The Miscellany News, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21 (April 25, 2013)

The Miscellany News

Volume CXLVI | Issue 21

April 25, 2013

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

ALANA hosts concert to celebrate diversity Ben Hoffman and Liz Zhou Guest reporters

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High voter turnout for Exec Board Hannah Blume

ContriButinG editor

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Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

onsidered one of the major event organized and executed by the ALANA Center, the annual ALANA Jam took place on the Fergusson Quad on Sunday April 21, bringing in a diverse group of artists and local food caterers on campus. The five-hour event invited and attracted students and community members of different ethnicities, cultures and values to celebrate diversity and cultural expression.

The ALANA Jam was first proposed by the executive board of Poder Latino, a student organization dedicated to promoting Latino/a culture three years ago.

When asked about why it wanted to create such an event, president of Poder Latino Fernanda Martinez ’14 said it was spurred by student interest. Martinez explained in an emailed statement, “It is essentially an event planned by students for students. I think the purpose of ALANA Jam is to showcase the ALANA Center and its organizations, and make sure our presence is felt by the Vassar community.”

The idea of celebrating minority cultures in the Vassar community was quickly hailed by other ALANA Center affiliated organizations.

Media Chair of the Asian Student See ALANA on page 4

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Las Cafeteras, featured above, from Veracruz, Mexico performs at the annual ALANA Jam. The student-organized event was created three years ago to give a voice to minority cultures through food and performances at Vassar.

ast Wednesday, April 17, students crowded into the Retreat to hear VSA Election Co-Chairs Devin Griffin ’13 and Clayton Masterman ’13 announce this year’s results. Many of the big races were not a surprise, as four of the six candidates for Executive positions ran uncontested. These included Deb Steinberg ’14 for President, Genesis Hernandez ’15 for VP for Student Life, Ali Ehrlich ’15 for VP for Operations and Stephanie Goldberg ’14 for Activities. Shruti Manian ’14 won the position of VP for Academics over Spencer Virtue ’16 and Michael Renner ’14. Michael Kaluzny ’14 won VP for Finance over Wendel Smith 14’ and Cheniah Deane ’16.

The number of unopposed races this year was unusually high. Griffin attributed this to the daunting time commitment and sense of competition. “A lot of these positions are hard work and don’t necessarily attract a huge number of people who want to do them,” he wrote in an emailed statement.

He continued, “Second, I think that people here tend to avoid competition and uncertainty—if there’s already someSee VSA on page 4

VC track Illuminated balloons to sail May Day sprinting across, light up Sunset Lake emphasizes to finals I community Margaret Yap reporter

Meaghan Hughes sports editor

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Inside this issue

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FEATURES

A look into one senior’s messy research

to the event and pick up the balloons, moving them from one part of the lake to another. As of now, approximately ten performance groups will be involved in Kramer’s project. Entertainment will most likely include a cappella music and the dexterity of The Barefoot Monkeys, Vassar’s student-run circus group.

Kramer, who has been working on this project since the beginning See BALLOONS on page 15

Spencer Davis/The Miscellany News

he end of a season is a true test of a team’s ability to come together as a cohesive unit, which is especially important for sports with individual events, like track.

Last weekend the team had home field advantage when five other colleges came to compete in men’s and women’s Liberty League Championships.

Going into the meet, the Brewers had a lot to prove. The program is smaller in numbers and younger than those of their competitors.

Sophomore Brian Deer admitted that this put some added pressure on the team. “Our team goals for Liberty Leagues were really to show up, score points, and show the league...that we have what it takes to be contenders,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “To accomplish this, we had a good amount of athletes doing different events than they usually do, or doing more events than they normally would.

The coaches put people in events based on their chances at scoring points, and I think we were largely successful.”

Sophomore Sean Majer described the strategic placement that helps to bring the team togethSee TRACK on page 18

magine approximately 1000 balloons floating on the surface of Sunset Lake. They have been inflated by an air compressor and they glow with different colors. LEDs reside within them, illuminating and coloring them. The sky has just grown dark, and Sunset Lake is now a collection of light.

If this appeals to you, you are in luck. Urban Studies Academic In-

tern Matthew Kramer ’13 has created for his senior project this interactive presentation. The event, titled Night Light, is currently scheduled for May 2 with a rain date of May 7. It will begin once it is dark and will continue until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., whereupon the balloons will be removed from the lake and disposed of.

As a study of art and community space, Night Light encourages community members to bring food

Matthew Kramer ’13, an Urban Studies major, will unveil his senior project on May 2. The project, titled “Night Light,” will place 1000 LED-filled balloons in Sunset Lake. The event will be accompanied by multiple performances.

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OPINIONS

Re-examining US diplomacy with North Korea

20 ARTS

Rachael Borné

ContriButinG editor

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ay Day has, for years, served as a powerful and public source of solidarity for workers, activist groups and students in the Hudson Valley, and this year’s march and rally is no different. On May 1, community members and organizers will unite in celebration of May Day under the theme ‘Legalize, Organize, Unionize!’ The event, also known as International Workers’ Day, has in recent years grown to represent the struggle for worker’s rights and justice for immigrants.

The events will begin with a rally on the Vassar College residential quad at 2 p.m., then a march to the Family Partnership Center located on North Hamilton Street at 3:30 p.m. Talks by speakers and tabling will continue until 7 p.m.

More than ever before, the May Day Coalition is working to unite myriad Hudson Valley social justice organizations under the idea that all their struggles are deeply related. The march and rally are meant to energize the work ongoing in the area, helping to pull more people together under a set of demands.

According to Spencer Resnick ’15, an organizer for local anti-foreclosure organization Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, “Our program had a lot to do with reaching out to existing struggles in the community, to existing organizations to lift up peoSee MAY DAY on page 6

Women’s Tennis sweeps through Seven Sisters

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The Miscellany News

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April 25, 2013

Editor-in-Chief

Bethan Johnson David Rosenkranz

Senior Editors Chris Gonzalez Steven Williams

Contributing Editors Hannah Blume Rachael Borné Adam Buchsbaum Aashim Usgaonkar

News Noble Ingram Bethan Johnson Features Chris Gonzalez Aja Saalfeld Marie Solis Opinions Angela Della Croce Lane Kisonak Joshua Sherman Humor & Satire Jean-Luc Bouchard Lily Doyle Arts Jack Owen Steven Williams Sports Christopher Brown Meaghan Hughes Photography Cassady Bergevin Spencer Davis Katie de Heras Design Palak Patel Aja Saalfeld Online Alessandra Seiter Copy Farah Aziz Assistant Features Eloy Bleifuss-Prados Assistant Sports Luka Laden Assistant Photo Jacob Heydorn Gorski Jiajing Sun Assistant Online Youngeun “Ellis” Kim Crossword Editor Jack Mullan Reporters Amreen Bhasin Charlacia Dent Anna Iovine John Plotz Carrie Plover Margaret Yap Columnists Zoe Dostal Luka Laden Zach Rippe Max Rook Jill Stein Juan Thompson Eli J. Vargas I Photography Jonah Bleckner Emily Lavieri-Scull Design Bethany Terry Online Victoria Bachurska Rachel Dorn Copy Sophia Gonsalves-Brown Jacob ParkerBurgard LETTERS POLICY The Miscellany News is Vassar College’s weekly open forum for discussion of campus, local and national issues, and welcomes letters and opinions submissions from all readers.

Letters to the Editor should not exceed 450 words, and they usually respond to a particular item or debate from the previous week’s issue. Opinions articles are longer pieces, up to 800 words, and take the form of a longer column. No letter or opinions article may be printed anonymously. If you are interested in contributing, e-mail misc@vassar.edu.

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April 25, 2013

NEWS

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VHP teach-in challenges idea of ‘developing’ nations Anna Iovine reporter

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Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

n Friday, April 19, the Vassar Haiti Project (VHP) and Amnesty International held a teach-in entitled “Making International Development Work?”. The event, attended by about forty people in the Rose Parlor, featured a panel of two alumni, Debbie Sharnak ’07 and Daniel Boscov-Ellen ’08, and two professors, Chair of the International Studies Department Tim Koechlin and Professor of Economics Sarah Pearlman.

Education Initiative Co-Director fro VHP, Tamsin Yee Lin Chen ’15, said the teach-in was meant to address the misunderstanding of what international development really is.

Despite VHP’s work with the village of Chermaitre, Haiti and the dialogues they exchange with village leaders, teachers, and members of the community there, questions about development still arise.

“We are aware that international development and assistance are extremely complex.

Over the years, we have come across many challenges ranging from looking critically at the concept of handouts to navigating different cultural topographies,” she said. “Questions without straightforward answers crop up very frequently within VHP, whether we’re looking at the types of non-profits we choose to associate with, deciding where to source food for the village school lunch program, or talking to the women of Chermaitre about their cottage industry ideas,” said Chen.

Because the topic of the teach-in was international, VHP members invited Amnesty International to work on the event as well. “Collaborating with Amnesty was a really positive experience for us,” Chen said.“Between divvying up logistics tasks and discussing the heavy questions of the teach-in together, I feel we formed a lasting connection between the two orgs that will hopefully lay the groundwork for more collaborations in the future.”

Member of Vassar’s chapter of Amnesty International Tzvetelina Garneva ’15 shared

Chen’s excitement over the collaboration: “VHP is filled with talented and dedicated individuals so it was clear from the start that they would treat such an important issue with care and a lot of effort, making it an educational joy to work with them.”

The two organizations were ambitious about what the teach-in could accomplish. Chen described the goal of the event. “[It was to] provide a casual and safe space to talk openly about how we struggle, as individuals and as organizations, with international development issues; bring in a diverse range of perspectives through our panelists; and build a better understanding of the nature of VHP’s and Amnesty’s work,” Chen said.

Garneva concurred, adding, “One of the goals of this teach-in was to understand how we each view international development but also, and more importantly, how our actions may differ from, support, or even go against our beliefs.”

VHP invited alumni Daniel Boscov-Ellen ‘08 and Ethan Katz ’08 after reading their critical analysis called “Justice for Haiti: Beyond Aid and Debt Forgiveness,” published on the Council of Hemispheric Affairs’ website. “We also looked for other alums with experience in think-tanks and NGOs through the online Alumnae/i Hub directory,” Chen said. “We approached Debbie Sharnak [’07] after her ‘Life After Vassar Q&A’ session held at Vassar, organized by the History department in March.”

Before the teach-in began, participants were able to read up on buzzwords like “microfinance” on individual vocabulary sheets provided on all the seats. Once the event began Medical Initiative Director of VHP, Annie Massa ’13, Oversight Secretary and Print Manager of VHP, Lanbo Yang, and Li Zhang ’13 introduced themselves and the panel.

The moderators then started asking the panel questions and encouraging audience participation. These questions included what the term “global citizen” really meant and how people working in NGOs and international development could cope with resistance from those in

The Vassar Haiti Project and Amnesty International teamed up to hold a teach-in on April 19. The event provided an open space for people to discuss issues concerning international development. so-called “developing” nations.

“The reality of the situation is that we came in with about 20 questions for our panelists and audience members but only touched upon the first few,” Garneva said. “Though this can be viewed as a failure, I believe it actually reveals why this event was a success. So many of the audience members were eager to share their stories and experiences with international development so as to try and understand their impact as a ‘global citizen,’ a much discussed term,” she continued.

After the panel dispersed, everyone was invited to form small groups and discuss ideas of development and “global citizenship.”

Chair of the International Studies Department and panelist at the teach-in, Tim Koechlin, also believed the event was a success. “One of my favorite things about my job and VC is

that there are lots of these sorts of conversations. [The] teach-in is an excellent case-inpoint,” he wrote in an emailed statement to VHP leaders.

Member of VHP’s Education Initiative, Rena Orgura ’16, agreed with Koechlin: “I think that the teach-in went wonderfully. I felt that everyone was so engaged and felt comfortable to express his/her own opinions and thoughts,” While the teach-in did not solve all problems concerning international development, VHP and Amnesty leaders concur that it was a positive experience.

“We may have only scratched the surface of international aid and its impact,” noted Garneva, “but we also found a group of people who are interested in discussing this issue further, making next year even more promising for these two clubs and for the Vassar community.”

Symposium critiques the new small school movement Noble Ingram neWs editor

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ast Thursday, April 18, the Education Department held an event titled the “Symposium on Educational Reform” in the Rockefeller Hall auditorium. The event was hosted by Professor of Education Maria Hantzopoulos and featured several speakers who co-wrote with her in 2012 a book titled Critical Small Schools.

Education author and Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania Michelle Fine joined the authors on the panel as a strong supporter of the critical small schools movement.

The symposium focused on the values of democratic education and the small schools movement that took place largely in the early to mid-90s.

At the beginning of the panel discussion, Hantzopoulos distinguished between the “Critical Small Schools Movement” and the Charter School movement that has since become popular among some education reformers.

According to Hantzopoulos, at the beginning of the small schools movement, reformers advocated for smaller class sizes, more dialogue between school administrations and the community, a strong culture of caring, and an environment of respect. Seeing the success of these small critical schools in recent years, education reformers have pushed for breaking up larger schools into smaller schools without paying equal attention to the other features these small successful schools offered. According to the speakers, the results showed that even with smalller classes, there was a continued focus on neo-liberal education involving high-stakes testing, accountability, and competition.

Hantzopoulos said in an emailed statement, “We (the panelists) really wanted to share counter stories of the struggles and possibilities that exist in urban public schools, especially because they are so demonized in mainstream discourses.”

She continued, “Related to this, we wanted to offer glimpses into how progressive, culturally relevant and socially just spaces come to be in public schools. So many of my students often

think that it is particularly challenging to enact this type of education in public schools because the larger neo-liberal forces dominating the educational agenda. While these forces certainly work to undermine the goals of critical small schools, we also wanted to bring hope and possibility to the conversation.”

Brielle Brook ’16, a student who attended the event, was enlightened by the possibilities the panel offered of public education offered up in the panel discussion. “Something that really captured my attention was the idea that communities and the teachers and families and neighbors in those communities can be so close-knit that their schooling is based on that, that a teacher can be so close with a community that they understand what the needs are of that community.”

Director of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Julian Williams attended the symposium and echoed this idea. “We have to try to tailor our teaching methods to the students and the community.”

The symposium allowed for each author to speak about the critical school that they studied and ended with a brief talk by Michelle Fine that added broader, more contextual ideas to the conversation.

In discussing the ways in which the critical small school system had been successful in the past, Hantzopoulos made clear that the focus was still on the future. “I also want to add that these stories are not meant to evoke nostalgia, but rather, catalyze those that want to change the direction of education to act in meaningful ways,” she wrote.

Overall, reactions to the symposium were positive. According to Brook, “I thought it was a great panel. It was very informative on something that I didn’t know much about.”

Brook continued, “I grew up in Long Island and I went to public school and I had never heard of this critical small schools thing. It’s so opposite to my experience which was so based on standardized testing and falling in line.”

This was a point that speaker Michelle Fine picked up on. At one point during the panel

discussion, Fine asked the audience how many students attended schools similar to the critical small schools that were profiled by the speakers. Those who raised their hands were in the overwhelming minority of the audience. Fine then asked those who didn’t raise their hands what things about their schools were different from those profiled. Audience members listed things including large classes, impersonal relations between teachers and students, and stricter security policies as things that differentiated their schools from the critical small schools featured in the discussion.

Williams appreciated this point, noting his own high school was also very different from anything the speakers discussed. He also agreed with Brook about the success of the event. “I thought it went really well. Because the panelists were so knowledgeable, I would have loved for there to have been more time for questions but I thought the format was good because you got to see so many different faces.”

One of the topics discussed concerning critical small schools was the concern that these schools would not prepare students for whatever came after high school. As Brook argued, “Let’s say you go to a school that is more like a critical small school and you don’t focus that much on standardized tests. You still have to take the SATs to get into college.”

Brook went further, speaking specifically on the subject of standardized testing- a common practice of the “new small school”. “While I don’t think it’s the best measure of ability at all, I would have never gotten to Vassar, which is a place that fosters thinking and learning how to think, if I hadn’t gone through the experience of getting a good SAT score and getting good AP scores.”

She continued, “You can be just as smart as someone who did all those tests, but you won’t be able to prove it.”

Speaking on the subject of the transition between certain high schools and colleges, Williams related these issues to Vassar. He discussed the the ways in which Vassar tries to handle the transition some students make from

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

schools that differ greatly from Vassar. In the symposium, the concern was focused on students graduating from critical small schools who would then go on to larger, more educationally traditional institutions. Williams noted that this concern was reversed for Vassar. “I think the students coming out of the schools that were talked about in the symposium would do well here. I think they would be attracted to a school like Vassar because of the approach we take to education.”

He continued, “Part of our challenge continues to be outreach to these communities to say ‘We want you here, you can get in here, and you would flourish here.’”

One of the methods Williams spoke of to achieve this goal is the Transitions Program offered by the college. This program is geared towards incoming freshmen who are coming to Vassar from a different or minority experience in high school and who might otherwise have difficult acclimating to Vassar.

The symposium also focused on the way in which the critical small schools movement was co-opted by corporations in order to produce schools that might be smaller but aren’t any more successful than larger schools. As Hantzopoulos wrote, “I hope that students can learn why these recent reforms have been so damaging to public schools, despite the mainstream and corporate media positive spin on them.”

Williams echoed this idea. “The unfortunate thing that the panelists kept bringing up was that because of the emphasis on testing now, the models [of education] that they researched are gone now.”

Hantzopoulos also made clear that this symposium and its large turn-out-the auditorium was full- were indicative of a growing demand for discourse on public education and educational reform here at Vassar.

She wrote, “I am thrilled to be able to continue these conversations across campus and I hope that Vassar students can help turn the harmful and punitive educational tides (the ones that focus on high stakes testing, privatization and zero-tolerance) around.”

NEWS

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News Briefs Anne Pike-Tay to speak at Spring Convocation

This spring’s guest speaker for convocation will be Professor of Anthropology Anne Pike-Tay. Convocation will take place on Wednesday, May 1 at 3:30 PM in the chapel. Acting President Jon Chenette chose Professor Pike-Tay, who will be speaking about the highlights of her journey into her profession. “I hope that by sharing my experiences, that students (especially the class of 2013), will see that less worry and more flexibility can go a long way to finding a fulfilling career,” said Pike-Tay. This tradition began in 1865 when President John H. Raymond gave a sermon in honor of the college’s opening and continued until 1914, when a convocation ceremony was suggested. The student song “Gaudeamus Igitur” has been a part of the ceremony since the 1920s. Attendance at convocation was mandatory for all students through the 1970s and then it was required for freshmen and seniors until 1995. The spring convocation ceremony is very similar to the fall convocation ceremony, but also features the ritual passing of the gavel to the next president of the Vassar Student Association.

After spring convocation, juniors ring the bell at the top of Main Building to symbolize their transition into seniors and ring in the year.

This ceremony will be especially significant to seniors for they only have a couple more weeks left as students at Vassar. For Senior Class President Vincent Marchetta, who has only been to spring convocation once before, this is an important day.

He will be presented with the Class of 2013 Banner, which will symbolize the class’ time at Vassar until the class proudly marches with it at their first five year reunion. “To be the one to go on stage, receive the flag, and present it to my class is a great honor, and I am really excited for such a big moment,” said Marchetta.

—Emily Hoffman, Guest Reporter Senate Rejects New Gun Control Proposal

Last Wednesday, the Senate rejected both a compromise on gun control to expand background checks on firearm sales and a proposal to ban some semi-automatic weapons that are modeled after military assault weapons. (CNN Politics, “Senate rejects gun background checks”, 4.18.13) In the aftermath of the Newton school massacre in December, President Obama has made gun control reform a priority on his domestic agenda. (The Washington Post, “No New Gun Control”, 4.17.13) The National Rifle Association (NRA) and conservative Republicans strongly opposed the new proposals. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania produced a less comprehensive compromise than originally advocated for by Obama, but it still gained his support. The Manchin-Toomey Plan aimed to expand background checks to include private sales, gun shows, and all internet sales, but did not include sales between family and friends. Under current law, background checks are only required when guns are purchased from a federally licensed firearms dealer. (CNN Politics, “Senate rejects gun background checks”, 4.18.13) The compromise required 60 votes to pass in an 100 member chamber. The final vote was 54 in favor and 46 opposed. Republicans along with a few rural state Democrats opposed this compromise, leaving Democrats six votes short. (CNN Politics, “Senate rejects gun background checks”, 4.18.13)) President Obama, as well as many other Democratic leaders, were extremely disappointed by this outcome. (CNN Politics, “Senate rejects gun background checks”, 4.18.13) The NRA, which heavily opposed the new compromise, promised political retribution against supporters and called it the first step toward national gun registry and government confiscation of firearms. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, a victim of the Tuscon shooting in 2011, said that those who opposed the compromise were doing so “based on political fear and on cold calculations about the money of special interests like the NRA.” (The Washington Post, “No New Gun Control”, 4.17.13) The broader gun package, which includes tougher laws on gun trafficking and steps to improve school safety, is still under consideration by the Senate. Issues of background checks will considered agau=in in the Senate in the future according to Democratic aids. “I see this as just round one,” said the president. (Huffington Post, “Obama, Gun Control Backers: Defeat Won’t Stop Us”, 4.18.13) -—Emily Hoffman, Guest Reporter

April 25, 2013

ALANA Jam unites community on Fergusson Quad through music and food ALANA continued from page 1

Alliance (ASA) Catherine Zhou 15’ noted a similar intention. “[Hosting this event] is a way to bring together all the organizations in the ALANA Center and open up to the campus. The artists we invite speak to the issues related the ALANA organizations,” she said.

