The 11th issue of Volume CXLV of The Miscellany News.

The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

December 8, 2011

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CXLV | Issue 11

Student arrested in string of laptop thefts Joey Rearick News Editor

S

As sesqui celebrations end, campaign lives on Ruth Bolster

Assistant Features Editor

A

s the college community collectively inhales to blow out the final candles on Vassar’s 150th birthday cake, events that have capitalized on the sesquicentennial celebrations are currently winding down or changing focus. While one might predict a post-party slump affecting the more long-term projects associated with the sesquicentennial, those behind Vassar’s 150: World Changing campaign think different-

ly. The fundraising operation hopes to extend this high-energy momentum associated with the sesquicentennial in order to continue to reach its $400-million goal.

The campaign’s overall goal is the improvement of Vassar’s facilities and accessibilitiy for the benefit of future classes. Both alumnae/i and parents of current students are encouraged to give to one or more of the campaign’s three pillars. One pillar, Access to Excellence, hopes to increase Vassar’s financial aid See SESQUI on page 8

Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News

hortly after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 1, the Town of Poughkeepsie Police Department, working in conjunction with Vassar Safety and Security officers, arrested a Vassar student for burglary and possession of a controlled substance in the basement of Davison House. The alleged perpetrator is believed to be partially responsible for the high number of laptop thefts committed on campus this semester. He was apprehended after a few students, one of whom was recently the victim of theft,

reported a suspicious person in the basement area to the Campus Response Center. Security officers responded quickly and detained the suspect until police arrived and arrested him.

Daniel Sohval ’13 was one of the students who aided in the arrest of the alleged thief. He was in the Davison basement on Thursday evening attending a club meeting when he observed a man enter the area and panic upon seeing a gathering in progress. “I guess he got nervous when he saw the large group of people seated in the basement See ARREST on page 4

Philosopher and professor Cornel West speaks before a packed Chapel on Wednesday, Nov. 30. West’s lecture, entitled “The End of Oligarchy,” raised issues such as introspection, death and social justice. See Page 2.

Begemann selected as new DoPAA Dave Rosenkranz

O

News Editor

n Dec. 1, President of the College Catharine Bond Hill announced in an all-campus email that Associate Professor of Chemistry and Associate Dean of the Faculty Marianne Begemann ’79 had agreed to become Vassar’s second Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs (DoPAA). Begemann’s decision to accept the position marks the end of

a nine-month-long search which began when Professor Rachel Kitzinger, Vassar’s current DoPAA, announced her resignation last February. Begemann’s application was unanimously approved by the College’s Board of Trustees on Dec. 6; and on Jan. 1, she will begin her new job as DoPAA. The office of the DoPAA oversees Vassar’s libraries, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, the Athletics Department, the Office of Admis-

sions and Financial Aid, the Office of Institutional Research, the Faculty Housing Program, the Campus Investment and Responsibility Committee, the Exploring Transfer Program, and several larger academic and financial projects on an as-theycome basis. Kitzinger explained that, right now, some of those larger plans include the construction of the Integrated Science Center, which will See DOPAA on page 4

Library welcomes its millionth Campus Current offers forum for discussion Molly Turpin

Contributing Editor

T

5

FEATURES

VSA attends Seven Sisters Conference

V

Arts Editor

assar students love to critically engage with campus issues, whether the forum be The Miscellany News Opinions section, one of the many student-led organizations or through commentary on social media websites. But up until the creation of one of WVKR’s latest shows entitled “Campus Current,” local radio waves

were a relatively vacant arena for dialogue surrounding campus events and issues. The show, which strives to highlight Vassar’s rich and diverse cultural makeup as well as ongoing events and organizations, airs biweekly from 5 to 6 p.m. on WVKR 91.3 FM. “I think one of the great things the show does is give students an opportunity to be a part of See WVKR on page 16

Carlos Hernandez/The Miscellany News

Inside this issue

Rachael Borné

Courtesy of the National Institute of Health

he arrival of the Thompson Memorial Library’s latest acquisition, a 17th-century anatomical text, is already causing a stir.

Vassar College has hit its millionth volume.

“It is symbolic. It is special,” said Director of Libraries Sabrina Pape.

“It’s large for a liberal arts college, certainly on the high end. We can always have more, but I think we’ve been really lucky.”

The book, Medicinae Doctoris & Chirurgi, Anatomia Humani Corporis

by Govard Bidloo with illustrations by Gerard de Lairesse, is described as a massive work in the history of the study of the human anatomy and is a literally massive work in itself. The collection of prints, published between 1683 and 1685 and still in its original binding, hardly fits on the foam pads that Special Collections uses for viewing. It seems to carry physical weight expected of such a milestone.

Director of Special Collections Ron Patkus explained that choosing the millionth volume took great deliberation.

It had to be a rare, ideally significant text, he said, but from there the choices were wide open. “One thing that we had in mind that as the millionth volume it should be something for the campus as a whole, and so ideally it would be something that would tie into the liberal arts

Gerard de Lairesse’s illustration, above, from Govard Bidloo’s Medicinae Doctoris & Chirurgi, Anatomia Humani Corporis, graces the Library’s millionth volume. and connect the various disciplines,” said Patkus. The Library decided on the Bidloo text for its multidisciplinary appeal, attracting students and professors from both the arts and sciences.

The book is a gift of the Class of

6

1972 and is in part the product of a chance encounter between Patkus and a member of the Class of 1972 on a train—the graduate happened to be a physician and book collector.

See MILLIONTH on page 3

Safety and Security begins loaner FEATURES bike program

Above, students record a program for WVKR’s newest radio show, “Campus Current.” The weekly show engages in dialogue about campus events and issues.

15 ARTS

Roseman launches NYC exhibition

Page 2

The Miscellany News

December 8, 2011

Editor in Chief Aashim Usgaonkar Senior Editors

Katharine Austin Mary Huber Erik Lorenzsonn

Contributing Editors Katie Cornish Carrie Hojnicki Jillian Scharr Molly Turpin

News Joey Rearick Dave Rosenkranz Features Danielle Bukowski Opinions Hannah Blume Humor & Satire Alanna Okun Arts Rachael Borné Adam Buchsbaum Sports Corey Cohn Andy Marmer Photography Juliana Halpert Madeline Zappala Online Nathan Tauger Social Media Matt Ortile Managing Qian Xu

To celebrate the upcoming holiday season, The Miscellany News included this picture of the snow-covered trees in the quad in front of Lathrop House on the front page of the December 1961 issue. The same picture graced the front page of the newspaper for five years, starting in 1957.

This Week in Vassar History 1871, Dec. 19 The Vassar Transcript was renamed The Vassar Miscellany.

1914, Dec. 15 Meeting in New York City, the Vassar board of trustees unanimously accepted the recommendation of their nominating committee that Henry Noble MacCracken, professor of English at Smith College, be elected to succeed James Monroe Taylor as president of the college. MacCracken’s brother, John Henry MacCracken had been elected president of Lafayette College the previous day. The new college presidents were the sons of the emeritus chancellor of New York University, Henry Mitchell MacCracken. The new president’s selection was announced at Vassar in the Chapel.

1931, Dec. 11-12 The Experimental Theatre and the Greek Department, with the cooperation of the Departments of Music and Art, presented the Hippolytus of Euripides in Greek. Directed by Hallie Flanagan and Philip Davis, professor of Greek, the performance was thought to be the first presentation in modern times of the play as it was first heard 2,300 years ago.

1934, Dec. 14 The New York Times reported that Dr. George Van Biesbroeck of the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory, who had discovered a minor planet of the twelfth magnitude on July 27, 1933, had been notified by the Berlin RechenInstitute that the planet had been named Vassar, after the College.

By Dean Emeritus Colton Johnson

After Dr. Biesbroeck found the asteroid on a photographic plate, Caroline Furness ’91, director of the Vassar Observatory, requested his data so that the planet’s orbit could be computed. The computations, carried out by senior Grace Wilson ’34, had recently been verified when the planet had been observed in a position predicted for it. The orbits of three such planets were found to be accurately predicted by the computations at Vassar, and a second of the three was named Radcliffe, after that college’s Class of 1925.

1939, Dec. 17 60 international students from Vassar, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union, Williams, Bennington, Skidmore, Elmira and Russell Sage broadcast Christmas greetings to their families in English, Chinese, Hindustani, Japanese, Hebrew, Dutch and Spanish over General Electric’s short-wave stations WGEO and WGEA. Carolinda Waters, a Vassar student from England, promised to send her family a case of butter. The New York Times 1940, Dec. 25 13-year-old Christine Vassar, a descendant of Matthew Vassar and a British war refugee living at Vassar with the MacCrackens, was among eight English evacuees who participated from Radio City in a two-way transatlantic broadcast with their families.

On January 20, 1941, The New York Times reported that she “told her mother she had to practice the piano ‘one single solid hour of daylight every day.’ “’Oh, I say,’ Mrs. Vassar replied, ‘You wouldn’t practice at home and neither would you drink milk. But

you do drink milk, plenty of milk, in the States?’

“Christine replied that everybody drinks milk here; then there was silence in the studio as Mrs. Vassar said that sometimes she forgot Christine was away and ‘I put your plate at the table.’ “’Oh, Mummy,’ Christine said.”

Christine Vassar next saw her parents again when they attended her graduation from the college in 1947.

1941, Dec. 8 The House of Representatives, with one opposing vote, and the Senate in unanimity adopted a resolution of war with Japan.

The Vassar faculty adopted a resolution: “We, the president and members of the faculty of Vassar College, in deep sense of the gravity of the national crisis, reaffirm our loyalty to our country and pledge our united support of the cause declared by the Congress in its declaration of this date, Dec. 8, 1941. In so far as our skills and our special training may prove useful, we wish to offer them to the service of the nation as a whole.” The New York Times 1959, Dec. 9 American poet Robert Frost visited the College for two and a half days and lectured on “The Peril of Newness.” He also talked informally with the majors in the Department of English. He previously lectured at Vassar in 1925 and 1952.

1971, Dec. 8 Vassar College’s new radio station, WVKR, made its first broadcasts, a sampling of music and news.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Assistant Features Ruth Bolster Jessica Tarantine Assistant Arts Charlacia Dent Shruti Manian Assistant Sports Kristine Olson Assistant Photo Carlos Hernandez Assistant Copy Jessica Grinnell Crossword Editor Jonathan Garfinkel Columnists Sarah Begley Gabe Dunsmith Brittany Hunt Michael Mestitz Tom Renjilian Sam Scarritt-Selman Reporters Andy Sussman Emma Daniels Jesse Hartman Matthew Hauptman Bethan Johnson Bobbie Lucas Burcu Noyan Jack Owen Alicia Salvino Leighton Suen Photographer Alex Schlesinger ADVERTISING POLICY

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

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

December 8, 2011

NEWS

Page 3

West championed need for deep education Bidloo book an artifact of O art, science Nathan Tauger Online Editor

Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News

n Wednesday Nov. 30, philosopher, professor and well-known public intellectual Cornel West spoke to a capacity audience in the Chapel. His lecture, entitled “The End of Oligarchy: On Spirituality, Citizenship and the New Democracy,” discussed a variety of contemporary issues and philosophical topics, including introspection, social justice, confronting death, the Occupy movement and questioning institutions. “The unexamined life is not worth living,” charged West. “Who has the courage to critically examine their life and society in the world today?”

Throughout the lecture, West spoke to the importance of education in a functioning democracy, and the necessity of “deep education,” quoting a variety of philosophers, writers and scholars, from Seneca the Younger to Samuel Beckett. This notion of a deep education resonated with many audience members.

“The theme of a deep education in contrast to getting schooled was important,” wrote Professor of Sociology Diane Harriford in an emailed statement. “West is a person who wants to know as much as he can know about everything and does not believe that knowledge is simply a commodity to be used in service to one’s economic aspirations.” Student activist and Main House President Jeremy Garza ’14 also commented on the theme. “For people like us, who are products of an elite social institution that is Vassar, somtimes we don’t get that level of deep education of understanding,” he said, “and I think that level is key to actually pursuing social justice.”

In the name of social justice, West often praised the Occupy movement. During the question-and-answer session after the lecture, a group of representatives from Occupy Poughkeepsie stood and lauded West in turn for his words and invited him to join them in Hulme Park. In fact, after answering questions for another hour, West joined Garza, Harriford,

Eager students fill the Chapel pews on the night of Wednesday, Nov. 30 in anticipation of Cornel West’s lecture. West’s message of the necessity of deep education resonated with several attendees.

Associate Dean for Campus Life and Diversity Ed Pittman and a slew of Occupy Poughkeepsie protesters and traveled via limo to Hulme Park. “He was so involved and meeting every person that was down there, and having that very real conversation with each one. He was taking pictures with everyone; it was really amazing. If it wasn’t for Diane and me and a couple of others, he would’ve been there for hours,” explained Garza.

Pittman was particularly impressed by West’s commitment to the cause. “Poughkeepsie has been my home for the last 47 years, I know it like the back of my hand, so we felt that having someone show him Poughkeepsie would be good, to answer any questions,” said Pittman. “The reaction of the young people who were there that night and the fact that he

took time to come down was really impressive.

The idea of that academic, social activist, ‘celebrity’ coming to see their movement and talk to them made a lasting impression on them.”

The lecture, which was sponsored by over a dozen departments and campus associations, was primarily arranged by John Joyce ’12. “One of the motivations for bringing Cornel West, in addition to just having a prominent public figure that people could go see, was to inspire students to turn inward and look at Vassar itself and looking at issues that might be visible at Vassar but less talked about,” explained Joyce, adding, “One of his main points in talking about how to affect change in the larger world...but it’s also important to look at Vassar as an institution and our places within it.”

VSA proposes org expenditure limit Leighton Suen Reporter

L

ast Sunday, Vassar Student Association (VSA) Vice President for Finance Jason Rubin ’13 proposed a new amendment to the VSA Constitution. Informally called the “threshold amendment,” the addition to Article IV, section 9 will require organizations that plan on spending more than a threshold of $5000 on a single expenditure or event to submit an application for approval by the VSA Finance Committee, which is chaired by the VP for Finance.

The amendment’s principal authors were Rubin, Class of 2012 President Pamela Vogel ’12, Cushing House President Daniel Shaw ’14 and Josselyn House President Michael Kiel ’14.

“A major concern was that a few of our major organizations ended last year with substantial debt based on bigger expenditures,” said Rubin.

“Because of budget concerns, some more oversight—having a group be able to ask questions about the financial aspects of the event—is better. But it isn’t directly related to what happened last year. A big part of what motivated this is putting something in place that would be useful and utilized in the years going forward.

[This amendment] is focused on accountability and having a more in-depth conversation on events and budget as a whole in any year.”

“Our goal in writing this amendment was to make sure that we, as VSA Council members, had the tools to make sure that the Student Activities Fee was being utilized effectively by our organizations,” wrote Vogel in an emailed statement. “It was very important that we find a middle ground in this legislation that would allow all orgs (including the senior class) to continue programming to and acting in accordance with their mission statements, while still making sure that all students have the opportunity to see where their Student Activities Fee is going.”

Earlier this semester, the VSA Council passed a censure of ViCE after it was discovered that the previous year’s leadership had overdrawn by $30,000 into this year’s budget.

Since ViCE is supposed to provide program-

ming for the entire student body, starting the school year in debt would have significantly altered the entertainment available to students.

The censure was a temporary solution to the problem, and did not address the $14,000 debt incurred by the Vassarion or the $6000 used for Senior Week programming by last year’s senior class.

Vassarion Editor-in-Chief Alia Heintz ’12 does not believe that the past will repeat itself.

“I think that it is a wise decision for the VSA to require an application for review; it will help them keep a better watch on organizations and make sure that they are spending their funds with much deliberation.”

Director of ViCE Mitchell Gilburne ’12 is also quick to distinguish this year’s ViCE leadership from those of previous years. “Our Executive Board has been committed to fiscal responsibility without compromising the quality of the entertainment we provide, and we’re happy to cooperate with this latest VSA initiative so long as they keep giving us [money],” he wrote in an emailed statement.

“With leadership positions in student organizations lasting only a year, accountability will never cease to be an issue,” he said, expressing his approval for the proposed amendment. “VSA oversight—so long as it doesn’t infringe on the creative process or counteract an organization’s mission—is appropriate. It’s of paramount importance for organizations to be cognizant of their finances at all times, so the amendment can only hurt when people become lax in their responsibilities.”

Vogel agrees with Heintz and Gilburne’s sentiments. “The passage of this amendment would mean that larger organizations, including my own, will have the space to think a bit more critically about large-scale expenses.

In the past, we’ve been able to identify a few specific expenditures or events that can be risky for organizations to financially support.

Rather than single out those things, it seemed important to make sure our amendment said something broader and more applicable about accountability in general. However, with regards to Senior Week specifically, I am com-

pletely confident that our class will spend our VSA funding as effectively as possible, and I think an extra set of eyes will only improve our financial choices.”

Subheadings under the main clause of the amendment state that organizations must submit applications before spending any money and, if they plan events, at least 14 days prior to the event. The applications, “shall be treated procedurally as if a fund application.” The amendment has been referred to the VSA Operations Committee, and it is expected to pass when it is voted on next week.

Not all student organization leaders are ready to fully accept the amendment yet. “I think that it’s a potentially good amendment if it doesn’t impede the work of student organizations,” said WVKR Finance Director Axel Yung ’13. “If it takes too long for the VSA to approve certain purchases over $5000, it could be a tedious obstacle. If the VSA can handle these applications expediently—taking no more than a couple of days—then I believe that it will work well in the future.”

The VSA Finance Committee is still determing exactly what applications from student groups will contain. According to Rubin, the application will tentatively ask for a detailed budget for the event. In addition, questions that need to be answered include whether ticket sales will help pay for the event, what the organization’s budget has looked like in the past and how the event fits into the overall budget for the organization. When deciding whether to approve an application, the Finance Committee will look into how much money the organization has in its budget for the event, whether the budget makes sense and is detailed, if the projected ticket sales or sales of merchandise is realistic, and what it thinks the overall budget will look like.

“We are not focusing on creative or programming concerns,” Rubin pointed out. “Our goal is not to reject events, but to have a greater conversation about events and the expenditures. [We want to] make sure that everything is discussed, and if necessary, to encourage an event to be reworked.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

MILLIONTH continued from page 1 “This book was very important in its time in terms of creativity,” said Patkus, who displayed a few of the prints during an interview with The Miscellany News.

“This is my favorite because of the book,” he said, stopping at the image of a hand resting on a book with an inkwell to one side. The fingers look as though they could take up the quill at any moment but for the lack of skin that leaves bare the forms of muscles just underneath. “You know they didn’t have to put a book there because of the arm, but it’s putting it in a certain setting and at the same time drawing out the muscles,” Patkus said.

Sierra Starr ’12, a double major in studio art and biology, chose to focus on the book for her final project in Sarah Gibson Blanding Professor of Art Susan Kuretsy’s seminar, Art and Science in the Age of Vermeer. Bidloo, she explained, represents a milestone in both art and science.

“It’s weird to say about drawings that depict, like, guts and viscera, but it’s amazingly beautiful,” said Starr.

The series of prints was published at a time of rapid evolution in both print culture and the scientific study of the human anatomy. For Bidloo and his illustrator Lairesse, the result combines both cutting edge art and science.

Prior to Bidloo, the leading anatomical text came from 16th-century anatomist Andreas Vesalius. Though Vesalius pioneered the practice of live dissection, his printed work had a tendency to animate his cadavers, placing muscular diagrams in Italianate settings or moralizing skeletal images as reminders of human mortality. With the help of Lairesse, an influential Dutch painter in his own right, Bidloo’s subjects are usually closer to still lifes, or “life stills” as Kuretsy suggested. “For those reasons, it’s why in the Bidloo book bodies are very much represented as cadavers,” said Starr.

“As it says in the margin of my notes, ‘real dead.’”

Though Bidloo demonstrates changing trends in the study of anatomy, the tome faced criticism from the scientific community. The text is limited to a simple labeling of organs in contrast to greater explanation in earlier texts. The prints, though rendered directly from specimens, are not accurate in every sense.

“It was very interesting for us in the class, which is mostly art historians but also several scientists, to hear a scientists reaction to the book as well as the kind of reaction an art historian would have,” said Kuretsky.

According to Starr, this has been attributed to a failure in the collaboration between anatomist and artist, and that perhaps liberties were taken for the sake of the composition. “What Bidloo would do is obviously he wrote the text and he performed the dissections,” said Starr. “Then I assume he arranged them and told Lairesse what to focus on. But there is zero scholarship on their collaborative process.”

In one sense, then, what makes the prints so compelling as artworks make them less useful to surgeons. The book did not sell well when it was published, and only 200 copies were printed.

Still, the prints show a different philosophical approach to the human body for the time. Departing from the Aristotelian moralization of the human body, Bidloo demonstrates a shift to the intellectual separation of the soul and physical form in the tradition of Descartes. “What makes the book even more interesting is that it’s sort of right on the precipice of the switch between these conventions, so it still has evidence of them and also has where they’re going,” said Starr. “So there are still some moralizing images in there, but there are much fewer than in most anatomy books.”

The most significant ramifications of this intellectual shift come in the depiction of the female body. “From the Artistotelian perspective the female body was inferior to a man’s because it is derived from a man, but female bodies are used throughout Bidloo’s, not just in the gynecology or prints that displayed pregnancy,” said Starr.

The Library in conjunction with the sesquicentennial is planning a celebration of the book very early next semester. The festivities will include talks from professors in the arts and sciences, including Kuretsky, and an opportunity to view the book.

“There’s nothing that can replace the experience of just going to see it,” said Kuretsky. “When you look at the book itself, the page seems to absolutely rise up and come to life before you.”

NEWS Administrators urge campus News Briefs vigilance amid suspect arrest Page 4

December 8, 2011

Council hosts forum on campus security

ARREST continued from page 1 so he made a beeline for the men’s bathroom and locked the door,” wrote Sohval in an emailed statement. “This is probably what tipped me off the most; nobody ever uses the men’s bathroom in the Davison basement.”

Sohval’s room had been burglarized a few days earlier, so he immediately took note of the man’s suspicious behavior.

