lifting is an interesting thing because it isn’t necessarily about beating and out-lifting the person next to you. Everyone has different abilities, so it’s really about beating yourself.

The internal competition is what makes it so fun,” Rosenthal professed. “The satisfaction of beating my personal record or perfecting my technique makes me want to continue coming back and getting stronger.”

She attributes her great strength and her spots on the leaderboard for cleans and squats to Williams’s vast knowledge of lifting, his welcoming personality and the way he is able to motivate every athlete he works with.

“If I didn’t have him or the weight room, you would not see me lifting on my own. I would have no idea what to do. Having him as a resource is absolutely incredible and we’re lucky to have him,” Rosenthal continued.

Williams is always thinking of ways to improve the program for the individuals that he coaches.

“One thing that is new this year is I’ve simplified the programming for the Olympic movement portion of the workout in order to speed up lifts,” he tells. “It makes workouts flow better without sacrificing any performance benefits.”

Every student who has lifted in the varsity weight room has recognized and appreciated Williams’s contribution to their success as a competing athlete.

“My relationship with the athletes is very important to me,” Williams emphasized. “I love to teach and coach because I love helping people.

So I’m always happy when the people I coach are successful both in athletics and life.”

September 29, 2016

SPORTS

Page 19

Fourth-string QB takes the White athletes must unite field as Patriots fall like flies with Kaepernick for change Olivia O’Loughlin

Assistant Sports Editor

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ith extreme intensity and high stakes, injury always follows closely behind professional athletes. But to the New England Patriots, injury has quickly become an over-told joke. Just two weeks into the season, the Pats now have to make plans to field a fourth-string quarterback.

The team’s first pick, Tom Brady, is still serving his four-game suspension due to last season’s “Deflategate” scandal, during which the Patriots were accused of tampering with the inflation of footballs during the 2015 AFC Championship Game against the Colts. As a result, the NFL suspended Brady, who was pinned as a major contributor to the scandal. Brady will return in week five against the Browns on Oct. 5.

With Brady on the bench, the Patriots’ second-string QB Jimmy Garoppolo took the pitch for the Patriot’s first game of the season against the Cardinals. Garoppolo excelled, finishing the game completing 24 of 33 passes for a total of 264 yards and no interceptions. Garoppolo soon flew to the top of the leaderboards for quarterback performance, landing an eighth place rank in the league. But this success was sadly interrupted. In the second game of the season Miami Dolphin Kiko Alonso hit Garoppolo so hard that he’s now benched with a shoulder injury.

Next in line was third-string quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who started the game against the Houston Texans on Thursday, Sept. 22. Brissett had an excellent performance as he led the Patriots to a blowout victory 27-0. Following suit, Brissett suffered a finger injury at the hands of linebacker Vince Wilfork. After extensive examination, trainers concluded that Brissett tore a thumb ligament in his throwing hand and needed surgery. To the bench he goes.

So who is up next?

New England will now look to play their

fourth pick Julian Edelman. The Patriots drafted Edelman as a receiver, but he played quarterback at Kent State College. This collegiate experience may have to be enough for the Patriots as they scramble to find another quarterback before the game against the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 2.

The possibility of Edelman suiting up as quarterback has accumulated both support and serious concern. In fact, Edelman’s own father questioned his son’s ability to execute well as quarterback on such short notice. So just how much discrepancy is there between starting quarterback and the fourth-string quarterback?

Before 1991, the NFL even prohibited teams from keeping more than three quarterbacks.

Since then, only select NFL teams draft a third quarterback, let alone a fourth-string, for times of emergency. These backup quarterbacks barely practice because all the priority is naturally placed on the starting and second-string QB. In an interview with the New York Times, ex-NFL quarterback Steve Beurelein admitted, “The third-string quarterback gets absolutely no reps with the starters during practice ... They’re just watching, going over plays in their mind.”

So while Brissett at least watched the other Patriot quarterbacks during practice, Edelman didn’t even have that position on his radar. He was focused on his duty as a linemen. With the Bills contest on the horizon, Edelman needs a significant shift in gears if he plans to lead New England to victory.

Over his three years as Kent State’s QB, Edelman completed 385 of 706 passes for 4997 yards and executed 30 throwing touchdowns. Despite his success, the last time Edelman suited as a quarterback was in 2008, eight years ago. This begs the question: Will Edelman’s distant experience as quarterback be enough?

