The Miscellany News | Nov. 4, 2010

The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

November 4, 2010

Volume CXLIV | Issue 7

Halloween EMS calls decreased

Council reports on CEQs

Molly Turpin

Joseph Rearick

Editor in Chief

Guest Reporter

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Eric Schuman/The Miscellany News

ven with the success of Halloween compared with previous years, the College continues to consider student drinking culture and the policies that surround it.

By 10 p.m. on Saturday Oct. 30 Vassar’s student members of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) were stationed in the Faculty Commons. The calls would not pick up until 11:30 p.m., and until then the group had time to double-check equipment, to divide into their teams for the night, and to chat over chips and candy.

EMS had four teams on call for the night, one more than for previous Halloween parties, and they shared the Faculty Commons with the team of TransCare EMTs who had been hired from 9:30 to 2 a.m. to remove some of the burden from the Arlington Fire District. In this temporary headquarters, EMT Laura Pucillo ’12 was already considering possible names for Team B. “Four Loko Destroyers,” was a prominent candidate.

In a semester that has seen a dramatic rise in the number of EMS calls and hospital visits, popularly, if oversimply, attributed to the drink that has dominated national collegiate news, the end result of the highly anticipated weekend was a surprise and a relief. The 12 EMS calls of the night represented a 25-percent decrease in calls from the same night last year. Six of the calls ended in hospital visits, four of which were the result of intoxication, and TransCare was able to facilitate all of these visits. “I went into the night expecting it to be comparable to last year. I wasn’t expecting it to be significantly worse or significantly better,” said Vassar EMS Captain Sam Black ’12.

“It was lighter than we expected...so we were pleasantly surprised.”

See EMS on page 8

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Students voted at Arthur S. May elementary school this past Tuesday, where they had to use New York State’s new voting system. For more on Tuesday’s election see “Students vote in midterm elections” on page 3.

or years, Vassar’s academic departments have used Course Evaluation Questionnaires (CEQ), completed by students at the end of each course, to gauge the performance of professors. Traditionally the reports consist of rating the professor and the course in various areas on a scale of one to five, then writing comments on the course on a blank sheet. The CEQs are a major factor in faculty tenure review, as well as determining future curricula. But a new report from the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Academics Committee calls the CEQ’s methodology and reliability into question.

The VSA has been considering issues with the CEQs for at least two years. In April 2009, the VSA See CEQS on page 3

Org collaborations Dems, MICA attend vary in goals, sincerity Rally to Restore Sanity Mitchell Gilburne Features Editor

W

ith over 120 Vassar Student Association (VSA) approved student organizations, it is certainly not surprising to see various groups collaborating in order to channel their creativity into the highest quality events they can muster. For many organizations on campus, “collaboration” has become an intangible buzzword that translates into an approved and applauded event. However, a cursory glance at any given week’s event calendar would reveal such collaborations to be possibly more prevalent than

the definition of a true collaboration would allow. A disconcerting number of “odd couple” events as well as growing suspicion of the motivation behind collaborations have various student leaders reexamining just what a collaboration should be and how the VSA should go about regulating the qualifications for this distinction.

VSA Vice President of Activities Tanay Tatum ’12 explains, “ A true collaboration requires both organizations to have a hand in the planning process and execution of an event. It is a constant collaboration See ORGS on page 8

Matthew Brock/The Miscellany News

Casperkill Creek to be cleaned Anne-Marie Alcantara Guest Reporter

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Courtesy of Dutchess Watersheds

Students wade in the Casperkill Creek, which runs under the TA bridge. Dean of the College Chris Roellke recently unveiled his plan to clean the creek this spring.

Inside this issue

5

FEATURES

Parties at Vassar: from the founding to Founder’s Day

ean of the College Christopher Roellke recently unveiled his plan for a student-led cleanup of Casperkill Creek—the creek that runs thrugh campus and feeds into Sunset Late—scheduled for this upcoming spring.

The creek, which runs from Peach Hill Park in Poughkeepsie to the Hudson River, has a long history in the Poughkeepsie area. This history has been documented by the Casperkill Oral History Project, an organization that “seeks to extend the CAP [Casperkill Assessment Project] into the social sciences and humanities by compiling an oral history and collecting photographs through which we can create an illustrated history of the waterSee CREEK on page 4

14 ARTS

FWA brings familiar faces to the stage

Michelle Cantos ’11 cheers into her promotional megaphone at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on Oct. 30. Cantos traveled to the Rally with MICA. Angela Aiuto and Matthew Brock

“H

Senior Editors

ello, and are you ready to restore sanity?” shouted Daily Show host Jon Stewart to the crowd of over 200,000 fans, squashed into the national mall on Oct. 30 for his and the Colbert Report’s Steven Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

The rally centered on Stewart’s attempts to “restore sanity” to American political discourse, with much of the comedy coming from Colbert,

19 SPORTS

the rally’s fearmongering antagonist.

Colbert began the rally inside of his “fear bunker,” located in the bedrock under Washington D.C., but soon rose through the stage like a Chilean miner, donning an Evel Knievel suit complete with cape, shouting, “Hello America.

Hello multitude on the Washington Mall… thank you for being here today to do our bidding. Bow before us minions; kneel before Zod.” The rally featured cameos from See RALLY on page 7

The Miscellany News guide to squash

The Miscellany News

Page 2

November 4, 2010

Editor in Chief Molly Turpin Senior Editors Angela Aiuto Matthew Brock

Contributing Editor Lillian Reuman Lila Teeters

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

Photo of the Week: Vassar’s women’s rugby team hudldles at its game against SUNY New Paltz, which it won by a landslide, 25 to 12.

Miscellany News Staff Editorial

VSA should more clearly define criteria of a ‘true collaboration’ between orgs S

o many of the activities that we enjoy at Vassar are the result of not one, but two or even three student organizations. When organizations come together for a project they open up opportunities to maximize each other’s skills, meet new groups of people and learn from the interests of fellow students. Incentivizing student organizations to collaborate is a commendable course of action, However, we at The Miscellany News feel that the Vassar Student Association’s current collaboration system has begun to see its fair share of abuse by organizations that solely collaborate in order to receive extra funding (see “Org collaborations vary in goals, sincerity,” page 1). We believe that the current collaboration policy warrants evaluation and ultimately revision, so as to encourage organizations to work together in the spirit of true collaboration.

Regardless of financial concerns or motivations, we define a successful collaboration as the participation of two or more organizations in planning an event or activity in which each organization can contribute a unique set of skills or ideas. A true collaboration will mean proportional participation of each organization in the planning process from the very start. There should be organization-to-organization communication that extends beyond a series of e-mails between group leaders. We expect the collaborating organizations to meet in person in their entirety, extending invitations to both organization’s general bodies several times throughout the planning process; at least once at the onset and at least once as a follow-up to ensure that planning progresses as intended. Rightly suggested at the VSA’s Fall Leadership Conference, costs should be proportionately divided among organizations; if two different-sized organizations or residence halls plan an event in tandem, the larger dorm will pay proportionately more than its smaller partner, yet each will have an equal role in the programming.

This is not to say that there have not been successful and meaningful collaborations in the in the recent past. Examples of successful collaborations include Harvest Fest and a recent political debate between the Moderate Independent Conservative Alliance (MICA) and the Vassar Democrats,.

These selections were successful for a variety of different, yet equally important, reasons: MICA and the Democrats combined their unique skills to produce a cost-free event, and Harvest Fest capitalized on the shared space of quad-dorms for daytime programming. The execution of these model collaborations extended beyond the monetary concerns in the organizations’ united effort to provide innovative programming to students.

Over the past several years there has been a sense that group leaders feign collaborations to gain access to the collaboration fund, or to the coffers of the group they claim to be interested in collaborating with. An e-mail exchange in which one organization proposes collaboration to another solely for monetary benefit is no collaboration at all. If anything, this actions abuses a system that the VSA had initially instated to encourage solidarity and ingenuity among its organizations. The persistence of these collaborations is not the fault of a particular group or party; this is a pitfall that both the VSA and its organizations fall into that is perpetuated by a lack of structured guidelines that define an ideal collaboration.

We applaud the VSA for encouraging collaboration from the very start of the year at Fall Leadership Conference, however we feel collaboration has become a buzz word that holds little other meaning than to gain the favor of Council, and we feel this an issue that needs to be readdressed before spring programming begins. We suggest that the VSA propose a set of standards discouraging financially dependent collaborations and emphasizing a collaborative spirit rooted in innovation. These standards should be defined concretely and made

available to the general public on the VSA’s website. These guidelines will outline what is necessary for a “true collaboration” and will suggest ways that it can be accomplished. For example, the VSA may suggest that the collaborating organizations form a committee, comprised equally of members from each group, that meets regularly throughout the planning process. This would prevent one group from having more say in the programming than the others and would eliminate any planning confusion between the groups.

“Collaboration” has become a “magic word” among Vassar’s student organizations, a word capable of diluting the original intensions behind such partnerships, and often most focused on the irresponsible and arguably unethical acquisition of surplus funding. Organization leaders must remember that whether they pursue the aid of the collaboration fund or another organization’s budget that the value of collaboration is not focused on furthering the goals of a single group while leeching resources from another. The collaboration fund must be utilized for the genuine reason that it was funded, and collaborations should be driven by mutual enthusiasm rather than coercion, bribery, or apathy.

We feel that if these standards are upheld, and if the VSA implements concrete measures to combat abuses, Vassar’s student organizations can produce meaningful and creative events that fall outside of the currently overused campus-wide templates. A reconsideration of current campus collaborations will encourage diverse programming that can serve a greater share of Vassar’s campus with greater emphasis on quality from conception through execution than does our current system.

—The Staff Editorial reflects the opinion 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 Thea Ballard Rachael Borné Assistant Copy Sammy Creath Assistant Photo Madeline Zappala Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Reporters Vee Benard Daniel Bukowski Corey Cohn Shruti Manian Connor O’Neill Chelsea PetersonSalahuddin Wilson Platt Columnists Michael Mestitz Andy Sussman Nik Trkulja Photographers Katie de Heras Carlos Hernandez

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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 4, 2010

NEWS

Page 3

Lipstadt discusses book, history of holocaust denial Breanna Amorde Guest Reporter

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Courtesy of futurity.org

orot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University Deborah E. Lipstadt visited campus on Thursday, Oct. 28 to deliver a lecture on her book, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving, which details the story of her historic six-year legal battle against British author David Irving, who had charged her with libel in the British court system. Her other books include Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, the first fulllength study of those who deny the Holocaust; and Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust. She has also appeared on National Public Radio’s (NPR) Fresh Air, Charlie Rose and 60 Minutes, as well as other programs.

Lipstadt’s book, Denying the Holocast: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, accused Irving of being a Holocaust denier and claimed he deliberately distorted facts in his books. Several authors had in the past called Irving a Holocaust denier.

Lipstadt thus began her discussion with the question, “Why did Irving pick me?” Lipstadt claimed it was because she is a woman, and Irving believed, as Lipstadt stated, “that I would not fight back.” Irving, a British citizen, was able to sue Lipstadt in the British court system, which is much more conducive to a successful suit. This is because while the burden of proof is on the prosecution in the United States, it is instead on the prosecution in Britain.

In addition to having to face the unfamiliar British court system—and in doing so, putting her career on the line—Lipstadt also had to face critiques of her peers. Many colleagues encouraged her to not fight back, because, as Lipstadt quoted, “Who would believe him anyway?” But as she stated “I did fight back, because anti-Semitism encroaches.”

She went on to explain the common characteristics and arguments of a typical Holocaust denier, which she says tend to overlap in four distinct ways. Most claim that there was no program in the Third Reich to exterminate the Jewish people. At best, they claim, the Jewish people were uprooted. They claim that the Holocaust was Ally propaganda, and that the

Jewish people went along with the scheme for sympathy and monetary rewards. Secondly, deniers claim that whatever harmful events happened were not the result of Hitler’s actions.

Third, while most historians agree that over six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, deniers claim that that number is significantly lower, and that not that many people were actually murdered. Fourth, Holocaust deniers argue that the gas chambers used to exterminate the Jewish people were invented by the Allies.

Lipstadt then recognized several tactics used

by Holocaust deniers to defend their views.

First, they claim that the few Jewish people who were killed were criminals, bandits or partisans. Second, they claim that gas chambers were air raid shelters for the Schutzstaffel (SS), despite the fact that the chambers in question were kilometers away. Third, they argue that there was no clear documented order from Hitler to exterminate the Jewish people. Fourth, deniers argue that all sides were guilty. They claim immoral consistency, or in other words: “victim inversion.” For instance, many claim Allied bombs killed as many Jews as the Nazi Party did, and argue that the sickly, starving Jewish people documented by photographs and witnesses were not the result of the Germans.

It was only after the Allies took over the camps, they claim, that food and medical supplies were cut off and the Jews began to become sickly.

As a result of these arguments, many people ask, “Why does Germany accept that [the Holocaust] happened, then?” According to Lipstadt, deniers claim that the Jewish people were so successful in perpetuating this Holocaust “myth” that Germany had no choice but to accept it in order to be accepted back into the international community. Others ask, “Why would the Jews go along with this?” As Lipstadt pointed out, the deniers play into the typical Jewish stereotype, claiming that the Jewish people went along with the narrative for the sympathy of the international community and for the momentary gains. Lipstadt noted that although the Holocaust is known as one of the best-documented genocides, there are still questions surrounding the truthfulness of this history. She explained this as the “Yes, but…” syndrome in that most Holocaust deniers are not outright deniers, but will have doubts.

Emory Professor Deborah Lipstadt, above, delivered a lecture last Thursday, Oct. 28. In it, she recalled being sued for libel in the British court system after ousting author David Irving as a Holocaust denier.

According to Lipstadt, this is because Holocaust denial is based in anti-Semitic stereotypes. Lipstadt explained that this stereotype comes in part from the crucifixion story, in which the Jewish people convince all of Rome to kill Jesus, and from the medieval period, in which Jewish bankers were permitted to give loans while Christians were forbidden from committing usury. Lipstadt argued that this laid the template for future prejudice. As she stated, “Anti-Semitic prejudice is irrational. It’s not based on lack of proof, it’s a preexisting condition.”

After all the arguments of deniers are examined, many people will wonder what deniers want or hope to gain by challenging history.

According to Lipstadt, they want to be seen as

Students and members of the faculty weigh in on the effectiveness of CEQs CEQS continued from page 1 Council held a forum on academics and raised questions about improving the CEQs. Professor of History Miriam Cohen defended the current structure of the CEQs, saying it could identify broad trends while also leaving room for creative individual comments. The report, unanimously endorsed by the VSA Council on Sunday, stems from a series of conversations held by the Committee on Curricular Policy (CCP) in regard to the Vassar community’s experience with the CEQs. While the discussion revolved primarily around facultyspecific issues with the questionnaires being used to determine tenure, student representatives to CCP grew interested in assessing the feelings of the student body about the merits and faults of current CEQs. VSA Vice President for Academics Laura Riker ’11 and the Academics Committee, which Riker chairs, soon developed a survey to measure student views on this issue, which they then distributed to the student body. The report drafted by the Academics Committee describes that survey’s findings.

“This is completely a student initiative,” said Riker, the day after the report was endorsed.

“It was basically meant to gauge student response.” The report identifies four areas of concern that the 43 survey respondents mentioned frequently. Although that number seems small, Riker feels the number is more than satisfactory “for a voluntary survey,” and that the students who responded are not the only ones with reservations about the CEQs. “This report comes as a combination of this survey and general conversations [with the Vassar community] about the questionnaires,” she said.

The first area of concern the report describes revolves around the anonymity of the evaluations. The report relates that only a minority of students polled expressed much concern over this issue because grades are usually entered for that semester before the professor reads the responses. These students fear that a professor may be able to identify a negative comment through handwriting on the written response portion of the questionnaire, which only the professor sees. One respondent “mentioned that s/he will only provide negative criticism if the professor has not seen her/his handwriting before,” according to the report. It also states that, generally speaking, “the results show that students would prefer an online version of a CEQ because they would be able to comment on whatever they wanted without worrying about offending their professors.”

Next, the report describes variation in the way students attach meaning to the one to five evaluative scales that the CEQs employ.

Most students attach their own values to the numbers, such as “good, great, excellent, or perfect,” but the standards for each vary widely. The report suggests students feel “a more explicit scale would be much more effective, both for students and professors” in terms of normalizing ratings and communicating feedback.

The third item listed in the report is the way the context in which the CEQs are administered might skew the results. According to the report, some students feel that some professors actively diminish the importance of the questionnaires while they hand them out in class, or do not allow enough class time

for students to complete them properly. Also, “half of those who responded to the survey said they took the professor’s tenure status into consideration when filling out the CEQ , although many also noted that they are not aware of which professors are tenured and which are not,” according to the report. The report ultimately suggests professors extend the amount of time they allot for the CEQs and that they administer the questionnaires according to a standard procedure, so that they do not exert undue influence on the scores.

Finally, the report discusses the prospect of online CEQs, which were introduced as part of a pilot program last spring. While some of those surveyed thought online CEQs would receive fewer responses than those administered in class, the majority of those polled were either strongly or moderately in favor of moving the process to the web. “Additionally,” the report goes on to say, “many students appreciated being able to fill out the CEQ outside of class, saying they felt less rushed and no class time had to be wasted by filling them out.”

Now that the VSA has stamped the report with its endorsement, CCP will review its contents and incorporate the perspective of students in the ongoing discussion about the questionnaires. The Academics Committee hopes that this report will provide a new perspective and new conversations about the quality of the CEQs, as the final words of their report denote. “We see that the CEQ is an issue about which students do care deeply,” the report concludes, “particularly as it affects the professors they work with daily, as well as their own learning experience here at Vassar.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the other, edgier side of history, or as they nickname themselves, “Holocaust Revisionists.” Although Lipstadt recognized that revisionism is a legitimate approach to history—and one that has revealed many truths about history in the past—she nevertheless maintains that reinventing or ignoring facts is not revisionism.

To end her discussion, she asks, “What do we do?” Some have point to European nations that have laws forbidding denial of the Holocaust as examples of a possible solution. But Lipstadt said that such laws are not the answer.

She feels that laws such as those turn people whose speech is limited into the victims, allowing them to be seen as martyrs. Instead, Lipstadt argued, the best way to combat them is to “fight them with facts.”

News Briefs It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To A Safety and Security officer put an end to an unauthorized party at the Town Houses at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 28. The event started out as a birthday party, but “grew bigger than expected” when uninvited students arrived at the celebration according to Associate Director of Safety and Security Kim Squillace.

—Aashim Usgaonkar, News Editor

Puff the Magic Dragon At 12:44 a.m. on Oct. 28, an officer on patrol caught a student blowing marijuana smoke onto a fan on the rooftop of Lathrop’s annex.

The instrument used to smoke the marijuana was confiscated.

— AU

Been Caught Stealing A burglary at the Town Houses was reported at 10:10 p.m. on Oct. 29. A laptop—worth approximately $1,500—belonged to a Town House resident and was stolen from the student’s desk when he or she had left a bedroom’s window open.

— AU

Come on Baby Light My Fire On the nights of Oct. 28 and Oct. 29, Safety and Security was notified of fireworks in Noyes Circle. On both nights, there was a survey of the field with negative results.

—AU

Beat It On the night of Oct. 30, a resident of a Town House alerted officers’ attention to nonstudents wandering near one of the houses.

When they couldn’t produce any form of identification to prove that they were from within the Vassar community, the trespassers were escorted off campus.

—AU

NEWS

Page 4

Students vote in midterm elections Caitlin Clevenger, News Editor Dave Rosenkranz, Guest Reporter

V

assar students trekked to polling locations at Arthur S. May Elementary School and Poughkeepsie Town Hall Nov. 2 to vote in New York’s midterm elections. On the ballot were candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, Comptroller, Attorney General, both Senate positions and seats in the House of Representatives, as well as positions in the State Assembly and State Supreme Court. Emerging victorious from Tuesday’s race were Andrew Cuomo as governor and incumbent Democrats Charles E. Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand as Senators, as well as Republican Nan Hayworth as the 19th district’s representative to the House.

Overall, voter turnout this year was higher than expected. Warren Johnson, who was working at the polls all day, said that it was “extremely crowded.” From time to time there wouldn’t be enough voting booths for people to use, an event typically unique to presidential elections.

However, Vassar students made up a minority of the crowd. According to Johnson, only about 100 students came to Arthur S. May Elmentary school—the polling site for students living in the Terrace Apartments, South Commons and residence halls—after the polls had been open for 11 hours.

Rebecca Smith ’13 blames the poor turnout on the mood of the election, saying, “The way the election has

been going, I think a lot of Vassar students are apathetic about it.”

Despite this apathy, the administration made an effort to encourage and facilitate student voting. Several e-mails from Dean of the College Christopher Roellke and from Vassar Student Association President Mathew Leonard ’11 on Monday reminded students to get out and vote.

Vassar also provided for vans each half-hour to shuttle students to polling locations.