Sohval also said that the suspect matched a description provided by his friend, Lina Kavaliunas ’13, who had seen a man fleeing down her hallway after he had tried to enter her room a few days before. “He fit the description she gave me: muscular, white backpack, goatee,” Sohval said. Sohval excused himself from the meeting, and coincidentally encountered Kavaliunas.

“Lina was in the basement doing laundry at the time so I went up to her and told her to keep an eye on the bathroom door while I went upstairs and called Security with my friend Jesse Greenberg ’13,” Sohval wrote. Soon Security officers arrived at the scene and convinced the suspect to unlock the bathroom door. According to Sohval, Kavaliunas then identified the man as the one she had seen running away after attempting to enter her room.

Director of Safety and Security Don Marsala wrote in an emailed statement that the police then arrived and verified that the suspect matched descriptions of a suspicious person that had been reported on campus earlier this semester. A subsequent search of the student’s person revealed a controlled substance. “I can’t reveal details, as it’s an ongoing investigation,” wrote Marsala, “but the police discovered several packets of a dangerous drug. The student was arrested and during an interview at the police station, the student admitted to stealing several laptops in recent weeks. The police are following up with the investigation.”

Marsala also stated that the student was later arraigned by a judge and sent to Dutchess County Jail in lieu of bail. The student was eventually able to post bail and is currently waiting to be assigned a date for his trial to begin.

A day after the incident, Dean of the College Chris Roellke emailed the Vassar community to

notify faculty, students and staff of the arrest. He commended the students who helped Security locate the alleged burglar, but cautioned that the student body must “remain vigilant” about protecting personal property.

In a statement emailed to The Miscellany News, Roellke reflected, “My hope is that the community will respond to this news with the realization that unlawful activity has no place in the Vassar community, particularly when it puts members of the community at risk.” He added, “My further hope is that the community will continue to collaborate, as it has in this case, to promote a safe, secure and inclusive campus.”

Marsala said his department had some sense that a Vassar student could be responsible for the spate of thefts perpetrated on campus this school year. “I wasn’t surprised but I was very disappointed that a member of our community allegedly engaged in such activity,” he wrote.

“During the investigation we thought that it might have been a member of our community because of the frequency of the thefts and the ease [with which] the thief entered our buildings and left without being detected.”

He too advised that watchfulness was still required of students. He urged the student body to “use common sense by locking their doors and keeping a close eye on their possessions when in public areas of the campus. Watching out for each other as well will go a long way to insuring that we enjoy a safe campus.”

Last Sunday, Associate Director of Security Kim Squillace met with the Vassar Student Association Council to discuss the incident and other issues related to campus security. She said students should be aware that the student who was apprehended was likely not solely responsible for the large number of burglaries on campus in recent months. “We believe more people are involved,” she told the council of student representatives. “And so do the police.”

She also responded to a question regarding the possible return of items that were allegedly stolen by the arrested student. “The police have not updated us on that,” she said. “But we’re hoping to get back some computers.”

At the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council meeting on Sunday, Dec. 4, Associate Director of Safety and Security Kim Squillace and Associate Director of Residential Life Rich Horowitz participated in a forum on campus security and student conduct issues. The Council had also originally invited Director of Safety Security Don Marsala to participate in the forum, but he was unable to attend because of an injury.

Squillace emphasized to the Council that this semester has been an eventful one for her department. She began by discussing the recent arrest of a Vassar student for burglary and possession of a controlled substance. She then talked about dangerous student behavior more broadly, mentioning some illicit substances found on campus this semester, including “several drugs like ecstasy and heroin.” On a related note, she described an increase in alcohol-related hospitalizations among students this year, a statistic she addressed in grave terms. “We almost lost a few people this year,” she said.

Vice President for Finance Jason Rubin ’13 asked Squillace about recent allegations of racial profiling leveled against officers in her department. In response, she stressed that spurious allegations are often spread by word of mouth through the student body, and that officers have no recourse to correct rumors. “This hurts our officers, and that hurts us,” she said. “I believe that sometimes people don’t handle things correctly, but we continue to do a lot of training.”

—Joey Rearick, News Editor

Survey publishes college salary statistics Last week, the Chronicle of Higher Educa-

New DoPAA to start Jan. 1 DOPAA continued from page 1 stretch from the west end of Olmsted to Skinner and house several science departments, and a possible re-evaluation of Vassar’s admission and financial aid models, depending on the condition of the national economy. (Currently, the administration expects that Vassar students’ financial need will decrease as the economy improves. If this prediction proves false, the DoPAA will contribute to the discussion for a new plan.) “There is an aspect of planning that particularly appeals to me—it is a collective endeavor in which a community can work together for something that is bigger than any one individual or group of individuals,” wrote Begemann in an emailed statement.

According to several administrators and faculty members, the DoPAA has to have a breadth of experience in order to manage this wide range of issues. “The dean needs to have a knowledge of the College, a real flexibility of mind, the ability to move rapidly from one type of problem to another…and [an understanding of] how disparate parts of the College fit together,” explained Professor of Political Science and DoPAA search committee Chair Peter Stillman, highlighting some of the most important characteristics that the committee looked for in the applicants. “Begemann has a really good sense of the College,” added Stillman, who went on to explain that, due in part to this understanding of Vassar operations, Begemann’s name was included on a short list of candidates submitted to Hill’s office. After careful consideration, Hill determined that Begemann had the strongest application and subsequently offered her the job.

In addition to a “good sense of the College,” Begemann’s application also highlights her extensive academic and administrative experience.

After graduating from Vassar in 1979 as a chemistry major, Begemann went on to receive a Ph.D in physical chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. From there, she immediately

returned to Vassar as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1985. In 2007, she became associate dean of the faculty at Vassar. In that capacity, she has, among other things, represented the dean of the faculty on various committees, assisted with allocating approximately 50 departmental operating and capital budgets, and coordinated Mellon Post-doctoral and Consortium for Faculty Diversity Post-doctoral programs.

The DoPAA position was created in 2007 when Hill and several members of the faculty realized that the Dean of the Faculty Office was burdened with too many obligations. “The job had just gotten larger and larger here until, from my point of view, it was too big and had too many responsibilities for some of them to be handled well,” wrote Stillman in an emailed statement. He added that the Library, for example, was often neglected by the Dean of the Faculty Office because it was rarely a central concern to faculty. In addition to these managerial responsibilities, administrators also wanted somebody to coordinate broader administrative preparations. “We felt that the areas of responsibility of the DoPAA needed more senior staff attention going forward, as we started a strategic and financial planning process for Vassar,” wrote Hill in an emailed statement.

“The dean of Planning and Academic Affairs, in my view, is to guide the planning of a sustainable future for the College within the context of our academic mission,” wrote Begemann, demonstrating her understanding of the office’s broader purpose.

Overall, administrators and faculty members seem optimistic about the future of the DoPAA office. “Professor Begemann will be great. She has done a great job in the Dean of the Faculty Office. She will continue the work started by Kitzinger. Our finances are still challenging, and we are always thinking about the options facing the College. The Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Office will continue to help us all think through these issues,” concluded Hill.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

tion published some statistics comparing and analyzing the salaries of college and university presidents around the country. Although Vassar’s President of the College Catharine Bond Hill is paid quite well by the College, her compensation pales in comparison to that of some other college and university presidents.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s research, Hill’s base salary in 2009 was $387,444, a 2.6 percent increase from 2008; and her overall compensation was $496,719, a 7.5 percent increase from 2008.

Her base salary is the 101st largest of the 463 presidents featured in the survey, and is roughly 3.1 times greater than the median professor salary at Vassar. Her salary represents only about 0.23 percent of the College’s $213.3 million total expenditures. Although her total compensation is much higher than the national median of $385,909, Vassar’s president to professor salary ratio is much smaller than the national 3.7, and its president to total expenditure perentage is also smaller than the national 0.4 percent.

Some of the top earners include Charles H. Polk, president of West Virginia’s Moutain State University, and Frances Lucas, president of Mississippi’s Millsaps College. Both presidents earned over one million dollars, at 3.5 percent and 2.4 percent of their school’s operating budgets respectively. Oddly, Mountain State is currently at risk of losing accredation, due in part to its 2.5 percent graduation rate. Vassar’s peer liberal arts colleges don’t deviate too much from Vassar’s presidential compensation.

—Dave Rosencrantz, News Editor

ADVERTISEMENT

December 8, 2011

FEATURES

Page 5

Community’s coffee stops vary in convenience, price Danielle Bukowski FeAtures Editor

D

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

uring regular school hours, there is a wide array of choices for students in search of a regular cup of coffee. The Dining Center, the Kiosk and the Retreat are open while students are running to class, and UpC Café and Matthew’s Bean are open for late-night studying hours. Where to get a cup of joe at 3 a.m. with a mile of paragraphs still to go is another issue. Die-hard connoisseurs with expensive coffee-brewing equipment may have outsmarted us all, but for students living on campus the decision regarding which cup of coffee to buy can be tricky. With five college-run establishments to choose from, does convenience, price or the hour of the day affect where students get their caffeine fix?

Convenience and timing certainly aid in the decisions of students who frequent the Kiosk. “Whenever you guys get out of class, it’s like a herd of cattle,” said Kiosk employee Kathleen DeFayette. There is always a line during the rush before early AM classes and between the end of 2:45 p.m. classes and the Kiosk’s 3:30 p.m. closing time. The Kiosk serves Starbucks-brand coffee, and was one of the first college-based establishments to do so back in the mid-1990s.

“We get some strong coffee-drinkers, but people order more of the specialty drinks,” DeFayette said. “Caramel macchiatos—I make those a lot,” said Kiosk employee Paula Rossi. “Just the students order them. The employees and adults order more coffee,” she continued.

“After the macchiato, the mochas are pretty popular. People order most of this stuff [on the menu]. Hot chocolate is a big deal in the wintertime,” Rossi said. “I’d say now that we have the Frappuccino machine, we make a lot of those. People love that,” DeFayette said.

Since the drinks are trademarked, students purchasing from the Kiosk know that

Coffee establishments in and around campus offer students an array of caffeine choices. The chart pictured above compares the price and size of cups of coffee purchased from various locations. their drinks will taste like those of Starbucks. They also know that they’ll be paying Starbucks prices. The three other types of coffee sold through Vassar charge less for a 16-oz. cup than the Kiosk’s $2.15.

Matthew’s Bean and the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC) serve Pura Vida Fair Trade coffee. Said Senior Director of Campus Dining Maureen King, “At Matthew’s Bean, because it was a class gift, the students asked that it [sell]

Fair Trade coffee, so we brought in Pura Vida.”

On the most recent Sunday in the Library there was a line outside of Matthew’s Bean before it opened at 7 p.m. Said Matthew’s Bean employee Emma Bird ’15, “The most ordered drink has been hot chocolate, recently. Some people come in just for coffee but the lattes and mochas are the most popular, after hot chocolate.” King said students were pleased with the offerings at both locations.

Campus Dining also worked with students in 2007 to bring socially and environmentally responsible coffee to the Retreat. A group of students headed to the U.S.-Mexico border during a College-sponsored trip during Spring Break in 2007, and after learning about the coffee crisis, asked that Café Justo (Just Coffee) be brought to Vassar.

“We now support three local farms there,” King said. Campus Dining purchases 80 pounds of coffee a week from the grower-owned cooperative in Chiapas, and the Retreat (as well as ACDC) brews roughly 20 pots of coffee a day. ACDC goes through 10 pounds of coffee each day.

King was influential in bringing Winchell Mountain Coffee to the Students’ Center. “Winchell Mountain is a really small roaster from Pine Plains [N.Y.] that I saw at my farmer’s market. I thought it would be a good fit for UpC. I talked with the Food Committee about different options, since when UpC was Java City we had their coffee. Having Winchell Mountain is nice because we now have a more local Hudson Valley coffee roaster,” King said.

Winchell Mountain has been available at UpC since the College made the switch from Java City. A family-owned business, Winchell Mountain coffees are selected and roasted by Bob Rivkin along with his son Will.

Central Dining employee Precious Manning said, “We don’t sell too much coffee at UpC, the students come mostly for smoothies and milkshakes.” She estimated that when it gets colder and the students have more work they come in more often for coffee. “But very rarely do people come in just for coffee.”

The cost-analysis of each cup of coffee is analyzed in the chart, but for some students the backstory of the coffee they’re drinking is more important. Wherever you choose to buy coffee these next few weeks, be conscientious of the effort that has gone into

VSA reps participate in Seven Sisters Conference Molly Turpin and Jill Scharr Contributing Editors

F

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

ive members of the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council created a small stir this November when they attended the student Seven Sisters Conference for the first time since the its reinstatement in 2009. This year was the VSA’s first participation with the Seven Sisters in recent memory and sparked a discussion on the identity of the Seven Sisters schools.

“It’s definitely worth noting there are varying opinions about to what degree Vassar should be involved in Seven Sisters happenings,” said VSA Vice President for Operations Jenna Konstantine ’13. “It got at times very contentious. There are some people who believe that we no longer share similar experiences.”

“At the beginning people were wary and skeptical of our presence and at the end people were fascinated,” she added.

The conference theme was student activism, a topic that VSA Vice President for Finance Jason Rubin ’13 noted was not specific to single-sex education. Rubin felt that Vassar was welcomed to the conference. “It was contentious and uncomfortable at times, but us being there it allows that conversation to take place, and now we can have it going forward and there’s no way that would have been dealt with otherwise,” he said.

Three senior officers from each of the Seven Sisters schools have been meeting every year in a nearly parallel conference to the students.

“Our goals, as academically strong, private nonprofit residential liberal arts colleges, have significant overlap,” wrote President of the College Catharine Bond Hill in an emailed statement.

This year, the conference was hosted at Vassar. “We all face many of the same challenges, so meeting gives us an opportunity to talk about how we are responding to a variety of issues that we all face,” said Hill.

Of course, the issues that the colleges face have evolved since the Seven Sisters was founded and later achieved an iconic status in the landscape of U.S. higher education. In its earliest iteration, the seven were only four: Vassar,

Wellesley, Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges met in 1915 at the suggestion of Vassar’s fifth president, Henry Noble MacCracken.

In their first decade of existence, the Four Colleges standardized their admissions processes by adopting competitive examinations.

By 1926 Bryn Mawr, Barnard and Radcliffe Colleges had joined the conference, which quickly acquired the nickname “Seven Sisters” after the Pleiades constellation. Their first joint action was to discuss their unique financial and fundraising challenges as women’s colleges. Dean Emeritus of the College Colton Johnson explained: “Relative to men’s institutions, the giving, and the ability to give—not the willingness of the alumnae…at women’s colleges was shamefully low.”

Coeducation debates and the absorption of Radcliffe into Harvard University rocked the Sisters. Today the colleges are sometimes referred to as the “six siblings” rather than Seven Sisters, but an interest in preserving the schools’ shared history remains.

“There was talk of calling it the ‘historic Seven Sisters,’” said Konstantine. “People were very concerned about how it’s being preserved, if it’s being preserved properly.”

Out of the Seven Sisters Conference, the student leaders of the other “six siblings” created the Seven Sisters Council in the fall of 2010, a group that will soon create a mission statement and constitution. With renewed interest in the Sisters and what the group can accomplish together, the students are asking what it means to be a Seven Sister today.

In fact, a shared history may be Vassar’s strongest bond to the group, at least as compelling as contemporary ties. “These are fine colleges with many common areas of interest, but…they are not the group we would choose to meet with were we starting afresh,” wrote Dean of the Faculty Jonathan Chenette. “We continue to meet because of our historic relationship, but Vassar’s ongoing involvement is unsure.”

Coeducation still features in the discussions.

“I think that the other institutions are very interested in our coeducational environment as they

Vassar College, while an original member of the Seven Sisters—a selection of whose members’ original crests pictured above—did not participate in the reinstated Seven Sisters Conference until this year. continue to debate whether or not single-sex education is still viable and how they anticipate potential legal challenges to single-sex education,” added Dean of the College Chris Roellke in an emailed statement.

For the students forging new ties between the colleges on the Seven Sisters Council, the conversation on identity continues. President of the Self-Government Association at Bryn Mawr College Yong Jung Cho explained that it’s a conversation the Seven Sisters leaders are supposed to bring back to their campuses. The next step, Cho explained, is for each school to submit a proposal for the Council about what it means to be a Seven Sister.

According to Cho, at the first student Council meeting in 2010, there was a discussion of whether to invite Vassar. Cho noted that Bryn

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Mawr’s own proposal will include a section on why Vassar should be invited, though she added that the choice is ultimately up to the VSA. “We really like the idea of the historic Seven Sisters,” said Cho, speaking for Bryn Mawr. “We think that all the Seven Sisters should have a place on the Council.”

Rubin and Konstantine noted that they are working on Vassar’s own application to the Council and are considering how Vassar still fits the mold of the Seven Sisters. “I think for the most part what makes us a Seven Sisters school is the history and the fact that this was an all women’s college and vision that this College was founded on and how we still try to uphold that even as a coed institution,” said Rubin. “That’s no longer a radical idea, obviously, but I think there are other ways you can make your education radical.”

FEATURES

Page 6

December 8, 2011

Winternships program ends due to lack of staff, funding Divya Pathak

A

Reporter

lthough most students will be looking forward to spending Winter Break relaxing, others will dream of the internships and job opportunities that await them in the future. The long weeks provide students with time to both relax and write applications, and in previous years some students even participated in mini-internships during the early weeks of January. The “Winternship” program previously sponsored by the Career Development Office (CDO), however, will not be an option for students this year.

The Winternships—winter internships— typically lasted for two weeks. A student was paired up with an alumnae/i who had a career similar to the one the student was interested in pursuing. The student then shadowed him or her for the two weeks.

The CDO is short on staff members this year, as former Director of the Career Development Office Mary Raymond now works at Pomona College. Limited staff members would have made arranging the Winternship program more difficult, and there was a lack of funding this year as well, contributing to the elimination of the program for the time being.

Acting Director of the CDO Stacy Bingham said, “The Winternship program was an expendable gift of the class of 2009. There is a small amount of funding still available, but we had to be realistic,” referring to the difficulty in matching students with alumnae/i for the Winternship, which requires a larger staff. The CDO hopes to re-launch the program next year when they are fully staffed.

“We hoped to grow the program this year, but it requires a fair bit of effort and manpower to make the student-host matches to run the program,” said Bingham.

Despite the fact that Winternships are not available this year, Bingham said, “The

Winter Break is a great time for internship opportunities, informational interviews and extended shadowing. These experiences are great ways to connect with alumnae/i.”

Saumya Bhutani ’14 wrote in an emailed statement, “I think [the Winternships are] an excellent program as it helps students with networking, allows them to get a taste of a field and a professional work environment. I was really disappointed to see it go this year.

The CDO is always telling students to contact alumnae/i using the AAVC [Alumnae & Alumni of Vassar College] page, but through the Winternship program, such a process is expedited as students are matched to alumnae/i whose fields they are interested in. These alumnae/i are eager and have already agreed to take on students.”

The success of past Winternships have depended on the students and the alumnae/i.

Students who have spent previous January’s shadowing alumnae/i had much to say of their experiences.

Last break, Pam Vogel ’12 interned with an eighth grade social studies teacher at M.S. 131 (Dr. Sun Yat Sen Middle School) in the Chinatown area of New York. Her host for the program was Una Fuller ’03. Vogel worked every day shadowing her at school for two weeks of Winter Break in January 2011.

Vogel wrote in an emailed statement, “I decided to apply for the Winternship program after checking out an email from the CDO and then looking at all of the placement opportunities. There were quite a few placements in education and non-profit work, which is what I am interested in doing after graduation.”

“To me, it seemed like the perfect chance to explore an area in my potential field that I wasn’t initially excited about and to expand my horizons beyond what I had read about in class,” Vogel stated. “The Winternship program seemed like a uniquely genuine

learning opportunity because it was a lower pressure setting as well—the experience itself is relatively brief, and the hosts are Vassar grads who are excited to have you and interested in what you have to say.”

Because the Winternship program only lasted for two weeks, it gave students the opportunity to shadow a possible future career without the commitment of a summeror semester-long internship.

In 2010 Matthew Bock ’12 interned with Jennifer Serravallo ’99, a literary consultant at the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project. The Project is an organization that develops and implements techniques for improving literacy in public schools around the country and the world.

Wrote Bock in an emailed statement, “I sat in on intra-organizational meetings and lectures and visited NYC public schools to see, first hand, how techniques were being implemented there. I think I learned a lot from my experience, not just in terms of understanding what kind of difficulties teachers and young students often face in the learning of reading and writing, but also in terms of attaining exposure to a field I previously knew very little about.”

“That’s why the Winternship program is neat—or at least was for me—because it allows you to see and do something different,” Bockstated.

For Julia McGill ’13, the Winternship she had in January of 2011 was an opportunity for her to experience small, local theater in the world outside of Vassar.

She said, “I interned in New York City with the Debate Society, a theater company founded by two Vassar graduates of the Class of 2000. They write, perform, direct and build their own theater pieces. I helped with the second run of a show. I sat in on script readings and rehearsals, helped them build big sets for the show, helped with

props and helped with errands such as going out and buying things they needed. I helped with whatever was needed in the moment, it was really hands-on.”

As a drama and urban studies major, McGill had the chance to understand how her major was applicable and appreciated the strong network of alumniae/i. “It felt like I knew them, even though I didn’t. We had the shared background of Vassar and it was nice to have that connection,” she said.

“I know that if I ever wanted to work with them again, I could,” McGill continued, “With most internships, it feels like you have to try to prove yourself. In interning with Vassar grads, it was really a big learning experience. It was a great opportunity to get to know what people do after Vassar and for me, to see how small theater companies work in the real world and how they overcome their obstacles.”

While Bock appreciated his Winternship opportunity, he did add, “I wish [my Winternship] had been more participatory. I was rarely asked to help out or contribute myself but mostly just to observe. My suggestion would be, if you are considering applying for an internship, to make sure that you have an active role in the interning experience.”

For students seeking internships with a connected Vassar alumnae/i, Bingham said, “Students are encouraged to search for alumnae/i on the Vassar Career Advisory Network, also known as V-Net. Students can search based on criteria and find shadowing experiences and winter internships. We also welcome the opportunity to work individually with students to help make connections to alumnae/i in their interest areas.”