On a wing and a prayer, the New England Patriots will put all of their faith in Edelman to remain undefeated.

Myles Olmsted Guest Reporter

A

fter quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the national anthem, athlete activism has captured the nation’s attention. Handfuls of other NFL players, all Black, have begun to kneel or raise fists.

It is way beyond time to ask: Where are the voices of white athletes? On the issue of police violence against Black lives, white NFL players remain largely silent.

The sole example from a white NFL player came from a radio interview given by New England Patriots defensive lineman Chris Long.

While he did state that he himself would never kneel for the anthem, Long refreshingly supported Kaepernick’s right to protest and admitted there is a difference between the white and Black American experience.

Beyond that? Crickets.

Fans must demand more from our nation’s white athletes.

While crediting Long, Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett told The Seattle Times, “For people to really see social injustices, there must be someone from the other side of the race who recognizes the problem, because a lot of times if just one race says there’s a problem, nobody is realistic about it.”

Sports—especially its leviathan, the NFL— play too big of a societal role for us to pretend they can exist in a magical world of balls, points, sweat and friendly butt pats. Athletes are role models. What they do and say matters. 114.4 million people watched the 2016 Super Bowl; what other figures reach the audience that NFL athletes do?

Fans must demand that white athletes speak out against injustice because the parts of the sports world in opposition seem to have quite a bit to say.

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney

claimed there isn’t a “race problem,” but instead only a “sin problem.” How could there still be a massive problem of racism in America, Swinney offered, when there’s a two-term African-American president, interracial marriages and black quarterbacks at major SEC schools?

Let us not forget the white athletes who have come out strongly on the wrong side of this issue, and whose voices must be countered. Take Seattle Mariners backup catcher Steve Clevenger, who tweeted late last Thursday, “Black people beating whites when a thug got shot holding a gun by a black officer haha shit cracks me up.

Keep kneeling for the Anthem!”

If white NFL players wanted to defend their silence with the idea that sports and politics should be kept separate, ignorant and racist takes such as these wrecked that possibility.

Furthermore, Black players who take strong stands risk potential contracts and current endorsement deals. How about white players assume some of that risk? How about they put their endorsements on the line?

Instead, Kaepernick remains virtually alone, left to deal with hordes of reporters and baskets of death threats.

I suppose this column is a call to action. The biggest target might be myself. Since I was a kid, I’ve hungrily consumed professional sports, and in the last few years, the NFL in particular.

Football hasn’t made me cry since 2008, but I’ve gotten mighty close. I was embarrassingly angry when Tom Brady was suspended following the Deflategate investigation. But where is my anger when Brady says nothing about Kaepernick or Black lives?

I’m not going to stop watching football or picket Brady’s mansion, but when he returns I hope he use his platform to support Kaepernick in the fight against racial injustice. Only after such famous players get involved will Kaepernick’s efforts truly bring change.

With freshmen at the helm, Vassar golf on par for success Lindsay Wolk

Guest Reporter

T

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

he future looks bright for Brewer golf as Andrea Han and Qiwen Tan, two freshmen, take the lead for the Vassar’s women’s team, playing in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots respectively.

With a squad of only five members, the strong freshman class will have a positive impact on the team immediately.

Head coach Andy Jennings has high hopes for these standout Brewers. “The freshmen are integrating into our program very well, so clearly quality players but they are already adding to the personality of the team in many positive ways,” he explained.

The Brewers opened the season strongly by beating Union on Sept. 11 in the season and home opener. The match was played in Vassar’s backyard at the Casperkill Golf Course in Poughkeepsie. Casperkill is an 18-hole par 72 course that measures 5,800 yards.

Vassar paired up each of its five players with Union’s and went head-to-head for the day. Han defeated Union’s Carly Coppola by eight strokes with a score of 80. Fellow freshman Tan handily outscored her opponent, Union’s No. 2 Caroline Roberto 89 to 94.

While the freshmen won their matches by a wide margin, the upperclassmen pulled out wins in much tighter competition. Junior Annie Hsu, No. 3 for Vassar, tied at 87 strokes with her opponent but earned the match point with a 4-3 victory over Molly Weiner.

Both Shay and senior Emily Prince won their matches by one point. Shay scored 93 to Gina Whalen’s 96, and Prince outshot Rianna Quiogue by two strokes with a score of 92.

Winning the first contest is a huge accomplishment, especially against a Liberty League opponent. Sweeping Union 5-0 puts the women on track to reach their goal of advancing to the Liberty League Championships in the spring.