Despite the fact that ALANA Jam originated from only one of the Alana groups, the final success of the event was based on the collaborative work from indivuals both inside and outside Vassar.

Co-facilitator of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/0 de Aztlan (MEChA) Guillermo Valdez ‘15 stated that a little bit of each ALANA organization was represented in the day’s events.

Additionally, he noted that to reduce the burden of the featured band Las Cafeteras’s travel fees, Vassar and other colleges in the region pooled their resources, with each college indivdually paying the band’s appearance fee. “[The ALANA Jam] wouldn’t have happened if we, as MEChA, hadn’t formed alliances with other MEChA Groups along the East Coast.”

The biggest difficulty that Poder Latino encountered in organizing the ALANA Jam, as Martinez recalled, was the lack of funding from VSA. “But each individual organizations involved put in money as well, so the problem came to be solved in the end,” she said. She stressed that without resources from other ALANA organizations, this event would not have existed.

The ALANA Jam organizer’s effort paid off as audiences expressed their appreciation of the event. Assistant Professor of History Quincy Mills who attended the event

commented on the overwhelming success of the festivities.

“ALANA Jam brings all students together to celebrate culture, creativity, the arts.

Dance, spoken word and music are fabulous ways to celebrate humanity,” he said.

Mills also appreciated the commitment and organization ALANA Jam requires.

“The organizers are to be applauded for this work,” Mills noted.

Students also noticed the dedication of the affiliated organizations. Khine Thant 15’, an international student from Myanmar, said, “I find the live concert really interesting. Although I am already part of a minority, I have never experienced the culture of another minority. So ALANA Jam gives me a perspective into another culture that I wouldn’t have known otherwise.”

One of the most noticeable features of this event was the music it employed to convey cultural and political ideas. Las Cafeteras, the featured band from Southern Veracruz, sings about their cultural experiences.

Noting that the band uses music to tell stories, Valdez summarized his feelings on the condition of Latin Americans: “We’ve been told our stories aren’t important.”

He argued that the social structures that oppress minorities are made up stories and that speaking out to counter these oppressive narratives is essential. For Khine Thant ’15, songs that blends modern political problems into melodies of folk songs are foreign.

“I have mixed feelings about those songs.

Modern thoughts and traditional folk songs might reflect each other, but the time difference just make the two incompatible when combined into music”, she stated.

Besides large events like ALANA Jam, the ALANA center also holds weekly meetings

for minority group students to voice their opinions. Martinez defined Poder Latino as a safe space for students who identified themselves as Latino/as or those interested in Latino culture.

And Martinez was quite impressed with all aspects of ALANA Jam. “It’s really hard to pick one part and call it my favorite,” she said. “But if I had to pick, it would definitely be the performances. ALANA Jam is a space for performance that wouldn’t usually be seen on campus.”

When asked about his own experience with MEChA, Valdez answered that he had often felt an uncomfortable separation from American culture. “MEChA was the outlet that told me me, ‘You can be as good as anybody else.”

He mentioned that soon after the ALANA Jam, MEChA will move on to plan a May Day rally which plans to teach local youth how to tell their stories.

May 1st, International Workers’ Day, is a highlight in the push for both workers’ rights and rights for immigrants, two causes which Valdez said are inextricably linked.

The good turnout of this year’s ALANA Jam also provided involved students with high expectations of next year’s event. “This is a relatively new event, it’s buzzing and getting momentum. I am very excited and confident to see that it will do better in the coming year,” Martinez said. “My only hope is that ALANA Jam remains a traditional event.”

Zhou also stated that ASA will continue to support ALANA Jam and she hoped that this event will gain more influence in Vassar community so that more people can start paying attention to minority groups and their cultures.

IncomingVSAExecutiveBoardtofocuson accessibility and intercollegiate networks VSA continued from page 1

one running for something, especially someone you think would be a stiff competitor, there’s a good chance you’ll find something else.”

The VSA has several projects in the works to help encourage more students to run in the future. First, Student Life is currently working on a proposal that would allow Executive members on financial aid to count the job as work-study. Additionally, Steinberg organized a campaign training day with the Women’s Center to alleviate some of the fears about campaigning and help people get started with building their platforms.

In spite of the low number of candidates, voter turnout for executive positions was above average at 43.4 percent. Outgoing VSA President Jason Rubin ’13 noted that this number is uniquely high for student elections.

“I know a lot of schools are lucky to break 30 [percent] and many are closer to 10 [percent] or less,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “It was a big topic at an American Student Government Association conference that we went to which basically said that on average 30 [percent] turnout was great and what schools should try and aim for,” he continued.

Rubin was enthusiastic about the incoming board. “I think the new board brings together a great combination of people with different perspectives and voices on campus. This will serve them really well as they attempt to represent all of the different voices within our student body,” he wrote.

Though Steinberg will carry over projects from her time as VP for Operations this year, she also hopes to tackle new issues. In particular, she noted one continuity will be working to establish a strong student space on campus in light of the cancellation of the bookstore move to Juliet Café building on Collegeview.

“There are still ways to get a central

space on campus that better suits the needs of students,” she said. “I’m not 100 percent sure what that’s going to look like—and it depends on what people will let me do— but that might mean extending hours at the Retreat or extending hours at the Deece so that students can be getting food and meeting up with friends at later hours at a central space.” Steinberg also mentioned improving lighting in dorm common rooms for additional meeting space.

Though there are many issues Steinberg wants to deal with on campus, she is also setting her sights off campus and hopes to establish a stronger network with other Seven Sisters colleges. As a result of her efforts, Vassar will host the Seven Sisters Conference this fall. “I think that will facilitate more conversation with the other schools and more friendships with the other schools,” she said.

Additionally, she also hopes it will create opportunities for political solidarity across campuses. Steinberg explained, “Take for instance the Greens’ Divestment Campaign. A lot of the other schools are working on similar things so if we were to work with them we could have a much stronger message in the political sphere or in the economic sphere.”

Steinberg also hopes that a more relaxed leadership style will increase participation at Council meetings.

“There are a lot of times when nobody knows what’s going on because motions are really complicated,” she said. “I recognize that those are important and allow us to have meetings where everyone can speak but I think that sometimes it can be silencing to people who don’t understand those rules. So I am more open to, not necessarily relaxing the rules, but recognizing when situations really don’t require certain quorums, and making the whole space a little bit more relaxed.”

But above all, Steinberg stressed accessi-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

bility, noting that her previous experience as VP for Operations makes her uniquely knowledgeable on Vassar’s administrative structure. “I want to use my knowledge to bring the student voice to those high administrators but also better communicate to the students what the administrators are saying and also just help students have access to all the resources on this campus,” she said. She also plans to host an open house for the VSA during freshman orientation to educate incoming students on the organization’s structure.

Accessibility was a theme throughout the entire Executive Board. Incoming VP for Student Life Hernandez, who currently serves as Co-President of QCVC and Spectrana, hopes to provide more visibility and resources for ALANA organizations. “I believe that my purpose as VP of Student Life is to portray the many voices on campus, but to also specifically reach out to marginalized voices,” she wrote in an emailed statement.

VP for Activities Stephanie Goldberg hopes to give increased support to smaller, newer, and lesser-funded orgs. “I plan on attending general body meetings for each org every so often, and meeting regularly with org leaders to check in with them,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “If they need any assistance in programming or finding a space, I am there to assist them.”

Implicit in Steinberg’s definition of accessibility is representing opinions that are not necessarily in the majority.

“A few years ago, I sent out a survey about the water bottle ban,” she recalled. “One person out of thirty was against it… It is important to make sure that those concerns are heard even though they are not something that everyone is concerned about. If you are not considering those voices then you are not representing all students.”

—Statements from incoming VSA Vice Presidents can be found on miscellanynews.com.

April 25, 2013

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Hollaback! empowers silenced victims of street harassment Mary Talbot

Guest reporter

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courtesy of Fast Company

treet harassment brings oppression into the public sphere in a vocal way, functioning to degrade and silence women. Given society’s normalization of the practice, many feel as though they are unable to speak out against it. Hollaback! seeks to give women back their voices.

On April 17, CARES hosted a lecture by Emily May, cofounder and executive director of Hollaback!, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending street harassment. May’s talk defined street harassment and laid out strategies for victims and bystanders. It also covered the background and nature of the organization.

Laura Green ‘13, a member of CARES and a key organizer of this event, wrote in an emailed statement, “CARES brought Emily to speak as a part of Sexual Assault Awareness Week, which is a week of events that we put together each year in April to mark national Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The theme of our programming this year was ‘I feel strong,’ focusing on the strength of survivors of sexual assault and those who support them.”

May began with the basics. She said, “What is street harassment? It’s really just sexual harassment that happens in public space.” She went on to acknowledge the difficulty of defining public space and explained that it is best to classify street harassment in terms of behaviors, like lewd comments, inappropriate gestures, touching, public masturbation and leering.

Started in 2005, Hollaback! is now a worldwide volunteer-based organization with chapters in 64 cities and 22 counties—and it’s growing fast. One of its main resources for victims of street harassment is a free smartphone application that allows people to plot an incident of harassment on a map, often including a photo and a story. May described Hollaback’s origins as particularly humble. It stemmed from a conversation between close friends, sparked by an incident in which a woman took a photo of a man publically masturbating.

“I didn’t realize the extent to which [street

harassment] was a problem until I started talking to my friends about it,” she said, highlighting the moment when it became obvious to herthat it was universally experienced—and universally accepted as normal. “[It’s] the most prevalent form of gender-based violence,” she said. May conducted an anonymous survey of the audience members, asking them about their experiences with harassment. When asked, “Have you ever been stared at or gestured towards in an offensive way in public?” students responded with: 62 percent replied with “more than once.”

Jacqueline Krass ’16 said, “Growing up in NYC, almost every woman I know has experienced street harassment at least once, or for many, nearly every day, and yet everyone seems to see it as an unavoidable female issue. Street harassment is usually seen as inconveniencing but minor, and May’s lecture showed how pervasive and damaging it can be.

“These responses are consistent with other colleges and universities,” said May. At college as well as in the outside world, street harassment is normalized, May said.

Many people, she explained, say it is embedded in our culture. “What they really mean is that it’s a Black and Latino male thing…but this is happening across race and gender lines.” The research her organization has produced suggests that high occurrences of street harassment are more based on population density than any other factors.

“You never know when it’s going to happen and it’s happening multiple times throughout your life,” said May. Given the prevalence of the practice, May believes it is crucial to give women the tools to combat the harassment.

May started off not by giving strategies, but by reassuring audience members. “The reality is it’s not your responsibility to do the right thing,” she said. However, she also maintained that having some kind of response, whether in the moment, such as confronting the harasser,or later, such as sharing a story on Hollaback!, can reduce long-term trauma. She said an effective response is to look someone in the

Emily May cofounded Hollaback!, an organization dedicated to sheding light on issues surrounding street harassment. She encourages students to respond to these incidents and take a stand against harassers. eye and tell them it is not acceptable, recognizing that it may escalate from there and that one should not try to engage beyond the initial confrontation. In addition to defending oneself, one should always prepared to help others as well.

Said May, “My favorite strategy is to just ask that person if they’re okay.” Giving this person agency, she stated, is crucial: “Give them that power of choosing how you intervene.”

Students can also get involved on a broader level. Hollaback! provides training to those who want to start a new chapter and lets volunteers focus on what is most important to them.

Green said, “Personally, I was most excited to hear about the process by which Hollaback! chapters have been started around the world. I appreciated May’s conviction that site leaders know their respective cities best, and therefore should have the autonomy to do whatever they feel is most necessary and effective to combat

street harassment in their own contexts, rather than proscribing an institutional strategy to be implemented indiscriminately. From a Scottish chapter who worked to get their Parliament to release a formal statement against street harassment, to the Philly chapter who started a recent subway ad campaign, Hollaback!ers have approached street harassment in a variety of effective and exciting ways.”

Krass agreed, stating, “Her explanation of the power dynamic within the Hollaback! organization was really interesting...and provided an alternative to the all-powerful leader model we see in other non-profits.”.

Jackson Miller ’16, a member of CARES, wrote: “I think that street harassment is something that most people accept as a fact of life, and that it’s incredibly important to call attention to its significant impact and the fact that there are ways to fight it.”

NativeAmericanstudents’alliancetocombatinstitutionalinvisibility Marie Solis

FeAtures editors

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assar’s website advertises the Class of 2016 as the most selective and diverse class in the College’s history. Out of 660 students, 107 are Asian, 69 are Black and 63 are Latino— given these sizeable numbers it is plain that, within this data, which is deemed the apex of Vassar’s multiplicity of racial identities, there remains only one Native American student.

In attempts to remedy this disparity, Katilin Reed ’14, a Native American Studies correlate, is in the early stages of developing a Native American Students’ Alliance within the ALANA Center, which will begin with a free dinner on April 29 to solicit ideas from interested students.

“The ’NA’ in ALANA is supposed to stand for Native American yet I feel there really isn’t a presence on campus. I wanted there to be some kind of reminisces of a Native American alliance before I graduated,” said Reed.

Though she admits that there is a very small number of Native American students on campus, Reed maintains such a minority does not excuse the group’s underrepresentation and the general lack of awareness she feels surrounds native issues.

“Students on this campus, I don’t think, get any kind of foundation [in native issues] unless they take the Intro to Native American Studies class. Not everyone is able to take that class, but I think everyone on this campus should leave learning something about the people who lived here before them. It is these people’s demise that enabled us to have our picket fences and backyards,” Reed said. Part of the problem, Reed maintained, is an academic one; Reed believes the isolated nature of the department can often serve to perpetuate misconceptions about indigenous culture.

She said, “I think native studies need to be ingrained into more than that department. I think that isolating the subject in such a way makes it into a spectacle rather than having indigenous issues being made a foundational component

to multiple courses. It could be incorporated in the Geography department, Women’s Studies, Political Science. I think the campus as a whole has a responsibility to represent an underrepresented area of study,” said Reed.

Hannah Ellman ‘14, an American Studies major, agreed, stating, “While it seems that the number of Native American studies students is growing, I feel as though much of my conversations with students about my focus of study require me to explain ‘why’ or ‘what the point is’ of focusing on something as obscure as Native American studies. While the department and classes themselves provide a wonderfully challenging, open, and thought-provoking space for me and other students, I wish the department received more attention both from Vassar Colege in general and from the student body.”

Professor of English and Native Studies Molly McGlennen echoed both students’ concerns though she said that the department has still come a long way since she worked on bringing it into existence in 2006.

McGlennen said, “We’ve definitely created a presence, though it is still small. It’s gaining a lot of ground and there is a lot of student interest—the courses are always full and it is definitely growing.”

However, McGlennen is part of an extremely small circle of professors who specializes in Native American studies. Reed said, “It’s definitely a problem that we only have one main professor. It also speaks to the societal indivisibility of Native Americans in academia as a whole—it’s hard to find a Native American.”

She continued, “We need Native American teachers teaching in the History Department, Political Science Department, across the scope, We need to assert indigenous issues in the main stream academia. I think that that’s just one of the perks of creating a native student space.”

McGlennen echored these sentiments, stating that the major problem for Native American students on campus is that of visibility, an issue which remains a direct result of coloni-

zation.

She said, “In most people’s consciousness, indigenous peoples are associated with the southwest, but not with New England. Indigenous peoples populate all parts of the hemispheres and the globe, though in North America, Native peoples are less visible given the process of colonization and how it targeted tribes for extinction to open up land and resources.”

McGlennen continued, “For a variety of reasons, we’re not identifiably read as ‘indigenous.’ Often, we are only read and understood as stereotypical and/or extinct.”

The problem of personal identification is one which Reed finds particularly resonant.

Native American, she said, is an identity which people constantly feel the need to challenge.

“We read this book [in class] which said that Native American is the only race where people will tell you that you’re not. My family moved to South Dakota which was a predominantly Sioux area and I don’t look Sioux, so people would tell me I’m white,” said Reed.

Central to the issue is people’s conception of tradition and how it pertains to Native Americans. McGlennen said, “In western ideology, it’s as if Native peoples are some kind of stalled out race of peoples within the evolutionary hierarchy. In this mainstream ideology, you have to be a “primitive” person, wearing a headdress or regalia, someone who knows a Native language and is from a reservation. This reductive narrative is difficult to unsettle.”

Reed noted that these stereotypes have the potential to make students feel as though their identity has been invalidated. She said, “It’s easy for someone to discredit part of your identity. It drastically affects the way you think of yourself especially as a student if you look white, you go to a public school, you live in a suburb—you’re not native.”

This phenomenon, McGlennen said, is symptomatic of a larger preoccupation which plagues America at large—and Vassar is not exempt.“Americans in general have this obses-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

sion with categorizing people because of what they think they should look like. The Vassar community is no exception. In addition to being a student group for people who identity as Native American, I would hope that this group will help bring about broader conversations about non-Native’s miseducation through misinformation that often replaces or writes over Native peoples’ stories,” said McGlennen.

For this reason, Reed encourages students who may not have considered Native American as part of their identity before to get in touch with that part of their background. However, even with all of these students, the alliance would still be a small one without the incorporation of a fundamental component—its allies.

Of these allies is Ellman. She said, “My ally-ship will be grounded in a deep form of self-awareness. I plan to work continuously to understand, to the best of my ability, the experience of Native students on this campus, to push for Native American issues and peoples to be, if not at the forefront of Vassar’s consciousness, at least a noticeable topic of conversation.”

Ellman added, “I would highly encourage other nonnative students who are invested in the goals of this alliance to be a part of it. Come to this dinner and even just listen to the conversation, the goals of the Native students, and the effective ways that you can help support the growth of the alliance.”

Hopefully, McGlennen said, such enthusiasm will foster growth in Native Students in upcoming years and the number of native students will become far greater than just one McGlennen concluded, “The next step, I think is now that we’ve created an institutional home or space, the next step is to think about the ways we are attentive to or not attentive to recruiting native American students. Part of that is the retention of those students. One of those ways I think is creating a space where people feel comfortable, who are like minded, where they can come and be together. ALANA seems like that’s the space.”

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Orgs show united front on May Day MAY DAY continued from page 1

Students test Russian language proficiency Amreen Bhasin reporter

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tudents in Vassar’s Russian Studies department got a chance put their knowledge to a practical test. While students can compare themselves to their classmates, competing with other collegiate institutions gives them the opportunity to see how their skills stack up against their peers.

On April 13, five Vassar College students along with a faculty member and Russian Language Fellow participated in a competition of spoken and written Russian. The competition took place at United States Military Academy at West Point and included teams from a number of colleges including Union College, SUNY Albany, and Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The competition broke students up into two teams based on their years of Russian study. Coached by Professor of Russian Studies Charles Henry Arndt III, Sean Keller ’16 and Alycia Beattie ‘16 and Jeremy Burke ’15 represented the first year team, while Henry Hollithron ’15 and Savanna Holcomb ’15 comprised the second year team. Adjunct Instructor in Russian Studies Svetlana Otverchenko coached and guided the second year team.

Russian Language Fellow Olesya Yelfimova assisted both teams in their preparations for the competition.

The competition itself consisted several different events: memorizing a poem in Russian, reciting a monologue and answering questions based on the recitation. Additionally. there was a cold reading section of a Russian text and first year students also completed a short, written grammar test.

Despite this being Vassar’s debut at the

competition, which has been running since 2001, the Brewers nearly swept the competition. At the introductory level all three members of Vassar’s team won awards. Keller won first place for the introductory level, Burke was second place in the same category and Beattie took the prize for the best performance for a poetry reading in the beginner level. Hollithron took first place for the intermediate level.

The teams needed to put a significant amount of time and effort into preparing for the competition. The students first learned about the competition through their professors in the Russian Studies Department.

The department then chose the students it believed would best represent Vassar at this Olympiad. None of the students had any experience with Russian language before taking the introductory course at Vassar. They cited the excellence of Vassar’s Russian Studies Department as the reason for their success.

