The Miscellany News | Nov. 18, 2010

The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

November 18, 2010

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CXLIV | Issue 9

New York restricts sale of Four Loko Aashim Usgaonkar

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News Editor

Courtesy of the Vice President for Finance and Administration

ollowing state-wide bans of the alcoholic, high-caffeinecontent beverage Four Loko in Michigan, Washington, Oklahoma and Utah, New York’s State Liquor Authority (NYSLA) and Four Loko’s manufacturer Phusion Projects, LLC have taken steps to reduce the drink’s prevalence in the state. Such measures have prompted the manufacturer to remove caffeine from the product.

This development was welcomed by the College and specifically by the Committee on College Life (CCL), which has been “discussing the ‘supplyside’ of this issue,” according to Dean of the College Christopher Roellke.

Retailers will not be allowed to house Four Loko on their shelves after Friday, Dec. 10,

and the drink’s maker—Phusion Projects—has agreed to stop its shipment after Friday, Nov. 19.

While the sale of Four Loko has been blocked by these regulations, it is not illegal to own the beverage on one’s person, so it cannot by fully eradicated. Still, Chairman of the NYSLA Dennis Rosen expresses hope that the agreement will “end the sale of this product in the state.”

In an open letter to state authorities, the co-founders and managing directors of Phusion Project LLC, Chris Hunter, Jeff Wright and Jaisen Freeman, recognized the potential harm of the firm’s product if consumed without responsibility and staunch adherence by retailers to the legal drinking age.

In reference to their decision to stop Four Loko’s shipment, the founders concluded, “This level See FOUR LOKO on page 4

Above are current and proposed views of central campus. In the new Campus Landscape Master Plan, the College commits to “pedestrian sovereignty” with the ultimate goal of removing parking and vehicular traffic from the center of campus.

College unveils Landscape Master Plan Molly Turpin

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he College is ready to reveal a new Campus Landscape Master Plan at an open meeting on Monday, Nov. 22 in the Villard Room at 3 p.m. The Master Plan, which is currently close to being finalized, proposes an ambitious return of the campus to “pedestrian sovereignty,” while also addressing issues of

sustainability and accessibility for the landscape as a whole.

“A campus master plan can be very interesting because, while it is technically about the outdoor space and the landscape in particular, it can actually put forward some really powerful ideas about the organization of the campus,” said Vice President for Finance and Administration Elizabeth Eismeier.

Modern course selection Professors Web shifts question selection rating site strategies Ruth Bolster Reporter

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FEATURES

Foer to give 2010 Gifford Lecture Evan Lester

Guest Reporter

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Vee Benard

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Reporter

estled within a sea of extracurricular pursuits, it is easy to forget that classes account for the largest portion of a student’s purpose at an institution of higher learning. With a varied curriculum and constant encouragement to explore beyond one’s major, pre-registration is a time of excitement and anxiety at Vassar College.

Registrar Dan Giannini was one of the developers of Vassar’s course registration system, which was was originally developed in the late 1980s to create an alternative to the chaotic “arena registration” of the pre-digital age.

“The very second registration See REGISTRATION on page 7

Inside this issue

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Pablo Arenas ’11 carries the quaffle in a World Cup quidditch match. Turn to page 20 for full coverage of the tournament.

Celebrating ‘Unthanksgiving’ at Vassar College

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OPINIONS

Courtesy of derekgoodwin.com

he quality of a class is likely to be determined by its professor.

For most Vassar students, creating a schedule for the upcoming semester entails not only a meticulous reading of the course catalogue, but also the thorough research of their potential professors. While some rely on the advice of friends to determine which professors they would like to have, others turn to RateMyProfessors.com, the online forum that allows students to assess educators at colleges and universities across the nation. Despite the site’s easy accessibility and the straightforward advice it offers students, the value of Rate My See PROFESSORS on page 7

A master plan addresses long and short-term goals for campus projects, serving as a guide for capital planning.

As written in the new plan, “While the individual recommended projects are designed to be of manageable size and scope, they are underwritten by holistic analysis of site-wide landscape systems.”

A commitment to a pedestrian campus is the document’s biggest theme, and perhaps the most ambitious aim is the removal of vehicles from the center of campus, in the area directly behind the College Center. While the new, wide See MASTER PLAN on page 4

Andy Marmer/The Miscellany News

Editor in Chief

Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, will deliver a lecture in the Students’ Building next Monday, Nov. 22.

Commentary on New York’s Four Loko call

17 ARTS

unot Diaz, George Saunders and Michael Ondaatje are just a few of the highly-decorated authors who have visited Vassar College to give the annual Gifford Lecture, established to celebrate the craft of writing. This year, the Gifford Lecture will be given by possibly the most eminent author yet: Jonathan Safran Foer.

Foer is best known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

His lecture next Monday will include readings from these highly-acclaimed novels, while also touching on his writing style and history.

The 33-year-old author is a native of Washington D.C., where he attended Georgetown Day School. At the age of eight, Foer experienced one of his life’s defining moments when he was involved in a chemistry explosion at See FOER on page 16

A ranking of the previous Potter films

The Miscellany News

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November 18, 2010

Editor in Chief Molly Turpin Senior Editors Angela Aiuto Matthew Brock

Contributing Editor Lillian Reuman Lila Teeters

Carlos Hernandez/The Miscellany News

Photo of the Week: The Brooklyn-based Yeasayer prepares for Vassar College Entertainment’s annual fall concert in the Chapel last Friday, Nov. 12.

Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Four Loko ban appropriate, necessary action College correct in avoiding punitive measures F

our Loko has been the centerpiece of conversations concerned with student alcohol consumption, health and responsibilities since its rise to infamy earlier in the semester. The beverage’s high alcohol content, excessive volume and affordable price tag have led to users’ abuse of the product. And this, coupled with concerns regarding the safety of mixing caffeine and alcohol, has inspired campus wide debate, dialogue and education.

Such conversations have manifested themselves within the pages of the Opinions section of The Miscellany News.

Following numerous instances of the substance’s abuse by under-aged and young drinkers, exacerbated by unconscionable marketing, the New York State Liquor Authority (NYSLA) has taken measures in conjunction with manufacturer Phusion Products to halt the distribution and sale of the caffeinated malt beverage Four Loko.

In accordance with the state’s decision, distributors will no longer be able to deliver the product to retailers after Dec. 10, and Phusion Projects has been barred from shipping the beverage to distributors past the fast approaching date of Nov. 19. Though surplus stock may be sold past Dec. 10, the NYSLA has advised retailers against hoarding and has expressed intent to investigate retailers found with conspicuous amounts of the product in stock past Jan. 1.

In light of the excessive and narrow focus of Four Loko’s marketing campaign, as well as the very real dangers evidenced in the various cases of the drink’s abuse, The Miscellany News fully respects and understands the authority behind the state’s actions against the beverage. We believe that it is perfectly within the power of state government to scrutinize and prohibit products that are found to

endanger the state’s population. In the case of Four Loko, with its bright packaging and malt beverage classification that allowed it to become the focal point of gas stations and bodegas across the state, despite high alcohol content, such action is all the more necessary.

In addition to our endorsement of the measures taken by the state of New York, we are relieved and impressed by Phusion Projects’ cooperation in this matter. The joint agreement to remove Four Loko from circulation reflects well on the character, flexibility and intellect of its creators. Furthermore, the decision to remove caffeine, guarana and taurine from all their beverage product, as the company reported on their website, is an appreciated step towards ensuring the safety of Phusion’s projects.

A measure reducing the sale of Four Loko at the state level is a more practical means of reducing the consumption overall because it will directly apply to the supplies of the beverage, hindering student access. An institutional ban, on the other hand, would have required a much less efficient pursuit of the illicit item after its proliferation across campus.

We hope that the restrictions will have a positive impact on Vassar’s weekend culture and that it marks the end of the Four Loko saga. While the topic is still fresh, however, The Miscellany News would like to take this opportunity to say that we are proud that the administration, in conjunction with the Office of Health Education, chose the route of education and collaboration with students over punitive measures. Though the drink has been a key subject of conversations on party culture, and despite precedents set by other colleges, Vassar College declined to enforce any campus-wide prohibition of the drink.

Aside from the fact that a College-imposed

ban of the beverage would have appeared unduly intrusive when weighed against existing College Regulations, administrative behavior in regards to Four Loko has reflected a thoughtful approach to what has already become a nation-wide collegiate concern. This approach has already shown success in the recent, successful Halloween weekend.

The Office of Health Education deserves particular commendation for their educational efforts, specifically those centering on responsible consumption this past Halloween. Informative posters revealing the hidden, and surprisingly caloric, truths held within a brightly colored can of Four Loko educated in a clear and accessible manner while avoiding a patronizing tone. The proliferation of information rather than punitive judgment was certainly the proper course of action when confronting an issue so deeply embedded in the American college and Vassar culture.

It is necessary to mention that though Four Loko’s presence may be reduced, the combination of alcohol and caffeine is still an issue worth discussion—Four Loko is by no means the only drink ever to combine the two. We respect the right and responsibility that each individual student has to maintain their health, and continue to expect students’ choices to reflect the caliber of our campus and the services it provides. Although Four Loko may be on its way out of the picture, we encourage Vassar students to temper their weekend habits and celebrations with foresight and to continue to reflect on what it means to have a “drinking culture.”

—The Staff Editorial reflects the opinions of at least two thirds of the 18-member Miscellany News Editorial Board.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

News Caitlin Clevenger Aashim Usgaonkar Features Mitchell Gilburne Opinions Joshua Rosen Juan Thompson Humor & Satire Alanna Okun Arts Erik Lorenzsonn Sports Andy Marmer Design Eric Estes Copy Gretchen Maslin Photography Juliana Halpert Online Carrie Hojnicki Social Media Marie Dugo Assistant Features Matthew Bock Danielle Gensburg Assistant Arts Rachael Borné Assistant Copy Sammy Creath Stephen Loder Assistant Photo Madeline Zappala Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Reporters Vee Benard Daniel Bukowski Corey Cohn Shruti Manian Kristine Olson Connor O’Neill Chelsea PetersonSalahuddin Wilson Platt Joseph Rearick Dave Rosenkranz Columnists Michael Mestitz Andy Sussman Nik Trkulja Photographers Katie de Heras Carlos Hernandez Eric Schuman LETTERS POLICY

The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers. Letters to the Editor should not exceed 450 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue.

Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu.

ADVERTISING POLICY

The Miscellany News (1) reserves the right to reject or edit any advertising copy at any time; (2) will not accept advertisements that promote discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex or sexual orientation, nor will it accept advertisements of a political nature or advertisements that promote products or services illegal in the State of New York: (3) will print every advertisement with the word “advertisement” above it; (4) shall not be liable for failure to print, publish or circulate all or any portion of any issue if such a failure is the result of circumstances beyond the paper’s control.

The Editorial Board holds weekly meetings every Sunday at 9 p.m. in the Rose Parlor. All members of the Vassar community interested in joining the newspaper’s staff or in a critique of the current issue are welcome. The Miscellany News is not responsible for the views presented in the Opinions pages. The weekly staff editorial is the only article which reflects the opinion of the Editorial Board. The Miscellany News is published weekly by the students of Vassar College. The Miscellany News office is located in College Center Room 303, Vassar College.

November 18, 2010

NEWS

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Library hosts memorial for Virginia B. Smith Carrie Hojnicki Online Editor

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Joseph Rearick

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Christie Chea/The Miscellany News

group no larger than 50 gathered in the atrium of the Thompson Memorial Library on Saturday, Nov. 13 at 11 a.m. to celebrate the life of Vassar’s eighth president, Virginia B. Smith. “[Smith] had requested that there’d be no memorial service, so we will think of this instead as a service of celebration,” remarked the second of five tribute speakers, former Secretary of the College and Director of Academic Program Development Charles Bunting.

The service opened with remarks from President of the College Catharine Bond Hill, who praised Smith’s infallible “commitment to access to higher education” as evidenced by her creation of the Exploring Transfer Program. The success of the program, which allows community students to experience life at a residential college, was why Time Magazine named Vassar as its “College of the Year” in 1999, Hill told attendees.

The service continued within a chronological framework, the speakers each chronicling a point in Smith’s life: her early years, her Vassar years and her post-Vassar “California” years.

The first tribute came from Smith’s successor and Vassar’s ninth president, Frances Daly Fergusson, whose prior commitments prevented her presence at the service. Read

by Professor Emeritus of Classics and Special Assistant to the President Robert Pounder, Fergusson’s words painted Smith as a frugal woman coming to Vassar at a moment of turmoil, just eight years after the College’s co-educational transformation. Fergusson spoke of angry alumnae phoning with their fearful visions of young men running rampant through the historic halls of Vassar.

Smith was more than a match for this obstacle, as it was a challenge rooted deep within her own educational philosophy. “[Smith] had a deep concern for the education of all young people, not just men, but also individuals of all socioeconomic status,” wrote Fergusson.

But beyond her intelligence and compassion, Fergusson spoke of another Smith, a woman with a penchant for games who would frequently host student casino nights in the back room of the president’s house. She had a quick mind, Fergusson wrote, perfect for games like cribbage and, on occasion, poker.

Bunting spoke of Smith’s pre-Vassar years, from her modest Seattle upbringing to her eventual attainment of master’s degrees in law and economics. She quickly found success in higher education in her home state and later

President of the College Catharine Bond Hill addresses the guests at former President Virginia B. Smith’s memorial service in the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library on Saturday, Nov. 13. on the administrative end of the University of California system.

“This was an unusual circumstance for a talented woman in that period,” remarked Bunting, citing her unmatched ability to lead.

“She was a fascinating, mind-opening and sometimes intimidating presence for us all.”

Bunting spoke of Smith’s unique ability to foster concepts and ideas through dialogue and questioning, adding with a smile, “Perhaps Socrates might learn something from [Smith] after all.”

Following Bunting, members of the Vassar College Madrigal Singers performed “A Clear Midnight,” a Walt Whitman poem set to music composed by senior Nicholas Rocha.

Professor Emeritus of English Barbara Page spoke next, her vantage point unique for her presence on the search committee that hired Smith to her Vassar post. She, like Fergusson, spoke of the tumultuous Vassar that Smith inherited upon appointment: “In 1977, [when Smith began her presidency] Vassar still had a long hangover from socially tumultuou ’60s. It was no easy time to assume the presidency,” remarked Page.

But her “majestic character” as Page put it, would help Smith transform a tenuous Vassar into competitive institution renowned for its rich resources and commitment to educational access. It was under Smith that the College acquired original manuscripts of poet Eliza-

beth Bishop ’34, naturalist John Burroughs and author Mary McCarthy ’33.

According to former Trustee Eugenie Aiguier Havemeyer ’51, these acquisitions were for students of humanities what the lab is for students of the sciences. Both Page and Haveymeyer recalled a favorite saying of Smith’s: “Go to the source”, a motto established for Vassar’s History department in 1887 by Lucy Maynor Salmon. This collection would be named for Smith upon her retirement in 1986.

Havemeyer also spoke of Smith’s commitment to “enrollment of achieving minority students” and that “Vassar today is stronger for it.”

President of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education Patrick M. Callan would deliver the last tribute. Callan spoke of Smith not on an institutional level, but on a personal one, citing her as an unexpected mentor in middle-age.

“She is one of the most strategically brilliant people I’ve met in my life,” said Callan. “She had this ability to cut to the very of an issue.”

The service ended with a Vassar tradition, a performance of “The Rose and the Gray” by students Crystal Tung ’11, Caitlin Arias ’13, Nicholas Rocha ’11 and Michael Hofmann ’13.

The refreshment hour that followed featured a reel of Smith’s retirement service, in which she said with a beaming smile, “I guess I maybe play cards too, but I do love to win.”

Students survey Poughkeepsie hunger David Rosenkranz

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Reporter

assar students have begun working to improve the quality and accessibility of food in the Poughkeepsie area. The Sociology and Urban Studies Departments’ Community Development course began working with the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, a non-profit organization, to strengthen the food system in the Poughkeepsie area earlier this year. Associate Professor of Sociology and the instructor for the Community Development course Leonard Nevarez said that the goal of the project is to “undertake a Poughkeepsie community food assessment,” which is a systematic study of the local food system in the city of Poughkeepsie.

Students such as Nadine Souto ’12 and Jeremy Teperman ’11 were tasked by the instructors with developing and administering a survey meant to analyze the average Poughkeepsie resident’s relationship with food. Questions ranged from grocery shopping habits—where do they shop and why do they shop there—to the relative importance of price and cultural familiarity will be posed to residents by doorto-door surveryers.

The class focused on designing questions that were brief, clear and don’t lead respondents to an answer. Instead of asking “Is X important to you,” the survey asks “How important is X to you” and offers responses ranging from very to not at all important. “We went through and decided which questions we liked or didn’t like and which ones we wanted to

Panel focuses on Panthers in Germany

change or reword. The wording for some of them is important because we want people to answer the questions honestly, so we have to ask the questions in an open way that doesn’t suggest any one answer.” wrote Teperman in an e-mailed statement.

The Community Development class, as well as a dozen volunteers, have been going doorto-door in Poughkeepsie to collect some information. “This program has really helped me get off-campus more often. I’m finally getting a great opportunity to really explore Poughkeepsie more,” said Souto.

Souto and Teperman both stressed that most residents of Poughkeepsie don’t have a car and can’t easily get to the suburb where the big grocery chain stores are. “The city of Poughkeepsie is actually considered a food desert; although it has many small shops and bodegas, it has only one supermarket,” said Souto. A food desert is defined as a geographical area lacking healthy food, but with access to numerous fast-food restaurant chains. It is also difficult for residents to get access to produce. “There’s a farmers market right in the center of the city that a lot of people don’t go to, unfortunately,” said Teperman. The language barrier between English and Spanish has become an issue for the class. Out of necessity, Souto, who is a native Spanish speaker, was involved in translating the survey for Poughkeepsie’s large Spanish-speaking population.

As the project continues, student involvement will steadily increase. In addition to the

survey, students will begin going into stores in the city of Poughkeepsie to observe products and their pricing. Nevarez said that these “targeted research projects have given us a holistic picture of the food system,” a view important to some of the program’s later stages, which will aim to evaluate the current availability of healthy food options in the city. Students will also begin to observe focus groups and evaluate how their food situation changes with time.

As more information is accumulated, the class will collectively write a qualitative evaluation of the food system and what its main issues are.

They’ll bring this evaluation to the attention of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project and later to the city government. Teperman and Souto hope that their work will help to improve the food system, or, at the very least, facilitate a conversation about it in the community. “I’m hoping that it’ll be a wake-up call to the city that people’s access to food isn’t adequate, or at least not ideal. I hope that it spurs some kind of action that would make existing programs more known in the public,” said Teperman.

Research will continue next semester in Nevarez’s Sociology Research Methods class.

He believes that students will benefit from the first-hand experience with the Poughkeepsie Farm Project. For those students that choose to see this project through to the end, Nevarez hopes they’ll “get to learn some organization and community mediation skills by really being the human power behind this community food assessment.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Reporter

he Black Panthers are remembered as some of the most iconic, passionate and controversial social revolutionaries in American history. But, in a panel held on Monday, Nov. 15 in Rockefeller Hall, the focus was the influence that the Black Power movement exerted abroad, specifically in West Germany in the early 1970s.

The panel, titled “A Breath of Freedom; Black Panther Activism in Germany,” included Senior Lecturer in African American Studies at Yale University Katherine Cleaver and Barbara Cox Easley, two former members of the Panthers who worked to spread their message to African American GIs stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War. Also part of the discussion was noted historian Martin Klimpke of the German Historical Institute, who has recently written a book, A Breath of Freedom: The Civil Rights Struggle, AfricanAmerican GIs and Germany, about the Panthers in Germany with Professor of History Maria Höhn. Assistant Professor of English Tyrone Simpson II and Assistant Professor of Religion Jonathon S. Khan moderated the discussion, and Höhn introduced all the participants.

Klimpke noted that the Panthers were actively involved in protest movements in the United States—namely civil rights and antiVietnam agitation—that caused “cracks” in the confidence of West Germans in the perfection of American democracy. Many young people in West Germany reacted strongly to the Black Panther rhetoric of “denouncing American imperialism.”

“African Americans could be seen as an internal colony of the United States, West Germany could be seen as an external colony of the United States,” said Klimpke, suggesting some Germans found the Panthers particularly inspiring because both groups desired selfdetermination. Klimpke mentioned that many Germans found the Vietnam War to be particularly objectionable given the German history. “Parallelism emerged between the war in Vietnam and the second World War for young people,” he said. “The complicity of their parents in not preventing National Socialism became their complicity in not preventing war in South Asia.”

Next, Cleaver, a former Communication Secretary of the Black Panther Party, offered personal anecdotes of her work in West Germany, including one in which the West German government refused her entry into the country, and discussed specifically her work in reaching “the approximately 80,000 black GIs in Germany.”

Cleaver wanted to make it clear that the Black Panthers’ work in Germany was not an aberration, because their concern was never limited to inequality within the United States.

She noted the global aspiration of the Panthers was an essential ideal, saying, “We recognized that the goal was liberation for all people.”

She mentioned international branches of the movement from Algeria to North Korea, citing the way in which the Panthers’ message resonated deeply with many cultures, not the least of which was Germany. While the panelists spoke, images of Black Panther activity in Germany flashed above them in Rockefeller Hall 300, as a testament to the emphatic support they received both from GIs and native Germans.