Students looking to spend their long Winter Break making plans for the future still have opportunities while the Winternship program is on hiatus. The less ambitious, of course, can always catch up on sleep.

Security offers new loaner bike program for students Jessica Tarantine

Assistant Features Editor

A

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

s the weather grows frostier and snow prepares to cover icy paths, Vassar’s bikeriding season draws to a close, ending the first semester of Vassar’s new bike program. The revamped program offered by the Office of Safety and Security hopes to correct many of the problems with the old Shared Bike Program, commonly known as the Pink Bike program, while still offering a zero-cost option for bike riding on campus.

The Shared Bike Program was decertified by the Vassar Student Association last year. The program maintained a fleet of pink bikes that any student could unlock by purchasing a key at the beginning of each semester. The key would allow the student to ride any pink bike on campus. “[The] primary reason for the change was lack of student interest to oversee the program.

The Dean of the College [Chris Roellke] asked me to look into it and see what I could do to continue the program,” said Director of Transportation Dennis Cody.

In addition to the lack of the student interest, another reason for stopping the program was students’ poor upkeep of the bikes. “Too many students who signed up for the program by renting a key did not take care of the bikes when they left them at various locations on campus,” said Cody. This meant that even when students found a pink bike it could be damaged.

At the end of last year roughly half of the bikes were functional.

This was confirmed by Director of the Bike Shop Alexander Herman ’12, who said, “I maintained the pink bikes last year, and many of them were completely destroyed because of students’ disrespect of the whole system.”

Added Cody, “The initial idea of riding a bike from point A to point B, sounded good, but many students were frustrated as the bikes were not there after they rode them, resulting in their having to walk back to their original location.”

The new system, which loans a bike to each student, means that although it is no longer a communal program, students can be guaranteed to have a bike upon their return.

Above, sudents socialize in the Bike Shop, which is maintained by the Vassar Bikes Club. Located in the Strong basement, the Bike Shop offers an array of low-cost bike services to the Vassar community.

Said Mariesa Samba ’13, “[The pink bikes] weren’t too convenient, and never really around when you needed one. Also the pink bike idea, which I believe was meant to set the bikes apart from other students’ bikes, didn’t really work as well as one would hope,” she said, referring to the distinctive color on the College’s bikes.

Lauryn Tong ’12 explained that as the number of bikes dwindled, people became more possessive of their bikes, which was indicative of a larger problem. “I used the bikes right up until they terminated the program. If there was anything I didn’t like about the system, it was that it relied too much on people being completely altruistic, so basically what happened was a tragedy of the commons. Everyone wanted the perks of being able to get somewhere faster, but

no one wanted to take the time to bring in broken bikes to the shop,” she said.

In the end, it appeared that the $10 fee and student employment position dedicated to fixing the bikes was not enough to sustain the upkeep for all of the bikes.

“It’s interesting to note that [other students] did have the time to hide them in very interesting places so other people wouldn’t steal ‘their’ ride while they were in a building. So, towards the end, it became more a matter of being lucky enough to find one that still functioned, which was a pretty slim chance, than it was about the original intention of sharing a set of bikes,” Tong said..

The new system works to correct the issues inherent in the old system by increasing individual responsibility: each student is responsi-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ble for his or her own loaner bike, and students can no longer unlock all of the College’s bikes on campus.

“It was my opinion that the students needed a more vested interest in taking care of the bike they were riding, so I evolved the Pink Bike program into a loaner bike program,” said Cody.

Students may now sign up to receive a loaner bike and free lock to secure the bike. If the student loses the bike due to his or her own neglect the student will be billed $50 from the student’s account.

In the new system students must return their bike before the beginning of Thanksgiving Break and can take the bike out again after Spring Break, which keeps the bikes off the paths during the snowy months.

Although the previous Pink Bike system was a student-run organization, many of the remaining pink bikes are being used in the new bike program. “What I found was that out of the original 40 bikes, we were left with about 20 bikes that were semi-operational,” said Cody.

The Office of Safety and Security’s bike patrol officers then fixed up the usable bikes for the beginning of the year and purchased the additional bikes needed from The Pleasant Valley Bike Shop.

Overall, students seem to be pleased with the changes made to the bike program. “We have 25 bikes now loaned out to our students who seemed very happy with the program for this academic year,” said Cody.

“I like the new system better, because all bikes are individually assigned which means I’ll have my bike whenever I need it. No one can use it without my knowledge,” said Estra Aral ’12.

This sentiment was shared by many students who used a bike provided by the Office of Safety and Security. “So far, I’m liking the current system much more than the former one. I don’t have to worry about whether or not I’ll have the extra five minutes to ask my professor a question in case someone took the bike I was going to use,” said Tong.

“Also, I know that I’m held accountable for the bike I’m using, so there’s a strong incentive See BIKE on page 6

December 8, 2011

FEATURES

Page 7

Hudson Valley provides array of holiday gift delights Sarah Begley Columnist

T

he holiday season is upon us, and when you return home in a week or two, your family will expect some tokens of your undying affection.

“What, no presents?” they will ask if you turn up empty-handed. “We pay how much money to send you to that school and you can’t even buy us some candy canes?”

Fear not, intrepid student, for I have rustled up a list of culinary delights that are sure to please even the pickiest person on your list. Everything is under $20, and most of the products are made in the Hudson Valley, so you can brag to your family over the Christmas goose about what a locavore you’ve become.

New York State raw honey: $12 for a 2-lb jar

Courtesy of Sarah Begley

Local honey, “produced by the bees of Ray Tousey” in Clermont, N.Y., is great for dipping Hanukkah loukoumades or drizzling on a Bundt cake. Available for purchase at Café Bocca (14 Mount Carmel Place) and other local vendors.

Chocolate truffles: About $7 for five

Pick your own assortment of chocolate truffles at the Sweet Shop counter at Adams Fairacre Farms. Tasty flavors include raspberry liqueur and almond. The shop also sells a wide variety of fudge and candies, all certain to be more appetizing than any visions of sugarplums.

Black truffle mousse pâté: $12.99/lb

Available at Adams Fairacre Farms along with several other pâté varieties. Throw some on a plate with crackers as an appetizer at a holiday gathering and your family will be impressed by how classy you’ve become.

Gourmet condiments, Stonewall Kitchen $5.99 for an 8-oz jar

Also at Adams Fairacre Farms. The mustards alone present an incredible array of flavors:

An assortment of chocolate truffles, New York State maple syrup, black truffle mousse paté and pub-style mustard, pictured above, can all be found at Adams Fairacre Farms. These inexpensive, local items make great gifts for students to bring back home for the foodie in his or her family.

wasabi mustard, bourbon molasses mustard and a delightful take on the traditional pubstyle mustard.

New York State maple syrup: $10.99 for 1/2 pint

Another great find at Adams Fairacre Farms, available in multiple sizes. The grade-A medium amber would taste great on Christmas morning flapjacks, and the charming packaging makes it a nice stocking-stuffer.

Poughkeepsie cheese: $8-14 per 1/2 lb

From Sprout Creek Farm Market (34 Lauer Rd), choose from a wide assortment of artisan cheeses produced from the milk of cows and goats on the farm. I especially love Batch 35, a smear-ripened raw cow’s milk cheese. With the black truffle mousse pâté, it would make for a nice spread on the dining room table.

Tree City coffee: $14 for a 12-oz bag

Free-trade Honduran, Nicaraguan, Ethio-

pian and other beans can be bought whole or pre-ground. You may have had enough of coffee after Finals Week, but these will be sure to impress the connoisseurs on your holiday list.

Since Tree City is located in the Library most days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and around midnight, you don’t even have to move too far from your research paper to buy some.

Bring Vassar and the Hudson Valley back home for the holidays!

GRST Department harkens back to early Vassar Lea Brown

G

Guest Reporter

reek and Roman culture dominated the Western world for centuries, but at Vassar it encompasses a rather small department, despite the eternal allure of the gladiators.

From the earliest days of the College, the Greek and Roman Studies (GRST) Department played an integral role in the curriculum.

“The Greek and Roman Studies Department, we like to say, is…the original multi-disciplinary program,” said Associate Professor and Chair of Greek and Roman Studies Rachel Friedman.

According to the department website, at the time of Vassar’s founding, knowledge of the Classical languages was a prerequisite for men in universities and played a large role in their studies. The College, which modeled its curriculum off of the then all-male institutions of Harvard and Yale Universities, adopted knowledge of the Classical languages into its admissions requirements. The study of Classics was also incorporated into Vassar’s core curriculum.

Since then, the department has undergone numerous changes: Its curriculum was expanded from the study of Ancient Greek and Latinto incorporate multiple elements of ancient civilization study.

The department has also undergone a name change; in 2010 the department changed its name from Classics to Greek and Roman Studies. Despite all of these changes, it has remained a prominent part of the Vassar academic community.

The department places a large emphasis on an interdisciplinary curriculum. “We teach and study in this department everything to do with Ancient Greece and Rome, including language, literature, history [and] archaeology,” said Friedman. “So, we approach the study of antiquity from all of these multiple perspectives.”

Classes offered by the department include Cleopatra, Ancient Warfare and Urbanism in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Pompeii, Akrotiri, Constantinople.

The diversity of the courses offered by the department allows majors to explore the ancient world through almost any lens that they wish. Though majors are required to take a 100-level introductory course, a history class and three semesters of Greek or Latin , “after that it’s up to each student to shape the focus,” said Friedman. “There’s room to define your own field of interest within our offerings.”

Students interested in archaeology and material culture, for example, would take archaeology classes or art history, while students interested in language and literature would work their way up through the Greek and Latin language courses until they could read ancient texts in their original languages.

The uniqueness of the faculty aids in this multi-disciplinary approach. With only four full-time faculty members, the Greek and Roman Studies Department is one of the smaller departments on campus. However, what it lacks in size it makes up for in diversity and balance.

The department has professors of the Greek language, Latin, historians and an archeologist.

The department also brings in another faculty member each year. Called the Blegen research fellow, this visiting professor stays for the entirety of the school year and teaches two classes in his or her own specialty.

Past Blegen research fellow courses have included Women in Greek and Roman Theater, which was taught by John Stark; Food in the Ancient Mediterranean World, taught by Rosemary Moore; and Seers, Sages, Philosophers: Figures of Wisdom in Archaic and Classical Greece, taught by Bruce King.

Said Friedman, “The Blegen research fellow gives us an opportunity to bring in every year scholars with different fields of interest from what we work on, so that our students are exposed constantly to new areas of research.”

This year’s Blegen research fellow is Matthew Wright, a senior lecturer in Classics and ancient history from the University of Exeter in England. His course, The Comedian as Critic, will be offered in the spring semester, and focuses on Athenian comic dramas.

Wright said, “The Vassar department is smaller [than the one at Exeter], but my colleagues are great. There’s a lot of expertise in literature, history and archaeology and so on.”

Vassar’s reputation and the heightened ability to discuss topics with colleagues in the department drew him to visiting for the year.

Noah Cogan ’13 is one of 17 currently declared Greek and Roman studies majors. Last year he took an intermediate level Latin class with Blegen Research Fellow John Starks, although he did not take his lecture course. “I found the material challenging and I feel that he did a good job illuminating the difficult aspects of the transition between 100-level and 200-level Latin,” wrote Cogan in an emailed statement.

“I particularly enjoyed his own personal take on the course: We worked out of a book that had a collection of inscriptions and excerpts from different Latin authors all dealing with women in Roman society,” Cogan added.

Cogan first became interested in Greek mythology in elementary school, and by the time he got to college he was eager to begin studying the cultures about which he was passionate.

“I’ve taken all kinds of classes in the department,” Cogan wrote in an emailed statement.

His past course load has included Reading Antiquity, Intro to Greek Archaeology, Myth, a seminar on ancient coins, and Greek and Latin language classes.

“I think my favorite class so far has been the Ancient Greek seminar that I’m currently taking with Professor Friedman. The class is on The Odyssey by Homer and we’ve had some amazing discussions analyzing the text and discussing the development of the characters throughout the three books that we’ve been focusing on,” Cogan wrote.

Fellow major Zebulon Wimsatt ’14 agreed and wrote in an emailed statement, “‘Homer to Omeros with Professor Friedman has so far been very refreshing, and a lot of fun. Virgil with Professor Brown was also a good time last year.”

The department’s commitment to exposing their students to different specialties within

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the field of ancient civilizations seems to be working, as evidenced by the diversity of post-graduation occupations. Many majors go on to graduate or professional schools, while others become certified to teach.

One alumna, Emily Vezina, even got a position at Webster’s writing word definitions.

“Even if [graduates] don’t go on in Greek and Roman studies, even if they go on to, say, become biologists or chemists or economists, nevertheless what they’ve learned from us is how both how to control a body of evidence very carefully and what it feels like when you do control a body of evidence very deeply,” explained Professor of Greek and Roman Studies Bert Lott. “That kind of paired skill … is beneficial even if they’re not in Greek and Roman studies.”

“I’m definitely applying to graduate school in Classics,” Cogan wrote in an emailed statement. “Next year I plan on creating my own epic poem in the style of the Odyssey that I will compose orally accompanied by solo piano, the music for which I will compose beforehand. I’m going to try and emulate the ancient bardic tradition which has recently been revived by Professor Jack Mitchell, a guest GRST lecturer this year, who came and performed his own epic recitation last month. I hope that by helping revive this ancient art, I can show people that Greek and Roman studies are still relevant and can be incorporated into the fabric of modern society.”

Wimsatt is less sure of his plans after graduation, although he currently is not leaning towards graduate school. “I got interested in Greek and Roman studies chiefly after reading Horace and Catullus in my senior year of high school, which is funny inasmuch as I don’t feel much affinity for either poet at this point. Still, here I am.”

Despite it’s emphasis on the past, the original research and small department size means the Greek and Roman Studies Department will continue to make an impact on Vassar College academic life in the future.

Page 8

FEATURES

December 8, 2011

VC Bike Shop Professors impart destress techniques assists in fixes, offers tutorials P Casey Zuckerman and Jack O’Brien Guest Reporters

Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News

BIKE continued from page 6 to take good care of it, which I think was a pretty clever way of solving the issue that plagued the last system,” Tong continued.

Accountability with the bikes has impressed many students using the new program.

“I like having a bike available at my own convenience,” said Samba. “It’s been really helpful in getting around campus. For the first half of the semester, I used it to get to my internship in Poughkeepsie.”

The office also has plans for the program to grow in the coming semesters. “Each year we hope to expand our program by fixing up left behind bikes each year and fixing them up to be used as loaners. Also, we plan on purchasing a few more single-speed cruiser bikes in the spring to add to our numbers,” said Cody.

Despite the program’s general positive response, some students were sad to see the Shared Bike Program go. “I think it’s unfortunate that we had to switch to the new Pink Bike system, because its not really shared at all, and I liked the fact that it was somewhat experimental in past years,” said Herman.

In addition, other students did have some suggestions for improvements. “I think the duration of their availability could be extended. Right now, students are supposed to stop using their bikes by the end of November, so as not to expose the bikes to bad weather, but I think as long as the bikes aren’t left outside for long periods of time, people should be allowed to use them to ride to their classes during the winter months too,” said Aral.

Tong agreed, “I know the reason for disuse in the winter is to keep the bikes in good shape, but it’d be nice on those days that aren’t so cold to be able to get places quickly.”

Said Amy Cao ’14, “Bikes are still in season right now and now I’m without one!”

For those students who prefer to have more flexibility when it comes to transportation by managing and owning their own bikes, the independently run Vassar Bikes Club maintains the Bike Shop.

The shop is located in the Strong House basement and is open from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays.

The Bike Shop was not associated with the Shared Bike Program while it was instated. Said Cody, “The bike shop operates independently of the loaner bike program as they assist all students on campus in fixing any problems with bikes. They are not involved in fixing the loaner bikes. Any problems our loaner bike students have with their bikes will be addressed by my department.”

The students running the shop aim to help students who keep their personal bikes on campus should they have any mechanical issues.

“Earlier this semester, the shop did all right on numbers when we were open—it took us a while to get parts and get organized, so we started a little late. Some days it can be pretty non-stop; a lot of people blow flats, it seems. Now that it’s getting colder, we see a lot less of people. The shop will probably run until the end of this semester, if for no other reason than that we can mess with our own bikes during our shifts,” said Bike Shop worker Zeb Wimsatt ’14.

Open for almost all of the year, the shop offers a wide range of low-cost services. The shop fixes flat tires by offering patches for about $5, and, for a bit more money, also provides more general tune-up and bike assembly. They also have a variety of bicycle parts for students who want to fix up their own bikes.

In addition to holding hours to help students repair their own bikes and even offering lessons on the subject, the shop also fixes and sells a few repaired bikes. “I usually build and sell/fix up about five bikes each year or less, so it’s not a huge amount. The bikes we have in the shop are mostly parts of bikes that are too messed up to be rideable again,” said Herman.

Those students who do choose to maintain their own bikes can also take advantage of the Office of Safety and Security’s storage space for bikes. Students can avoid the challenges of taking their bikes home by housing them in the storage space for $20 per summer.

Regardless of how students decide to use bikes on campus, they can take advantage of the wideranging resources for those students who choose to get around on two wheels.

iles of papers and final exam stress can cause students to hide in the Government Documents room and curse the day they signed up for classes. Before one throws too much ire at professors, though, it’s good to remember that some years ago, they too were sleep-deprived undergraduates. Some of them agreed to impart some wisdom on how they dealt with stress then, and what you can do to breathe easier now.

Professor and Chair of Mathematics John McCleary and Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian Sangeeta Laura Biagi turned to music to help them decompress. While at La Salle Univeristy, McCleary turned to his role as bassist in a popular folk-rock band. “It’s really relaxing to make music with people.

That was just a fabulous way to spend time and to come out of it feeling pretty relaxed,” he said.

“I have always loved singing,” said Biagi, who attended the University of Siena, Italy.

“What is great about it is that it brings together an awareness of the breath together with the expression of emotions and concepts,” she said. “I can see that stress is often due to the lack of expression of strong emotions.”

While singing worked for her, Biagi had many othersuggestions for Vassar students who want to de-stress. “From time to time, look at yourself. Notice your posture, the expression in your face, how you breathe ...

Then, take three long, deep breaths. Breathe in and out slowly and, on the out breaths, release the tension in the neck, shoulders, stomach or wherever you are sensing it,” Biagi advised. She will be teaching Stress Buster yoga classes that she suggests students check out for themselves.

Professor and Chair of Biology John Long Jr. remembers stressing over his senior thesis, a yearlong project that only pulled together late in the spring. “Peace only came with getting the work done,” he said. “I would go hik-

Visiting Assistant Professor of Italian Sangeeta Laura Biagi, pictured above, turned to music and singing to help her decompress. She also teaches Stress Buster yoga classes at Walker Field House. ing, but that was only a temporary fix, since the work was still waiting when I got back to my room.” For students who are stressing now, he said, “Looking back, I’d say having a clear goal was the most important part of managing the work.”

Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow of Art History Wendy Ikemoto had a more conventional destress routine in college. “I would be sure to take a break whenever I felt overwhelmed: I would call home, take a long run with my sister (who went to the same university), make a bubble tea run with friends or pop over a friend’s room to watch a Simpsons rerun,” she wrote in an emailed statement.

Stress led Professor of English Amitava Kumar, who went to the University of Delhi, to walk out of an exam one-third of the way through. He turned back and finished it, realizing that he was making a mistake due to the pressure he felt.

Kumar also fondly remembers getting a midnight snack of omelets and tea to relax.

“There was a small shack outside our dormhostel. The night watchman ran it. He had a little stove. He would sit there... [and] people [...] would come out, smoke and share tea and have that omelet,” he said. For students now, he suggests communication with professors is key in keeping stress levels down. He advised, “You only increase your stress if you don’t talk about it with your professor ... So my advice is that if you want to keep that stress in check, talk to your professor and do not wait into the last minute to do so.” Stress can’t always be postponed, however, and not all assignements have flexible dates. About this he said, “Sometimes people give in too easily to stress, and make the wrong judgement, and an important lesson is to just hang in there, hang in there, hang in there, weather through it.”

‘World Changing’ campaign nears its goal SESQUI continued from page 1 reserves; Science for the 21st Century hopes to raise funds for a new science building that will feature cutting-edge wet labs to be used by chemistry and biochemistry classes, as well as a new robotics laboratory. In addition to these, campaign donors are encouraged to give to Vassar’s Annual Fund.

Although donations have been accepted for the campaign since its inception in 2006, the 150: World Changing campaign was formally launched this past January in conjunction with the sesquicentennial. Representatives from the campaign have since spent the year traveling from city to city, using the traveling production of “Vassar Voices” to highlight the need to give to the campaign.

“Everybody should have the opportunity to take a production like this out on the road when they are launching a campaign, because it set the stage, literally and figuratively, for us to really get on course for such a successful campaign,” stated Associate Vice President for Principal Gifts Jennifer Dahnert. Dahnert also serves as the associate director for the World Changing campaign.

She continued, “It galvanized enthusiasm, interest; it reminded everyone who saw it what a remarkable and unique history Vassar has; and it engendered such pride in this institution that it really has enabled us to go to our perspective donors with a much different conversation and in a much different context.

So it has been incredibly helpful to us as far as preparing for the really important solicitations of the campaign.”

Throughout 2011, “Vassar Voices” has been performed in over 22 cities across the United States and abroad. Both Dahnert and Vice President for Alumnae/i Affairs and Development Cathy Baer are currently preparing for the final stage of the tour, in which they will travel with President of the College Catharine Bond Hill to Tokyo, Beijing and Hong Kong in late January to engage alumnae/i in Asia.

By using the performances of “Vassar Voices” to solicit donors both across the United States and throughout the world, the campaign has raised over $30 million over the past year. The most current figures total approximately $292 million when this year’s $30 million is combined with the funds raised since 2006. The $400-million goal was ultimately decided upon after the campaign committee assessed both the College’s needs as well as a data analysis comparing Vassar to similar schools that launched campaigns.

In addition to this, Dahnert personally spearheaded an analysis of the College’s top donor prospects.“We could probably do a billiondollar campaign as far as needs go, but you have to look at what is feasible and what your constituency can support. So this process resulted in a reasonable number for us,” stated Dahnert.

