The Miscellany News | Nov. 4, 2010

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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

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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

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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

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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


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