Easley related her experiences as an activist and editor of Voice of the Lumpen, a Black Panther newspaper in Germany. She and Cleaver collected material support from German supporters for the Party, including guns, for which she had no use. “Because we were there to work with them, educate, inform,” she explained, “violence was not our role.”

She praised the work of Klimpke and Höhn, whose booked she found quite informative.

“This is a great book,” she said, then added jokingly, “It was great to read it in a historical context so you get a bigger picture than your own selfish world.”

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NEWS

November 18, 2010

FOUR LOKO continued from page 1 of cooperation and responsible corporate citizenship is something we are very proud of and intend to continue. We recognize and embrace our responsibility as an alcoholic beverage company to do all these things and more to ensure our products are marketed, sold and consumed responsibly.”

However, the company also points out that it feels state authorities must target all and not just a few firms manufacturing caffeinated alcoholic beverages. “If mixing caffeine and alcohol is the most pressing concern, addressing it would be best accomplished by creating laws that apply to the entire caffeinated alcoholic beverage category—not specific, individual products and not just beers or malt-based products.” The firm went as far as to say that other firms might share more responsibility for ensuring safe drinking habbits, commenting, “This is especially important given that liquor-based beverages have three to four times the alcohol content as products like ours. If product-specific bans remain the preferred course of action, we will protect our rights as a business to the fullest extent of the law,” concluded Phusion’s letter.

As of Wednesday morning, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to provide a statement to conclude its year-long discussion of the legality of mixing caffeine with alcohol in drinks. “We’re taking a careful and thorough look at the science and the safety of these products,” said spokeswoman for the FDA Beth Martino when asked to comment on the anticipated ruling.

While rumors abound about the FDA’s final decision—to be announced on Wednesday— and its implication on drink manufacturers such as Phusion Projects, several food lawyers and ex-FDA officials have stated that they feel the FDA’s internal dialogue will likely result in letters of warning sent from the FDA to manufacturers that will address the dangerously-potent nature of their products.

As a result, Phusion preemptively volunteered to remove caffeine, as well as other stimulants, from its products, thus decreasing the potential danger.

“We are taking this step after trying— unsuccessfully—to navigate a difficult and politically-charged regulatory environment at both the state and federal levels,” wrote the company in a statement to the press. However, Phusion still contends “that the combination of alcohol and caffeine is safe.”

This announcement comes at a time when Vassar has also been engaging in discussions about the alcohol consumption on campus.

In reaction to the efforts Vassar has taken towards the education, awareness and promotion of responsible drinking behavior, Roellke hopes that such “positive trends continue and [looks] forward to continuing to work with students to provide safe and fun social activities on campus that are alcohol free.” He also took this opportunity to “applaud the educational efforts of Dean of the College administrators, faculty and students themselves in generating awareness—I believe these efforts have contributed to the safer, more responsible decision-making we have observed over the last several weeks.”

While referencing how this new ruling will dovetail with CCL’s current discussions about students’ drinking habits, which centered on ways to design events where students don’t feel the need to consume alcohol, Roellke said that the “committee and the College will continue to review alcohol regulations as articulated in the student handbook.”

“I do not believe that the current state action on Four Loko will put alcohol ‘on the back burner’ as this is a continuous set of discussions,” he said, adding “underage drinking, binge drinking, and overall issues of alcohol use and abuse are critical issues on college campuses around the country and Vassar College will continue to do its very best to promote safety and wellness throughout the student body.”

Courtesy of the Vice President for Finance and Administration

Phusion will Plan aims for ‘pedestrian sovereignty’ cut caffeine in Four Loko

Above are past and current layouts of the campus. The new Master Plan addresses the variety that developed over time in Vassar’s architectural and landscape history. Principal of Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates Matthew Urbanski notes that the campus is a mix of formal and informal elements.

MASTER PLAN continued from page 1 pedestrian walkways will accommodate service and emergency vehicles and include provisions for accessibility, cars will no longer be able to drive straight through campus or to park in one of the current, central lots, such as behind Swift Hall or in front of Ely Hall.

“You don’t necessarily need people driving to these destinations,” said Eismeier. “Now, that’s a culture shock for us. I think it will be quite controversial.”

Though the plan removes parking from these areas, it reallocates the spots to the northern and southern ends of campus. Both North and South lots will expand. According to Matthew Urbanski, the principal at the firm who has been overseeing Vassar’s master plan, every spot that is removed from the center of campus will be accounted for in spots added in these peripheral areas.

Although cars will be discouraged from the central campus, the drive through Main Gate will be preserved. “Everyone remembers that first time you come to the campus and you’re only seeing through the key-hole of the gate and onto Main,” said Eismeier, “We don’t ever want to give that up. We want that first impression to come from the view through Main Gate.”

This plan is not the first campus master plan that Vassar has commissioned to guide longterm projects. The previous Campus Master Plan, produced in 1988 by Sasaki Associates, Inc., incrementally began some of the goals of reducing central parking and introduced some significant changes to the center of campus, such as the relocation of Buildings and Grounds from the center of campus to its current location in south campus. Many of the goals in that plan were finished within five or ten years of its adoption, while others have been left unfinished as the College’s priorities and needs have changed.

“Everyone felt it was just time to update it,” said Professor of Earth Science and member of the Campus Master Planning Committee Jeff Walker. “It didn’t give us a lot of updated information on traffic patterns [or] on native plantings.”

For the new Landscape Master Plan, the College hired Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates, which developed the plan’s vision for the campus with input from the Campus Master Planning Committee. The firm has experience designing master plans for a number of other colleges and universities, including Harvard University, Princeton University and Wellesley College.

According to Urbanski, Van Valkenburgh approaches each institution individually, looking for a custom fit. “We don’t have a formulaic approach,” he said, “and that’s a loaded statement.” This approach, he said, separates Van Valkenburgh from other similar companies.

Some of the projects are relatively simple and will likely be implemented in the next five years, while other goals, such as the redistribution of parking and vehicular traffic, represent a farreaching vision of the campus, which the College will achieve as time and resources allow.

“Having a plan gives us the opportunity to say we know where we’re headed, so if something comes up—if we asked to add parking, or build a new building, or make an entrance universally accessible—we’ve got a reference point for future development,” said Eismeier.

In many ways, the Master Plan is a return

to the historical values of Vassar’s campus. According to Urbanski, “The image of Vassar is very bound-up with the landscape… The campus has a wonderful balance of formality and informality.”

As they prepared the draft of the master plan, Urbanski and his team did extensive research on the history of the campus landscape, looking at archived photos and plans.

They also conducted interviews with members of many campus constituencies to determine how different aspects of the campus are used or have been used in the past. “We cast an extremely wide net,” said Urbanski.

Michael Mestitz ’12, a student representative elected to the committee, explained how he was able to contribute based on his first-hand experiences as a student and campus tour guide.

“There’s been a lot of discussion about how to get prospective students to the Admissions House without getting them totally lost,” said Mestitz.

“You know, the students are the ones who have done that most recently.” [Disclosure: Mestitz is a Columnist for The Miscellany News.]

While parking on the north and south extremes of campus will pose a longer walk to the center of campus, there are provisions for accessibility in the plan and a commitment to the principles of universal design. Universal design is based on the idea that buildings and landscapes should be accessible for the widest possible audience—that accessibility should not be an additional or secondary consideration, but rather integrated into the main design.

“I think the architects Vassar has contracted have really listened to Vassar’s desire to use the Campus Landscape Master Plan as an opportunity to create universal design on campus,” said Associate Dean of the College and Director of Equal Opportunity Belinda Guthrie. “Instead of just building ramps, it’s often possible to modify the landscape so that it creates an attractive, natural, on-grade access to the main or primary entrance of a building. This is always the preferred solution.” Employing principles of universal design would make the campus more accessible, but accessible features would not appear as special considerations because of their complete integration into the design.

According to Guthrie, in 2008 the College committed to the principles of universal design as developed by the Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access at the University of Buffalo for all new campus renovations. As the process of the master plan began, Vassar looked for a firm that would incorporate these ideals into their work.

Like many other capital projects, though, the implementation of universal design has been delayed by economic factors. “It’s really restricted to funds and resources,” said Guthrie. “I think a couple years ago the College, like most institutions, Vassar had much more aggressive plans for program enhancement and campus renovations. With the change in the economy, everything is being re-assessed. I’m actually very pleased to see that the College is still moving forward with renovations.”

However, “Sometimes it’s not fast enough for students who are only here for four years,” she addeed. “Their experience is their experience in those four years, and challenges for access make their experience more difficult.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

An area that has been of particular concern for accessibility is the connection between south and central campus—the area between Olmsted and Skinner Halls. This area has received particular attention as the future site of the new and renovated science facilities. This project has been integrated into the Campus Landscape Master Plan and has significant bearing on the link between south campus and campus proper. “It provides a wonderful opportunity to rethink the connections between existing buildings and the new bridge building and how the landscape impacts the connection between those buildings and the campus proper,” said Associate Dean of the Faculty Marianne Begemann.

Along with added paths in the area a new ‘bridge’ science building will be built over the Casperkill Creek. In addition to providing lab space, the building itself will be a universally accessible path between central campus and Skinner Hall.

Underneath the bridge, the College plans to rejuvenate the wetlands by restoring the Edith Roberts Garden. This plan is in keeping with the Master Plan’s goals for campus sustainability.

Large sections of the Landscape Master Plan are devoted to wastewater management and the maintenance of Vassar’s water systems, which include streams and two lakes. It suggests using native vegetation to filter runoff from parking lots and around the lakes. The plan also proposes new methods of tree management and lawn care with suggestions for varieties of native tree species.

The Master Plan observes, “The Vassar landscape is as important as the architecture in creating the spatial experience of the campus,” but also that “Vassar’s horticultural health is in decline.”

The sustainability goals are among the projects that will be easiest to achieve in the short term.

One such project, organic lawn care, has already begun this fall.

Other areas of the Master Plan are also already underway. The construction engulfing the Wimpfheimer Nursery School and Infant Toddler Center parking lot is included in the Master Plan, and the plan’s principles of universal design and pedestrian space are being implemented.

As to the grand scope of the master plan, Urbanski noted, “A master plan is not a design… A design is much more specific.” As the College approaches the individual projects, it will host further conversations and more particular planning for their execution. A Master Plan provides guiding principles that tie individual projects to a bigger picture.

“Any master plan I believe is a good thing,” said Begemann, “because it makes you think holistically about your vision and making sure that everything fits together; you are not picking off little projects and then realizing that your efforts don’t really hold together as a cohesive and optimal plan.”

While the plan includes projects that will take years to complete, and some will surely be reassessed later on, the overarching themes represent an updated version of Vassar’s vision for itself with a very contemporary approach to space, resources and institutional history.

Even as the College reaches these goals in 10 or even 20 years, the projects will be indicative of the time in which the Master Plan was created.

November 18, 2010

FEATURES

Page 5

Unthanksgiving challenges U.S. tradition Information Mary Huber

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Guest Reporter

hanksgiving is one of the few occasions during which America at large pays any attention to Native Americans or Native American history. Granted, it’s not a very profound interest—advertising, TV specials and children’s books all paint Thanksgiving as a day of superficial harmony, ignoring the darker aspects of American history. The current state of Native American relations has inspired Molly McGlennen, assistant professor of English and Native American Studies and an Ojibwe woman from Minneapolis, brought the idea of an Unthanksgiving to Vassar. The Unthanksgiving, run through the African American/Black Latino Asian/Asian American and Native American Center (ALANA), consists of a documentary screening and a discussion. This year it will be held on Monday, Nov. 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the ALANA Center, and will feature the documentary CRUDE, about Texaco’s environmental pollution in South America and its effects on indigenous peoples. “Thanksgiving could be seen as a day of conquest,” said McGlennen in an interview, “But we choose to see it as a day of solidarity, as a celebration of how we’ve thrived despite 500 years of conquest and genocide.”

McGlennen got the idea for Unthanksgiving while studying for her Ph.D. in Native American Studies at University of California at Davis, where students and faculty held Unthanksgiving activities and discussions. “The ‘un’ makes people think a little about what we are undoing, because if you take the racial aspect out of Thanksgiving, there’s a lot of consumption with the big meal and everything. I know a lot of peo-

ple also do other things on Thanksgiving, like service, but generally it’s a lot of consumption,” said McGlennen. She was quick to point out that Unthanksgiving is not meant to be negative. “It’s not anti-American or anti-holiday or anti-Vassar.

It’s a pause to rethink and reconstitute the idea of ‘American Identity,’ and how Native American heritage is a foundational part of that identity,” McGlennen insisted. “It’s about celebrating Native presence in all its forms.”

The Native American occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969, a symbol of indigenous resistance and self-determination, was another inspiration for the Unthanksgiving. McGlennen mentioned that every year on Thanksgiving and Columbus Day Native Americans and anyone interested in Native issues can go to Alcatraz to commemorate the occupation. “We do it on a much smaller scale, but it’s to everyone’s advantage to rethink some of these ideas that we’re almost born with,” claimed McGlennen, “Thanksgiving has been so mythologized in American history, and Native peoples are often just pushed to the side or portrayed in a very one-dimensional light, as people who were there but could be pushed out of the way in the name of progress or Manifest Destiny.”

McGlennen has hopes of raising awareness of Native American issues on campus, not just through Unthanksgiving, but through other aspects of the College. “Edward Guarino is a retired high school teacher and collector of Native American art,” said McGlennen, “On a teacher’s salary, he’s collected close to 1,000 pieces of Native American art. He brings pieces to my Intro classes so that we can see them firsthand, and there are two students doing research on the

pieces.” The collection includes Iroquois beadwork from the turn-of-the-century that women used to sell to make and sell to tourists at Niagara Falls and all types of pottery. McGlennen praised Guarino’s generosity, saying, “He’s donated about 200 pieces to the [Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center], and he plans to eventually donate the rest. Vassar will have one of the biggest collections of Native American art at a liberal arts college in the Northeast, and we need to be responsible for it.”

Also meant to raise Vassar students’ awareness of Native Americans is the Native American Studies correlate sequence that has officially been offered since fall of 2009. It was initiated by a group of students and concerned teachers, who formed an advisory group and brought McGlennen in as an expert on the subject. “It’s been a long time coming,” said McGlennen, “It’s taken awhile to build up.” McGlennen also hopes it will help recruit more Native American students to Vassar. She admits that, “Recruiting Native American students is easier said than done, but having the correlate sequence is a first step in showing them that there is a place for them here.” Native American Studies is a burgeoning field, with a growing number of programs at colleges and universities across the country. According to McGlennen, “Native American Studies was born out of student activism in the ’60s.

Its outlook is that you have to keep one foot on the ground and one foot in the academy—that what you study has real repercussions for Native people. That’s the goal.” And hopefully something, be it Unthanksgiving, or a trip to the Loeb, or a Native American Studies class, will inspire the continuation of thoughtful discourse.

Alternative interests addressed by NSO Danielle Bukowski Reporter

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Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

hough many prospective Vassar students are quick to self-identify as geeks, few are fully aware of the buffet of nerdom that awaits their matriculation. Vassar student organizations cover a gamut of intellectual, political, charitable and leisure pursuits, however only one provides the one-stop experience for all things that exist a bit outside of the mainstream.

No Such Organization (NSO) provides a valuable and oft overlooked service, working to diversify and complete Vassar’s offering of extracurricular pursuits. “We do a lot. Stuff is going on all the time: anime, sci-fi, gaming, Magic [the Gathering], chainmail, Rocky Horror, board games, the New York Renaissance Faire. It is always a busy time around here.” said Caroline Grabill ’11, the First Minister of No Fixed Address for the NSO: essentially an entertaining title for president in which the “No Fixed Address” bit is frequently substituted with other clever sayings. NSO Executive Board members all take such whimsical names, a habit common to the organization that designates event coordinators as Ensigns.

As stated on the group’s website, “The NSO includes members of every geekdom and fandom.” For anyone with interests in these types of activities, the NSO is the group to join. Some weekly events include Social Dinner on Mondays, Anime Night on Wednesdays, Smashfest on Thursdays and Magic: The Gathering Casual Saturdays.” The organization is very open to new events; “If you want to run an event, you can,” said NSO member Emily Moog ’11.

Any member with an idea for an event has the opportunity to go to the executive board and express themselves. Ensign Coordinator [Event Coordinator] Francesca Veres ’11 added; “People are very, very rarely turned down.” As an organization comprised of many members with varied interests the executive board of NSO aims to make sure all areas of fandom are covered.

The number of people attending each event fluctuates, but “there are 60-75 really active members and then 300 people on the mailing list,” according to Grabill, some members will only get involved in Rocky Horror, while others will come to every anime-themed event. Events such as Smashfest (competitive games of Super Smash Bros. Melee) have members coming and going as they please and as spaces open up.

Since the events cater to whatever interests the current members, they can change from year to

No Such Organization, a group interested in all varieties of “geekdom and fandom,” is best known for performing Rocky Horror Picture Show in the fall and for its spring conference, No Such Convention. year. “It really depends on what games people want to play, what anime and TV programs they want to watch,” Moog said. Smashfest began through the initiatives of interested freshman, and some events have become smaller this year as the Ensigns graduated.

Social Dinner, held on Mondays at 6 p.m. in the All Campus Dining Center’s Dining Room A, is the only all-organization event. All events are open to members, and members with concerns/inspirations can come to the executive board meetings if they want. For many Vassar students, including NSO member Alaric Chinn ’13, No Such Organization is a place to meet friends with shared interests: “Last year I spent a lot of time at the [Terrace Apartments] playing board games and met good friends there,” Chinn said.

While it’s hard to attach any one event to the NSO, they are perennially popular for The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the No Such Convention (NonCon). Rocky Horror is screened and performed in November, and NonCon is held in February in the College Center. It is a three-day gaming, comics, and anime convention open to all. Chief Bureaucratic Goombah (Treasurer) Jason Simon ’13 said; “NonCon planning is beginning now.” It is the organization’s largest

event for the spring semester. One may argue that a membership of the NSO is a membership for life with Vassar alumnae/i returning to campus for both NonCon, and Rocky Horror. High school students from the surrounding area can also be seen at NonCon, as well as groups from Swarthmore, Marist and Bard. A mutual love of all things gaming brings a lot of different people into the College Center.

No Such Organization also has its own library brimming with the trappings of any good cards and comics retailer, located in the basement of Raymond. It is open on Wednesdays from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. and Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. All members are encouraged to borrow from the library’s collection of books, movies and games. The NSO library is also set up as a meeting space, although the executive board admits to its currently cramped nature, owing to the storage of the Rocky Horror set.

“In some ways, the NSO is what attracted me to applying to Vassar in the first place,” Grabill said. The NSO has a constitution, delineating the organization’s mission to “provide social events for NSO members to gather and be their natural selves in an NSO environment.” Grabill summarized, “We want to make fun things happen.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

privacy spurs discussions Jillian Scharr Reporter

T

he fearless leap into one’s college years is a right of passage that emphasizes individual independence. Freedom from the watchful eye of big brother, let alone little brother, little sister, mom, dad, and the family dog is one of the sweetest and scariest aspects of one’s journey into adulthood. Though many look forward to the independence that college affords, few are looking for independence of the financial sort. Despite the fact that mom and dad are still likely to be footing the bill, students receiving financial aid at Vassar College are forced to act as the middle person between the Financial Aid Office and the people back home who write the checks. While this may be a small price to pay for a financially supported education, the privacy surrounding this and other practices at Vassar illuminates much about the College’s philosophy.

When students matriculate at Vassar College, they are thenceforth considered independent adults, both by the College and the U.S. Department of Education.

According to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), once a student “reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level…a school must have a student’s consent prior to the disclosure of education records.”

Confirms Dean of Studies Joanne Long, “The Dean of Studies Office Advisors will not contact parents when a student is in academic trouble,” she wrote in an e-mailed statement. “The underlying educational philosophy is that students are adults responsible for their own learning.”

These guidelines apply to the academic policies of all schools that receive funding under a U.S. Department of Education program. However, other parts of the Vassar administration use the spirit of the law to guide other privacy policy in areas other than transcripts.

The Residential Life Office “look[s] at students coming here as young adults afforded a level of privacy that you would expect,” explained Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa, referring to FERPA as the office’s guidelines for developing studentparent policies.

Only in extreme health-related cases, such as a student on the verge of being removed from housing or who was sent to the hospital for alcohol poisoning, will the Residential Life Office call parents. In other cases, the office works directly with students and encourages them to call their parents independently.

Vassar is somewhat unusual in this regard. “I would say that as far as institutions are concerned we’re not as proactive in seeking that partnership [with parents]… in some places if you’re a freshman and you get documented for alcohol you’re going to get a call home,” said Inoa.

“College is a period of maturation and individualization, and taking on responsibility for academic performance is part of that growth,” wrote Long. “That said, when the Dean of Studies Office advisors work with students in dire academic difficulty, we very much urge students to talk with their families about it, and we are willing to meet with parents and students when the student requests it....but overall, our relationship is with our students, not their parents.”

“Whatever the predicament is, it should come from the student to the parent, and the parent should be reaching out to us,” said Inoa.

The Financial Aid Office also operates under a similar philosophy. “We’re always grappling with this issue of including the parents and yet protecting the students,” said Associate Director of Financial Aid Jessica Bernier.