A few students thought that Vassar should make a bigger effort to register more voters. Adam Wolfe ’11 said, “I remember when I was a freshman here I registered to vote with somebody who came to campus. I probably wouldn’t be registered otherwise.”

According to conversations taking place at Arthur S. May Elementary, important issues for Vassar voters were upper-class tax cuts and the war in Iraq; however, leftleaning Vassar students stressed the need for Democratic Party survival above these individual causes, with many student voters claiming that they voted just to keep their party alive. On a national scale, this goal was only met in part; while the Democrats were able to maintain their hold over the Senate, by early Wednesday morning the Republican Party had gained over 59 seats in the House, far beyond the 39 seats they required to take control of the House of Representatives.

In the days leading up to this election, students, elections offi-

cials and administrators alike were concerned that students would encounter problems of the kind they experienced in 2009, when a number of Vassar students reported having their right to vote challenged on the basis of residency. Although students secured that right later in the day, officials feared that some intimidated students had left the site without voting.

This year, students and civil rights activists took steps to prevent voter suppression. Students were trained to act as poll watchers before the elections and stayed at the election site to ensure student voters’ rights.

Meghan Levine ’12 wrote in an emailed statement about poll watcher training, “Voter suppression is unacceptable and hopefully this can help open lines of communication before issues arise.” The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) also wrote a letter to the Dutchess County Elections Commissioners urging them to “issue special instructions to election inspectors in order to prevent a recurrence, this year, of the vote suppression activity that took place last year” by ensuring that challenges of residency are not made just because the voter appears to be a student.

Whehter in spite of or due to these precautions, Vassar students did not report any problems while voting this year. According to poll worker Mary Lestaglo, “I don’t think that there will be another controversy about Vassar voters. People are getting used to it.”

November 4, 2010

Roellke unveils initiative to clean Casperkill Creek CREEK continued from page 1 shed since the mid-20th century,” according to its website.

The project hopes to capture this history of the watershed by gathering informal stories, photographs and interviews about the lake. The Casperkill Oral History Project is founded on the belief that watersheds, like the Casperkill, can provide social, economic and environmental benefits to a community.

Roellke wants to put this mindset into practice at Vassar. Since Vassar is already very actively involved with the Casperkill Creek, both Roellke and the project’s planners see it as the perfect tie-in for a new campus tradition, starting with student initiative in the cleanup. “I was hoping to develop a community building day tradition of addressing a campus clean-up project,” wrote Roellke in an e-mailed statement. “The Casperkill Creek, which feeds Sunset Lake, emerged as a good candidate,” he concluded.

The clean-up project will focus on the marshy area of the Creek, located a few yards north of the Terrace Apartments bridge.

“We are hoping to have a group of students help with the clean-up as our first annual student ‘staffed’ community building/campus beautification project,” wrote Katherine Frost ’11, one of Roellke’s student interns, in an e-mailed statement.

Vassar students who choose to partake in the clean-up of Casperkill

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Creek will be provided with waders—waterproof boots and pants— to go into the river and get the brush and trash out of the creek.

Roellke and his department are actively planning for this cleanup at present, which they intend to take place sometime in the spring semester.

The cleanup project’s effort to involve students in local environmental issues will be augmented by a conference that Vassar will host on Nov. 6 on the recently updated Natural Resource Inventory (NRI) of Dutchess County, N.Y. “A Natural Resource Inventory is a document that catalogues the physical and biological characteristics of an area, collects the data in a useable format, and interprets the findings,” explained Emily Vail ’11, a research fellow for the Vassar College Environmental Research Institute, in an e-mailed statement.

This is the first time that Dutchess Country’s NRI has been updated since 1985.

These findings are valuable in that they provide information about how “the area can be used for land planning, and is an asset to the county, municipalities, and anyone interested in conservation,” remarked Vail.

The conference will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Villard Room of Main Building. Professor Emeritus of Georgraphy Harvey Flad will be the keynote speaker.

FEATURES

November 4, 2010

Page 5

Students sound off on new After Hours Study Space Ruth Bolster

S

Guest Reporter

Carlos Hernandez/The Miscellany News

ince its unveiling at the beginning of the term, the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library’s After Hours Study Space has received both praise and criticism from the Vassar community. Operating as the only accessible section of the Library from midnight to 8:15 a.m., the room itself is intended to furnish students with an all-night study environment that is conducive to productivity. Yet regardless of the space’s intended use, opinion holds that the 24-Hour Room has so far been unable to reach its idealized potential as an optimal study space.

“I can’t study in my dorm,” began Joseph Pyne ’14 when asked why he uses the space. “It is too loud, and I don’t want to bother my roommate.

But I find that I can get a lot of work done in the Study Space, so I come here a lot.”

Despite the quiet, studious atmosphere the After Hours Space generally exudes during a typical evening, this haven for late-night working is not without its own brand of distraction. A spiked increase in the number of people using the space during midterms week has shown that as of now the 24-Hour Room does not have the capacity to accommodate students during the more universally demanding segments of the academic year. The room itself has been described as being both noisy and congested during high traffic study periods, contradicting its ultimate purpose and goals. Additionally, reports of students crowded around tables and people studying on the floor during midterms week stress a need for more study tables and fewer plush chairs and computer stations.

Students study in the new After Hours Study Space in the Thompson Memorial Library, which was funded through the Class of 2012 Sophomore Class Gift. Unfortunately, many students find that the study space is too small and too noisy.

“I recognize the good intent of the Study Space; there was a need for it and it is a good sign that the school is providing it,” stated Andrew Gaines ’12 after recounting his experience with the room during midterms week. “But it should be considered a work in progress.”

In an e-mailed statement, Director of Libraries Sabrina Pape noted, “The After Hours Study Space is a ‘work in progress,’ or more of a pilot project than an established space. If it continues to be seen as a successful service and treated well by the

users, we will continue to work at making it the best it can be!”

“We are working to continue to make this space better, but, of course, we work within certain constraints,” Pape continued. “For example, the space is finite! Also, any additional needs, such as furniture, that might have financial implications would need to compete with other library and campus priorities.” While Pape’s comments demonstrate a desire to improve the space, they simultaneously reveal the obstacles of prioritization that student input must overcome.

In a direct address to the complaints of over-crowding during midterms week, Pape further stated, “The ‘loudest’ concern we have heard is that the space might be too small to accommodate students’ needs.

To that end, we will be opening the Library classroom after Thanksgiving in order to allow for more study space. Additionally, the Library itself will have extended hours during study and exam periods.” These hours will extend until 3 a.m.

When questioned about the 24Hour Room, Vassar Student Asso-

ciation (VSA) Vice President for Academics Laura Riker ’11 noted that the complaints received by the VSA Representative Committee concerning the After Hours Study Space include those pertaining to the lack of worktables and issues of crowding and noise. Furthermore, she and the VSA are striving to listen to students’ suggestions and are willing to make any necessary improvements to the Study Space.

Current measures to enhance the space’s workability include installing more tables and perhaps coffee machines and temporary lockers for students to store their books and materials when working on their thesis papers. However, the execution of these plans is of course subject to budgeting and funding, as well as students’ treatment of the space. When asked about the likelihood of installing a coffee machine in the Study Space, Riker noted, “It is a possibility, but nothing is fixed.

This has to do with funding, and of course there is always the fear that people would abuse it and end up trashing the place.” Students should expect an FAQ sheet from the VSA regarding the After Hours Study Space in their mailboxes in the coming days.

Although the After Hours Study Space is considered a “work in progress,” both the administration and the VSA are making efforts to optimize the room’s potential. However, exactly when these measures go into effect depends not only on the allotted funding, but also on student dedication to the improvement of their study options. Though the space is still in flux, it provides a much valued and highly appreciated service.

Steamboat to Villard, a history of parties at Vassar Jillian Scharr

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Guest Reporter

hat’s the biggest party of the year? Most Vassar students answer “Halloween” without hesitation; the event has gained notoriety for its size, elaborate costumes, and enthusiastic consumption.

But 100 years ago—or even 20 years ago— Halloween was far from the top spot of Vassar’s favorite fêtes. The College has seen a long history of parties, from 19th century teas to 20th century political rallies to 21st century Villard Room bashes. For those who didn’t get enough of a party fix this past weekend, here’s a look at Vassar partying through the ages.

In its founding years, Vassar was anything but a party school. Students spent their Saturdays writing letters, although after a few years enough clubs and organizations had sprung up that they offered some diversion as well. In 1868 one student wrote in a letter to a friend, as recorded on the Vassar Encyclopedia: “Saturdays are no longer the ‘beautiful days we once enjoyed,’ where we could engage in letter-writing for diversion.

Today we had the first regular meeting of a ‘missionary society’ (don’t you wonder what organizations will spring up next?) which is to meet once a month.”

The school’s first big party was in May of 1866, when, according to the Vassar Encyclopedia, the students arranged a surprise party for Matthew Vassar. Vassar was driven through Main Gate, over which an enormous “Welcome to the Founder” banner had been draped, and up the driveway lined with Vassar students waving handkerchiefs. The party was held in Main Building and included piano solos, lectures and a poetry reading. At one point, Vassar had to leave the room to compose himself; with tears in his eyes, he said, “This one event has paid me for every cent I have spent for the College.”

Matthew Vassar’s surprise party was more than just a good time. For one, explained Brian Farkas ’10, author of the book Covering the

Campus: A History of The Miscellany News, the student group that organized it would pave the way for student government at Vassar. Secondly, Matthew Vassar’s surprise party became one of Vassar College’s most treasured traditions: Founder’s Day. A steamboat-ride reception for seniors on the Hudson River was launched in the spring of 1874. After 11 years, however, this party was discontinued because of “expense, danger from wandering ferry boats and detrimental remarks of newspaper men.”

Throughout the 20th century, as Vassar gained a reputation for political activism, “Political rallies often morphed into ‘parties,’ especially in the 1920s and 1940s,” said Farkas.

Dances and socials with Yale became increasingly common, particularly as transportation opportunities increased with the decades, and the College slowly began scaling back its restrictions regarding men on campus.

It wasn’t until 1966, however, that student curfews were extended to 2:30 a.m., provided that the student return accompanied by another person. The hours during which male visitors were permitted were also extended.

This is probably a reflection of the close relationship between Vassar and Yale, so close that the schools considered merging in the late 1960s before eventually becoming co-ed independently.

A 10.20.09 issue of the Yale Daily News reported that by the 1960s both schools frequently chartered busses back and forth; Vassar girls would visit New Haven for a football game and stay the weekend at the Hotel Taft on campus, while Yale boys with cars often drove to Poughkeepsie “for dinner and drinks” after class. .

In the 1970s, however, the combination of a newly coeducational campus, expanding venues for entertainment, and campus renovations revamped the social norm at Vassar College.

Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) was established, and with it an expanded budget for student activities. Secondly, the Students’

Building was refurbished in 1970; what had once been many small offices now became the large All Campus Dining Center (ACDC), with an open upstairs room. “Today, ACDC and the Villard Room of the College Center remain the two most important all-campus programming spaces,” wrote Farkas.

“Vassar traditionally had more creative, themed fêtes that were more about a specific event (and were often more clever) than the current Villard Room bashes,” Farkas wrote in an emailed statement.

In the 1990s, one single party put Vassar on the radar: the HomoHop. Hosted by the organization that would come to be known as the Queer Coalition of Vassar College (QCVC), the HomoHop would come to be famous for being the biggest party hosted by a LGBTQ student group in the region.

The HomoHop was begun as a celebration of students’ sexuality, with dancing, performances, and pornographic films and photos of any sexual orientation, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education. The party often drew crowds of more than 1,500 people, from Vassar and throughout the Northeast (“Vassar Ends Annual ‘HomoHop’ Party Because of Alcohol Problems,” 12.3.99).

The last HomoHop took place in Nov. 1999. The party opened its doors at 10 p.m. and was shut down by the administration at 12:15 a.m. after two local hospitals, their emergency rooms full of Vassar students, called the College to request that the party be stopped.

“HomoHop99 spanned three floors of the College Center and three local hospitals,” a photo caption on a front page article titled “What Happened at HomoHop?” of the 11.12.99 issue of The Miscellany News observed.

Vassar College Emergency Medical Services (EMS) described the night as “chaos” to The Miscellany News. 32 EMS calls were made, a record high.

Aside from the dangerously high levels of intoxication, crowd control was also an issue. “It

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

was mayhem in the crowd outside...everyone was pushing each other and screaming at each other. Everyone wanted to get inside and there simply wasn’t enough room for everyone,” explained then Jewett House President Dean Lennon ’01 .

Exacerbating problems resided in the crowd, “there were a lot of people [inside and outside] with no ties to Vassar who had no business being there—some pretty young kids and also some pretty old people,” observed then Director of Residential Life Faith Nichols.

“I fear that an event next year will become the HomoHop in terms of the heavy partying and drug experimentation,” said Lennon with a tinge of pessimism.

And indeed it has been said that, although no subsequent Halloweens have matched the chaos at the 1999 HomoHop, Vassar’s largest party has moved to Oct. 31.

Even though Halloween never reached the dangerous levels that HomoHop did, there was some talk of canceling Vassar’s Halloween party, particularly after last year’s 20 EMS calls. At the VSA Council meeting the following night, then VSA President Caitlin Ly ’10 expressed concern that “next year the administration may be pushing even harder to get rid of the Halloween event.”

However, this year the response was much more positive. EMS reported only 12 calls— which is still four times their usual amount on weekends, but significantly less than last year’s Halloween—and the VSA praised the abundance of alternative programming throughout the weekend.

From poetry recitals to Lady GaGa techno remixes, the College has seen the whole scope of the party spectrum since 1861. And despite its wide variety of tastes—from those who’d prefer a steamboat reception on the Hudson to those who think DJ Olmac’s remix of “Bad Romance” is poetry—Vassar has always stood out on the collegiate social scene.

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November 4, 2010

Sharp examines literary tradition with new perspective Danielle Gensburg

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Assistant Features Editor

collection of essays concerning the work of George Steiner.

One of Sharp’s most unusual interests is that of Australian literature. From 2008 to 2009, Sharp took a year-long sabatical in Melbourne, Australia, claiming that he “had always wanted to spend some time there, and I thought it would be a good place to work on a book that I had started some years earlier.”

While there, Sharp attended a conference in the city of Mildura. Although Sharp already knew several Australian poets, including Les Murray, a renowned Australian poet who was asked to contribute a clause concerning the concept of “mateship,” counterpart to friendship, to the preamble of the Australian Constitution, he formed a variety of new friendships with published Australian authors and poets, including Alex Miller and Alice Pung, through the conference.

From there on, Australia, its literature and its culture, became one of his primary interests. Sharp said, “It was all a matter of serendipity. While I was in Australia, I learned so much more about Australian literature, and I became so enamored with the culture that I found myself changing course and writing instead about Australian literature and culture rather than my Keats project.”

Throughout his stay in Australia, Sharp traveled to places such as Sydney and North Queensland, expanding his knowledge of Australian culture, specifically concerning the treatment of national identity, and cultivating an interest in Australian literature. Although most Americans know nothing of Australian

Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

rofessor of English Ronald Sharp initially taught at Kenyon College for 33 years, where he was appointed associate provost, provost and eventually president of the College. In 1979, Sharp revived Kenyon’s most esteemed literary magazine The Kenyon Review, which had been one of the most influential literary magazines in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s but ceased publication in 1969. As co-editor of The Kenyon Review for five years, Sharp delved into stories, plays, poems, essays and many other creative genres while teaching classes. Sharp came to Vassar in 2003 and was appointed Dean of the Faculty, a position he held for five years. Eager to return to the classroom, he took up teaching again this past year.

Friendship, Sharp accurately pointed out, is a subject which has not received much attention in most scholarly and academic disciplines of the 20th and early 21st centuries: “I had asked novelists, poets and English professors what I should read on the subject of friendship and I was astonished by how few suggestions anyone had,” he exclaimed.

Indulging his curiosity, Sharp found a number of literary works on the subject of friendship by distinguished authors and poets including Aristotle, Cicero, Jane Austen, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Based off of his extensive research, Sharp published a book in 1991 titled The Norton Book of Friendship, which included a series of poems,

plays, essays and fables. To compose the collections, he collaborated with renowned writer Eudora Welty. “To compile the anthology, Eudora Welty and I considered not only all the literature we had read beforehand but also thousands of other works dealing with the subject,” he said laughing. He added, “The book contains correspondences between individuals like Groucho Marx and T.S. Eliot, of all people, as well as letters between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Orwell.”

Sharp briefly captured his own views concerning friendship by reiterating his own favorite proverbs on the subject. In an emailed statement, he said, “The first is Roman: ‘Friends are people who waste time together.’

The second is Egyptian: ‘An onion with a friend is a roast lamb.’” Writers such as Thoreau stated, “Friends cherish each other’s hopes. They are kind to each other’s dreams.” While Simone Weil believed that “Friendship is a miracle by which a person consents to view from a certain distance, and without coming any nearer, the very being who is necessary to him as food.”

Another one of Sharp’s main interests is that of English Romanticism, specifically the work of John Keats.

Sharp has written two books concerning Keats, one titled Keats, Skepticism, and the Religion of Beauty, and the other The Persistence of Poetry: Bicentennial Essays on John Keats, in which he argues on behalf of Keats’ development of a radical new view of spirituality. Additionally, Sharp has edited a collection of poetry by Michael Harper, and formed his own

Professor Ronald Sharp, above, focuses his research on Australian literature and the concept of friendship. Sharp is the former president of Kenyon College. literature, Sharp stated, “The quality of the literature is just extraordinary, detail-oriented, and complex. It’s a shame that so little of it is known in the U.S.” Another contributing factor to Sharp’s interest in Australia and its literature was the subject of friendship and its connection to its Australian counterpart: mateship, a fundamental Australian cultural idiom that embodies loyalty and friendship.

A fascinating professor with multiple literary interests, Sharp, oddly

enough, never read much as a child: “I was actually interested in sports.

It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I became interested in art and literature. In college, I further developed that passion,” he explained, reminding that very little is ever as it seems.

Regardless of whether the interest stemmed from an early age or not, Sharp certainly demonstrates passion, dedication, and curiosity towards the arts and literature.

Brigham, Mampilly share foreign policy expertise Mary Huber

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Guest Reporter

obert Brigham, the Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Studies at Vassar, dedicates his time to U.S. foreign relations, and war in particular, and Assistant Professor of Political Science Zachariah Mampilly’s work is concerned with terrorism, guerilla movements and civil conflicts, especially in developing countries. Brigham puts his trust in international institutions, arguing the need to strengthen the international community’s commitment to human rights while Mampilly is skeptical of international institutions, emphasizing a more grass-roots approach in promoting human rights. Brigham and Mampilly embody Vassar’s commitment to the diversity of academic discourse.

Brigham summarized the focus of his critical scholarship in an e-mailed statement: “My research has focused on the history of U.S. foreign relations, with a special emphasis on the Vietnam and Iraq Wars...In recent years, my books have focused on a consistent theme—how do states end deadly conflict in a sustainable and equitable way? This latter interest has led me to explore the role of institutions in safe-guarding human rights in times of war.”

Brigham admits that actually resolving and preventing violence is much more difficult than it sounds, noting, “The major problem for me is that I would only see U.S. participation in [mediation] activity under the banner of the United Nations, and since U.S. soldiers do not generally serve under foreign command, this could be problematic.” Brigham’s philosophies point to what he describes as a larger problem, “Does the international community support human rights enough to build up institutional strength within the United Nations to handle such problems?” Brigham postulates, “Sadly, I think the answer is ‘no.’” Brigham asserts that it is the responsibility of the United States to foster global interest in human rights, but is puzzled as to how to make human rights a priority in a world that knows no shortage of atrocity. Again, there don’t seem to be any clear answers. “The peaceful settlement of

deadly conflict has a very limited history. In light of this observation, Brigham questions the potency of standing institutions noting, “I believe international institutions are ill-prepared to deal with serious negotiations. Most institutional support comes after deadly conflict, and is therefore not preventative.”

If ending violent conflict sounds difficult, Brigham makes it clear that determining the underlying causes of violence is even trickier. “Certainly inequalities contribute to violence, as does sectarianism and xenophobia. [However] I do not think that the human race is doomed to conflict from some primordial urge… I teach, therefore I am a perpetual optimist. To surrender to the idea that war is inevitable is not living the life that I have chosen.” Brigham is indeed an optimist, though a cautious one, and he is stoically dedicated to changing the world. “I remain convinced that people to people diplomacy is the beginning of understanding and that understanding leads to empathy and empathy leads to action...Individuals can make a difference, even when confronted with the actions of powerful states. Nelson Mandela changed the geometry in South Africa. Aung San Suu Kyi has brought the world’s attention to human rights abuses in Burma. What will today’s Vassar students do?”

Brigham cannot know for sure, but he intends to encourage them along the way, concluding, “Get involved!!”

When it comes to the resolving violent conflicts, Mampilly is much more skeptical of the role the international community can play.