Beattie’sexperience working with the department ultimately led her to declare a Russian Studies Major. She wrote in an emailed statement, “I suggest everyone at Vassar try to take at least one class in the Russian Department, it is just so great! My favorite thing about the department is definitely the faculty...All of the faculty members understand that Russian is a difficult language and they do a wonderful job of helping us grasp complex ideas and they are very patient about it.”

Burke echoed these sentiments, stating, “Professor Arndt and Olesya were both really helpful in making sure I was pronouncing things correctly (as well as getting the grammar right)...The professors and students in-

teract with one another a lot outside of class (at Russian Tea or big events like Maslenitsa, our Fat Tuesday celebration) which builds this departmental community that’s great to be a part of.”

Preparing for the competition required extra time commitments from all involved.

Keller said, “Professor Arndt held focused three hour-long practice sessions during the month prior to the competition…he helped us all sound more natural and speak Russian with a good Russian accent…there is a sense of camaraderie among the students and faculty involved in the department, which really makes learning the language feel much less difficult than it actually is.”

The students were impressed with the level of competition from the other schools present and were happy to do so well against tough competitors.

Hollithron particularly appreciated the level of sportsmanship he witnessed: “I am glad to say we competed amicably, with no taunts, jeers or other gestures denoting a lack of sportsmanship being exchanged.”

He, too, agreed that the excellence of Vassar’s Russian Department helped make his decision to participate and to do well at this year’s Olympiad.

Hollithron concluded, “I am…impressed that [the Russian Studies Department] members always push us to make an extra effort rather than allowing us to speak and write Russian in complacent mediocrity. Their kindness, patience, and seemingly endless reservoir of knowledge about vocabulary and grammatical concepts have been indispensable to my performance at the competition.”

Language tables allow for mistakes, growth Eloy Bleifuss Prados

AssistAnt FeAtures editor

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anguage tables on campus give students a casual, low-stress opportunity to learn something not covered in the textbooks--the art of conversation.

Led by the department’s Language Fellows, the weekly gatherings are a space for students to eat dinner and chat with their peers in the foreign language they are studying.

The Hispanic Studies, Chinese, and Japanese Departments hold their tables in the reserve room at the All Campus Dining Center while other language departments, such as the German and Russian Studies Departments, choose to host slightly more elaborate get-togethers in their Language Lounges in Chicago Hall.

While attendance varies from department to department, most Language Fellows report they saw 15 to 20 students at each meeting. These gatherings are entirely optional for most students.

Language Fellow Helios Dominguez, who leads the Hispanics Studies Department’s table Thursday nights, strives to keep the conversation rolling and the atmosphere friendly.

“I try to improvise. It should be more informal. The Spanish table is to give them that impression that they are not going to a class.

They are doing an activity that is completely relaxed. There’s no teachers there to judge you,” said Dominguez.

Russian Studies Department intern Ian Buksunski also believes the casual atmosphere of the gatherings is important because it gives students permission to make mistakes—a process important to any type of learning.

Explained Buksunski, “You have to speak, even if you’re saying it wrong, no matter how bad it is at first. Just starting to speak at first helps so much. Otherwise, [your fluency] just doesn’t develop at all.”

Dominguez sees his role as a Language Fellow as one of an educator, but nevertheless distinct from professors who teach students the grammar and rules of a language. “We are here at Vassar to support and develop the conversational skills of the students,” said Dominguez.

To get his students to start speaking German Language Fellow Malte Steitz tells them to “Talk about whatever you want to talk about.”

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

ple’s ongoing work. It’s really important to communicate to power holders that we are this united front, but there aren’t many opportunities to come together like that.”

Planning for May Day has been spearheaded largely by student organization Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan (MEChA), however the group has collaborated with a number of other social justice oriented groups from the area including Somos la Llave del Futuro, La Voz, End the New Jim crow Action Network (ENJAN), Hudson Valley Area Labor Federation, Community voices Heard, Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson and Rural Migrant Ministry.

Alberto Wilson III ’16, a member of MEChA, explained the weight of such wide-ranging partnerships for the event: “I think this is democracy at its core, when people go out there and start rallying.

When we show solidarity across movements, when we show they’re all interconnected, we are all in it together, we’re all struggling for the same cause. I think that’s the beauty of it.”

John Speedling, who works for the Hudson Valley Labor Federation (HVALF), echoed this sentiment, stating, “Even when grassroots organizations form it can still be difficult for them to get their voices heard or connect with larger groups. Events such as this are a great opportunity for groups to meet, discuss their action plans, and form larger coalitions.”

The demands and principles May Day events represent all draw from notions of a more inclusive, equitable livelihood for workers, immigrants and their children. According to the May Day Coalition’s Principles of Unity, this includes but is not limited to a fight for rights to education, housing, social services and an end to oppressive legislation levied against worker and immigrant communities.

Additionally, they seek the rights of workers to organize, to move across borders without fear of violence or exploitation and to end unlawful detentions, including mass incarceration. Demands also include a fight for full legalization of all undocumented people and end to discriminatory systems of oppression based on race, gender, sex and sexual orientations, and finally, the need to raise consciousness about foreign policy.

Undocumented workers throughout the Hudson Valley can face unfair treatment in the workplace.

Speedling spoke to his experience organizing with the HVALF: ”More often than not, undocumented workers receive well below minimum wage, do not receive overtime pay, do not receive back pay, do not get a full 24 hours of rest (a weekend). They contribute to our Social Security system without ever being able to collect, and are subject to workplace violations that they can’t report because employers simply say ‘show me your papers.’”

The work done through organizing with the HVALF and May Day celebrations embodies a belief that everyone deserves to be treated fairly and experience livable working conditions, explained Speedling. “We believe all workers deserve a voice.

All workers deserve the right to organize. All workers deserve a safe workplace. All workers deserve a livable wage. All workers deserve humane working conditions, and all workers deserve to the opportunity to join together to have their opinions heard and accounted for.”

In addition to the list of demands brought forth by the Principles of Unity, one main goal of the event this year is to create concrete changes in the lives of individuals within the community. Christina Martinez, a member of the Young Arts Group of Rural Migrant Ministry, is currently facing the potential deportation of her parents. The rally is one action to help garner support for her family.

May Day is a culmination of planning, preparation and partnerships; however, organizers for the event stress that the day must not be viewed in a vacuum—May 1 is simply one moment of many.

Jennifer Lopez ’15, a student organizer for MeCHA, said, “It’s a matter of learning about different forms of involvement and engagement with this. May Day is one way that we have decided to take action, but regardless of where you come from, you are implicated and you are involved,” adding, “It’s a matter of learning what the implications of the way that we live our lives are. How to use that knowledge to then take meaningful and productive action.”

April 25, 2013

Chinese language table, above, grants students of all skill levels a low-pressure environment to improve their practice what they’ve learned in the classroom. Topics include art, music and politics.

The German Department’s language table is called Kaffee Klatsch and meets Wednesdays evenings coffee German desert, which Streitz bakes every week.

The conversation at Kaffee Klatsch is always free and open-ended, and this year students have discussed their schoolwork, movies they had seen, and patriarchy.

Similar to the German Department, the Russian Department hosts Russian Teas. Each week Russian Tea, unlike Kaffee Klatsch, will center upon a specific theme chosen by the department and by Russian Studies Fellow Olesya Elfimova. The themes draw from all sections of Russian culture and have this school year included Russian celebrations, the different ethnic groups of Russia and an introduction to Russian slang.

They begin each week by making tea, boiling water in an electric Samovar, an elaborate metal kettle that is culturally significant in Russia.

Said Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian Studies Margarita Safariants, “Russians have a long tradition of gathering around a Samovar or some sort of tea receptacle and exchanging ideas, and this has been going on

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

for centuries.”

Mellonn Post Doctoral Fellow of Russian Studies Charles Ardnt III described the goal of the Russian Tea topics as rounding out a student’s knowledge of a foreign language and culture, especially in non-academic areas.

When the theme one week was Russian card games, students learned the rules to the games and also how to say the names of the suits in Russian. A student will never be asked to recall this information in a class, but it could potentially prove useful one day should they, choose to spend a semester abroad in St. Petersburg.

Said Ardnt, “It creates real-life situations that you can utilize as language teaching moments.”

For Dominguez, the work he does at his language table ties in with his own journey of learning a second-language and coming from his home country of Spain.

Said Dominguez, “In my personal experience learning English, it was so important for me to come here and feel comfortable talking with people even when I made a lot of mistakes.”

April 25, 2013

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Awakening body and consciousness: breakfast greens recipe Alessandra Seiter online editor

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The Recipe Spencer Davis/The Miscellany News

hough certainly an exciting time of year, the conclusion of the spring semester—replete with final exams, summer planning and class preregistration—also proffers the average Vassar student with plenty of stress. Learning how to mitigate this stress by striking the perfect balance between productively completing schoolwork and engaging in leisure activities will serve to enhance all of our college experiences. With the knowledge of the ancient Indian dietary system known as Ayurveda, we can begin to foster this balance through eating habits.

Literally translated from Sanskrit as “knowledge of life,” Ayurveda functions as a holistic health-care system that organizes the elements of nature into a unified understanding of the human body, mind and spirit. Developing the Ayurvedic system approximately 5,000 years ago, devoted spiritual practitioners known as rishis viewed health and wellness as crucial to an existence harmonious with the earth and all of its inhabitants. The rishis noticed that each individual related to the environment in different manners defined by their propensities toward each of the five elements—ether, air, fire, water and earth. From the elements, the rishis developed three doshas, or body types—vata, pitta and kapha—to help individuals define their unique constitutions of body and spirit, and thereby determine how to best care for their health. One must focus primarily on keeping that dosha in balance in order to foster calmness and happiness within oneself . To maintain the balance of one’s particular dosha, one must notice where one feels out of sorts, then introduce the foods and lifestyle choices that will bring their constitution back into alignment. Based upon the following descriptions of each dosha, you can determine your own needs and see which foods will best balance your stressed-out Vassar student self.

Vata body types reflect the elements of air and ether in their spontaneous, active nature. Characterized by their adaptability, talkativeness and creativity, vatas love the sun and tend to have dry skin, thin frames and a special sensitivity to loud nois-

es. When out of balance, vatas feel uncertain, impatient, anxious, and insecure, so they need to eat warm, grounding foods to rekindle their flexibility, positivity, and thoughtfulness. Vatas should consume plenty of warm, wet, oily and foods—cooked whole grains, soups, stews, spices, hot teas, curries, fresh oils and raw nuts should comprise the bulk of a vata’s diet. On the other hand, vatas should avoid astringent foods such as beans, cruciferous vegetables, tart fruits and pickles, as well as dry foods such as cold cereal, toast, gluten and crackers.

Born from the relationship between fire and water, pitta body types exude heat, intensity, ambition and passion. With demanding, opinionated, highly intelligent and workaholic natures, pittas tend to have muscular builds, bright eyes, oily skin and athletic tendencies. To bring themselves out of their judgmental, self-centered, jealous stupors and back to their balanced states of awareness, independence and open-mindedness, pittas must eat an abundance of cool, hydrating foods. Pittas thrive on basmati rice, oats, cooling spices, protein-rich seeds and juicy fruits, while they should avoid oily nuts, salty snacks and spicy foods .

Finally, kapha body types draw upon earth and water to possess a heavy, stable, slow and gentle nature. Kaphas harbor laid-back, nurturing and steadfast qualities and tend to have wavy, lustrous hair, smooth skin, large eyes, steady appetites and propensities toward weight-gain. When imbalanced, kaphas become possessive and controlling. To rekindle their peaceful natures, kaphas should consume a light, low-fat, high-fiber, mostly cooked diet with an emphasis on pungent, bitter and astringent foods such as warming whole grains, cabbage, asparagus and spices. Kaphas should also avoid excessive sweetness in their diets, and should thus stray from overly sweet fruits such as bananas, dates, figs, as well as from concentrated sweeteners like white sugar, maple syrup and agave nectar.

The following recipe, which I’ve enjoyed for breakfast since the onset of the spring semester, provides a nourishing, grounding way to begin your day with some of the healthiest foods around—leafy greens. While increasing vata slightly, the recipe will decrease both pitta and kapha.

Breakfast Greens

Adapted from The Ayurvedic Vegan Kitchen.

Serves 1.

Ingredients: • 2 tbsp water • ½ tsp ground cumin • ½ tsp fennel seeds • ½ bunch kale, spinach, or swiss chard • ½-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced, or 1 tsp ground ginger • 1 tbsp coconut, olive, or flaxseed oil • 1 tsp soy sauce, tamari, or apple cider vinegar • 1 tsp nutritional yeast In a large, heavy skillet over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Add the cumin, fennel and ginger. Stir in the greens and ginger and cook until the greens have wilted—the amount of time this takes will depend upon the heartiness of your greens. For example, more hearty greens like kale will take about 5-7 minutes to wilt down, and you may have to keep adding water, whereas tender greens like swiss chard and spinach will only take about 3 minutes to wilt, and the original amount of water should be sufficient. Once the greens have wilted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the oil, soy sauce/tamari/ apple cider vinegar and nutritional yeast. Serve hot. These greens taste especially nice served over a bowl of oatmeal.

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April 25, 2013

Senior digs into ‘messy science’ for final research project Aja Saalfeld

FeAtures editor

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Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

amila Delgado-Montes likes her science messy, and it shows in her research.

Not many would enjoy spending time mucking around in the field collecting deer scat and dissecting it under a microscope, but Delgado-Montes said she found it enjoyable enough to spend over a semester doing just that.

Her ongoing research, specifically a preliminary review, involves the viability of seeds after going through the digestive system of deer. The bulk of her project should be completed by the end of the semester, but other aspects of it will continue further. Her goal is to determine which types of seeds can survive going through deer’s digestive tracts and still germinate.

“I collected deer scat from three locations around campus,” said Delgado-Montes, who had a poetic way to talk about deer scat. “I broke apart the deer poop and made it grow.”

She started preliminary research the first semester of this year, when she read research on deer and collected the scat to put into cold storage. Cold storage was an important step in this project; it stimulated winter and allowed seeds to germinate.

Delgado-Montes is well-versed in growing and collecting deer poop, and working with deer in general. She has spent the past three years working on various deer related studies, from the Undergraduate Research Science Internship (URSI) she undertook as a freshman with Assistant Professor of Biology Lynn Christenson, to the independent research she undertook last semester, as well her current research. She described her current prelimary review as a culmination of three years of work.

Delgado-Montes’s research, combined with other student research and the research of Christenson and Associate Professor of Biology Margaret Ronsheim, comprises a larger project about the Vassar deer. Students such as Delgado-Montes are resources that professors disposal to facilitate their own research.

In terms of her actual work in the lab, Delgado-Montes said she did end up spending plenty

of time taking pictures and working at the microscopes.

“Mostly I sit at a microscope and break apart deer pellets and keep breaking them apart until I find a seed,” said Delgado-Montes.

Finding the seed is the all-important end result of dirty days spent searching for deer scat.

The viability of the seeds and whether deer are good vectors for transporting seeds, some of which could become invasive species, is all part of this project.

Delgado-Montes went on to explain that she chose to do independent research rather than a thesis because she did not start independent research during her sophomore or junior year.

While beginning to undertake research early is important for science students who intend to do theses, but Delgado-Montes had other priorities.

“I had other goals in mind rather than a senior thesis,” said Delgado-Montes. “I wanted to try research but I also wanted to try other classes at Vassar.”

She went on to talk about the benefits of taking different classes as a biology major. All students must take at least a quarter of their classes outside their major division, and Delgado-Montes found her niche in a diversity of classes outside her major, particularly in the arts.

She credited her choice to diversify her course load as something that has helped her succeed in her current research, even when she was in lab for long stretches of time. Delgado-Montes has a strong background in studio art which, according to her, made illustrating some of her findings much easier.

“I spent my time checking on my plants,” said Delgado-Montes. “A set of drawings was done every day. It was nice to have been someone with a studio art background that can use creative diagrams.”

“I am really grateful for being here because I had the opportunity to take things like anthropology and art classes,” she said.

Being trapped in a lab is one of the things Delgado-Montes tried to avoid in her pursuit of messy, outdoorsy science, but sometimes even outdoorsy ecologists have to take their work to

Camila Delgado Montes ’13 has dedicated her final semester at Vassar to researching the viability of seeds in deer pellets. She believes this field research will prepare her for a future career in ecology. the lab.

While Delgado-Montes’s research goes about studying the effect of deer on plant viability, ultimately she said it is about growing as a scientist.

“There is very little control over the factors,” she said. “So mostly it’s just an experiment in learning how to prepare and organize an experiment.”

But she explained that this is how she prefers it. The unexpectedness of the results and the uncontrollable factors are some of the very things that Delgado-Montes loves about ecology. Studies such as cell- and molecular-biology, which are very lab-based, are not for her.

“I wouldn’t be appropriate for cell bio,” said Delgado-Montes. “[Cell biology] is mostly just sitting in the lab, which is why I really enjoy ecology, because there is also a field aspect of it.”

Delgado-Montes intends to find work in ecol-

ogy after graduation, perhaps working in a lab or with environmentalism, though she plans to take a few years off before ultimately heading to graduate school. Though she does not know where her studies will take her just yet, all of her goals involve ecology and big-picture science.

Delgado-Montes, who is Bolivian, found herself inspired to become involved with ecology by watching the conservation in the Andes and Amazon as a child. While others in her family took various approaches to conservationism, such as Delgado-Montes’s mother, who advocates for indigenous peoples in the Amazon, Delgado-Montes was alone in her desire to become a ecologist.

“I was the only one in the family who thought science was the way we should go about it,” said Delgado-Montes. “I’ve also always been an outdoor person and it was pretty easy to fall in love with nature and what’s out there.”

Campus patrol watches over dorms, students at night Khine Thant

Guest reporter

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Jonah Bleckner/The Miscellany News

ampus patrol is one of the most visible examples of on-campus employment yet their role at Vassar still remains somewhat enshrouded in mystery. Campus patrol was previously an entirely student-run organization that performed their duties outside the dorms until a couple of years ago.

However, because of the transition that took place in 2011, campus patrollers now perform their duties within the dormitories themselves.

Starting at 7 p.m., they begin their nightly routine of walking through the hallways and checking bathrooms, confirming that there are no students in medical distress in addition to checking for potential fire hazards.

In many ways, campus patrol offers students a chance to police their own communities, acting both as quasi-authority figures and peer mediators. Since patrol officers are students themselves, they often offer a unique perspective that one might not find when interacting with the staff members of the Safety and Security team.

In addition to these routine procedures, they actively assist in student-to-student resolution situations, such as noise complaints. However, after the transition from outdoor work to the responsibilities of performing duties inside the dorm, the detailed tasks of campus patrol and how they perform them remain fairly unclear to some students on campus. Students often hold misconceptions surrounding the amount of power afforded to patrollers.

Hannah Tobias ’16, a campus patroller, said, “What students don’t seem to know is that we are not going to report you for being drunk or doing drugs. Our job is to make sure that if you are physically incapacitated and want help, we will sit down and we will ask you if you want to be EMSed. If yes, we can help you to get the help you need. If it looks really bad, we can ask EMS to come check you but will still ask for your consent.”

In dealing with noise complains from stu-

Kenzie Cook ‘13, employed by Campus Patrol, surveys a bathroom for any students who need medical attention. Other duties of patrollers include handling noise complaints and checking for fire hazzards. dent, campus patrol officers can also act as a liaison between students before the issue is brought up to the security office, helping to resolve problems before they escalate to larger ones requiring the intervention of campus authorities.

Some students involved with campus patrol advocate the importance of non-confrontation in the dormitory communities they serve.

Gabrielle Scher ‘15, a campus patroller, said “I think security only need to get involved if you asked a bunch of times and the students haven’t quieted down. I think having patrol people is great because some people don’t like confrontation. That gives them the option to still go to student patrol first and do student-to-student communication before getting security involved. I think it works out well. I think a lot of people don’t know we do that but

I hope it is something we can improve on in the future with advertising.”

Tobias also agreed, expanding on the student-centered approach to conflict resolution.

“Our job is really student-to-student conflict resolution. If anyone has a problem, they can come to us we can go and take care of it,” she said.

The new placement of campus patrol officers inside the dorm has brought about the role of campus patrol as a peer-to-peer situation resolution task force in addition to their task of helping to keep the Vassar community safe.

Leonardo Rubiano ‘13 is a student supervisor at the campus patrol office. He elaborated on the changing needs of the campus as related to the role patrolers play on campus.

Rubiano stated, “The idea behind the transition is that Residential Life or [the] Security Of-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

fice felt that patrol’s resources and time would be better suited to having patrollers inside the dorms because at night students are mostly inside...so having someone walking around the dorm once every hour to make sure that no one is in medical distress [makes sense]. Especially with student patrols, there is not a whole lot we can do except to report incidents. We are also not equipped to handle emergency outside the dorms.”