“Early on we got a $25-million commitment, and that set us off on a very good trajectory,” began Baer. “That individual making an early commitment was important, and we would love to see another gift at that level, if not higher.”

Both Baer and Dahnert acknowledge that a variety of factors contribute to a person’s decision to give, and that as a result it is almost impossible to predict exactly how much one can expect to receive from one donor.

“Also, the world was very different from when we started planning for this campaign economically. Many schools who were in starting phases of campaigns when the bottom dropped out on the economy decided not to go forward,” stated Baer.

“However, our campaign chair Barbara Volgelstein was impassioned with the board about the importance of this campaign for the College, and the importance of our goals. She said that we should not stop, and that we should continue on. And we are right on target.”

The success of “Vassar Voices” and the sesquicentennial celebrations certainly contributed to the amount of funds received over

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

the past year, and the campaign hopes to prolong the donors’ enthusiasm until fundraising ends on June 30, 2013.

“We are on the crest of a wave right now and we do not want to drop off,” stated Dahnert. “The full name of the campaign is Vassar 150: World Changing. As we move beyond the sesquicentennial year, we are really going to illuminate the world-changing aspect of the campaign and begin to focus on the way a Vassar education can influence the lives of the individuals who go to Vassar and the lives of the people they come in contact with when they go beyond Vassar.”

Over the next 18 months, the campaign specifically hopes to highlight the importance of giving to financial aid and making a Vassar education available to all talented students.

Also, while the sesquicentennial celebrations focused primarily on galvanizing the contributions of groups of alumnae/i, the campaign hopes to meet with individual donors in the coming months. “That’s where the really significant gifts happen,” noted Baer. “It is when I am sitting down with you one-on-one, looking you in the eye, and telling you why your gift matters.”

The campaign committee also plans to continue hosting Campaign Discussion Gatherings, in which a representative from the campaign meets with a small gathering of prospective donors for a reception, and informs them about the campaign’s goals and the importance of giving to Vassar. A number of these gatherings have been employed this fall to great success, and the campaign hopes to continue facilitating these discussions next spring.

“The sesquicentennial has given us a wonderful platform to help alumnae/i really feel proud about the College, about where we’ve come from and where we are today. But the campaign really is about where we are going and about our future.” stated Baer. “I anticipate that in the next year and a half we will have very good results.”

OPINIONS

December 8, 2011

Miscellany News Staff Editorial

Legislations encourage dialogue about student participation in local elections O

n Tuesday, Nov. 8, citizens of Dutchess County went to the polls to vote in a number of local elections. One of these elections, the Town of Poughkeepsie mayoral race, ended in a near tie between Republican incumbent John Tkazyik and the challenger, Democrat Ken Levinson. In fact, after absentee and affidavit ballots were counted, it was announced that Tkazyik had won the election by a mere 95 votes. This relatively small margin of victory could either have been significantly widened or potentially overturned had a greater number of Vassar students participated in the election. While The Miscellany News does not endorse either mayoral candidate over the other, we believe these numbers raise a host of interesting questions, especially given the perennial difficulties Vassar students experience participating in local elections.

Vassar students who vote in local elections have repeatedly been presented with logistical obstacles. The campus is split between two election wards, each with its own polling center. This is problematic for Vassar students because, although we are spread out over a modestly large area, we are connected in many less tangible ways; the designation of two polling places for a community that considers itself unified can be confusing for students, many of whom are new to voting or lack transportation to their assigned ward.

During this year’s election, the Vassar campus’s division into two separate wards became a pressing issue. Poll workers mistakenly turned away students with 124, Raymond Avenue addresses from the Town Hall voting location, telling them to vote at Arthur S. May Elementary School. Even those responsible for administering voting operations were confused by the

protocol for our divided campus. Their uncertainty discouraged students who sought only to express themselves through a democratic electoral process. The existence of separate wards for a unified campus serves only to divide and confuse us. If students make the personal choice to cast their votes in Poughkeepsie, their electoral process must be free from unnecessary and bureaucratic impediments.

The Editorial Board of the Miscellany believes that this is an important time to consider this issue, as change is feasible in the near future. Prior to next year’s elections, the Dutchess County Legislature will redraw the boundaries of the voting wards. We strongly encourage the Legislature to consider the confusion that two separate voting wards presents to the Vassar community.

Although we at the Miscellany do agree that Vassar should be placed into a single ward with one polling location, we are uncertain where exactly this should be. The question of polling places for institutions of higher education has been recently complicated by proposed legislation in the New York State Senate.

In 2010, State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer introduced a bill (labeled S1851-2011) that would put a polling place on any university or college campus with 300 or more registered voters. Although it was passed in the Senate, it seems to have stalled on the floor of the State Assembly.

Despite this result, the bill raises an interesting question: Should Vassar, along with other New York colleges and universities, have exclusive on-campus polling locations?

On the one hand, a polling place on college and university campuses would increase voter turnout. Many more Vassar students would vote if they could drop off a ballot in Main on their

way to class. However, some of us at the Miscellany are afraid that this would cause students to vote in local elections because of the ease of the electoral process, rather than genuine political sentiments. If an on-campus polling location became a venue for casual voting along party lines, Vassar students could become a powerful but relatively ignorant demographic within the local community.

A polling place on campus might also further isolate Vassar students from the greater Poughkeepsie community. Although the two polling places aren’t very far away, it is meaningful that they are located off-campus. In our most recent Editorial discussion, many on the Editorial Board felt that we must venture into Dutchess County in order to alter its politics, although others disagreed and argued that the benefits of an on-campus polling location outweigh the potential cons.

For other New York universities, having an on-campus polling location may carry greater significance. Unlike Vassar, many of these institutions boast greater populations of local students, a configuration that would evade several of the Vassar-specific critiques we have listed above. Furthermore, we consider the students at colleges and universities who must travel significant distances, some unreachable by foot, to cast their vote in local elections.

Ultimately, the Editorial Board urges the Dutchess County Legislature to unite our campus and the New York State Legislature to renew its conversation about on-campus polling locations.

—The Staff Editorial represents the opinion of at least two thirds of the 21-member Miscellany News Editorial Board.

Sexism Teach-In an invaluable experience Carson Robinson Guest Columnist

T

o readers of Josh Solomon’s op-ed, ‘Microaggression’ quells discourse published in the 11.24.11 issue of The Miscellany News, who did not attend the sexism teach-in, it might seem as though students’ use of sexist language was the only topic under discussion at the event. Actually, a variety of issues were raised. Both teachers and students voiced concerns about male students being overrepresented in class discussions. One student reported that a male professor had used hate speech in class. The issue of an empowered female space was discussed, with attitudes toward Strong being a particular concern.

One professor pointed out that real change requires real resistance, like expressing disapproval of sexist humor at a comedy show instead of sitting quietly.

But woven through this variety, there was a central thesis: Offensive comments perpetuate sexism and should be omitted from life.

Beyond this, individuals’ arguments differed in important ways. But any indication of an intention to fundamentally challenge this central thesis was met with an abrupt collective response. As soon as dissent was detected, muscles tensed, heads turned and the outlier was inspected, interrogated and spoken to by many people for a good portion of the event.

Solomon was one “dissenter” who underwent this treatment.

In any group, deviant individuals are silenced, disapproved of and designated as needing improvement. They are scrutinized at length but not in depth; at the teach-in, dissenters had trouble fully articulating their thoughts before being interrupted. Since Solomon is a white male, it should come as no surprise that he reported this experience as “extremely strange.” To the extent that this collective response to deviance resembles “microaggression,” the sexism teach-in took a “taste-of-yourown-medicine” approach to persuasion.

This approach will fail. Replicating the experience of microaggression is only possible

at events like the sexism teach-in, where the prevailing dominance hierarchy can be momentarily inverted. Even if feminists at Vassar ran hundreds of teach-ins to try and “enlighten” the population of non-feminists in small increments, persuasion would fail because it comes across as antagonistic.

Another problem with this approach is that we get caught up on offensive language. When taken out of context, the problem of sexist language fails to energize progress, and feminists argue amongst themselves about issues that seem trivial to non-feminists. They displace their legitimate frustration onto inappropriate targets, including other feminists and wellintentioned dissenters like Solomon.

A different approach is to take a step back and consider the broader array of issues that are at stake. Critics such as Solomon conceptually dissociate the “slight, unintended diversions from political correctness” from the more overt offenses, like rape jokes and graffiti. At the teach-in, and in comments posted in response to Solomon’s op-ed, respondents have consistently failed to point out the way in which all of this “stuff” is interconnected.

Consider the following: We live in a world where the default singular pronoun is “he,” where men rate women on scales of one to “the dime,” where the most offensive insults for males are words denoting vagina, where the word “sexual assault” has an unusually strong tendency to be prefaced by the word “alleged,” where verifying consent while initiating a sexual encounter is counternormative, where women derive satisfaction from being servile, and where men can rape women and only women feel ashamed about it. Non-feminists look at this and see a set of coinciding facts, whereas feminists look at this and see a system of interlocking mechanisms.

To take a specific example, consider how rape jokes function in concert with rape itself. Far from simply making light of a serious topic, as Solomon suggests, rape jokes frame rape as a crime so heinous and infrequent that nobody present could possibly have been

affected by it. Just as white people only tell black jokes when black people are absent, non-raped people tell rape jokes only when it is assumed that rape victims are absent. Rape jokes thus dictate that rape is fictional, so verbally saying “no” out loud at the onset of sex is unnecessary, and an allegation of rape is probably false. These components—rape jokes and rape itself—thus work together to regulate behavior and consciousness.

In step with this concern about regulation, I want to suggest that “microaggression” is a misnomer. Many of the most pervasive enactments of male dominance are carried out with the best of intentions, and are often interpreted as sweet. These include “ladies first,” buying flowers, buying drinks and paying for dinner. These courtesies, when enacted with rigid frequency and ubiquity, instill a deep-seated assumption that females owe something in return. They thus constitute “microaggressions,” as defined at the sexism teach-in. Clearly, this is about enforcement, not aggression.

Because the enforcement of male dominance is effortless, its resistance requires tremendous effort. Indeed, it may require what Solomon refers to as “excessive selfregulation.” Of course, nobody wants to do this, so we need to be reminded what is at stake. We need to move beyond microaggression and discuss harassment, bias incidents, sexual assault and all the other injustices that give feminism its reason to exist. This is not to downplay the seriousness of offensive language and other “minor” forms of sexism, but to consider the broader system of oppression in which they operate.

I will end by saying that the teach-in was an amazing experience. Feminism was handed down to us, but in events like the teach-in, we can achieve a sense that we are creating feminism ourselves. And since feminism emerged as a response to overt iniquity, I think that Break the Silence Week is a perfect point of instigation.

—Carson Robinson ’12 is a psychology major.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 9

Solomon misses meaning of microagression Alexandra Deane Guest Columnist

O

n behalf of the participants and panelists at the Sexism Teach-In and members of the Feminist Alliance, I would like to take this opportunity to respond to Josh Solomon’s opinion piece “Microagression critique quells discourse” published in the 11.24.11 issue of The Miscellany News because many statements in his article were extremely troubling and deserve some clarification. Foremost, the Sexism Teach-In was not hosted by Feminist Alliance, but by an independent collaboration of students.

The Feminist Alliance would also like to clarify that it does not only “represent one strand of feminist thought” as Solomon suggested, but is made up people with widely varied opinions of what feminism means, what issues feminist movements should be focused on, and how movements should address those issues. Additionally, in response to Solomon’s implication that the use of the word “cissexism” in Feminist Alliance posters “limits their inclusivity,” the Alliance stands by the belief that all forms of oppression should be acknowledged, especially if people are not aware of them.

Microaggressions were only one of the many problems identified in the discussion at the teach-in, which included the alarming rates of sexual assault, male-dominated classroom dynamics and student/professor relationships, and lack of transparency in the administration and admissions policies. In his article, Solomon took an example of a microaggression (the use of the word “crazy” and its potential microaggressive effects on a person who lives with a mental illness) out of the context of these issues that the teachin addressed, making it seem like a trivial grievance.

Part of Solomon’s confusion comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the term “microaggression.” Microaggressions are “the subtle ways in which body and verbal language convey oppressive ideology about power or privilege against marginalized identities.” This simply means that our actions and words (often unintentionally) reflect the power structures and privilege present in our society.

Microaggressions are often normalized (for example, the word “retard” is very commonly used as an insult), but normalization doesn’t make them any less hurtful or dehumanizing. Pointing out microaggressions is just one means of encouraging people to re-examine their own privilege and how their words and actions affect others.

Additionally, there was no expectation at the teach-in that people won’t say things that happen to be offensive. In fact, the panelists were prompted to share a time that they said something that another person found offensive and how they handled that situation. The discussion around microaggressions is productive because it allows people to learn how their personal privilege manifests itself in subtle and often unintentional ways. Solomon’s expectation that people who experience microaggressions should respond “in a more understanding way, especially in regards to intent” assumes that oppressed people have the responsibility to educate privileged people about the forces that oppress them, when in a just world it should be the responsibility of privileged people to examine themselves and the language they use. This issue was addressed multiple times during the discussion at the teach-in.

Solomon is effectively asking the participants and panelists of the teach-in about sexism at Vassar to stop examining so closely the way that people talk on campus so that people can feel freer to express themselves. He claims that discussion about microaggressions creates a campus climate in which people feel uncomfortable fully expressing themselves because they are afraid of being “politically incorrect.” His suggestion that we as a marginalized group stop talking about microaggressions in order to encourage discourse basically means that our discourse is less important than the male discourse, which shouldn’t have to examine itself because “excessive self-regulation…potentially limits campus-wide discussion about controversial topics.”

Solomon expresses concern about the “lack of understanding of free speech on campus” but seems to misunderstand the difference between free speech and speech free from critique. He feels that the discussion of microaggressions is censoring the language that can be used on campus. Censorship is the suppression of ideas backed by institutional power; asking people to be mindful about the language they use in order to work toward eradicating oppression does not fall into that category. He spoke up in the conversation and had the attention of the entire room as he expressed his views about the possible negative effects of “excessive political correctness” on campus discourse. The panelists and participants responded and attempted See TEACH-IN on page 12

OPINIONS

Page 10

December 8, 2011

Common criticisms cannot contain OWS Adam Eichen

C How will you celebrate Vassar’s bicentennial?

“Yacht party.”

Ben Conant ’12

“Hanging out on a rocking chair, I suppose?”

Sally DeWind ’12 “Find a way to get on the roof of Jewett and sound the vuvuzelas.”

Alex Campbell ’15

“If I’m alive. The aliens are going to invade.”

Jimmy Quigg ’14 “Probably wouldn’t be singing with Meryl Streep again!”

Guest Columnist

ontrary to what many people think, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) did not begin solely as a movement concerned with wealth inequality, or at least I didn’t perceive it that way. Soon after I arrived at Zucotti Park on Sept. 17, the first day of occupation, we formed break-out groups on the ground to discuss the issues we thought needed to be addressed.

There were common themes such as taxing the rich and job creation. But there were also dozens of other, more peripheral issues that never gained traction such as environmental regulation. There were so many things people wanted this movement to stand for that I actually found it hard to feel a connection.

What happened subsequently is clear: a few participants elected to sleep in Zucotti Park that night and continued the sleep-in for the next two months. It was only a matter of time until the movement grew and emerged in other cities. In retrospect, I am amused by the excitement I experienced when the first reports of OWS hit the local news networks the following morning. I never could have imagined the extent of the media coverage this protest attracted.

On Nov. 17, its two-month anniversary, OWS rebounded from its brutal eviction from Zucotti Park two days prior and put together the biggest protest yet. Thousands of people showed up near Zucotti Park. By the day’s end, the amalgam that represents OWS, including an estimated 30,000 people at Foley Square, consisting of union members, students, activ-

ists and, most importantly, “average” citizens.

Walking to Foley Square I witnessed the popular mass, which reminded me of that which someone said on Sept. 17: “disgust is no excuse for apathy. People need to start caring again about society. If people really want change, they can’t expect others to do it for them or to happen without common goals.” And now, if 30,000 people coming together don’t show a renewed spirit then the emergence of the OWS moments around the world does.

The protestors have been called a variety of things, from lazy to “hippies” to college hipsters; however, if you do not go to a protest, then you have no grounds to pass judgment on the OWS protestors. Each protestor has a reason they are involved, as the protestors are so diverse in race, gender, geographic and socioeconomic background; there is no single reason to participate.

On the morning of the two-month anniversary, I stood with my fellow protestors hoping to delay the opening bell on Wall Street, I felt strangely disconnected, as I had two months prior. However, it was a different kind of disconnect: I could stand with these people and sympathize 100 percent, but could I really empathize? The answer was painfully no. I am neither in the job market nor have I experienced the pain of unemployment or poverty. Still, I believed in the movement and remained in the mass trying to block Wall Street. At 3 p.m. in Union Square, a couple blocks from where I went to high school, thousands of students gathered for the protest. In every direction, men and women held up signs such as “CUNY

supports OWS” and “NYU refuses to give in” as well as countless other placards by other New York schools. I soon realized that I empathized with the students. I do understand the fear of $100,000 student debt incurred before entering the labor force and its unfairness. I suppose from this newfound empathy, I reached for a sharpie in my pocket and wrote on the back of a sign, “Vassar in Solidarity.” I carried that sign on behalf of my fellow sympathetic students for the remainder of the evening.

It’s hard to wrap one’s mind around OWS as a historical social movement. People can say what they want about where the movement will go, but no one can deny how successful the movement has already been considering its origin. 2010 was the year of the Tea Party, but 2011 is the year of OWS and its principles.

It is symbolic and supportive of OWS that over 140 of the richest Americans have come out to accept their fair share of the responsibility.

Seeing the movement develop, from the very first day to the two-month anniversary, gives me hope. On the first day, I was disconnected and saw no reason why this movement should last. How was a protest without a leader or even a central message going to accomplish anything? However, the reason why this protest is succeeding is now clear: everyone has something to empathize with in this movement, and consequently, the apathy that has plagued our nation is finally dissipating. Americans are slowly remembering that this is their country and they have the power to change it.

—Adam Eichen ’15 is a student at Vassar College.

Resolve amid eviction empowers Occupy Bill Crane Columnist

L

ast Thursday, two days before a conference of occupiers from all over the Hudson Valley, the occupation of Poughkeepsie at Hulme Park downtown received their notice of eviction for that night.

Like their counterparts in New York City had done two weeks earlier, Poughkeepsie city officials cited alleged fire and safety hazards as their reasons for evicting protesters from the park.

However, the encampment has existed since Oct. 12, and in that time it has become a rallying point for the overwhelmingly working-class community of this economically devastated area, which functions as the breadbasket for New York City and the playground for its one percent.

Occupiers immediately called for solidarity from their community, and the response was enthusiastic. On that night about 10 of us from Vassar College went down, where we were joined by students from Marist and State University of New York New Paltz. “I have a field trip for one of my classes at 6:45 in the morning tomorrow,” one of my friends said as she drove us down to defend the camp. She continued, “That doesn’t matter… this is life for me, not my classes.”

The determination of my friend, as well as the rest of us, to participate in the movement come what may is a direct challenge to the apathy or even hostility that Occupy seems to have provoked in some sections of society, even at Vassar. For example, the back page of this month’s Vassar Chronicle (the publication run by MICA that claims to be essentially a more highbrow, political version of The Miscellany News) features an incredibly offensive graphic of “Occupy Monopoly,” in which every Monopoly square is the Community Chest.

Presumably the implication is that we are all deadbeat students or dropouts with nothing better to do with our Friday nights then to go out in the freezing cold to ask for government handouts by defending our encampment when we should be studying for business school exams like the productive members of society.

Trust me, nothing would make me happier if I didn’t need to go out and defend Occupy Poughkeepsie on a weekend night. The reason I went out is because I believe that the government and corporations have collaborated to screw us all over. It’s because I see in Occupy the beginnings of a movement that says “no,” loudly and clearly. No, we won’t accept the state governments

ADVERTISEMENT

Dani Selby ’13

“Taking a trip to Vegas with my classmates at the age of 70.”

Chris Flynn ’14 —Juliana Halpert, Photography Editor Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

screwing public-sector workers and busting their unions. No, we won’t stand by while the government shreds what remains of the safety net. No, we won’t pay for the one percent’s crisis—we will make them pay.

As it happens, the cops never showed up that night. Even the two watching us from the other side of the intersection had left by midnight.

Around 1 a.m., I decided to go back to school. The camp was safe for that night, but most of us went back the next night when we heard, once again, that the camp was being evicted. This time, fewer people showed up, about 50, but again, the cops failed to show, and again, we went home. I was not there either of the following two nights when eviction was threatened, but the camp is still going strong as I write this Monday night.

Even if the park is evicted tonight, or the night after that, we have shown the power of collective struggle. The slogan “You cannot evict an idea whose time has come” has taken on the power that words can have only when thousands of people make them a reality, which they are now doing in Poughkeepsie, New York City and across the United States.

—Bill Crane ’12 is an Asian studies major.

December 8, 2011

OPINIONS

In defense of raw milk: Big business not ideal Mark Peura

Guest Columnist

R

ecently, an Op-ed piece in the 11.24.11 issue of The Miscellany News made the accusation that the Vassar Raw Milk Co-op was putting out misinformation on its website. This may be true. I’ve never looked at it. I joined the Co-op last semester and have been drinking the raw milk, from the local diary farm where it’s purchased, ever since. I usually drink over a gallon a week.

What concerns me is the well-funded bias against raw milk and the misrepresentation of key facts concerning it. The op-ed writer has an informed opinion based on his field of expertise, yet few people have ever had a glass of cold raw milk from a local dairy farmer, down on the farm. One needs only to try a glass of cold, raw milk to find out how incredibly bland store-bought milk is.

There is certainly raw milk that I would not drink. An advantage of raw milk is that when it turns sour, it does so quickly. It doesn’t leave you guessing, like pasteurized milk often does, by fooling our nose.

Pasteurized milk has a lower fat content and consequently has a delayed reaction when turning sour. We are often fooled into drinking it when we shouldn’t. However, the Co-op’s raw milk doesn’t have this problem and its in your refrigerator the day the cows deliver it. Pasteurized milk can take up to a week to finally make it to the store shelves. The members of the Co-op know what tastes good and can make the health benefit/connection from what our bodies are telling us. If we are misinformed by eating food that is not good for us, then this charge could be used to indict every one, at some point in their lives.

