Volume CXLVI, Issue 16

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The Miscellany News

Volume CXLVI | Issue 16

February 28, 2013

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Plagiarism GILLIBRAND TO GIVE 149th Basketball occupies COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS concludes gray area A rising star in national politics, Gillibrand will be the top season first US senator to speak on graduation hill Chris Gonzalez FeatuRes editoR

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Amreen Bhasin

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David Rosenkranz and Bethan Johnson

editoR-iN-CHieF aNd News editoR

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n Sunday May 26, New York State Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will deliver the 149th Commencement Address. She will be the first senator to give the keynote speech at Vassar, joining the ranks of such affluent commencement speakers as Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee and Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg. “I am excited to hear her speak,” wrote Class of 2013 President Vincent Marchetta in an emailed statement. “I do believe that her work... [resonates] with Vassar values, and as a firm supporter of the LGBTQ community she is in that regard especially appropriate for our campus this year.” Gillibrand began her political career as a student intern in the Albany office of Republican Senator Alfonse D’Amato. In 1991, she earned a law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles; and took a short break from politics to work as a law clerk in the US Court of Appeals’ Second Circuit, and as an attorney with Davis, Polk & Wardwell. See SENATOR on page 3

courtesy of the New York Senate

n the surface, plagiarism is the act of stealing another individual’s ideas and claiming them as as your own without properly crediting them. Sometimes this results from a miniscule mistake, such as forgetting to use quotation marks, to larger, more extreme cases in which complete texts are recycled. Still, no matter how small the error, the College feels strongly about bringing these cases to the light, and issuing the proper consequences. Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics Zosia Krusberg understands the stress that would push a student to cheat; however, she feels that this extends beyond the classroom. In an emailed statement she wrote, “We find ourselves in a culture that makes tremendous allowances for financial, political, and ethical dishonesty, often to further individual success over the wellbeing of our communities. Within that context, it is unsurprising that dishonesty also permeates the realm of higher education. Our students feel tremendous pressure to get high GPAs, to get accepted to the best graduate schools, and to See PLAGIARISM on page 8

Gillibrand has quickly leapt into the national spotlight after two successful terms in the House of Representatives, and a record-breaking senatorial campaign.

RepoRteR

he Vassar College Women’s Basketball team has enjoyed incredible success over the past few years, and this one was no different. They finished this year’s season with an impressive 21-5 record and went 13-3 in Liberty League play for the 2012-2013 season. The Brewers also won the regular season Liberty League title this year, an honor that has eluded them for some time despite winning the Liberty League Championship for the past two years. They began this year’s tournament with a bye for the first round and hosted the tournament semifinals against William Smith. The Brewer women were given the number one seed in the tournament before their historic season ended with a disappointing 69-58 loss to No. Four seeded William Smith. This season was historic in many ways for the Brewers. While they were not able to cap off the season with an NCAA berth and Liberty League Championship, they still had the best regular season record in program history as well as the best in the conference. The women’s basketball team See WOMEN’S B-BALL on page 18

NSO’s NonCon brings VRDT to grace historic Bardavon nerd culture to College The thirteenth annual convention broke attendance records Eloy Bleifuss Prados and Anna Iovine

Inside this issue

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FEATURES

Did you know that Scrabble was invented in Poughkeepsie?

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courtesy of Rachel Garbade

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RepoRteR aNd Guest RepoRteR

ttendance at the thirteenth annual No Such Convention (NonCon) last weekend more than doubled from estimations for last year’s convention. Hosted by Vassar’s No Such Organization (NSO), a science fiction, fantasy, video game interest club, the three-day celebration of pop culture fandoms drew an estimated 500 attendees, compared to last year’s 200 in attendance. Other areas of NonCon also witnessed expansion this year. There were over 40 hours of programming with invited speakers, artists and comedians presenting and performing on topics relating to Fandoms. Guests and NSO members taught workshops on a diverse set of skills ranging from speculative writing on the internet and henna to belly dancing and chainmail linking. Attendees also had the opportunity to participate in video game tournaments, costume contests and Live Action Role Playing, or LARPing. These tournaments included Street Fighter versus Tekken, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Super Smash Brothers Brawl,

Halo 4 and Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3. Additionally, games included Pokemon Jeopardy and Fandom Deathmatch. NSO screened the films, The Gamers and Adolescence of Utena, and the Saturday morning cartoons, X-Men: Evolution. The convention also saw a high number of table vendors in the College Center. Wrote NSO’s Cultural Attaché Zach Bodnar ’15 in an emailed statement, “All told, we had about 40 tables worth of vendors selling all sorts of geeky things; enough tables to fill both the college atrium and much of the second floor!” According to the organizers, NSO began publicizing with a strong Web presence this year, but word-ofmouth buzz has been credited for the swelling turnout. Attendees arrived from local high schools, colleges nearby like Marist and Dutchess Community, and out of state schools like Mount Holyoke and Western Connecticut State University. Registration for three-day passes cost $15, but college and high school students, who were the vast majority of attendants, gained free passes See NONCON on page 4

This year’s VRDT Bardavon Gala will feature guest director Brian Reeder, who has been a part of three prestigious dance companies, including the New York City Ballet, the William Forsytheís Ballet Frankfurt, and the Sacramento Ballet. Jack Owen aRts editoR

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ntering its 31st anniversary, the Vassar Repertory Dance Theatre’s (VRDT) annual Bardavon Gala will feature, as in years past, a mix of performances of works by Vassar’s highly regarded faculty, renowned guest choreographers, and students. There are two performances, one on Saturday March 2nd at 8 PM and one on Sunday March 3rd at 3 PM. In recent years, VRDT has not only performed pieces by well-

OPINIONS

Staff Editorial: campus introspection must continue post-WBC

known guest choreographers, such as Edwaard Liang, Larry Keigwin, Donald McKayle, and Miriam Mahdaviani, but has actually begun to work with these choreographers directly. Choreographers work with students on one of their original pieces, and the piece is then showcased at the Bardavon Gala. Students will perform original pieces by Assistant Director of VRDT and Senior Lecturer in Drama Katherine Wildberger, Resident Choreographer and Chair of Dance Stephen Rooks, Faculty Choreog-

16 ARTS

rapher and Adjunct Instructor in Dance Abby Saxon, and Professor of Dance and Director of VRDT John Meehan. The company will reprise Guest Choreographer Zvi Gotheiner’s piece “Chairs” and premier a new piece by Guest Choreographer Brian Reeder, titled “Nurse.” Nine student-choreographed pieces will be performed as well. But what sets this year’s gala apart from past years is that one of the guest choreographers, Brian Reeder, has taken on a larger role, and is See VRDT on page 14

An Art History professor with an unusual background


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