Due to the limitations of student patrollers, the restructuring of the position has created new partnerships. Campus patrol officers work alongside Safety and Security and the Office of Residential Life.

Rubiano said, “The day to day functions of campus patrols are oversaw by student supervisors and staffs. We also work with a liaison person from the Residential Life and a liaison officer from the Security Office.”

In addition to having the chance to help maintain security on campus, patrollers are also afforded certain benefits for their work.

The campus patrol office provides patrollers with flexible working hours and have no limits to the number of hours that students can work in a week . In addition, promotion to become staff members of campus patrol office are also possible.

Scher elaborated on the personal satisfaction that comes with working as a campus patrol officer, “The best part about working as a campus patrol is the flexible working hours and the availability of promotion to go up. If you can’t make it to a shift, you can ask for people to cover your shift. I also take pride in this job as it is keeping the dorms safe.”

Since the major restructuring of campus patrol that occurred a couple of years ago, Rubiano said he would be interested to know about how patrollers are perceived by students on campus.

Both Scher and Tobias said they hope that the role of campus patrol will become more understood in the Vassar community as time goes by.

April 25, 2013

OPINIONS

Page 9

THE MISCELLANY NEWS STAFF EDITORIAL

VC must broaden awareness of Native American issues On April 17, a group of Native Americans from the Oglala Lakota Nation drove a small trailer from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to Washington D.C. Their journey was an attempt to bring the harsh realities of life on a reservation to the attention of Congress and the White House.

The small, shabby trailer is representative of the housing units that the Oglala families rely on for shelter. The Oglala Sioux Housing Authority currently estimates that the reservation is over 1,000 units short of what is necessary for the total population, yet their budget is on the verge of being drastically reduced as a result of the sequestration cuts.

The fact that this story was not covered in major news outlets is symptomatic of the lack of concern given to Native issues.

Granted, the event took place around the time of the violence occurring in Boston, but other significant events in Native communities—including struggles with the federal government—have continually been denied coverage in mainstream American media.

Unfortunately, we at the Miscellany News see a similar phenomenon being replicated on Vassar’s campus—a campus that is home to Native students and faculty, and that is located on Native land in a city whose name comes from the Wappinger language.

Despite touting a commitment to diversity and exhibiting a historic interest in is-

sues relating to social justice, there is little dialogue on campus about Native peoples, their cultures and the challenges they face to their political and physical sovereignty.

This is evident in the lack of availability in classes in Native Studies, which is currently a correlate program within the American Studies Department as well as a general shortage of campus discourse on Native American issues and cultures.

One particularly salient example of this lack of visibility is the treatment of our unique collection of contemporary Native pottery that is kept in storage, rather than on display at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center.

Long-time collector Edd Guarino has offered to will his entire collection of his pieces to the College if they are placed on display. If collected, Guarino’s contributions would make Vassar the single largest owner of contemporary native art in the region. This is an incredible opportunity for the College. Yet most students don’t know about the collection.

It is imperative that the College improve its dedication to the academic coverage of Native issues. Currently, Native American Studies is a correlate program, and there is only one professor who specializes in Native studies, resulting in small class listing with limited scope. Though the Native American Studies classes currently offered are highly valuable, one professor cannot

possibly cover the native issues across all nations and disciplines. While this profesor can inform the student body about native issues from personal experiences, there are hundreds of tribes in the United States, and having a limited number of individuals may lead to essentializing Native American cultures.

Because of its interdisciplinary nature, the expansion of the Native Studies program would benefit many areas of study.

Centering native issues provides a rich lens for examining other disciplines like History, Art History, Environmental Studies, Political Science, English and Sociology. We applaud the efforts already made by some faculty to incorporate Native issues into their curriculum, but would like to see this on a more substantial scale.

In addition to an academic commitment to Native American Studies, we encourage the campus to engage with and become aware of Native issues on a social level.

Over the last year especially the College has experienced a push for increasing awareness of social issues and a desire to improve campus climate.

In issues of gender and racial identity, Native American histories, struggles and cultures must also be taken into consideration. One way to accomplish this goal is in the form of the social awareness requirement, which is currently being discussed by the Vassar Student Association.

The voices of Native students on campus must be heard, which is why the Miscellany News supports the efforts underway to increase visibility of Native Americans within the context of the ALANA Center. Many students do not know that the last two letters—”NA”—stand for Native American.

The recent creation of a Native American Student Alliance, and its upcoming dinner and discussion, is an exciting step forward for the College, and we encourage the growth of and participation in such student groups, as well as institutional support for its programming.

Currently, there are 566 federally recognized Native tribes in the United States.

These are nations whose histories and sovereignty predate those of the United States, and despite the destructive effects of colonization, are still living, growing, and fighting to assert their sovereignty.

Understanding these issues are foundational to understanding American history and culture. This is why we encourage Native American Studies at Vassar to move beyond a correlate program and support more student initatives on indigenous issues; these actions truly reflect the vibrant and dynamic field of study and will bring more social equity to this campus and America.

—The Staff Editorial represents the opinion of at least 2/3 of the seventeen member Editorial Board

Students who are looking Sleep hard to come by to build start-ups: be wary in the typical college life Heloise Mercier

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Guest Columnist

ark Zuckerberg: 21; Nick d’Aloisio: 17; Kevin Systrom: 28; Caterina Fake: 33; Jack Dorsey: 30. These are the ages at which the founders of Facebook, Summly, Instagram, Flickr and Twitter launched their companies. These young and ambitious entrepreneurs constitute an elite and well-known core of self-made millionaires, but they didn’t come waltzing in with their inexperience and student loans; many of these entrepreneurs have been thinking up their ideas since adolescence. Meanwhile, many college graduates are shooting for similar aspirations without realizing the neither the demand of entrepreneurship or the risks at hand.

In a sort of irony, our aging population has been increasingly worshiping youth culture and how the people in the limelight are getting younger by the day. In March, Yahoo bought Summly, a start-up created by a 17-year-old d’Aloisio for $30 million, making him one of the youngest self-made multi-millionaires ever.

Self-made jobs are attractive, but are they made by people due to being disjoined from the labor market, or instead are they an alternative to the chaotic job market and a chance to create what isn’t out there already?

An increasing number of college graduates are in for a rude welcome when they enter the job market. In 2012, 53.6% of bachelor’s degree holders under the age of 25 were jobless or underemployed, the highest number in the last 11 years according to Census data and U.S. Department of Labor. Meanwhile, many people are looking for ways to get by without depending on friends and family. As a result, The younger generation has been pushed to redefine stability, and they often turn to self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship as a possible solution.

About 12 years ago Scott Gerber was in the same situation now frightfully frequent for many: graduating with thousands in student loans and no plans for the future. Rather than wallow, he created an opportunity for himself, and started his own company that unfortunately crashed shortly thereafter. Call it stubbornness or determination, but he then took on even more loans to start a new media company called SizzleIt. It didn’t make him a millionaire or a Zuckerberg, but Graber was able to not only move out of his parents house, but stand on his

own feet. This story is one much like many lesser known, but more common instances of selfmade success. This is the sort of story that those with a diploma in their hands and debt on their mind dream of: the ability to create their own opportunities The ridge between both the billionaire and well-off entrepreneur is one created by opportunity. The top dogs choose to launch their startups. It wasn’t an alternative or a fall back from an unsuccessful launch into the employment market; it was a choice. They sought realization for a concrete idea in a demanding market to which venture capitalism was a means, not an end. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, half of all new businesses fail within the first five years. The decision to make a start-up is a well-known gamble but the triumph of the victorious few fuels the idea that it is worth it to many.

Meanwhile entrepreneurial opportunity is more accessible than ever before. Unlike other well-established fields there is no supremacy of the experienced. An amateur launching a business from his dorm room in Oregon can generate the same buzz than a well-established business mogul. In the 1950’s you needed a corner office on Madison Ave., but now all you need is a laptop.

Newly released data from the National Business Incubation Association shows that one third of incubators—accessible space designed for start-ups to blossom—are at universities.

Even non-tech, publicly unaffiliated universities like University of Syracuse have invested in start-up incubators. But fantasies of inspriational college students aren’t enough to ensure a successful business. Many student start-ups however don’t follow Facebook’s path to success. As Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program’s business adviser Jeffrey Babin says, “Ideas are a dime a dozen—whoever gets it to the market in the fastest and most effective manner wins.”

There is a growing misconception about young adults starting successful businesses; They are neither uninspired nor unmanaged.

Start-ups are outshining any job that has a boss, a schedule or an office, but there is definitely a living to be made in the resistance.

—Heloise Mercier ‘16 is a student at Vassar College.

Angela Della Croce

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opinions editor

leep. If I were to conduct a survey, asking Vassar students—or any college student for that matter—what they don’t get enough of, it would probably be sleep. In fact, when students are asked what they look forward to most when an extended break approaches, it’s not reuniting with their family and friends—It is sleep and other forms of relaxation. A common response you’d hear is, “I’m going to be so happy to do absolutely nothing for a whole month.”

With classes, extracurricular activities, and homework, it seems impossible to find time for a good snooze. We have events to attend, lectures to learn from, and social gatherings to crash. Only those who are either lazy or incredibly efficient can afford to sleep or unwind.

When we were young, we had naptime, recess, and lunch break. As we got older, naptime was omitted and recess soon followed suit. A time dedicated to eating lunch was also taken from us as we entered college— now we hardly even have time to breathe, let alone sleep or relax.

Since when has sleep—something so crucial that it was incorporated into our school day—become such a luxury that many people sacrifice it?

And we usually sacrifice it for something of little to no educational value. Why don’t you get enough rest? Most would vehemently respond with, “I simply don’t have the time.”

Yet as college students with a seemingly endless list of to-do’s, we spend many hours a day on Facebook, Twitter, BuzzFeed, Tumblr, and other social media sites.

Instead of working on projects and homework assignments on weekends so the week is not as hectic, many students would much rather party or participate in social events.

These preferences aren’t meant to be stigmatized, but they are grounded in observational truth. And of course, these events may be seen as a method of relaxation, but it cannot beat the benefits of sleep.

So why do we so easily put off sleep just to scroll through our News Feed at night?

The everyday individual is well aware that sleep is indeed not a luxury; it’s a necessity.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Proper sleep is vital to the efficiency of our daily functions as well as the consolidation of memories.

There have been studies that show nurses who work during the night and consistently don’t get enough sleep are at risk of having a shorter average lifespan.

A slew of negative side effects, like irritability, inability to multitask, and impaired memory, are associated with not getting enough sleep. The irony is that we blame our scholastic endeavors on our lack of sleep yet our lack of sleep will only make it more difficult to finish those endeavors at a reasonable hour.

One reason we may not value sleep as much as we should is because of the economic and psychological notion of “time inconsistency”. We value instant gratification over future benefits. Would you rather discover the 23 reasons your parents are basically giant children on BuzzFeed or not run the risk of feeling sluggish the next day? Most would end up finding out just how immature parents can be.

Another reason could be because, as a social norm, we simply don’t emphasize the need to sleep. Sure, the experts do, but the media—the source of information we follow more—doesn’t. Fun is focused around latenight activities; studying reaches its epitome with pulling all-nighters; and people from around the world flock to “the city that never sleeps”.

Whatever the reason may be for our devaluing of something so fundamental, the bottom line is that we DO have the time to sleep, we just choose not to. I personally know individuals to get plenty of sleep and still fulfill their obligations. In fact, they are more productive and are more involved than most of the people I know.

Perhaps if we reordered our priorities to put down our books, phones, computers, and expansive To-Do lists for the sake of a little more shut-eye, we would actually be helping our future selves in being more efficient and happy individuals.

—Angela Della Croce ‘15 is an Economics major. She is Opinions Editor of The Miscellany News.

OPINIONS

Page 10

April 25, 2013

North Korean actions represent tactful foreign policy Phil Chen

Guest Columnist

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e tend to label things that we don’t understand as “crazy”. This seems to be the case with North Korea. With news articles often picturing North Korea and its leaders as erratic and evil, we often explain the regime’s actions in elementary and sensational ways.

In the case of an organization as complex as a modern nation-state however, such simplistic thinking only reflects a serious lack of understanding and refusal to make amends. Though counter-intuitive on the surface, North Korea is a highly rational state with not crazy but strategic leaders. Upon examination of recurring patterns, we can see a coherent and far-sighted strategy that has proven dazzlingly successful.

The recent drama of heightened rhetoric appears much more logical when we look at a history of incidents with North Korea. The nation started its nuclear program four decades ago and has conducted a total of 14 missile launches and tests within a decade, each followed by renewed UN sanctions and regional talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US. The successful talks were marked by an agreement for foreign aid to North Korea in exchange for denuclearization promises.

However, as of today, North Korea has continued to develop nuclear capacities and has filled international headlines every few days with nuclear test announcements or military threats. With this routine pattern in mind, it is crazy that the world is always eager to pronounce North Korea’s staged dramas as “crises.” The increased publicity only gives more attention and submission to North Korea’s demands.

The intent of such theatrical acts is twofold.

North Korea, having removed its domestic opposition (i.e. the bourgeoisie,) has one major security threat: the leadership succession that occurred last year. Thus, the most important

aspect of issuing military threats is to shore up support among the military in times of domestic uncertainty. From 2009 to the present day – before and after the succession of Kim Jung-Un – North Korea has thrown an unprecedented amount of tantrums, including repeated missile launches in 2009, a ship-sinking in 2010, an island-shelling in 2011, a “satellite”-launching in 2012 and threat of a “preemptive strike” in March of this year.

“Though counterintuitive on the surface, North Korea is a highly rational state with not crazy but strategic leaders.”

Phil Chen ’16 Another key purpose of threats from North Korea is bargaining for foreign aid. An article from The Belfast Center at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government from 2010 titled “Keeping Kim: How North Korea’s Regime Stays in Power” argues that the regime “manipulates foreign governments to generate the hard currency needed to buy off elites and sustain his military.” Pyongyang has extracted $6 billion in aid with its promises of denuclearization, in addition to enormous food aids and revenues from the Kaesong Industrial Complex.

This illustrates North Korea’s infallible strategy of “Keeping Kim” for its convenience as well as lack its of consequences. On the one hand, North Korea has no reason to keeps its promise of denuclearization. Instead, it needs to keep the program going for its own secu-

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rity and its use as a bargaining chip to obtain billion-dollar aid that it urgently needs. On the other hand, there are no effectual consequences for its controversial actions and empty promises. The most effective options on the table for the international community are freezing North Korean assets overseas and putting an embargo on luxury goods. Ironically, for their effectiveness, these measures could result in the collapse of the regime and a subsequent refugee crisis. Neither South Korea or China particularly want an influx of 24 million starving people; nor does China want to lose its strategic ally to the US. More disturbingly, North Korea knows this better than anyone else. This is why the authors of the Belfast Center article describe Kim Jung-Il as a “shrewd leader” and a “strategic player.”

One might argue that the Obama administration and the new South Korean President Park Geun-hye have refused to continue this game with North Korea, and if so, the argument of the nation’s actions for the sake of aid no longer applies. Recent developments within North Korea shed much light on this issue. Since the 1990s, the end of the Cold War and Soviet assistance brought North Korea’s economic system to a grinding halt.

To avoid a total economic collapse, the regime allowed some private markets and some private plots, thus giving birth to a fledgling merchant stratum that exists outside the central power. That is to say, the domestic opposition that the regime removed decades ago has revived due to pressure of global capitalism. As a remedy to this, North Korea uses the threat of imminent war to pull its subjects back into loyalty and submission.

Whatever the reason, North Korea still runs its old script, and the international community continues to buy it. To the delight of Kim JungIl, his tantrum has further played off China and the US. In early April, a supposedly scared US

made a move to “rebalance toward the Pacific” by deploying strategic bombers in Guam, South Korea, the Philippines and Japan, capable of containing both North Korea and China.

To China, this is a clear sign of increased containment and has created tremendous tension between the two states.

If anything is reassuring, it is that North Korea will never develop a deployable nuclear arsenal in its current state, and thus won’t start launching any nuclear weapons arbitrarily. As already discussed above, a full nuclear arsenal would not only present North Korea as a irreversible threat but also strip it of its only bargaining chip for hard cash it desperately needs.

“North Korea has no reason to keep its promise of denuclearization.”

Phil Chen ’16 Nobody can predict the future, and many who prophesized a downfall of the North Korean regime in the 1990s were laughably wrong.

However as much as North Korea tries to stabilize its population, it is a weak and dependent state resisting increasing pressure of global capitalism and democratic nations. China had succumbed to the market in the late 1970s and the Soviet Union followed suit. Even with North Korea’s recent initiative to learn from China’s transformation toward a Singaporean authoritarian capitalism, it is hard to say if North Korea is the next on the list for “regime change.” One thing we can do, however, is to treat North Korea as a serious state while keep its dramas domestic.

—Phil Chen ‘16 is a student at Vassar College.

MSU student offers unique view of Vassar community William Driscoll Guest Columnist

W

hen I first visited Vassar, I never gave the college itself much thought; I was just excited to visit my girlfriend. Plus, I assumed all college campuses were the same—a bustling chaos of students and concrete, where over-filled classes were commonplace and growing close to a professor was an anomaly.

My average day in college was highly individualistic—almost solitary. Classes consisted of unknown faces and brief acquaintances, and evenings were often spent with high school friends. It was difficult to make friends in such a vast community of students at my school, Michigan State. Those who did were extremely overt and had to make a huge effort just to reach out to others. This obviously excludes those in Greek life who essentially bought their college friends.

Though I was aware that different colleges would elicit different experiences, I thought the life of a college kid was essentially similar around the nation, regardless of location or school size. In fact, I was advised not to go to a small college. Counselors and friends warned me of a lack of class selection, “cliquey-ness,” a lack of diversity, and the risk of not meeting ANYONE you could relate to. Needless to say, this made me completely rule out colleges like Vassar, the few-thousand student institution it was.

I have visited various campuses—at least in the Midwest—and I can safely say that Vassar is a one-of-a-kind school. Its architecture and campus resemble a close-knit neighborhood or community rather than a school. It is both quaint and magnificent at the same time.

The layout is intimate and welcoming, unlike the expansive concrete jungle of many state schools like mine.

Vassar’s emphasis on preserving its natural environment made the campus all the more breath-taking. Visiting in the fall was definitely a good choice; all of the trees were changing color and looked beautiful against the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

rusty red brick of the dormitory houses.

What surprised me the most about this college was the campus climate. In my short stay, my overall impression was that Vassar students harbored a real sense of community and friendliness that built an environment of kind-heartedness and consideration towards fellow students. You weren’t just students going to the same school; you were closely tied to one another and appear to truly care for the well-being of your fellow Brewers.

The sidewalks weren’t littered by hundreds of students trying to hurry home or to their next class. Instead there was a sense of serenity and familiarity with the few students who were out and about. The ACDC, though definitely more limited in its dining options than I was expecting, had an intimate feeling. I could tell it was also a place where students congregate and socialize. There were many friendly nods and small talks shared amongst different groups. It was as if everyone knew everyone else, which was definitely something I wasn’t accustomed to in my three years at MSU. Classes were pea-sized compared to my lecture halls, and discussions involved every student’s input. Teachers knew everyone by name, and I certainly couldn’t get away with drifting off in my girlfriend’s calculus class.

The entire dynamic of the academic and social aspects of Vassar differed completely from what I was used to. I saw college as a selection of classes taken to achieve graduation; Vassar saw it as an opportunity to be a second home for students. Even though my first visit only lasted a few days, I could see how holistic your college experience is.

Thank you Vassar for crushing my previously-conceived notions of a small college. If I had known how positive an intimate college setting could be, it may have changed which school I ended up going to. And who knows?

Maybe I would’ve been a Brewer too.

William Driscoll ‘14 is a Mechanical Engineering major. He is a student at Michigan State University.

April 25, 2013

OPINIONS

Learning is about more than textbooks Harrison Remler Guest Columnist

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ast week my political science professor assigned a challenging task for the class to consider over the weekend: He asked we evaluate the idea of “teaching.” He wanted us to look back upon our experience at Vassar and make sense of the “contract” in place between student and professor.

A student steps into a college course on day one with several expectations. First, they expect the professor to be competent and knowledgeable of the subject at hand. They know much more than we, as students, can fathom and have devised an organized plan (a syllabus) to guide us through understanding their knowledge and wisdom. Students will be dependent on readings that seamlessly connect to one another and often inspire rich discussion. Upon reading assignment after assignment, the student inch closer to the ultimate goal of a cohesive understanding of the course’s subject. Scribbled red ink etched across examinations and papers will ensure the professor is making an effort to help improve the student’s understanding of the material and serve as a mark of progress. At the end of the course students then will fill out evaluations in hopes the professor reads and recognizes their comments of admiration, as well as comments and suggestions on how to improve the course as a whole.