“When you talk about the role of the international community it’s very important to disaggregate the many different actors who are involved in civil wars around the world.” he explains, characterizing civil conflict as a truly international phenomenon. “It’s very tricky,” he continues, “to think about the international community in the singular sense because it plays many different roles in fueling the conflict.” Mamphilly is quick to point towards foreign powers funding wars in other countries through direct contributions or commerce.

“The tricky part...is to presume in any way that

the international community can be a neutral player. That, I think, is the problem with a lot of diplomatic efforts.”

Mampilly is equally skeptical of governing bodies that promote international law. “The current status of international law is not sufficiently capable of bringing justice to these societies and instead is an effort by well-meaning individuals to try to construct a set of institutions that one day perhaps will be able to do this, but currently they target weak countries in order to establish precedent,” claimed Mampilly. “If you have a system that isn’t likely to convict or doesn’t even have the capacity to bring to trial the largest perpetrator, you have to ask yourself, what is the point of the system?”

So what should a person who wants help make the world a better place do as per the tenant of the Mampilly mantra? “You can support local civil society activists; I think every one of these societies that I’ve studied and worked with have extraordinary, impressive individuals on the ground—often times journalists, sometimes human rights activists, sometimes student movements—that are on the front lines trying to transform the societies they are from,” said Mampilly. “Too often we put our faith in these anonymous international institutions with their entrenched bureaucracies and very slim records of achieving the goals they’ve set out for themselves over people on the ground who live within these societies. This bias is reflected even within academia, so that we don’t have a sustained dialogue between African universities and American universities, or between African human rights activists and Western human rights activists. Instead there’s always this assumption that [developing countries] are pawns of Western agendas, that they’re just victims, because they’re incapable of resisting, and that is a perception that I find deeply problematic. It prevents a more sustained, substantial engagement between Westerners and people in these types of countries.”

Mampilly also emphasizes the need to communicate as equals. “There needs to be a greater amount of humility in the engagement between individuals who are interested

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

in helping developing countries in the ways they go about engaging in these issues. There is a tendency currently, that is being fostered by certain intellectuals...that you can be a ‘social enterpreneur’—and I put that in quotes because that’s not my language—and simply say these people have this problem, I’m just going to think about it really hard and quickly solve it for them without understanding the broader historical context, international connections that foster those problems in the first place,” he opined. He mentioned in particular an article in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristoff titled “Do It Yourself Philanthropy,” which highlighted four white women who ran NGOs around the world that Kristof thought would save the world. “I was struck by the naïveté of thinking these very well-meaning individuals were suddenly going to resolve the problems of the world...I feel like that sense of your own messiah-hood is being endorsed by people like Nicholas Kristof.” He also used Greg Mortenson of Three Cups of Tea fame as an example of a Westerner almost celebrating their own goodness in stumbling upon a country they had almost no knowledge of and “saving” it. “Why can’t you go to Afghanistan having learned about them in the first place—developing language skills, making contact with the Afghan community, talking to them about their efforts on the ground. All these communities are here in the U.S.—there’s an Afghan diaspora, a Congolese diaspora. They are savvy, they are aware.

They know what’s going on and are actively involved in relief efforts in their home countries.

Why not engage with them? And then, if you find a way that organically comes out of your engagement to play a role, then I’m all for it, I’m behind it 100 percent.”

Comparing Brigham and Mampilly’s perspectives reveals just how complex resolving conflict and promoting human rights—some of the most pressing issues we face—really is. Do we put our faith in international institutions or individuals? Can we create a world in which respect for human rights is universal? And if so, how do we do it? The answers aren’t clear, but hopefully this discussion inspires action.

November 4, 2010

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Josselyn House: a stylish dorm from 1912 through 2010 Vee Benard

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Guest Reporter

Jared Saunders/The Miscellany News

ocated on the Northwestern corner of campus, Olivia P. Josselyn House—“Joss” for short—is Vassar’s second largest residence hall. With approximately 237 residents per year, Joss’ spacious rooms, comfortable parlors and recently renovated bathrooms make it one of the most popular dorms on campus.

Opened in 1912, Joss was the last of the six dormitories constructed during the presidency of James Monroe Taylor, Vassar’s fourth president. Taylor’s 28-year tenure (1886-1914) was characterized by his persistant efforts to assert Vassar’s position as a serious collegiate institution alongside competing women’s institutions such as Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Smith and Mount Holyoke.

Faced with a steadily decreasing number of applicants, a shortage of funds and outdated facilities, Taylor was forced to make radical changes to Vassar’s curriculum and architecture in order to keep the College afloat. After soliciting donations from John D. Rockefeller and a number of other philanthropists, Taylor proposed a building plan that imitated the architectural styles of Vassar’s chief rivals, Smith College and Wellesley College, both of which opened their doors in 1875.

Taylor’s plan called for the decentralization of campus around Main Building by introducing two zones of construction, one academic and one residential. The academic zone, which was intended to relieve teachers and students of the burden of working in overcrowded, rundown classrooms, called for both the renovation of pre-existing academic facilities, such as

Olivia P. Josselyn House is Vassar’s third youngest dormitory, and has long been famed as one of the most luxurious residences on campus. The construction of Joss completed the residential quad as it now exists.

Avery Hall, and the addition of new ones, such as Sanders Classroom, New England Building, Rockefeller Hall and the buildings on the Science Quad. The residential zone, however, was developed not only to accommodate the rising number of matriculants, but also to establish Vassar as a welcoming community with stateof-the-art living facilities equal to those of its competitors.

A gift by Mrs. Russell Sage, who named the building in honor of her mother, Joss was con-

structed just two years before the end of Taylor’s presidency. Enlisting the help of Francis Allen, who had also served as consulting architect for Jewett House and the four quad dorms, Taylor responded to Vassar’s need for updated, competitive housing solutions by creating a residence hall that was both functional and aesthetically pleasing, but more importantly one that would reaffirm Vassar’s place among the best institutions of higher learning for contemporary women in the world. Though not tech-

nically a “quadrangle” dorm, Joss was clearly designed to resemble its five neighboring residence halls, Jewett in particular. This was primarily a result of Allen’s history of architectural contributions to campus, which allowed him to design Joss so that it resembled the residential facilities of Vassar’s rival schools, while also making sure it remained stylistically consistent with its surroundings.

Joss’ U-shaped footprint follows the orientation of the neighboring quad dorms, and, like Jewett, consists primarily of southern-facing rooms. The four-story building, built in a medieval style, was regarded to be the most sophisticated of the dorms at the time of its completion. With its rough brick exterior, granite trimming and casement windows, Joss gives off an extravagant air that was no doubt intended to attract the attention of applicants and their well-to-do families.

Originally intended to accommodate 120 students over a series of single rooms and tworoom suites, Joss soon gained the reputation of being a more luxurious alternative to Vassar’s other residential halls, and attitude that may not be so foreign today. In addition to holding the distinction of being the first dorm on campus to have showers, Joss also offered amenities not available in the other dorms, such as monogrammed linens, oriental rugs and kitchenettes on every floor. Though originally criticized for being too far from the academic nucleus of The College, and the residential community of the other dorms, Joss continued to stand out as a popular choice amongst residents as a result of its plush environment.

See JOSS on page 8

Buddhist Sangha offers Students head to D.C. to peaceful contemplation restore sanity, promote fear Danielle Bukowski

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Guest Reporter

he main focus of Vassar’s Buddhist Sangha is sitting meditation. Students gather twice a week—8:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays—in the Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library’s quiet room to sit and meditate. Seven to 10 core students attend regularly, while many others drop by as needed.

Vassar’s Buddhist group, called a “Sangha,” which originates from the Sanskrit term for community, is comprised of students from all backgrounds with the common goal of clearing the mind. According to Arial Shogren ’13, one of the leaders of the Sangha, “What we do is simple…I think people come [to Sangha] because Buddhism, or the concept of sitting meditation and experiencing the present moment, is more applicable to the lives of college students.” In the race to finish papers on time, attend extracurricular events and remember to eat, Vassar students need to find ways to calm down and focus on the present moment, and for many, sitting meditation is a way to achieve that focus.

During the meetings, students practice zazen meditation, described as the study of the self. Attendants will sit on small pillows called zafus, meditate for approximately 30 minutes, and chant Buddhist vows at the end. While “sitting”, participants chose to sit with crossed or bent legs, and traditionally keep their position for the duration of the zazen. Vassar’s Sangha is more lenient: students may switch positions. Yet all participants should be respectful of other sitters by keeping quiet and relatively still. The goal of sitting meditation is to clear the mind and bring unity to mind, body, and breathing.

Like most religious groups on campus, the Buddhist Sangha is welcoming and open to newcomers and anyone curious about the faith.

Yet the Sangha is not comprised primarily of practicing Buddhists. One sitter described the group as “a melting pot” of various backgrounds. “Our Buddhist Sangha is very Zenbased, so we might not be able to represent all of the traditions of Buddhism,” Shogren said.

The group also sponsors periodical trips to Buddhist centers and hosts dharma talks once a semester.

The co-pilots of the group, Shogren and Amanda Howard ’13, were not raised Buddhist.

“I took a World Religions class in high school, and we went to a Buddhist monastery, and that sparked an interest. Occasionally I went to one of the talks, but I didn’t learn to sit until I came to Vassar,” Shogren explained. Howard recounts, “I started going [to Buddhist Sangha] in November last year. It was just something one of the old leaders of the group got me into.

It’s something I do every week that clears my head for a while.”

One regular attendant, Chenxi Cai ’11, said he is “in the process of understanding Buddhist teachings. I got interested over the summer and tried to feel the Buddhist way of looking at things. I come pretty much every week.” Even a few alumnae/i still come back to Buddhist Sangha.

“Sitting meditation can be very challenging.

It is challenging to clear my head sometimes.

It’s a lifelong practice; there is no end goal,” Howard said. Vassar’s version of the meditations are more lenient—they allow sitters to change positions and leave if they want to—“so as to not scare anyone off,” Shogren added.

Because Buddhist practice is such an individual journey, the students have no trouble incorporating the teachings into their daily lives. A person can meditate anywhere, so long as they have quiet and a place to sit, so it’s more a matter of finding the time and learning to focus. Members of Vassar’s Buddhist Sangha are eager to talk about their spirituality, and what meditating means to them: a sense of calm, a time to get away, finding a place in the world.

Participants within the Buddhist Sangha pride themselves on the open acceptance of all individuals. And though Shogren admits to a belief that spirituality if far more prevalent than faith on Vassar’s campus, diversity of religion is seen as a statistic, as members note, but it is not seen as a negative. “We are generally let to be,” Shogren said.

Buddhists at Vassar are interested in spirituality, meditation and finding time for peace in their hectic schedules. Even though students spend most of their time sitting in classes, lectures, and the library, sitting meditation is the only place they are encouraged to deactivate and think of absolutely nothing if only for a few brief moments.

RALLY continued from page 1 various celebrities attempting to help one of the two hosts promote either fear or sanity. For example, after the hosts’ opening remarks, the two began a conversation between Cat Stevens, representing sanity with the song “Peace Train,” and Ozzy Osbourne singing “Crazy Train,” representing fear. This particular battle was resolved when The O’Jays arrived on stage and performed their song, “Love Train.”

All the while, screaming rally-goers donned their Halloween costumes and displayed their home-made signs with catchy political slogans, such as, “You better not shout, you better not lie, because Sanity Clause is coming to town,” as well as the free rally paraphernalia being distributed, including megaphones and hand towels.

The main focus of the rally was on the influence of the media on American politics. “The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen, or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire,” said Stewart.

According to Stewart, the mainstream media is attempting to drum up controversy by portraying American politics through a filter that highlights the views on the extreme left and right of the political spectrum. “The press is our immune system. If it overreacts to everything, we actually get sicker,” Stewart told the crowd. “And yet, with that being said, I feel good; strangely, calmly good.

Because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a fun-house mirror…If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.”

The Vassar Student Association sponsored two trips to the rally through the Vassar Democrats and the Moderate, Independent and Conservative Alliance (MICA), which together brought close to 50 students to Washington, D.C. The students attending these rallies had decidedly divergent views on what to expect.

“Apart from some free swag, I didn’t go into the rally expecting much (other than the usual antics of Stewart & co.),” wrote Michelle Cantos ’11, a member of the MICA trip, in an emailed statement. “I traveled to D.C. to have fun with my friends, read some clever signs, consume over-priced food and get uncomfortably close to strangers.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Across the political aisle, the Vassar Democrats expected the event to deliver a more profound message. In one respect, the Democrats recognized Stewart as a trusted source of objective news coverage. “The right loves to mock the fact that so many people get their news from Jon Stewart, but a lot of what is on The Daily Show is a lot more factually accurate than what’s on major news networks,” said Theresa Dernbach ’12, the Democrats’ co-President.

But members of the Democrats also felt that “The focus of this rally is lampooning but also kind of shining a light on these profound social ills,” said Communications Chair for the Vassar Democrats Sam Scarritt-Selman ’12. He believes that Jon Stewart fulfills a distinct role in the delivery of that message. “For it to have any credibility, it needs to be brought to us by someone outside of that system. It’s not just political, it’s cultural.”

Dernbach felt that the rally was not just a call for sanity, but for liberalism. “The right has been mobilizing so much more with rallies and local movements, and the left has not really responded in kind. If it’s going to be two comedians who answer the right’s anger and passion, then so be it,” she said.

Students who attended the rally found that their expectations were widely surpassed.

“Knowing Jon Stewart’s and Steven Colbert’s reputations as satirical pundits I expected humor and parodying of Glenn Beck’s rally,” said Nick Johnson ’12, a member of the MICA delegation. “But Jon Stewart’s words at the end were moving and surprisingly heartfelt.”

“I was also surprised at how many people showed up,” continued Johnson. “I expected more than Glenn Beck’s, but it was over 2.5 times the size of his rally according to the latest estimates. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder and yet people stayed sane and reasonable and were all very friendly.”

By the rally’s close, Steward vanquished Colbert and his fear through the power of sanity, saying, “You want to know why I’m here and what I want from you, I can already assure you this. You have already given it to me. Your presence was what I wanted. Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder.

To see you here today, and the kind of people that you are, has restored mine.”

Page 8

Josselyn has a ‘scientific’ edge over all JOSS continued from page 7 Today, Joss is praised for both its ornate architecture, its homelike atmosphere, and the distinct style and personality of its residents.

Joss’s lengthy hallways, with their tiled flooring and dim lighting, give off a stately yet welcoming air that conveys much of the coziness of home.

Students can often be found relaxing, studying or even socializing in these wide corridors.

Joss’ two parlors—one on the first floor and the other on the second floor—act as common rooms for the entire building. The first floor parlor, accessible directly through the front doors of the building, rests at the base of a small staircase. Equipped with a Steinway baby grand piano and an abundance of overstuffed armchairs, the first-floor parlor offers a “sitting room” feel and is currently used as a meeting place for friends, study groups and various student-run organizations. The recently-renovated second floor parlor, also known as the Multi-Purpose Room, though still designed in the same antique style as the rest of the building, now offers a flat screen TV, a pool table and a ping pong table.

Joss residents enjoy a proximity to both Vassar’s outdoor tennis courts, which lie directly behind the building, and scenic “Joss Beach,” the vast expanse of grass that stretches out from Joss’ entrance to the rear of Chicago Hall. Though now used for picnics and the occasional barbecue, Joss Beach was, at one point, home to a 40-ton camouflaged Saint-Charmond army tank rumored to have been a favored hiding spot for beer during prohibition. The tank was a gift from the French government in appreciation for the services of Vassar women throughout the Great War and was a fixture on Joss Beach for almost two decades.

In collaboration with Cushing House, Joss will host this year’s Harvest Ball, the theme of which will be “Vassquerade,” at the Student’s Building on Nov. 13.

In addition to referring to “numerous scientific studies that have independently verified that Joss is indeed the best dorm on campus,” Flynn explained in his e-mail that it is a combination of Joss’ “cool and claw-like” exterior, its “fun” student population, and its homey atmosphere that make it one of the most-loved dorms on campus. All facts aside, Flynn wrote that there is one thing that sets Joss apart from the other dorms: “Joss gets intimate.”

FEATURES

November 4, 2010

Campus collaborations stray from ideal ORGS continued from page 1 between both organizations in resources both physical and monetary.” Director of Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) Alison Saint Jules ’11 adds that ideally a true collaboration would be a joint creative effort as well.

While this benign definition of collaboration is laudable in its content, others feel that the lack of specific requirements has allowed for individuals and the organizations they represent to flirt around the edges of the ideal.

Main House President Boyd Gardner ’12 believes that the VSA should have influence over billing one’s event as a collaboration, “Only with regards to applying to the Collaboration Fund.” He remarks, “If two organizations want to apply to the fund, there should be more scrutiny.” Saint Jules is both wary and appreciative of the collaboration fund noting, “Any collaboration solely concerned with money is a major abuse,” and wonders at the positive effects that stricter VSA guidelines for collaborations could potentially create.

She postulates, “I think if the VSA really tried to make an emphasis to examine what organizations were getting out of collaborations, then organizations would try to match better,” believing that guidelines would inspire collaborations to draw primarily on the inherent qualities and motivations of the partnering organizations.

Regardless of the potential pitfalls and abuses that can occur, Tatum is firm in her belief that encouraging collaboration is ultimately beneficial to student organizations and the people who run them. “I think that in the real world you’re forced to work with people and collaborate with different groups and organizations…and doing that here is good practice,” explained Tatum. She continues to highlight collaborations as a sign of a healthy campus, noting, “Better events require collaboration because you have more ideas circulating and they have higher attendance overall.”

While the reasons behind the VSA’s incentivizing of collaboration are sound, it has been suggested that, though a 50-50 division of responsibilities is an important first step, there is a decidedly less tangible aspect to a successful collaboration. When Co-President of Hip-Hop 101 Carola Beeney ’11 considers the possibility of collaboration she relates that she is “looking for organizations with likeminded goals, commitment and enthusiasm.”

Her co-President, Kendall Coleman ’11 adds,

“What I like in a collaboration is when you can explore territory in which you may not have expertise,” citing a recent, successful collaboration between Hip-Hop 101 and Contrast for a hip-hop fashion show. Saint Jules, drawing on her experience with ViCE, contributes, “Any time a student [from a collaborating organization] is paired with a paid performer, I think that’s a really productive collaboration because it gives the students an opportunity they wouldn’t always be able to have and it fits really well with the theme.”

In an effort to explore readily available methods to improve the quality of collaborations, Tatum offers the notion of appointing a collaboration committee of sorts as a noncompulsory measure by which true collaboration can be executed, noting, “A great, but not necessary, idea is to form a subcommittee created by both organizations that handles the event. This one committee can be a voting body and make compromises.” Tatum’s suggestion would allow a collaborating force rather than individual student leaders to determine the timbre of a collaboration.

Beeney and Coleman assert that Hip-Hop 101 is a collaboration-driven organization; however, their collaborations often fall outside of VSA jurisdiction as they seek to reach out to the greater Poughkeepsie Community, most consistently partnering with the Hip Hop Theater group, which is operated out of the Poughkeepsie Family Partnership Center.

Beeney is proud that, in her opinion, Hip-Hop 101 is the face of Vassar students in downtown Poughkeepsie, beaming, “We’ve always had non-Vassar Students. If you were to walk down Main Street and ask what the student organizations were, people would probably know us before any other group.” She continues to begrudge the lack of official channels for off-campus collaboration, explaining, “There should be more institutional support in terms of outreach on the part of student organizations.” Though Beeney and Coleman see no end to their organization’s community contributions, they do raise important questions by highlighting a valuable yet complicated form of collaboration that they feel places them in a limbo in the eyes of current VSA guidelines.

Hip-Hop 101, however, is not the only group that encounters organization-specific conditions surrounding collaboration. Gardner explains that Main House’s size affects the way he is able to collaborate and the incentives

governing with whom he seeks to collaborate.

“It’s complicated for Main,” he says, “because we don’t collaborate with the other houses because our house is large enough and has a big enough budget.” Gardner continues to cite Moulin Rouge and the Main House Pool Party as successful collaborations that are consistent with Main House’s goals.

Saint Jules expresses frustration concerning collaborators who would seek to uses ViCE’s superior resources and experience as a crutch for their own planning. “There’s really no emphasis on what it means to collaborate,” she recounts, “so organizations come together and they don’t really have a definitive reason as to why the collaboration works for them.

From ViCE’s standpoint it often seems that organizations come to us because they know we’re able to plan events, when they could really do it on their own.” This desire for collaborations to make sense on both a conceptual and practical level appears to be the motivating force behind current skepticism surrounding collaborations.

No critique of campus collaborations is complete without turning an eye towards the VSA’s Collaboration Fund. Though the fund was created to promote true collaboration and to allow organizations to dream big and execute bigger, it has become the target and rallying point of much of the cynicism directed towards collaborations. Tatum allays fears of abuse of the fund, saying, “The Collaboration Fund hasn’t been used that extensively this year, but the people who have used it; I think they deserved the money.” But the fact remains that abuse of the system whether real or imagined is still perceived. Tatum describes abuse as “any event that attaches a name of an organization for the sake of saying they collaborated.” Gardner adds, “I do think there’s an issue with money, because some collaboration offers have been like, ‘Give me $150 and we’ll mention you on the poster,’ just so that we’ll help them out.”

