The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com
February 24, 2011
Volume CXLIV | Issue 16
Hill to hold spring panel discussions
Kitzinger to resign from post as dean Molly Turpin
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Aashim Usgaonkar News Editor
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Juliana Halpert/The Miscellany News
his spring, President of the College Catharine Bond Hill will host a series of panel discussions entitled “Vassar Today” in place of the town hall meetings that were hosted in the fall. Various aspects of the College—including finances, the curriculum and dining—will be discussed at length by relevant administrators and faculty at regular intervals throughout the semester. There are five panels in all: Financial Aid and Access; Academics and the Curriculum; Campus Planning and Renovations; Campus Dining, Health and Wellness; and Vassar and the Current Economy. The dates of the panels have not yet been decided, and are contingent on the panelists’ schedules. “Because we structure town halls by dorm, the discussions are a bit scattered—every student has a different question. So conversations go from classes to dining to the economy, and there’s never really a synthesized exploration of one central topic,” said Vassar Student Association Vice President for Operations Ruby Cramer ’12 while explaining the need for such panels. “Panels are great because you can host them in a central location, [they are] accessible to everyone and the discussion is focused on one issue, which you can really delve into,” she added. Both Cramer and Hill agreed that the fall’s Town Hall meetings were successful, but that panels would be See PANELS on page 4
Students will be performing in a production of “Playground: the Hallie Flanagan Project” next week from March 1-3. The play was commissioned for the sesquicentennial.
Guest Reporter
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Emma Daniels
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Reporter
assar’s Drama Department is renowned far and wide for its emphasis on experimental theater, innovative directing, top-flight acting and whole lot of risk taking. Hallie Flanagan, a noted professor of drama during
findings of the study are largely consistent with Vassar. Dean of Freshmen Benjamin Lotto explained the challenges faced by first year students: “The most difficult issues facing first year students fall under the general category of ‘transition to college.’ Students arriving here are joining a new community in multiple dimensions—academic, social and other—and leave behind the support systems of family, friends and teachers that they have been a part of up to that moment.” But he remained optimistic about the ability of the majority of students to overcome these obstacles successfully. He noted, “A small number of students struggle in one way or another, and many offices on campus—the Dean of Freshmen office, the Learning, Teaching and Research Center, the house teams, Counseling Services, Health Services and so on—seek to provide support to these students so that they can overcome their struggles and realize their full academic potential at Vassar.” It was these services that are in See STRESS on page 8
Inside this issue
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FEATURES
rofessor of Greek and Roman Studies and Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs Rachel Kitzinger will resign from her post as dean at the end of the academic year. Kitzinger is the first to hold the Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs position since the office’s creation in 2007, so her resignation marks its first moment of turnover. “It was sort of a sequence of decisions,” said Kitzinger of what led her to her final decision. “When I accepted the position in 2007, I told [President Catharine Bond Hill] that I wanted to the possibility of reevaluating it after three years because at that point I was going to be eligible for phased retirement through my faculty position. And I thought that that would be good for her in case she felt that she needed a change and good for me because this was such an unknown posi-
tion.” Kitzinger explained that the College created the office in recognition of two main concerns: an overwhelmingly large portfolio of responsibilities for the Office of the Dean of the Faculty and the lack of a position dedicated to long-term planning. With these in mind, the office came to be defined by a diverse set of responsibilities, including oversight of Vassar’s libraries, the athletics department, the Wimpfheimer Nursery School and Infant Toddler Center, the Francis Lehman Loeb Art Center, the Offices of Admissions and Financial Aid, the grants office, and the Office of Institutional Research. In concert with the Vice President for Finance and Administration, the Dean of Planning and Academic Affairs considers the long-term goals of the College, such as deferred maintenance projects and capital improvements, and, since the See KITZINGER on page 4
Vassar fashion still makes a statement
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OPINIONS
the 1920s, is largely responsible for this reputation. She is the legendary professor credited with conceptualizing and coining the term experimental theater. In addition to her influences on Vassar’s campus, Flanagan has also been recognized for “Living Newspaper” productions done through the WPA Federal Theater Project. The performances used theater as a medium to present factual information on current events to audiences. In honor of the sesquicentennial, the Drama Department’s first show this year will focus on Flanagan through its production of the experimental show “Playground: the Hallie Flanagan Proj See PLAYGROUND on page 16
Jillian Scharr
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Features Editor
ast Friday’s fatal shooting at the Poughkeepsie Train Station is just the latest in a trend of gun violence that has plagued Poughkeepsie in recent years. On Feb. 18, Catskill residents Lee Welch, 27, and Jessica Welch, 28, were in Poughkeepsie to exchange a vehicle, according to The Poughkeepsie Journal. At 1:07 p.m. gunfire near the train station on lower Main Street was reported to the police. According to police reports, an argument arose between the husband and wife,
and he shot her as they sat in their car. Poughkeepsie Police Officer John Falcone was one of several officers who responded to the call. They arrived on the scene to discover Welch holding a gun and his three-year-old daughter. Police demanded that Welch drop his weapon, but a confrontation erupted, in which Welch shot Falcone in the head and then shot himself. The daughter was unharmed. Officer Falcone later died in surgery at Vassar Brothers Medical Center, reported the Journal See VIOLENCE on page 8
Courtesy of timesunion.com
merica’s college freshmen have never felt so stressed, according to a recent article in The New York Times (“Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen,” Jan. 26 2011). According to the Times, the results of the “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2010” survey administered by the Higher Education Research Institute indicate that the number of freshman who reported themselves as “below average in emotional health” has hit its highest point since 1985, the first year the survey was given. The article listed several suggestions as to the causes of this decline in mental health, namely the additional pressure added by the financial crisis and the self-generated pressure students place on themselves to succeed. In light of Vassar College’s recent Committee on Inclusion and Excellence’s report that students feel a “tension between the pursuit of balance and wellbeing, and formal markers of success,” it would appear that
Editor in Chief
Ode to experimental Latest gun violence theater takes the stage part of local pattern
Stress levels on the rise for college freshmen Jessica Tarantine
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
Last Friday’s shooting at the Poughkeepsie Train Station, which left three dead, incuding Poughkeepsie Police Officer John Falcone, is part of a local pattern of rising gun violence in recent years. City officials say the violence is largely drug-related.
Time to address domestic violence in Poughkeepsie
14 ARTS
Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black to lecture