Contrary to popular opinion, pasteurization is not the best method of safe guarding raw milk. Refrigeration is much better. The CDC claims, “Pasteurization is the only effective means of eliminating 90 percent or

more of harmful organisms in milk.” This is true. Yet, take a look at this statement, closely: Up to 10 percent of the harmful pathogens in pasteurized milk will still get into the milk supply—despite the best efforts at pasteurization. The best defense against this is not to let the pathogens grow in the first place! Refrigeration is better at achieving this because, at temperatures of (or below) 4 degrees Celcius, it’s 99 percent effective at preventing bacterial growth. The result is contaminating bacteria is not present to require any elimination by pasteurization. One of the selling tricks of the Mad Men of Milk is to get us to believe we’ve been without refrigeration for the last 100 years. They have helped to promote and to perpetuate the institutional bias against raw milk.

This bias has its origins in the 19th century, when corporations sought to transport raw milk in bulk over long distances without electricity or refrigerators in their homes to preserve it. Without refrigeration, raw milk must be consumed within hours after it comes out of the cow. With it, it’s good for 10 days or more. Today, raw milk is immediately refrigerated after the cows are milked. The Raw Milk Co-op picks it up, keeps it cold and transports it over a relatively short distance. Then it goes right into the refrigerator.

Refrigeration of raw milk is essential for obtaining the health benefits from it. This is because the pathogens which can grow in it, and harm the body, are suppressed at normal refrigeration temperatures. In fact, the ideal temperature for storage of raw milk is the same for the storage of human blood. It’s no coincidence that this is so. The nutrients of any food product will eventually end up in the blood stream.

When someone receives a blood transfusion, unless the donor is connected directly See RAW MILK on page 12

TLC show flawed, crucial step Noor Mir

Guest Columnist

T

LC’s new show All-American Muslim has the nation by storm: Muslims and non-Muslims alike remain stubbornly divided on the narrative of the “Muslim experience” projected by this storyline, that follows five Lebanese-Shiite families in Dearborn, Mich. Skeptical of anything with “AllAmerican” in the title and equally cynical of anything on TLC, I decided to dive right in, but with a grain of salt. Unfortunately, my lack of commitment to any notion of neutrality with regards to religion and ethnicity in the United States seems to have taken me from the gray-area middle of the spectrum to another boundless territory defined only by complete disbelief; nonetheless, for the purpose of exploring both sides of the debate, I decided to take on a more forgiving stance. So, what is the All-American Muslim? Does this show come close to representing that demographic? Or is representing that demographic even the point? What is the point?

A Lebanese-American friend of mine from Ann Arbor, Mich. responded to my Facebook query with an email that stated, “Being from Michigan, I know that this show does not portray ‘AmericanMuslims.’ Instead, it shows a very closed community of mostly Lebanese Shiites. Because of the nature of the location of the show, I do not think it portrays the lives of American Muslims, rather it portrays the lives of Lebanese people living in Dearborn.” This part of her statement wasn’t really shocking, because the Muslim community is up in arms about the relatively narrow demographic selection that the show focuses on. Instead, what I was most struck by was her concluding remark: “I believe this show is just like any other reality show—it shows the extreme.” Is the All-American Muslim really just like any other reality show? That of course, begs the question of if the all-American Muslim is really like any other American. And let me propose one final question: is the all-American “American” represented accurately by this show?

I truly appreciate that the show attempts to highlight some of the more liberal members of the Muslim community: a tattooed rebel whose Irish-Catholic husband converts, a scantily clad businesswoman that ambitiously pursues opening

Occupy Poughkeepsie eviction fosters solidarity Tim McCormic Guest Columnist

O

n the first of this month, the City of Poughkeepsie finally and explicitly showed its support for the one percent. In an order of the city administrator delivered to the occupiers, it was made known that “Hulme Park shall be closed between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m....and all persons are to be prohibited to be on park property between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.” Clauses banning tents and fire pits followed the notification of this ordinance. Given the wave of evictions that have been occurring at Occupy camps from Liberty Square née Zuccotti Park to the camp in LA, it seemed that Poughkeepsie would soon be just another camp taken apart by brute force, without even the benefit of a major news outlet to watch its destruction.

However, for the time being, community solidarity won out over heavyhanded measures. On the night the notice was served to the Occupy camp, over 100 people came out to support the camp and the Occupy movement in general, with chanting and cheer going on in the park and directly around it the whole evening; many stayed until 1 or 2 in the morning, with the others sleeping out in the park overnight as usual. The following day, the police came and gave a one-hour time frame for people to leave the park; however, more people scrambled back to the park, and given some time constraints and (unfortunately) crime in the city, the police were too preoccupied to deal with an occupying group. Even now, it seems unlikely that the police are going to evict the camp anytime soon; fear of bad press and reactions are preventing them from do-

Page 11

ing much beyond stopping the use of coal fires at the park.

Still, for the Occupy movement here, this is a sobering moment. Despite these victories, it is only a matter of time before they are going to have to leave the park and re-conceive themselves, either in terms of space occupied or in terms of larger structures within the movement. These conversations are already taking place; however, there is still time for you to join.

The Occupy movement is constantly doing outreach (even going as far as to meet here with various members of the Vassar community to talk about strategy) and is looking to broaden their support base as well as the forms of direct action they partake in. Students, now more than ever, are invited to come down to the park while it is still there and contribute whatever they can to the cause, if they so desire. Even if you do not have the time to go to every general assembly at the park and attend the meetings for various working groups, the 99 percent of Poughkeepsie would still like to know what issues affect you, and what Occupy Poughkeepsie can do in the meantime to find solutions to those issues. Occupy Poughkeepsie will also continue to attend Vassar events, as they have in the past with the Cornel West lecture and the Occupy Wall Street teach-in, as well as other community events, and lend their voice there as well. Together, we can help end the injustices of the community and build a better America, regardless of whether a few tents are in Hulme Park of not.

—Tim McCormick ’12 is a political science major. He is president of Democracy Matters.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

a nightclub in a patriarchy-steeped environment and of course, the patriotic cop that declares his patriotism at every close-up. I, at least, feel personally offended by the character selection on behalf of the Muslim community—do we have to be clumped into “extremes” in order to get a half-hour slot on the “learning” channel? Is the Muslim woman “all-American” because she has tattoos and drinks? Is the football coach “all-American” because he has to juggle Ramadan but still manages to maintain the “all-American” spirit of the pigskin? Is the cop an “All-American” cop because he reaffirms his love for the United States of America on screen and knows how to work a gun? Why is it that when the Muslim-American experience is finally addressed, it’s within the discursive framework of a set of “extremes?” Would TLC have decided to run the show if it was about a Muslim-American in her freshman year at Vassar College? Or is that too divorced from the reality of the American imagination of Muslims?

I posed an equally embarrassing amount of open-ended questions to my housemate, trying to fashion some sort of nuanced understanding of the show within the American dynamic.

What about African-American Muslims? What about Sunnis? What about South-Asians? What about the intersection of race and religion and the fact that Lebanese-Americans are often categorized as Caucasian? She looked at me and said, “Think about what TLC is. It’s directed towards women who are bored at home. It’s demographic is the middle American stay-athome mom.” I retorted, “I just don’t think it’s as radical as they make it out to be.” And then, she said, succinctly, “I think saying it’s not radical is underestimating it. I think that is underestimating how a lot of Americans in Middle America think.” The thought of having to succumb to outof-the-ordinary portrayals of an “all-American” life in order to gain a media-narrative still seems problematic to me, but if a “normalcy” has to be surrendered for the sake of religious understanding, so be it. I guess a half-understanding via TLC is better than none at all.

—Noor Mir ’12 is a political science major. She is president of the South Asian Students Alliance.

ADVERTISEMENT

OPINIONS

Page 12

December 8, 2011

Raw milk provides additional benefits Teach-In an essential conversation TEACH-IN continued from page 9 to explain why they disagreed with his view. When Solomon received a response that he was not expecting and subsequently felt attacked, “punished” and “dismissed,” he again made good use of his freedom of speech to write an article in the Miscellany, in which he again expressed discomfort with the emphasis on political correctness on the basis that it quells campus discourse around controversial topics.

As someone who has personally felt attacked, punished and dismissed for voicing my opinion about controversial topics in myriad male-dominated situations, I can sympathize with this feeling. In spite of constant forces that try to tell me to shut up, I, too, will wield my freedom of speech in response to this attack, punishment and dismissal of an event that I found extremely important and empowering.

An emphasis on political correctness does require people to examine the things that they say and how those words affect other people; it requires us to check our own privilege and encourage people to speak up about their experiences of discrimination so that we can try to build a better community in which no one feels silenced. I want people to call me out on words or thoughts of mine that work against that goal, because those are thoughts that I’m okay with silencing in myself in order to let everybody exercise their freedom of speech.

—Alexandra Deane ’15 is a student at Vassar College.

The Miscellany News made changes to Solomon’s article, referenced by this op-ed, specifically substituiting the work ‘sexism’ for ‘cis-sexism.’ The mistake is corrected online.

`

RAW MILK continued from page 11 to the recipient, that blood has come out of a refrigerator. I should know this. I once maintained the refrigeration equipment at a blood bank for the largest hospital in NYC. What’s good for keeping the blood supply safe is good for the raw milk supply that comes naturally out of a cow.

Modern refrigeration, which did not exist at the dawn of pasteurization, makes this feat possible.

Our dairy farmer not only sells to the Co-op, but sells to the big milk companies as well. Big milk handles this product less conscientiously.

The big tanker truck stops by the farm, pumps the raw milk into its tank and then it goes sloshing down the road. The tank that holds it is unrefrigerated. Dairy tank trucks can not be economically refrigerated. This would require heavy mechanical refrigeration equipment which is not practical for the large volume of milk these trucks are capable of carrying (6000 gallons or more). It would be less profitable, since delivery costs would be higher. Box trucks, which deliver pasteurized milk products to stores, are required by law to be refrigerated. What pasteurization has been able to do is break the link in the raw milk refrigeration chain and get away with it.

No study has ever focused on the contamination of raw milk due to the variable conditions of bulk transport. Here’s why: The big milk tank truck goes to several dairies on a route. The distances of routes vary as do the temperature conditions throughout the year. The secret benefit of pasteurization is that raw milk can be allowed to start spoiling while in transit. Additionally, the truck picks up milk from different dairies. Bad batches will get mixed-in with the good ones and the lack of refrigeration on these trucks will only make things worse. Dairy farms with poor sanitation practices can still sell a product at the same price as those farms which offer a healthier product. The good and the bad gets mixed together. In this way, “No bad milk is left behind,” and bad dairies are rewarded at the expense of the good ones. Dairy farmers have, for years, complained about this.

Additionally, the bias against raw milk was driven by the economic ponzi scheme that homogenization created. What big milk discovered was that greater profits were to be realized by selling milk with a lower fat content. The fat that was left over could then be sold at a higher profit margin--being made into butter, candy and ice cream. Today, even greater profits are realized by the (faux) health trend of ultra-low-fat milk of less than two percent. This type of milk should, ethically, be labeled: “White Drink.”

Homogenization had another side benefit: Farms producing milk of a lower nutritional quality, due to cows in poorer health, could be blended with the milk from those of healthier dairy herds—thereby producing a product with a uniform bland taste. The profit motive behind pasteurization and homogenization, if applied to the wine industry, would destroy the unique aspects of it. Wines would be blended, taste the same and sold for the same price—just like milk.

This is a business model that works great for Kool-Aid. No one can tell if a particular flavor is made with tap water from New York or San Francisco.

The most important omission in the op-ed is one significant fact that the diary industry does not wish any one to know. It’s this: If you want to kill a newborn dairy calf then put it on a diet of cow’s milk from a super market. This fact is well known to every dairy farmer (and some have even proved it). The effect would be the same for an infant, if a mother’s breast milk first had the majority of its fat content removed and then was heated to the extreme temperatures of pasteurization. For pasteurization is not the only process that raw milk undergoes before hitting store shelves. It’s always found homogenized, as well. It’s impossible to purchase milk that’s only been pasteurized, because no farm or big milk company produces it in that form. Pasteurization and homogenization always go hand in hand. For the newborn calf and the infant, the end result would be the same. Both would soon be suffer-

ing from malnutrition, if their respective natural foods were treated so rudely.

There has never been (nor should there ever be) a dairy farmer who would not drink the raw milk from their cows. It would be highly unethical for a dairy farmer to refuse to do this and every dairy farmer (who has a soul) knows it.

My dad’s aunt and uncle drank the milk straight from their cows on their farm in Michigan, and lived well into their 80s. Studies are never done on the health of dairy farmers or their families, since their population is relatively small and is considered to be of no research value. The Coop’s dairy farmer drinks the raw milk her cows produce, every day. She’s raised her kids on it.

She stands by its quality. CEOs of big corporations stand by the ability of their corporate liability insurance to cover any law suits filed against them. They never have to put their health on the line for any their products. Our dairy farmer does this every day.

In closing, it’s worth mentioning that Louis Pasteur did not invent his process in order to pasteurize raw milk. He wanted to preserve wine and beer. Milk was first pasteurized, by a German scientist, nearly 25 years after Pasteur began his work (next year will be its sesquicentennial). Apparently, the great French scientist was oblivious to the dangers of raw milk or the necessity for pasteurizing it.

Also, there is this historical point to contemplate: The Mongol armies of Genghis Khan drank raw mare’s milk—straight from their horses.

They did not take the precautionary step, recommended in the op-ed, of boiling it first. Somehow, without any regard for the so-called dangers of this practice, they managed to conquer the largest contiguous land mass the world as ever known.

We, in the Vassar Raw Milk Co-op, did not wish to conquer an empire. Good health, provided by food that tastes good, is enough for us.

—Mark Peura works for Buildings and Grounds at Vassar College.

Crossword by Jonathan Garfinkel ACROSS

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

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

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

26. Namesake of the Duke boys’ ride 29. Singer Corrine Bailey and others 31. (Sigh) 32. Electrical jump 33. “The Thin Man” pup 34. Mid first century

year 35. Boy chasing Estella 38. Fall 40. “And so on”, briefly 41. Train stop (abbr.)

42. With “The”, notable NYC nightclub, briefly 43. Norwegian capitol 45. Mythical fate cutting the string 47. NOVA airer 48. There may be quite a bit of it about nothing 49. Big winner at the Grammys 53. Locale with notable caucuses 55. Paris airport 56. Genetic msgr. material 58. Band welcoming you to the jungle, briefly 59. Lazy one 63. Teeny 64. Impulsive parts of psyches

Answers to last week’s puzzle

65. Pain 67. Rearward 68. Some flightless birds 69. Carpet style 70. Slime 71. Blue 74. Foolish mo.

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

89. Florentine river 90. Capped joint 91. Miami’s county 92. Army big-shots, briefly DOWN

1. Talk and talk and talk 2. “This American Life” airer 3. When repeated, “So-so” to Pablo 4. Wx datum 5. Heel style 6. Certain (nerdy) type of party 7. Toronto prov.

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

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

39. New Orleans sandwich specialty 42. Musical conclusions 44. 9 digits on a 1040 or W2 46. Bar type 47. Troubled “Full Metal Jacket” 49. Kowtow, say 50. Before, poetically

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

51. Pinch 52. Keep on truckin’, say 53. Not fully developed 54. Author Pamuk 57. Donkey 58. Fuel 60. Fall behind 61. Roswell sighting, briefly 62. Classic Pontiac 66. It may be boosted by answering this 68. Mid-level nobleman 71. Went under

72. Prayer ender 73. Ninny 76. One may turn it on after hopping out of bed 78. Dubai’s federation (abbr.)

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

HUMOR & SATIRE

December 8, 2011

Page 13

OPINIONS

A senior’s semester Re: A diva’s final composition Alanna Okun

Humor & Satire Editor

S

Michael Mestitz/The Miscellany News

o it’s the last Misc issue before Winter Break, which means that the torrential flood of lies and slander will finally, blessedly, stop. Even after seven semesters at Vassar there are still plenty of things I don’t know: who runs VCStudentBodies, how Blodgett works, why the staff at Baldwin thinks I’ve been perma-pregnant for the past four straight years. But here are some tidbits I’ve managed to learn about this oh-soprecious final year, gleaned from all the time I’ve spent lolling around campus/ actually my bed because I only have class four times a week. #SENIORS!!

1. Parties.

By the time you are a senior, you will only go to two or three parties, but you will go to them every single weekend.

Maybe your preferred group is the baseball team or drama majors or the Jane Austen Book Club. Regardless of who you choose to spend time with, you’ll learn their patterns so well that you’ll be able to script each conversation that will take place over the course of the night.

Guy: So have I told you about my internship at Goldman Sachs this past summer? Pretty chill.

Girl: Yeah, you did! Eight times!

(Guy and Girl start macking furiously.)

You will tell gaggles of freshmen that Security is coming, just for sport. Games of Never Have I Ever will devolve into cold, calculated attempts to single out your one friend who once had sex in a barn. Never will your bathtub not ever smell like Crystal Palace and Country Time Lemonade again.

2. Senior housing.

Taking 600 21-year-olds and dropping them unceremoniously into a bunch of apartments is like backing a dumptruck full of wompwomps into Sunset Lake.

Some will struggle to stay afloat, some will breaststroke like pros and some will clamber on top of each other in a frenzy of fur and claws, shoving wompwomps previously thought to be their friends all the way to the murky, cancerous bottom. Similarly, there are all kinds of ways senior housing can work. (Or not.)

I recommend a chore wheel, Christmas lights and enough communal booze that all of your housemates are perpetually tipsy to the point where they don’t care when you leave your spaghetti-

carbonara-encrusted plates in the sink for so long that they develop their own itty-bitty ecosystems. BONUS PRO TIP: Maybe probably try to learn to cook a dish that isn’t spaghetti carbonara. Or find an underclassman to seduce and make him/her/zir swipe you into the Deece whenever you’re feeling peckish.

3. Academics.

Oh yeah that. Your classes will be completely lopsided: half intros where you’re the only person old enough to drink, half seminars that require you to compose Moodle novellas before each meeting. You’ll either monopolize all discussion (without having bothered to buy a copy of Anna Karenina or whatever over-hyped rag you happen to be talking about that day) or lurk lumpenly at the back of the classroom, slouching in eight minutes after class starts because the THs are just. So. Far. At all times you will be carrying a Mason jar full of sun tea. You’ll talk about your thesis like it’s some weird little gnome who lives under your bed but who you’ve come to love begrudgingly for his singular crabby brand of wisdom.

Thesis: Don’t go tongue-kiss with that dumb loser who won’t STFU about Goldman Sachs! Stay here and hang out with me. We still have one more chapter about agroeconomic development in postindustrial Kiribati to finish by Monday.

Girl:You’reright,Thesis,I’dtotallyrather stay at home tonight. Thanks a bunch.

Thesis: Besides, you have to anyway or your world will end.

4. Real life.

A senior’s favorite game to play is a rousing round of “So What Are Your Plans For Next Year?” Really gets the old heart rate up. It seems like everyone you’ve ever met is starting to hear back about job recruitment and grad school and all you want is to find someone who will pay you a modest fortune to write haikus about eating. But that’s why they invented Winter Break: for curling up on the couch in your zebra-print Snuggie and ignoring fellowship applications until the night before they’re due, for drinking three bottles of champagne with the only friend from high school you still talk to, for asking your parents for Anthropologie giftcards for Hanukkah instead of, like, the down payment for your future apartment. We don’t even graduate until May, team—we could be 40 by then!

Weekly Calendar: 12/8-12/14 by Alanna Okun, Humor & Satire Editor Thursday, 12/8 3 p.m. Tea. With finals rapidly approaching: paper topics

you’re actually equipped to write. Rose Parlor.

Friday, 12/9

8 p.m. Class of 2015 De-Stress Open Mic. “I wrote this piece of slam poetry about all the struggles I’ve experienced, such as having a five-page lab report and a six-page Intro Cog Sci final due ON THE SAME DAY. But I’m not a hero.”

UpC.

3 p.m. Tea. The Use of the Maternal as a Symbol of the

Divine in Madame Bovary’s Wikipedia Entry. Rose Parlor.

8 p.m. Night Owls Final Concert. These fine ladies can go

up the ladder to my roof any time they want. Rocky 200.

Saturday, 12/10 8 p.m. “The Skin of Our Teeth.” Ew. Martel.

my humidifier and nightly pore-shrinking clay mask?) Villard Room.

3 p.m. Tea. Our Friend the Wompwomp: Why Watching Those Lil’ Guys Sprint Lumpenly Across Your Path Kicks Your Endorphins Into Overdrive. Rose Parlor.

3:30 p.m. BAM Final Concert. Jazz hands medleys “Wick-

8 p.m. Vassar Devils Final Concert. This good-lookin’

bunch of chicks and dudes can make me cra— oh my god this is literally horrible I’m so sorry I’ll stop. Basically, it’s a cappella concert time. All you guys need are the Sparknotes. Taylor Auditorium.

Monday, 12/12 3 p.m. Tea. How a Cold Manages to Spread to the Entire

11 p.m. Moulin Rouge. Voulez-vous couchez avec moi (et

Tuesday, 12/13

Vassar Student Body Over the Course of a Single Mug Night. Rose Parlor.

ed.” Rocky 200.

9 p.m. Matthew’s Minstrels Final Concert. Choreography

80s…minstrelsy? Oh dear, this joke really isn’t much better.

Sanders Auditorium.

10 p.m. Trivia Night. Question #XXXVI: How long will it

take for a certain unnamed columnist of mine to get his Georgetown Law acceptance revoked, once the admissions office catches wind of the ridiculousness he produces on a semi-weekly basis? (See above.) Mug.

7 p.m. Measure 4 Measure Final Concert. Girls sparkles

Sunday, 12/11

Regina Spektor. Rocky 200.

give me the beat and free my soul any hour of the day or night. Rocky 200.

Wednesday, 12/14 3 p.m. Tea. Because it Looks Like Sprite: An Ethnosocial

6 p.m. Axies Final Concert. These dapper gentlemen can 9 p.m. Vastards Final Concert. Volume choir boy bands.