Tatum along with all of the organization heads that offered their opinions believe in the creative potential of collaboration and express a desire to see true collaboration come to define collusion between organizations at Vassar. Student Leaders such as Beeny, Coleman, Gardner, and Saint Jules continue to view collaboration as a productive means by which campus programming can be enriched and look optimistically forward.

College considers clarity of student conduct process EMS continued from page 1 According to Black, “I think there’s still more work to be done. On Halloween, there was three if not four times the calls we get for any typical weekend night, so it’s still a big night... We’re going in the right direction, but we’re not there yet.”

“My ideal would be to have a Halloween night where we don’t have to have an ambulance stationed, or two ambulances stationed outside,” he continued. For Black, Four Loko is not the sole cause of the shifts in drinking culture. Rather, he says EMS statistics have too often been misrepresented. “Where we had also said that there had been some instances this year where people were drinking caffeinated and alcohol-combined beverages and that that was causing some issues, we never said that every single intox call that we’ve run this year, or every single person that’s been hospitalized or every single person that’s unconscious drank FourLoko—none of these ‘facts’ are true.”

Though root causes are hard to pinpoint, Black attributes changes in drinking cultures to shifts in the student population, from new students who arrive to a new group of students of legal drinking age. “It’s more of the students and the culture that surrounds it,” said Black. “[For] severity also, I think it’s a combination—what students choose to drink, how they drink, and each individual’s own situation.”

By 11:30 p.m. the night was beginning to pick up for EMS. In the Faculty Commons, Black took calls from the Campus Response Center (CRC) and dispatched teams accordingly. While on a normal night the student EMTs respond from wherever they happen to be on campus, the central location on Halloween makes the busy night run more smoothly.

In the vast majority of cases, Safety and Security officers are the first to the scene and are able to update the EMTs on the basics of the situation.

“They figure out what’s going on, who’s in charge, who the patient is, that sort of thing, so that when we get there they have an idea of what’s going on and basically make sure that it’s safe for us to be there,” said Black.

From there, the outcome of the call depends on the emergency. By state law, for intoxicated patients the responsibility falls to EMS to decide whether an ambulance needs to come. The criteria for not going to the hospital include, among other conditions, the ability to walk, normal vital signs and a capacity for conversation. At the end of the night, the EMTs gathered back together to fill out their patient care reports (PCRs) before calling it a night around 3:30 a.m.

For the Safety and Security Officers, always the first ones on the scene, Halloween is also one of the busiest nights of the year. Whereas 11 officers are generally on duty most nights, an added 14 officers are on campus for Halloween.

In response to worries about drinking in the residence halls early in the evening, this semester Safety and Security has tweaked their regular patrols. “Traditionally we only patrolled in the residence halls starting at 11 o’clock at night,” said Director of Sfety and Secturity Don Marsala.

“But in cooperation with ResLife now we also sometimes send officers in earlier at 7 o’clock or 8 o’clock just to do rounds, not on specific posts.

We’ll have officers who work the night shift come in early to patrol the dorms just to walk around to make sure that everything is okay.”

“If we happen to come across a violation of College Regulations, we write the offenders up. We

don’t adjudicate the violations, we just forward the information to [Residential Life].”

As Safety and Security and EMS have responded to the immediate challenges of the semester, campus culture has raised longer-term debates, from the need for fun, substance-free spaces on the weekends to the clarity of the student conduct process.

“The issue of knowledge of college regulations and associated procedures has been discussed within the context of CCL,” wrote Dean of the College Christopher Roellke in an e-mailed statement. “It is not clear to me (and I think the students feel the same way) that there is good consistency of understanding of the Good Samaritan policy and other policies designed to promote the health and safety of our community.”

The Good Samaritan policy, which was instituted in 2005, protects students who call for medical help for themselves or for a peer from punitive measures to which they might otherwise be exposed. However, this does not mean that a hospital visit is the last interaction that a student might have with Vassar’s drug and alcohol policies.

Director of Health Education Renée Pabst described the program, Brief Alcohol Screening Intervention for College Students (BASICS), which is required of all students who have a hospital visit for intoxication. “BASICS will provide you with a structured opportunity to assess your own risk, identify potential changes that could work for you, and help you to reduce your risk for developing future problems,” she wrote in an e-mailed statement. The BASICS program may also be sanctioned for some students who go through the student conduct process.

After reports are generated during the officers’ nightly patrols, they are entered into Safety and

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Security’s computer system and sent to the Office of Residential Life. At that point, Associate Director of Residential Life Rich Horwitz sends the cases in one of several directions—to the student conduct panel, which was created last year, or to student conduct administrators in the houses.

For large groups or minor infractions, Notices of Regulation may be issued with a warning in lieu of face-to-face meetings with student conduct administrators or the student conduct panel.

“We don’t have that many punitive sanctions to work with. We’ve got warning, we’ve got probation and we’ve got removal from housing and the housing reassignment,” said Horowitz. “In a lot of cases we like to think of it not so much as a punishment as clearly stating what your status on campus is.”

Given the semester’s events, the Vassar’s drug and alcohol policies have been questioned as being perhaps too lenient or, at least, unclear. According to Horowitz, “I think there’s truth to the perception that Vassar has a more tolerant approach towards dealing with alcohol and drugrelated issues.” However, Horowitz was quick to distinguish tolerance from apathy.

In addition to the FAQs, which were recently sent to the student body by the VSA, Roellke wrote that there are other plans to make the process more lucid. “I have asked [Dean of Students] D.B. Brown and student conduct administrators to develop a series of ‘hypothetical scenarios’ that can serve as an educational tool for multiple constituents in the community,” he wrote.

Though the conversations that have arisen in response to the semester’s challenges of campus culture are ongoing, whether or not the outcome of Halloween indicates a calming of campus drinking culture is still to be determined.

OPINIONS

November 4, 2010

Vassar alcohol policy encourages toxic drinking, needs to be reevaluated Nick Goldberg

Guest Columnist

W

hen I started writing this column, I intended to write in to explore the rationale behind Vassar College’s inaction towards the drinks distributed by the Four Company, namely Four Loko. Upon further reflection, I decided that I wanted to discuss the causes of the culture of college drinking, a short history lesson.

Drinking has been an integral part of college culture for the past century, and its roots lie in the fraternal nature that was a large part of early all-male colleges.

Drinking as a bonding experience has, in some cases, led to binge drinking.

In the late 19th century, the so-called Temperance Movement sprang up in the United States. The Temperance Movement, which advocated the prohibition of alcohol, led to the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: The Noble Experiment, more commonly known as Prohibition, which was an utter failure. Bootlegging was a prominent practice, speakeasies were a common sight. Figures from the respected, like Joseph Kennedy Sr., to the more nefarious among them, like noted gangster Al Capone, ran the rum to our coasts.

After 1933, the 18th Amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment, and the drinking age was reinstated at 21.

The drinking age, however, changed as a result of social consequences of the Vietnam War, and particularly the upheaval that resulted from conscription.

The draft occurred concurrently with the 26th Amendment, which granted the right to vote to people 18 or older. The rationale for this change was that if you were old enough to die for your country, then you should have the right to vote. The same logic was applied to alcohol consumption, and as a result, by 1975, most states had lowered the drinking age to 18, according to the American Medical Association .

In 1984, a major change occurred. Two federal laws passed during that year coerced the states to raise the drinking age to 21. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1984 and the Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act tied together funding for

highway projects for states on the condition that the state raise the drinking age to 21. However, there are only eight states that outlaw underage consumption of alcohol, and only six regulate consumption in a private residence, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

During all of this time the American attitude towards drinking has changed. Alcohol has become taboo in many households. 45 percent of college students enter college without prior drinking experience, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. This results in an increased participation in the practice of binge drinking, a phenomenon known as “the college effect,” according to the The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention of the U.S. Department of Education .

In fact, according to the Harvard University School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, a full 20 percent of college students who did not drink heavily in high school begin to drink heavily as freshmen, meaning that they started to have more than five drinks sequentially at least once in a two-week period. Students who drank heavily in high school, too, continue to do so as freshmen. It is much more likely that this practice is already in place in most campuses and that exposure to it leads to the participation. This drinking culture begins with the idea that drinking is somewhat taboo and results in more drinking.

The point I am trying to make is that, it would not be in the best interest of the College to ban a particular alcoholic beverage; instead, just change the incentives for drinking. One large problem this year has been the rise in calls to Vassar College Emergency Medical Services (EMS) earlier in the night, which may be related to the particular effects of Four Loko, a caffeinated alcoholic beverage that causes the drinker to imbibe more alcohol and caffeine than is deemed healthy. This is also a result of the change in the ability of Safety and Security to enter students’ dorm rooms, which was effected earlier this calendar year.

The reason that this is significant is that the relationship between security and students has changed. There has been a rise in earlier partying, known colloquially as “pre-gaming” so as to avoid a run–in with security, owing to the timing of Security patrols. Starting alcohol consumption earlier in the night will lead to more drinking, which can lead to more severe consequences for a student’s physical and mental health. It is in the best interest of the College to examine the relationship between the students and Safety and Security.

The College needs to change its outlook on underage drinking as a whole because the problem is not going to go away. We have seen this over the past two decades; underage drinking has become more pervasive.

Lowering the drinking age may be a solution—to 19, not 18, since too many high school seniors are 18, and a drinking age of 18 would thereby increase alcohol availability to high school students under that age. The rise in teen drunk driving accidents led to the 1984 Act, which raised the drinking age. With a lower drinking age, the College could have supervised spaces where alcohol could be served, preventing at least some binge drinking.

This would also cause a change in the interaction between Safety and Security and the student body, which would prove beneficial for both parties.

It is in the best interest of the College not to ban specific alcoholic drinks or change security routines. Although progress may be slow—I expect that any changes in the provisions dealing with alcohol will not take hold until well after I graduate—they will be much more beneficial than prohibition. Rather, the College should continue to promote safer drinking. Increasing dialogue between the students and the faculty would be a good first step. The most important factor in promoting safer drinking must be a better relationship between the college and its students because, if history has taught us anything, prohibition does not work.

—Nikolas Goldberg ’12 is a history major at Vassar College.

Page 9

VSA’s Chronical decision too rash, must take care Boyd Gardner

Guest Columnist

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his past Sunday, by an 18-6 vote, the Vassar Student Association Council (VSA) approved an allocation of $800 to the Moderate Independent Conservative Alliance (MICA) to begin work on a trial publication of The Chronicle, a tabloid-style journal of political writings from students of diverse political backgrounds. While I, and I believe the entire Council, recognize the importance of fostering political dialogue on campus, and—to a certain extent—support the creation of The Chronicle, the events of Sunday’s meeting demonstrate that the VSA Council continues to be all too ready to act capriciously in the charged environment of a contentious meeting. I believe that the issue is more complicated than many realize, and that the publication should not have been approved, even in trial form, without significant dialogue and a real discussion about its implementation.

First, the creation of a new print publication on campus, even in trial form, is an enormous development.

Josselyn House President Dan Flynn ’13, quoting Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, accurately referred to the decision as a “big fucking deal.” I don’t believe that those on the VSA Executive Board who supported the allocation fully grasp the magnitude of creating a journal of record that will now, because of MICA’s status as a VSA organization, carry a de-facto authorization by the VSA. The VSA, and by extension Vassar College, will now carry liability for whatever is published in The Chronicle, and will be responsible for any controversy surrounding what is published in it.

Although I feel confident that MICA’s current leadership will not publish anything libelous or slanderous, there is no guarantee that future leaders will be so responsible. Once again, the VSA demonstrated with this vote that it is willing to shoot first and ask questions later, and that the appearance of decisive action matters more to Council members than thoughtful consideration of potential consequences.

The meeting also raised questions about the role that the Committee on Inclusion and Excellence (CIE)’s “Cultural Audit,” a review of student perspectives on campus life and learning, will play on campus. MICA took a small section of the Cultural Audit, interpreted it as a mandate to create alternative forums for political discussion, and presented their pitch to the VSA along the lines of beginning the implementation of the audit.

See VSA on page 12

Obama’s cuts to after-school programs detrimental to education Juan Thompson Opinions Editor

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y fieldwork as a mentor in the Vassar After School Tutoring Program (VAST), along with a course at the University of Chicago I took this past summer, has opened my eyes to the importance of after-school programs, particularly as they pertain to urban schools. It is for these reasons that I became so dismayed recently after reading a story in The Washington Post entitled “Afterschool programs in funding jeopardy,” that highlighted an attempt by the Obama administration to reallocate federal grants for after-school funding—a reallocation that will have a dreadful impact on the progress made by reformers across the nation.

VAST is a good example of what an afterschool program should be. The program is run

by Vassar in our attempt to reach out to the local middle school in our community. One of the positive things about VAST is the time it is held. VAST operates from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, and on Fridays there is VAST Plus, which is also held from 3:00 to 5:00. During my time at the University of Chicago this past summer we covered, among many things, after-school programming and its effect on inner city communities. The instructor informed us that most youth violence is committed between the hours of 3:00 and 7:00 p.m. Thus after-school programs like VAST that operate at those crucial hours play a vital role in minimizing possible violence.

Chicago is one of the national leaders when it comes to after-school program. While there, I

visited a state-of-the-art after-school facility, the Gary Comer Center, built by its namesake, the founder of the apparel retailer Land’s End. The center is located in the middle of an impoverished south side neighborhood and is absolutely fabulous. It has classes for art, math and science tutoring. The multi million-dollar building also maintains a rooftop garden that teaches students how to plant and grow their own food, and how to eat healthier in general.

The staff host vegetarian dinners, movie nights and other themed events every evening of the week in an effort to give the neighborhood’s children something to do once school concludes. The Gary Comer Center and VAST are two great models of programs that are doing a lot of positive work within their communities.

Recently, though, these types of program have come under attack from an unlikely source.

Jodi Grant is the executive director of After School Alliance. After School Alliance is a nonprofit whose goal is to “ensure that all children have access to affordable, quality after-school programs,” according to The Washington Post.

Grant argues that after-school programs are at risk because of changes in federal funding. The Obama administration, continuing its effort to encourage education reform, has begun shifting federal grant money from after-school programs to districts interested in extending the school day. United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is a proponent of extended school days because he believes that longer days improves a student’s academic performance. But, as Grant writes in The Washington

Post, the research doesn’t support the assertion that longer school days result in improved performance. There is, however, sufficient evidence to support the fact that most youth violence occurs between 3 and 7 p.m. So it’s quite easy to assume, as educators and sociologists have, that if society can keep at risk kids off the streets during those violence prone hours we can also keep the violence down.

The Obama administration is modeling their changes after a system in Massachusetts, called the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT). They take federal grants from afterschool programs and put them into the 21st Century Centers that extend the school day.

These programs end between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m., leaving a lot of idle time for the 15 million children who are left unsupervised after school. Modeling after-school reform after the Massachusetts model would lead to thousands of after-school sites being closed and leave thousands of students with a lot of free time.

Grant claims that there are 7,500 after-school programs across the country that keep kids off the streets and helps them in their studies. She was absolutely livid: “Based on costs associated with the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time initiative, for each school that eliminates its after-school program and instead uses 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) funding to extend the school day to 3:30 or 4 p.m., six other communities with afterschool and summer learning programs supported by 21st CCLC will lose funding and be left with no expanded learning opportunities

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

for kids. Children and families in those communities will have nowhere to turn, and afterschool program jobs will be lost.

I, like most Americans, applaud the president and the education secretary for wanting to reform and improve our education system; however, the scheme they are proposing will not bring the change we all seek, it may actually impede the progress that has been made.

There is no research or evidence that supports the notion of extended school days improving academic performance. We do know that afterschool programs work when implemented effectively. They have evolved tremendously in the past decades. They are no longer glorified latch key arrangements; instead they are innovative, motivated systems set up to expand the horizons of well-intentioned students. Most of these students attend after-school programs because they want to; motivation and self-interest are vital to academic improvement, and so too are they to any successful after-school setup.

Forcing students into extended day centers will lead to a continuation of a lot of the same problems we see during normal school hours and will, consequentially, harm the students who would otherwise be off at an after-school program in which they want to participate. A well-structured, expansive program that encourages collaboration between parents, staff, and administrators is the ideal continuation for the progress we have made thus far.

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

OPINIONS

Page 10

Progressives at Vassar must get involved John Kenney

Guest Columnist

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he outlook for the 2010 midterm elections was grim for those who would align themselves with the current Democratic majority. Current data from The New York Times shows that Republicans have regained control of the House and have made serious inroads into the current Democratic majority in the Senate. This is a dire situation for students at Vassar who are proponents of progressive policies. The Republican takeover of the House will prevent much of the progressive legislation the United States needs, such as an energy bill that would promote less pollution and move us towards getting over our addiction to oil. This is, after all, the party that has spent the last two years routinely blocking many of the progressive bills that Democrats have attempted to pass.

If Republicans, as many polls predict, gain a majority in the House, how upset do those Vassar students who don’t exercise their right to vote have the temerity to be?

Further, how can it be that the Democrats, after making so many advances in the last election, are facing such bleak prospects for defeat? The answer is a complicated one to be sure, and I make no claims at being an expert on the issue. However, one startling fact that I have noticed is the apathy that students have shown towards this election. An all too recent incident in my life has been to enter into a political discussion with another student at Vassar, and discover towards the end of the discussion that they are not voting in the upcoming election. They will complain but they won’t vote. This problem is not only present at Vassar, though, as demonstrated

by President of the United States Barack Obama’s urging his base to get out and vote.

There is also the fact, as I have seen from my own experiences in registering, that getting an absentee ballot if you attend college out of state is not the easiest task in the world for we busy college students. First you have to fill out a request form, fill out the ballot, some states even require the signature of a notary. But young peoples’ interest in voting has dropped so much that even Rock The Vote, which registered 2.5 million voters during the 2008 elections, has only registered 280,000 young voters during this election cycle, according to The Atlantic Monthly.

Still, even if the problem of student apathy at Vassar is not isolated to our school alone, that does not excuse members of the student body from voting. Vassar is often viewed as an overwhelmingly liberal campus. I am willing to bet that plenty of Vassar students are opposed to those policies that the Republicans—who now control the House—want to enact. I would like to see how many of the students who are not voting could actually make it through the Congressional Republicans’ “Pledge to America” without reacting with laughter, horror or a combination of the two. The defense that registering to vote is difficult is no excuse; registering to vote takes no more than 15 minutes. I also refuse to believe that subpar voter turnout among young students is just a result of a lack of voter awareness.

The excuses of not knowing enough about the issues or of complaining that it takes too long to acquire an absentee ballot or register to vote are inexcusable. The next two years will be an orgy of hypocrisy as those who did not vote on Tuesday will still lodge complaints against Republicans, the Tea Party, conservatives and everything else that stands against our more liberal opinions on social and economic issues.

What right do we have to do this? What is the value of our voice when we do not even use it in the one forum where our opinions matter? It is too late to do anything about the low youth turnout in this past Tuesday’s election, but perhaps the results will make us rethink our aversion towards voting and our carelessness towards the issues we claim to care about.

November 4, 2010

SUNY Albany cuts to languages misguided Kristine Olson

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Guest Columnist

assar’s French Department recently brought to my attention that the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany has decided to cut and has decided to eliminate some of their programs and departments, including the French Department.

Despite being a newcomer to learning the language, I feel a great affinity for French.

I find it interesting, enriching and valuable, and I strongly feel French as a department at any school is worth defending.

Parlez-vous français? Oui. Non. Un peu.

This was the extent of my French until this semester. Of course I knew how to say “Je m’appelle Claude” (my name is Claude) from watching the episode of Friends called “The One Where Joey Speaks French” (2004), in which Phoebe tries, and epically fails, to teach Joey French for an audition.

There are several good reasons for learning any language, and that Friends episode illustrated a reason that was instilled in me when, as a sixth-grader, I began to learn Spanish. Now, as a sophomore in college, that reason has been reintroduced to me via Introductory French.

The reason concerns business and careers, and learning a language for the sake of enhancing one’s marketability. Our global economy depends on communication, and someone who understands and speaks an international language such as French will have clear advantages over someone who does not.

On May 28, 2008 Stephen J. Dubner, a New York Times reporter and co-author of Freakonomics, wrote an article for The New York Times titled “What Will Globalization Do to Languages? A Freakonomics Quorum.” Dubner’s quorum featured John Hayden, the president of Versation, which is the parent company of English, baby!, a social networking site for English language learners around the world.

Hayden had this to say about language learning: “Don’t underestimate the value

of knowing languages other than English in a globalized world. In fact, globalization means that we have more reason than ever to learn a language...While globalization has its benefits and drawbacks, learning a language, like almost any other skill, is at best useful and at least a bit of personal edification (like learning Ancient Greek or fly fishing).”