The Brewers continued Liberty League play on Sept. 17 and 18 at the Ann S. Batchelder Invitational hosted by Wellesley College. Vassar faced off against six teams, including three Liberty League contenders of Mount Holyoke, Wellesley and NYU, along with three NESCAC

members Amherst, Williams and Middlebury.

Amherst finished first in the tournament with both the No. 1 and No. 2 finishers. Williams, NYU, Middlebury, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke and Vassar followed Amherst in that order.

The Brewer’s total stroke score after two days of competition was 700 while Amherst shot 616.

While the tournament did not go as planned for the Brewers, Han had a stand-out performance. She finished 10th overall with a 79 on both days for an overall score of 158.

Han’s 158 was 19 strokes better than Vassar’s next highest score of 177, shot by No. 2-player Tan, who finished in 34th place overall in the tournament.

The rest of the Brewers followed closely behind Tan as Prince, Hsu and Shay shot 181, 184 and 192, finishing 37, 40 and 42 respectively.

Over the weekend of Sept. 24, the Brewers improved upon their previous match by finishing eighth out of 14 at the Mount Holyoke Invitational in South Hadley, MA. The team shot 677, led once again by Han with a score of 160. Tan finished behind Han with a score of 168 while Shay shot 175 and Hsu and Prince tied at 176. The group’s final score of 677 is the team’s best yet this season.

Han states that her personal goal is to average 76 for the season while she hopes that everyone will finish under 85 for every match.

In order to meet such high goals, the women hit during year-round. Many of the players practiced either on the driving range or at courses near their homes over the summer.

Coach Jennings expects that each player practiced over the summer but knows that it can be hard to find playing time when many of them work or have summer internships.

“I studied abroad in Qingdao, China at the Qingdao Summer Program for Chinese Language. It was an intensive, eight-week program focusing on the study of Mandarin. Because I was studying abroad, I was not able to practice a lot,” outlined Shay.

With such a small team, every person’s play has a huge impact on the day’s outcome. “Emily Prince is the captain and is an important leader, however in a small team, each player plays an

Sophomore Evon Shay goes for a drive at the Casperkill golf course during a home match. The women will travel to MA to compete at the Williams College Fall Invitational this weekend. important part in the growth and development of the team,” said Coach Jennings.

All of the women speak highly of each other, which is conducive to a strong team dynamic.

“My favorite part about playing golf is getting to hangout with my teammates, sharing meals with them and living with them each weekend in a different city. My team and I also love our coaches Anna Ausanio and Andy Jennings,” expressed Hsu. Each weekend during the fall and spring seasons the team travels around the northeast in order to play against challenging competition.

“My favorite part of playing golf is of course being with my teammates but also being able to play at some of the premier courses in the Northeast for free is definitely a plus,” stated Prince.

Head Coach Jennings splits his time between the golf squad and men’s soccer team. “It is difficult to balance both–but Anna Ausanio our

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

associate head coach is awesome and oversees the on-course practices and matches,” he articulated. “I am more involved with the organization and administration of the program. Having a first-class assistant coach for soccer, Ross Macklin, is also key in enabling the balance.”

Jennings coached the men’s soccer team to a 1-1 draw against Liberty League opponent Skidmore on Saturday Sept. 24 in Saratoga Springs, NY and then drove to South Hadley, MA to meet the golf team for competition at the Mount Holyoke Invitational the next day.

The Brewers look to continue improving their scores as they compete for the next three weekends at the William’s College Fall Invitational, Middlebury College Invitational and New York University Invitational.

The team will then take a competition hiatus until returning back home for the Vassar College Invitational on April 8 and 9 to kick off the spring season.

SPORTS

Page 20

September 29, 2016

Vassar sports bring the heat in Liberty League competition Jamie Anderson Guest Reporter

test against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday, Oct. 8.

Women’s Soccer

Women’s Volleyball

The Brewers had a perfect weekend of Liberty League play, beating Bard, RIT, Skidmore College and Union College, all in straight sets.

Vassar swept Bard 25-14, 25-11 and 25-17 and flipping their previous result against RIT 25-15, 25-12 and 27-25 on Friday to start the weekend of competition.