Rocky 300.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Examination of How Rolling Rock in Cans Became, Like, a Thing This Year. Rose Parlor.

ARTS

Page 14

December 8, 2011

‘Skin of Our Teeth’ brings humor to universal dramas Matthew Hauptman Reporter

T

words, while Wilder may have hailed from a Christian background, he saw the Bible as one mythology amongst thousands. His efforts to engage with the past, moreover, do not constitute an effort to rewrite it.

As Arianna Gass ’13, another cast member, wrote in an emailed statement, “Even though Wilder’s theatrical language is subversive (in the sense that it revolts against classical modes of representation), I don’t think his message is.”

Added Gass, “The play is about learning how to begin again—not by rewriting those classic and sacred texts, but by learning from them, acknowledging that the knowledge they contain is relevant even thousands of years after they were written; that by being human we have a cultural heritage, and it’s influence is ultimately creative and positive.”

Wilder’s optimism is evident in his witty (and frequently absurd) dialogue, but also in his oscillations between sincerity and silliness. “[This play] turns on a dime sometimes,” said cast member Steven Wolff ’13.

If Wilder’s writing is distinct and unique in its light touches, then it is also recognizable in its unorthodox nature. As Gass pointed out, “A lot of his plays are ‘metatheatrical’—they draw attention to the spectacle in progress. Just as you are pulled in to the emotion or plot of the scene, Wilder draws you out. This is, in part, what keeps his plays from being hokey, sentimental.”

This is most evident in the characters’ awareness of their own presences on stage.

Throughout “The Skin of Our Teeth,” characters directly address the audience and make quips about the play of which they are a part.

“There’s [this] huge sense of whimsy in it,” said Assistant Director Cat Ramirez ’13.

“The Skin of Our Teeth” may be experimental, but it is still very much in line with Wilder’s other plays. As Gass argued, “This play is not only continuous with his other works, but could be characterized as the culmination of his creative endeavors.”

Wilder’s fear that “The Skin of Our Teeth”

Alex Schlesinger/The Miscellany News

hornton Wilder’s 1942 play “The Skin of Our Teeth” resonated with theatergoers looking toward an uncertain future—a future marked by economic depression, global war and eventual recovery.

“There is a universality to Wilder’s work that allows this play to become deeply personal, as if the situations on stage could play out anytime, anywhere,” wrote Akari Anderson ’12, who plays character Sabina, in an emailed statement. “The Skin of Our Teeth” will be performed at the Martel Theatre from Dec. 8 to 10 at 8 p.m.

Christopher Grabowski—professor of Drama on the Frances Fergusson Chair of Arts and Humanities, director of Theater, and chair of Drama—is directing the play. Grabowski chose “The Skin of Our Teeth” largely because he was struck by its relevance to the present day, never having read the play before.

Grabowski explained that this play demonstrates a keen understanding of what it means and feels like to live on the brink of crisis and disaster. The play does entail some rather bleak themes but is also rife with hope, not to mention humor. As Grabowski said of Wilder, “He was an optimist at heart. He believed that progress was possible.”

Wilder’s play tells the story of George and Maggie Antrobus; their two children, Henry and Gladys; and Sabina, the family’s maid in the first and third acts, and a beauty queen temptress in the second act. Many of the characters in “The Skin of Our Teeth” adopt dual roles like Sabina, making her transition not unusual for the experimental play.

The play’s action takes place during the period in which it was written—the early 1940s— but is full of allusions and anachronisms that invoke biblical and mythological canons. Accordingly, the characters’ roles as archetypes are emphasized by their association with biblical and classical personalities.

Wilder’s play is deeply immersed in the canon, but also pays homage to a variety of traditions other than the Judeo-Christian. In other

Above, the talented cast of “The Skin of Our Teeth,” a radical play written in 1942 by Thornton Wilder, rehearses in the Martel Theatre. The production will run from Dec. 8 to 10 at 8 p.m. would be his last play before going to war as a lieutenant colonel may shed light on the play’s cumulative quality. As Anderson noted, “This play was being written on the eve of the Second World War, and you can definitely feel the text grappling with issues of war and humanity during times of crisis.”

The play has been challenging but immensely rewarding for the cast and crew. Emily Wexler ’14, who plays Gladys Antrobus, felt heartened watching this large-scale collaboration come to fruition.

“We’ve created a real theatrical community,” Wexler said. This theatrical community has entailed a committed group of students and faculty working together to create great art.

“One of the most amazing parts of working on this show has been getting to work with faculty members, who have pulled out all the stops in terms of design.”

As Anderson went on to add, “Their atten-

tion to detail is incredible, and [Drama Department Technical Director] Paul O’Connor’s set design has really been a huge part in giving us a zany, larger-than-life world to play in. Chris has really brought out the bold theatricality of the piece, which is incredibly rewarding as an actor. The show never stops moving, and neither do we—it’s really been a lot of fun.”

The play has certainly been fun for all those involved but also quite challenging, not least because of its complexities and nuances. “[The Skin of Our Teeth]” is so dense and rich that we keep finding more and more layers to peel back, which is challenging, but has kept us engaged in the piece as we discover central themes together,” remarked Anderson.

“This production is wildly imaginative, fun and otherworldly, but also presents a very real humanity that I think the audience will recognize.”

Said Grabowski, “The story is absolutely basic to who we are.”

Young at heart, Hall pursues studio art degree as adult Charlacia Dent

F

Assistant Arts Editor

Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News

or most students who pass through the registrar’s office, Pamela Hall appears a like any other friendly Vassar employee. What few realize is that Hall is a member of a small group of adults who are enrolled in courses her on campus. In 1993 she worked in the Visual Resources Library for the Art History Department, manning computers and acting as a liason for media resources before the Library switched to digital imaging. “It really sparked my interest in art again,” Hall said. Now she is a talented studio art major on track to receiving her degree.

Hall first began taking classes at Vassar in 1996 when she wanted to learn Spanish, but was uninterested in obtaining a degree at the time. Later, she began taking classes in other departments including psychology and art history.

Vassar only allowed employees to take about six classes if they were not matriculated and having earned many credits from a previous institution, she decided that it would be to her benefit to officially enroll at Vassar.

“It’s been a good experience. All of the departments have been cooperative with me taking classes and working here,” Hall said. “I usually go to class during my hour lunch break, and it gets a little difficult being a studio art major because of the longer sessions, but I’ve been able to work it out.”

In her time at Vassar, Hall has been able to take her artwork to a new level. After taking a co-taught animation course with Associate Professor of Computer Science Tom Ellman and Professor of Art Harry Roseman, she is now fascinated by the idea of putting her drawings and sketches into motion. She is also greatful to have had the chance to take courses with other professors in the department who have helped her become a better artist.

Hall took her first drawing course at Vassar with Visiting Professor of Art Gina Ruggeri,

Pamela Hall, an employee in the registrar’s office, is also pursuing a degree in studio art. She featured some of her works in the recent SummerWork exhibition, on view from Sept. 9 to 24 in the Palmer Gallery. and painting course with Associate Professor of Art Peter Charlap.

“I’ve been drawing my whole life, but I’ve never been throroughly trained. Ruggeri showed me basic techniques and their was nothing intimidating about her class, but everything was important. Charlap had a peculiar way of teaching but it was really good,” Hall said. “Sometimes I would paint something and it was not what I expected and he got me to see something in the mistakes. He teaches you how to see the mistakes and works with you to either make something of it or get what you intented. He has a method and I love that.”

Hall also describes the experience of being in a classroom setting with other students as stimulating to her learning and work. “I love being in a class with a lot of students because it’s amazing to see all of the talent. It’s inspiring

to me and you also get to witness the growth that happens from the beginning of the course to the end,” Hall explained. Charlap appreciated Hall’s enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

“Adult students are often opinionated and hold on dearly to what they already know,” said Charlap. “Pam is different, she is very open to criticism and is eager to embrace new ideas.”

Hall featured some of her works in the most recent SummerWork exhibiton, which was on view this year from Sept. 9 to Sept. 24 at the Palmer Gallery. Hall put up two mixed medium pieces in the exhibit.

Her first work was in pastel, pencil and watercolor. Hall was inspired by a group of puppet dolls that she found while online. “I actually wanted to do several works of a similar subject,” Hall wrote in an emailed statement.

“They were of beautiful little girls. I wanted

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

to capture the amazing look in their eyes (I love eyes) and the expression on their faces.

I wanted, and perhaps I will eventually, push past what I was seeing to make their expressions even bigger. I don’t know how exactly but I would just continue to work on it to see what would come out of it.”

Hall’s second work was done in ink wash, pencil, water color and conte crayon. “I used an image of an artist that I used to work with. She has become my muse and has given me permission to paint any photos of her that I want. She has the most amazing eyes and she take lots of pics of herself in many odd poses,” wrote Hall.

“I had the best time painting this one. I love painting her and pushing past the actual image.

Her expressions to me make it really easy to do this, maybe because I know her and I can see her in my minds eye while I’m painting. And I can hear her saying something funny or making a crazy face,” she wrote.

Added Hall, “I like people. I find them really compelling, especially because they are all so different. But I am also very interested in seeing that other artist can take a piece of paper and pencil, paint or whatever and reproduce a face or a scene so beautifully. There is so much creativity in the world and it is all inspiring to me. It makes me want to make art and to learn how to use different mediums including photos and computer art.”

By the time that Hall graduates she will be retired, but she is happy to have had the opportunity to go on this journey. She would, however, enjoy teaching children or selling artwork of her own.

“I’m really just enjoying the process of being able to learn new things. I’m doing a lot of more painting right now, and I’m really learning a lot of new things in the Drawing II class that I’m currently in,” Hall said.

“I just want to do something that keeps me busy in the art field, and I’m excited about that,” Hall ended. “I feel like I’ll be doing art forever.”

December 8, 2011

ARTS

Page 15

Roseman explores illusion and materiality of cloth Burcu Noyan Reporter

I

Courtesy of Harry Roseman

n an almost surreal setting where art and philosophy overlap, lie the works of Harry Roseman, artist and professor of Art at Vassar College. His newest exhibition will run from Dec. 8 until Jan. 14 in the Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York City.

The show will consist of a main-site-specific drawing painted directly on the walls and an installation of sculpture works. “This installation/exhibition, titled ‘Enfold,’ continues an examination/conversation I have been having with cloth. A subject that I explored in many works as well as in a permanent sculptural installation at Kennedy Airport in 2000,” wrote Roseman, in an emailed statement.

The black-and-white line wall-drawing will give the illusion of a drapery with undulating folds, made to appear like a curtain in its most natural state of existence. The lines of the drawing float and flow around the interior walls of the gallery and blossom into the shape of an invisible cloth, hung on the walls through its black outlines, a cloth through which it’s possible to see the bare wall.

The previously made sculpture artworks of the installation included pieces of linen and plywood, modified into an identity change with one another. In Roseman’s world of cloth, identities and forms blur into each other, and opposing ideas juxtapose.

His fascination with cloth lies within the wide range of areas he can explore through cloth-themed art works. “Cloth is an object and a metaphor, a slippery fact. When it is not made into something shapely, a shirt or a dress, its thingness becomes even harder to identify.

Scale can shift suddenly and unexpectedly—a handkerchief, napkin, sheet, tarp, sail,” wrote Roseman.

“I am interested in what happens when two categories of information collide in the making of the object, the disparity of structure, including hard/soft, rigid/fluid, self-contained/ susceptible to its surroundings. I am interested in these anomalous juxtapositions that transpose givens, that belie our assumptions in ways

Professor of Art Harry Roseman’s newest exhibition, “Enfold,” including a main-site-specific drawing painted directy on the walls, as seen above, will run from Dec. 8 to Jan. 14 in the Nancy Margolis Gallery. that are clearly off but are convincing as a new whole, a new probability, that is both straightforward and uncanny,” he added.

The idea of an exhibition at the Nancy Margolis Gallery emerged when Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Gina Ruggeri showed Margolis the poster of Roseman’s installation “Hole in the Wall” in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Gallery. This installation was a wall-drawing that aimed to alter the visitors’ perception of the gallery by mimicking and distorting archi-

tectural elements of the surroundings with its composition.

Roseman worked with various media, including drawing, painting, sculpture and photography during his nearly three decades of experience and made numerous exhibits. His focus is on sculpture, which is the main subject he teaches at Vassar. He has been commissioned for major works of public art, such as the 40foot polychrome bronze wall-relief for the Wall Street subway station in 1990.

A 600-foot linear relief sculpture titled “Curtain Wall” in Terminal 4 at JFK International Airport carries Roseman’s signature. This work consists of sections of white concrete that are sculpted to look like flowing curtains along a passageway, as though the thrust of wind from the passing crowd is making the concrete curtains flow in various directions.

“My work moves around between various concepts, issues and subjects. This movement is both linear and circular,” wrote Roseman, describing his artworks over the years.

As for his style, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art Tyler Rowland wrote in an emailed statement, “Harry’s unification of drawing (the flat) and sculpture (the round) is an integral part of his work.”

“Through close observation and a steady hand he reveals the way things are constructed—by the eye, in the mind and in the world.

Exactitude combined with the rupture of materiality and form leads to a unique perceptual experience,” added Rowland.

The process of Roseman’s installation took an arduous path from drawing numerous curtains from observation to constructing the exhibition on Photoshop and days of practicing. “From last Sunday, Nov. 27 to Dec. 6, we worked in the gallery itself, often working 10, 12 or 14 hours a day,” wrote Roseman.

Rhys Bambrick ’11, Mollie Flannery ’11, Christina Tenaglia ’97 and Eric Zimmerman from Cleveland Art Institute ’02 and University of Texas at Austin ’05, worked with Roseman throughout the installation process. They used the Photoshop projections to draw the lines of the curtain on the wall of the gallery and eventually painted the lines freehand.

The painted lines in the exhibition “Enfold” have a unifying nature, while emphasizing the idea of juxtapositions. “Concurrently this installation and exhibition are about the nature of line, as well as space and flatness as simultaneous experience ... Line that sits one with the wall, is undoubtedly flat, but tells a conflicting story about space and object,” wrote Roseman.

“In this installation/exhibition I seek to enfold the viewer both externally and internally.”

Late-bloomer Rooks a renowned performer, professor Shruti Manian

Assistant Arts Editor

S

Christie Chea/The Miscellany News

tephen Rooks was a music major at Darmouth College when a friend invited him to a dance performance. “The curtains went up and my life was changed. It was an epiphany; I knew this was what I wanted to do,” said Rooks. So at 20, an age that most people would agree is too late to begin dancing, Rooks decided to become a dancer. “I was a late bloomer,” said Rooks, who eventually became a principle dancer in the Martha Graham Dance Company. He went on to perform at a number of prestigious national and international dance festivals and eventually took on the mantle of director of Vassar’s Dance Department.

Rooks began studying modern dance at the Alvin Ailey School and then moved on to the Martha Graham School of Dance. He firmly believes that hard work is the biggest deciding factor when it comes to excellence.

“It is having that hunger and sticking with it and not stopping even when your body is screaming for you to stop,” he explained. He took 18 classes a week at the Martha Graham School and lost nearly 20 pounds in his first month there. “Starting late didn’t intimidate me. The advantage of starting late is that you don’t have time to waste, you’re desperate and you’ve just got to take that decision to stick to it no matter what,” said Rooks.

It seemed to Rooks as if modern dance, with all its drama and passion, was an extension of his personality and was exactly what he wanted and needed to do.

With a career that spanned from 1981 to 1991, Rooks danced with the Martha Graham Company. One of Rooks’ favorite roles with the company was in “Deaths and Entrances,” a ballet about the Brontë sisters. Rooks played one of the central male characters, Poetic Beloved, a guiding, older brother figure to the female leads of the ballet. “The movements were rhapsodic. It was the deepest expres-

sion of the kind of dance I wanted to do. The ballet was neo-classic because we wore period costumes, which was unusual for modern dance,” said Rooks.

Rooks also choreographed a piece called “Outside” for the Martha Graham Dance Company. The piece was based on a parable that Jesus taught and Rooks dedicated it to his wife. “Outside” was selected to be presented at the 1989 New Choreographers series during the Graham Company’s fall season at City Center Theater in New York. While with the Martha Graham Dance troupe, Rooks traveled the world and performed across continents and countries. He has had almost 23 European tours under his belt, and given a televised performance in Japan.

“It was an uphill journey because I started dancing for the Martha Graham company just four years after I’d started dancing. But I was never a nervous wreck. I felt very at home on stage and I just wanted to get out there and go for it,” said Rooks.

He attributes his remarkable growth as both a dancer and a performer to his years with the Martha Graham Company. “I learned so many things: understood the specificity of the stage, how much I could push my body. I began green and young and by the end of it I was a seasoned dancer. I remember thinking, ‘I look like a dancer now.’ Whoa when did that happen?” said Rooks.

However Rooks always knew that he wanted to teach. “Teaching was always a goal. I knew I wanted this career in performing and then when it was time to move on, I had always known I’d wanted to teach,” Rooks said.

“I was happy to teach because it was time to start sharing what I knew and all those amazing experiences I had.”

As a professor and the chair of the Dance Department, Rooks understands the fine nuances of teaching dance and how teaching differs from performing. “When youíre performing, the central focus is yourself, im-

Director of the Dance Department Stephen Rooks became a dancer at 20 after seeing a dance performance in college. He also acts as the resident choreographer of the Vassar College Repertory Dance Theatre. proving your own technique. But when you teach it isn’t about yourself, the primary focus are those students and allowing yourself to be their servant,” explained Rooks.

Rooks is also the resident choreographer of the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre (VRDT) and choreographs a piece for it every year. For the recently held VRDT showing, Rooks choreographed a piece called “Social Network(s).” “I wanted it to be an abstract homage to the way we network these days. You can walk through the Library and you can see students watching a very serious video one minute. But then with just a click of a button they can switch to an MTV video.

The piece is not a qualitative judgment, it is just a unique observation of out ways of interaction,” explained Rooks.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Rooks enjoys working with Vassar students because he believes they are a bright and committed bunch. “There is no drama with them. When I walk in and ask them to dance there is no eye rolling or anything,” said Rooks.

This enthusiasm is reflected in the small cluster of students sitting outside Rooks’s office. “I have so much to say about him,” said Jeremy Busch ’14. “If there is one word to define Stephen Rooks, it is statuesque. That has been the general go-to word thrown about in the department for Rooks for a while now.

Everything he does is just so architectural.”

“I love students and I love dance. I love getting people excited about dancing. What I enjoy the most is watching students who are initially intimidated turn fearless,” concluded Rooks.

ARTS

Page 16

WVKR brings campus news to radio waves

Behind-the-scenes, performer fosters arts Adam Buchsbaum

“T

Arts Editor

here are over 400 students involved with the Music Department [in] some way,” Andrew Gaines ’12 said, “which means that one in every six Vassar students does something with the Music Department.” And Gaines is one of those students.

But though he may sing, Gaines aspires to continue with music differently—through administration and organizing.

Gaines first began to explore arts administration as a field in his freshman year at Vassar.

Gaines was a bass singer in the Vassar College Choir, which he continues singing in to this day.

“I really looked up to the [Vassar College] Choir manager,” Gaines said. “I was her assistant tour manager essentially.”

In his sophomore year, Gaines became the Vassar College Choir manager, a position he still retains. He oversees its fundraising, audience development and publicity campaigns. “[The position] was something I really wanted to grow,” Gaines said. In turn, Gaines started regularly fundraising. “When I inherited the Choir Council budget, I received $17,” he said. “We’ve grown that up to be a couple of thousand dollars.”

Though he had never even seen an opera until Winter Break of his freshmen year at Vassar, Gaines has also become heavily involved in the world of opera. Gaines saw one of the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Live in HD screenings of Puccini’s “La Rondine.” He didn’t see opera live until about 10 months later when he and his Italian class saw Verdi’s “Aida” at the Guild. “I didn’t listen to opera

growing up.” Gaines said. “That wasn’t part of my upbringing. We went to hockey games.”

Gaines, then a sophomore, decided to join the Vassar Opera Workshop as its stage manager and production manager, as well as perform in it. The Opera Workshop is a semester-long project with the Music Department, where students train to perform a staged opera, or scenes of an opera, at the end of the second semester.

“I wanted to learn more about the production and rehearsal aspects,” Gaines said. “That clued me into what was this world of opera, and what it took to even produce an opera.”

During his junior year, Gaines went abroad to Hertford College at Oxford University. There he became the Production Administrator for New Chamber Opera, Oxford’s only faculty-run opera company. He helped it put on a full-scale production of Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.” They sold over 1500 tickets for its two-night run, the opera happening during Gaines’ first three weeks abroad.

Two other productions went up while Gaines was there.

This past summer, during the second year of his summer Guild internship, Gaines delivered a lecture for the Guild’s Summer HD Festival, 10 nights of opera screenings at the Lincoln Center Plaza.

Gaines researched, developed and delivered a lecture to introduce Puccini’s “La Rondine,” the very same opera Gaines saw, and one of Puccini’s least-performed operas. Gaines went through some of its most famous numbers, its plot, and its composition history to explore its obscurity among

Madeline Zappala/The Miscellany News

WVKR continued from page 1 radio journalism, which for a big part is what radio is like in the real world,” explained Program Director and co-Host of “Campus Current” Sarah Scott ’12. Because WVKR is known largely for its role as a musical outlet on campus, “Campus Current” integrates a more newsy element into the mix, drawing as inspiration the inquisitive journalistic nature of stations like NPR. “It’s a way of getting students and the Vassar community involved in radio in a way that we haven’t seen before,” explained News Director Rachel Vogel ’14, co-anchor of the show. “Especially since WVKR has had problems with coming off as alienating or elitist because we have a limited amount of spots and a lot of people interested in music on campus,” she added. “This is a good way of countering that and showing there are ways to be inclusive with the Vassar community.”

Organized thematically, “Campus Current” strives to delve into lesser-investigated campus issues by highlighting a wide array of perspectives of students, professors and organizations. One show featured a discussion of education and activism, including a panel discussion with the organizers of Smashing History, an interview with VAST tutors, a recap of the Jonathan Kozol lecture and a conversation with an English major currently pursuing her secondary education certificate here at Vassar.