As with any language, learning French facilitates an ease of communication, and increases friendliness with native speakers who will interpret your efforts at learning their language as respect for their culture.

Knowing French, in particular, makes travel easier and diminishes chances of becoming lost in travel and translation.

As the official language in 29 countries, including France, Luxembourg, Haiti and no less than 15 African countries, one of the official languages of Belgium, Switzerland and Canada, and a common second language in countries as geographically distinct as Morocco and Cambodia, the French language is not only practical to learn, but marks crucial historical and contemporary interactions of people as a result of colonialism and immigration. The rich history of French and the geographic variety of Francophone countries makes French a valuable language to learn in a world that is increasingly globalized.

It is apparent that language defines and is defined by the world, and learning a language such as French opens one’s mind to new ideas and new ways of seeing and experiencing our world. For example, in French “you” has several forms: tu (informal) and vous (formal/ plural). French emphasizes the distinction between familiarity and formality in a way that English does not. And the French use of gendered articles—un/le (masculine) versus une/la (feminine)—also exemplifies a different way of thinking about gender. These are just a couple of examples of how linguistics can reflect cultural differences and teach us about history and culture.

These differences, however, cannot always be directly translated. There simply are

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

no equivalents for certain words or phrases, and understanding French language and culture is the best way to experience literature, theater, film, and music in the original French.

Of course, living in the United States one may reason that since we speak English, we do not need French—so let them at least scale back the department at SUNY Albany if it means saving “more important” subjects.

This reasoning underestimates the contribution French has made to the English language. For those who have grown up in the United States or another Anglophone country, speaking English is innate; one learned to speak it without necessarily understanding why certain things are said, or why they are said in a particular way.

Personally, I chose to learn French because I am an art history major with interest in English, and both departments recommend taking it. Although I knew it would enrich my liberal arts education, I was unaware of how useful it would be or how I would apply it to other subjects. For example, revisiting an introductory language class has improved, and helped cement, my understanding of Spanish grammar.

From this I’ve learned that language is a tool. It is a tool we use in the most basic sense to survive, and one that we can build on to enrich our experiences and interactions and to gain advantages in the classroom, workplace and global market. And as an international language, French is a highly valuable tool, one that should be of special interest to those of us already dedicated to pursuing higher education.

Cutting back or eliminating the French Department at any college or university would be a disadvantage for the personal, academic and vocational pursuits of many students.

Regarding this issue, I trust that SUNY Albany will consider their options carefully.

—Kristine Olson ’13 is an art history major at Vassar College.

November 4, 2010

OPINIONS

Page 11

Yes we should: Obama must keep his campaign promise, help fight AIDS Jared Augenstein Guest Columnist

O

n Saturday, Oct. 30, several Yale University students joined forces with students from Harvard University and Dartmouth College to protest at President of the United States Barack Obama’s rally for Representative Jim Himes, the Democrat who represents Connecticut’s Fourth Congressional District, in Bridgeport, Conn. Why would Yale and Harvard Medical, Law, Public Health and undergraduate students collaborate to protest against an administration which, by and large, we are hoping will be re-elected in two years? The concern is simple, but of enormous import: This is a pivotal time in the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and the United States has the opportunity to radically alter its course. Yet since assuming the presidency, Obama has continually neglected the pandemic and failed to live up to the promises he made during his 2008 campaign.

While a candidate for the presidency, Obama promised to dedicate $50 billion by 2013 to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), including $1 billion in new money each year to achieve this goal.

These commitments represented a remarkable promise to millions of people suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world. Yet over the past two years, Obama has fallen far short of what he pledged, increasing U.S. spending on global AIDS in increments which have not even kept up with inflation.

This alarming shortfall in America’s contribution has enormous implications. AIDS is a treatable condition requiring relatively inexpensive treatment, yet 10 million patients in developing countries still lack access to these lifesaving medications. Furthermore, a recent study in the British medical journal The Lancet announced that if funding levels remain flat, an additional 14 million people will become infected with HIV in the next 20 years, and seven million people will die from AIDS. Increased funding for PEPFAR

could not only help save the lives of more HIV positive people, but would also help protect against new infections. Studies show that antiretroviral treatment reduces HIV transmission by 92 percent, making it the single most effective form of prevention.

Furthermore, investing in the infrastructure and human resources required to combat AIDS has had a profound, positive effect on global health care as a whole. Investing in AIDS treatment has been shown to boost health care systems, drug-delivery networks and basic primary health services in even the most desperate settings, which will improve care for other diseases like tuberculosis and sexually-transmitted infections.

Yet Obama’s direct response to us on Saturday, rather than taking responsibility and addressing the issue at hand, was to argue that the Republicans would do worse. As New York Magazine wrote in covering out protest, Obama’s “advice that AIDS funding advocates go bother ‘the other side,’ who aren’t the president doesn’t sound very effective.” Regardless of whether or not the Republicans would do worse—which is far from clear, most notably because PEPFAR was created by Republicans in the first place—this response only reaffirms our larger frustration with Obama for shirking both his word and his accountability for it. It is Obama who is currently calling the shots and it is his leadership on the issue of funding for HIV/AIDS which we are all seeking. “Go talk to the other side” is a naive response from the president we believed would cross the aisle, and more importantly an inappropriate response to policies that affect the lives of millions of people.

To be clear, this was is no way an effort to dethrone Obama or the Democratic Party. In fact, a large portion of our group who protested on Saturday helped Obama campaign for the presidency and continue to support him for what he stands for on so many other matters. But on this particular issue of global HIV/AIDS funding, Obama has dropped the ball. Interrupting his speech on Saturday was

a last resort to reach Obama’s ear after so many other attempts by AIDS activists have resulted in no change, including letters from medical school deans across the country, petitions sent to the White House, meetings of AIDS advocacy groups with White House officials and numerous editorials, including one in The New York Times penned by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Many continue to claim that flatlining funding to combat the AIDS epidemic was the best Obama could do given the global financial crisis. Yet sized up against the nearly trillion dollar stimulus bill and the approximately $3.6 billion dollars that the United States spends each month on the war in Afghanistan, it is shameful that our government cannot muster up $1 billion annual increases for an epidemic that has single handedly cut the life expectancy of sub-Saharan Africans by a quarter.

As students committed to global health and poverty reduction, many of us have served in such communities around the globe, including here in the United States. I had the privilege of doing so multiple times as a student at Vassar. We have witnessed, first-hand, the extent to which preventable and treatable diseases can destroy families, undermine economies and steal from people their ability to lead a dignified life. This is why we are doing everything in our power to reshape the national dialogue on this issue and push Obama to live up to his promises, promises which could truly turn the tide of this epidemic.

President Obama, we implore you to live up to your promises and be the leader we all hoped for in the effort to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Be remembered not as the president under whom the HIV/AIDS epidemic eluded our grasp, but as the force which ground it to a halt. The ball is in your court.

—Jared Augenstein ’08 is the former president of ProHealth and is currently a graduate student at Yale University.

How would you cap the smokestack?

“A statue of Matthew Vassar.”

Sarah Morrison ’11

“A windmill.”

Kento Spanos ’11

“A solar panel because it would be ironic.”

Bobby Benjamin ’12

Public sector unions inherently flawed Joshua Rosen

Y

Opinions Editor

ou’d be hard pressed to find anything more self-perpetuating or survivable than a bureaucracy. As Richard Nixon said, “Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.” But not “any change” is resisted.

Changes that expand bureaucracy certainly aren’t. That would explain why the biggest donor to political campaigns in this election season is the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a public sector worker union. By Oct. 22, according to The Wall Street Journal, AFSCME had spent a total of $87.5 million on the 2010 midterm elections. By Oct. 26, the union spent $91 million, according to The New York Times . The bulk of this $91 million in campaign cash is being distributed to Democratic candidates. Aside from the source of the money—the American taxpayer—there is a larger problem. Bureaucrats and other government employees are choosing their employers.

Public sector employment was protected from the recession, in large part by Democrats, who pushed through the 2009 stimulus package as well as other laws which gave “$160 billion in federal cash to states, aimed in large part at preventing public-sector layoffs,” according to The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, Obama and the Democrats in Congress passed an aid bill giving $26 billion to states and local governments to help “save the jobs of teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public employees,” according to The New York Times.

If this isn’t a conflict of interest, what is?

Public sector unions are a boon to government employees—a way to create and protect a self-perpetuating privileged class. Govern-

ment workers are a self-perpetuating breed.

They accomplish this remarkable feat not only through influencing policy in day-to-day work, but also through political campaigns.

The Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court ruling that permitted outside groups to spend unlimited sums on campaign ads, get-out-the-vote efforts and other political activities is the same ruling that allows unions to do so.

Former President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt acknowledged that public sector unions were inherently problematic, saying “the employer [of government workers] is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress” such that collective bargaining— negotiation between an employer and a union—is limited in its applications to government personnel.

Yet today, these same government workers are often part of unions. These unions are able to insulate government employees—paid by taxpayer money—from the problems that taxpayers face, the ups and downs of the business cycle with its concomitant hiring and downsizing chief among them. No private sector employer gets $26 billion to prevent firing—at least, not without being willing to pay back the government. Even the oft-reviled General Motors paid back its loan—in advance, and with interest, no less.

One of the major problems that these groups cause—pension obligations that threaten to bury states and local governments alike—can certainly be mitigated. Today, many, if not most, public sector workers have guaranteed pension packages much like those many private sector employees enjoyed 50 years ago. Companies started to move towards 401k plans early in the 1980s.

These tax advantaged, portable defined benefit contribution plans allow workers to invest retirement savings, but handsome packages are not guaranteed, though, due to market fluctuations. The move away from pensions was part of a shift from long-term employment at one firm—often, a certain term of employment was criteria for a pension—and increased government regulation of pensions, as well.

Why do government workers get pensions if private sector workers do not? Because people who, by and large, don’t enjoy government pensions pay the bulk of taxes. These taxpayers are paying more and more every year to fund bloated pensions. And the gap between what states have pledged to pay out and the cash they have on hand is approximately $1 trillion, according to the Pew Center on the States. Indeed, some of the public pension plans are fundamentally egregious. And the claim that salary differences are the cause is moot, too: public sector salaries average a full $5,247 more than private sector wages.

As the problem of public sector pensions reveals, government workers have turned into a privileged class—better paid and more secure in retirement than private sector employees—financed at the expense of the taxpayer. While those who receive public pensions have certainly not done anything illegal or immoral, it is incumbent upon government to resolve the pension gap. The easiest way to go about this is to shift defined benefit plans for government employees into defined contribution plans like 401(k)s. The private sector has been doing this for many years, and it’s time for government to catch up.

—Joshua Rosen ’13 is Opinions editor of The Miscellany News.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“A giant pumpkin.”

Matt Woo ’12

“A giant beer stein.”

Fardeen Chowdhury ’13

“My nemesis.”

Christina D’Astolfo ’11 —Joshua Rosen, Opinions Editor Madeline Zappala, Assistant Photography Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

November 4, 2010

Juan Williams firing mistaken, MICA, VSA misuse CIE audit alleged remarks overstated to justify new publication Paul Clarke

Guest Columnist

A

fter reading this past week’s Opinions section in The Miscellany News (10.28.10), I was troubled by the two articles examining the Juan Williams controversy: “Political correctness not the core of Williams’ firing” by Joshua Rosen ’13 and “Anti-Muslim speech in media dangerous to society” by Juan Thompson ’13. Rosen and Thompson referred to William’s comments in the now-controversial O’Reilly Factor segment as “bigotry” and “fear-mongering,” respectively. Rosen even says that “Williams’ comments constitute wrong-headed defamation of an entire religious group.”

Having watched the actual interview in full, I feel it is worth noting that Williams’ statements, widely quoted by the media and by both Rosen and Thompson, were clearly taken out of context and only made up the introduction to a more nuanced position, which Williams articulated later in the interview.

This introduction, in which Williams expresses his discomfort when seeing people in Muslim garb in airports, when taken out of context indeed constitutes damning evidence of Williams’ “bigotry.” But when understood as a part of a whole conversation, the meaning changes entirely.

In the entirety of the interview, Williams expressed that he, like some Americans, has a visceral suspicion of Muslims, but he understands that this visceral reaction is both wrong-headed and harmful. He goes on to observe that while Christian terrorists like Timothy McVeigh are not seen as typical of all Christians, Muslim terrorists are representative of Islam for some Americans. Williams goes on to caution others in the media to watch their rhetoric when talking about Muslims in order to keep from painting all Muslims with the brush of Islamic extremism and perpetuate anti-Muslim attitudes.

As an avowed liberal, I find myself in the curious position of defending a Fox News commentator. Regardless, as I see it, Williams was not spouting hateful anti-Muslim rhetoric, but in fact cautioning others against

such hate speech. There are anti-Muslim people out in the media today, but Juan Williams is not one of them. I would ask writers at The Miscellany News to please examine issues more comprehensively in order to avoid becoming another part of the mainstream media’s echo chamber.

This is not to say that the misinterpretation of Williams’ comments invalidates Thompson’s assertion of the danger of antiMuslim rhetoric in the media. Thompson is correct; attacks on Muslims contain the same seed of “irrational fear” that led to some of America’s more shameful episodes: the widespread anti-German propaganda of post-World War I era, the internment of Japanese Americans and the anti-Catholic sentiments of the mid-1800s, as exemplified by the Know Nothing Party, to name a few.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric must be met with vehement condemnation or we risk a repeat of the mistakes of our past.

However, I do find problematic the conclusions of Rosen’s article to be problematic. Rosen defends National Public Radio’s (NPR) firing of Juan Williams, saying that William’s “bigotry...taints his credibility as an objective correspondent,” rendering him unfit to be a journalist for NPR. With it understood that Williams’ statements were part of a larger context in which Williams argues against the anti-Muslim rhetoric, it is hard to classify Williams as a bigot and even harder to justify his firing.

I, like Rosen, love NPR. Of the nine podcasts to which I regularly listen, eight are produced by NPR. NPR is where I look for solid news, as well as opinionated reporting. But even so, I can look at the handling of the Juan Williams controversy and say quite simply that NPR made a mistake. Either NPR overlooked the true message of Williams’ words or used the situation to rid themselves of a tiresome employee. The latter would make them negligent, the former financially–motivated. Either way, NPR was wrong. This is not to say that NPR is an irresponsible news organization, but merely that in this instance, they were mistaken.

VSA continued from page 9 While the inclusion of a reference to the audit was certainly savvy politics, I do not believe that any group on campus, save the CIE itself, is qualified to “interpret” the audit at this point. While one sentence in the 19-page document mentions the at-times “oppressive” nature of liberalism at Vassar, MICA failed to explain why an independent publication is necessary to correct this, especially considering that on Oct. 5, 2009 MICA President Jeremy Bright ’11 told the Mads Vassar blog that that the Opinions section of The Miscellany News would be a perfectly adequate platform for moderate and conservative voices on campus. Additionally, if the campus community is so hostile to conservatism already, as MICA claims, there is no reason to expect The Chronicle to improve that dynamic. The tense interaction of political ideologies at Vassar is caused by the antipathy that colors American political discourse, not by a lack of understanding.

Several members of Council made the point that the VSA routinely gives larger allocations to other organizations with much less scrutiny, with several members even going so far as to claim that the intense questioning of MICA’s application proves the need for this publication. This allegation is fundamentally untrue, and reflects a lack of understanding of the incredible implica-

tions that go along with the authorization of a new publication. My opposition, and the opposition of several of my colleagues, was grounded in the fact that the decision to create a new publication, especially one that will address such emotional topics as national and local politics, should not be entered into lightly. This was no average fund application; it was a VSA endorsement of a student publication, which should not have been approved casually.

Unfortunately, my opposition to the authorization was the minority opinion, and the allocation passed. Despite the pleas of several members of Council for more time, more oversight of The Chronicle’s trial publication, and more caution, it appears that a vague reference to a non-binding report that has yet to be transformed into concrete suggestions for change was too compelling for some members of the VSA Council to resist. To any organization that is planning to apply for VSA funding: Work in a reference to the Cultural Audit in your application, and you’ll get as much money as you’d like.

I urge Council to be more cautious in the future, and to prepare itself for the potential consequences that our impulsive approval of The Chronicle may cause.

—Boyd Gardner ‘12 is the president of Main House and co-chair of the Board of House Presidents.

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Crossword by Jack Mullan ACROSS 1. Light carriage with a folding top 7. Montreal University 13. 87 or 93 at the pump 14. Vassar grads 15. Monkey holder?

16. *”Be creative!”

17. Family member: Abbr.

18. Jason Bourne’s affliction 20. French possessive 21. Skilled

23. 1988 Tom Hanks flick 25. See 33-across 32. Before, in verse 33. *With 25-across, “I’m not up to par today” 34. Binary form, in classical music 35. Doofus 38. Each 39. What QBs pass for: Abbr.

40. *With 43-across, “It’s no use making a fuss!”

Answers to last week’s puzzle

42. Just off the grill 43. See 40-across 46. Game using 108 cards 47. Angered 50. Lend a hand 53. Master of escapism 56. Suffix with proverb 59. *Minor bit of road rage 61. Letter of indictment?

63. Kiev’s land 64. Combined 65. Alaska native 66. Everyday expressions...or what the starred clues and circled letters literally represent DOWN 1. Corn leftovers 2. Exotic berry in some fruit juices 3. P.O. items 4. Swiss river 5. Golf great Sam _____ 6. Protection for 16-down 7. 1052, in a proclamation 8. Bay of Pigs locale 9. Chimeric eats, briefly 10. “Need You Tonight” rock group

11. Lois of The Daily Planet 12. Albanian coins 14. “I see!” responses 16. Pierre’s noggin 19t. Doogie Howser star, briefly 21. Get older 22. The Braves, on a scoreboard 23. Kind of jazz 24. Tehran native 26. UN’s hunger eradicator 27. Wide shoe width 28. ___ Lingus 29. Try to pick up 30. Put an ___ (halt) 31. They protect QBs 34. Commercials 35. Halloween’s mo.

36. Branch 37. Thought you’d want to know...

41. Pop group with the 1995 hit “Waterfalls” 42. Color shade 44. Cover 45. One of Charlie’s Angels 48. Tropical resins 49. Like most bathrooms 50. Together, in music

51. Gets under one’s skin 52. Nowitzki of the NBA 53. Schutzstaffel member known as “Dr. Death” 54. “This can’t be!”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

55. Western tribe 56. ___-European languages 57. “Lemme ___!” (fightin’ words)

58. Some monitors, for short 60. Actress Ling of “The Crow” 62. Yalie

HUMOR & SATIRE

November 4, 2010

Page 13

OPINIONS

How to choose your oddly specific major Michael Mestitz, Columnist

Live Blogging | A night at the grocery just like every other Tom Renjillian Guest Columnist

L

ike most of you I spent my October Break sleeping, role-playing with my cats and retaking the “Which Hogwarts house are you (realistic)” quiz on Facebook 18 times until I got Gryffindor. However, my break wasn’t all “fun and games.” I also worked at my place of employment—“A Grocery Store”—to earn money to pay for books and school supplies. While working, I realized that with the unemployment rate is so high—thanks to Obama!—many people might not have the pleasure of knowing what a minimum wage job is like. I decided to liveblog my night at the grocery store, so you can get a glimpse into the thrilling world of a cashier! »» 6:oo p.m. - I arrive at the store. Applause erupts. »» 6:05 - Applause ceases. I am assigned to register number nine. Customers begin pouring into my line, since I am the most efficient cashier. »» 6:06 - My first customer, a World War 1 veteran in a hat, says, “Hello, Chief!” I inform him, “I am not Native American. I just tan a lot.” He says, “It’s on a credit card.”

»» 6:07 - I bag the racist’s bread with his watermelon. Revenge. »» 6:20 - I mistake an avocado for a mango. (A “Florida avocado” that legitimately resembles a mango. Not my fault.) »» 6:21 - Customer purchasing avocado feels good about her exotic groceries. I brood. »» 6:45 - Male customer approaches wearing a pilot uniform. I ask him if he landed his plane on the roof or in the parking lot, reminding him that both places are illegal. He claims that he “drove here.” I inform him, “You don’t need to wear a pilots uniform to drive a car.” »» 7:20 - I am banished to clean the bathrooms and told to “replace the toilet paper, sweep the floor, wipe the counters, flush the toilets »» 7:21 - clean the mirrors, change the garbage, etc.” »» 7:22 - I silently refuse, but walk to the bathroom anyway, planning to check my hair in the mirror for 15 minutes before returning. »» 7:23 - I retrieve cleaning solution (to look less conspicuous), enter the bathroom, begin checking hair. »» 7:24 - Guilt begins to consume me. I flush the uri-

nals with my foot but do not enter the stalls. »» 7:25 - I decide to continue liveblogging on a piece of toilet paper. Ineffective. »» 7:27 - Customer walks into the bathroom while I’m blogging. I’m embarrassed. »» 7:30 - I wash hands thoroughly and return to my register. I claim to have cleaned the bathroom well. Everyone believes me because I’m a good actor. »» 8:20 - A middle aged woman in possession of a young girl enters my line. »» 8:22 - Woman pays with a credit card. Young girl asks if she can sign for her “Mommy.”