On Saturday, VC knocked off Skidmore 25-21, 25-16, 25-20 and ended the day with a 25-23, 25-15, 25-11 win over Union. The Brewer women have won 11 of their last 12 matches, going 7-1 through the first eight contests of Liberty League play as well. With this weekend’s results in the books, the Brewers find themselves in first place in conference, ahead of RIT at 6-2 and Clarkson at 3-1.

The Brewers will next host Hunter College Thursday evening in Kenyon Hall at 7 p.m.

Men’s Soccer

VC men’s soccer team eked out a 1-1, double-overtime draw to open Liberty League play against Skidmore College at Wachenheim Field on Saturday.

Freshman Mattie Mrlik again got himself on the scoring sheet, knocking in the equalizer from a throw in by junior Hayden Van Brewer in the 82nd minute of play. Mrlik’s goal came 20 minutes after Skidmore opened the scoring.

The Brewers had many more chances, taking 21 shots to Skidmore’s 10 overall, including three in the second period of overtime, but couldn’t find a goal a second time. Junior goalkeeper Matt Marcelino recorded two stops during his extended shift in net.

Vassar stays on the road for two more Liberty League games, at Clarkson University on Friday and at St. Lawrence University on Saturday. The Brewers will host their first home League con-

Men’s Rugby

In their third conference game of the year, played at Drew University in New Jersey, Vassar jumped out to a 19-0 lead after 15 minutes and didn’t look back.

Both teams scored once more in the first half and going into the intermission Vassar led 245. Vassar, despite some defensive lapses, would keep knocking and piled it on in the second half, eventually beating Drew 57-19.

Senior Joe Simon had himself a day, recording four tries. Juniors Nick Crooks and Dale Lord also helped lead the Brewers to victory by adding one try each. Junior Trevor Kennish slotted three cons as well as scoring a try, while sophomore Stephen Kpundeh had a brace of tries and also knocked through three cons of his own.

Men’s rugby is out next against SUNY-Maritime on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, at 2 p.m. at home.

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

Brewer women’s soccer went down 1-0 versus Montclair State University away at MSU Soccer Park on Wednesday afternoon. The Brewers fell behind after a 35th-minute goal that would ultimately prove the difference in the contest, as the VC squad was unable to find an equalizer despite a preponderance of shots.

Senior goalkeeper Stephanie Tapolsky made four stops against the Redhawks, while freshman Savannah Cutler, who scored in the Brewers’ previous matchup with Oneonta, had two shots-on-goal to lead the team.

Vassar put an end to their run of frustrating results on Saturday with an emphatic 7-1 win over visiting Skidmore College. Freshman midfielder Gabrielle Deitch scored her first collegiate goal with 20 minutes gone, while shots from six others found the back of the net as well.

Sophomore Rebecca Andrews recorded the brace, while freshman Jordan Moss, sophomores Audrey Pillsbury and Rachel Chernet and senior Emily Krebs each added a goal. Goalkeeper Stephanie Tapolsky earned the win with three saves over 90 minutes.

Vassar next hosts Clarkson University on Friday afternoon at Gordon Field, with kickoff slated for 4 p.m.

Women’s Rugby

The Brewer women took on Hofstra University and United States Military Academy over the weekend. Vassar jumped ahead with two early scores to lead 10-0 and went into halftime with a 15-7 edge over Army, thanks to three Brewer tries. The Brewers would tack on 31 more points in the second period to beat Army’s women’s contingent 46 to 7.

Senior Lauren Workman recorded a brace, while her teammates fellow seniors Nathalie Freeman and Laila Blumenthal-Rothchild each added a try of their own. Juniors Alicia Menard-Livingston and Amanda Saich both scored once as well, and sophomore Rachel Elson had a brace to her name. Senior Mary Margaret McElduff was good on three of her conversion attempts for the day.

Vassar next pitted its B-side against Hofstra, in a matchup which ended in a overwhelming defeat. The Brewers would record an 84-0 shutout over the hosts.

Junior Abigail Alexander was in full flight offensively, scoring four tries, while her classmates Fiona Brodie, Menard-Livingston and Michelle Urrutia added one try each as well. Urrutia also recorded three successful conversions.

Rookies Charlotte Benoit and Caroline James both scored, while sophomore Jennie To recorded the hat trick. Gabby Caballero also scored a try on the day. McElduff slotted three cons and added a try against Hofstra as well.

Women’s rugby next hosts Marist at the Vassar Farm on Sunday morning at 11 a.m.