Another show both celebrated and complicated the tradition of Thanksgiving by evaluating the holiday from a critically historical and cultural standpoint. Assistant Professor of English and Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Native American Studies Molly McGlennen was included in this discussion alongside Susan Randolph ’12. The program also incorporated a curated storytelling hour that shared alternative Thanksgiving stories.

“Campus Current” intern Kyle Casey ’15 explained the intimate nature of such programming, arguing that radio as a platform for communication makes way for the most personal and heartfelt sharing of voices: “I have always been attracted to the nostalgia and simplicity associated with radio as a medium,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “There is something beautiful about listening to people tell stories and provide direct personal insights into issues about which they are passionate.”

The most recent show included an interview with the Night Owls as well as a discussion with Philaletheis’s special events production staff of “For Colored Girls Who have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” Vogel explained that this dialogue was one of her favorites thus far, as it allowed her to evaluate the arts through the theatrical lens. “They really saw a lack of space for discourse for women of color on the stage and the play was addressing that,” she explained, adding, “It’s great to meet students I haven’t met before. I would have had no idea this type of conversation was happening if I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk with them.”

In addition to catering to the student body, the show also keeps in mind the fact that WVKR listeners are predominately from the greater Poughkeepsie community. Each show concludes with world news brief, and many of the featured themes are pertinent to individuals outside the walls of campus, such as a discussion of Occupy Wall Street and an interview with students involved with the Poughkeepsie School District.

Vogel explained, “We still are a community radio station and the majority of our listenership aren’t Vassar students. I think that it is a careful balance of having a show that highlights Vassar events and still having it accessible to the larger Poughkeepsie community.”

For next semester, both Vogel and Scott hope to expand the groups from which they pull for interviews. Both agree that their choices governing the direction of the show have in many ways reflected their personal interests and acquaintances on campus. “We want to reach out to departments, individuals and professors with whom we might be less comfortable,” explained Vogel.

Perhaps the best way to widen the spectrum of issues covered on the show, Scott and Vogel explained, is to simply get more students contributing to the program. Scott explained, “The more people we have involved, the show opens up to a whole other group of individuals who are doing cool things.”

December 8, 2011

Andrew Gaines ’12, above, became the Vassar College Choir manager during his sophomore year. He also works for the Vassar Opera Workshop.

Puccini’s well-known repetoire.

Gaines also works now as the Communications and Concert Administration intern this year as an independent study. In it he manages the department’s publicity campaigns, and has implemented a weekly e-newsletter called This Weekend in Skinner.

Despite his rich background in music, Gaines is an English major,

with minors in economics and education. “I love singing,” Gaines noted. “I don’t think I want to go into it professionally.” Gaines instead hopes to maintain singing recreationally, perhaps in an auditioned ensemble.

“There’s something really exciting, perhaps intangibly so, about making the arts happen,” Gaines concluded.

VCPunx fills void of niche music interests Jack Owen Reporter

W

hile Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) and other music booking collectives on campus strive to bring bands to Vassar that will appeal to the majority of the student body, VCPunx, established in 2008, caters to the small but avid group of students who favor more hardcore, extreme and underrepresented genres of music. On Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. in the Mug, VCPunx will offer an intense opportunity for pre-exam week catharsis with their Winter Concert, an event that will no doubt feature some proverbial, and perhaps literal, moshing.

Jon Gorman ’13, current president of VCPunx, explained of the organization, “There really is a solid group of people at Vassar who have interest in this music, and we figure if we can get them together, even if it’s a small crowd, then that’s valuable,” he said. “I guess the bottom-line difference between us and other booking collectives on campus is that we just don’t really care about approval ratings,” he added.

During the Spring of 2010 ViCE asked VCPunx if they would like to be one of its branches, but VCPunx declined, stating that they would prefer to work alone and not have to worry about booking bands that will appeal to larger groups of students. Punx Member Zebulon Wimstatt ’14 attested to the memorable shows such a close, tight-knit type of audience facilitates: “I guess I’m drawn to VCPunx shows—in ways—because of the intimacy of them. The crowd is, like, never more than 55 people,” he said.

Gorman assures that the concert will be

a welcoming environment in which all are invited to come and let loose. Such an atmosphere, in fact, parallels the ideals of the group itself. “We are pretty small as far as a student organization goes, so our whole executive board works together really equally,” he explained.

VCPunx brings bands, mostly from New York State and other parts of the Northeast, that are struggling, lesser known and eager to get their names out there. “We run mostly free booking, and really just pay the bands in gas and pizza money,” Gorman said.

Similarly, the concerts themselves are generally low-tech and do-it-yourself. This informal ambiance, however, places the most emphasis on hearing and feeling the music, whether it be through uncontrolled moshing or shameless head banging.

The Winter concert will feature several hardcore groups from upstate New York, including The Dip(p)ers, a band led by one of the founders of VCPunx, Reed Dunlea ‘09. Unlike some of VCPunx’ other concerts, which pepper harcore music with electropop, this one will be extreme through and through. “It’s going to be more hard core and brutal, but we feel that that’s good because a lot of people have expressed interest in that kind of music, and we want to bring at least one heavy show per semester,” Gorman explained.

In addition to The Dip(p)pers , the Winter Concert will also feature Shoppers and Dead People Screaming, two bands self-proclaimed as noisy Syracuse queer punkers and dead Philly dead punks, respectively.

And while Gorman does not expect the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

concert to draw as large a crowd as some of the Mug’s other events, he is sure that those in attendance will be incredibly energetic and zealous about hardcore music.

The Mug’s intimate atmosphere will likely encourage a rapport between the audience and band. Of course, the Mug can make setting up tricky, as its location is in the heart of the Retreat and it is small with a low ceiling.

“Still, while the Mug is not the most convenient space, it’s certainly better than the garages and basements that a lot of groups are used to playing in.”

VCPunx also explores issues beyond music, depending on interests of the group members. “We’re mostly about the music, but we’ve done stuff on social issues, and panels in the past on niche things, such as last year’s non-conformist sex panel,” Gorman said. The panel was presented by Fuckin’ (A), a NYCbased political collective that exists to promote, support and facilitate radical sex positivity as a crucial aspect of liberating people and communities.

“When our members are passionate about different stuff we try to get it going,” he explained. According to Gorman, because the group is tight-knit, members are able to voice their opinions easily and in an environment that is very open and accepting.

The organization has weekly meetings at 6 p.m. in the Strong Bike Shop open to anyone interested in attending. Whether you’re from another student group and have collaborative ideas, are a musician and want to play at an event, or just hope to discuss music with likeminded people, Gorman assures that VCPunx is a fun and chill atmosphere to get started.

ARTS

Page 17

December 8, 2011

Vastards plays with musical Rihanna (et al.): A 2011 retrospective nostalgia Erik Lorenzsonn

H

Senior Editor

appy Holidays, schmappy schmolidays.

Don’t get me wrong: Wishing joy and goodwill to the world is totally my jam, but when it comes to superficial TV specials, “Sleigh Bells” repeated ad nauseum on the radio and frantic shopping for seasonally obligatory gift-giving...well, you’ve lost me. There are so many other reasons to be excited for this brumal time of year: snow frolicking, hot toddy consumption, cross-country skiing and, most of all, end-of-year music roundups from Rolling Stone, Treble, Billboard, Pitchfork and Tiny Mix Tapes.

It’s sort of dumb to get giddy over best-ofthe-year brouhahas; when it comes down to it, you like what you like, no matter what some webzine has to say about it. But as an—ahem­— “audiophile” (and ardent Rihanna fan) I also think it’s fun to reflect on what made the past year special for music (and Rihanna). So fun, that I’ll dish on some of the past year’s trends right now, before the big guns have their say.

The sax resurges (Bringin’ Saxy Back?)

George Michael, eat your heart out and move over—a fresh generation of saxophoneloving artists has arrived. Katy Perry and Lady Gaga incorporated some wailing solos in their adequate summer singles “TGIF” and “Edge of Glory”—Perry’s smash hit featured none other than Kenny G to carry the bridge. But the toast of this year’s sax-studded town is Bon Iver, who caps his stunning self-titled album with the handsome track “Beth/Rest.”

The cut embraces an ’80s adult contemporary aesthetic, akin to something from a jewelry store jingle. Gaggles of critics hated, but I was hooked after the third listen. When that

Campus Canvas

sax soars over gentle synth and electric guitar at the song’s climax, it gives me the shivers— who knew that such cheesy production would lend itself so well to such a gorgeous and cathartic song? “Beth/Rest”: far and away the best track of the year.

Pathetic rap (I’m a Creep, I’m a Weirdo)

The new “big thing in the current R&B and hip-hop scene: playing the self-depreciative role of a creepy, pathetic, desperate, drunk and sexist loser. Look no further than the burgeoning crooner The Weeknd. Abel Tesfaye’s now-infamous mantra in the song “Lonely Star”—“Baby, I could fuck you right”—is the epitome of rock-bottom petulance. Drake and Terius Nash (a.k.a. The-Dream) also showcase pitiful alter egos with their respective cuts “Marvin’s Room” and “Wedding Crasher.” In each, an anti-hero makes a drunken and libidinous plea to an ex for a rebound.

Aubrey Graham spits out over the phone “I know you still think about the times we had,” while Nash croons, “Let me sing you my drunk song; I hate to have to crash your wedding, but here it is.”

But these schmucks pale in comparison to Tyler the Creator, whose weird-and-creepy routine has catapulted him to the fore. Take his single “She,” in which he transforms into an a masturbatory stalker. The shtick is thoroughly unsettling. For better or worse, this fascinating trend of debauched creepiness has rooted itself in the industry, and may be here to stay.

Eupean club music (Europop til you drop)

Robyn broke onto the American dance scene last year with her impressive album Body Talk, and since then more Europop has

crossed the pond than ever before. Robyn hit the ground running in 2011 by releasing “Call Your Girlfriend” as a U.S. chart-topping single in April, accompanied with a stop-what-you’redoing-and-watch music video. Londoner Katy B gained attention in the spring with her own dubstep-influenced fare, making a name for herself with “Katy on a Mission” and “Broken Record.” The Romanian feel-good pop song “Stereo Love,” yesterday’s news on the international club scene, took off in the United States in early 2011. And midsummer saw the indie veterans Handsome Furs release Sound Kapital, a finely-constructed homage to Russian industrial dance music. Even Rihanna’s anthemic single “We Found Love” boasts more than a tinge of European flair.

Swells of Chillwave

The ’80s and psychedelia-inspired musical movement took a gap year in 2010, but it’s back. Toro Y Moi opened the year with his sophomore album Causers of This, featuring the boppin’ barrel-o’-monkeys banger “New Beats,” (too much, I know). Genre pioneers Neon Indian also released a sophomore album, Era Extraña; while not as resplendent as their earlier Psychic Chasms, it still shone with radio-friendly singles like “Polish Girl.” But the absolute crème de la crème was Washed Out, with their album Within and Without. The gorgeous yet indescribably sad “Amor Fati” is a somnolent journey to another place, tinged with summer memories. It’s rare for a song to inspire nostalgia and wistful thoughts so easily ... wait, I’m overselling this, aren’t I? Whatevs, just go listen to the song already.

Adele: ’nuf said.

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Stephanie Looks Over Her Shoulder

This painting started from an image of a former coworker from the Visual Resources Library here at Vassar. She is an artist who photographs herself in many oddly interesting poses. She has become my muse and has given me permission to paint any photo of her that I want.

I had the best time painting this one because she has the most amazing eyes. Also because I know her, I can hear her saying something silly or making a crazy face. I loved pushing past the actual image, making her eyes bulge far more than they really do. I didn’t feel forced to make her perfect because she is not fussy and is completely unpretentious, which I find wonderful. I love beautiful art, but I also love the strange and un-

“Someone Like You”? Damn…just damn.

Submit to misc@vassar.edu

expected. So using her weird and often hilarious images as inspiration makes it, for me, a perfect marriage.

I enjoy using people as subjects to paint. I find them so compelling, especially because they are all so unique. But I am also very interested in seeing how other artists can take a piece of paper, pencil, paint or whatever and reproduce and interpret a face or a mood, a movement or a scene, so beautifully. There is so much creativity in the world and it is all truly inspiring to me. It makes me want to make art and to learn how to use different mediums including photos and computer art. ­­­ —Pamela Hall

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Emma Daniels

A

Reporters

lthough the average Vassar student is more likely to have Animal Collective on their most recent Spotify playlist than old-school Britney Spears, that’s not to say that nostalgia pop is underappreciated on this campus. Middle School Mug Night is always well-attended, and the Vastards, Vassar’s nostalgia-pop-themed a cappella group, has many approving followers.

On Monday, Dec. 12 at 9 p.m. the Vastards are hosting their annual concert in Rockefeller Hall 300. As usual, all of the 10 groups on campus have come up with creative themes—ranging from ClassyCappella (Matthew’s Minstrels) to the Night (Owls) of the Living Dead (the Night Owls) to A Very Merry Measure Unbirthday (Measure 4 Measure) to BAMcatz (Broadway and More A Cappella). But the Vastards theme this year is especially topical—Occupy Vastards: We are the 69 Percent.

The nonsensical theme is also typical of the Vastards, one of the newer a cappella groups on campus. The group started as the idea of two freshmen roommates, Kelsey Woods ’06 and Jessica Copperman ’06, in 2002, who wanted to create an alternative to the more established groups on campus.

They held auditions to see who they could get, and ended up with about nine original members, some of whom either weren’t accepted to other groups or hadn’t auditioned for them, and wanted to find somewhere else to sing. By 2003 The Vastards gained Vassar Student Alliance (VSA) approval.

The Vastards has worked on building its repertoire and fan base since then. By 2009, the group was chosen to compete in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella.

The group primarily sings songs produced from 1985 to 2000. Member David Waldinger ’13 said, “We leave ourselves a little bit of wiggle room so that we don’t turn down song ideas solely on the basis that they’re not quite our style, but the vast majority of our songs trigger that ‘Oh my God, I haven’t heard this since my braces got locked with Cheryl’s retainer under the bleachers!’ effect.’”

The group has 18 members currently, and accepted five new freshmen from the large pool of students who auditioned this year. “The Vastards are some of the funniest, craziest and most diligent people I’ve ever worked with,” Waldinger said.

“And they definitely play as hard as they work. Seriously, if you ever find yourself invited to a Vastards party, accept the freakin’ invitation.”

Member Roman Mohr ’14 echoed Waldinger.

“We’re quirky, we’re loud, but we also know how to focus.”

The group spends three two-hour sessions a week rehearsing. Lately, the group has been working on enhancing their sound and adding new songs to their repertoire. “Since I’ve joined the group, we’ve become a lot more serious,” wrote Emma Young ’12 in an emailed statement. “We’re looking more at improving our pitch, soloists, individual skills and sound quality as a whole. On the large scale, we’re trying to take a conglomerate of talented individuals, and turn it into a sort of single unit.” For next semester the Vastards have planned to bring out “Lady Marmalade” (from the soundtrack for “Moulin Rouge!”) and other, as of yet undecided, material.

Greg Shapiro ’12, the group’s pitch, recently arranged a medley of Destiny’s Child songs, and Waldinger just arranged “What I Got” by Sublime, both of which will feature in the concert on Monday. “Those two songs are really an effort to diversify our repertoire ... we don’t want people to just see the group as ‘pop’ in the way of Britney Spears/Xtina Aguilera (although they are awesome and we love them, obviously),” wrote Young, “but see it as the entire scope of popular music, with a little something for everyone.”

The group also has been working on polishing old songs, like the Spice Girls’ “Say You’ll Be There,” and teaching them to their new members.

The Vastards will also perform for their upcoming concert classics like Bonnie Taylor’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Meredith Brook’s “Bitch” and No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak.”

“We’re so excited to showcase all the work we’ve done this semester,” said Mohr. “And the concert’s sure to be a good time.”

SPORTS

Page 18

Miami Marlins flushed with cash, ardor Andy Sussman Columnsit

White brings basketball experience to VC Jesse Hartman Reporter

H

eading into the 2011-2012 season, the Vassar College women’s basketball team had much to look forward to following last year’s historic season. The Brewers captured their first Liberty League title, as well as the team’s first ever NCAA Division III tournament bid under Head Coach Candice Brown, who would eventually be named the 2011 Liberty League Coach of the Year. While the players on the court have a fresh start to be excited about, the coaching staff for the Brewers this year has a new face in first-year assistant coach, Margaret White.

White graduated from Gettysburg College in 2009, where she was a four-year letter-winner on the women’s basketball team, the Bullets.

White further explained her basketball experience and how it has helped her coach at the collegiate level. In an emailed statement, she wrote, “I played AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] at age 10, and varsity throughout high school, and at Gettysburg College.” She continued, “I think playing at the college level is an important aspect of being able to relate to college players.

I understand what they are going through and all the demands they are trying to balance academically, socially and athletically.”

White started her coaching career by running summer camps at various colleges over the past four summers, including Elmira College, where she served as an assistant women’s basketball coach. As to why she chose to come to Vassar, White cited “Vassar’s academic and athletic reputation” as a major reason for her acceptance of the assistant coach position. “I was really attracted to working at a high academic institution where the student athletes are driven in the classroom and on the court,” White continued. “The women’s basketball program is on the rise, and it is an exciting opportunity to be a part of such a special group.”

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

T

Margaret White, pictured above, assistant coach for the women’s basketball team, joined the Brewer family this year after working at Elmire College and running several summer camps.

After fulfilling several responsibilities at Elmira College, White continues to play several roles at Vassar, both on and off the court. She highlighted specific tasks that she undertakes as a coach for the Brewers, writing, “My role is to work with Coach Brown to help our players develop to be the best athletes and people they can be both individually and as a group. So that means that I work with them to improve basketball-specific skills, motivate them during practices and games, help them to manage their academic workload, scout and prepare for opponents, recruit prospective studentathletes, etc.”

Not only does White have many tasks to accomplish, but she also has added difficulties as a new member of the Brewer’s family.

While the season is still in its early stages, White shared her first impressions of the team, which were full of praise. She stated, “This group is special because of how hard they worked in the offseason and how hard they work every day in practice and on their own to get better. They are highly motivated and a very close-knit group. We also have a great deal of talent so it is fun to work with them.”

On Saturday Dec. 10, White’s past meets her future as the Brewers host Elmira.

Winter break games engage VC teams Andy Marmer

W

Sports Editor

hile you’re at home unwinding from the stress of finals, or if you’re lucky enough to lay on some exotic beach, here’s what Vassar’s sports teams will be up to over break.

Women’s Basketball

The women’s basketball team will look to maintain their undefeated record prior to break, hosting Elmira College on Dec. 10.

After a hiatus for finals, the Brewers will play in two games over break at the Land of Magic Tournament in Daytona Beach, Fla. After a showdown with Marywood University on Dec. 28, Vassar will have the opportunity to avenge last year’s NCAA Tournament loss to Kean University on Dec. 30. Last year, after earning the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth with the school’s first Liberty League Championship, the Brewers were overcome in the first round by Kean 80-49. Vassar will then return north to begin Liberty League play.

The Brewers will visit Skidmore College and Union College on Jan. 6 and 7, respectively, before hosting Bard College on Jan. 10 in the first conference matchup between the two. The Brewers end Winter Break by welcoming Hartwick College to Poughkeepsie on Jan. 17.

Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

hese are not the Florida Marlins you know.

First of all, the MLB team which was previously known as the Florida Marlins is moving to a state-of-the-art stadium in Miami next season, and as a result recently changed its official name to the alliterative “Miami Marlins.”

More importantly, however, the 2012 Marlins appear to be willing to spend significantly more on its team than ever before. The Marlins, coming on the heels of a 70-92 season last year, have already signed free agent closer Heath Bell to a three-year, $27-million deal and gave All-Star free agent shortstop Jose Reyes a six-year, $106-million contract during this offseason. Last season, the Marlins had the seventh lowest payroll in MLB, spending less than $57 million on contracts for the 25-man roster, which was actually a modest increase from the team’s payroll in 2010.

Now, seemingly out of nowhere, the Marlins appear to not only have money but are also willing to spend in order to build a long-term contender. While it is true that the Marlins had one of the largest payrolls in 1997, the year they won their first World Series title, their strategy involved spending more only on a short-term basis.

That way, the team could truly contend for a year and then have a fire sale the next season (which is exactly what it did: the Marlins went from seventh in payroll in 1997 to 28th the next season and rebuilt essentially from scratch.) This offseason appears to be different, though. The Marlins are not only offering large sums of money to elite free agents, they are also offering multiple years in each instance, including a whopping 10-year offer to superstar free-agent first baseman Albert Pujols. (At press time, the Marlins had an outstanding offer to Pujols of 10 years in excess of $200 million.)

So, what has led to this drastic philosophical change? As any real estate agent worth his or her weight in salt will tell you, it comes down to three key variables: location, location and location. Not only do the Marlins have a new stadium to show off to their fans, it is located in downtown Miami, 20 minutes south of the old Sun Life Stadium. Whereas the Marlins constantly had attendance problems in their previous stadium, a cutting-edge ballpark in the middle of a heavily populated city should alleviate at least some of those problems. With higher attendance, the Marlins’ revenue will increase, leading to more money to spend on Reyes, Bell, potentially Pujols and free-agent starting pitcher Mark Buehrle.

Jeffrey Loria, the Marlins’ owner since 2002, has always been infamous for his (relative) frugality. Before purchasing the Marlins from previous owner John Henry, Loria owned the smallmarket Montreal Expos from 1999-2001. In both situations, Loria pressed for a new, taxpayerfunded stadium—only in Montreal, he was unsuccessful. By 2005, the Expos, who had virtually no fans, had moved to Washington D.C. to become the Nationals. Were it not for the New Marlins Ballpark in Miami, for which the team had to contribute 155 million dollars, the Marlins very well could have reached a similar fate.

Filling up the stadium and fully rejuvenating interest in the team, however, requires more than just a change in name and location. The Marlins cannot and need not remain a smallmarket franchise; Loria has claimed that he wants to be the next George Steinbrenner, but to do so he must spend effectively every year. At first in the offseason, no one took the previously spendthrift Marlins seriously when their front office remarked that it had serious interest in this free-agent class. Now that Bell and Reyes have become the two of the highest paid players on the Marlins in a matter of days, the Marlins must be taken seriously. With the Philadelphia Phillies aging and the New York Mets having unprecedented money troubles, combined with the extra wild card spot added in both leagues, the Marlins have a real chance to build around a talented nucleus of Reyes, Mike Stanton, Hanley Ramirez and Josh Johnson. The Miami Heat dominated the NBA’s free agency last year, and now it appears time for the newest Miami franchise to make its big splash.