Mother refuses. Young girl argues that, “Grammy lets me!” »» 8:23 - Attempting to help, I inform her that what she and “Grammy” do is considered “fraud” and that they both run the risk of being “incarcerated.” Girl is upset. »» 8:24 - Girl’s mother thinks I am awful. »» 8:45 - I’m sent to do “take backs,” or bringing things customers didn’t want/couldn’t afford due to the current economic crisis back to their rightful locations. »» 9:00 - I have difficulty locating the illustrious “Arnold’s 12 Grain Bread.”

Weekly Calendar: 11/4 - 11/10 Thursday, 11/4

»» 9:02 - I place the “Arnold’s 12 Grain Bread” with “Arnold’s Whole Grain Bread.” »» 9:03 - I chuckle at the confusion that will undoubtedly ensue. »» 9:06 - I stop chuckling. »» 9:30 - A man in a “tattoo shirt” is spotted in aisle six. (Basically it’s a skin tight, flesh colored shirt covered in tattoo-like designs.

This gives the illusion that the wearer is shirtless and very masculine due to his excessive “tats.” It also gives the illusion that the wearer is hairless, lacks nipples, and will probably not have enough money to pay for his Spam.) »» 9:31 - I yell to coworkers, “Everyone! Look down aisle six right now!” Man hears. »» 9:50 - Tattoo man comes to my register.

Smiles knowingly. Doesn’t have enough money for his two bottles of Diet Coke and condoms. Purchases one bottle of Diet Coke and condoms. »» 10:05 - I punch out and weep at the state of my life.

Over the course of four hours I made $27. IS IT EVEN WORTH IT?

by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

3 p.m. Tea. Things to do with the extra hour we get thanks to

a more accurate name for this event might be “Everyone Leaves.” Rose Parlor.

Daylight Savings. (November 7! Mark your calendars, team.)

Rose Parlor.

Saturday, 11/6

partying: take a shot every time someone checks their phone and yells, “SAY WHAAAAT I TOTALLY THOUGHT IT WAS SO MUCH LATER.” Or like, the equivalent. Rose Parlor.

8 a.m. Fair Trade Bazaar. Remember the recess sensation

Tuesday, 11/9 11 a.m. Teen Pregnancy Awareness. It’s not funny you guys. Aula.

spired edition of Chutes and Ladders doesn’t seem like the most fun ever. But maybe I’m just a philistine. Taylor Hall.

that was Pokemon cards? I do. In fact, I will literally trade anything I own for a holographic first-edition Charizard, not excluding my spleen. Aula.

8 p.m. “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” And you’re a

2:30 p.m. Helicon Scrabble Tournament. If you make out

total douchebag, Charlie Baker. Oooh, someone’s a raging liberal from Massachusetts with a Republican CPA for a father… Sanders Auditorium.

with a member of Helicon, they might slip you a U along with that Q. Just sayin’. College Center MPR.

you to do for the past two weeks. Explain why there are so many tagged photos on your Facebook page featuring you wearing nothing but a diaper and a garland made of autumn foliage.

Block her from viewing your profile ever again. Rose Parlor.

10 p.m. “Yes!” QCVC dance. More orgs should get in the

10 p.m. Jazz Night: Town Mountain. They used to be called

habit of punctuating their event names. Suggestions: “Seven Dead…ly Sins” “Jazz; Night” “Founder’s Day!?!?!?” UpC.

“City-State Range,” but in this damn economy we all have to make sacrifices. Mug.

Sunday, 11/7

Wednesday, 11/10

3 p.m. Wind Ensemble Concert. Featuring my gawky third-

3 p.m. Tea. Two words: varsity naptime. Rose Parlor.

grade self on the recorder, playing “Hot Cross Buns” and the melody from “My Heart Will Go On.” Skinner.

2 p.m. Majors Fair. “No, I’m serious, my cousin’s girlfriend

6 p.m. FLLAC Game Night. Somehow, a Jackson Pollack-in-

Friday, 11/5 3 p.m. Tea. Think about kind of maybe almost starting to

write the draft of the outline of your impending thirty-page term paper. Then watch the new Taylor Swift video on repeat instead. (T-Swift just GETS me, you know?) Rose Parlor.

7 p.m. Autumn Leaves: A Singer-Songwriter Showcase.

Prime opportunity to hear that shoeless kid in your Cog Sci class croon about making eye contact with a freshman hottie as she flosses in the co-ed bathroom! Okay, so

Monday, 11/8 3 p.m. Tea. Round up your friends for some good old-fashioned

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

3 p.m. Tea. Finally call your mother, like she’s been pestering

totally knows a guy who majored in Med/Ren Studies and then went on to found a multimillion-dollar Internet startup. Wait, stop! Where are you going?” Villard Room.

ARTS

Page 14

November 4, 2010

‘Dear Charlotte’ gives glimpse of Brontës’ childhood Connor O’Neill Reporter

T

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

he Jade Room in Taylor Hall is unknown to most of the student body, save those rushing through it on their way to Art Department lectures. A large marble staircase leads down into the corner of the room, with two Roman sculptures watching over the assortment of couches and tables that usually furnish the space. The cast and crew of the upcoming Philaletheis production, entitled “Dear Charlotte,” will transform this room into their stage, giving the statues as well as the audience a sight much more intriguing than a tardy student.

The performance, which will begin its run Thursday, Nov. 4 and run through Saturday, tells the story of the Brontë family and their struggle to come to terms with their artistic talents, as well as with a society that is not interested in female authors. Explained Andrew Yankes ’12, who plays the father, Reverend Patrick Brontë, “‘Dear Charlotte’ is an intellectual coming of age [story].”

Charlotte Brontë used male pseudonyms like Currer Bell throughout her career to conceal her gender, something the play addresses from the outset; the opening scene depicts Charlotte revealing to a publisher her actual identity as a woman. Though this first scene establishes Charlotte as an adult, the majority of the play is set in her childhood, portraying her experience growing up with her sisters and their father, a stern and remote figure. The majority of the first act centers on this formative age in the family’s development. “We see the real children who became these authors,” said Yankes.

“Dear Charlotte,” is hardly a coy look into the biographies of the Victorian authors or a wink at those who remember their Brit Lit summer reading in high school. The play reckons with the struggles of the family to explore their blossoming creativity despite the struc-

The cast of “Dear Charlotte” rehearses in Taylor Hall’s Jade Room. The show, which tells the tale of a female author who has to use male pseudonyms in order for her work to be published, premieres tonight. tures imposed upon them by society. As one character in the play puts it, writing would “excite women and distract them from their proper duty.”

The first act of the play presents much of the sisters’ juvenilia, showing the wistful genesis of their creative development. The hope is to portray these canonical literary figures as human— to depict the germination of extraordinary talent within a family context. But though the play lets the family’s creativity shine through, they are also constrained by social norms of the era.

“There are two struggles,” said Yankes, “both personal and societal, very much wrapped up in each other.”

The characters each deal with the tensions between the personal and social realm in their own unique way.In describing Charlotte, played

by Hannah Schenk ’14, Yankes said, “She has a wonderfully restrained style, a lot bubbling under the surface.” Of the brother Branwell played by Ben Reichman ’11, Yankes said: “He is darkly humorous, playful but sardonic.” The constrained emotion does not compromise

the vibrant scenes of adolescence. “We see very silly moments, the acting out of youthful imaginations. It is the counterpart to a serious work set in a society in which emotions must be reined in,” explained Yankes.

The group, which has been rehearsing since mid-September, has been carefully engaging with the work in order to strike the right tone.

The ranging spirit of the play makes for complex characters, and the actors have been mastering ways of presenting multidimensional characters without tipping the scales in one direction or the other.

The cast will make good use of the play’s unique location, transforming the Jade Room’s dramatic stairway into the back of the stage. “It has a semi-gothic feel that is true to the show,” said director Violet Edelman ’12. She added: “The biggest challenge in preparing the show was not working in a conventional theatrical space.” Characters will interact with the room by entering and exiting through the large marble staircase.

As the name suggests, the performance spotlights a series of letters read aloud in excerpted form. The epistles are written to and from members of the family and to the literary figures who influenced the burgeoning authors.

The play features a multitude of texts, including the early work of the sisters as well.

The decision to include passages from letters allows for the audience to understand the growing and sometimes painful development of a writer. It also juxtaposes the Brontës as human beings from the literary icons they would become.

“Dear Charlotte,” will premier on Thursday Nov. 5 at 8 p.m. and continue on Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. As the space is confined to the Jade Room, individuals are encouraged to reserve tickets at the information desk before the showing.

‘Charlie Brown’ balances ‘Dear Julie’ to be a power serious, childlike themes struggle in the Powerhouse Evan Lester

Guest Reporter

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hat it is to be a good man? While an adult would normally ponder this question, in Future Waitstaff of America’s (FWA) production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” this notion is given consideration by a mere child. Charlie Brown finds himself in what most would consider a existential crisis at the age of eight, unsure about his role in society.

“Charlie Brown goes through a crisis of mostly dealing with being alone and what that means to him; he feels he has to become more adult than the other characters because of it,” said Jake Levitt ’11, the actor portraying the famous yellow-shirted youngster.

The play finds its roots in the iconic Peanuts comics, drawn and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz for 50 years until his death in 2000. The comic explored the life of Charlie Brown, his precocious friends and his multi-talented dog Snoopy. In 1967 Clark Gesner adapted the already popular comic strip into a musical comedy called “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” It premiered off-Broadway to much success, with a run of 1,597 performances. In 1999 Andrew Lippa revived the show on Broadway, though the show was not as long-lived as the original, with 149 performances over its short run.

The entire plot of the show unfolds like a comic strip. “The play is taking the peanuts comic strip and representing it as a musical. There are parts that are story arcs.

There’s a whole thematic structure to the play, buts it’s mostly vignettes,” said Max Lapides ’14, the actor playing Snoopy. Many of the classic Peanuts set pieces appear throughout the production, including the baseball games and Lucy’s advice stand.

Unlike the comic strip, the play delves deeply into the moral constructs of adulthood. Levitt explained, “For example,

[Charlie Brown’s] sister is jumping rope and she stops because it suddenly seems so futile. Snoopy has quandaries about being a dog and being able to accomplish everything he wants to do. Lucy has a crisis that no one likes her, [and] she wonders why she is alive.”

But the play is still within the world of children, and although such questions of morality seem intense, the whimsy of Charlie Brown’s world balances out the somber elements. “It’s not the most serious subject matter, but it’s really fun to sit around with 18 to 21-year-olds talking about themselves as little kids, but also as adults” said director Liz Biro ’11. Said Levitt, “It’s really fun to work on because we are not delving into deep issues like other shows. It’s funny and nice, and there is not a lot of pressure because of that.”

FWA President Amanda Giglio ’11 thinks that children in particular should definitely be able to understand and enjoy the show.

She is hoping that the production might be able to extend its run at Vassar and put on performances for kids in middle and elementary schools in Poughkeepsie. “It really embodies a childhood mindset, because it is very individually based, they all have their own mindsets and priorities,” said Giglio. “But it does center around Charlie Brown. It focuses on his growth and his understanding that no one has to be perfect all the time.”

Her first time in the director’s chair, Biro found her experience to be a learning experience. Biro found a maxim to alleviate the hard times during production, which parallels Charlie Brown’s search for his purpose in life: “When you think everything will fall apart, it doesn’t. The moral of the story is that it will come together.”

“You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” will be in Sanders classroom 212 from Nov. 4 to 6 at 7 p.m., with a Nov. 6 performance at 2 p.m.

Erik Lorenzsonn Arts Editor

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tudents taking nocturnal strolls around campus this past week may have been surprised by a rumpus of fiddles, stomping feet and laughter booming from the Powerhouse Theater. A Swedish midsummer eve’s party was not actually in full swing behind the venue’s doors, but the soundtrack to the Drama Department’s production of “Miss Julie,” played during rehearsals, certainly made a convincing case.

The noise provides a cacophonous atmosphere for August Strindberg’s dark tale of gender, class and power struggles, which will be performed tonight through Saturday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. in the Powerhouse Theater. The production is the senior project of both Sybil Johnson ’11 and Jack Berenholtz ’11, and has been a very long time in the making. “Jack approached me sophomore year, and wanted to know if I wanted to play the part of Miss Julie in the future,” said Johnson, who eventually decided to play the titular role. The two set about molding their idea into reality upon their return from junior year abroad.

“It’s been a roller coaster,” said Johnson. “We started in May, and it’s just incredible to me how fast it’s gone.”

The project that Johnson and Berenholtz undertook takes place in the kitchen of a late 19th Century Swedish estate. As a party on Midsummer’s Eve for the house’s servants rages outside, an aristocrat, Miss Julie (Johnson) and her valet, Jean (Berenholtz) have an illicit tryst in Jean’s room. They realize what they have done, and consequently try to figure out what they will do to repair the situation. Things eventually devolve into a power struggle between the two, with Miss Julie using class as leverage, and Jean using his male gender.

“It’s about power relations, and how quickly they shift depending on circumstance,” said Professor of Drama Gabriel Cody, who directed the senior project.

Nicole Wood ’14 is the only other member of the cast besides the two seniors. She plays Jean’s fiancee Christine, who is also the estate’s cook. “I

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

get to wear a fatsuit, which I must admit is a personal highlight,” wrote Wood in an e-mailed statement. Wood is also enthusiastic about the play’s development into “an embodiment of Strindberg’s words onstage,” and the atmospheric set design.

The setting of the drama between cook, valet and aristocrat is a meticulously-detailed kitchen that perfectly encapsulates the period with antique lamps, ovens, iceboxes and wicker furniture, all festooned with straw and holly. This set was the product of the cast and crew.

“We created the environment,” said Cody. “We do not have a set designer ourselves. It was part of our desire to work very organically as a group. It was interesting to see how an environment comes out of the text, and how the text emerges out of the environment.”

The setting backdrops a dramatic battle between the psyches of Jean and Julie, which Strindberg strived to make beyond naturalistic. “One of the challenges has been trying to discover what [Strindberg] saw not as naturalism, but supernaturalism,” said Cody. “He wanted to go into the psyches of his characters. It takes a lot of courage on the part of the actors. It’s a very fascinating place to go as a performer.”

Strindberg is an eminent figure in experimental theater, and is renowned not only for his portrayals of naturalistic characters, but also for his contributions to surrealism and monodrama (plays with one character). He was also known for his preference for smaller audience sizes.

“He was a strong proponent of intimate theater,” said Cody. “It was very revolutionary in his time. For him this was a very exciting idea.” The 124-seat intimate seating arrangement set up by the production crew indeed provides an up-close glimpse of the onstage action, with all seats easily less than fifty feet from the stage.

The intimate seating, ornate set and intense performances meld together for what promises to be a unique offering this theater season. It may sound like a party from the outside, but don’t be fooled: A storm of social tensions is brewing inside the Powerhouse, for the Department’s production of “Miss Julie.”

November 4, 2010

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Winterpills to rock Lathrop House MPR Aulos will highlight A Baroque era Adam Buchsbaum Guest Reporter

Shruti Manian

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Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

Multi-Purpose Room (MPR) is usually a place for study breaks, TV-watching and board games. Next Friday, Lathrop House’s MPR will be transformed into a completely different kind of space: a music venue. A Northeast indie band called Winterpills will perform this weekend in an event sponsored by Ferry and Lathrop House.

“Winterpills is one of my favorite bands, said Katie Lau ’12, the organizer of the concert and Arts and Music coordinator of Ferry House. “And, for some reason they’re really not well-known. I saw them play in Tribeca this summer and it was just one of the best live concerts I’ve ever seen,” she added. The Winterpills will perform in the Lathrop MPR this Saturday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. The concert will also have a currently to-be-determined student opener before the headline act.

The idea began as a Ferry House event when Lau brought up the thought of hosting a concert to her housemates. “There were already some people in the house that listened to them prior to my show suggestion and they were down with the idea,” Lau said.

The Lathrop MPR was chosen as a venue when it was discovered that the Villard Room was booked that night, and Ferry House itself could not accommodate a huge crowd with ease.

At first, the Vassar Student Association placed the show in the Students’ Building on the second floor, but she thought that venue space was too big.

Lau then remembered that last year, a pre-Valentine’s Day show appropriately named Love Hurts took place in the Lathrop MPR. The show was a big success, so Lau contacted the Lathrop House Team, who agreed to use the MPR as a venue.

“Once you move out all the furniture it stops being like a living space and really can become like a performing space,” said Sam Caravaglia ’12 organizer of the Love Hurts show. “You have to make it so that the MPR is like a venue.”

Caravaglia is excited to see how the Lathrop MPR will be transformed for the Winterpills concert: “The Winterpills show is gonna be beautiful too.”

Northeast indie folk rock band The Winterpills, above, will perform in the Lathrop House MultiPurpose Room on Friday thanks to a collaboration between Ferry House and Lathrop House.

Lau plans to decorate the MPR as well, with the help of the Vassar Student Bands Union (VSBU). Lau brought her proposal to Vassar College Entertainment’s (ViCE), because of the organization’s strong advocacy of live music on campus. “They’re helping with the decorations,” Lau said. “We’re going to cover the floor with fake snow and there’s gonna be Christmas lights everywhere.” Lau also hopes the ViCE stamp will further attract more students by making the event more well-known.

Lau has done the majority of organizing for the event. She hails from the Westchester area of New York, which she noted has a good punk scene. It was there she gained experience in organizing shows and DIY spaces, so organizing wasn’t utterly new to her.

The Winterpills hail from Northampton, Mass., and have played regionally around the

New England area. The band has received critical acclaim and opened for notable indie bands such as Vampire Weekend.

“I met them after the show in Tribeca. And then I just e-mailed them, saying hey, I’m that girl who kept insisting I really loved your music at that show in June, do you want to come play at Vassar? And they said ‘yeah, we’d love to,’” Lau explained.

The group is a five-piece band that is known for its pretty style of indie folk-rock. One thing that really sets them apart for Lau is that they have really gorgeous vocals, both female and male. “If you like Elliott Smith, Belle & Sebastian, or good music, then you’ll like the Winterpills,” said Lau. “Their lyrics are poetically abtruse and imaginistic while dealing with very human themes.”

Lau concluded by emphasizing the band’s appeal: “Their songs really stick with you.”

Reporter

usic often has the power to transport audiences into a completely different era. The Aulos Ensemble, a Baroque chamber music quintet, will attempt to musically recreate the magic of 17th and 18th century Europe and take audiences into the bygone era of magnificent French castles, bloody battlefields, grand ballrooms and tragic romances in an upcoming concert in Skinner Hall of Music.

Every year Skinner hosts concerts featuring celebrated musicians from outside the Vassar community. As part of this semester’s guest events lineup, Skinner Hall will be hosting a concert by the much acclaimed chamber group, who will be performing pieces by French composers such as JeanPhilippe Rameau, Francois Couperin and Claude Balbastre. “The performance by Aulos Ensemble is one of the key guest events of this year and is definitely one of the highlights of what we have to offer at Skinner,” said Karen Murley, Skinner’s concert administrator and building curator.

The concert is also significant to the Vassar community because the Ensemble’s violinist Linda Quan has been part of Vassar’s music faculty for almost 30 years as and adjunct artist. “The Aulos is a fine ensemble that has a wealth of experience in playing Baroque music, but most of all [the concert] gives the students the inspiring opportunity to watch their teacher perform,” said Murley, emphasizing the very special connection that the Ensemble has with Vassar through Quan.

“It’s the hardest to play in front of your students, but since I am both a teacher as well as a performer I hope to steer students See AULOS on page 16

NSO’s Rocky Horror Picture Show celebrates 15th year Erik Lorenzsonn

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Arts Editor

Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News

ast weekend’s traditional Halloween movie offerings were of the sort involving witches, demons, zombies and black magic. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which No Such Organization (NSO) screens every Halloween season, is in a completely different ballpark. The wellknown, campy 1975 sci-fi parody has attained a cult following not for its chills and thrills, but rather for its Transylvanian transsexuals, crossdressing aliens and catchy rock and roll soundtrack.

NSO, the organization devoted to representing the science-fiction, fantasy, gaming and anime community on campus, is celebrating its 15th year of screening the cult classic, with shows both this upcoming weekend and the next in Sanders Classroom, room 212. But NSO’s production entails far more than just a screening. The group also sponsors a live theatrical performance of the movie in shadow-cast style, meaning that the actors copy exactly what is occurring on-screen. This type of production is not common; NSO is actually the only group in the Mid-Hudson Valley that performs the show in such a fashion. While a typical Rocky Horror Picture Show production is prepped for within days, NSO begins much farther in advance.

“This is a campus that appreciates a good theater production,” said NSO Director Carolyn Grabill. “We have a month and a half’s worth of production, which is way more than what other [productions of Rocky Horror} take.”