There’s something happening here at Vassar that is challenging the norm of traditional teaching. Many of Vassar’s professors are taking on the courageous challenge of reshaping the pace and structure of the college course from its cliché roots. What we as students are both realizing and experiencing here at Vassar is a resistance to what we define as the safe and typical route to learning.

I’m also beginning to recognize the moments in which I truly learned. It has never been directly through the readings or through my ability to sift through the heavy density of

a textbook. It was when I had opened up as a student; when I allowed myself to develop relationships and discussion in the classroom, that learning percolated.

I vividly remember the first time I learned at this college. I was sitting in Sanders Classroom 013 on a Sunday night. It was about 9:30 p.m. and the room was nearly filled. The entire class was performing rap assignments for our freshman writing seminar, “Hip Hop in Critical Citizenship.” Some students had invited their friends interested in seeing this creative assignment first-hand, so the classroom had become nearly full of excited onlookers.

Students with no rapping experience began to “spit” stories of their hometowns, high school days and the inspirations they had from their favorite rappers. The assignment, according to the professor, was for us was to simply “describe home.”

It wasn’t the actual raps and personal stories that inspired me. The educational experience came when I realized the power of writing, and the strength of creative tone and speech; that a powerful rapper can represent a powerful writer and person. I was learning how to step outside my comfort zone, work with others in a very unorthodox style of group work.

Students engaged the novice rappers and their stories with thoughtful questions following each performance, as grades were dependent on how effective one could incorporate a critical approach into their responses to other’s work..

Any uninformed person looking into that room would have seen students making a futile attempt at rap. However, what they would fail to be failing to understand is the process at work and the message behind that process because they did not see or experience the initial struggles or obstacles we had with the assignment. We did not know how to engage personal anecdote, the birth of a sub culture through the influence of hip hop muesic and theories of critical race theorists to convert it

into a Sunday night rap performance.

This style of learning was so different, so engaging, so magical. What I’m trying to convey here is that teaching is not merely a relationship dependent on the professor communicating to a student—there is also a huge obligation on the student to open up and be able to recognize the opportunities for learning outside of the textbook and how students can benefit from it.

Once a student can realize that the beauty and effectiveness of teaching is in relationships between professors and students as well as from moments like mine in Sanders they are finally beginning to learn. Though I myself have missed many opportunities to learn, and I continue to try to open my mind to the subtle opportunities of learning in my college life.

We can learn so much from each other, from our friends and our professors. We can also uncover a better understanding of things from the events that have occurred in our lives, such as the race war within terrorism in the wake of the unfathomable actions of the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston. Take recent headlines, which obsesses over the government and police officer’s ability to chase down and capture terrorists within our home, and reach back into recent history to find the story of Pat Tillman, who died 9 years ago this past Monday as a result of friendly fire, and how little coverage was given regarding the investigation. If we really want to learn more and engage critically we must create a dialogue between the two events and evaluate the media’s handling of them both. Learning is within every moment of our lives and every step we take as young college students. We need to open our minds and allow for the process to happen; to break the social contract between professor and teacher—that’s where the magic starts to happen.

opinions editor

F

or several years now, there have been plans for the Barnes & Noble located within the College Center to relocate off campus. The store, originally looking to take up space on the corner of Collegeview and Raymond Ave. where the Juliet Cafe once stood, has been pressuring to move in order to accommodate a wider variety of stock. However, since the Recession, these plans have all but evaporated, leaving Juliet with an iconic for-lease sign instead. As a result, the bookstore shall remain where it is for the time being, and the plans for a new 24-hour space have gone up in smoke.

The need for a new 24-hour space at Vassar have been years in the making. In recent memory, UpC, the iconic spot for late-night treats and R&R, has served as this space for students.

While it is to some extent a useful space, UpC is nonetheless plagued by a 2 a.m. closing time, limiting accommodations for study groups, and has unfortunately also taken away a space once vital for campus parties and events. As a result, a need is arising to somehow both open up UpC into a usable space for events and campus venues once more while also creating a much more accommodating space here at Vassar for students at all hours.

To solve the need for a more accommodating space for students looking for everything from a late-night snack to a group-study room, the original plan was to use the student space—at least until the Bookstore decided not to make its move off campus.

While College Properties LLC is in the process of leasing the Juliet Cafe space to a new vendor, we students are currently in need of a much more accommodating student space, and the VSA must find a way to better create one. The actual solution to this is not an easy one, as a new student space here at Vassar needs to fulfill several needs. For one, it needs to be available late at night, or if possible at all hours every day. Second, it should offer some sort of late-night dining option for students who miss out on the ACDC. Third, it needs

to offer comfortable environment, and finally it needs to offer resources that students need at all hours.

There are a number of things that could be done to perhaps create this ideal space. One idea from Administration was to turn the East Wing of the ACDC into a new sort of latenight space once the dining center had closed at 8 p.m. While this would open up UpC for events once more and perhaps also offer more late-night food options, the problem remains that most would not consider the East Wing of the ACDC (denoted “EastC” at the most recent Council meeting) to be an exactly comforting space, much like UpC. While most at the Council meeting, where this discussion occurred, mentioned the option of extending Retreat hours, Administration expressed concern that this would be less logistically possible than “EastC,” though exact specifics have not yet been stated. In either case, the progress made so far for a new student space has, for the meantime, been slowed by the Bookstore’s decision to remain where it is. The best alternative location for this student space has yet to be discovered, and it won’t be until next year that we see more progress be made on how to proceed with the creation of a future student space.

“The need for a new 24hour space at Vassar have been years in the making.”

JoshUa sherMan ’16 Personally, the idea of a student space would not fit anywhere else than within the College Center, purely because of its location.

The Student’s Building, as much as I love the ACDC and UpC, cannot fulfill what I think the College Center can in terms of accessibility at all hours. Whether this means the CCMPR,

Word

on the street

If you could take any class at Vassar, what would you take?

“Advanced Funky Studies.”

—Nicole Magney ’14

“History of Fake Music Bands.”

—Helios Tavio Dominguez, Language Fellow

—Harrison Remler ‘14 is a Political Science Major.

Vassar student spaces require upgrades Joshua Sherman

Page 11

Retreat, or other space within the College Center be repurposed I am unsure. While the short term and long term goals of whichever spot is picked to serve as a student space may differ, I sincerely hope the VSA and Vassar Administration alike take into consideration the value of the College Center as a student space, and how much the Retreat, CCMPR, and other spaces within the Center can perhaps somehow balance all the needs we have for a student space, while opening up the potential of UpC once more for events.by organizations and other on-campus groups.

This discussion regarding the student space is far from over, and will likely go on for years as a temporary and permanent space are found. What matters in this process is how far we go to accommodate student’s needs in the immediate future and the long term. An immediate solution may involve a relocation that is as equally accommodating and accessible as UpC is now, while the long term may go as far as to require renovations of the College Center, Students Building, or other facilities to truly offer what we want as a student space.

Meeting all of these needs and desires is no easy task, and will likely take a serious effort and a fair amount of time even in an ideal scenario.

Hopefully we will see a space meet all the needs I’ve mentioned already, as well as one that is more centrally located to all students on campus. While it’s unrealistic to ask for something perfect, I think we can make a lot of improvement over the spaces we have already in this process, and I sincerely hope all parties push for some progress in the coming years over this, rather than no progress at all. The worst thing we can do is simply hesitate, and think a solution will magically appear. It’s up to us to build the student space that we want to have on campus, and that will be accomplished through collaborations of students and administrators alike to get the most out of our future spaces.

—Joshua Sherman ‘16 is an English major. He is Opinions Editor of The Miscellany News.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“How Not to Make Vassar Kids Upset.”

—Matthew Kramer ’13

“Critical Trolling Theory.”

—Mia Fermindoza ’14

“Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

-Natalie Dicenzo ’16

“How to Shred 101.”

—Johnny Rowlands ’15

Jean-Luc Bouchard, Humor & Satire Editor Spencer Davis, Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

April 25, 2013

SWUG langauge shows poor preception of culture Mara Gerson

Guest Columnist

I

recently received an email from a girlfriend with a link to an article in The Cut, an online section of New York Magazine geared towards young women. The article enlightened me on a new phrase, “SWUG.” This term, short for “Senior Washed Up Girl,” was originally coined at Yale but has since made its way into more mainstream college lingo. According to the article, entitled “Meet the SWUGs at Yale” (The Cut, 04.10.13,) the phrase describes a female college senior who rejects upon college life with an “I don’t give a f***” attitude, because she finds herself suddenly dissatisfied with the school’s straight male population.

In the “wise” words of a Yale undergraduate, being a SWUG involves, “...the slow, wine-filled decline of female sexual empowerment as we live out our college glory days. Welcome to the wonderful world of ladies who have given up on boys because they don’t so much empower as frustrate, satisfy as agitate.”

In other words, while she might appear to be “over” college and its pervasive hookup culture, she is in fact still yearning and desperate for male attention and is jealous of the underclassmen girls who tend to receive it. Additionally, the article noted that as soon as she graduates college, this girl will likely become romantically involved with older men, simultaneously foregoing her militant apathy and conforming once again to the social scene that surrounds her.

I immediately took issue with the term SWUG, in addition to the way it was presented in both The Cut’s article and in almost all other online publication I found on the subject.

The mainstream discourse not only normalized (and even took pleasure in) this degrading term, but also failed to embed the SWUG phenomenon in a larger social critique of sexual dynamics for young people.

All of the blame went on the women for their

desperation, inadequacy, lack of sex appeal and hypocrisy. No attention was given to an analysis of why a heterosexual female college senior might want to adopt an “I don’t give a f***” attitude in the first place; in fact, the article condescendingly notes that saying this is just a shallow attempt at sounding more interesting than her peers. If The Cut were to really unpack this term in the context of its broader culture, we would get a much more complex picture of what’s going on—one that would not start and conclude by blaming or objectifying young women.

“I immediately took issue with the term SWUG.” Mara Gerson ’13 I write this article after four years of experiencing both enjoyment and frustration with Vassar’s dating culture. In addition to my scholastic endeavors and enriching social life, being around my male peers for four years has ultimately made me feel all the more enlightened, powerful, and proud to be a young single woman.

However, I think that the term SWUG is born out of a problematic and prevalent dynamic in the romance scene for people my age.

Within this hookup culture lies a troubling paradox for young women: on the one hand, we are encouraged to participate in it in order to feel “empowered” or validated through sexual encounters; on the other hand, these encounters are so often disempowering for their participants, especially (straight) women. These disempowering aspects of hookup culture often include (but are by no means limited to) feeling pressured into having sex before really

getting to know or trust your partner, a lack of reciprocity when it comes to oral sex, or a lack of honest communication during or after a hookup.

It seems that within the hyper-sexed culture of college, anyone who aligns herself with feminist values faces somewhat of a dilemma when it comes to acting on her beliefs. Given this tension, it makes a lot of sense to me that girls my age will cycle through engagement and disengagement with the surrounding social scene in the search to find a balance that will ultimately feel the most empowering. But just because we are figuring out how to negotiate our ideals with reality, do we need to be called hypocritical? Do we need to be ridiculed, or asked to ridicule ourselves?

What I am asking for, first and foremost, is to not be humiliated by and blamed for something that is a product of a widespread and problematic cultural phenomenon of casual, often alcohol-induced hookups. While this may seem like a lighthearted statement, I believe that the seemingly casual dynamics of hookup culture can potentially lead to something very dangerous.

In the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I advocate that every sexist action— from the use of the term SWUG, to a lack of mutual respect during consensual sex, to non consensual sex—be understood as part of a process that contributes to violence against women and the normalization of that violence.

While we may laugh at, dismiss, or fail to recognize individual incidents of misogyny as they occur on a daily basis, that doesn’t change the fact that women on Vassar’s campus have been and will continue to be victims of sexual assault.

I ask, therefore, that we interrogate and challenge every instance that we witness, as both men and women in this community, that blames and objectifies those who experience a lack of respect, especially when it comes to the topic of sex.

The Miscellany Crossword

by Jack Mullan, Crossword Editor

ACROSS 1 Salinger heroine 5 It doesn’t add up 13 Copying function 15 Its symbol is five rings 16 The late author of “In the Night Kitchen” 18 Fast, as a rise 19 Counting everything (2 wds.)

21 What “−phile” means 22 Mistakes 23 Prop 8 state: Abbr.

25 2013, por ejemplo 26 Graph line showing another line’s limits 28 Gender equality org. in India 29 Aviation assn.

30 Type of article above this crossword 31 Two−time loser to

D.D.E. 32 Back to Brooklyn?

33 Bad: Comb. form 36 “Real Beauty sketches” ad brand 38 Skate shoes brand 41 Hockey player Bobby 42 2002 drama about an immigrant family and an AIDS−striken neighbor 45 Cape Town’s home: Abbr.

46 ___ Center, second−tallest building in Chicago 47 Wife of Alexander the Great 49 Take great pleasure (in) 51 Not a saver 53 It’s all there is 57 Next at bat 58 Long−time dictator who followed Allende

Answers to last week’s puzzle

59 Camel’s rest stop 60 Acting as a unit 61 Future atty.’s exam DOWN 1They, in Italy 2 Part of an act 3 You can say that again 4 Come out for, as a politician 5 Pierre ou Jacques 6 “Bravo!” to a torero 7 “All the news that’s fit to print” paper: Abbr.

8 Got a whiff of 9 Finnish rap duo

39 She−foxes 40 ABC’s political thriller 43 Triage areas, briefly 44 Celsius who devised the Celsius scale 48 Fungal spore sacs

50 Bacchanalian cry 52 Steven Tyler, for short 54 Royal Hobart Hospital: Abbr.

55 View 56 Entergy Corp.’s stock: Abbr.

10 Absolute bliss 11 Study for which Vassar’s new building is being constructed 12 Third−party accounts 14 One of the Jacksons 17 Fate 20 Articulation problem 23 Deal (with) 24 Munched on 27 Indian emblem 32 “Terrible” czar 33 Bad, but common, trait in politics 34 First name in late−night talk, once 35 Chocolate, to a pregnant woman 36 Mandarin or Cantonese, for example 37 Singer Yoko 38 Walter ___, Red Sox baller

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Ultimately, any woman (or person) should feel that she has the agency in a situation to decide whom she wants to date or sleep with and on what terms. If her interactions with men mean she feels compelled to be “over” college, then shouldn’t we be interrogating those very interactions rather than ridiculing her for deciding to disengage?

“I write this article after four years of experiencing both enjoyment and frustration with Vassar’s dating culture.”

Mara Gerson ’13 And after she graduates, let us not judge her when and if she decides to participate in a similar social scene outside of the walls of Vassar.

In the same vein, if she decides she wants to sleep around and be sexually interactive with multiple partners, then so be it, and let us not judge her for wanting to satisfy her desires in the same way that men have historically been encouraged to do. For if we judge her for these personal choices, it makes it all the more logical to judge her when she is a victim of sexual assault.

And if we do that, not only are we the hypocrites, but we ultimately perpetuate the disempowering and violent aspects of this troubling culture.

—Mara Gerson ‘13 is a Studio Arts major. at Vassar College

HUMOR & SATIRE

April 25, 2013

Page 13

OPINIONS

Breaking News From the desk of Jean-Luc Bouchard, Humor & Satire Editor Confused Poughkeepsie 7th graders overrun mall to find totally cute denim miniskirts before Friday’s Mug Night Humor reporters in the field: Humor reporters in the field: All the ViCE drams uncovered Deece meal swipes uncovered Jill Levine Columnist

A

few months ago, the editors of the Misc invited me to a secret meeting in one of the lesser known small rooms of the Deece. I carefully placed my plate, overflowing with Eggs All Day and Deece cake, on the table and sat down.

The gist of the meeting was this: Jill, they said, we need an undercover reporter and you’ve been so good at reporting real live news that is in no way comedy-related this past year and we have chosen you. I was like, OMG, thanks Misc people, I’m so glad you appreciate my sleuth skillz.

The editors exchanged knowing glances and furtively slid a piece of paper across the table.

I slowly turned the paper over, revealing a message that said simply, “ViCE Spring Concert.”

Before I could get more information, the editors had already disappeared in a flash of blinding green light. I’m a little worried about their connections to Lord Voldemort...probably doesn’t mean anything. I had my assignment.

In order to get the dirt on the spring concert, I needed to find a ViCE Music meeting. I literally had no clue how to do that, except for this weird hunch that they held their weekly meetings in a secret room under Sunset Lake. I watched and waited, until one night I saw a few cloaked figures disappear down a trap door. I crept down behind them and entered a dimly lit room with strange symbols (similar to math) written on the walls. I watched as the hooded figures sat together in the circle and each pulled a pair of long needles from their purse. “Oh my God, what weirdo ritualistic ceremony have I walked in on? Why does this kind of thing always happen to me?

This is just way too eerily similar to that party I went to in Ferry Haus that one time.” It turned out that my journalism skills were a bit off that day. I realized this when one of the figures found me cowering in the corner and cheerfully said, “Thanks for coming to the Knitting Society Meeting!” I guess the moisture under the lake is good for merino wool, or something. Damn it, these guys on ViCE were good. Where could they possibly be holding their meetings?

Because I am an undercover journalist of quality, I finally found the meeting place. From SayAnything. Apparently the meetings are open.

And have pizza. I’m on to you, ViCE. The meeting I attended was the final meeting, in which ViCE choose the artists for the Spring Concert.

The material I am attaching below is extremely

sensitive and top secret but whatever.

Deliberations for Spring Concert: These reports are for members of ViCE Music only.

ViCE TOTALLY has the ability to easily get any of these artists but we must consider the many complaints and problems that Vassar students will definitely have with all of them.

Taylor Swift: Original concert artist. ViCE had Taylor down for the concert early this year and they were in the midst of finding an agreeable price range. In the span of this three-week negotiation she managed to date and break up with two different members of the ViCE executive board and then refused to play the concert because of “trouble, trouble, trouble”, or, emotions.

Macklemore: Second choice artist until ViCE realized that the t-shirts at the bookstore definitely cost fifty dollars and didn’t want to be publicly shamed. It’s cool though, if you really wanted to see him you could have gone to one of the 300 colleges that booked him this spring (Mainstream, much?)

Nick Cannon: So in right now. Killin’ it on America’s Got Talent. Unfortunately, due to the oversight of one of the freshman members of the concert committee and some grave typos in Emoji correspondence with Cannon’s agents, ViCE ended up booking Nic Cage instead for the gig. Fearing, well, the wrath of Nic Cage, ViCE graciously invited him to the concert anyways, you’re welcome ladies. His agents warn about the use of video cameras during his time at Vassar because, they say: “he has a serious disorder, it’s a compulsion to be in every movie ever - blockbusters, home movies, The Wicker Man, it doesn’t matter. Seriously, go watch the movie your mom took at your fifth birthday party, he’s probably in it.”

DeadMau5: Rejected because the name is offensive to vegans, pacifists, animal rights activists and Republicans. Side note: the opening act would have been 32 kittens playing on the stage to Diplo remixes. I WOULD GO TO THAT. I left the meeting early but in the end, I heard that they decided to scrap the whole music idea all together and invited a 2011 Wesleyan graduate to come direct a Shakespeare play on Ballantine. Cultural capital, much?! It was an awesome soundtrack to board game night in my TA. I hope the Misc editors let me investigate everything else that goes on around here unnoticed by the general population like ghosts, hook up culture, Retreat milkshakes and more ghosts.

Margaret Port

Guest Columnist

R

oom draw for next semester is just around the corner. After frenzy of choosing the prereg classes with as little work as possible (I recommend North Korean History Through Interpretive Scarf Dancing) and trying to get a single, there is an even more daunting question looming over your future: What size meal plan is right for you? Desperate for vegetables that look like they may or may not be made of some kind of industrial rubber, and dishes so heavy in onions that you will ward off every Twilight fan within a 20 mile radius, we all happily hand over $14 every time we go to the Deece. Disturbed by being forced to eat in this building that, while on the outside is architecturally magnificent, is internally reminiscent of your dentists office or a sad Old Country Buffet, we decided it was time for knowledge. We sent in a team of experts to find out where our money is really going.

Claim: $3.78 of each meal swipe goes to purchasing cups Want to know why this constant need for cups exists? Rebellious salad bar stockers. These daredevils are stealing cups and using them to play soy milk pong in the kitchens, which also conveniently explains the shortage of Vanilla Soy Milk.

The investigative team also discovered that while the Deece is closed daily from 3:30 to 5:00, workers are not cleaning up the overzealous freshman boy who, in his hurry to fit the maximum number of Lucky Charms possible into his mouth, got a few thousand more soggy pots of gold on the floor than in the target. They are not preparing for the upcoming dinner rush, bringing with it a shortage of plates, chairs, and that mouthwatering chocolate cream pie that they never seem to have enough of if you come after 5:05 p.m. No, they are in the kitchen, practicing their wrist flicks and making sure to arc the ball (hard boiled egg) at exactly the right angle.