See FERPA on page 7

FEATURES

Page 6

November 18, 2010

Bike shop provides haven for cyclists and tinkerers Matt Bock

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Assistant Features Editor

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

midst the droves of eager students trudging across campus between classes exists a subculture of intrepid souls intent on ease, speed and cute baskets attached to handlebars.

While skating, scooting, and blading all have their place on campus, there is no doubt that cycling reigns supreme. This fact is attested by the existence of the Vassar College Bike Shop, a haven exclusively dedicated to the bicyclists that remind us all to keep to the left or eat their tread.

With so much use, however, student cycles are bound to become worn, broken, or—as the multitude of all-campus e-mails testify—stolen.

Befitting the popularity of cycling on campus, the Vassar Bike Shop, nestled deep inside the basement of Strong House, offers bike repairs and replacements. Accessible via a ramp in the parking lot between Lathrop and Strong, the cozy shop is personalized by the students who run it—Alex Herman ’12, Hailey Miller ’13 and Brett Wishart ’12—with posters of bicycle companies, graffiti and a worn couch. It also contains artifacts left over from the shop’s enigmatic past: sculptures, books, clothing— even a picture of the Spice Girls. The shop’s mysterious history seems, in fact, integral to its character. Neither the students who run it now nor those who ran it in previous years know the details of its origins, although all agree that it seems to have been built some time in the seventies. “The bike shop is a mysterious place,” former head of the shop Luke Stern ’10 explained in an e-mailed statement. “I really don’t know much about it. I was also really interested in finding out its history, and never could. As far as I know it has always operated to supply cheap repairs to the campus and to the bike team, that has in years past been very serious. In some ways, though, I was happy not to hear the shop’s exact history, because it seemed like the attitude we took on [towards

Vassar’s bicycle racks are often crowded like the one pictured above. The Vassar Bike Shop supports campus biking culture by providing tools and parts for keeping students’ bikes in working order. the shop’s past] was one that had been passed down to every bike shop employee.”

“Aside from repairing flats and basic tuneups, we are fairly well equipped to do more advanced repair work, including wheel building and truing, bottom bracket and headset repair,” Herman, the shop’s current manager, explained. For those less cyclically inclined, “Truing” is bike terminology for restoring, or making true, a bent bicycle wheel; the bottom bracket connects the crankset—the wheel chain—to the bicycle. Prices for these repairs vary. Fixing a flat, for example, costs $5 for a patch and $10 for a new tube, whereas tuneups are generally $10-15 and bike assembly costs $20-$30.

“Compared to other bike shops, we’re probably the cheapest deal you’ll be able to find,” Miller remarked. “Most shops charge about $60 for a tune-up.” She also explained that, if the bike shop does not have the tools to fix your bike, they will refer you to a shop that can. “Sometimes we can’t repair everything because we’re limited by the tools we have or by the replacement parts that we have in stock. But we do our best.”

The shop employees also offer customers lessons on how to repair their own bikes. “We love to teach people, and we often have students coming in to learn, or mentor, for a few weeks,” Herman said, emphasizing the collaborative atmosphere of the shop, which he con-

tends is friendly to novices as well as to more advanced riders. “We understand that different people have different purposes for riding and we try to accommodate [all of these purposes] as best as possible. We have also tried to operate the shop in a somewhat collective sense, meaning that although it is not open all the time, the hours when it is open are a time for anyone to come in and try their hand tinkering around or learning on their own, permitted we are able to loan them tools.”

Perhaps that explains why the shop is so busy.

During peak riding seasons there are usually 10 to 15 bikes repaired on any given day. Students also come in frequently to buy used bikes, the prices of which range from $30-$100 depending on the bike’s quality. Herman was introduced to the shop by its former manager, Adam Favaloro ’09, on a biking trip during Vassar Adventures for New Students. After working at the shop for two years, he became Favaloro’s successor.

“I am very connected to cycling as a tool of revolutionary social, political, environmental, and economic change,” Herman said. “I believe in the power of cycling to liberate individuals from corporate transportation dependency.

Plus, riding is just plain fun.”

“I love the shop,” he continued, “in all its crusty glory. It is definitely one of the freest spaces on Vassar’s campus; it’s self-managed, student run, autonomous, and anarchic.”

Stern, looking back on his two years working at the shop, echoed that sentiment. “The bike shop’s location and function always seemed to float between the cracks of the Vassar map.

This was great for me because I really felt like we were able to run it on our own. What it came down to is that we enjoyed working on bikes and enjoyed helping people out. The space also has this dirty, musty, basement-y charm to it. All in all I can’t say there is much I didn’t like about it.”

The Vassar Bike Shop is open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 5 p.m.

Reviewing Vassar’s ten best and quirkiest bathrooms Jessica Taurentine

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Guest Reporter

ollege students are often deprived of many comforts: parentally run laundry services, nights that don’t include your neighbors playing Call of Duty at ungodly hours and your own bathroom. While it is easy to long for your high pressure shower head and foaming honeydew hand soap, many of Vassar’s bathrooms offer unique experiences that will make you forget the non-gender-progressive bathrooms of your not-so-distant past.

10. The Bathroom of our Lord/religious figurehead/secular keynote speaker

The Vassar Chapel is open daily for individuals to explore, participate in religious practices, or use the bathroom. Located in the basement, this bathroom creates a classical ambience with its wood paneling and conservative color scheme. With ample stalls and a table for your belongings, it’s never the wrong choice.

9. Main’s Easy Waters

When the bathrooms by the Kiosk get too busy, and the second floor is too far away, go to Main lobby and head north, on your right, tucked astride the neglected collection of pay phones is a wonderful alternative bathroom.

Inside you’ll find floor to ceiling sky blue tile that gives a wonderful beach vibe.

8. Away in an Attic

Faced with the decision of bathrooms in Rockefeller Hall, the fourth floor bathroom offers a smaller and more intimate space. The white wood paneling, old-styled quasi medicine cabinet, skylight, and ability to touch both walls at the same time creates an old fashioned charm untarnished by modernity’s need for decadence.

7. A Secluded Space

The bathrooms in Cushing’s basement are the perfect place to go when you want to be alone… very alone, or when you need a break from filming your horror film. An excellent bathroom due to its large size and locking door, this bathroom is especially recommended for use during any Friday the 13th or Halloween.

Enjoy the suave black décor in Davison or plentiful counter space in Joss.

4. A Homely Retreat

Located on the first floor of Sanders Physics Building, this bathroom offers students the opportunity to reminisce over your abandoned home bathroom with its personal touches. The brick walls and wood paneling create a powerful sense of space, which is complimented by the delicate iron work on the mirror. A small basket of potpourri rests upon the table next to a bottle of pink sugar frosting hand lotion for use after washing your hands with soap from an actual soap dish. The room is complete with a white wooden chair, and a floral painting opposite the door.

2. A Cozy Cove for Contemplation

The only bathroom on the second floor of the Thompson Memorial Library is certainly not to be missed. While its small size, cramped stalls and slanted ceiling make it a unique experience, your time there will be spent pondering the great messages of our generation. Standouts include the inspirational, “It don’t take all day to see the sunshine,” to the existential and thought provoking, “If you pretend to love me, I’ll pretend not to love you back.” Also ponder which disgruntled sociology major wrote “alienation” in all caps across the wall, and which philosophy/psychology/drama major enjoys creating thought experiments that begin, “For instance, imagine a world of Meryl Streeps.” But hurry because soon these great insights may be covered over with paint.

3. The Room of Requirement 6. Locker Rooms

When a simple bathroom will not suffice, the locker rooms in Walker Field House provide numerous amenities for all your bathroom needs. In addition to restrooms, the bathrooms are equipped with changing spaces, showers, mirrors, and lockers for belongings.

5. House Bathrooms

Statistically when you are in need of a bathroom you’re most likely in a dorm, and not all dorm bathrooms were created equal. For your best bet, try Davison or Josselyn House, both of which offer spacious and modern facilities.

Despite rumors of its inexistence, there is in fact a bathroom in the basement of Blodgett Hall. Simply enter through the first door, then through the archway and to the right, down the stairs following the directions for the “Fallout Shelter,” and turn left. Then proceed through the utility shaft/hallway and walk back and forward three times, thinking of a bathroom and an unmarked wooden door will appear through an unmarked wooden doorway. You will be met with a quaint white bathroom for two. (Potter fans take note: Though this bathroom is obscure, it does indeed exist!)

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

1. The Rose Parlor

The Rose Parlor with its warm tones, plush decorations, and necessary inclusion of a baby Steinway, is among Vassar’s proudest public spaces. The focal point of many campus activities, this wash closet lives up to this standard. Wrapped in warm floral wallpaper, accented with gold fixtures, and furnished with a red sofa for lounging, the second floor bathroom personifies Vassar’s historical roots and is ultimately the quintessential Vassar bathroom.

So, next time you find yourself in need of some private time, consult this list and you’re bound to find the perfect potty.

November 18, 2010

FEATURES

Page 7

Rate My Professors site has Pre-registration evolves polarizing effect on evalutations over time and technology PROFESSORS continued from page 1 Professors is called into question by the professors themselves.

Boasting a tagline of “Over 6,000 Schools, 1 Million Professors, 10 Million Opinions,” Rate My Professors has become an internet hotspot for students to sound off about their experiences with professors in an anonymous setting that allows for more candid critiques. Offering both written comments and numeric ratings, the website allows those who are looking to take a particular course to get an accessible, albeit subjective, glimpse of what they face. Rate My Professors provides a means by which students can make a judgment about the educator’s “Easiness,” “Overall Quality,” and for those who are interested, “Hotness.”

“I’ve used it just to get a general consensus as to a professor’s disposition,” began Michael Norton ’14, a student who admitted to sifting through the information on Rate My Professors when pre-registering for classes. “It’s not like if a teacher has a bad rating, I would not take their class; I use the information on the site to give myself fair warning if they are a harsh grader or if they act a certain way in class, just so I can mentally prepare myself for that.”

However, others, such as Hillary Frame ’14, are openly skeptical about the site’s dependability. “While I think that the site could be a useful tool,” noted Frame, “I do not think it should be used to decide what classes to take. Just because one person had a bad experience does not mean that you will.”

Although a number of students do utilize the advice on Rate My Professors, the professors who are being rated find the website’s reliability to be questionable, especially as it pertains to its sources of information. When asked about her experiences with the website’s ranking system, Associate Professor of Mathematics Natalie Frank elaborated upon this notion in an emailed statement.

“When I read through the ratings, they seem to fit the profile of a ‘self-selected sample’ perfectly,” began Frank. “Most of the students who enter ratings are those who either love or hate the professor. It seems pretty biased in that way. Also, the ratings for many of the professors I looked at were substantially different from their Course Evaluation Questionnaire (CEQ) ratings.”

In regards to how her knowledge of her ranking affected her teaching, Frank further stated, “RateMyProfessors.com doesn’t affect my teaching at all, because I get vastly superior information from the comment sheets that students turn in with their CEQs. Reading those gives me an idea of what every student in the class thought I did well, and where I can improve.” Unlike Rate My Professors, the CEQ surveys conducted at the end of each semester pool opinions from everyone who took the class, statistically increas-

ing the reliability of the information by including convictions that are not as forceful.

Although she noted that her evaluations on Rate My Professors approximately matched the responses she received in CEQ surveys, Associate Professor of History Michaela Pohl echoed this noted disparity between the Rate My Professors and the CEQ system. “[Rate My Professors] is a lot more impressionistic than the official CEQ system, which almost gets a 90 to 100 percent participation rate. I think that the printed surveys are a lot more comprehensive and that they rate many more different aspects than the surveys on the website. The online [surveys] only rate what the student was particularly struck by; they are not answering a set of questions, which are important with the CEQs because they really make students think about particular aspects about the class.”

Whether or not other educators find the CEQ system to be more accurate than Rate My Professors, Assistant Professor of English Zoltan Markus expressed how the public nature of these online comments could cause professors to reevaluate their behavior in class. After stumbling upon his Rate My Professors profile, Markus gave pause to a single negative comment that attacked his behavior in a previous semester’s class, despite the otherwise positive remarks on his page. He then decided to “touch base” with his cu rrent class by passing around a piece of paper with two columns, one in agreement with the Rate My Professors comment and the other in disagreement; students were to indicate whether or not they felt the comment to be true by placing a tally mark in the appropriate column.

In response to this experience, Markus stated, “I would never want to dismiss the comments that I see on the site. However, the satisfied students do not feel compelled to express their opinions. My feeling is that the urge to articulate these feelings about the class is less eminent when you are happy about it. I just feel bad that this is the impression people have about me outside the College.”

Despite the lack of balance in the breadth of the comments, Markus acknowledged, “I think that this website is an important instrument for students who are disgruntled in some way.

They are using Rate My Professors to articulate these problems.”

Although a number of professors are quick to note the website’s fallacies, Rate My Professors nevertheless provides a forum that allows for students to express their views about their educators with complete candor. While the practicality of using Rate My Professors as an ultimate means for deciding to choose a particular class is debatable, students can rely on this website for genuine opinions, regardless of their levels of extremity.

REGISTRATION continued from page 1 would open” Giannini reminisced, “students used to rush up to each department table up at the gym and try to get into their classes. There would be faculty members at each table who would have a certain number of cards for each class, and if the students could get to the table in time to get a card, they were in the class.”

“Students would actually camp out over night to be there when the doors opened,” reminisced Giannini, “but it all came down to how fast you could run. With…advancements in technology, the College decided it was time that they come up with a new system, and they asked me to help.”

The first generation of Vassar’s current registration system was introduced in 1988. Students were given a span of time during which they could fill out a registration form, which they would hand deliver to the Office of the Registrar, where their course indications would be input into the digital system. This system effectively put an end to the pandemonium of arena registration, and was still in use up until the early 2000s.

This Friday marks the end of Vassar’s pre-registration period, a two-week span during which students are required to select and submit their course preferences for the upcoming semester. Though most students are now familiar with the scramble to pick out classes, track down advisors and meet with professors that often comes with Pre-Registration, few are acquainted with the administrative aspects of this process.

According to Giannini, there is much more to the course selection process than meets the eye. Vassar, relying on lottery in the name of impartiality, divides its registration period into a number of phases which stretch out over the course of several weeks.

“The way our system works,” Giannini explained, “is sort of like a game. Students have two weeks to meet with their advisors and create a list of courses, which they are then asked to rank according to order of importance and then submit online. The end of the two week process is when our office really comes into the picture—our system organizes the data first according to class year, then according to draw number, then according to level of choice.”

This system allows students to get as many of their preferred courses as possible, even if they are in a lower class year or have a poor draw number. Giannini advised that students should prioritize their course

list, with the most important classes first, followed by the most popular courses, with special [permission] listed last.

“About seven or eight years ago,” said Giannini, “we rewrote the system once again.

We made it a bit user-friendly, increased some of its capabilities. Because we wrote our own system, of course we are quite different from other schools. Most colleges use a straight online system: You walk up to the computer, identify yourself, tell the computer what courses you want, and you have instant verification.”

“At one point,” Giannini continued, “this is something that we…were considering.

But with this kind of system, once you register for your courses, the guy in line behind you has a smaller chance of getting the courses he’s interested in. And if you sleep in? You’re completely out of luck. It is an issue of not just registration, but of fairness. And it is not something we want to rush into.”

Though the registration process may seem extensive enough in itself, Dean of Studies Joanne Long argued that students should not limit the mapping and contemplation of their academic careers to the pre-registration and add/drop periods.

Long along with the rest of the staff at the Dean of Studies Office, offers counseling services to students to try and resolve any difficulties they may face during their academic careers.

“Registration itself is the last step in a process that should begin with advising,” Long said in an e-mailed statement. “Students and advisors should make an individualized academic plan that takes into account the goals of the student and the College and departmental requirements.”

Though Long explained that the Dean of Studies Office Class Advisors play only a minimal role in the course selection and registration process, she emphasized the benefits of working with an advisor and planning ahead when selecting courses.

“I advise students to work closely and in a timely way with their major and pre-major advisor,” Long wrote, “so that requirements are clear and the student does not miss pre-registration or later, the add-only period.”

“It is important to explore the curriculum, seeking out alternative classes that may achieve goals in a different way.”

Her final piece of advice? “Plan in advance, and be flexible.” Education is an exploratory process, and Vassar continues to endeavor to streamline the machine while emphasizing thoughtful advising.

Vassar extends principles of FERPA to disclosure policy FERPA continued from page 5 Under FERPA law, the Financial Aid Office can share information received from the parents, who, more often than not, are the ones financing their child’s education. However, “the big thing behind the law is [that] the student is the one who’s attending, so it’s their file, their information, and we need to protect them,” said Bernier.

To that end, the office sends specific financial aid-related information to students’ Vassar e-mail addresses, and then sends parents a general mass e-mail alerting them that information has been sent.

One of the reasons for this is identity concerns. The Vassar e-mails are safe, but the Financial Aid Office can’t always be sure about e-mail addresses that parents give them.

“In the past it was paper mail, so things were sent home [addressed] to the student, but they were sent home,” said Bernier. “Moving to the technology we’re now using…we want to verify who [information] goes to. Probably to parents it seems frustrating at times, but it’s really to protect everyone.”

Certainly some parents have communicated their dislike and frustration with Vassar’s system. But others have embraced it in ways that

surprised even Inoa. “I’ve had more conversations here [at Vassar] than at any other institutions I’ve worked at combined [of] parents calling me saying ‘I’m calling you but I don’t want my child to know…even though I’m acknowledging I want my child to feel that they’re an adult I’m concerned enough [about some situation] to call you, and maybe this context will help you.’”

The infrequency of these types of calls perhaps speaks to Vassar’s success in conveying that message of student independence to parents during New Student Orientation. “[Parents] want us to do something, but they also want their child to feel like they’re handling this on their own,” observed Inoa.

Negotiating this sort of balance is a constant challenge, and Inoa was frank about the challenges that Vassar’s policies present for students, parents and administrators alike. “This is always in hindsight, [but] if we would have reached out a little bit earlier…not for the more egregious kinds of behavior but some of the ones that are a little more in the middle, could that have made a difference for the students who end up really getting themselves in trouble?” he wondered.

On the financial aid side of the spectrum, Bernier agreed that the policy is a work in prog-

ress. “I don’t think we’ve come to the perfect balance point yet. The plus is that we’re able to get the info out faster and…I think we’re doing a better job of including both students and parents by communicating with both parties to keep everyone involved, because everyone should understand the process. I think the negative is that kind of extra step in the process where we’re communicating certain things to the students and it’s up to the students to pass it on to the parents.”

Before electronic banking, bills were addressed to the student, but sent to their home address, so it was most often parents who filled them out. With new identification verification technology, it becomes truly the students’ responsibility to manage their bills.

On the whole, students seem pleased with the school’s privacy standards. “Most students here feel extremely independent on campus,” wrote Vassar Student Association Vice President for Operations Ruby Cramer ’12. “For the most part, we’re not parented, we’re not overprotected, and we’re self-govening with respect to our day-to-day choices...Vassar provides freedom with responsibility, and students love that about the College.”

However, Cramer also pointed out that the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

school has considered alternative means of bringing parents into student discipline. Last year, the Computing and Information Services (CIS) suggested that students who were caught illegally file-sharing on campus should be charged with a monetary penalty. That charge would be added to the students’ bill, which most parents pay; CIS hoped that parents would ask their children about the charge and subsequently discourage them from further file-sharing.

What would a closer relationship between parents and the Residential Life Office look like? Inoa offered some interesting speculation: “Would that kind of communication earlier with parents and guardians benefit the [drug and alcohol] culture that we’re concerned about? Overall, would it have an impact if students understood that part of the consequences could be that there is communication home? …

Would we see a shift in the culture for the levels of permissibility that we’re concerned about?”

“I don’t know the answer to that,” he concluded. “I’m not quite sure if you can say that it’s a causal relationship. I’m not wedded to either of those directions but I’m willing to have some healthy conversations about this issue for our students and for our campus as a whole.”

OPINIONS

Page 8

November 18, 2010

Alternative space Four Loko ban pointless in the long run not a solution to C campus drinking Josh Rosen

Opinions Editor

Kris Yim

A

Guest Columnist

lcohol and other intoxicants have long since rooted themselves deep within the college culture. As drinking dominates the social setting, non-drinkers are left no place to congregate. To remedy this, the administration of Vassar College has dispatched a committee to establish an alternative, non-drinking social space, complete with pool tables, video games and more, to open during the weekends at the Aula by next semester. Given the circumstances, it sure sounds like a cute idea. However, this innocent attempt to promote non-drinking is not as simple as it seems, and it may even backfire by reinforcing the drinking culture of our campus.

Such a proposal is only conceived in the midst of widespread alcohol abuse: such abuse which has become so prevalent that it overpowers the majority and becomes the social norm (not to imply that there was ever a modern college environment sans drinking). This is a persistent issue that has yet to be effectively addressed, but what message does Vassar communicate through the “alternative space?” During the weekends, then, the entire campus acceptably becomes an alcoholic hot zone, and, it seems out of pity, there’s to be a kid-safe “alternative space” for the perceived unconventional outcasts. The “alternative space” is perhaps the white flag that signifies that this issue has finally become hopelessly out of control. That is, instead of being a preventative measure, the “alternative space” adapts to the undying party scene and accepts the drinking culture as it is. If drinking is “normal,” then is not-drinking abnormal? To label a non-drinking space “alternative” is to describe sobriety in terms of drunkenness, a disconcertingly absurd negation analogous to saying “light is the lack of darkness,” or “intelligence is the lack of stupidity.”