December 8, 2011

Men’s Basketball

After finishing the semester on Dec. 10 with a trip to Hamilton College, the men’s basketball team will return to action on Jan. 3 visiting Wheaton College. The Brewers will then enter Liberty League play. Vassar’s first two league contests will be visits to Skidmore and Union on Jan. 6 and 7.

The Brewers continue Liberty League play with a home matchup against Bard College, in the first League clash between the rivals.

Vassar will finish its break with a trip to Rutland, Vt. to take on St. Joseph College.

Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving

Both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams return from break with a Jan. 12 visit to Trinity College. Following that contest the women’s team has time off from competition to prepare for the Seven

Above, Lucas Wager ’14, a center on the men’s basketball team, fends off an opponent from the Culinary Institute of America. The Brewers will return to action on Jan. 3, visiting Wheaton College.

Sisters Championships beginning Jan. 20, while the men’s team travels to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the Kumpf Invitational on Jan. 16 and Montclair State University for a dual meet on Jan. 18.

Men’s and Women’s Squash

Neither team will be competing over break. Both squads return to action on Jan. 21 at the Pioneer Valley Open.

Men’s and Women’s Fencing

Neither team has matches scheduled over the break. Both teams will compete on

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Jan. 22 with Marist College, Cleveland State University and University of Detroit Mercy making the trek to Walker Field House.

Men’s Volleyball

Under new Head Coach Rob Wolter, the men’s volleyball team will begin its season just after break, traveling to Ramapo College for a tri-meet featuring Ramapo and Philadelphia Biblical University on Jan. 21.

The Brewers home opener will take place on Jan. 25 as New York University comes to town.

December 8, 2011

SPORTS

Page 19

Captain Schieffer leads inexperienced sabre squad Kristine Olson

Assistant Sports Editor

I

Jiajing Sun/The Miscellany News

t wasn’t until college that Brooke Schieffer ’12, co-captain of the Vassar women’s fencing team, was introduced to the sport of fencing.

Having grown up and attended high school in Sioux Fall, S.D. Schieffer jokes, “The only fencing we have is barbed wired.”

Schieffer’s first encounter with fencing was in Fencing Fundamentals class during her freshman year. Assistant Coach Eric Soyka taught the class and encouraged Schieffer to join the team, she recalled.

“The fencing team really encourages walkons,” said Schieffer, “and when I did, they had me start on sabre, which is funny because I didn’t like it at first.” Now Schieffer admits she can’t imagine being anything other than a sabreur.

Now the women’s co-captain, alongside foil squad leader Alia Heintz ’12, Schieffer said that her main goal this season is to be a good coach to her teammates.

“We take videos of matches,” shared Schieffer, a smile crossing her face, “and in every match that I’m not in, you can hear me yelling and cheering on my teammate.” Schieffer continued, “It’s especially important as a first year to have someone there to guide you. I was lucky enough to have that; and I want to be that for my teammates.”

Schieffer’s leadership is not just limited to vocal encouragement; she has also led by example in her senior year. At the Matt Lampell Hudson Valley Fencing Invitational on Nov. 21, won by Vassar, Schieffer posted a perfect 17-0 record, the only undefeated performance for the team.

Having graduated three seniors last season, “The team is very fresh this year,” said Schieffer, explaining that the three seniors who graduated had helped lead the team to a 31-7 record (the best in Vassar’s history) last season; and this season there are four freshman and two sophomore walk-ons to fill their places. Consequently, the sabre and foil squads lack the same level of experience, but Scheiffer remains hopeful.

Brooke Schieffer ’12, captain and sabre squad leader for the women’s fencing team, first encountered the sport during the Fencing Fundamentals class she took during her freshman year at Vassar.

To improve the team’s athleticism, Schieffer and her co-captains on the women and men’s teams have instituted additional sessions of conditioning and mandatory weightlifting. “But we do it with a smile and have some fun with it,” added Schieffer. Having fun while working hard seems to be Scheiffer’s philosophy. While she observed that weightlifting gets the team in shape, she feels it’s more important that it provides the team, with its many new faces, a chance to get to know each other outside of formal practices.

“It didn’t take us long to get acclimated to one another,” said Scheiffer. “We get along

great and the freshman and walk-ons were incorporated very easily.” Schieffer described the teams as “very laid back with an easy-going atmosphere,” adding, “we’re that team at tournaments: hanging out and joking. We’re a fun group.”

The team has had the same easy-going, fun character since she joined her sophomore year, according to Schieffer. Now as a captain, it’s been Schieffer and her co-captain’s initiative to preserve that dynamic while working towards further individual and team improvement.

“While fencing is an individual sport,” explained Scheiffer, “it’s also a team sport in that

you can help coach, call time outs and give your teammates advice during their match.” While on the road, it is especially helpful to have teammate support, said Schieffer, as volunteer assistant coaches rarely travel to away meets.

“Sabre doesn’t even have an assistant coach,” said Schieffer, smiling. “I joke that it’s the black sheep.” For this reason, Schieffer asserted that it’s especially important to have teammates present at individual matches.

This past weekend, the Vassar fencing team headed to a team tournament at Penn State University where they faced off against big names including New York University, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of North Carolina, Temple University and the host university. Scheiffer concedes that most of Vassar’s women fencers don’t match up against their competitors, some of whom are NCAA Division champions. But Schieffer optimistically stated that the opportunity provided “the best fencing of our lives.” She explained that when competitors’ expectations are low, Vassar has a chance at an upset. “You do have a chance to beat these fencers, but you have to be on your game,” noted Schieffer. Schieffer also added that the tournaments provides preparation for NCAA Regionals in the spring. “Plus, it’s good team bonding having to travel together on a bus,” she said.

Speaking to her expectations for the women’s sabre squad, Schieffer explained that the roster isn’t quite at full strength. Hallie Stotler ’14 is currently sidelined with tendinitis. Alana McGraw ’15 and Rachelle Brown ’13 (walk-on) make up the squad’s newcomers, while Stotler, Schieffer and Tracy Bratt ’13 are the only returning players. “But [McGraw] and [Brown] have won a bout at every competition they’ve been at which is really good,” said Schieffer, whose hopes for the squad’s success remain high.

In a transition period of maturation, expectations for recapturing the Northeast Championship title a second year in a row are low.

But Schieffer remains optimistic, dedicated to coaching her teammates and helping to establish a foundation for Vassar women’s fencing to earn a championship title once again.

Oklahoma City Thunder building dynasty ‘right way’ Sam Scarritt-Selman Columnist

L

ike that of any other sport, the edifice of basketball’s mythology is built upon a foundation of necessary truths. To name a few, there are the notions that an offense is predicated upon selflessness and trust, that defense critically requires a mindset of tenacity and heart, and that the small and intangible factors that collectively constitute a team’s identity bear on the quality of play on the court. All of such principles jointly make up “the right way” to play the game.

However, these axioms are more than just a blueprint for success within the sport: They provide the basis for what one is suppose to value in the sport and ask of the sport. See, the modern sports fan is far more sophisticated than people are willing to recognize when it comes to interpreting the nuanced subtleties of the “spirit of the game.” We want more than simply titillation and theatrics. We want hustle to be rewarded. We want finesse to be functional. We want love of the game to emanate throughout each participant and to resonate through the rafters. We internalize the game both at an aesthetic and an ethical level, and we take notice when an inviolable rule is contravened.

After finally resolving an infuriatingly intractable and unjustifiably protracted lockout, the NBA will begin a truncated 66-game season on Christmas Day. However, though the mere fact that basketball is back gives us reason to rejoice, the sport remains in a precarious position. When we look at why the lockout occurred in the first place, we see that one main reason was that, too often, the foundational ideals of basketball were being ignored. There were too many bad contracts given to undeserving players on poorly constructed teams, money was recklessly spent for the sake of spending and the burdensome weight of this systemic practice eventually made the financial situation of

the league untenable. Teams like the Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards all doled out vast portions of their cap space to subpar players in order to send a message that they were “committed to winning,” regardless of whether or not these personnel decisions served their interest with respect to either financial flexibility or on-court quality.

This problem is rooted not in basketball-related income nor any other item that can be teased out of the new collective bargaining agreement, but rather in a widespread incompetence when it comes to applying the ideals of the sport to the composition of an NBA franchise.

For this reason, the Oklahoma City Thunder are one of the most important basketball teams to watch this season, for they embody so much of what we hope can be true of the game. In a league where power hierarchies are typically consonant with the largest media markets, the Thunder have quickly risen to the top of the NBA elite, improving from 23-59 in 2008 to 5527 last season and a trip to the Western Conference Finals last year. Yet the rapidity of the Thunder’s ascendency does not give due justice to the remarkable growth and maturation that the team has undergone over the span of three years, because focusing on how quickly the team went from laughably bad to unquestionably dominant makes it seem in some way accidental or, at least, surprising. The truth is that everything about the Thunder’s recent success should make sense, because it’s all part of the plan to build a competitive team from scratch rather than through high-priced free agency.

From management to the coaching staff to the players, what we have in the Thunder is an entity wholly dedicated to doing things the “right way.” It’s a smartly run franchise that makes the rest of the league seem oafish and uncreative by contrast. The team is the brainchild of General Manager Sam Presti, a bookish graduate of Emerson College who, after cutting

his teeth in the San Antonio Spurs front office, took over the Thunder franchise in 2007 and immediately began implementing his vision of a sustainable model for a successful basketball team. Unlike many of their foes, the Thunder have built their team through the draft, taking 2010-2011 NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant second overall in 2007, and All-Star Russell Westbrook fourth overall in 2008. Presti runs the organization with precision and ingenuity, drafting wisely, making shrewd trades and pragmatically handling the team’s finances.

The risks that he’s taken—drafting Congolese power forward Serge Ibaka or trading for center Kendrick Perkins, who was just returning from major knee surgery—have all been calculated moves and, unsurprisingly, have all paid off. Further, the Thunder teams of the last few years have always had a balance of seasoned, dependable veterans that, by virtue of their perspective, facilitate the development of the younger players on the team. All of this seems like conventional wisdom for how a franchise should be run, but Presti seems to be the only one in the league fully applying it. In his stewardship of the Thunder, Presti has not done anything revolutionary, but has simply embraced basketball’s ideals and avoided making mistakes.

Beyond being a well-run organization, the Thunder is a fun team to watch. This starts with Durant, the Thunder’s 6’11” small forward and franchise cornerstone. One of the most dynamic scorers in the league, Durant is a phenomenal talent, at times unguardable, yet he’s also one of the few people in the league who can score 30 points a game without ever seeming to hog the ball because every aspect of his game is subordinated by an overall commitment to team success. On the court, Durant exudes both an undeniable love of the game and a tireless competitiveness that makes him the team’s emotional leader. Additionally, Durant has gained a reputation as the league’s

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

authentically humble superstar, and he has the unqualified respect of his peers, the media and fans. Westbrook, the Thunder’s point guard and second in command, went from being an unheralded player in high school to, now, one of the most explosive point guards in the history of the league. Westbrook plays the game with such intensity that, just by watching him, you can tell how hard he has worked to get to where he is today. Every game he empties the tank, and he takes the game personally. Behind their two superstars, the roster is filled out with players who not only know their role within the team, but who relish doing the little things that add up to success. The Thunder players are testaments to what basketball should be.

This is why the Thunder are so crucial to basketball, now and for the forseeable future.

So long as the team remains the prototype of what an NBA team should be, their success paves a path of praxis that makes me optimistic that the gulf between basketball the ideal and basketball realized might soon be forded. We are currently in a league where the Los Angeles Lakers are making an aggressive push to land superstars Chris Paul and Dwight Howard via trade rather than put in the work to internally fix their already talented team; and the Miami Heat, after already assembling a core of superstars last season, seeks to add even more talent by hoping enough quality veterans decide to take a pay cut to play for a winner. Too many teams are trying to take the easy way out, grabbing assets rather than growing assets—and, if this approach proves successful, it will undoubtedly become the norm. The NBA needs the Thunder to be successful because the Thunder prove that “the right way” still works.

The mantra among Thunder players and personnel is “Every day, get better”; and, when an organization commits itself to constant improvement in this way, it doesn’t take long for an organization to dramatically improve its circumstances.

SPORTS

Page 20

December 8, 2011

Brown, seniors key in women’s basketball turnaround Corey Cohn

Sports Editor

I

Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

n two short seasons, the Vassar College women’s basketball team made remarkable strides, transforming the Brewers from perennial Liberty League cellar-dwellers to 2010-11 conference champions. Now one of the exemplary programs in the Athletics Department, the team foresees continued growth in the future and will not settle into complacency.

After a 2008-09 season that saw the Brewers finish 4-21­—their lowest win total in 22 years and the sixth straight season in which they finished seventh or eighth in the Liberty League— Vassar hired new Head Coach Candice Brown.

Brown, who had previously helped the Manhattanville College women’s basketball team double their win total from nine to 18 in two seasons, had a core set of objectives in mind when she arrived in Poughkeepsie.

“My goals were to stay in games, be competitive, win more Liberty League games, teach [the team] how to win and to change the culture,” Brown recalled. She added that she did not expect to witness such a rapid rate of improvement. “The program was definitely headed in the right direction, but there was a lot more to accomplish,” she said. “I thought we definitely would be able to accomplish those successes, but I didn’t expect to win the Liberty League Championship in two years.”

Captain Brittany Parks ’12 and Kristyn Tempora ’12 were freshmen during the difficult 2008-09 campaign, and both said that their decision to come to Vassar was influenced by the opportunity to help build a winning team. “I was recruited with the hope of turning the program around over four years,” Tempora said.

Parks commented that the 2009-10 season, which saw the Brewers finish 9-15, was difficult but that Brown had an immediate impact.

“She came in with the mindset that if we’re going to work this hard, we’re going to have a better year,” Parks said.

Although Brown refused to say she was satisfied with the results from her first year as head coach, she remembered believing that the Brewers’ fifth-place conference finish in 200910 would have earned them a bit more respect.

Above, a player for the women’s basketball team defends the ball in a recent match. Coming off of a Liberty League Championship last season, the Brewers hope to generate the same success this season.

However, when the pre-season coaches’ poll came out prior to the beginning of the 201011 season, the results had Vassar slated to finish seventh in the Liberty League. “I definitely think we all used that as motivation,” Brown said. “To finish fifth the previous year and then be voted seventh was a slap in the face.”

Parks agreed, recounting that Brown hung the poll results on each player’s locker. She said this, along with the inexperienced roster (Parks and Captain Carolyn Crampton ’11 were the lone junior and senior, respectively, on the Brewers), did little to shake the team’s confidence. “Though we were young and picked to finish seventh, in our minds we knew we were a good basketball team and could do better in the Liberty League,” she stated.

In hindsight, that was an understatement.

The Brewers went on to have their best season

in program history, finishing with 16 wins (the most since the 2000-01 season) and capturing their first-ever Liberty League Championship.

Parks and her teammates were quick to credit Brown for the historic year. “We worked hard from the get-go,” Parks said. “[Brown] has very specific goals each year.”

Anielle Fredman ’13 praised her coach’s ability to facilitate team chemistry. “I’m always amazed at the unity this team has,” she said.

“We all get along so well.” Fredman confidently asserted, “Something [Brown] is doing is pulling us all together.”

Parks claimed, “Basketball is [Brown’s] life,” but added that her coach understands the importance of essential off-court elements. She went on to say that although the players are all individually motivated, Brown has a way of unifying their spirit. “She takes the passion

we all have and brings it out in games,” Parks noted.

Brown in turn credited the players for the team’s accomplishments last year. In particular, she referenced Crampton and Parks, who together provided the experienced guidance necessary for such a young squad. “The team piggybacked on that [leadership],” she said.

Parks commented on the responsibilities she assumed as one of the few older members of the team. “There are always ‘freshman things’—in-game mistakes are going to happen,” she said. “The few upperclassmen have to be there in times of need.”

One freshman who seemed to make very few mistakes last year, however, was new Captain Cydni Matsuoka ’14, last year’s D3Hoops. com National Rookie of the Year. Tempora commented on Matsuoka’s composure, saying, “She has a way of commanding respect. I look up to her, even though she’s two years younger than me.”

Parks said the younger players as a whole met the pressures of last season in stride: “There were a lot of tight situations—sometimes they handled it better than [the older players].”

It is up to the returning players to send the six incoming freshmen the team-wide message for this season: The Brewers are back for more. “The standards are much higher,” Parks affirmed. Brown stressed the need to finish in the top four of the Liberty League, in order to qualify for the conference playoffs, but Parks took it one step further, saying they want to host a tournament game this time around, which would require finishing first or second.

The expectations for the Brewers have certainly changed since last year—the pre-season coaches’ poll ranked Vassar second in the Liberty League—but the players emphasized their need to remain grounded. Parks wants the team to maintain its underdog mentality. “We don’t need the best of the best—just the hardest working,” she explained. Guard Ali Higgins ’13, another member of last year’s championship squad, wholeheartedly agreed. “[Last season] we unquestionably had one heart,” she said. “Hopefully it’s the same this year.”

Brewers wrap first semester action, prepare for road ahead Andy Marmer Sports Editor

W

Jacob Gorski/The Miscellany News

ith Winter Break approaching, many of Vassar’s teams played their final games of the semester this past week.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams each wrapped up play for the first half of the year. Both teams finished fifth out of eight teams at the Liberty League Championships on Dec. 3.

The women’s team finished with 361 points, just 10 shy of fourth place Union College. Caroline Shannon ’12 led the squad, finishing second in the 400 IM, setting a new school record (4:41.50) in the process. Shannon also finished second in the 200 breaststroke (2:31.18) and 200 IM (2:12.79) and third in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.54).

The men’s team also narrowly missed finishing fourth with 292.5 points, just behind Rochester Institute of Technology’s 299 points. Jack Smart ’12 keyed the Brewers’ efforts, recording four top-10 finishes. Smart finished second in the 200 breaststroke (2:13.67), fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.21), sixth in the 200 IM (2:01.65) and seventh in the 400 IM (4:26.56).

The University of Rochester won both the men’s and women’s championships.

Men’s basketball still has one more contest prior to break; however, with Liberty League play on the horizon, the team has had a number of tune-up games prior to break. On Nov. 30, the team was overcome by cross-river rival State University of New York New Paltz 83-70 despite 27 points from Sam Rappaport ’14. The sophomore sniper was 10-20 from the field and 5-11 from beyond the arc, in just 23 minutes off the bench, but his strong performance was not enough to overcome the Hawks.

The team was able to rebound the next Saturday, Dec. 3, shellacking Sarah Lawrence College 79-13. The Brewers held their opponents to just six first-half points, jumping out to a 59-6 lead. In the first half, the Brewers walloped

Sarah Lawrence on both sides of the court, shooting 58 percent (23-40) from the field, while holding Sarah Lawrence to just 6 percent (2-29) shooting. 14 of 15 Brewers scored in the contest, with Johnny Mrlik ’15 leading the way with 13 points.

Against City College of New York (CCNY) on Dec. 6, the Brewers continued their winning ways. Mrlik had a career-high 23 points and 10 rebounds on 7-9 shooting. Alex Snyder ’15 also turned in a strong performance with 18 points and nine rebounds. The Brewers busted the game open with a 16-3 run in the first half, keyed by 11 points from Mrlik. The victory over the only team to capture a NCAA Championship and an NIT Title in the same year (1950) improves the Brewers to 4-2 on the year.

The women’s basketball team also has one game remaining prior to break. On Nov. 30, they handled Drew University 70-42 with 18 points from Captain Brittany Parks ’12 and 17 points from Captain Cydni Matsuoka ’14. Nyah Berg ’15 contributed 12 points, while Colleen O’Connell ’15 chipped in nine points and 16 rebounds. The Brewers held a 33-25 halftime lead, with Matsuoka scoring all 17 of her points in the first frame; however, it was Vassar’s suffocating defense that sealed the win. The Brewers held Drew to just 19 percent shooting in the second half (7-36), outscoring their foes 37-17.

Vassar improved to a perfect 5-0 with a 6967 victory over Hunter College on Dec. 6. The Brewers jumped out to an early 28-19 lead, but went into the lockerroom trailing by 3 after being outscored 20-8 to end the half. The game remained close with neither team holding more than a five-point lead with under 15 minutes remaining. After a Matsuoka jumper tied the game at 64 with 2:35 remaining, three free throws gave Hunter the lead back. Matsuoka cut the Vassar deficit to one with 1:24 remaining and then gave Vassar a 68-67 lead with 33 seconds to play, after a steal with 37 seconds

Above, members from the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams go for a practice swim in the pool. Both teams finished fifth out of eight teams at the Liberty League Chapionships on Dec. 3. left in the contest. Hunter had one last chance to win, but Kristyn Tempora ’12 secured the defensive board with eight seconds remaining, and drained a free throw to give Vassar the final 69-67 margin.

The men’s and women’s squash team each finished the fall semester this past week with a series of contests against some of the nation’s top programs. On Nov. 30, the men’s team was overcome 9-0 by No. 21 Amherst College. Two days later, No. 27 Tufts University achieved the same result. On Dec. 4, No. 18 Bowdoin College and No. 22 Connecticut College each swept the Brewers 9-0.

After starting the season 4-0, the women’s squash team suffered their first defeat of the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

year to Amherst on Nov. 30. The No. 15 ranked Lord Jeffs swept the No. 22 ranked Brewers.

Vassar competed twice more on Dec. 4, dropping contests to No. 20 Bowdoin, 9-0 and No. 24 Connecticut College, 5-4.

The men’s and women’s fencing team visited Penn State University for contests against the University of North Carolina, Penn State, Princeton University, Harvard University and New York University, while the women additionally faced Temple University. Against some of the nation’s finest fencing programs the Brewers endured a tough meet, losing all nine matches.

Katie LeClair ’13 led the women’s team, going 11-6 on the day. The men’s squad was led by Tavish Pegram ’13 with a 9-3 record.