Claim: $0.97 goes to paying employees Seems a little high, but I’ll let it slide.

Claim: $1.19 goes to preparation of Curtis, The Latte Machine What is the most necessary thing to have in a college dining hall at eight in the morning?

Coffee. Even better, a creamy, steamy chai latte.

Or, for the less adventuresome, a French Vanilla

latte. And if you want to steer clear of caffeine, there’s always hot chocolate (although, let’s face it. You’re twenty years old. It’s not the caffeine stunting your growth. You’re just short.) Now, when you think of these delightful and creamy breakfast beverages, what are they looking like?

Are they clear, with the distinct taste and aroma of extraordinarily hot water? Probably not.

In which case, we should probably up the dollar amount given to poor old Curtis, because that old boy is sure not producing the good stuff with what he’s got.

Claim: $4.26 goes to purchasing locally grown produce If by local, they mean the Walmart in Fishkill, then I can believe this one.

Claim: $1.63 goes to tofu This one may actually be true. I’m all for supporting people with all dietary oddities, like only eating Kale every third Wednesday, but that tofu is the one food that is reliably available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The main problem here is that it’s not even yummy tofu. No sautéed tofu, no fried tofu, not even some baked tofu. There are no adjectives before that tofu that involve anything to do with culinary skills. It’s just those squishy grey cubes that are marketed as “food”. According to the packaging, the recommended method to eating plain tofu is to shove it all in your mouth at once and swallow it as fast as possible, minimizing the number of taste buds it touches and giving you that fun, dangerous “I think I am about to choke” feeling!

Reallocation of Funds proposal: Bacon.

Claim: Remaining money (sorry I can’t calculate that, I’m using my calculator to spell dirty words upside down right now) goes to buying an obscene amount of surprisingly delicious chocolate chip cookies.

Yeah, this one is absolutely true.

With this startling new information in mind, choose wisely when deciding which meal plan is the one for you. But if you inevitably make the wrong decision, fear not. You can always sell your meals to the desperate senior who, after 3 bouts of self inflicted salmonella, figured out that cooking really isn’t for him. That tofu is looking really good to him right about now. As is literally any job opportunity.

America’s favorite quiz game: Do you choose the Vassar email event, or the thing this author just made up?

by Lily Doyle, Humor & Satire Editor 1. Thrilling documentary on Polaroids OR Lecture on the “influence” of dubstep music on the elderly?

A: Polaroid Documentary! Yes, this week Vassar will proudly embrace its hipster-dom, and declare Instagramming your Pesto Chicken Ciabatta (not-in-a-Ciabatta-but-in-aPita-and-not-with-chicken-but-with-tofu) too mainstream. Instead, the college will draw focus to the Polaroid, to make you remember that honestly, if you aren’t pickling fruit for the winter and reading by candlelight on candles made from wax you formed yourself, you have lost your way. It inspired me so much that I am writing this on a typewriter. It took me over three weeks. To write that sentence.

I’ve also exposed myself to scarlet fever and refused to take the vaccine, because I am a true artist and because someone told me once that vaccine’s are SO early 2000s.

2. Tour of the Regal Galleria Mall Cinema with some authority figure named “Catherine Hill” OR A Screening of “The Clockwork Orange” at the Bardavon?

A: Clockwork Orange! At the Bardavon! Okay, so this actually happened LAST year during finals, BUT SERIOUSLY VASSAR, WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO? You want a lot of high-strung, already anxious “adults” who have spent their week being assigned homework and other tasks to watch some guy be forced to do things? Don’t you think that we should avoid get any funny ideas about aversion therapy? I’ve already been trying to train my roommate to bring me snacks from the vending machine every night at midnight like a Pavlovian dog. It seems to me that you are asking for open chaos and rebellion. Unless this is all part of the plan, and the reason it is being hosted at the Bardavon is to see if this

will incite us to burst into furious song and dance, thus creating a perfect flash mob.

3. Calligraphy lessons with an “expert calligrapher” (!?!?!?) OR a “Best of George Costanza” night in the Villard Room in honor of his appearance on our campus?

A: Calligraphy lessons! Oh yeah. We are bringing back the lost arts here at Vassar.

Bring your Polaroid camera with you, and take some pictures that appear to be vintage of your pretty and simultaneously pleasingly antique-y handwriting. Of course, only true old timers will be able to actually read your calligraphy, so now you can have a secret language with yourself! I’m sure your history professors will appreciate the authentic essays. You’ll probably still fail though, since your calligraphy is almost definitely illegible.

You’re not the expert.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

4. Native American Social Dances OR a “What are the possible cunning motivations behind the fact that the powers-that-be keep putting the spring concert on 4/20” Open Discussion in Sanders?

A: Native American Social Dances! As a person who knows her own share of Native American Social Dances (no, really, I do), there is no way I can make fun of that. I can, however, make fun of the fact that Vassar absolutely demands there to be a rain location, and the description of leading dances around “The Great Sycamore” is really undermined by the preceding print of “Rain Location: Powerhouse Theater.” You can’t just CHOOSE a spiritually significant sounding name and call that the same thing as a great Sycamore Vassar, you just can’t! We should totally just stab Caesar!!!! Sorry, got carried away there.

ARTS

Page 14

April 25, 2013

Author Strayed to illuminate art of creative non-fiction John Plotz reporter

W

hat do you do when you feel like you are failing in life? How do you go on when the things that mean the most to you are taken away? For Cheryl Strayed, the answers to those questions were to go wild. In 1991, when her mother was diagnosed with cancer and died seven weeks later, 22-year-old Strayed felt stripped of the most important person in her life. Three years later, feeling raw and lost with grief, she decided to take a three-month hike along the Pacific Crest Trail along the west coast of the United States.

This decision turned out to be a momentous one: her spiritual growth on this hike was the genesis for her future career as a writer. Her first book, a novel called Torch written in 2006,

drew from her experiences of losing her mother and growing up in rural Minnesota. More recently, Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, which recounted her journey starting from her mother’s diagnosis, has received immense acclaim, reaching No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for seven consecutive weeks. It has been translated into 28 languages and was selected by Oprah Winfrey to the be the first book in Oprah’s Book Club 2.0.

Vassar will welcome Strayed to campus on April 29, 2013 for a conversation, reading, and Q&A along with Professor of English Amitava Kumar, who recently published his book A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb in 2010.

Strayed’s memoir is currently being used in

courtesy of Joni Kabana

Author Cheryl Strayed will give a lecture on Monday, April 29, in Sander’s Classroom. Her memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, has been discussed in a senior writing seminar.

Hudson Valley

Arts

Tilly Foster Farm

Elting Memorial Library

Through April 93 Main St., New Paltz, NY Come see the teen photo contest on exhibit.

Hours: Mon., Wed., Fri., 10a.m.-8p.m.

Tues., Thurs., 1-5:30p.m., Sat. 10a.m.-4p.m., Sun. 1-4p.m.

Riverwinds Gallery

Through May 5 172 Main St., Beacon, NY 12508 “Signs of Spring” features photographs by artist Lori Adams.

Wed.-Mon noon-6p.m.

Garrison Art Center

Through May 5 23 Garrison’s Landing, Garrison, Riverside Galleries See works by German artists Andrea Hanak and Frank Cutter.

Tues.-Sun. 10a.m.-5p.m.

—Jack Owen, Arts Editor

In between her hike and publishing her first novel, Strayed took on miscellaneous jobs, while mastering her craft. Having been an English major and participating in writing programs in college, Strayed’s interest in writing had been developing for some time before her mother’s death. While she took on jobs to pay the bills, she would quit one whenever she was able to receive a grant to write or was accepted to a residency at a writer’s colony. Despite this, she found it difficult to have the initial push to write her novel.

“Sometime around my thirtieth birthday, I looked up from all the hiking and shopping and odd-jobs and drinking of various concoctions and realized that my novel had not been written…. I had to write it. I had to. I had to. I said I would and so I would. I am not the kind of person who says she will do something and then does not do it,” she wrote in “Backstory,” an online blog (“Cheryl Strayed’s Backstory”, 5.15.2006). This urge led her to grad school, where she earned a Master’s in Fine Arts in fiction writing at Syracuse University. A year after receiving her degree, she finished Torch, which marked the start of her successful career.

Strayed’s is a story of courage. In the face of doubt, and feeling as though nothing in the world was going her way, she chose to fight back and take on a challenge that was completely foreign to her. At the same time, her voice is gripping and entertaining. Because of this, Wallace feels that Strayed’s message will resonate with many Vassar students.

She said, “I think Strayed’s book speaks to those who have experienced a loss that changed their lives and had to find a way to face that loss and recreate themselves. And anyone who spends time hiking in the wilderness or loves the out-of-doors or undertakes an adventure that will test you, challenge you, thrill you, scare you. I think it will speak to anyone who is interested in writing that’s honest, funny, moving, and makes a reader want to keep reading.”

Painter Morris blurs natural and abstract Charlacia Dent

P

reporter

ainter and foreign language enthusiast Madeleine Morris ’14 is not afraid to push boundaries in her art, blurring the distinction between abstract and naturalistic. But she has not always approached art with this same confidence.

The Studio Art and Italian major’s interest began eight years ago when she started taking classes at the Student’s Art League in New York City.

“When I was fourteen, I went to art camp and I was one of the worse painters in the class, but I loved it so much that I started to take classes. One of the classes was a nude model one, which was intimidating because I was in the ninth grade, but I just kept at it,” Morris explained.

Morris continued, “I started keeping a sketch book, and I think that this was the big difference maker. I would draw all the time, when I was waiting around idly for something to draw or I’d go to the museums and sketch the masterpieces, keeping a list of the artists I really liked.”

She is now influenced and moved by revolutionary artists, such as Henri Matisse and Wassily Kandinsky, both known for their bold colors and unique compositions. “Matisse has incredibly beautiful color. His paintings are deceptively simple and the shapes are so perfect. He never was complacent with his painting style, even when he came across something that was well received or wasn’t,” she said.

In many ways, Madeline has modeled the authorship of her idols, challenging conventions and experimenting with different approaches to both painting and sculpture.

“I like to walk the border between abstract and naturalistic. If I’m working with a literal subject, I like to try and disintegrate the cards or warp the colors,” Morris commented.

Her abstract paintings that experiment with color were a part of the set of last year’s Phililetheas production, Six Degrees of Separation.

Recently, one of her creations, an abstract portrait of a hapless family, appeared in Philale-

Emily Lavieri-Scull/The Miscellany News

Saturday, April 27 100 Route 312, Brewster, NY 10519 Check out the crafts, activities, and exhibitions at Tilly Foster Farm this Saturday.

Hours: 10a.m.-3p.m.

Professor of English Pat Wallace’s Senior Writing Seminar. Wallace picked Wild as an example of creative non-fiction, a genre many of her students enjoy writing. For Wallace, the genre of memoir is important in that it melds together the devices present in fiction with the real memory of the past, a characteristic in which she finds Strayed excels. Retrospect in memoir is a perspective that allows for a creative and powerful rendering of events as opposed to a strictly accurate one. “Part of what makes Strayed’s memoir so powerful is the way in which she is able to integrate fictional (and, I’d say, poetic) strategies and shapings with an amazing level of realistic detail,” Wallace said.

Wild is the story of a woman who took on a massive endeavor in order to deal with emotional trauma. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Strayed described what she felt her memoir was about. “My mother’s death brought me to what I think of as my most savage self.

It stripped me of the one thing I needed. My mother was the taproot of my life. And suddenly, I didn’t have that anymore. I had wild love for my mother. I had wild sorrow. And then I went wild. I went wild into my life,” (“Oprah talks to Cheryl Strayed About Walking Her Way to Peace and Forgiveness”).

For Strayed, the hike was both a physical and a mental quest; one came out of the other. She experienced many things along the ways, from waking up to find hundreds of frogs crawling on her body, losing her toenails due to inappropriate footwear, to sexual relations with men she met along the way. All of these events and encounters contributed to her growth along the hike. Even the physical weight of her backpack served as a metaphor for the emotional weight she held. “I did go out there on a spiritual quest. But what I got was a physical test. I didn’t understand how connected the two are.

So when Monster [her backpack] was the physical weight I could not bear, I was having that feeling on the inside, too. The physical realm kept delivering the spiritual.”

Madeleine Morris ’14 developed her love for painting and art during her early teenage years. Her abstract paintings have been featured in past productions on campus, including God of Carnage. theis’s God of Carnage.

At the College, Morris enjoys mostly oil painting, but is currently learning to embrace different styles of art. The Vassar Studio Art curriculum aims to provide innovative skills and tactics that stretch students’ abilities, bringing them out of their comfort zone.

According to Morris, the department exposes students to new ideas and methods that define their experience.

“I think that they do a really good job with the curriculum, and the fact that they make majors take sculpture is key. I was really skeptical and did not appreciate or want to take sculpture in the beginning because I was terrible at it, but now I really enjoy it. In sculpture, shape and structure are really tantomount. I’ve never had to focus like that,” she said.

“I’ve always approached art differently, never really being forced to think about things three dimensionally.” Morris explained.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Initially, Morris was skeptical as to what her major at Vassar should be, but she eventually gravitated to the classes that she felt most passionate about.

“I started taking Art History classes and then I took Basic Drawing, which was incredible. It all seemed so natural and with all the courses I wanted to take here and became interested in, I realized I would end up becoming a major no matter what,” Morris explained.

After Vassar, Morris is sure of one thing in terms of her career plans- she would like to continue to pursue art.

“I would love to be a painter. I think I would rather work another job that’s either related to or within the art field so that I can paint on the side.” she said.

“There’s no way that I could ever stop painting, it’s going to happen. It’s only going to be a question of how much I can devote to it, I guess.”

April 25, 2013

ARTS

Page 15

NBC’s Hannibal revives iconic character Max Rook Columnist

Hannibal Brian Fuller NBC

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annibal Lecter is a character who is ingrained in pop culture. Anthony Hopkins’ chilling performance as film’s most infamous cannibal in 1991’s Silence of the Lambs is iconic, and Lecter has overshadowed the stories from which he originates. His first appearance was in Thomas Harris’s novel Red Dragon, and Harris later wrotetwo sequels and a prequel, all of which have been mined for film adaptations, the most recent of which was 2007’s poorly received Hannibal Rising. So why would someone decide that now was the time to revive the character for a TV show? I can’t explain the decision but NBC’s Hannibal, now airing on Thursdays at 10 p.m., offers a self-assured, fresh take on the character.

Leading the charge on this new show is Brian Fuller, who has previously created shows such as Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies. Fuller is presumably adapting Harris’ first novel, although none of the specific plot points from that story have appeared yet. Instead, the show begins with the initial meeting between Lecter and Will Graham, the hero of the novel. At this point, Lecter is living as a psychologist whose darker tendencies are unknown. He is called in by the FBI to maintain the mental health of Graham, a criminal profiler who succeeds because of his ability to empathize with and understand the serial killers he is attempting to capture.

As both the show’s name and that description suggest, this is an extremely dark show. Gruesome,

even. But it explores that darkness in an artful way, and avoids using violence as exploitation. Many of the crime procedurals on the air right now use violent crime as an easy way to make their stories seem edgy, but they rarely engage with that violence on any level beyond shock value. Hannibal subverts that trope by being a show primarily about the aftermath of killing rather than about the killing itself. The main connective thread between episodes is the effect that working so close to such violence has on Graham. That way, the show is focused more on character development than a crime-of-the-week structure, and as such is able to give proper weight to the horrible events it depicts.

I’m not trying to argue that the standard crime procedural is inherently flawed. Shows like Bones and Criminal Minds adhere to certain formulas.

Those formulas inevitably make the violence they depict seem rote. Hannibal, however, has loftier ambitions, as indicated by its thematic strength. It feels more like a cable drama than most network shows. The 1st season will have 13 episodes; the pilot is directed by well-known film director David Slade. Slade’s direction gets the series off to a great start, filling the screen with haunting imagery. One of the show’s novel stylistic quirks is the way it depicts the process by which Graham examines a crime scene. Graham imagines himself as the killer, and the show illustrates that by depicting its hero committing the very crimes he tries to prevent, which helps enhance the show’s surreal atmosphere.

Equally impressive to the show’s technical aspects is the acting showcased within. Hugh Dancy gives a soulful performance as Graham, particularly in the way he is able to show all of the psychological damage Graham silently endures. The pilot suggests that Graham is on the autism spectrum, but Dancy doesn’t rely on physical tics for

his performance. He crafts a character who is believably troubled without going over the top. Mads Mikkelsen, perhaps best known as a Bond villain, Le Chiffre, in Casino Royale, has the difficult task of playing Lecter. Mikkelsen’s ingenious response to the challenge of living up to Hopkins’ performance is to play the role quietly. His Lecter has a sense of understated menace, a choice that makes sense when you consider that this character needs to remain interesting for multiple seasons, rather than a single movie.

The only serious complaint I have in the show’s early going revolves around a single problematic character. The second episode introduces Freddie Lounds, played by Lara Jean Chorostecki, a tabloid blogger who specializes in crime scene reporting.

She is basically just a nosy journalist stock character, someone who interferes with police investigations in pursuit of the all-important story. I’ve always been annoyed by the laziness of that archetype, because it is a cheap way to create more obstacles for the protagonist, and this particular instance is no better. Hopefully future episodes will make an effort to deepen her character, perhaps by giving her something more to do than stand in the story’s way.

I wouldn’t say Hannibal is a show for everyone. Its unique brand of melancholic darkness will probably be off-putting to some. But if it does sound appealing to you, I urge you to catch up.

The first three episodes are available on Hulu at the moment, and this is the type of show that needs all of the support it can get if it’s going to survive on network television. And it seems like future seasons will be even stronger. If the show is successful, it will be able to play out the revelation of Lecter’s true identity slowly, which should be fascinating. Even if you are already familiar with the story, Hannibal is worth experiencing, because it spins that story in a new, modern direction.

Downton Abbey producer to lecture Emma Daniels reporter

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courtesy of Stephen Saint Onge

n 2011, Rebecca Eaton ’69 made the list of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. And this Friday, April 26th, television producer Eaton will add to her extensive list of accolades; she will visit Vassar and receive the 2013 Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College Distinguished Achievement Award.

Eaton is the Executive Producer at WGBH in Boston for PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery. She is responsible for introducing American audiences to Downton Abbey, the acclaimed British period drama loved worldwide.

She also produced Sherlock as well as other British dramas such as Inspector Morse, A Very British Coup, The Ginger Tree, and Bleak House. And she is not only known for television shows; she guided Masterpiece’s foray into movies with an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Mrs. Brown, an Academy Award–nominated film starring Dame Judi Dench.

For her work at WGBH, Eaton has received 65 Emmys, 18 Peabody Awards, 2 Golden Globe Awards, 1 BAFTA Award, and 2 Academy Award nominations. Queen Elizabeth has also made her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. “Rebecca brings a wonderful humanism to everything she does,” noted John Mihaly ’74, Senior Director of Development for Regional Programs at Vassar.

The Alumni Recognition committee, a group of six alumni chaired by Karen Dowd ’84, chose to give Eaton this year’s Distinguished Achievement Award.

“The group is comprised of a mix of various Vassar grads - ranging from those who graduated in the 1970s to the late 2000s, men, women, people from different places, and people with different interests,” Dowd said.

She added, “Eaton came to the forefront of our list of potential candidates when she was nominated by Time. And in the last three years, the Downton Abbey phenomenon has spurred her into national prominence.”

Her senior year at Vassar, Eaton began her career in television. As part of a Vassar program, she interned at the BBC World Service in London. There she was a production assistant and secretary for sixteen months.

Yet Eaton’s interest in all things British was

Award-winning alumna Rebecca Eaton ’69, who produced Sherlock, will return to campus on April 26 to receive the 2013 Alumnae and Alumni of Vassar College Distinguished Achievement Award. established far before stepping foot on English soil. Her favorite book growing up was Jane Eyre and at Vassar, English major Eaton continued to immerse herself in British literature.

“At Vassar, Rebecca fell in love with the country and culture of England,” said Mihaly, and noted, “Julia McGrew, an English professor whose area of expertise was old English, captured her imagination.”

And taking after her mentor, Eaton is also eager to inspire Vassar students. On Friday, she has a busy schedule, consisting of meals with select English, Film, Drama and Media Studies majors as well as a career panel and an address to the college community. “She is the type of person that students will love interacting with,” noted Mihaly. “She has a warm presence and is very funny.”

The career panel will be from 2-3:15. Eaton will address students interested in working in television, production, marketing, and fundraising on the Second Floor of the Students’ Building.