Herein lies the danger of the “alternative space”: reinforcing drinking as the social norm.

Assuming that widespread drinking is the result of careful, objective reasoning is useful for argumentative purposes, but realistically, this notion proves far too idealistic. It doesn’t take the National Social Norms Institute at the University of Virginia to figure that conformity plays a large role in pressuring adolescents to drink, as a 1999 study entitled “Declining Negative Consequences Related to Alcohol Misuse Among Students Exposed to a Social Norms Marketing Intervention on a College Campus,” conducted at the Institute concluded. The “alternative space” reinforces social norms through students accepting drinking— often underage drinking—as something to be worked around in the form of a separate zone.

Further, the “alternative space” fails to parallel the mainstream alcohol-compatible congregations. That is, the space will be set up with rather tame, idle activities such as video games—of which I certainly do not contest the delightfulness of—but are not of the same vein as livelier events like a dance at Matthew’s Mug or a Halloween costume party, for example, the epicenter of the drinking culture. By nature, these events prompt more attendance than activities and games—quaint as they are—since they are something to physically get up and go to. In this sense, it fails in its role as an alternative by not offering comparable livelier events because loud, lively events can appeal to those who are sober as well.

More importantly, it excludes the drinking majority from its target demographic, as it is clear the “alternative space” only reaches out to the sober who feel left out of the primary social scene.

Ultimately, this widens the gap between drinkers and non-drinkers, and this schism may very well perpetuate the age old issue of college binging.

Is it conceivable that there can be events, outside of class, relevant to both drinkers and non-drinkers alike, where the occurrence is in itself, by itself interesting? Could it ever be that, if such events were promoted and became more accessible, people would, as a whole, be so busy as to forget to drink? I’m not quite sure, but setting up an “alternative space” as a workaround, with all its imminently painful implications, surely doesn’t encourage increased sobriety in wayward Vassarions

onsidering the presence of a substantial body of scientific evidence concerning the potentially dangerous synergistic effects of caffeinated alcoholic beverages, according to a letter from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists and physicians to the Attorneys General of Guam, Connecticut and Utah, it would certainly not be premature for the FDA to ban caffeinated alcoholic beverages, at least temporarily. As the letter indicates, these beverages constitute a danger to the public health. However, I contest that such a ban would, in the long run, be purposeless.

Generally speaking, it is well within the purview of the FDA to ban Four Loko—as well as for states to take preemptive action, as New York and other states have done—and other so-called caffeinated alcopops, a portmanteau that references the soda-like nature of these beverages.

If it were not for some awfully turgid articles in even the most esteemed publications across the United States—from The New York Times to the Los Angeles Times to The Miscellany News—it appears improbable that the news of the concomitant miracles and dangers of Four Loko would have been as widely disseminated as they have been.

This caffeinated alcoholic beverage is sold in a 23.5 fluid ounce can containing 12 percent alcohol by volume—the equivalent of just under five standard drinks, where a standard drink contains 14 grams of pure ethanol. Four Loko is particularly popular among students for the extra “kick” that it gives from the 135 milligrams of caffeine—about as much caffeine as a cup of strong coffee, not to mention its fairly low price, about $2.50 per can, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Recent attention towards the beverage has been prompted by its supposed involvement

in incidences of alcohol poisoning, including one case at Central Washington University. In this case, according to a letter from Washington State’s attorney general, Rob McKenna, to the commissioner of the FDA, Margaret Hamburg, nine underage college students were hospitalized as a result of the consumption of Four Loko and other alcoholic beverages.

The FDA, a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, is, along with other agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ultimately responsible for regulating food and drink additives like caffeine. The FDA has statutory authority to determine that the two substances may not be combined since there is an absence of evidence to confirm the safety of mixing the substances.

In the case of alcoholic energy drinks, while both substances that are mixed—caffeine and alcohol—are “generally recognized as safe,” in FDA parlance, no evidence as to their safety when used concurrently is available.

While there is more than adequate statutory and medical rationale to prohibit the sale and manufacture of Four Loko and other caffeinated alcoholic beverages, such as Torque and Joose, according to a list from the website of the FDA’s Office of Food Additive Safety , I would contest that the outright ban of such beverages would tend to be—despite their dangers—purposeless.

For one, the concept of a substitute good could easily be invoked: A premixed caffeinated alcoholic beverage such as Four Loko contains the same ingredients, essentially, as any combination of a caffeinated beverage and alcoholic beverage. On these grounds, it is reasonable to extrapolate that persons who consumed alcoholic energy drinks prior to a ban would substitute—albeit not consume the same amount as they had before—the equivalent alcohol and caffeine beverages, whether they have to mix them or not. And it

goes without saying that such beverages could quite easily be as dangerous or even more dangerous than pre-mixed beverages, because the caffeine or alcohol contents are not as easy to measure in a beverage mixed by an individual than in a bottling plant. This could easily result in responsible consumption inadvertently turning into accidental intoxication, which ought to be rather difficult to do when drinking from a clearly labelled can or bottle.

A ban may serve as a paternalistic lesson to the public: Do not consume alcoholic beverages that contain caffeine. However, it may be equally efficacious—and less injurious to personal freedom—to adopt the tobacco control model, where sales are restricted, much as they already are with alcohol, and a clear warning label bearing a statement along the lines of: “Surgeon General’s Warning: Consumption of caffeinated alcoholic beverages may cause arrythmias and impaired motor coordination.” Similarly, it could be appropriate to introduce large scale advertising campaigns discussing the dangers of alcoholic beverages, and caffeinated alcoholic beverages in particular, much as the Office of National Drug Control Policy produces ads to demonstrate the risks of marijuana use.

Government intervention may be warranted in the case of alcoholic energy drinks.

However, other than providing information to potential consumers, and cracking down on underage sales, it is more than unreasonable— even if it is legal and medically warranted—to impose an outright ban on the consumption of caffeine-adulterated alcoholic beverages by adults, especially without first trying to limit the adverse effects through informative campaigns and crack-downs on underage consumption first.

—Joshua Rosen ’13 is an economics major and Opinions editor of The Miscellany News.

Four Loko ban unfair intrusion into private life Juan Thompson

G

Opinions Editor

overnor of New York David Paterson’s tenure will end on the first of January.

One would think that the governor would be spending his last days focusing on the problems that are plaguing the Empire State. One would be wrong. Instead, the governor is focusing on the latest fad sweeping across the nation: Four Loko.

This past weekend Governor Paterson, assisted by the State Liquor Authority, convinced Four Loko distributor Phusion Projects to halt shipments to New York by this coming Friday, Nov. 19. Stores have until Dec. 10 to sell any remaining Four Loko in stock. New York now joins Oklahoma, Washington, Michigan and Utah in banning the caffeinated malt liquor beverage. Washington banned Four Loko after nine Central Washington University students were hospitalized, in one night, with blood alcohol levels ranging from 0.12 to 0.35 percent, following a party where students were drinking Four Loko.

The intentions of these various states are admirable. No one can disagree with the desire to reduce toxic drinking. But the government shouldn’t be in the business of constantly dictating every aspect of our lives, unless it can prove that Four Loko is, unlike other alcoholic beverages, a dangerous health threat.

Otherwise the ban is absurd and is a great example of the government getting gratuitously involved in something that doesn’t warrant government involvement.

The drink comes in multiple enticing flavors like fruit punch, blue raspberry and orange.

Critics charge that these colorful cans appeal to college students as if we’re young underdeveloped toddlers drawn to bright shiny objects. Okay, we may be attracted to shiny objects, but that’s not the reason so many of us drink Four Loko. If Four Loko did not come in visually appealing cans young people would still drink them on the weekends because it is a trendy—and caffeinated—alcoholic drink.

The fact remains that Four Loko does come in bright 23.5 oz cans that cost approximately $2.50 and are have an alcohol content of 12 percent, making it the equivalent of four beers. It got its name, Four, from its four main ingredi-

ents of caffeine, taurine, guarana and alcohol.

Phusion Projects, the firm that produces Four Loko, in response to the uproar, argues, “Our products contain less alcohol than an average rum and cola, less alcohol and caffeine than an average Red Bull and vodka and are comparable to having coffee after a meal with a couple glasses of wine.” Beyond that, Phusion has sponsored alcohol awareness programs in an effort to deal with binge drinking and encourage responsible drinking.

It is without dispute that the drink dubbed “blackout in a can” is popular and prevalent.

As mentioned earlier, four states have now banned the drink. Schools from Ramapo College in New Jersey to California State University, Fresno have experienced an uptick in Four Loko consumption and the drunken problems that accompany it. Vassar’s campus is not immune from the fad. We all know that Four Loko is present on our campus and when Friday afternoon comes so too do the merchants at Oasis Discount Beverage. Oasis is the nearest beer store and they wait with bated breath for us Vassar students as we buy not just Loko, but other beer beverages. And that’s the problem with this ban. It is ignoring the roots of the problem. Our drinking culture, the overconsumption that permeates everything about us, and the need to always be in on the latest trend are the problems. Not Four Loko. I often drink a double espresso with a few shots of whiskey. How different is that? And what about Bacardi 151, which has an alcohol content of 75 percent and was a few years ago an ingredient in a popular drink amongst college students called Caribou Lou, which is made of Bacardi and pineapple juice? Caribou Lou, which originated from a song by rapper Tech 9, is by any measure much stronger than Four Loko, but state officials did not ban Bacardi 151.

Young people drinking too much alcohol was a problem before Four Loko and will be a problem after this ridiculous ban. If school officials and state authorities want to eradicate this problem they should do so by constantly impressing upon young people the dangers of irresponsible drinking and cracking down on the stores who sell to underage patrons.

We as a society should also move away from

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

constantly latching on to whatever is popular at a given moment. I don’t drink Four Loko; I think it tastes like a fruit flavored cough syrup.

But what about the adult who is of age and who does like Four Loko? Should he or she be denied the malt liquor of their choice because nine college students from Washington state behaved irresponsibly? Because this all started with the Central Washington nine. I applaud those who are attempting to confront this problem but banning Four Loko is not the solution to our society’s alcohol consumption problem.

—Juan Thompson ’13 is Opinions editor of The Miscellany News.

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November 18, 2010

OPINIONS

Page 9

Cuomo’s education cuts misguided Chronicle to provide Should focus on equality of education Alexandra Evans Guest Columnist

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ard times continue in New York; Albany’s recently released MidYear Financial Plan update projects a $315 million state budget gap, resulting in a budget deficit of $9 billion, an increase from the $8.2 billion projected last month. Governor of New York David Paterson’s widespread cuts have done little to repair the state’s fiscal stability, leaving the incoming administration in a mess of red. In the face of this crisis, Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo has pledged to keep his campaign promise to freeze tax rates. This popular plan, however, comes at a heavy cost. If funds cannot be raised, spending must be cut, and Cuomo’s axe is coming straight down on the state education budget.

Cuomo’s decision comes as New York’s education system ranks fourth nationally in per-pupil expenditures.

The high spending has not, however, been translated into results, and the state remains ranked 40th in the nation for graduation rates. Yet, this failure should not justify Cuomo’s fondness for punitive cuts; it is not that investment fails, but rather that the funds have been largely misallocated.

As a recent Rutgers University report found, New York’s education system is marred by major funding disparities between schools in wealthy and poor districts, with New York State coming in ranked fourth for least-equitable distribution nationally. In 2007, Albany settled a 10-year lawsuit claiming un-

derfunding for high-need school districts by promising to bump funding in poorer districts. Unsurprisingly, the increase was short-lived and was quickly cut in response to the 2007/8 economic crisis.

As a result, wealthier schools now receive roughly $17,000 per student while poor schools, categorized as those with at least 30 percent of students living in poverty, received an average of $14,000 per student; these schools are marked by low test scores and high dropout rates, lowering the state’s overall scholastic performance.

The effect can be seen close to home in the school districts that neighbor Vassar; Arlington, the richer of the two districts, far out-scores Poughkeepsie, which is marred by a nearly 50 percent dropout rate. Regardless of their proximity, economic differences drastically effect the schools’ quality. Cuomo’s plan for general cuts will thus not result in any improvement; rather, it is more likely to affect those schools that are already most struggling.

Even if Cuomo disregards the social and ethical implications of unequal education, he cannot deny the economic implications. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 90 percent of the fastest-growing occupations require, at the minimum, a high school education. Furthermore, the proportion of jobs requiring less than a GED is expected to drop 10 percent in the next decade, and more than 40 percent of manufacturing jobs will require postsecondary education. These

two trends point to a decline in jobs for the uneducated and growth in opportunities for the educated; if New York’s education system continues to falter, the state will be faced with a simultaneous labor shortage and unemployment crisis.

Furthermore, an educated population is key to maintaining innovation and competitiveness, supporting New York’s ability to attract businesses and investment. While Cuomo supports lower taxes, claiming, “If we want to attract businesses, keep young people here, grow businesses here, we have to offer an environment for business that is palatable,” he misses the larger picture: By ignoring the long-term effects of failed education, New York will lose many of the underlying factors that keep companies in the state. The governor’s attempts to stabilize the budget in the short term may, in fact, jeopardize New York’s future economic viability by further burdening its social systems.

Cuomo is faced with hard decisions—that cannot be denied—but uniformly slashing education budgets should not be his solution. The distribution of educational funding should be reanalyzed, with an emphasis on redirecting funds towards those most in need. This may, in fact, result in a smaller budget as efforts become more efficient, but lower costs should be viewed as a product, rather than aim, of reform.

—Alexandra Evans ’13 is a history major at Vassar College.

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

missing campus voice Rachel Anspach

H

Guest Columnist

ere at Vassar, like many colleges, we have a nondiscrimination and nonharassment policy, which I support as I am sure almost everyone at Vassar does. Vassar prides itself for its student body’s liberal, inclusive mindset. Because of this, the idea that campuses can discriminate in any way is bound to make waves. However, there is one area in which it is unrealistic to think that discrimination is not currently, or should not be occurring, within campus organizations. When an organization is founded with a particular viewpoint, such as an activism group or a politically conservative club, they are discriminating from the beginning by soliciting to people with a certain ideological stance. It is a part of Americans’ right to free assembly to form clubs with a specific focus. However, while it is natural for clubs to discriminate to a certain extent, it is much more vilified when a conservative group does it. The same policies should be applied to all campus organizations, no matter which way they lean politically.

One form of discrimination here on campus has surfaced regarding The Chronicle, the political journal that the Moderate, Independent and Conservative

Alliance (MICA) wishes to publish. While they ended up getting the funding from the Vassar Student Association (VSA) for a trial run, there has been a lot of controversy around the issue. I, personally, am very liberal and will probably disagree with many of the opinions in the paper, but I cannot believe that a place like Vassar, with our nondiscrimination policy, would consider not allowing a more conservative or moderate voice to be heard on campus.

A member of the VSA Council, Main House President Boyd Gardner, who opposed the The Chronicle’s approval said that a more conservative voice is not necessary because “The tense interaction of political ideologies at Vassar is caused by the antipathy that colors American political discourse, not by a lack of understanding,” as he wrote in The Miscellany News two weeks ago. However, I do not think this is accurate. In my classes at Vassar, I seldom hear conservative opinions expressed and I have never had a conservative professor. The liberal Miscellany News does publish conservative pieces, but they are often met with scorn from our liberal campus.

However, according to a June 2009 Gallup Poll, 40 percent of Americans identify as See CHRONICLE on page 12

OPINIONS

Page 10

Obama’s bipartisan budget plan bitter, but pragmatic Kelly Shortridge Guest Columnist

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his past week, President Barack Obama’s bipartisan budget commission produced a plan to get the United States’ deficit in check. However, many of the proposals require quite a bit of sacrifice from all Americans and from both political parties, leading this plan to be controversial and, quite unfortunately, without much support. While nearly everyone can get behind a more balanced government budget, not everyone can get behind reducing farm subsidies, a $100 billion cut in the defense budget, increasing the age at which citizens receive their Social Security benefits to age 68 by 2050, increasing the gas tax and reducing the corporate tax. Along with this, personal taxes would increase and medical care entitlements would decrease, while the government’s discretionary spending would decrease by one percent per year between 2012 and 2015. The authors of the plan believe, quite sensibly, that for every extra dollar raised in higher taxes, three dollars in spending should be cut—and trust me, I’m not one inclined to ever support tax increases.

As you can imagine, this plan is being called “bitter medicine,” but I think it is the only way we can get our country’s budget back on track. The Democrats hate it because it reduces entitlement programs and the size of the government; the Republicans hate it because it reduces military spending and raises taxes. But if both parties truly have our country’s long-term interests at heart, rather than what will allow them to get elected in the short-run, they must see the wisdom in this plan.

Is this plan perfect? No, but it’s a fantastic start.

Some things I especially like in the plan are the proposal to reduce taxes as well as close all loopholes, the reduction in the military budget, and eliminating farm subsidies. These are measures that I think should have been implemented long ago, and are some poignant examples of the wastefulness of the federal government. The plan as a whole is astoundingly common sense, something that in our current government is a novelty. I can think of a few things I would add, including the legalization and subsequent taxation of marijuana, the legal-

ization and taxation of prostitution (which would greatly reduce the health risks associated with this industry), cuts in government wages, massive overhaul of the education system (including making parents pay a fine if their child does poorly in school, so as to hold the parents accountable for the academic performance of their children) and phasing out Social Security slowly but surely.

These things would not be easy for Americans to adjust to, but to ensure our long-term health as a nation, I believe we must adapt to thrive.

While I admit that I was (mostly) pleased with how the latest midterm election turned out and appreciate the idea of greater balance in our government, I can see immediately that the rising tensions will kill this thoughtful plan, and lobbyists will throw unthinkable amounts of money into stopping its passing. Both sides will disagree with the other on principal; both sides will say that it doesn’t go far enough their way in certain aspects; both sides will not acquiesce and let the other side get a few of their ideas into the plan—the concept of give-and-take most of us learned in kindergarten. Maybe my libertarian sensibilities are showing, but it’s hard not to think that both Republicans and Democrats are against us, the voters, unwilling to put aside party differences not only for the greater good of this generation, but also for future generations of American citizens.

In the end, it’s about trade-offs. We forgo eating fast food or sweets in order to be in better shape or we forgo nights of partying to get the “A” we want, yet in our economy, we seem to be unable to stop ourselves from looking past the present. This has to change if we are to succeed, just as we change our personal habits to ensure a prosperous and healthy future. This plan is a great start to put us on a strict diet for our budget and stop our spending binge.

Please take the time to read more about the plan and to write to your Senator or Representative to voice your support for this bipartisan proposal.

This is a matter that truly will determine the shape of all our futures as Americans, and it is important that you have a say in your future.

—Kelly Shortridge ’12 is an economics major.

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November 18, 2010

Learning to navigate the library an invaluable skill Tom Hill

W

Guest Columnist

ith midterms over and paper-writing season well underway, a study by Project Information Literacy and sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation has been released that examines how undergraduates use information resources in their research.

The study is based on a survey of 8,000 students on 25 campuses, and describes what to many of you may be a familiar state of affairs: a feeling of bewilderment as you look out upon a seemingly formless and fathomless sea of information and wonder how to begin. The report indicates that students are generally at a loss when asked to conduct research, especially at the outset of an assignment. These findings mirror those of another report published earlier this year from the Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries (ERIAL) project, an ethnographic study of undergraduate research behaviors at five Illinois institutions conducted over a two year period involving controlled interviews, subject diaries, photo journals, cognitive maps and other anthropological instruments. Both reports identify lack of instruction as a primary cause of student-research difficulties. They confirm that undergraduates receive little or no systematic training in research methods and the use of information resources. Only occasionally are research skills taught in the classroom, when instructors turn over precious class time to a visiting librarian for this purpose or take this on themselves.

Even more rarely will students consult with a librarian directly. The result: Students have difficulty getting started. Once they do begin they plow ahead, developing their own idiosyncratic methodologies based on trial and error, drawing on limited sets of skills acquired in high school and trading tips with one another. Their research thus suffers in that students, always pressed for time and negotiating multiple deadlines, tend to limit their attention to a familiar handful of resources (JSTOR and Project Muse, for instance), unaware of other databases, reference works and indexing services that may provide more and better information specific to the subject at hand. The reports also note that students especially have difficulty scoping their inquiries, that they lack knowledge of search strategies and an understanding of structured vocabularies and have difficulty reading citations.

On top of this, once citations are found students report difficulty locating physical materials in the library as well as technical problems accessing electronic media.

There is some good news. Project Information Literacy reports that undergraduates are generally comfortable with their ability to evaluate the quality of sources, including Web sources (a perennial issue of concern for librarians); ERIAL observes that students are very good at adapting to the many different technologies and interfaces that comprise a dynamic and rapidly expanding array of academic search tools.