This year’s shadow-cast is particularly unique, in that only females ended up with parts in the principal cast. “It just kind of happened that way,” said Grabill. “The people who were perfect for each part were all girls.”

“It adds a curious twist to the show,” said the play’s director, Anthony Pinggera ’11. “It adds to the gender-bending aspects of it.

It is the first time in the NSO’s production history that the group has ended up with an all-

female principal cast. Pinggera thinks that it is this constantly evolving nature of the cast and the show as a whole that makes it such a worthwhile experience to be a part of.

“Every year, you would think you’re doing the exact same thing,” explained Pinggera. “But each year you have a different set of people, so you have a different show every year. Any show has that to an extent, but it’s different [with Rocky Horror] because you have the movie playing, and then the interpretation going on in front of you.”

Prior acting experience has never been a requirement to be part of The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s cast. This has never posed an issue for NSO, and the casts’ unfamiliarity with traditional acting has actually fostered “a unique approach” to theater production, according to Pinggera. The accomplishment of the cast is especially impressive considering the challenge of synchronizing all blocking and dialogue with the action onscreen, which would prove to be difficult even for theater veterans.

In addition to the shadow-cast style theater, the performance will feature pre-show entertainment by Squirm and the Barefoot Monkeys, as well as expected Rocky Horror Picture Show refinements such as call backs, a style of audience participation that entails a tawdry giveand-take with the onscreen dialogue. A classic example of this occurs whenever the naïve protagonist Brad sings “I love you,” to his girlfriend during the chorus of the movie’s opening number; the typical Rocky Horror audience might sing over with, “I wanna screw!”

Grabill has seen other productions of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and appreciates all of them for attracting a strong community of fans. “I really love the community-styled performances,” she said. “People dress up in fun costumes. It’s a show of solidarity, of enjoying this cult culture.”

The Rocky Horror Picture Show will screen at midnight on Nov. 5 to 6 and Nov. 12 to 13.

The cast of No Such Organization’s Rocky Horror Picture Show—which is unusual this year in that it has an all-female cast—will perform alongside the cult classic in Sanders Auditorium this weekend.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

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Violinist Quan to give masterclass

Einstein debuts second album on iTunes Rachel Borné

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Assistant Arts Editor

wo music videos, an active iTunes page and an article in Time Out Dubai’s Nightlife & Music section—not too bad for a young, up and coming rock star. After growing up in London then moving to Dubai for his teen years, Evan Einstein ’14 is more than ready to take Vassar by storm with his multi-instrumental musical talents and recording experience.

Einstein’s passion for music started at the ripe age of 12, when his aunt bought him his first acoustic guitar. Shortly thereafter, Einstein joined a garage-type rock band called Tonedeaf. The group played a few gigs and had a good time, but their accumulation of equipment is what’s really important to Einstein’s solo career: “I was left with all this nice gear, and I decided to put it to use,” he said.

After moving from London to Dubai, Einstein started working on his album. From a technical standpoint, he had a hard time getting a handle on the mixing and mastering aspect of sound design. He explains, “I thought the music sounded thin, so I ended up hiring a sound engineer. I worked with him for about five months then released my first album called Overtimed Epitome.” Einstein’s tunes are predominately influenced by what he refers to as a “British mix,” including most notably the Arctic Monkeys.

Of his songs, Einstein says, “They’re about blueberries, the male ego, tortured beginnings and ends,” adding that his lyrics and musical sound work together hand in hand. Unlike many artists, Einstein prescribes little meaning to his songs. Instead, he leaves interpretation up to the listener: “I’m not going to say that one song means something specific because my songs mean different things to different people,” he explained.

Though dropping an album is definitely a thrilling experience, Einstein realized that the release of Overtimed Epitome was somewhat futile, simply because he had no publicity to speak of. “How can you release an album to zero people?” he asked rhetorically.

To get word on the street, Einstein decided to take the most viral route: YouTube. He made

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

AULOS continued from page 15 towards performing, which makes this all the more exciting,” said Quan.

A passion for making music with each other brought together five young, gifted and diverse musicians from the Juilliard School of music to form the Aulos Ensemble almost three decades ago in 1973. ”We liked each other a lot and we realized that we liked playing music together a lot, too,” said Quan . The Ensemble is comprised of cellist Myron Lutzke, flutist Christopher Krueger, violinist Quan, harpsichordist Arthur Haas and oboist Marc Schachman.

The group has performed music together for the last 15 years and, as Quan put it, “The familiarity we share adds to the quality of our music.”

Aulos attempts to bring out the old world charm that was one of the key attributes of the Baroque period of music.

In 17th and 18th century Europe, when Baroque was most prolific, musicians began to perform in larger halls to a much wider audience. “Before this time, music performances were confined to royal halls, but in this period musicians began to let in the so called riff-raff,” said Quan. This transition to playing in front of a much more inclusive audience also led to changes in musical techniques.

One such change was that this era marked the use of bigger and more ornate instruments. One of the most distinguishing features of the Aulos Ensemble’s music is that all of their music is played on such period instruments. The use of authentic instruments that date back to the era when the music was actually written adds a great deal of allure to Aulos’s music. The sound of period instruments are different from the sound of their contemporaries; for example, Baroque violins use gut strings instead of steel, which makes a much more earthy sound. ”We were influenced very much by a teacher who introduced us to playing music on instruments that the composers had created it for. He felt and we agreed with him that this was much truer to the music,” said Quan.

Though the Ensemble has performed several times before at Vassar, Quan believes that the theme of their upcoming concert will set it apart from other concerts in the past. The Ensemble is presenting their French program called “Music at Versailles: A Royal Entertainment.” The music attempts to capture the essence of 17th century France, with pieces that will cover a wide range of thematic material. One piece paints a comic picture of the French’s self assumed notions of racial superiority, while another is a touching piece that describes a solitary rose trying to hold its own against a bitter onslaught by cruel winds, incorporating elements of French Romanticism.

“Vassar has such a sophisticated audience and the French program caters perfectly to that audience. The music is very picturesque and even borrows from French opera” said Quan.

Apart from the concert itself, Aulos will be holding a masterclass with Vassar’s own Baroque ensemble, the Vassar Camerata.

This is an opportunity for the Camerata to learn firsthand from some of the most experienced and talented Baroque musicians in the country. “The masterclass will give students the chance to be exposed to fine musicians with so much experience in playing this kind of repertoire,” said Murley. The Ensemble, on the other hand, looks forward to interacting directly with younger musicians and pass on their expertise.

“This is an opportunity for me to blend teaching as well as performing together, and there is really nothing as fulfilling or as rewarding as that,” concluded Quan. “Music at Versailles: a Royal Entertainment,” featuring the music of the Aulos Ensemble, will start at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5 at Skinner Hall of Music.

November 4, 2010

Evan Einstein produced his first album, Overtime Epitome, which features songs in which he plays all of the instruments. The album is available on iTunes and Einstein’s music videos can be found on YouTube. two music videos, one for his hit “Blueberry” and another for “Bad Taste.”

“I wanted people to spread the word. I wanted to really get my music out there,” Einstein said about his videos.

The videos boast high-tech visual and sound effects. One showcases the unique eastern architecture of the Dubai coast; both highlight the fact that Einstein plays all the instruments on his tracks. His extensive repertoire includes the electric and acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.

For his second album entitled Again, Einstein did all of the recording and mastering by himself. “It’s completely hand-made by me. It’s very DIY [do it yourself].” He recorded each instrument separately, and then mixed them all together into cohesive tracks. Again came out on Einstein’s iTunes and Myspace page on Oct. 10 for the public to purchase.

Although Einstein has no doubt come a long

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way for a musician of his age, he still has big hopes for his future at Vassar and beyond. “My main goal is to play live,” he said. Currently, the musician is looking for potential bandmates, hoping that he’ll stumble upon a an enthusiastic and talented group. In addition, Einstein has a third album in the works: “I want to eventually make a third album,” he said, adding “I need to get familiar with my resources. I don’t have a home studio set up here yet.”

Now in a highly creative, free environment, Einstein hopes to capitalize on the vast tastes in music here at Vassar, and more importantly, he hopes to catalyze his dreams of performing live with the help of other student musicians. “I think Vassar will help mature and improve my style, but it definitely won’t change my fundamental sound,” he ended.

To listen to Einsteins tracks or purchase his albums, visit www.myspace.com/evaneinstein, or go to the iTunes Store.

ARTS

November 4, 2010

Page 17

Paranormal Activity 2 amusingly bad Paranormal Activity Tod Williams [Paramount]

Devin Leary

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Guest Columnist

he most paranormal thing about the film Paranormal Activity 2 may actually be the posters promoting it. There, one will find the words, “The most anticipated horror event of the year.” But if anything, Tod William’s recently released prequel to the 2007 box office smash Paranormal Activity shines as one of the year’s most raucous comedies: The visual effects, acting and script are all amusingly terrible.

The Rey’s are a nauseatingly joyful, uppermiddle-class family that has just welcomed the addition of a new baby—adorable little Hunter—into their midst. The audience is soon made aware that Kristi Rey, the mother of the family, is in fact the older sister of Katie, the main character in the original Paranormal Activity film. This is a cruel tease.

We are meant to believe that this film is similarly related to the rather scary original from which it spawned. After a suspected break-in prompts the Rey family to install an advanced surveillance system, the film is shot entirely through the perspective of the family’s hand-held camcorder and various security cameras throughout the house. The Paranormal Activity films are rather unique in their use of this type of camera work, and it does add a disturbing quality to the footage by making it seem very realistic. The success of this interesting cinematography was, however, blighted by the lack of frightening images and effects within each scene. The

unrefined lenses lose their efficacy while capturing this rudimentary plot as it unfolds in a series of “paranormal” occurrences in the Rey household.

The eerie charades increase in absurdity and conversely decrease in frightening effect over the span of the film. While the presence of a haunting figure in the bedroom of a sleeping baby, as implied by a barking, snarling German Shepherd, admittedly caused my heart to race and muscles to tense at the beginning of the film. The fear was soon erased by laughter in response to the film’s shoddy representation of baby Hunter zooming through the air, out of his crib and down the stairs into the basement lair of a demon.

Unfortunately, the baby and dog were the only decent actors in the entire cast. The other actors visibly struggle with characters who constantly engage in obvious and unsuccessful attempts to reveal how regular they all are. The teenage daughter is quick-witted and struggling for independence. The banter is tedious, and the writers’ effort to force the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Rey into the mold of a conventional suburban couple is brainless and transparent. We get it. They’re average American folk. They’re normal. What is happening to them is paranormal. The character of the loony Latina housekeeper is meant to provide comic relief, yet quickly it becomes offensive in its ethnic stereotyping. Never mind, there are plenty of laughs ahead. When one member of the Rey family must take on a more demonic role as a facet of this banal horror movie plot, the movie shifts from ineffective and desperate to bizarrely hilarious. Soon the audience’s laughter is drowning out the fear-evoking soundtrack and intent of the film.

Even if filled with breath-taking performances, the film’s script would have ruined

Paranormal Activity 2. It is true that films within the horror genre are not traditionally characterized by meaningful writing, but this movie lacks the haunting visual effects and shocking plot twists that usually compensate for less redeeming aspects of scary movies, and the ghastly script which lays the framework for Paranormal Activity 2 is overwhelmingly noticeable. Not only does the dialogue remain dull and prosaic throughout the movie, but the plot self-destructs in the concluding 30 minutes. A house that is haunted by demons has been a well-implemented contrivance in the realm of screen horror since its birth, and Paranormal Activity 2 manages to take this traditionally scary plot scheme and reduce it to a haphazard train wreck. While the first film in this sequence became renowned for its terrifying and shocking finale, the ending of this prequel manages to ruin the entire movie and even to impair the quality of its counterpart.

While I suffered through the 91-minute duration of this film, my preconceptions led me to expect an ending that would make the time worth it. Instead my hatred of the film was confirmed by a culmination of unforeseen atrociousness.

Somehow, with a budget increase of $2,739,000, Paranormal Activity 2 manages to shame the 2007 hit from which it originated.

The acting is painful to watch, the visual effects are guaranteed to make you laugh, and the script is exceptionally crude. The conventional haunted house plot of the film fails to meet the relatively low standards of modern popular horror cinema. Though the box office ratings will tell you otherwise, I strongly dissuade anyone interested in seeing a horror film from choosing Paranormal Activity 2. If you just want a good laugh, though, go ahead and see it.

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“30 Rock”

Nikki Aldeborgh ’13

“The Blair Witch Project”

Laura Fisher ’14

“Reruns of The Golden Girls”

Matt Wheeler ’12

“Angel reruns”

Rachel Ritter ’12

“Spice World, because I was a Spice Girl for Halloween” Evan Einstein ’12 plays guitar, bangs on drums, mutely rocks out, gesticulates in disgust and eats flowers at a dinner table in a sleeveless tee in the music video for his single “Bad Taste.” So when he breaks an egg over his head around two minutes in, it does not come as much of a surprise.

The video was edited by Einstein himself, and contains a wide range of filters and lighting effects. This particular still includes a cartoon-like filter, causing the image to have more graininess and emphasized shadow.

“It is meant to enhance the visual experience and splash an intense phase onto the video,” wrote Einstein in an e-mailed statement. “It’s out of control.”

Added Einstein on his state of being in the scene of the egg-cracking: “I’m anticipating the terrifying raw egg mess to splash out onto my face.”

The egg-cracking in tandem with the rest of the offbeat imagery has no exact meaning; instead, they are meant to be interpreted subjectively by the viewer. “‘Bad Taste’” is whatever you want it to be,” wrote Einstein.

“If you want to interpret it in a literal sense, the egg will taste terrible, and will leave a bad taste in my mouth. But couldn’t it also be disgust that the egg will splatter all over my face?

Couldn’t it also be that I had a tiff with my long-term girlfriend named Suzette and now have a ‘bad taste in my mouth?’”

Einstein has another music video for a single from his debut album, Overtimed Epitome. “Blueberries” also features Einstein taking oddball actions, as exemplified by a scene in which Einstein throws a chair into his pool, or another in which he drinks from the lip of a ornate porcelain fountain, which is edited using stuttering frame effects.

Einstein was motivated to film “Bad Taste” to help promote the release of Overtimed Epitome, which was also creatively inspired.

“I wanted to entertain and convey an out of control image,” wrote Einstein. “I also wanted an eerie shadow to rest on the shoulder of the video. I think it’s weird, and that’s cool.”

The bottom line from Einstein on what “Bad Taste” is all about: “Make it personal.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Rachel Eisen ’11

“CNN all night long because of the election”

Cory Epstein ’13 —Erik Lorenzsonn Arts Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

November 4, 2010

Cross country second in League NFL, NBA consider European expansion Andy Sussman Columnist

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Courtesy of Sports Information

Above, Zach Williams ’12 won First All-Team Liberty League honors in the Liberty League Championship last Sunday, Oct. 31. Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams managed to take second place to St. Lawrence.

Kristine Olson Guest Reporter

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he Vassar men’s and women’s cross country team competed in the annual Liberty League Championship race hosted by Hobart and William Smith Colleges last Saturday. The meet proved to be a successful one for the Brewers, with the men’s and women’s teams both taking second place to the teams from St. Lawrence University.

The St. Lawrence women won the championship with a team score of 22 points, claiming three of the top five finishes. But Vassar wasn’t far behind in second with 37 points, followed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (87), Clarkson University (132), Union College (134) and William Smith (139).

The soft, muddy course made for slow race results, but the Brewers found success by racing strategically.

Their goal was to break up packs of St. Lawrence runners and distance themselves from Rensselaer and the rest of the field; and they did just that, finishing a mere 15 points shy of no. 2 nationally ranked St. Lawrence and 50 points ahead of Rensselaer.

Confirming Vassar’s ability to race head-to-head with St. Lawrence, Johanna Spangler ’12, Kelly Holmes ’13 and Aubree Piepmeier ’14 finished in the top seven and were named First Team All-Liberty League. Also notable, Elizabeth Forbes ’12 and Zoe Carpenter ’11 finished within the top

14 and were named Second Team AllLiberty League.

In the women’s 6k race, Spangler ’12 finished third out of 69 runners in a time of 22:52. Holmes finished fifth overall (23:24), followed by Piepmeier in seventh (23:39), Forbes in 10th (23:52) and Carpenter in 12th (24:30).

Hannah Ziobrowski ’12 in 15th (24:39) and Chloe Williams ’14 in 19th (24:50) rounded out Vassar’s top seven scorers.

When asked what helped the women’s team perform so well, despite having to slog through a muddy course, Ziobrowski said, “instead of just relying on the top seven to place well, everyone worked together in this race.”

Forbes continued “By working together we were able to make a top team like St. Lawrence work for their place. We have become a much stronger unit this season, a rely on everyone instead of just the few top finishers.”

On the men’s side, St. Lawrence won the championship with a total of 15 team points, sweeping the top five finishes. Vassar came in second place with 61 team points, followed by Rensselaer (79), Clarkson (94), Union (150) and Hobart College (183). Out of 83 runners, Zach Williams ’12 finished seventh overall in the men’s 8k race (26:44) and thereby earned First Team All-Liberty League. Following close behind were Sam Wagner ’13 in eighth (26:51) and Justin Rupert ’12 in

11th place (26:54), who were named Second Team All-Liberty League by finishing in the top 14. Another notable performance was Will Healy’s ’12 fourth place finish for Vassar and 17th place finish overall (27:20). At the meet, Vassar’s athletes showed an ability to work their way up the field and distance themselves from the competition, Williams, Wagner and Rupert all finished before Rensselaer’s top runner even crossed the finish line.

Evan Russek ’12 (27:59), Jon Erickson ’11 (28:10), and Roni Teich ’13 (28:21) rounded out Vassar top seven scorers.

When asked how the course conditions affected the men’s race, and how the men still succeeded in taking second, Williams said: “James had us work on visualization a lot before the race. We also previewed the course before hand and knew what to expect.” He continued, “Because we mentally prepared, we went into the competition with a mind set that everyone was going to have slower mile splits because of the mud. So we knew we could still move up the field by steadily picking off the St. Lawrence runners.”

Vassar will have next week off from competition to mentally and physically prepare for the 2010 NCAA Atlantic Regional race in Oneonta, N.Y. on Saturday, Nov. 13. At the regional race, the top seven from each team compete, each team also has three alternates, who do not run, attend the meet.

ith the talks of potential lockouts in both the NFL and NBA, the idea of potential expansion in both sports has been largely overshadowed in the media. However, both the NFL and NBA Commissioners, Roger Goodell and David Stern, have said that they can see each professional sport expanding to Europe. The idea is, even it if involves reducing the number of teams in the United States, both leagues will be able to expand their fan bases worldwide.

With the Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) set to expire in 2011, expansion to Europe may well be discussed after salary issues are worked out on both sides.

While both commissioners have expressed an interest in a worldwide league, they appear to address the issue differently.

Goodell, coming off the fourth annual regular season football game in London, has said repeatedly that London has shown that it can support an NFL team. He has not discussed bringing professional football elsewhere in Europe, but it seems impractical to have only one team across the Atlantic Ocean. In addition, Goodell has used London to push his more pressing agenda: expanding the regular season from 16 to 18 games. By playing in London, one team hosts one fewer home game because it is playing at a neutral field. However, Goodell claims that if the season expands, the loss of a home game will not be as detrimental to teams because they will still have an additional home game to play. Also, if London indeed has its own team, it eliminates the need for any team to actually lose a home game.

Meanwhile, Stern has been more general about his plans in Europe, focusing on a potential “European Division.” In some ways, it is more sensible for the NBA to expand because it has a broad fanbase worldwide, particularly in Europe and East Asia. On the other hand, there are already professional basketball leagues in Europe that are fairly high-level and have a relatively large following. Stern said that he could see an expansion to Europe within

the next decade, but he acknowledged that he said the same thing the previous decade. Unlike the NFL, however, the NBA has experienced a great deal of financial difficulty, meaning that for there to be any expansion into Europe, there would likely have to be contraction within the United States.

This seems unlikely, even in tough economic times, because Stern has always prided himself on never having to eliminate a team while commissioner. More likely, some team—or multiple teams—would have to be owned by people who have a financial incentive to move the team abroad, similar to what occurred several years ago when the Seattle Supersonics relocated to Oklahoma City.

While both leagues in theory might love to expand internationally, there are too many issues that need to be worked out for the next CBAs that are more immediate. In the NFL, for instance, a great deal of concern has been voiced over increased safety measures and health insurance for both current and former players. Goodell’s season expansion, which he and the owners strongly support, seems to conflict with the idea of protecting the health of the players, with more opportunities for injuries to flare. Meanwhile, the NBA is much more focused on controlling players’ salaries, with the owners pressing for a more stringent salary cap that the players will inevitably fight. With such major issues in the balance, the idea of Europe needs to be put on hold. Before either league can expand, games actually need to be played beyond this season.