She will be joined by her colleagues at WGBH and fellow Vassar grads Jamie Parker

‘79, Vice-President for Marketing and Communications at WGBH, and Vanya Tulenko ‘87, Director, Annual Major Gifts at WGBH. “The panel will be centered on what opportunities exist for people in writing, acting and producing,” said Mihaly. “It will be informal; Rebecca is happy to answer any questions students have.”Later that day, at 5:00, Eaton will address the Vassar community and local alumni in a conversation format in the Taylor Hall Auditorium (203).

Dowd said, “Rebecca came into television when it was a male-dominated field. She graduated in 1969 and so the beginnings of her career corresponded with the beginnings of the women’s movement. She has a distinct story to tell, both because of her personal journey, and because of its backdrop - the women’s movement in the United States and abroad.”

After the lecture, a dinner will be held in her honor at the Alumnnae House that fifty of her former classmates will also attend.

“Rebecca deserves recognition for the wonderful work she has done. She has set the gold standard not only for public television but for the medium as a whole,” said Mihaly.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Senior proj. examines use of space BALLOONS continued from page 1

of the school year, took inspiration from a project called WaterFire which was created in 1994

by Barnaby Evans and revived annually in subsequent summers. “It was an art project that transformed Providence and its downtown. There were basically a bunch of bonfires in the middle of the river in the downtown and boats would go alongside them. People would sit on these areas that were designed on the banks of the river,” said Kramer.

“It really changed the downtown and brought new life into the city,” he continued, “and I wanted to experiment with a similar type of art event that brought people to a new place they didn’t usually go to in Vassar.” Although Sunset Lake may not be the most popular hangout, Kramer explained that he sees it as a center of Vassar’s campus.

For Kramer, the project is very much an interactive one. “It’s not really about the art piece.

Putting an LED in a balloon does not have a profound meaning. It’s not that complex,” he said.

Instead, the project relies on its audience members. “It’s not that I want them to particularly walk away with anything. I want them to enjoy the experience of it and feel like they could make a similar piece or do something similar,” Kramer stated. He went on to explain the appeal and usefulness of aesthetics in his project. “When you have a bonfire, there’s just something about it that’s inherently pretty. We’re attracted to that.

We think the stars are pretty; we think fireflies are pretty. And a thousand balloons glowing on a pond are inherently beautiful,” he said. “It’s about the fact that just because of this event, people are going to come to this space and enjoy it,” Kramer continued, “because the space has been transformed. That’s the piece. It’s not about a singular balloon. It’s not about a thousand balloons. It’s about the experience of the event.”

Kramer, who has a Studio Art correlate, believes that the project does not have to be categorized as a piece of art or as a performance.

“I don’t know how to define it,” he said, “but I know it when I see it.”Nevertheless, as an Urban Studies major, Kramer believes that Night Light requires an audience to see and enjoy it. “It’s more about having it be an event than something to just look at for five minutes and then leave,” he said. If the project is worthwhile for the audience, Kramer explained, it will be worthwhile for him.

Kramer maintained enjoying the process of putting together this project and highly recommended becoming an Urban Studies major.

“They’re really open to letting you do what you want to do,” he said. He explained that for him personally, the option of doing a senior project was preferable to taking a 300 level course or writing a thesis.

“You want something that makes you think, ‘This is really going to make my experience at Vassar better,’” he said. “It’s about working on something harder than you’ve worked on anything else. It’s about dedicating a lot of time to something, thinking about it, and having a lot of follow-through, whether that be for a paper or a project,” he continued.

One of the advantages of doing an Urban Studies project, Kramer confided, is its potential for practical application. “Doing a project,” he said, “is academically challenging. It’s a coordination experience.” Though Buildings and Grounds lent him access to Sunset Lake without much difficulty, Kramer confided that organization is the most difficult part of his project. “I’ve already rescheduled this event three times. There’s always something else going on on campus. There was a lot of planning and thinking about different ways the event could work and how the space could be used.”

Despite the difficulties, realizing an Urban Studies project is useful. “It’s not like the world is just about writing papers. Organizing events is an important skill as well, or working with companies—whatever it is that you choose as your project, whether it be designing a building or writing creative pieces,” Kramer said.

“I wanted to do a project instead of a thesis,” he continued, “and it’s been an incredibly rewarding process.”

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April 25, 2013

Phil’s tempODYSSEY a bizarre take on temporality Margaret Yap reporter

C

ly young people, experience: searching for that connection with someone or something outside of yourself, and then the play exaggerates it and places it in a context of mythic proportions. Even though some of the circumstances are bizarre, there’s something really relatable about the characters because they just want what everyone wants,” she wrote.

Reddy-Best has enjoyed working on this production and appreciates the script, despite its massive complexity. “Dan Dietz…clearly loves language and uses it very particularly. A lot of it is huge, Homeric similes and things that are way outside our everyday speech patterns.

But a lot of it is totally normal, unsurprising conversations that happen all of the time,” she wrote.

Campbell-Orrock respects the complexity of the play as well and shies away from labeling it

as experimental or abstract.

“I find labels to ultimately be challenging, and I think people have preconceptions about them that aren’t accurate. I think this play in particular is kind of a middle ground,” he remarked.“All these pieces, the storylines, the extremity of language—all that’s there. But Dietz kind of pulls that back and puts it into something people will watch. I feel like this play in particular hits this odd balance between some normal scenes with heightened language and some with heightened language and heightened everything else,” he continued.

Actor and Economics major David Keith ’13 feels that the play can evoke many different emotions and wrote in an emailed statement: “This is a play where you can laugh, yell, and cry, and walk away from it realizing how real every moment is.”

Jiajing Sun/The Miscellany News

hances are you have never heard of a character who thinks of herself as a black hole.

But if you want to learn about such a person, the Philaletheis production of Dan Dietz’s tempODYSSEY is for you.

Philaletheis, Vassar’s largest student-run theater group and oldest extracurricular organization, has been working on tempODYSSEY since mid-February and rehearsing five or six days a week.

Philaletheis will show approximately ninety-minute productions of the play at 8 p.m. on April 25, April 26, and April 27 in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater.

“The play is sort of this metaphor for the cosmos and the black hole. It talks a lot about constellations and the characters that come out of a constellation,” said Treasurer of Philaletheis Christopher Campbell-Orrock ’13, who selected and is directing the play.

“In this show the universe explodes into the room, we move into a crummy office, then into Georgia in the Appalachians where trees are doing headstands trying to suck the light out of the soil. It is a topsy-turvy amusement ride through life, death and the universe,” wrote Drama major Tyler Glover ’13, who is involved in light design for the production and co-designing the set, in an emailed statement.

“We are going to transform the Shiva in a way that will bring about the regularity of an office space, the obscurity of an unknown and crazy land, and the immensity of the universe,” he continued.

Campbell-Orrock believes that while the play is obviously not a typical example of Realism, a 19th century movement that aimed to depict more realistic scenarios in theater, it does not lose its narrative.

“It’s complex, and it’s layered in the sense that epics intersperse and mix with reality.

Dietz allows his performers and his readers a lot of freedom in the sense that the stage direc-

tions are things like ‘The Big Bang occurs’ and ‘The Big Bang occurs again—a little less happy, this time.’ They’re things that are not, per se, logical, but leave room for interpretation,” he said.

For Siobhan Reddy-Best ’13, a member of the five-actor cast, this freedom is highly enjoyable. “It’s really fun to work on a show like [this], because basically nothing is off-limits.

The play exists in such an alternate/heightened reality, we’ve really been able to explore and play with physicality etc.,” she wrote in an emailed statement.“To some extent, that’s also what’s been difficult: finding the balance between enjoying the huge, playful nature of the language/circumstances while still finding the ways in which the story is rooted in reality,” she explained in an emailed statement.

For Campbell-Orrock, finding a visual way to represent the poetry of the script has been a challenge as well as an opportunity. “This has been a chance for me to really experiment with what boundaries I want to push, which ones I don’t, how to respect the text, and how to go beyond it. So in that sense, it’s been a very challenging directorial process,” he said.

“There are just different types of theater.

Some people will think this is too experimental. Some people will think it’s not experimental enough.”

On the other hand, the intricacy of the script absorbs him. “The world is never stable. You always have an emotional sense of what’s going on. You always have a path, a way of understanding the events. And that’s what I find fascinating,” he commented.

Campbell-Orrock considers the play to be about human interaction. “I think it’s something every character in this play struggles with. The play is about the odyssey to finding human connection. It’s not necessarily easy or happy or simple, but a lot of it’s about that search,” he said.

Reddy-Best agreed. “[T]he play has taken something that I think most people, particular-

tempODYSSEY, above, will open in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater on Thursday, April 25. The play uses black holes, constellations, and office work to discuss the complexities of human interaction.

Rubblebucket promises dance-inducing performance Jack Owen Arts editor

F

or music fanatics, ViCE Jazz has organized a special treat for tomorrow night: a concert by the high-energy, indie-dance band Rubblebucket. ViCE Jazz Committee Member Toby Sola ’14 promises that attendees can expect to dance, and not to the tunes of your typical Villard room party.

“This is a chance to go to a Villard room party with taste - no cheesy DJ’s playing top 40,” he said in an emailed statement. “Instead, straight musical talent. I mean the regular Villard room parties are fun, don’t get me wrong, but this will be a musical orgy of the first decree.”

Rubblebucket was founded by couple Alex Toth and Kalmia Taver, who met while studying music at the University of Vermont.

Toth, who plays the trumpet and does background vocals, and Travers, vocalist and saxophonist, have developed a sound that merges upbeat dance music and indie rock.

Since its founding, the band has gone on to gain national acclaim in the music scene, recently performing on Jimmy Kimmel Live and collaborating with Love. They have released three full-length albums and two extended plays (EPs). Their latest EP, “Oversaturated,” was named the third best EP of 2012 by Paste Magazine.

In 2009 the band went on three national tours. They have also appeared at several big music festivals, including High Sierra, All Good Music Festival, and the Liberate Music and Dance Festival.

Friday will not be the first time that Rubblebucket performs at Vassar. Sola brought

courtesy Shervin Lainz

On Friday, April 26, ViCE Jazz will host indie-dance band Rubblebucket in the Villard Room, between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. The group hopes Rubblebucket will break the mold of the typical Villard party music.

the band to campus back in the spring of 2011, where they played in the Mug. Jazz Night also hosted them in 2010.

“It was a religious experience,” wrote Sola.

“I’ve had many people come up to me and tell me it was the best concert of their entire lives and that because of the concert they are now diehard fans; they’ve gone to Rubblebucket shows outside of Vassar and they listen to their newest album every morning when they wake up.”

Like many Jazz bands, the group started out focusing more on improvisational work, but they have since begun to focus more on song-writing and structuring, an approach that has lead to a different live performance style.

Sola finds that this focus on lyricism and dance makes for more entertaining concerts and that it provides a somewhat different vibe than some of the other groups that come to Vassar.

“In terms of difference: while many bands that come to jazz night focus on improvisational music, Rubblebucket is focused on playing rehearsed songs,” wrote Sola.

“In my opinion, if done well, this focus is far superior because, through song writing, you can jam pack the entire show with coma inducing musical expression, as opposed to the once in a while cool riffs that improvisational bands live for,” he added.

In a NashvilleScene.com interview, Toth spoke to this change in direction for the band: “We started out as jazz kids and have since wrapped our heads around beat production and lots of sound-aesthetic stuff.

The biggest change for me has been in songwriting and lyrics, just studying and learning great songs and figuring out what makes them tick,” (“Rubblebucket’s Alex Toth: The Cream Interview”, 9.27.2012).

This emphasis on songwriting and lyricism has also been accompanied with a shift towards dance music, a move that Sola believes allows for very stimulating live performances.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Dancing is good for the soul, it relieves stress and makes you happier,” he wrote.

“Musically, their song writing is brilliant; it forges a number of diverse genres and is incredibly catchy and danceable,” he continued.

In a conversation in InterviewMagazine. com, Traver spoke to the band’s love for performing live: “I’ve come to realize that going and doing a show is, like, going up close and touching people that I don’t do in my normal life, and it’s really powerful,” she said. “It feeds a need that I have—I think that we all have,” (“Rubblebucket Follows Its Heart”).

“I sit all day, working and thinking about this project in my room and getting my life organized and writing music and doing everything for the show. And when I’m at the show, it’s suddenly so much more real and awesome,” she said (InterviewMagazine. com, “Rubblebucket Follows Its Heart”).

She went on to discuss how performing live has grown to represent the culimation of the group’s hard work.

“I mean, at least for me, though, [the live show] is a permanent installation in my life.

The times that we have had building this up from the ground up and just playing to empty rooms and forcing ourselves to feel really hard, feel the humanity all around us,” she said (InterviewMagazine.com, “Rubblebucket Follows Its Heart”).

According to Sola, any Vassar student who is a fan of bands with a lot of energy should come to the concert. “They have insane amounts of stage presence,” he wrote.

“They’re not just musicians, but true entertainers, in the full meaning of the word.

Such acts, musicians and entertainers, are always few and far between in the music industry,” he added.

The concert starts tomorrow at 9 p.m. in the College Center Villard Room. “Be there or be rectangular,” wrote Sola.

“It’s seriously going to be the most fun, danceable music event Vassar has seen in years.”

ARTS

April 25, 2013

Page 17

Evil Dead a violent, patriarchal flick Lily Sloss Columnist

Evil Dead Fede Alvarez TriStar Pictures

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n my Asian Horror cinema class, we have spent many a class discussing the idea of the “monstrous-feminine.” For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of taking a class with Professor Harvey, the monstrous-feminine is a horror film trope depicting the female body in a variety of gruesome ways, frequently as the victim of mutilation, or as the primary reason for fear.

Refer to Megan Fox in Jennifer’s Body (Fox Atomic, 2009) if you aren’t getting the picture.

The structure of the argument is that women are represented in a multitude of horrible ways in horror films in order to express male castration anxiety. Thank you, Sigmund.

I may have previously had doubts as to how wide spread the monstrous-feminine trope was, but after seeing Evil Dead (FilmDistrict, 2013), the remake of Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult classic The Evil Dead, I can rest assured: men hate women. Or are scared of them. Or something.

Let me back up. The new horror film, Evil Dead, is terrifying. Think of the most horrifying, disgusting image you can. Now intensify the gross factor, and multiply it by ten. That is essentially Evil Dead. The film is wrought with disturbing visualizations of blood, guts, gore, and an excruciatingly uncomfortable interpretation of rape (as performed by a plant).

The film opens with a young, seemingly innocent girl, who will momentarily be burned alive on a stake by her father. A crazy witch woman screams orders at the father while his daughter curses her entire family and writhes in pain. This scene sets up the lighthearted tone and balanced depiction of female characters for the rest of the film.

Following the familial burning ritual, the audience is introduced to the contemporary cast of characters as they arrive to their holiday retreat, a weekend at the old “cabin in the woods” where female lead Mia will hopefully break her dope addiction. Classic weekend with the pals. Who brought the booze?! Along to help Mia (and eventually to become infect-

Campus Canvas

ed by evil dead) are her brother, David, and his blonde girlfriend who doesn’t speak, and the siblings’ old pals Olivia, the nurse, and Eric, the “wacky” high school teacher.

In contrast to the “monstrous-feminine” picture, the males are painted as heroic creatures, idols to be adored. Despite many a female beating Eric with a crowbar, shooting him full of nails, and infecting him with the evil dead disease, he refuses to die. Literally.

He keeps coming back, cool as a cucumber.

David, similarly, is undeniably prepared for a weekend with zombies. He hardly gets beat up at all, spends the majority of the movie flashing his hair around and pulling mechanical knowledge out of nowhere.

He shoots his girlfriend and buries his little sister alive, but he really “carries” the film with his good looks and charm. Anyway, what are your sibling relationships like? Regardless of

“Think of the most horrifying disgusting image you can. Now intesify the gross factor, and multipy it by ten. That is essentially Evil Dead.” lilY sloss ’14 the nails, evil dead bites, and crowbar fun, the male characters keep making it happen. Even when they “finally” die, it’s in a glorified manner. The house lights up and the audience isn’t privileged a view of their shriveling bodies.

The women, on the other hand, are crippled easily. Mia is infected with the evil dead virus first, taken over by trees when she’s standing outside. They (the trees, that is) tie her up, rape her, and inhabit her soul. I think the filmmakers chose her to become infected first because of her drug addiction. Horror movies don’t take kindly to people with issues.

Also, when she’s taken over by the evil dead, her psychotic twitching and spirit voice are attributed to “classic withdrawal symptoms.”

Hilarious.

The second female to go, Olivia, is infected when Mia vomits all over her face. Easy peasy lemon squeezy—Olivia’s screwed. Next thing you know, she’s sawing off part of her face with a glass shard. Don’t you worry, though, the wacky high school teacher gets in the bathroom quick as a wink and bashes her head in against a wall. Dead as a door nail, and by a rational male hand! Everybody wins. The audience, it is assumed, will get over her death quickly.

The final female to be subjected to violence is David’s girlfriend, who mutilates her own body. In one of the most horrifying scenes of Evil Dead, the audience is forced to watch her perform amputation after her arm becomes infected. Apparently, this type of self-inflicted pain is a visualization of “male fears.”

Since the female is exhibiting the abject behavior on her own body, the male “twisted mind” can gain a perverse pleasure by both objectifying the woman and not having to interact with the subject. It has something to do with vaginas, and turning the woman into a huge wound. Regardless, the scene served to make me feel nauseated. Film theories, you know? It’s just a way to analyze and talk about lady parts, on occasion.

In conclusion, while I’m sure the film was making some broad statement that is crucially derogative towards feminism, I am leaving with a few key tips for the next time I’m stuck in the woods with my recovering (or as the recovering) druggie friend.

1: Don’t trust an addicted person. His/her “withdrawal” may actually be a sign that a plant went inside of them. 2: Therefore, avoid nature at all costs. 3: When one of your friends is infected by spirits, she will attempt to hook up with you in a very real and very disturbing way. In the case of horror films, AT NO OTHER TIME, should you allow the indiscretion.

Otherwise you will definitely die. Immediately. The semi-erotic scene will keep you onscreen for at least another ten minutes. 4: Anytime an opportunity for amputation comes, take it! This is your opportunity to exert your lackluster medical authority.

Lastly, 5: find a man! He will probably kill you, but then maybe he will bring you back to life with a homemade defibrillator, and then you can go back to the real world. You might be missing an arm or a leg, but hey! This is how patriarchy works. xoxo Monstrous Feminine.

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Excuse me, What’s on your work-out playlist?

“The New Workout Plan by Kanye West” —Wilson Platt ’14

“Crossfade, lots of electronica” —Amber Footman ’13

“And We Danced by Macklemore ” —Haley Merritt ’16

submit to misc@vassar.edu

“3hunna by Chief Keef ” —Nick Hess ’16

I

n this piece, for a Sculpture 1 assignment about scale, I made oversized Russian nesting dolls or matryoshka. The changing scale of the nesting dolls that stack inside each other intrigues me, but the decorations on the matryoshka are what most interest me.

While making this object I had a very difficult time trying to get the plaster perfectly smooth, with the elegant curves of the real nesting dolls. Fortunately, in a fit of frustration I realized that I was doing the objects a disservice in trying to force precision and neatness onto them. As soon as I leaned into the funky and imperfect shape of the plaster and chicken wire, the idea for decorating the piece with dripping paint and twine came and the doll became plausibly distorted, much like the way that a computer image becomes distorted when improperly enlarged. In this piece I was working through the idea of the effect of growth or amplification on form and the evidence of process in a product. I am continuing to work on several more dolls to form a set during the remainder of the semester. —Madeleine Morris ‘14

“Dirt Off Your Shoulder by Jay-Z” —Jordan Burns ’16

“Nobody by NeYo”

—Tamsin Chen ’15

Jack Owen, Arts Editor Cassady Bergevin, Photo Editor

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 18

SPORTS

April 25, 2013

Records broken at Liberty League championships to pick a favorite moment,” she acknowledged.

“One of the most exciting and emotional ones for me was when Viv Ford finished her 5k and qualified for ECAC’s. That’s been a big goal of hers for a long time and everyone knew it. I was so proud watching it all come together for her and see her throw her arms up in celebration as she crossed the line.”

Sophomore Heather Ingraham earned the most points for her team, taking first place in the 400 Meter Dash, and 4x100 and 4x400 Meter Relays. The latter was a moment of accomplishment for Ingraham. “I think the most exciting part of the meet was watching Kelly [Holmes] run the last leg of our 4x4 and edge out St. Lawrence to take the win,” she stated.