“Adaptability” is an important term to consider because it extends to a variety of routines and workarounds that students learn in order to compensate for this lack of formal training. As a librarian I have sometimes marveled that students can conduct interesting research and produce excellent results without having a clear idea of what they are doing, really out of sheer tenacity, intuition and luck. It’s a matter of “doing it the hard way,” and is not what I would recommend. However, this circumstance throws light on assumptions about the range of behaviors that constitute what we call “research,” especially in a college setting. Is the purpose of an assignment to familiarize you with the important resources in a given subject area? Is it to provide you with practice in framing questions and proceeding logically along a line of inquiry?

Is it to familiarize you with a current discourse on a subject? Is it to gather historical evidence? All of these activities fall under the heading of research, but they are not the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

same and do not all require the same skills or levels of skill at negotiating resources.

One need not, for example, conduct a comprehensive search of all available literature on a topic if the purpose of the assignment is to demonstrate coherent reasoning, or negotiate a specific set of arguments. Often merely finding a few representative samples of data, knowledge or opinion will suffice. Additionally, there is so much information available that what may be required is discovering not what is there, but what is important, or what commands attention in a specific or contemporary context. In this case information might be regarded as a flow rather than a stable body, something not to be comprehensively sifted like sand at an archaeological dig, but tuned into like messages broadcast over a reliable frequency.

One question these studies don’t ask when considering undergraduate research behavior is the “why” question. Why, in an institution whose very purpose is teaching and learning, do undergraduates feel left on their own when it comes to acquiring knowledge about how to learn? One answer has to do with the historical development of higher education and differences in models inherited from the medieval university, where the student is the product and the lecture and textbook the means of cultivation, and the modern research university, which grew out of the Reformation in Germany and whose instruments are the seminar and the laboratory. The modern academic library, along with the subject catalogue and the complex apparatus we use to access information, are legacies of the later tradition, whose purpose was the production of knowledge itself. Although contemporary colleges and universities draw on both models, the melding of instruction and research has never been truly formulated into a seamless, organic whole.

Thus, the academic library may sometimes seem, particularly to undergraduates, like a mysterious island whose relation to the rest of the campus is never fully clear. Both reports call for concerted and systematic efforts to better integrate research methodologies into teaching and learning. Project Literacy proposes the initiation of “a dialog among administrators, faculty, and librarians across the academy about the information systems being advanced on their campuses,” where problems can be addressed through policy change, technology and communication among stakeholders. ERIEL makes similar recommendations in much the same language: “Addressing the shortcomings in students’ information literacy and critical thinking abilities will therefore require broader educational and curricular solutions in which the library is a key player within a multifaceted approach that involves many university stakeholders, including students, faculty, and administrators.” These manifestos sound very nice, but have something of a “don’t hold your breath” ring about them if we’re talking about the sweeping revision of institutional structures and behaviors with long, stable traditions that perhaps rightfully only offer themselves to change very slowly. The potential for more immediate improvement here, however, seems to rest especially in technology. New technologies such as Web 2.0 hold the promise of bringing the library into the classroom and the classroom into the library in ways that we are only just beginning to imagine and realize.

In the meantime, despair not. There are many tools and services available in the library that are convenient to access and that can help you in your research assignments at every step. Foremost among these are human resources. Librarians are available for drop-in help at the Library Research Desk, and are also able and eager to provide you with in-depth help on individual projects through the research consultation, which is easy to arrange (see “Ask a Librarian” at the left of the Vassar Libraries Home Page).

See LIBRARIANS on page 12

November 18, 2010

OPINIONS

Page 11

Corporate donors drown out the average voter John Kenney

Guest Columnist

I

wrote an article in The Miscellany News (“Progressives at Vassar must get involved” 11.03.10) on the eve of the midterm elections bemoaning the fact that youth voter turnout was expected to be low. I also wrote about how I feared Republicans gaining control of any part of the House would defeat any hope I had for progress in the next few years.

Perhaps there was something in the apathy that youth voters displayed, though?

I know I felt some when I was casting my vote. After all, my beloved Democratic Party has had a pretty mediocre record for passing bills that benefit the American people in the two-year period when the Democrats had control of the House, Senate and presidency. Perhaps it didn’t matter if anyone cast their vote because, in the end, do we all really have an equal voice in getting our politicians to do what is right for the average American?

I think the $4 billion donated by Wall Street, Big Oil and other wealthy donors gives a lot of credence to the apathy that I and many others feel. In fact, the overall amount of money spent on the 2010 midterm elections was 73 percent greater than the amount spent in the 2008 presidential election, according to Common Cause, a political watchdog organization. So, what is the point of voting in an election where you’re just choosing between the same corporate interests?

Politicians can say what they want about how they intend to help out the average American, but I sincerely doubt that my well-being matters nearly as much as the wealthy corporation that is providing them with the funding for their next campaign. I do not want to undermine the importance of this issue through inflated hyperbole about our country becoming an oligarchy, but the fact stands that due to a recent Su-

preme Court decision—the ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case—all previous regulations on the amount of money special interests can spend on a campaign are gone. People have complained for years about how special interests rule our country, but that fear is beginning to more resemble reality. While the Supreme Court claims that regulating corporate donations stifles free speech, breaking down these regulations stifles free speech for everyone else. It isn’t that corporations should not be allowed to present their opinions and grievances to the government. It is that they shouldn’t be allowed to do it to a degree that stifles the voices of everyone else in the country.

This is not a hopeless situation, however, as things can change. If Congress were to pass the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act and the Fair Elections Now Act, we would already be well on our way to stopping the stranglehold of corporatism. The DISCLOSE Act would require the corporations and unions that are currently spending money to get candidates elected or defeated to disclose that they are the ones funding the message. This act would make a politician running on an anti-special interests platform question the notion of accepting funding from the groups he is trying to convince the public he is against.

The Fair Elections Now Act would provide politicians an alternative to courting corporations. Essentially, the Act would provide them with public funding to run their campaign. Candidates would qualify for public funding through raising a set number of contributions of $100 dollars or less from their home state. Fair Elections would then provide them with funds for the primary and general elections, while they continue to raise an unlimited number of small contributions. The contributions will be matched four to one with the grants from

Fair Elections so they could run a competitive race even against someone who is wellfinanced. The Fair Elections Act is sponsored by congressmen from both parties.

Senator John Kerry, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, and Representative Todd Platts, the Republican representative from Pennsylvania’s 19th Congressional District, are just two of the many in Congress who are willing to sponsor the bill.

While these acts are not going to completely put an end to the manipulation of this country’s electoral system by the wealthy few, they would certainly make the playing field far more level than it is now.

They are not far-fetched proposals, either.

In fact, both Arizona and Wisconsin provide for publicly funded elections, and have been successful at implementing the system. In Arizona, nine of the 11 statewide officials received public funding for their campaigns.

If these laws were to be passed they would offer politicians a way to campaign without having to bow to the interests of corporations. They would have the viable alternative of public funding to aid them in their campaign. These laws would also allow the American public to know which candidates are receiving aid from special interests and corporations because these groups would now have to apply the corporation’s name to every commercial they paid to have produced.

Fortunately, there are organizations which are working to promote these bills, and put control of the government back into the hands of the people. One of these organizations has a chapter at Vassar. “Democracy Matters” is a non-partisan group that allows people of all political affiliations to rally around the idea of keeping government as something that protects everyone, not just Fortune 500 companies.

Rex Huxford

K

ye Allums joined George Washington University’s woman’s basketball team as a freshman in 2008. Allums is currently a junior guard on the team. What makes this case interesting is the fact that Allums admitted to his team sophomore year that he was deciding to become a man. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, in turn, allowed Allums to continue to play on the female team under the condition that Allums not take male hormones. This is a good solution to the problems that can surface when athletes transition from one gender to another. A lot of the cases involving transgender athletes aren’t solved so easily as was the case at George Washington. Recently, there have been cases of transgender athletes, in college and beyond, wanting to play on teams or in leagues opposite the sex they were born with and I oppose this until detailed research can be done.

Lana Lawless is a golfer who wants to play on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour. The LPGA has refused to allow Lawless to play because Lawless is a transgender woman, meaning that she was born a man. Lawless, in turn, filed a federal lawsuit against the LPGA last month claiming that her civil rights had been violated and that she had been denied the ability to play because of prejudice. Lawless’ suit has no basis and should be thrown out by the presiding judge.

Lawless’ complaint that the LPGA’s policy, stating that only golfers born as women can play on the tour is discriminatory, is ludicrous. Being born male could give her an upper hand when it comes to driving the ball, resulting in a sporting advantage over the golfers who were born female. The fact is we don’t know how it would influence her ability and it would be better to err on the side of caution, until more research can be done to show that Lawless

has the same capabilities of a natural-born woman, in order to keep the playing field fair. If such a case is proved then my point of transgender people playing on the team of their birth sex is flawed. I think Lawless should play on the men’s tour for the time being, but since Lawless had to jettison her male characteristics to become a woman, that may be unfair to her. Nevertheless, the LPGA isn’t bigoted; they obviously believe having Lawless on the tour would be unfair to female-born golfers. It’s a choice Lawless made. She chose to transition and she should have known the problems that would arise with regards to golf.

Another case that causes me to oppose transgender athletes playing on teams opposite their biological sex comes from Maine. Earlier this year the Maine Human Rights Commission (HRC) filed a legal motion that would force the University of Maine to implement guidelines concerning transgender athletes. The guidelines included allowing a student to play on the team that corresponds with the student’s gender identity regardless of whether hormone therapy or surgery has taken place.

The Maine HRC claims that denying a student the opportunity to play on the team with whose gender they identify is unjust because it hinders the student’s athletic opportunity. But does it really? What is so terribly wrong with a woman, who is seeking to become a man, playing on the woman’s team (as long as she hasn’t taken hormones), as Allums is doing at George Washington? And what is so wrong with requiring that a man who is transitioning play on the men’s team until he decides to have surgery or take certain drugs? Following that there should be research that establishes as a scientific certainty that transgender people are physically equivalent to the other members of their new gender group before participation is allowed.

As a former athlete myself, I am quite

“Elevators in the academic buildings.”

Elizabeth Ruiz ’14

“Martin Couch.”

Brian Muir ’13

—John Kenney ’14 is a member of Democracy Matters.

Sports pose unique challenge for trans athletes Guest Columnist

What are you thankful for at Vassar?

aware of the stress that accompanies athletics. The days of practices and meets are grueling, demanding, and can be overwhelming. And I can only imagine the added problems with which transgender athletes have to contend. The stares and the name-calling are all disgusting. We, as progressive people, should all work in concert to produce an outcome that is just and equal for everyone.

Ultimately, I believe these situations should be handled the way that George Washington and the NCAA handled them.

If there is a transgender female athlete, she should be allowed to play on the male team, if she chooses. The same holds true for transgender males playing with females unless she has taken drugs that give her a leg up. But proponents of plans like the Maine HRC proposal that would allow people to play on teams based on their gender choice are misguided.

These situations produce uncomfortable locker room situations and confusion about the proper pronouns, as one transgender athlete himself, who is certainly no bigot, recently wrote in Inside Higher Ed. Furthermore, allowing such a thing may produce either an unfair advantage to transgender women who play on female teams or it will hinder the athletic ability of male athletes who may be afraid, for example, of tackling a transgender man who is playing football.

The circumstances that accompany trans athletes are complicated. It remains, however, a discussion we should have as more trans people play sports. Studying these issues, to ensure fairness for all, is the appropriate path to take. What we shouldn’t do is act haphazardly as the Maine HRC advocates because we fear being labeled bigots.

—Rex Huxford ’13 is a student at Vassar College

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Vassar Women’s Rugby.”

Madeleine Little ’12

“The new frozen yogurt machine.”

Tarryn Sanchez ’13

“I’m thankful that everybody wants you to succeed..”

Aaron Colton ’12

“My friends.”

Abe Gatling ’14 —Joshua Rosen, Opinions Editor Juliana Halpert, Photography Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

November 18, 2010

Librarians an underutilized resource at Vassar College LIBRARIANS continued from page 10 Not only can we help you find specific information about particular topics, but we can talk to you about a range of tools and methods for scoping your query, discovering information, and evaluating what you find. Also, many of what are sometimes called the “higher-order” skills that go into calibrating and assessing information are also composition skills, underscoring the circular flow that occurs between reading and writing, memory and imagination, in the act of discovery. The sensation of staring at a blank screen and not knowing where to begin may be a problem of writing as much as research, after all. And chances are it may be both. So it is appropriate that within the walls

of the library there is a wonderful facility called the Vassar College Writing Center where you can drop in and get help most times the library is open, at any stage of your project.

Besides human resources, the library offers structured systems of guides that can take you a long way quickly toward conducting expert research. A good place to start is the Vassar Libraries Libguides page , from which you can select guides prepared for specific fields of study as well as for particular types of material.

Although, when pressed for time, we all have a tendency to learn to use new technologies and applications by “fiddling”: by poking away at them until we get them to do fill an immediate need, you will find that with library research

you will save time in the long run by “reading the manual” before, not after, all else fails. You can do this as you are working on a project by slowing down a bit and widening your focus to explore resources that may seem redundant or tangential, but may also yield useful results and enrich your project in ways you didn’t expect. Besides “point of need” exploration I also recommend getting to know these materials as a matter of general self-education. A good academic library is a university in itself. It is always larger, in a sense, than the institution it serves—like the 90 percent of the brain we are told is never utilized (a myth, it seems). Knowing how to tap into this potential is tremendously empowering, a way of rendering the uni-

verse of recorded knowledge into a navigable, manageable extension of your own experience.

The day will come in the not too distant future when you probably will be on your own, academically speaking, without seamless access to classrooms and faculty, but hopefully with access to a great library, including the library of academic and cultural materials ever expanding on the World Wide Web. Learning how to swim in this ocean of information, particularly now, when you have experts to provide advice and instruction, may be the most productive time you’ll ever spend.

—Tom Hill is an art librarian at Vassar College.

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Colleges should not discriminate against conservative students CHRONICLE continued from page 9 conservative, 35 percent as moderate and 21 percent as liberal. This means that 75 percent of the “American political discourse” is barely being represented on campus, as most Vassar students, I assume, classify their views as liberal as opposed to moderate or conservative.

A more moderate to conservative paper can only improve the quality and understanding of contemporary politics at Vassar.

The issue of campus conservatives being marginalized was recently brought into the spotlight by the Christian Legal Society at the University of California (UC) Hastings College of the Law. This conservative Christian group included signing a “statement of faith” as a prerequisite for membership. The statement required that the member be opposed to gay and premarital

sex. When the school administration found out about the statement, the group’s official recognition was removed because UC Hastings has a nondiscrimination policy. In June, the case was brought all the way to the Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. The Court ruled in agreement with the UC Hastings policy, saying that college organizations should allow anyone to join. In response to the Court’s decision, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) argued that it is a constitutional right for college organizations to discriminate. FIRE’s President Greg Lukianoff explained that “Discriminating on the basis of viewpoint is part and parcel of having a viewpoint-based group.” No one was forcing students to join the Christian Legal Society. If someone did not agree with the mission statement they would be free to join a

different club that better matched their ideals. In addition to this, had an LGBTQ group asked their members to sign a statement stating that the members were dedicated to fighting for gay rights, I do not think that this would not have caused the group to lose its official recognition.

This incident further demonstrates that bias that favors liberal organizations when it comes to discrimination. As a liberal, I think that it is unfair that conservative groups are being targeted for discrimination when it occurs within most campus clubs. A college education should be about discovering your opinions and learning how to defend them.

Only hearing one point of view defeats the purpose of going to a liberal arts college.

—Rachel Anspach ’13 is a political science major at Vassar College

Crossword by Jonathan Garfinkel, Crossword Editor ACROSS 1. Itty-bitty buzzer 5. Gin flavorer, possibly 9. Pile 13. Church feature 14. It may be septic 15. High (latitude) fashion?

16. Hat feature 17. Info about the enemy 19. What one Bush is always trying to run for?

20. Remove the outer layer 23. Baseballer Mel ___ 25. Big bang producer (abbr.)

26. Namesake of the Duke boys’ ride 29. Singer Corrine Bai-

ley and others 31. (Sigh) 32. Electrical jump 33. “The Thin Man” pup 34. Mid first century year 35. Boy chasing Estella 38. Fall 40. “And so on”, briefly 41. Train stop (abbr.)

42. With “The”, notable NYC nightclub, briefly 43. Norwegian capitol 45. Mythical fate cutting the string 47. NOVA airer 48. There may be quite a bit of it about nothing 49. Big winner at the

Answers to last week’s puzzle

Grammys 53. Locale with notable caucuses 55. Paris airport 56. Genetic msgr. material 58. Band welcoming you to the jungle, briefly 59. Lazy one 63. Teeny 64. Impulsive parts of psyches 65. Pain 67. Rearward 68. Some flightless birds 69. Carpet style 70. Slime 71. Blue 74. Foolish mo.

75. Speed skater Appolo Anton and others 77. Reason for bisous 79. _____ Gay (atomic bomber) 83. Fiery strand 87. Kathmandu’s land 88. “I’m ____!” (“Consider it done!”)

89. Florentine river 90. Capped joint 91. Miami’s county 92. Army big-shots, briefly DOWN 1. Talk and talk and talk 2. “This American Life” airer

3. When repeated, “Soso” to Pablo 4. Wx datum 5. Heel style 6. Certain (nerdy) type of party 7. Toronto prov.

8. Just barely manage 9. Ugly old lady 10. Q.E.D. part 11. Related 12. Breathe quickly 15. Philadelphia “King of Steaks” 18. Nabokov classic 21. Age 22. Artist’s support 24. Mar 26. Edinburgh boy 27. Make an oops 28. Green prefix 30. Bag, perhaps 31. Lou Gehrig’s disease (abbr.)

35. Group shutting Ke$ha’s party down 36. Wall St. debut 37. Part of a fawkes pass?

39. New Orleans sandwich specialty 42. Musical conclusions 44. 9 digits on a 1040 or W2 46. Bar type 47. Troubled “Full Metal Jacket” private

49. Kowtow, say 50. Before, poetically 51. Pinch 52. Keep on truckin’, say 53. Not fully developed 54. Author Pamuk 57. Donkey 58. Fuel 60. Fall behind 61. Roswell sighting,

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

briefly 62. Classic Pontiac 66. It may be boosted by answering this 68. Mid-level nobleman 71. Went under 72. Prayer ender 73. Ninny 76. One may turn it on after hopping out of bed

78. Dubai’s federation (abbr.)

80. Sign of approval 81. “We’re ___ mission from God!” 82. Cap 84. Wrath 85. Anderson Cooper’s home 86. Defeats, briefly

HUMOR & SATIRE

November 18, 2010

Page 13

OPINIONS

How to date a women’s Saving the day, just in time studies major: Just don’t Gems of the course catalogue III: Michael Mestitz

P

Columnist

re-registration ends tomorrow, and though most of the classes for next semester have gotten pretty full, there are still a few openings.

As I’ve done in past semesters (“Hidden gems of the course catalogue” parts one and two, 11.19.09 and 3.31.10), I’ve sifted through AskBanner to find you the best and the most interesting courses that still have space. So what if you can’t get into the seminar you need to take for your major? Graduating on time is overrated, anyway.

spirits to the slumbering Old Ones of Yuggoth and Alderbaan, imprisoned by the Elder Gods in the early days of creation. M, 3:10 to 5:10 p.m. with profane rituals to be completed outside of class; the catacombs under Sunset Lake.

Women’s Studies 233: Deconstructing X-normative Identity Binaries in the Context of Hegemonic Social Structures From Antiquity to Today; Intersectionalities of Institutional Bias and the Reification of Pre-Expectational Inequalities.

Woah. TR, 12 to 1:15 p.m., outside the heteronormative, phallic concept of buildings.

Religion 115: That’s Like… So Deep, Dude.

Religion is, like all of the historically-based majors here at Vassar, an academic experience that focuses on research and critical analysis in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. This course, on the other hand, was designed for students who just want to talk about how, like, WHOA and unknowable everything is. Is anyone else really hungry all of a sudden? This course will serve as an introduction to whatever half-remembered facts the participants can recall. Let’s go pop some Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. Cross-lists with Philosophy and Chemistry. T, 2 to 4 a.m., behind the Chapel.

Economics 326: Economic Unions

You’ve got the goods; think you can satisfy my kinked demand? Don’t be a monopolistic market, baby, and let’s avoid deliberately erected barriers to entry. I have convex preferences and I’d love to shift your curves. Keynesian economics may be all the rage, but I promise you: You’ll see an efficient effect if I stimulate your private sectors. The Phillips Curve posits a short-run equilibrium between unemployment and inflation, but I know that the more you go down the higher I’ll rise. And if in the end we don’t turn out to be complimentary, don’t hate the player—hate the game theory.

Enrollment by special permission; anytime, anywhere.

English 325: Studies in Genre

Special Topic for 2010/11b: Ancient Grimories of Terrible Potency Held in Special Collections, this seminar will focus on the classics of omnicidal writing from the untold eons of the past, dictated by the gods to mad scribes writing in their own blood. Discussion will center on a comparison of styles and techniques while examining such works as De Vermis Mysteriis, The G’harne Fragments, and Abdul Alhazred’s Necronomicon. Students should be prepared to push the definitions of reality and sanity, opening their

Classics 207: Metaphor

This course is a gateway into the wide world of the classical rhetorical and literary technique of metaphor. Students will explore the ways in which metaphor has been applied through the ages, and seek to illuminate the variety of modes in which authors use the tool in order to build a stronger story. Close readings of classical sources will be the centerpieces of class work, and by the end of the semester students should be able to employ metaphors like experts. Wait, shit, that last one was a simile. TR, 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., Sanders Classroom.