Once these issues are cleared up and a new CBA is written up, a European expansion team or division could pay off for both leagues. In the NFL, talent has always come virtually exclusively from the United States, but if a team is placed in London, more Europeans will inevitably follow the sport. As for the NBA, there already is a large international population, but some European players have expressed homesickness and have returned to play in their respective homelands.

A European division gives these players the best of both worlds.

Squash: from British prisons to the American elite Wilson Platt

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Reporter

rowing up playing squash with my family, I fell in love with the sport. Imagine my wonderful surprise this fall when I found squash courts, here at Vassar, seemingly at my very disposal. But when I tried to recruit my friends to play with me I discovered an unfortunate fact—nobody knew what I was talking about. So as the season approaches, I surfed through the Internet, and even to the source, the number one player on the Vassar men’s team, Jake Harris ’13, in pursuit of educating myself and the campus of this mysterious game we call squash.

The rules, and the playing of the game, are exceptionally simple. A game consists of two players using their racquets to hit a ball back and forth off the walls until someone wins a point. Both players stand right next to each other, and there are no sides, like in tennis. Every point starts with a server, who stands in the service box, hitting the ball off the front wall and into the opposite box on the court. Each

point ends in one of four ways: either the ball bounces twice; the ball hits the tin (the lowest section of the front wall); someone hits the ball outside the court; or one person interferes with another’s shot. Interference occurs when one player, physically impedes another from getting to a ball. Everything else is fair game as long as one’s shot at some point makes contact with the front wall. These open ended rules create a game that can be just as mental as it is physical, allowing for calculations of angles, planned out points, as well as rewarding spontaneity and creativity. Harris noted, “Every time I step on [the] court I get to bring my own philosophy and experience and say, ‘Hey, I am going to beat you in this way.’ It’s just you putting it out there and your opponent trying to step up to challenge.”

The common image of squash in the United States revolves around middle-aged, upperclass white men, decked out in their all-white gear grunting and groaning at their local country club. But, in fact, the game came from Debtor’s Prisons in England in the 1800s, and has

since become one of the most widely played games on the planet. Despite its lack of general diversity in the States, a little research on the Professional Squash Association (PSA) website shows that out of the top 50 ranked players in the world, there are 22 countries represented.

Just let what that means sink in for a second.

These countries range from Egypt to Mexico to New Zealand to India to Austria, with England and Egypt holding the most spots. While squash has a reputation as both an international game, as well as an elitist one in the United States, change may be afoot. Harris explained in an e-mailed statement, “The image is changing with the start of some of the city programs...like Citysquash in New York or SquashBusters in Boston that are doing a lot in terms of incorporating squash and tutoring in a fun after-school setting. There is even a VAST [Vassar After School Tutoring] program that kids from Poughkeepsie come over and play once a week.” He also added that while the junior game was still dominated by prep schools and the northeast, he expected that to change

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

in the coming decades as the sport continues to grow.

There are good reasons for this growth too.

Forbes magazine rates squash as the number one healthiest sport, citing the balance between cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance and flexibility. Oh, and it burns almost 600 calories in just half an hour. Harris also stresses the playability of squash, saying, “If you look our team a lot of the guys that have picked up the sport since starting at Vassar.” This aspect of relative easiness to learn is balanced out by deeper complexities as one progresses.

Vassar’s men’s squash team opens up their season this Saturday at Haverford College (who knocked them out of the national tournament last year), and the home opener is Nov. 13 at 12 p.m. in Kenyon Hall. The women’s team also opens against Haverford on Saturday, but unlike the men does not play at home until Jan. 29. Harris noted, “This year’s team is shaping up to be one defined by tenacity, with a voracious appetite to win some of the big matches we feel got away from us last year.”

November 4, 2010

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Captains puncture the myths of fencing SAAC seeks

to represent VC athletes

Nathan Tauger

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Guest Reporter

Corey Cohn Reporter

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Dallas Robinson/The Miscellany News

ome this Saturday, a select group of Vassar students will don Kevlar body suits and prepare a variety of weapons as they travel to Smith College. But this won’t be a violent group of Vassar radicals attacking Smith. The Big One, Vassar fencing’s first major meet, begins at 9 a.m. in Northampton, Mass.

Fencing contests are won in bouts. In collegiate fencing a bout is a contest to five touches. The three different styles of fencing, so-named after the weapon utilized are foil, épée and sabre, each have different requirements for what counts as a touch. In foil and épée styles, only contact with the tip of the sword against a certain body area of the opponent counts. In épée touches are legitimate if the tip strikes any part of the body while in foil only torso and back hits count as touches.

Sabre is different than the other styles because the entirety of the sword, tip and blade, can hit anywhere above the waist except the hands to be counted as a touch.

Men’s Captain Andrew Fischl ’11, who fences sabre, prefers his style due to its speed. “Sabre is the whole blade, it’s a lot faster. That’s what I like about it. Anyone you think of as athletic would be good at sabre.”

Fischl has done his share of the other styles though. “Sometimes in practice I fence épée or foil. My favorite is sabre, and then foil; I don’t like épée.”

Fischl was eager to point out perhaps the most fear-inducing mistaken belief about fencing. “There’s a very common misconception among people that fencing is painful.

We’re well padded so it’s not. My protective gear is made of Kevlar, the same material used for making bulletproof vests. The only times people get hurt are when their weapons break or when they use the wrong equipment.” Another common mistake Fischl has encountered was the assumption held by many regarding the cost. “Some people think fencing is a sport you can only do if you have a lot of money. That’s not true. The cost of

Vassar students fence at Walker Fieldhouse. The fencing season starts this Saturday with The Big One, Smith College’s annual fencing tournament. The fencing team will travel to Cleveland in January. fencing is about the same as the cost to play tennis.”

Women’s Captain Julie Carlsen ’11 readily disproved the idea that fencing is not a team sport. “We practice together and coach each other. We really give each other a lot of support and advice. Just because we fence individually doesn’t mean we’re not a team.”

Strong personal relationships aren’t all the fencing practices build. The team’s rigorous practice schedule is meant to prepare fencers for intense bouts in competition. Carlsen and Fischl both have pronounced accounts of their most memorable Vassar fencing bouts.

Carlsen noted, “Last season, the women’s team beat Boston College for the first time in five years. I won my bout against my friend from [Boston College] who is a tough opponent. It was a personal victory because I fence her a lot and it’s always a tough bout. It was

also important for the team. We only won 1413 so everyone’s victories were crucial. The last bouts were really intense. My bout was at the end and I really felt the excitement of our victory.” Fischl also has an exciting story of a late-meet victory. “My freshman year I was in the finals of The Big One. I was the only one left for Vassar. Everyone was watching and cheering for me. It was the first time I had fenced on a team. The whole experience was very surreal.”

But past glories can’t compare to the ripe future the two captains have in front of them.

Fischl is looking forward to a higher record for both himself and the team at large. Carlsen is excited about the trip to Cleveland, Ohio taking place in January for both the mens’ and women’s teams. Both of these prospects are sure to result in an exciting time for Vassar fencing.

ll groups function best when given a voice, and the population of athletes at Vassar College is no different. The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) provides that outlet.

Much like players’ unions in professional sports, SAAC serves as the link between student-athletes and the school’s athletic administration. It also provides outreach to the rest of the college community as well. SAAC is a national organization; every NCAA institution is mandated to have this group available on campus. That should not imply, however, that SAAC has no specific significance for Vassar athletes in particular.

In an e-mailed statement, Carolyn Crampton ’11, a guard on the Vassar women’s basketball team and president of SAAC noted that SAAC holds meetings to discuss issues, concerns, and goals the student-athletes may have, and encourages as many athletes from as many teams as possible to come. Crampton mentioned how this has worked, as “at Vassar, SAAC [represents] almost every varsity team on campus this year as well as several club teams.” The organization is led by an executive board, which Crampton heads.

Crampton explained that, in addition to SAAC meetings, she talks to Vassar’s Director of Athletics and Physical Education, Sharon Beverly, usually biweekly to update her on the goals, concerns and progress associated with SAAC. The executive board as a whole also frequently contacts men’s basketball Head Coach Del Harris, who serves as SAAC coordinator. Harris attends all of the organization’s meetings and provides a reliable connection to the administration. Crampton added that SAAC is trying to increase this communication even further, as they hope to form a “task force” that would feature SAAC representatives meeting with the athletic administration, See SAAC on page 20

Athlete of the week Zander Mrlik the master of two fields Harrison Remler Guest Reporter

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Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

o some it’s an over-competitive cockiness.

To Alexander “Zander” Mrlik ’13 and his teammates, it’s an obsession to compete every second of every minute of contest.

Watching him play soccer, fans witness his extreme dedication. His fearlessness was displayed when Mrlik played with stitches in his right eye after a collision against a player from Fairleigh Dickinson College at Florham . “Once I got the stitches, I knew I had to return to the field,” said Mrlik.

A midfielder for the soccer team, Mrlik helped lead the Vassar men’s soccer program to an 8-7-1 record.

Throughout the season, Mrlik has been a key player for the Brewers and was instrumental in the team’s victory over national powerhouse Hobart College; however, Mrlik attributes this triumph to an overall team effort. “The win over Hobart was a complete effort from our team. Goalie Ryan Grimme [’14] played like the best goalie in the Liberty League, making several key saves during the final parts of the match,” said Mrlik.

A graduate of St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, Calif., Mrlik was a standout on the school’s football and soccer teams.

As a captain of the men’s soccer team his senior year, he led St. Ignatius to the school’s first California Coast Section championship, and in the process garnered first team All-League honors.

Starting as kicker and tight end on the varsity football team, Mrlik squared up against some the top rated high school prospects in the Bay Area. “The football atmosphere was demanding, as we trained nine months out of the year and we prepared for some of the toughest programs in California” said Mrlik.

In addition to his passion for soccer and football, Mrlik displayed a love for baseball from a young age. He actually did not play for his high school varsity team in his final two years as a

student, choosing instead to make a full time commitment to his club soccer team, San Francisco United (SF United). “Playing on SF United was one of the best experiences of my soccer career. Not only did I have the opportunity to play against the top competition on the West Coast, but also I was surrounded by a diverse group of teammates, as players hailed from countries such as Argentina and Mexico,” added Mrlik.

It wasn’t until Mrlik arrived on Vassar’s campus that he returned to the diamond. “That is what stood out for me when it came down to the college process. Here at Vassar I have an opportunity to play two sports and focus on achieving in the classroom as well,” noted Mrlik.

Despite his background with baseball, Head Coach Jon Martin had a different idea for Mrlik’s role. “When I went to try out I began as an infielder with playing experience in the outfield and catcher positions. Yet Coach Martin told me that I’d be quickly converted into a pitcher,” said Mrlik.

Last year, Mrlik worked his way from the back of the bullpen to a spot starter for the 2010 Brewers. He led the pitching staff in Earned Run Average (ERA) with a 5.46, throwing 28 innings in nine appearances.

While he has dressed for over 69 athletic contests for the Brewers, he recalls beating Union College for the soccer program’s first back-to-back Liberty League wins as his career highlight. “[Last year,] when Ross [Macklin ’12] scored the game-winning goal against Union and we won our first consecutive league games, I have never been so pumped,” said Mrlik.

It’s a drive to play against the best that has inspired Mrlik to compete everyday. It’s only natural for Mrlik, who demands the most out of himself every time he stepped on the field.

“With a close knit family, hustle has been instilled in my life since my youngest playing days.

My dad always stressed that the key to athletics was playing your hardest each moment of each game,” said Mrlik. No matter which sport it is.

Zander Mrilk, above, serves as a midfielder for the varsity soccer team and as a pitcher for the baseball team. Mrlik emphasizes the importance of having “hustle” and staying competitive as his key to success.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

SPORTS

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November 4, 2010

Women’s rugby captures Met NY title SAAC aids

varsity athletes

Mitchell Gilburne

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Features Editor

off the court Mia Fermindoza/The Miscellany News

his past Sunday, on the all hallowed 31st of October, with bone-chilling winds whispering through the air, Vassar’s women’s rugby team faced off against State University of New York at New Paltz in a clash that proved to be a definitive treat for this dedicated group of Brewers. Captain Julia Nissen ’11 explains the psychological conditions prefacing the match, noting, “They had a really confident attitude that we had to counter,” in reference to New Paltz’s recent triumph over Marist College, who had bested the Brewers in their previous engagement. Ultimately, Vassar women proved once again that brains and brawn make for a deadly combination on the rugby field, winning by a score of 25-12 to capture the Metropolitan New York Division II title.

Like any truly riveting game, the outcome could not be readily predicted from the outset. In fact, New Paltz gave the Brewers quite a scare with their initial gusto. Rookie standout O’Mara Taylor ’12 modestly explains, “New Paltz really rallied towards the end of the first half. They started rucking harder than us and they had possession more then we did, but we rallied and put pressure back on them.”

However, Head Coach Tony Brown clarifies that Vassar’s accrual of momentum owed much to Taylor’s efforts. “We didn’t score for the first 15 minutes,” he says, “and then New Paltz came marching down the field, and they got ten yards within our line and I thought ‘Crikey!’ We had all of this pressure on us and then O’Mara Taylor picked the ball up and ran 80 yards, which was an amazing display of athleticism.”

As the game progressed, both teams ably vied for the title of champion; however, masterful tries scored by the rookie trio of Taylor accompanied

by Dallas Robinson ’14 and Margaret Kwateng ’14 clinched a favorable outcome for the Brewers.

Taylor elaborates, “During the middle and end of the second half we were just dominating the field and were playing well and were really fluid and that’s when we scored most of our tries.”

The Brewers’ victory is perhaps made all the more incredible by the greenness of their

Women’s rugby defeated SUNY New Paltz on Sunday, Oct. 31, with a score of 25 to 12, earning the Metropolitan New York Division II title. The team hopes to go on to defeat Boston University on Nov. 6. squad. With the A-side, starting line up including a hefty sum of six rookie players, Coach Brown beams with pride when reviewing the progress they have made in such a brief span of time. “Their individual development has been huge,” he says. “They’re playing with confidence, running hard with the ball, surviving on their wits, so individually that’s great, and for them to combine and have the team win more games than they lose is great.”

Aside from individual prowess, the team universally acknowledges that their own chemistry and camaraderie also warrant some credit for their stellar performance this season, with Taylor proclaiming, “The returning players really led us. They were really inclusive and allowed us to thrive so it was a wonderful setting for us rookies.” Nissen enforces this sentiment, explaining, “It’s been a really great team and I feel that the team not only works great on the rugby field, but is also very close in terms of friendship, and that also really helps us on the rugby field in terms of

trust and being there for each other.”

For Coach Brown, the effects of victory are worth the grueling months of preparation.

He says, “The best moment of the game was when the final whistle blew and all those Vassar women were smiling, laughing and hugging each other. That’s what it’s all about for them; to work as hard as they do and feel that much joy is great.”

Now, invigorated by their most recent triumph, Vassar’s women’s rugby team is seeded second in the Northeast Rugby Union Division II Championship, and will take on Boston University this coming Saturday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m. on the Vassar Farm. Brown concludes with his hopes for an unparalleled outpouring of school spirit. “I am hoping for the biggest ever rugby crowd at Vassar. I want these women to be supported in their endeavor. They’re so proud to be Vassar students representing the College and I just want that endorsed by even people who don’t know rugby.”

Volleyball takes second at VC Invitational A

Andy Marmer, Sports Editor Lillian Reuman, Contributing Editor

Courtesy of Sports Information

fter a pair of victories in the Athletic and Fitness Center on Friday afternoon, spirits soared for the Vassar women’s volleyball team.

With exciting wins over Kings College (3-0) and Daemen College (3-2), the team was prepared to defend their home turf at the Vassar Invitational, with the support of fellow studentathletes in the stands. Unfortunately for the Brewers, they dropped a pair of close fought matches the second day to Steven Institute of Technology (3-2) and State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia (3-2), but still managed to pull out a second place finish.

As King’s was just warming up in the first two sets, Vassar took advantage of the situation and led with two 25-19 wins. By the third match, the Brewers had to pick up the intensity in order to eventually come along with the two-point margin of victory after a 23-23 tie. The gamewinning point finally arrived after a kill by Amy Bavosa ’12 and an error on behalf of the opponents. Moving onto their second competitor, the Brewers came out with powerful blocking and accurate defense against Daemen College.

With quick recovery from tips, a handful of key digs by Chelsea Mottern ’11, and Julianna Simon ’11 and Chloe McGuire ’13 filling in the back row when there were holes, Vassar gave Daemen College a fight despite dropping the first set. In the second set, several free balls made way for consistent hitting by the Brewers, led by Rose Carman ’14—a force too strong to be blocked.

A combination of blocking by Simon and Jessie Ditmore ’14 and backrow hits by Mottern made way for a Brewers lead. McGuire’s deadly kills prolonged Hilary Koenigs’ ’13 consistent serving for a well-earned win in the second match.

Despite a close loss in the third set, the Brewers returned for two victories to defeat Daemen College and boast an undefeated record for the first evening’s play.

Coming out on the second day, the Brewers opened up against the tournament’s other un-

The women’s volleyball team fell to MIT and SUNY Fredonia on the second day of the Vassar Invitational last Saturday, but still managed to secure second place due to victories against Kings and Daemen Colleges. beaten, Stevens. The Brewers started the day slowly, quickly dropping the first set, 25-14. The team battled back though, routing Stevens in the next two sets led by Bavosa and McGuire. Despite the early advantage, Stevens would not go down quietly; although they were never able to hold more than a slight lead, they still managed to capture the fourth set and earn themselves an early 5-0 lead in the fifth. Vassar though was able to battle back, before succumbing 19-17.

The second match of the day, against Fredonia, was eerily similar to the first. Vassar took an early lead in the match, edging Fredonia 2725, and lost a close set in the second, 25-22. Perhaps angered by the second set loss, the Brew-

ers unleashed a storm of kills, sailing to a 25-12 victory in the third and another 2-1 advantage.

As was the theme throughout the day, however, they were unable to hold their lead, eventually falling 15-12.

Stevens captured the event with a perfect 4-0 Invitational record, with Vassar earning their second-place finish over Fredonia and Daemen based on tie-breaks as all three teams finished 2-2. The Brewers were led throughout the event by McGuire, whose effort was recognized through an All-Invitational nod.

This weekend, Vassar will conclude its season competing in the Liberty League Championships at St. Lawrence University.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

SAAC continued from page 19 Vassar President Catharine Bond Hill and other members of the faculty to discuss relevant issues.

So far, the organization has had a positive effect on the athletes. Crampton referred to its most recent success, the passing of the academic credit proposal for student-athletes (see: “Athletes will receive credit starting in fall” 3.31.10). Varsity team members will now receive up to two units of credit for participating in their sports over the span of four years. Crampton said in response to the controversy surrounding this proposal, that it was critical for SAAC “to really show the commitment and dedication that student-athletes at Vassar have to their academics…[and] prove that we are, first and foremost, Vassar students who are here for an education.” Though the academic credit proposal officially went through the Vassar Student Association (VSA), Crampton said SAAC was very much involved and the effort improved the group’s relationship with the school administration.

As far as other school-wide relations, SAAC particularly strives to close the divide between athletes and non-athletes.

Crampton emphasized the importance of improving the perception of athletes, so they are not only associated with the often-inclusive bubble sports create. She said that they “strive to push away the ‘jock’ image…we are students first, and thus we can relate to everyone on this campus, not just athletes.”

SAAC representatives illustrate this sincere level of care for the non-athletic aspects of Vassar by becoming involved in the various other events on campus.

Crampton said that the teams expect students to cheer for them at their games, but that support should be reciprocated. “As athletes, we fully understand that you want your peers there [for] you in what you put a great deal of time and effort into— whether that be a sport, a play, a musical piece, artwork, or something else.” While dismissing the “jock image” is part of the objective, Crampton stressed that the student-athletes support the rest of the Vassar student body out of a sheer love for the school and a strong appreciation of the nonathletic aspects of its culture.

Along the same lines, SAAC shows equal concern for the community outside of Vassar. Crampton said that the organization has mirrored the school itself in its intent to reach out to the rest of Poughkeepsie.

“Just as it has been a goal of the College in recent years to improve relations with the Poughkeepsie community, it has also been a goal of SAAC, and being a part of this organization has helped me realize how important that responsibility truly is.”

SAAC is making extra efforts to support that initiative this year. Crampton mentioned one goal for 2010-2011 is to start a Habitat for Humanity project somewhere within a two-hour radius of the Vassar campus. Another upcoming endeavor involves a Vassar version of the popular LiveStrong bracelets, complete with school colors burgundy and gray and a catchy slogan yet to be determined. Crampton said the idea was originally supposed to be a fundraiser for SAAC, but women’s tennis representative Jennifer Beckerman suggested donating the proceeds to charity. According to Crampton, “we are in the process of working out the specific design of the bracelets and ordering them, and we will be voting on what cause to donate the money to…but we’re really excited about the idea.” Crampton appears equally excited about the state of SAAC and, more importantly, its potential for the future. This is for good reason, as the organization, already making strides nationwide and within the realm of Vassar, is positioned to only continue to grow.