Men’s Tennis

On Saturday, Vassar started the day with a sweeping victory over Union 9-0. Freshman Allen Sokolov and sophomore Jamie Anderson saw off Ian Bank and Zach Kaplan 8-1 at No. 2 doubles, seniors Juan Felipe Laso and Alexander Luckmann took out Justin Golf and Del Schunk 8-5 at No. 3 dubs, while freshman Dom Demeterfi and senior Nick Litsky ground out a win against David Bond and Max McGeown 9-8 at No. 1 to sweep doubles.

In singles action, Laso and Litsky both picked up 6-1, 6-0 victories at No. 3 and No. 1, respec-

Freshman Jane McLeod bumps a pass in a match against Union College. The Brewers beat Union as well as RIT, Skidmore and Bard over the weekend in Liberty League play. tively. Demeterfi got his first collegiate singles win at No. 6 over David Brown 6-2, 6-3, as did Sokolov at No. 2, 6-3, 6-3. Anderson beat McGeown 6-4, 6-1 at No. 4, while sophomore Nick Lee completed the sweep at No. 5, winning 6-0, 6-0.

After much success, the Brewers traveled home to then finish the day against League competitor Bard College. Against Bard, Vassar again swept dubs, with Luckmann and sophomore Nick Zuczek partnering for an 8-0 win at No. 3 doubles over Nicholas George and Zayd Normand; Laso and Anderson added another 8-0 result at No. 2 doubles, while Litsky and Demeterfi got past Keillor Mose and Satchel Fisher 8-5 at the top doubles spot.

In singles, freshman Zamir Birnbach became the third Brewer to get his first singles win, picking up a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 6. Anderson would clinch a match of his own with a 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 4 singles.

Sokolov got another win, 6-1, 6-2, over Fisher at No. 2, followed by a 6-3, 6-2 victory by Laso at No. 3. Lee would add another singles win on Saturday, beating George 6-2, 6-2. Litsky took down Mose 6-1, 6-1 to close out the sweep, as well as the fall season’s dual matches.

Vassar will send five singles entrants and two doubles teams to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northeast Regionals next weekend at Hobart College.

Competition in Geneva, NY will wrap up the men’s fall season for 2016. The Brewers will return to the Josselyn tennis courts in 2017 for their spring season.

Women’s Tennis

The Brewer women competed at ITA Northeast regionals over the weekend at William Smith College.

Junior Kate Christensen made it through to Sunday in main draw singles, eventually being downed 7-6, 6-2 by Sarah Mensah from The College of Brockport in the quarterfinal round.

Christensen also reached the second round of

doubles play with sophomore partner Morgane Flournoy, losing a close match 9-7.

Senior Shayna Becker and freshman Tara Edwards dropped their first round doubles match on Saturday but found their way to the semifinals of the consolation draw, dropping a tight match 9-8 to eventual consolation winners Sravya Gudipudi and Camila Garcia of University of Rochester.

Edwards reached the quarters of consolation singles as well, while Becker and fellow senior captain Connie Yoo made it to the second round of main draw singles.

VC Women’s Tennis has a doubleheader on Saturday, playing Bard at home in the morning and Union away in the afternoon in Schenectady.

Similar to the men’s team, the women will halt play after their matches against Union and will resume competition in the spring.

Field Hockey

Senior forward Hayley Beach’s goal in the fourth minute proved enough to lift VC over No. 10 Montclair State at home at Weinberg Field on Wednesday. The win marked the fifth straight shutout for the Brewers and the fourth victory over a ranked opponent since 2013 for the Vassar field hockey team.

The goal came off a penalty opportunity, as junior Monica Feeley passed to sophomore Megan Caveny who one-timed a shot, which Beach deflected into the cage for the eventual deciding goal.

Montclair State outshot the Brewers 10-5 overall but the defense proved up to the task, as sophomore Paige Amico posted her third complete shutout of the season, and hasn’t conceded in a 210-minute streak.

The Brewers will take on St. Lawrence University Saturday at 3 p.m. in Liberty League action. Field Hockey looks to snap a 33-game conference road losing streak, dating all the way back to 2005.

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

Senior Rory Chipman celebrates with teammates sophomore Audrey Pillsbury and senior captain Emily Krebs after a goal. The women bested league opponent Skidmore 7-1 on Saturday, Sept. 24.

Junior defender Tanner Sands goes for a ball during a game against Skidmore College. The Brewers tied the Thoroughbreds 1-1 in the team’s Liberty League opener on Saturday, Sept. 24.

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