Philosophy 488: The Transcendence of Immanent Being

This seminar focuses on moving beyond phenomenological theories of the self’s (or Dasein’s) construal of the material world into a mutually constitutive subjective reality. Over the course of the semester, students will learn how to mentally reshape the objective and material world to better suit their expectations and needs. As a final project, students will be expected to sublime into beings of pure energy and inhabit the liminal spaces between perception and action. W, 3:10 to 5:10 p.m., location is a meaningless physical concept.

Brittany Hunt

I

DON’T HOLD THE DOOR FOR HER

Guest Columnist

spend most days scoping out the fine ladies of the Women’s Studies Department, and I am never disappointed with what I see.

Sometimes I wonder why there is such a stigma around dating a women’s studies major.

Feminism has enabled the existence of some of the hottest hotties around, and I think that the male population should show their appreciation for the movement that brought us mini-skirts, birth control and Hillary Clinton.

Showing love for a feminist is not as scary as it sounds, just follow these helpful hints and you could take home a radicalesbian of your own!

REMEMBER: SHE’S A LESBIAN UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE

Obviously. If you’re a women’s studies major, it’s because you like women. A lot. Most think that men are the scum of the earth and would move to a lesbian commune in Vermont given the first opportunity. Chances are she will be getting down with the other women in her Women in Antiquity class, because only other women will ever understand a women’s struggles. Sorry, buddy.

BUT IF SHE ISN’T, SHE’S A TOTAL SLUT

If you are lucky enough to find the rare women’s studies major who would rather worship your phallus than explore the lesbian continuum, congrats. You have found a girl who will put out with frequency, because we have the right to be just as promiscuous as men. There is a double standard and we’re not going to take it, right ladies?

Plus, you know she’s totally on the pill, so you’re good to go.

Because ladies can open doors too, okay? Unless they’re those really heavy wooden doors that can sometimes be a struggle. When entering the (vegan-friendly) restaurant for your first date, open the door, enter, then proceed to slam it in her face, so she knows that you aren’t a sexist.

TALK ABOUT YOUR EMOTIONS

Women love talking emotions. Bring up your Oedipal complex. Discuss how you cried when you saw Titanic, not because of the hopeless romance or the thousands of people who died, but because the film objectified the female body. Allow yourself to reveal your innermost insecurities. She won’t think you’re gay because she doesn’t believe in binary sexuality.

CONGRATS, YOU’VE MADE IT TO YOUR ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, THINGS NOT TO BUY HER AS A GIFT:

A razor. A bra. A vacuum cleaner. Going Rogue, the autobiography of Sarah Palin.

Diamonds. Fur coats. A novel by Jack Kerouac. A sweater set from the Ann Taylor Loft. Actually, just don’t buy her anything.

You would only be supporting the capitalist agenda which is inherently devaluing to women and their labor. Or get her a gift card to Chili’s. Everyone loves Chili’s. Your relationship is doomed to end when she catches you secretly watching Entourage in your room with the lights out and the blinds drawn. Sorry.

—Brittany Hunt ’12 is a women’s studies and English double major.

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Transfiguration 315: University-level Transfiguration

This course is designed for students who have scored “Exceeds Expectations” or above on their N.E.W.T exams; students below that level should consider taking TRSF 105 instead. Although we will begin the year with a review of Gamp’s Law and the five primary exceptions, students will be expected to recall transfiguration theory from previous courses. The course will cover advanced topics such as vanishing charms applied to vertebrates, switching spells across non-continuous spaces, and complex conjuring. MW, 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., with one lab section outside of class; Maria Mitchell Astronomy Tower.

Weekly Calendar: 11/18 - 11/24

by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

Thursday, 11/18

Saturday, 11/20

3 p.m. Tea. Things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Rose Parlor.

8 p.m. Vassar College Choir Concert. Come just to hear

5:30 p.m. Hunger Banquet. Almost as fun as the Sobriety,

the arrangement of “Like a G6” set as a polyphonic motet.

And to ogle Jacob Finkle, but that goes without saying.

Skinner.

Abstinence and Respectful Intellectual Discourse Mug Night happening next semester! Faculty Commons.

5:30 p.m. Jonathan Safran Foer Lecture. More like Extremely Sexy and Incredibly Date Me, amirite? (Too much? I’m not sorry.) UpC.

Tuesday, 11/23 3 p.m. Tea. The only kid at Vassar who also went to your

and water, but what about heart? Oh wait, that’s “Captain Planet,” not real life. Nvm. UpC.

one letter to their name, it becomes “Happily Ever Slaughter,” and then you’re not laughing quite so hard. Sanders Auditorium.

high school, who now gives you rides home in exchange for gas money. Even if he insists on driving “the short way” back and ends up taking you on an impromptu tour of all the historical sites of rural Pennsylvania. Rose Parlor.

Friday, 11/19

Sunday, 11/21

10 p.m. Jazz Night: Maisum $750. You think that’s a strange

12 a.m. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Hasn’t it been

10 p.m. All-You-Can-Eat Late Night French Toast. Challah

great watching Daniel Radcliffe et al. grow from smirking prepubescents into smirking young adults? Maybe now that the movies are done, they’ll become smirking rehab-frequenters and smirking stars of soft-core porn. (Disclosure: I’m still bitter that 11-year-old me wasn’t cast as Hermione). Off-campus: Roosevelt Cinemas.

back, y’all. Aula.

name for a band? True story: My little brother’s rock band has recently been toying with the idea of changing their name from “Ripped Jeans” to “Chocolate-Covered Fetuses.”

Great. Mug.

9 p.m. Happily Ever Laughter Winter Show. If you add just 10 p.m. 4 Elements Showcase. So there’s earth, fire, wind

3 p.m. Tea. Vending machines that take V-Cash. Personally, I

firmly subscribe to an all-Kit-Kat diet during finals. Thanks, Mom and Dad! Rose Parlor.

Monday, 11/22 3 p.m. Tea. The reduction of your dad’s ill-disguised, passive-aggressive comments regarding your plans for after graduation. Of course, it’s only because he’s completely given up on you since you declared that urban studies major and art history correlate and shaved one side of your head, but take what you can get. Rose Parlor.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Wednesday, 11/24 3 p.m. Tea. Thanksgiving break! Just as you’re running low on red pepper hummus/synonyms for “paradigm”/the will to go on living, this beautiful little parcel of free days comes along. Goooood shit. Rose Parlor.

ARTS

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November 18, 2010

Hip-Hop History Month celebrated with Four Pillars event Connor O’Neill

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Reporter

Matt Foster/The Miscellany News

or those of you who didn’t get out to Ballantine Field last Founder’s Day, here’s what you missed: Edan and Paten Locke traded raps in double time, spun records while spitting rhymes and even donned a blonde wig and kazoo. The two hiphoppers were on top of their kooky and impressive game, and now they are back as a part of Hip Hop 101’s Four Pillars event, which will take place this Thursday, Nov. 18 on the second floor of the Student’s Building at 10 p.m.

The event is centered around the four foundations of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti.

The comprehensive approach to the form takes top priority for Kendall Coleman ’11, who shares Hip Hop 101 presidential duties alongside Carola Beeney ’11. “The November show used to be strictly a concert,” explained Coleman. “The past two years we have made it more of a full on hip-hop event.”

Said Beeney on the nature of the Four Pillars showcase: “We are going to the foundations, the roots of the party. It is a collaborative thing, filled with sound, movement, and visual aspects.”

Along with Edan and Paten Locke, the ample list of performers includes student MCs Stil.One (Akil Noel ’11) and Ade Ra (Ade Raphael ’12), backed by the student funk band The Body Electric. There will also be student DJ sets from VC Sound System including DJ Olmec (Nick Inzucchi ’11). Albany DJ TGIF will hold down the deck for most of the evening, providing the music for Tri Stayte, an MC duo consisting of J-Dot and Mr. Sim Simma, both Poughkeepsie natives. The home-

Hip Hop 101 will be commemorating Hip-Hop History Month with an event dedicated to the four pillars of hip-hop: MCing, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti. Various student performers such as DJ Olmec and MC Ade Ra will take part in the event. town heroes spit fleet raps back and forth over up-tempo, danceable beats.

“I really love the blend of Vassar, Poughkeepsie and Upstate New York,” explained Beeney, “There’s no real headliner, but more of a combination of elements, bringing together something for everybody.”

Filling out the bill are two dance crews, Vassar’s own Hype and world renowned breakdancing group Skill Methodz. One member of Skill Methodz, Cloud, is perhaps best recognizable from his spot in

Shakira’s video for “Did it Again” in which he nimbly battles the popstar in dance.The group, however, is on top of the breakdancing world. They recently won the 2009 Sony Ericsson B-Boy championships, followed closely by a second place finish by Cloud in the 2009 Red Bull BC One, a high-profile BBoying competition.

In addition to the performances, canvases will be placed throughout the alcoves of the second floor so that the more visually inclined artists can display their graffiti-writing

skills. Graffiti, which is also often referred to as “tagging,” is considered to be the visual manifestation of hip-hop, originally done in conjunction with the other forms of the culture and displaying the bombastic style of the artist.

The timing of the event is not arbitrary. November is Hip-Hop History Month—30 days dedicated to appreciating and understanding the history and cultural importance of the art form. Coleman describes the event as something “not just to remember the elements, but how they

work together.”

First defined by Afrika Bambaataa of the Zulu Nation in 1973 in the South Bronx, the four elements arose as diverse opportunities for youth to get involved in a blossoming culture as an alternative to the gang scene that was prevalent at the time. From that genesis, now 37 years ago, hip hop has grown into an innovative, expansive, political, controversial and lucrative form of music, fashion and art. The Four Pillars event provides a way to both participate in and wrestle with the form’s vast and complex significance in American culture.

The event is but one in a series of functions that Hip Hop 101 is sponsoring this month. Last week the group brought hip-hop activist and 2008 Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Rosa Clemente to campus to give a lecture and held a screening of the VH1 documentary And You Don’t Stop: 30 Years of Hip Hop this past Tuesday.

After the screening a panel discussion was held with writer and former Def Jam executive Bill Adler, moderated by English and Africana Studies professor Kiese Laymon. “Because this month is so important we are trying to do as much as possible” explained Beeney. “It has been a crazy couple of weeks.”

The group’s workload is large, but the scope of the Four Pillars event is accordingly large: It will encompass a lot, displaying and interrogating the genre’s wide ranging importance, from politics and geography to film and live performance.

As Coleman said when describing what attracted him to the group in the first place, “I love the events. I love the diverse group that comes out to appreciate hip-hop.”

Documentarian highlights the humdrum of monastery life Shruti Manian Reporter

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Courtesy of baylor.edu

he remote reaches of the lofty, snow-clad Himalayan peaks have been home to Buddhist Monks for centuries. The lives of these ascetic monks have always been surrounded by an air of mysticism and a veneer of otherworldliness, and precious little is actually known about their ways.

In an endeavor to develop a deeper understanding of religious and cultural practices from across the globe, Vassar’s Religion Department is presenting a screening of ALMS: A Short Film on Food in a Chan Buddhist Monastery. Directed

by Edward Burger, ALMS is the first film in a series called The Dreaming Buddhas Project. The series showcases short documentaries that seek to shed light on the day-to-day routines of these monks in order to glean fresh insight into inherently commonplace tasks and chores that forge an integral but often ignored part of life in a monastery. Burger also strove to capture the deeply entrenched sense of community in the monastery.

“You can see that everything in these monks’ lives—everything they do, every tool they wield in their labor, every morsel of food they eat— connects them to the other monks in the community,” wrote Burger in an e-mailed statement.

The movie takes the audience on a virtual journey into an isolated Zen monastery in the Zhongan mountain range in southern China, painting a detailed picture of everyday life.

The focus of this film is on the way

food is grown, cooked and consumed there. “ALMS really brings life in a monastery down to the ground and humanizes it to a great extent,” said Associate Professor of Religion Michael Walsh, who is also one of the screening’s organizers. “It focuses on the material existence as opposed to mere textual ideas.”

Walsh has been close friends with Burger for a number of years. Walsh emphasizes how Burger’s personal touch adds depth to the film. “He’s a fantastic person,” said Walsh. “And he’s lived at this monastery and actually seen for himself their daily workings and really understood them. Obviously this comes across in the film as well.”

ALMS also has a great deal of appeal within the classroom. Walsh, who teaches a course on Buddhism, intends to use the short film in class.

He says that it acts as the perfect complement to the textual understanding of the scriptures and other Buddhist rituals.

“The idea Burger has is that it can be used in classrooms for teaching as a supplement to the readings we may assign and what we discuss in lectures, because sometimes students get carried away and only want to discuss sutras and other such complex ideas,” said Walsh. “But this film helps to understand the other simpler aspects as well.”

The Religion Department hopes to attract students and members of the community who are curious about the underpinnings of religious concepts and wish to gain a deeper appreciation of religions across the world. It is also a chance for film ma-

The Religion Department will be screening documentarian Edward Burger’s film ALMS: A Short Film on Food in a Chan Buddhist Monastery in Rockefeller Hall on Nov. 22. The film details how Buddhist monks grow, cook, and eat their food. jors to watch a documentary that was made in hard-to-navigate locations on a difficult-to-understand theme.

“There are many allusions to early Indian Buddhism in the film that are not explained, but they are there for educators and students to find,” wrote Burger. “I want these films to

be just a document of the place and the people who occupy this place, explaining in their own words what they do, what they believe and what motivates them.

ALMS aims to bring forth an aspect of Buddhism that has been mostly unexplored, adding a human

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

touch to exalted religious concepts that most people often find hard to grasp. “The beauty is that it’s such a succinct account that captures the life of one little monastery and the everyday life there,” added Walsh.

ALMS will be screened on Nov. 22 at Rockefeller Hall room 200.

November 18, 2010

ARTS

Page 15

Phil prepares contrasting double-header Idlewild to

premiere selfauthored play

Arushi Raina

Guest Reporter

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Emma Daniels Guest Reporter

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Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

hilaletheis is busy polishing the final details for its next production, something not uncommon for a Thursday at Vassar.

However, this time it’s a little different—the theater group is taking not just one, but two different plays to the stage. Philaletheis will present Vassar campus with a double-header this weekend, unveiling the comedy “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” in Kenyon Hall 205 and psychological drama “Buried Child” in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater.

“Buried Child,” the iconic play written by Sam Shephard and directed by Vassar’s Iris Kohler ’13 is by far the darker of the two. A psychology and drama major, Kohler hopes to enhance her production by adding interesting psychological perspectives to an already chilling and gripping play. The work revolves around a dysfunctional family dealing often unconsciously with the specter of a child that died many years ago.

“There’s something in this play for everyone, although it’s definitely not a family play,” explained Kohler. “It’s dark and spooky and at times very funny and there is a lot to be found in it, and a lot to think about. This play’s questions and images will stick with you much longer than the time you will spend in the theater itself.”

Kevin Fulton ’12 will be filling the role of Dodge, the alcoholic degenerate patriarch of the family. His transformation for the role has been challenging and exciting—he even had to shave his head for the part. “‘Buried Child’ is about the desolation of the West, how we destroy ourselves, and how we devastate each other,” explained Fulton. “It is a story of destruction and rebirth through violence.”

Jason Greenberg ’12, who is playing Dodge’s second son Bradley in the upcoming production, said, “Slightly off-kilter people should want to see it merely because the play is eerily fantastic. The play focuses on the ubiquitously successful motif of the dysfunctional family unit, and watching these strong, conflictual personæ interact gives me a frisson.”

Greenberg succinctly summed up the plot of the play from his perspective: “Nearly insane white trash people and a random girl from California verbally torture each other

Philaletheis will be staging two different productions this weekend: “Buried Child,” featured above, in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater, and “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” in the Kenyon Club room. for 90 minutes.”

The play’s dark absurdity adds a texture to a play that deals with some of the most basic issues of family and death, but if grappling with disturbingly amusing characters is not your thing this weekend, “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” just might be your cup of tea.

The sassy production written by Alan Ball is all about five women thrown together by a disastrous wedding reception in Knoxville, Tennessee. The women are all united by their bridesmaid dresses and their newly-discovered commonalities. Throughout the play, they find a sense of resolution and acceptance of themselves as people and women.

For director Molly Shoemaker ’12, one of the most exciting aspects of the play is the dresses themselves. The five bridesmaids’ dresses used in the show were designed and crafted entirely by two students, Faren Tang ’13 and Emily Beer ’12, who completed the process in about two weeks.

“I’m really excited about showcasing these completely student-built costumes, as this is something that does not happen very often,”

said Shoemaker.

Siobhan Reddy-Best ’13, playing Georgeanne in the upcoming production, is also is very fond of her dress. Funnily enough, it is a view which her character does not share.

“I love the dress,” said Reddy-Best.

“Georgeanne definitely hates it, but in all honesty it’s not that bad. It’s a little over the top, but when I put it on, I feel like a princess.

Georgeanne doesn’t want to be at the wedding at all, so I think her discomfort with the dress has to do with that and also with her discomfort with herself.”

The play promises a collection of female dialogue, interpersonal connections and many tragic-comedic moments all in the context of the revelations that weddings seem to bring to light.

“Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,” shows on Thursday, Nov. 18-20 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 20@at 1 p.m. at the Kenyon Club room. “Buried Child” opens Thursday, Nov. 18 and has performances on Friday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. with a matinee on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 3 p.m.

Mads Vassar goes beyond blogosphere Erik Lorenzsonn Arts Editor

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rom the scoop on Vassar shout-outs in The Huffington Post to coverage of “Deece cat” activity, Mads Vassar has served as a student resource on all things Vassar for the past four years. But will it soon be gone?

“That’s the big question that everyone’s asking,” said Max Kutner ’11, the student who founded the popular blog. Kutner is open to the idea of handing the reins to other interested students after graduating, but Mads Vassar will most likely end upon the completion of his senior year: “I do feel that it’s very much tied to my own personal Vassar experience,” he said.

Despite its possible termination after the spring semester, Mads Vassar is making an effort to go out with a bang with “Mads Vassar Presents,” a series of events hosted by the blogger for the site’s followers. The idea for the series came to Kutner last spring when he was spending a semester abroad in Paris, France. He decided that in addition to expanding the blog with a chatroom, podcast and webseries, he would begin organizing events to publicize the blog.

“I thought it would be a great way to bring the blog back in a great way,” said Kutner. “It would be a great way to connect readers from the screen to real life.”

Upon his return this semester, Mads Vassar indeed underwent a redesign, and was indeed embellished with a chatroom and podcast.

And on the very first Mads Vassar podcast on Oct. 4, Kutner announced the first “MadsVassar Presents” event: a Mads Vassar Mug night, featuring DJ Sharkattackz (Alejandro Calcano’ 11 and Sarah Morrison ’11).

The event was made possible by a special series by Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) called “DJ Discovery Night.” The weekly series makes nighttime events at Matthew’s Mug a possibility for individuals and organizations not funded by the Vassar Student Association (VSA). Kutner took advantage of the opportunity to host his Saturday, Oct. 15 event. “I heard from DJ Sharkattackz that it was one of the most well-attended Wednesday nights of the semester,” said Kutner.

The next event in the “Mads Vassar Presents” series, an outdoor concert by Sunset Lake, was more problematic to organize. In order to receive the funding he needed, he would have to unofficially collaborate with a VSA organization. Luckily for Kutner, Main House expressed an interest in helping to organize the event. “[Main House President] Boyd Gardner [’12] was very helpful in the event application process,” said Kutner.

The event featured performances from singer-songwriter Jason Anderson. The artist had played at Vassar two years before when Kutner brought him on behalf of ViCE After Hours. Anderson is known for his sweet and humorous songs and his quirky live shows.

The next chapter in the “Mads Vassar Presents” series is yet to be announced, though Kutner has divulged that he is looking into holding an event featuring DJs, live musicians, food vendors or even a film screening. “I have very ambitious plans for next semester,” said Kutner. “I hope Campus Activities will continue to be supportive.”

One of his main goals in organizing these events is to not step on the toes of other organizations, such as ViCE’s Vassar Student Band

Union (VSBU). “I don’t want to be in competition with other organizations on campus,” said Kutner. “For example, I was asked why I want to bring a singer-songwriter to campus when VSBU exists.” Kutner says that he eventually talked with the chair of the VSBU Ben Conant ’12 about the event. They came to the conclusion that the event was not infringing on VSBU responsibilities, as the ViCE subcommittee is more geared towards the craft of students.

The ambitious agenda of “Mads Vassar Presents” reflects a distinct evolution of the Mads Vassar blog. The blog that Kutner founded four years ago after his arrival at Vassar in the fall of 2007 is a far cry from the one that exists today.

“I wanted to document Vassar through my eyes, as a wide-eyed freshman,” said Kutner on the original Mads Vassar. The result was an anonymous gossip blog that quickly gained popularity on campus. But as time passed, Kutner began moving away from the gossipy tone and more towards a newsy attitude. Kutner soon dropped the anonymity, and began extending his coverage of Vassar events.

“It progressed into a legitimate source of campus news,” said Kutner. Many students are not happy with the direction Kutner has taken the blog, however.

“A lot of loyal readers from the beginning say they want it to be more what it used to be, which was more of a gossip blog,” explained Kutner. The blog is nevertheless continuing to expand its horizons, even as it possibly nears its conclusion. Mad Vassar’s agenda is setting the bar high for those who hope to be next in bringing Vassar campus into the blogosphere.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

assar is known for performance venues like the Susan Stein Shiva Theater, Rockefeller Hall and Powerhouse Theater. This weekend, Idlewild is establishing a well-known gathering place as yet another location for campus entertainment, with its fall production, “No Photography, Please” on the ground floor of the College Center, near the post office.

“We are putting it in the College Center because it’s a public space,” said Zoe Dostal ’13, a member of the all-female theater ensemble and on of the play’s performers. “There will be some seating but we want to encourage people to just ‘stop by’ on the way to the Retreat or something. It’s like performance art.”

The show, which aptly could be called an alternative production, is well-suited for the alternative venue. It is not a play, but a collaboratively written series of performance pieces: poetry, monologues, dialogue exchanges and movement-based performances about the female body. Said ensemble member Erin Gallagher ’13, “It allows us to use the space exactly how we want it in a more intimate way.”

“No Photography, Please,” was written by the seven members of Idlewild and two freshmen who auditioned to be a part of the production. Eight of the participants will be acting in the performance and one is doing technical work. Dorothy Thomas ’12, another member of the group, said, “Usually Idlewild accepts applications for student-written plays in the fall, but this semester we decided to take a different route: to write within the group.”

Throughout the fall semester, the group met often to discuss and edit the pieces they each had written. “It was an interesting, fun experience to birth the pieces together, to see them start as an idea and grow,” said Thomas. “It wasn’t easy street, but it will be totally rewarding in the end to see it pay off.”

“Writing the pieces collaboratively allowed us to function intimately as an ensemble,” agreed Gallagher.

The group started with the idea of examining current events to see how women’s bodies are used as symbols of larger conflicts to generate sympathy and aid. The writing process was an intense one, and the theme has evolved slightly from its original jumping off point.

Thomas said, “We started with a specific idea in mind, and it was interesting to see how we all diverged but stayed on the same path.”

Said Dostal, “The production is still a lot about images that are used for causes and how they portray the people in them, but it is also about activism, and what activism means.”

The pieces in the show are varied not only in their structure but also in themes. “One piece is about using a woman’s body,” said Dostal.

“We want to see beautiful women but we demand to see pictures of ‘what’s really going on.’

Another piece is about the frustration of trying to move a box that symbolizes all of the problems of the world.”

Thomas added, “The last piece is the essence of a lot of pieces in the show. It is about not knowing about what’s happening in the world or not being receptive to it. People tend to disengage. At Vassar, we have the privilege to disengage.”

Dostal emphasized that the show’s subject matter isn’t all serious. “Idlewild is often known for its sad pieces, and I want people to know that there are comedic elements [to the production],” said Dostal. “Not all of the pieces are necessarily sad, although there are intense moments.” She also emphasized the welcoming nature of the performance.

And like most performance art, “No Photography, Please” is not meant to carry a concrete message.

“We hope that people see it as a creative approach to all we have been thinking about,” said Dostal. “We want people to walk away without a particular message; we aren’t criticizing or praising, just putting out our ideas.”

The play will be performed Nov. 19 and 20 at 8:30 p.m. and Nov. 21 at 4 p.m. in the College Center.

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Foer to give reading, talk about writing

Sohval spearheads stand-up comedy troupe Rachael Borné

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Assistant Arts Editor

an Sohval ’13 knows what he wants to be when he grows up: “I’d love to be a professional comedian one day, which probably means I’ll end up a middle school English teacher,” he said, laughing off his lofty hopes for a joke-filled future.

Sohval’s comedic pipe dreams might not be so far-fetched, though, considering his leadership and initiative on Vassar’s comedy front.

After finding few outlets for standup comedy on campus, Sohval resolved to fix the problem by spearheading his own group, which he decided to call ComedyNormative. “I decided to start up the organization because I think a lot of people were in a similar boat as I was,” said Sohval. They wanted to do stand-up, but didn’t get the chance to.”

Sohval’s affinity for comedy stems from his deep-rooted desire to connect with people at a fundamentally human level: “There’s something artistic and philosophical, yet totally entertaining about comedy. I love finding truth in the absurd,” he said, pausing quickly to check a text message from his mother.

The stand-up genre in particular is especially conducive to audience and performer bonds, simply because the comedian stands alone and lays all their cards on the table. “I think it’s really nice to make the audience laugh, especially when they laugh because of a joke that has come directly from me,” he said. “My jokes are pretty self deprecatory. I guess I fall somewhere between Mitch Hedberg and Eeyore.”

Sohval also sees ComedyNormative as a way for jokesters to connect in an open and welcoming environment. “We’re not audition based, and we have every grade represented,” he said. “Everyone is invited to try their hand at humor.”

Though Sohval’s commitment to comedy is no doubt a strong one, he also finds time to write short stories, and was recently published in the online publication the Vassar Voice. If his aspirations to live the life of a comedic genius fall through, Sohval will be more than happy to assume the role of a writer. However he tries to keep his goals realistic: “Ending up somewhere between being published in the Vassar Voice and winning a Pulitzer would be ideal,” he said.

Dallas Robinson/The Miscellany News

FOER continued from page 1 a summer program, leaving him and his friends with secondary burns. To this day, he retains a vivid mental image of his best friend’s bloodied face.

His second book’s title, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005), refers to this scarring experience. The novel explores the life of a nine-year-old boy, Oskar Schell, who loses his father on Sept. 11. and goes on a powerful journey of discovery as he uncovers pieces of his father’s past.

“He pulled off something miraculous with this young boy as the narrator,” said Professor of English and Chair of the Lecture Committee Ronald Sharp. “It’s a very risky thing to do, but he did an amazing job with it. There were a couple of places in the novel where I literally had to put the book down and sort of shake my head and say, ‘Look what he’s done.’”

Professor of English Amitava Kumar, who will introduce Foer at the lecture, has used the book in his Sept. 11 English course and finds Extremely Loud unique amongst other pieces of Sept. 11 literature.

“Several American writers made the mistake of imagining they were in the terrorists’ minds,” said Kumar. “His book was different, because it didn’t make that misstep. Instead it was from the viewpoint of a child, who is trying to come to grips with the trauma of Sept. 11. In that way it is quite special.”

Foer’s first novel, Everything is Illuminated, takes readers on a similar journey of discovery. For his senior thesis at Princeton, Foer analyzed the life of his Holocaust-surviving grandfather, Louis Safran, for which he won Princeton’s Senior Creative Writing Prize. After graduating he traveled to the Ukraine, where he expanded his thesis into what would become his first novel. Foer takes the reader on a journey through Ukraine, where the protagonist searches for the woman who saved his grandfather’s life during World War II. The novel was released to universal acclaim.

“He wrote the first book when he was only 25,” said Sharp. “Think about that in terms of a Vassar career, somebody taking a creative writing course and three years later producing this absolutely staggering novel. He is an enormously talented guy.”

Foer has a unique way of physically approaching his novels. In Extremely Loud he integrated pictures heavily throughout the novel, with the last 15 pages acting as a flipbook of a man falling in reverse from the top of the World Trade Center. In his new book, he takes the novel The Street of Crocodile by Bruno Schulz, and die-cuts it, leaving entire chunks of the book missing.

Kumar is thoroughly enamored by this style of authorship. “Architecturally it’s a new thing.

He treats books as imaginative objects and he produces new things out of them…that is what I am most interested in talking to people about: how he seeks imaginative responses from us and how he is one of the main practitioners of that art right now.”

In addition to his works of fiction, Foer has also forayed into non-fiction writing. After visiting both small organic and large industrial farms, Foer wrote about the mistreatment of animals and the dangers of consuming meat in Eating Animals. This book has elicited strong reactions, even from celebrities. Said Natalie Portman in an op-ed in The Huffington Post, “Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals changed me from a 20-year vegetarian to a vegan activist.” The book is written less from an investigative-journalist’s perspective and more as a memoir, with art and a variety of essays interjected throughout.

The Vassar community is eagerly awaiting the arrival of this prodigious author. “I have been interested to see that an awful lot of students, at least in my classes, both my freshman writing seminar and my Australian literature class, have read at least one and in some cases both of his novels. I think there is a lot of interest in him at Vassar both among faculty and students,” said Sharp.

Foer’s Gifford Lecture will occur on Monday, Nov. 22, at 5:30 p.m. in the second floor of the Students’ Building.

November 18, 2010

Dan Sohval ’13, featured above, founded ComedyNormative, a campus organization that seeks to provide students with a forum in which they can perform stand-up comedy. Sohval also plays the trombone.

As an English and cognitive science double major, Sohval often uses an academic lens through which he analyzes and develops his fiction and his humor.

“I’m currently studying word play and puns,” he said.

However, much of his inspiration comes from an experience to which many Vassar kids can relate: “Most of my stories are about how much I hated growing up in New Jersey, and I’m sure a lot of my comedy extends from that too,” he admitted.

Serious trombone skills garner Sohval the title of a triple threat, with comedy, writing, and music under his belt. “I’ve been playing the trombone since the fifth grade. Yep, that means ten years of bonin’,” he said.

Sohval is a member of one of Vassar’s Jazz ensembles, as well as an up-and-coming student run Latin funk group called SOL: “It’s a ten or eleven piece—I keep losing track because we keep getting bigger,” he explained.

“It’s a great bunch of kids headed up by Andres Estela ’13.”

Appropriately, Sohval decided on the trom-

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

bone for a nostalgic reason he now views as both hilarious and awesome.

“I started to play trombone because of Lankey Kong, Donkey Kong’s orangutan brother.”

Lankey Kong’s choice weapon for the old school Nintendo battles of our youth was the all-powerful trombone.

These days, Sohval still loves his “bone,” but for slightly different reasons: “I like playing the trombone because it’s goofy as heck. It doesn’t have buttons like other instruments. Instead, you get to slide around,” he explained.

Another plus to the instrument is its high demand due to its very underrated status and the fact that Sohval sees the trombone as a real babe magnet: “There’s always a need for a trombone player. It’s definitely one of the less popular instruments, despite being one of the sexiest,” he said.

For an example of Sohval’s writing, see Campus Canvas, in which Sohval talks about the introduction to his short story, “Natasha.”

ARTS

November 18, 2010

Page 17

Harry Potter: A retrospective ranking G

o to Orlando for Disneyworld if you must, but don’t go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Black plastic sticks without phoenix feather or unicorn hair will never be the same as wands, and a ride on a roller coaster ride will never be the same as a flight on a hippogriff. The faux-butterbeer they serve at the faux-Three Broomsticks is probably scrumptious, but it’s nothing you couldn’t replace with an icy mug of root beer at an A&W. If you really want to relive the magic of Harry Potter, here’s the way to do it: re-read the books. Or even better: in preparation for the grand premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows tonight at midnight, rewatch the movies! If your memory’s a little hazy as to which iterations in the 9-year long series are worth your while, have no fear. The Big Screen has taken the liberty of definitively ranking the movies from best to worst. No room for debate; what follows is purely objective.

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Chamber of Secrets is ranked as the worst of the bunch on the Internet Movie Database, but the 121,985 voters must have all taken a befuddlement draught because it is without a doubt the best. The second film was the final one to truly be defined by childhood whimsy, without all that silly darkness, death and angst. The joy of this movie is firmly rooted in the joy of magic, from chasing down mischievous fairies in Gilderoy Lockhart’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class to driving a flying car to Hogwarts.

“Swedish House Mafia”

Daniel Shaw ’14

As the first installment of the final Harry Potter movie hits theaters this weekend on Nov. 19, Arts Editor Erik Lorenzsonn ranks the previous six adventures of the world’s favorite magical trio. chest got some peach fuzz, the Potter movies turned things up a notch with a PG-13 rating.

But when the series turned dark, it came at the cost of the magic. In a version of Goblet of Fire in a parallel universe, they actually showed the Quidditch World Cup instead of cutting away when the whistle blew. Even better, there was actually a sphinx and mist that turns people upside down in this version’s hedge maze. Granted, the movie goes bazonkers with the major scenes, such as with the Hungarian Horntail, but sometimes it’s the smaller elements of the canon that make a series great.

3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

The sixth entry in the series reels in the excessive melodrama of its predecessor, thank heavens. Okay, perhaps that isn’t quite true.

There is in fact a lot of melodrama, what with Harry crushing on Ginny, Hermione crushing on Ron, etc. But it works because it’s subdued. For example, Harry never actually once explicitly expresses his affections for Ginny; instead his yearnings are expressed through lingering looks and awkward encounters. And even though the plot leaves whimsy in the dust, what with literally shattered souls and creepy-as-shit zombies, it’s all totally tolerable.

whimsy, but director Alfonso Cuaron made up for it with visual flair in Prisoner of Azkaban. Consider the scene of Harry’s first encounter with a dementor: the Hogwarts Express’ lights slowly flickering out in the dead of night, ice crystals slowly fogging up the traincar windows, the eerie slithering wisps of the dementor’s cloak flowing as the dark entity peeks around the compartment door. Forget the CGI, this is aesthetically brilliant stuff, with a palpable sense of creepiness. The movie easily overshadows the rest based on cinematography alone.

Campus Canvas

Nick Hoffman ’14

“I‘ve been on a Modest Mouse rampage lately.”

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

There is good reason to anticipate some backlash from this list; Vassarions can be downright fierce when it comes to the Harry Potter movies. But one thing that is universally agreed upon is that Order of the Phoenix sucks. Imelda Staunton is perfect as Professor Umbridge, but beyond that the movie is overcooked tripe. Some of it is just plain ridiculous, like Harry’s laughably overdone dream sequences. And the rest of it is just terribly boring and underwhelming, a true accomplishment when working with such dynamic source material as Harry freakin’ Potter.

4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban It may have been a smidge lighter on the

“Ke$ha....contemptuously.”

Pacing is not quite up to snuff in Harry’s inaugural adventure. It’s so rushed that you get the sense that a non-Potter-geek would not make heads or tails of all the CGI-riddled shenanigans. Keep in mind that if this were Wizard People, Dear Readers we were talking about, this entry would be instantly propelled to the top of the list. But we’re not talking about the version of Sorcerer’s Stone that is hilariously dubbed over by online comedian Brad Neely. And once you’ve watched Wizard People there’s no going back to the “real” thing.

Adriana Perichi ’13

“Hanson. Mmmbop--duh!”

—Erik Lorenzsonn ’12 is the Arts editor of The Miscellany News.

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The moment Harry’s voice cracked and his

Danny Galvin ’12 A bi-weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Introduction to the short story

“Natasha”

It is impossible to travel anywhere in the Garden State without using the highway. Even on foot, one cannot help but climb the large concrete overpasses that decorate the freeways. Imposing arches with rusted chain-link crowns. By day, workers and shopping-bag ladies would scale them with downcast eyes. Come dusk, the punks and loiterers would smoke thinly rolled joints atop the frowning monoliths and hurl Coke cans at the cars passing below. To them, the night highway seemed both infinite in its lengthy expanse and asthmatic in its tightness. Automobiles crammed together. Fender-to-fender. Nearly grinding against the mortar divider. Zooming off into the abyss. Like Michigan-made red blood cells rocketing through a hummingbird’s aorta. Like army ants sprinting down a single eyelash of God. The crescent moon ensconced itself above the New Jersey miasma.

From the road it seemed to be in constant motion, racing across the sky against any motorist daring enough to challenge it. Through the Toyota’s tinted black window, Liam felt as if he could reach out his hand and grab it, letting its momentum whip him out of the car and into space.

submit to misc@vassar.edu

by Dan Sohval

Here are the opening paragraphs of a short story I wrote called “Natasha.” I grew up about three blocks away from Route 17, which is a pretty prominent highway in northern New Jersey. This story is based on a bunch of different experiences I had, driving up and down that highway during my high school years. I don’t know if I tried to purvey any grand theme in this piece, but I showed it to one of my English professors and he used a bunch of big words like “entrapment,” “ennui” and “mimesis” to describe it, so I guess it probably has that stuff in it. I think it’s mostly about feeling lonely and bored. This isn’t my favorite thing that I’ve written, and now that I’m about to show it to you all I’m feeling horribly self-conscious about it, but I still think it’s decent if not a little pretentious.

—Erik Lorenzsonn, Arts Editor

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“The album Glow Away, Ghetto Way by Giant Peach.”

Elodie Blakely ’12

“The new selftitled Marnie Stern album.”

Logan Nelson ’11 —Erik Lorenzsonn Arts Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

November 18, 2010

Cross country concludes season at Atlantic Regionals Kristine Olson

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Reporter

Courtesy of Sports Information

n a sunny day, perfect for running, Vassar’s Elizabeth Forbes ’12 and Johanna Spangler ’12 qualified for the NCAA National Cross Country Championships by placing 13th and 16th, respectively, leading the women’s team to a sixth place finish at the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Championships on Saturday hosted by State University of New York (SUNY) at Oneonta. Meanwhile, the Vassar men’s cross country team ran to a 10th place finish.

Although both teams missed qualifying for nationals, Vassar was well represented on the All-Regional team with Forbes, Spangler and Aubree Piepmeier ’14 on the women’s team and Sam Wagner ’13 on the men’s were all named NCAA All-Region Team based on their top finishes.

The day began with the men’s 8k Championship race. Running side by side for most of the race, Zach Williams ’12 and Wagner led the Brewers, until Wagner pulled away in the last mile to finish 34th out of 268 in 25:57.2. Williams finished 44th in 26:12.7. Those two paced Vassar to a 313-point finish. SUNY Geneseo won the Championship title with 47 points, followed

by St. Lawrence University in second with 55 points and New York University in third with 101 and University of Rochester (124) and The College of New Jersey (200) rounded out the top five.

Also helping to pace the Brewers was Yaron Teich ’13 who notably moved up the pack from Vassar’s fifth to third place runner, finishing in 72nd place in 26:42.9. In addition to Wagner, Williams and Teich, Vassar counted on Justin Rupert ’12 in 81st (26:49.7), Will Healy ’12 close behind in 82nd (26:50.5), Evan Russek ’12 in 119th (27:29.1) and Jon Erickson ’11 in 165th (28:23.3).

Erickson had a notable performance after having been injured most of the season.

It was a tough race for the Brewers, who were fairly spread out among the field of run-

Sam Wagner ’13, above, was named NCAA All-Region Team at the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Championships, hosted by the State University of New York at Oneonta on Saturday, Nov. 13. ners. Even so, Rupert noted, “We were ranked 10th and that’s what we got. And we ran well as a team, finishing 10th compared to 16th last year. We can’t be disappointed with that.”

“This is the highest placing men’s team in six or seven years,” said Head Coach James McCowan. “It’s a young squad with six of our seven top returning next season. And Sam is Vassar’s first male to make the All-Regional team.”

Later, in the women’s 6k race, Spangler and Forbes kept pace near the front of the field to lead the women to a sixth place finish. Wendy Pavlus of St. Lawrence led the race by a sizable gap, finishing the 6k course in 21:11.9, and pacing her teammates to the Championship title.

The sixth-ranked Brewers finished with 147 points, just two points behind no. 5 SUNY Cortland (145) in a tight race that mirrored the Seven Sisters Championship last month, in which Vassar beat Wellesley College by one point.

St. Lawrence won with 59 points, followed by no. 2 SUNY Geneseo (78), New York University (104), SUNY Plattsburgh (124) and SUNY Cortland (145).

In a phenomenal performance, Forbes used a late push to pull away to a first place finish for Vassar and a 13th place finish out of 236 runners.

Forbes finished in 22:50.2, beating her time of 23.27 in the 6k at Fortin Park only a few weeks ago. Spangler finished second for Vassar in

22:54.4 and 16th overall, while Piepmeier finished third for Vassar and 21st overall in 23:01.4.

In addition to these three, Captain Zoe Carpenter ’11 in 49th (23.38.4), Kelly Holmes ’13 in 57th (23:49.1), Hannah Ziobrowski ’12 in 71st (24:11) and Chloe Williams ‘14 in 73rd (24:15.7) all notably ran as pairs, which helped pace each other to their 6th place finish as a team.

Forbes, who spent last season injured, had a break-through race. Thinking she had gotten out too fast at the start of the race, “I expected to die out and drop off,” she said, but with the help of her teammates and cheering teammates, coaches and alumnae/i, Forbes kept her pace and ran an exciting, strong race. “We went into this race fearless and excited to run,” said Carpenter, “and I’m proud of our team for what they’ve accomplished this season.”

“This is the strongest men’s and women’s combined finishes that we’ve ever had,” said Assistant Coach Ron Stonisch. “Today’s results bode well for next year, especially since virtually everyone is returning. We’ve proved that we’re a powerful team in the Atlantic Region. St Lawrence’s women’s team is ranked second in the Nation for DIII and the Atlantic Region is one of the strongest in the nation, but we proved that we can compete in it.”

According to McCowan, this season was fantastic. “It’s bittersweet to lose out on fifth place by three points,” he said referring to the women’s team, “Still, we ran well today. This will be a stepping stone for us and we need to frame the disappointments as leaving us hungry rather than defeated.”

And with that frame of mind, the team will return from a well-deserved break to start training for the track and field season on Nov. 29. Forbes and Spangler will continue training this week in preparation for NCAA National Championships on Nov. 20 in Waverly Iowa, hosted by Wartburg College. This marks the first time Forbes has qualified for the NCAA National Championship, and the second for Spangler.

Athlete of the Week: Fischl strives for NCAA championship Corey Cohn

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Reporter

“You always have to plan for what you want to do and how to make your opponent do what you want him to do.” He says experience is the key factor in making such advances.

Fischl believes his attack and defense have gotten considerably better during his time at Vassar.

Together, then, Fischl eyes significant progress for both himself and the team in 2010-2011. He thinks the Brewers can win the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC). On an individual level, his goal is simple, yet exalted: perfection. “I’d like to win every bout in the league this season, but it’s very difficult,” Fischl remarks. He finished last season 32-8. Looking ahead to the NCAA Championship, Fischl says he would like to finish in the top 12 if he were to qualify for the fourth straight year. He adds quickly, “Well, of course I’d like to win it, but it’s a very challenging competition.” Fischl says the format of this ultimate contest, much different than what he is used to when he competes outside of school, is exhausting due to the number of bouts. His standards for himself are high nevertheless; he calls his 23rd-place finish in his sophomore year “pretty terrible.”

Fischl has one other goal for his last year as a Brewer. “It’d be nice to be named an All-American,” he says.

That would seem appropriate enough for someone looking to represent the red, white and blue in front of the world’s best in 2012. In the meantime, Fischl and his classmates will play their final home contests Saturday, taking on Bard College, Marist College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and State University of New York at New Paltz.

Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News

ndrew Fischl ’11 has always enjoyed sports. It just took him a while to find the one that suited him best.

He tried almost every one out there—baseball, basketball, lacrosse and even European handball, among many others—but none of them ever resonated very strongly with him.

“I’m not a big fan of team sports,” Fischl says. “I like knowing I have influence over the outcome.” He adds that he hates it when he performs poorly while the rest of the team does well, or vice versa. He prefers his personal success to be reflected in the overall result, to garner a sense of control.

In an individual sport like fencing, Fischl has found his niche. Now a first-year captain after competing for Vassar for the last three years, he is looking to close out his collegiate career on a high note. Not to suggest that there haven’t been plenty of high notes already—Fischl qualified for the NCAA Championship in each of the past three seasons, finishing 20th, 23rd and 16th, respectively.

But Fischl has a fencing-filled life outside of school, as he has for the last few years. He took up the sport during the summer before his junior year in high school. The initial inspiration came not from friends or family or even other fencers. “I read a lot of fantasy novels,” he recalls. “I wanted to learn how to swordfight.” Fischl says sabre, the weapon in which he competes, is most similar to the thrilling duels he read about.

Unfortunately for Fischl, his high school in Huntington, N.Y. didn’t offer fencing in their athletics program.

However, this didn’t deter Fischl. He started practicing on his own under

the tutelage of Mihail Etropolski, who has an impressive fencing pedigree of his own; he is currently ranked sixth in the country. Fischl trains at the New York Athletic Club, where four of the eight highest-ranked fencers in the United States hone their skills. Fischl himself is ranked eighth nationally and 125th in the world.

Being in such an elite tier of fencers, Fischl already has big dreams for the upcoming, post-Vassar years.

After he graduates, he plans on training for and hopefully competing in the 2012 Olympics in London. The top four competitors in each weapon qualify, so he has a little ground to make up. But Fischl notes that the distance between each fencer in the standings is slight, so an ascent into the top four is certainly possible, especially given his determination.

Although Fischl would represent the United States if he were to make it to the hallowed Games, his list of favorite fencers features an international flavor. Nicolas Lopez, who helped the French team defeat the U.S. for their gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, is tops in Fischl’s book. He also likes Luigi Samele of Italy and Alexey Yakimenko of Russia.

Still, though, the focus for Fischl right now is on Vassar. One of four co-captains this season, he says sharing the leadership role will make the overall job easier. Fischl looks forward to managing his squad of fencers and pointing out ways they can improve and mistakes they can correct.

Personally, Fischl senses a lot of improvement in his own game since his freshman year, particularly in the mental component of the sport.

“Fencing is a lot like chess,” he says.

Fencing Captain Andrew Fischl ’11, the eighth-ranked fencer in the United States, hopes to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London after he graduates this spring.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

SPORTS

November 18, 2010

Page 19

Basketball prepares for League play Veterans of Lillian Reuman

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Contributing Editor

basketball play abroad Andy Sussman Columnist

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Devin Leary/The Miscellany News

s the leader of a young team, senior Captain Carolyn Crampton, a defensive anchor, feels confident that given “the personnel and the work ethic” of this year’s women’s basketball team, the Brewers have the opportunity to make the Liberty League Tournament for the first time in program history.

After graduating leading scorer and rebounder Emily Haeuser ’10, the team will rely heavily on the consistent play of two returning starters, Crampton and co-Captain Brittany Parks ’12. A first-team All-League selection last season, Parks will lead the team’s offensive force. “In my mind, there’s no better player in the league than [Parks] so she’ll definitely be huge for us,” Crampton said. With freshman Cydni Matsuoka stepping into the point guard position, Parks has moved to the wing, effectively allowing her to score more. In particular, returning sophomores Natalie Allen, Anielle Fredman and Olivia Westbrook-Gold will be asked to step up and assume a larger role as the team’s returning players.

“Last year we were definitely a post-oriented team and that will definitely change this year,” Crampton said. “We’re much faster and we’ll definitely try to push the ball and run in transi-

tion as much as possible and utilize our strengths in the guard position.”

The team will employ their speed by playing a full-court man-to-man defense. Since practice began on Oct. 15, the team has given their all in conditioning workouts and lifting.

“I think we’ll be a very highenergy team that plays uptempo and really takes pride in our defense,” Crampton said. “We’ve worked on a number of different defenses and will look to really pressure the ball and keep the intensity up.”

As the only senior on the team, Crampton wields great responsibility as a role model. “At first it was a little intimidating and strange being the only senior on the team, but I’ve really come to embrace it,” Crampton said. “I think knowing this is my last season and knowing the effort and commitment it’s taken over three years to get here has really helped me to be a good leader and to set the example for my team by constantly working hard and pushing myself in practice.”

Vassar will open its season this weekend traveling to Mount Holyoke College for the Seven Sisters Championship. The Brewers will return to Poughkeepsie on Tuesday, hosting Hunter College in the team’s lone home contest prior to winter break.

Team Captain Carolyn Crampton ’11, shooting hoops at the Walker Field House, hopes to lead the Brewers to their first Liberty League Tournament.

NCAA regulations put player in limbo Nik Trkulja

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Columnist

t’s hard being an international student-athlete in the United States. Every year more and more international athletes find out that the NCAA simply doesn’t understand how sports function in the rest of the world. The most recent casualty was Enes Kanter, the University of Kentucky’s (UK) 6’11” freshman center from Turkey. Last week, the NCAA ruled that Kanter would be “permenantley ineligible” to play for the UK Wildcats. His “crime” was that he received $33,000 above what the NCAA deemed to be his necessary expenses in 2008-09.

To play in NCAA sanctioned competition, an athlete must have maintained amateur status throughout his or her playing career.

That means that the athlete must never have received money in excess of their immediate needs. What exactly immediate needs are is not entirely clear. The obvious candidates for this category are of course accommodation, food and travel expenses, but what happens when a player lives at home but travels with the team? What if his or her parents are unemployed and the team pays to support the family as well? What if the athlete plays for both the senior team and junior team, having to travel for multiple competitions? There are so many complexities it is impossible to determine what exactly immediate needs are.

International sports simply don’t function like American ones. In the United States, expenses are very easy to track. A player plays for a particular school and only for one team.

The only complexity added to the equation is the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) circuit, where players play for what are essentially junior summer league teams. Any money received is deemed excessive and is for the most part easily tracked. In Europe though, the situation is a lot different. As early as the ages of 13 or 14, a player is expected to sign a

commitment document with a team to play for their under-16 team. It is also at that point that the stipends begin. The team pays for your travel to the stadium, especially for the kids that don’t live in the same city. Food is also paid for as are day-to-day expenses. Not to mention fact that many kids get education and equipment allotments, much the same way as financial aid.

Basketball shoes offer a perfect example of just how difficult it is to determine “immediate needs.” Certain prep-schools in the United States, such as Oak Hill academy in Virginia, have athletic sponsorship programs.

Their basketball team receives all of its gear from the Jordan brand. Players get multiple pairs of sneakers, clothes and other apparel.

In Europe though, sponsorship contracts vary. While many teams get athletic apparel for free, others can’t afford it. The solution is that these teams offer discounts to their players and provide a certain amount of money to help them get what they need. However, what happens if you play for a team’s junior and senior teams? What if you need more apparel, or you wear through your own? The solution in Europe is simple: The team will help you again, but the risk you run is that the NCAA can see that added cash expense as unnecessary, therefore ruling you ineligible.

While the example is obviously a little simplistic, it carries over for a player like Enes Kanter. Kanter was not merely a junior player for his team in Turkey. He was a national team center who was the centerpiece of the junior team and an up-and-coming star for the senior team. As such, he was in a unique situation where his immediate needs in terms of expenses were unclear. That is even truer if you consider that he is one of the extreme minority of players that did not accept full professional contracts. In fact, Kanter turned down a million dollar contract at the age of 17 so that he could maintain NCAA eligibility.

His team was now stuck in a weird position as it never before dealt with an athlete who didn’t want to accept perks or money.

While in my mind Kanter’s refusal of a million dollars should have been more than enough to rule him as eligible to play, the NCAA thought otherwise. Instead it decided to act as an all-knowing accountant, delving deep into Kanter’s financial history so that it could determine what was and wasn’t a necessary expense in his life, even though most of the money he received was actually earmarked for educational purposes. In the meantime, of course, it disregarded the fact that players on teams like Oak Hill’s travel the country playing exhibition games, stay at lavish hotels and have well more than $33,000 spent on them. The unnerving fact here was that Kanter was given money, which he himself could spend at his discretion rather than having a booster or athletic director spend it for him.

The worst part of this whole saga was that the NCAA was gracious enough to wait until just two days before Kentucky’s first game to announce its decision, leaving Kanter out in the cold. Now Kanter, who could have been a millionaire more than two years ago, will sit on Kentucky’s bench and wait to see if the NCAA reverses the decision following his appeal. If not, he may just have missed out on his best chance of getting to the NBA. Staying in the United States will clearly not be an option, since he will lose his basketball scholarship, and returning to Turkey will also be hard since he has been away for well over two years finishing high-school in the United States. In all its righteousness the NCAA may just have managed to cut Kanter’s career short even before it began.

To think, all this just to safeguard against any player being able to receive what amounts to less than 20 tickets to the NCAA Final Four tournament.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

n Tuesday night, Allen Iverson drove to the hoop, got fouled and made the basket for a three-point play, on his way to a 15-point performance in his team’s win. Of course, you may not have heard about it because Iverson’s team is not in the NBA, but rather in Turkey.

After a hall-of-fame career with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Denver Nuggets, Iverson had brief, unsuccessful stints with the Detroit Pistons, Memphis Grizzlies and a second signing with the 76ers. Unwilling to accept a bench role, Iverson and his 26.7 career points per game went unsigned by any NBA team this season; in fact, not a single team even contacted him this offseason. For many years, the mercurial Iverson was worth the gamble because of his extraordinary talent and athleticism. He wanted the ball, and his team wanted him to have it. However, at 35 Iverson’s skills have noticeably diminished to the point where he would only be valued in the NBA as a bench player. Now, Iverson can still play; if he had the attitude of a mentor he absolutely would have and should have been signed by an NBA team. However, Iverson still wants to play the 41 minutes per game that he has averaged over his career.

Even though playing overseas is Iverson’s last resort for playing professional basketball, in many ways he is better off playing in Turkey than he would be in the NBA. First of all, whereas Iverson’s popularity in the United States has declined, he remains enormously popular in Turkey. It is not often that a new opportunity to increase one’s fan base and endorsement value comes this late in a basketball career, but this is the case for Iverson. In addition, the money overseas is not insubstantial at all; in fact, Iverson is set to make $4 million over two years, well more than the one-year, $1.4 million veterans minimum in the NBA before even factoring in endorsement deals. With documented money problems, Iverson could use all of the cash he can get, especially with the reported health problems his young daughter has faced over the past year.

Most importantly, however, in the Turkish Basketball League Iverson can play the only way he knows how to: frequently and as the goto scoring option. Since the talent level is not as high as it is in the NBA, Iverson is still needed to play frequent minutes and to have the ball in his hands constantly. For a man not willing to admit his superstar ways are over, Turkey is the perfect place for him to play like one, act like one and still get paid millions of dollars. This is the same reason fellow former NBA all-star Stephon Marbury loves playing in China: As the reigning Chinese League MVP, Marbury frequently expresses his enjoyment playing overseas.

And why not? Like Iverson, Marbury is treated like a superstar while still being able to play the type of game he did in his NBA prime. It is no wonder that former all-stars now out of the NBA have reportedly expressed a desire to play overseas. Mainly, these players, such as Steve Francis, Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway and Antoine Walker, believe they still have the talent to play in the NBA the same as they always could.

Except now, NBA teams do not agree with this assessment. In Europe, Asia and even Latin America, basketball’s popularity is expanding, and with that popularity comes money. Suddenly, playing the only game you know the only way you enjoy does not sound like a bad option, even if it is not in the “premiere league” of the world.

All of these players still think they have talent left. They still are marketable to the right fanbases and still want to play basketball for a living. However, Iverson, Marbury and the others were never able to accept fading into a bench role, followed by retirement. For every Gary Payton and Peja Stojakovic, who transition from stars to role-players for playoff teams, there’s an Iverson who refuses to change his game in any way. If they can still average 30 points per game and get paid for it, international basketball suddenly doesn’t look like such a bad option.

Page 20

SPORTS

November 18, 2010

Butterbeer Broooers take New York City by storm Andy Marmer Sports Editor

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When Pitt came onto the field, they were taking themselves so seriously.

Though they were less physical than they could have been (due in part to our explaining before the game that we would not be taking it seriously and that we were determined to be as silly as possible) they were still pushing, shoving, tackling, tripping, etc.” The Broooers did not restrict themselves to muggle means of disrupting their opposition. Captain Camila Delgado-Montes ’13 wrote in an e-mailed statement that the highlight of her weekend was, “asking the refs if we could shout out spells while brandishing our brooms as wands and being told that it was fine so long as we didn’t use an Unforgivable Curse…and then seeing Aaron [Suzuka ’12] actually dramatically dismount and shout “Expelliarmus!” at an incoming chaser.” To counterbalance the aggressive Pitt attack, Vassar engaged in numerous foolhardy tactics, including dancing, skipping, somersaulting and cartwheels, thrilling the crowd in the process. However no play captured the excitement as much as a midfield goal from keeper Daniel Bossert ’12, who danced his way to the center of the field and chucked the quaffle the rest of the way through the hula hoops on the other end.

To earn a match against Middlebury, Vassar had to overcome a number of foes on Sunday as the no.

11 seed. In their opening match, the Broooers crushed Lafayette College 60-0 to advance to the round of 16.

In that match, Vassar annihilated St. Lawrence University 80-10, setting up a quarterfinal contest with Louisiana State University (LSU).

In that game, the Broooers fell behind 40-0 when the snitch—which is worth 30 points and ends the game when captured—appeared on the field. Knowing the score, seeker Pablo Arenas ’11 began to defend the snitch from his LSU counterpart, rather than seek its capture himself.

Arenas’ strategy worked to perfection as Vassar scored moments later, dropping their deficit to 30 points.

With the Broooers trailing by 30, Arenas swiftly raced in, surprising the snitch and catching it for 30 Vassar points. With each side tied at 40, the match went to a three-minute overtime, where once again Arenas’ seeking prowess proved vital. His extra-time capture earned Vassar the win. Reflecting on the match, Cohen noted it was “terrifying. There’s nothing like overtime to stop your heart. Honestly, I still don’t know how we managed to win.”

To qualify for the second day of play, Vassar had to overcome challenges from numerous upstart squads Saturday. The first day of the tourna-

ment began smoothly for Vassar as they steamrolled the University of Richmond 120-0. The second match however proved far more challenging. Vassar and Harvard University squared off in the Broooers’ second match of the day, a controversial 3010 loss for Vassar. Initially, Vassar thought they had won, as Matthew Zeltzer ’13 captured the snitch early in the contest. However, the initial call was reversed as it was determined the snitch had been on the ground when the catch occurred, thereby making it illegitimate. Although there were questions as to the validity of the ruling, Vassar did not challenge it, choosing instead to play a longer contest. The decision backfired though as Harvard caught the snitch, who had chosen to spend the duration of the match on the field, as opposed to traversing the area surrounding the pitch as is the norm, just moments later, ending the game in a 30-10 decision in favor of the Ivy-League institution.

Finding themselves at 1-1, Vassar likely needed a win to advance to the next round of play, facing off against America’s Finest Quidditch Club, a team composed primarily of Reserves of the Corps (ROTC) from the University of Rochester. Prior to taking the field America’s Finest engaged in ritualistic clap-pushups seeking to intimidate the Broooers; however, Vassar was able to persevere, emerging victorious and earning the no. 11 seed.

Although the Vassar-Middlebury contest was only a semi-final matchup, there was a championship feel in the air. The Middlebury-Vassar rivalry began on an autumn day four years ago, when the Vermont school hosted Vassar’s nascent squad for a contest in the newly formed sport, which resulted in a decided victory for the

Andy Marmer/The Mi`scellany News

or the third time in four years, Vassar College and Middlebury College renewed quidditch’s oldest rivalry on the grandest stage in the sport: The World Cup. Middlebury, the sport’s founders and eventual 2010 champions, prevailed over the Broooers 60-0 in the semi-final matchup on Sunday, Nov. 14 at De Witt Clinton Park in New York City.

The tournament featured 46 teams competing over two days. On the first day, each squad was guaranteed three matches, with the top-24 teams as determined by overall record and point differential advancing to the second day. On the second day, the top eight teams received byes into the round of 16, while the no. 9-24 seeds faced each other for the remaining eight spots.

Having squared off against Middlebury in two previous World Cups the two squads met yet again in the semi-finals. Although Middlebury struck first, Vassar was able to control the pace of the game, maintaining control of two bludgers for much of the match, as well as holding possession of the quaffle for a majority of the time. Still, despite their meticulous nature, Vassar could not keep Middlebury off of the scoreboard.

With the score 30-0, the snitch appeared on the field and was relentlessly pursued by the Middlebury seeker. While the golden-clothed cross country runner tried to fend off his stalker with an orange construction cone, he was unable as Middlebury captured the snitch, winning the match 60-0. While the Broooers lost the match, they took pride in the effort they displayed, summarized Captain Molly Cohen ’13: “We knew going into the game against Middlebury that it was going to be tough.”

She continued, “They have phenomenal beaters, so we structured our lineup so as to prevent their beaters from obtaining two bludgers at the start of the game, which would have rendered our team helpless. Instead, they were only able to score three times against us. Considering that they’ve been world champions every year since they invented the sport, I think that we preformed beautifully.”

Despite the loss, the match provided the Broooers with perspective on how far they have come, noted Captain Sandy Wood ’13 in an emailed statement, “The most significant match was definitely the game against Middlebury in the semifinals.

It’s amazing to see how far both the sport and the Broooers have come since our seniors were freshmen, driving up to Vermont to play the first ever intercollegiate quidditch match, and what we now know was the beginning of something so, so huge.”

In their next match, Vassar dropped a third place match to Pitt, 120-50. Still, for the Broooers the loss was by no means heartbreaking.

Cohen summarized in an e-mailed statement after the match, “We were dismayed last year by how needlessly rough [Pitt] played, and we saw the same behavior this year in their games against other teams. After we lost to Middlebury, we sat down as a team and talked, and the conclusion we came to was that the difference between third place and fourth place was not important enough to us to risk having one of our players seriously injured.” She continued, “We decided to thumb our noses at all those players and fans who forget that quidditch is supposed to be fun and strive to transform it into something angry and violent.

The Broooers soared onto the quidditch pitch to compete in the World Cup—held last weekend in New York City—in which they placed fourth out of 46 teams. hosts. The following year, more teams were involved in the tournament, and yet the finals once again resulted in the two familiar foes, with the hosts and founders emerging victorious. Last year marked the first appearance of a new group onto the championship scene as Emerson punched its ticket to the finals, earning itself the distinction as Middlebury’s latest victims. Still, with contests in two of the previous three World Cups in the rearview mirror, Vassar faced off against its familiar foe with a championship appearance on the line.

In finishing fourth out of 46 teams, the Broooers certainly did everything they set out to do, noted Cohen, “Our goals this weekend were to play intelligently, aggressively, and fairly, and to have a fantastic time. I’d

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say we certainly accomplished all of these.”

While there is no doubt that the event was fun for all, it also raised larger questions about the future of the sport. There is a movement afoot among players to make quidditch an official NCAA sport.

While some of the athletes believe it would provide the sport increased attention, organization and regulation, others believe it would compromise the whimsical nature of the game. Noted Cohen, “Quidditch is supposed to be fun and ridiculous, and as it becomes more competitive people get so caught up in winning that they forget this. I’d hate to see it become more violent and less silly, which I think would happen were it to become mainstreamed.”