Another member of that relay team, sophomore Ariel Bridges, had a strong showing that day, winning four out of her five events. Like Ingraham, she was most excited about the 4x400 Meter Relay. “My favorite moment of the championships had to be the 4x4,” she stated. “We were defending Liberty League champions and holders of the league record so it was important to us to protect our title! Especially since we heard ahead of time that St. Lawrence had a pretty competitive team this year. The end of the race was pretty neck and neck but our anchor leg Kelly Holmes...pulled it out on the home stretch. It was the most beautiful exciting thing ever.”

With the season not yet over, there is still a possibility for even more strong performances from individuals. Holmes has already seen marked improvement. “We’ve grown so much as a program over my four years here, especially on the speed/power side,” she remarked. “It’s really exciting to see that shift. My freshman year there were only 3 of us going to ECACs and now we have multiple qualifiers over a wide range of events, including relays. This season has been a lot of fun as well as a lot of work. I think we’re going to see it all pay off with some really strong

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

TRACK continued from page 1 er. “Ultimately we want to get people to obtain their personal goals, which in turn tie into the team goals,” he explained. “For some people it’s scoring in the Liberty League champion ships, for others it’s qualifying for ECAC’s or the National meet. Liberty Leagues was an opportunity for people to give back to the team what they’ve accomplished individually, as it’s one of the few meets in our season where we can score meets and be competitive as a team rather than individuals.”

Some of Majer’s teammates were able to accomplish their personal goals, despite earlier setbacks. Senior Sam Wagner was sick with mononucleosis for five weeks. He recovered in time for the meet and ran a 1:57 in the 800 Meter. Wagner was one second behind the Liberty League Champion, his teammate and fellow sophomore Andrew Terenzi.

Brian Deer cited this race as one of his favorite moments of the meet. “That’s a really exciting event to watch and seeing them go 1, 2 in the fast heat was totally awesome,” he explained.

Deer’s own goal was to get under 16:00 for the 5k race. Though the results were not as he had hoped, he was able to see his teammate, junior Lisle Schaeffer, succeed. “My race didn’t go so hot for a number of reasons, but Lisle did really well and broke 16 by a good amount,” he noted.

“I’m really pumped for him and I can’t wait to come back to the 5k later this season to give it another go.”

The women’s team also had several notable individual performances. Sophomore Viviane Ford had a specific expectation for herself: to qualify for Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships (ECAC’s) in the 5k. “You qualify by running a time of 18:40 or faster. I ran 18:39 so I barely made it!” she admitted.

Her teammate, senior Kelly Holmes, cited the tournament as a huge accomplishment for the women’s team. “[A]s a spectator it’s really hard

On Saturday, April 20, men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the Liberty League Championships. Held at Vassar, the event featured numerous Vassar athletes breaking personal bests. performances in the next few weeks.”

Fellow senior Wagner agreed, and pointed to both past and future growth. “Every year we approach Leagues with a higher level of confidence...Many team members, myself included, are now at points in their training plans where improvement becomes drastic. In other words, this is the part of spring where track becomes really fast and exciting.”

Freshman Jonah Williams has had a positive experience being on the team so far. “I am feeling really good about this season,” he commented. “I have been exceeding the expectations I had for myself coming into the season, and there is still time for improvements. I am also really happy with how we’ve been performing as a team.”

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Majer credited his coaches with much of the team’s success. “On the season as a whole, I feel like it’s been a very natural progression of competition and training,” he wrote. “Our coaching staff, as I’ve noted in the past, really knows what our bodies need when they need it without explicit explanation; they just kind of know. And the performances are showing for it as we’ve seen tons of successes on all fronts...”

The upcoming Post Penn Invitational will be a chance to see if those successes continue. Ingraham expressed an optimistic outlook for the rest of the spring: “I think that our team has been having a really successful season so far, and I’m excited to see everyone’s hard work pay off as we enter the last few weeks.”

April 25, 2013

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Athletic housing would unite, not divide Luka Ladan

Assistant Sports Editor

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ale student-athletes at Vassar College received a grand total of zero suites in Main Building this spring, a disappointing fact that got me thinking a little bit about housing on campus. What if there was an athletes-only dormitory on campus, in which only those officially on a varsity roster could reside?

Athletics at Vassar have nowhere to go but up, and there’s no reason to believe that the school can’t become some sort of powerhouse—albeit a Division III powerhouse—in the near future. The outstanding academics, beautiful campus and new facilities are already in place, which makes Vassar intriguing to an impressionable recruit deciding between an assortment of not-so-different liberal arts colleges. Ingraining a winning mentality in the realm of athletic competition symbolizes the next frontier for Vassar College in its never-ending quest for school spirit. Winning on the playing field will require seriousness—just like acing an exam requires seriousness in the library the night before.

Establishing an athletes-only space seems like a logical progression for the school with regard to creating a serious athletics culture.

Winning games must be taken seriously, and it comes from a steady diet of bonding and chemistry.

Thus, an athletes-only dorm seems like a good idea when it comes to aiding the student-athletes in their task of creating a sense of unity and camaraderie—and bonding across sports programs seems like all the better.

Nick Hess, a freshman on the men’s varsity soccer team, may have put it best: “I think [an athletes-only dorm] would work really well.

It would sort of be like the Olympic Village for Vassar kids. All of the athletes would understand one another a lot better.”

While turning a portion of Vassar’s breathtaking campus into a very poor man’s Olympic Village may be a bit of a stretch, opening

up an athletes-only dorm would surely bring student-athletes together. And they wouldn’t only be brought together in a physical sense -- student-athletes would be united by a common goal of winning games and making Vassar College more and more relevant in Division III athletics circles.

When you think about it, a crucial piece of Vassar’s mission statement involves bringing people closer together instead of apart—at 124 Raymond Avenue, people of different ethnicites and shapes and sizes and political views and sexual orientations come together to explore themselves in a tolerant, accepting environment (or, at least, this happens in theory). So, couldn’t this be extended to student-athletes in some fashion? An athletes-only dorm could—and, in my opinion, would—have the potential to bring together people with similar interests and promote a culture of togetherness.

Obviously, an argument could be made that the construction of any athletes-only space on campus would divide, rather than unite. It could, hypothetically, further separate those on varsity teams from non-athletes. But in reality, athletes tend to mingle with athletes, even at a place like Vassar. More often than not, student-athletes find themselves in the company of other student-athletes, not non-athletes with whom they might have less in common. The reasons for this social phenomenon are understandable—student-athletes, regardless of the sport in question, have similar schedules and commitments despite their different seasons , not to mention general interests and goals—and it’s foolish to think that certain irreconcilable differences between athletes and non-athletes don’t exist.

We shouldn’t envision Vassar College as some utopian society, in which athletes and non-athletes are brought together. This just isn’t the case and you don’t have to look very far for validation. With some exceptions, athletes go together and that’s just the way of the world. Even at Vassar.

At least from my experiences over the past year or so, those who play sports at Vassar aren’t like normal students. Again, we’re talking about different schedules, interests, goals and so forth— and they’re attracted to each other.

Therefore, student-athletes should be given the option to live in an athletes-only dorm.

It doesn’t have to constitute some requirement, of course, because some student-athletes will still most likely choose to live in a typical dorm that houses non-athletes. But, it might be a good idea to introduce some sort of alternative for those student-athletes who would like to live with those most similar to them. And, trust me, there are those who would support the construction of an athletes-only dorm for the reasons that I’ve already mentioned. Their voices just haven’t been heard yet.

The economics of a project like this may prove to be a significant obstacle, and I’m not an expert on this school’s spending policies.

However, I do know that the Cushings and Raymonds of the world could certainly use extensive renovations—living in one of these dorms for two full years would convince you, too—and it’s never a bad thing for an institution to invest in some infrastructure projects (at least, that’s what my Economics courses here have taught me). So, why not go through with the construction of another dorm, even if it’s relatively small? If renovations aren’t foreseeable in the near future, why not try something new?

It doesn’t have to be as glitzy as an Olympic Village in Lake Placid, for instance, but an athletes-only dorm at Vassar might just be a proposition worth pursuing. It would bring student-athletes together and further promote a culture of togetherness on 124 Raymond Avenue, which is firmly in line with what Vassar attempts to stand for. Just remember the words of Nick Hess and the feelings of many other student-athletes on campus.

“All of the athletes would understand one another a lot better.”

NHL East’s top teams build momentum Zach Rippe Columnist

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his shortened National Hockey League (NHL) season has certainly been interesting. While some claim that a shortened or lockout season often can taint results, there is no denying that two of the teams facing the most adversity in the league, the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins, have been two of the most dominant teams in the NHL this year.

The Bruins are currently in first place in their division, which in itself is an impressive feat. However, the recent tragic events in Boston seemed to have put a halt on what was an extremely impressive year. The Bruins had lost their previous four games, an unfortunate streak that took place right in the middle of the Boston Marathon bombing. After defeating the Florida Panthers 3-0 on April 21st, however, they reached a tie for first place in the Northeast Division.

The game proved especially important as afterwards, thousands of fans remained for a ceremony to honor those who assisted the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, as well as members of law enforcement.

Something truly special about sports is that it gives a community the chance to come together and rally for a cause. Professional sports in Boston can be used as a potential healing tool for residents who have been forced to deal with this wildly unfortunate tragedy. Pittsburg has faced its own adversities this year, albeit of an entirely different variety.

Sidney Crosby has long been seen as the “golden boy” of the NHL. Unfortunately, over recent years he has also been known as someone who gets injured. Sid “The Kid” is currently the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins and was the number one overall draft pick of the 2005 NHL draft. He was the youngest player to win the scoring title in the NHL, making him the only teen to do so.

He also won the MVP in his second season and later became the youngest captain in NHL history to win the Stanley Cup. Naturally, Crosby has been extremely integral to Pittsburgh’s success in recent years. Thus, when he suffered concussions in back-to-back games in the 2011-2012 season, it appeared as though it would be a huge blow to the Penguins. The Penguins, however, have suffered only slightly as they still made the playoffs. Evgeni Malkin was named league MVP and while Pittsburg suffered an early first round exit, he and Crosby seemed prime and healthy for the upcoming year. With a healthy Crosby and Malkin, the Penguins seemed poised for another championship season. Sure enough, for the majority of the shortened season, the Penguins dominated.

Unfortunately, while they were both healthy for the beginning of the year, both Malkin and Crosby have suffered as of late.

On March 30, Crosby suffered a puck to the jaw. A devastating blow for the man dubbed “the Next One,” Crosby has been out the past six games. Malkin has also been out with a shoulder injury. Star winger James Neal was benched with a concussion. Still, the Penguins have won 21 out of their last 23 games as of Sunday. Now, the Pens are beginning to see Malkin and Neal return to play. Both practiced on Sunday, yet neither traveled to Ottawa. With these stars out, how are the Penguins doing it?

Perhaps it’s the key trades the Penguins made at the deadline. They secured Jussi Jokinen, Jarome Iginla, and Douglas Murray. All three were integral in their win over the previously mentioned Boston Bruins.

Perhaps it has been the goaltending. Both Marc-Andre Fieury and Tomas Vokoun have been extremely resilient.

The Penguins have already clinched the NHL Eastern Conference title. There is something to be said about a team who los-

es two former MVPs and still maintains the consistency and poise to win a conference.

This makes fans wonder, is there anyone in the East who can knock off the Penguins?

This brings us back to Boston.

Can an emotional, yet unified city help Boston regain supremacy and take on the Penguins in the playoffs? While Boston did finally break its losing streak, it was against the Panthers, a team that had lost seven of their last eight games. They were indeed competitive against an undermanned Penguins lineup, yet they still lost and “undermanned” is quite a subjective term with regard to Pittsburgh this year.

My honest opinion is that Boston’s playoff hopes will come down to two things: consistency and Jaromir Jagr. Boston’s play has been sporadic this season. They have indeed had stretches of great play (which shows as they are first in their division). Yet they have struggled mightily at times, losing form and offensive momentum. When they narrowly lost out to Jarome Iginla (who ironically ended up in Pittsburgh) at the trade deadline, they decided to look elsewhere for offensive options. They instead “settled” for Jaromir Jagr. Jagr, a future Hall of Famer, is certainly not in his prime anymore. However, if he is even the player that he was with the New York Rangers a few years ago, Jagr will definitely be a vital catalyst. So far, it has simply been the typical case of a new player on a new team with a new system. It doesn’t help that the Bruins are mightily inconsistent and have struggled tremendously on offense. Once Jagr meshes, the offense will build around him and both Jagr and his supporting players will help one another.

It remains to be seen if Boston can put together a patch of consistent offensive play and get hot for the post season. Hey, maybe Neil Diamond will even randomly show up to sing Sweet Caroline like he did with the Red Sox the other day. It really is a fun tune.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Mathieu an inspiration for many Eli J Vargas I Columnist

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yrann Mathieu, also known as the “Honey Badger,” dominated NCAA Football for the LSU Tigers two years ago. With his small stature of 5’9” and 180 pounds, he was undersized and seemingly overmatched in the world of Division I football.

That, however, did not stop him from becoming one of the leaders in the NCAA in average punt return yards and being a Heisman Trophy Finalist. The latter being a great honor because, as a cornerback, he was being considered for an award almost entirely given to offensive players. Now, after having dominated the NCAA two years ago, Tyrann Mathieu has his sights set on his next goal to accomplish: being successful in the NFL. Yes, he is undersized, but with all of his success he is bound to be a first or second round draft pick.

Well after Tyrann Mathieu’s stellar sophomore season, in which he was a consensus All-American, the Honey Badger was dismissed from the LSU football program after repeatedly failing drug tests.

And that’s when things began to go downhill from the public’s point of view. But Tyrann Mathieu had been buckling underneath the pressure long before it all came out. With his new celebrity-like fame, Mathieu quickly discovered that everything that comes with notoriety did not make life any easier.

Put up for adoption by his mother early in life and separated from an incarcerated father, his parents quickly tried to reconcile and claim some credit for his accolades. They were only trying to reconcile because they smelled money in the air. So to escape all of this, and his the nickname that he did not even like, he turned to smoking marijuana. It quickly grew into a time-encompassing habit, with him missing classes and staying in his room for days at a time with the shades pulled down.

Soon after being dismissed from the LSU football program, Mathieu was arrested on drug charges, and hit rock bottom. But as they say, once you’ve hit rock bottom, all you can do is go up. So that’s exactly what he did. After leaving LSU, Mathieu checked into a rehab facility in Texas. It is there that he realized that no, his drug habit was not a habit all, but an addiction. He then began to get his life sorted out, and even saw it as a challenge to get over his addiction of marijuana, which appealed to his extremely competitive nature.

Afterwards, Mathieu moved to Florida to get away from it all and isolate himself so he could focus on the NFL draft. He lived in a bare apartment that his agent had found for him, with Mathieu’s only company being his TV and meditative walks on the beach. He has recently had to change his cellphone number multiple times, to get away from the public eye. With multi-million deals on the line, Mathieu knows what is at stake. But is it the money that is driving him, or the desire to prove everyone wrong? Something tells me the latter. He is trying to prove to others that size doesn’t matter, that what he lacks in physical attributes, he makes up for in sheer will power. But most importantly of all, he is trying to prove to others that he can handle the pressure.

There is a reason that he is called the Honey Badger.

He is undersized, but he makes up for what he lacks by perseverance and guts. If he can get past it all and become successful in NFL, then Mathieu will truly live up to his nickname, on and off the field.

So leading up to the NFL draft on Thursday, April 25, all of the buzz is surrounding Tyrann Mathieu, and whether or not he has moved past his substance abuse. But more than just having moved on from his addiction, will be the stresses of the NFL with much more media attention that could eventually lead him to his old ways. I for one hope that Tyrann Mathieu lives up to his nickname and perseveres through it all, because he is said to be one of the nicest guys around, and don’t we want nice guys to finish first? Whatever happens, I’m happy that the media attention that has habitually surrounded Tebow throughout the past few off-seasons has packed up and left, and instead has been replaced with some story with some real substance, instead of perpetuating Tebowmania like so many seem to have been doing. It is so easy to support someone who is seemingly perfect like Tim Tebow, but what is truly heartwarming, is when someone like Tyrann Mathieu succeeds despite it all. That is what makes sports great, but even more than that; that is what makes life great.

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April 25, 2013

Young coach looks to improve men’s lacrosse program Meaghan Hughes sports editor

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s a coach, there is a difficult balance to strike between pushing athletes to do their best while still getting a positive response from them. For Assistant Coach Casey Martin, of men’s lacrosse, this is what he does every day. His main goal is to improve the program as a whole—to make it more competitive. Ultimately, though, he appreciates the unique atmosphere of Brewers lacrosse.

Martin has been involved with athletics for most of his life. After lettering in and starting on his high school lacrosse team, he went on to play at the collegiate level at Fairfield University. In the 2005 season his team won Great Western Lacrosse League Championships and went on to compete in NCAA Championships.

This experience with a high level of play is evident to Vassar’s lacrosse team. As Se-

nior Captain and goalie Andrew Nicol noted, “[Martin] brings the D1 mentality and I love his intensity. He’s still a very talented player so it’s fun competing with him when he is shooting at practice.”

Even after graduating, Martin didn’t stop playing lacrosse. From 2009-2010 he played for and coached the Manchester Wasconians, an English lacrosse team. Martin cited this time as a turning point that made him realize a lot about the sport. “This experience really opened my eyes up to the game of lacrosse and how many people not only play the game, but really love it,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “The chance to play overseas and grow the sport allowed me to want to continue coaching at the collegiate level to mentor and grow future lacrosse players.”

Before coming to Vassar, Martin worked as a graduate assistant at Wagner College. While

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

Men’s Lacrosse Coach Casey Martin brings his years of professional experience to Vassar. He is lauded by players for promoting camaraderie and his ability to understand the realities of being a college athelete.

earning his MBA in Business, he was the Recruiting Coordinator for the men’s lacrosse team. “It was an amazing experience learning the ins and outs of what is expected at the highest level from a coaching and administrative standpoint,” he commented.

Martin feels he can apply what he learned at Wagner here at Vassar, where he works alongside Head Coach Marc Graham. “I decided to come to Vassar after having a few opportunities elsewhere because of Marc,” he explained.

“When I came on my interview, we hit it off and we were both on the same page as to what it would take to build this team into a program.

So, when Coach Graham asked me to jump on board, I was excited at the chance to build something from the ground up.”

His enthusiasm has influenced the players as well. Sophomore midfielder Scott Brekne is aware of the new intensity of the team. “Having a new assistant coach has brought a lot of excitement to the program this year,” he wrote.

“Coach Martin played at a high level for pretty much his entire career and brings a lot of knowledge and experience to the field.”

A greater intensity can mean greater expectations as well, and Brekne admitted that there is pressure to improve. “Coach Martin can be real tough on us at times, but it’s always for a good reason,” he explained. “He holds us to a high standard and expects us to make good plays. The guys have definitely responded well to the knowledge and experience that he brings to the team.”

Martin agreed and commented on how the team has dealt with the challenges. “I demand a lot from each and every one of them and they have responded very well to everything that I ask,” he noted. “It has been a good year, but we still have a lot of work to be done to where we want to be; consistently nationally competitive.”

All of this work does not go unnoticed, as Nicol ackowledged of the time Martin puts into his coaching. “Coach Martin has a great work ethic,” Nicol commented. “He’s constantly recruiting and thinking of ways to get us better.

He is always accessible to get some extra work in when we have the time.”

Sophomore defender Jesse Hartman explained“[F]or the offense he really focuses on organizing the practices so the offensive players really work hard on shooting and passing to go along with the focus of scoring and team offense. Coach also does a good job of understanding opponent’s offenses and making sure our offense can give our defense a good scout to work against.”

The players seem to work well with their assistant coach, and Brekne described the perspective that Martin brings to the team and coaching staff. “He’s a young guy who is only a few years out of college, so it’s really easy to connect with him,” Brekne explained. “We have a great balance of seeing him as our coach and as one of our friends. It’s great to have a coach that knows exactly what we go through daily as athletes, students, and general members of a college community.”

Similarly freshman Shane Flattery expressed his optimism about having a new coach.

“Coach Martin adds a youthfulness and energy to our team, bringing fast paced Drills to our practices. He is passionate and intense about the sport. We all really appreciate the work ethic he has and the effort he puts in to making us better. He’s funny and relateable, being a student athlete himself only a few years ago.”

As for Martin, the sense of community at Vassar is a part of the college that he enjoys.

“The best [part] of my experience has been the ability to get the chance to interact with so many great people within the Vassar community,” he wrote. “We have great support from...the administration and our parent group.”

His understanding of the players is something of which Martin is very proud. “The team is by far the closest group of young men that I have been apart of,” he stated. “We only have 18 players on this years squad, so sticking together and really playing for each other has been the best thing to watch. Everyone on the team is very supportive of one another and this is what makes our team a special group of guys.”

Women’s golf shoots to Recent tournament shows continue season’s success strength of women’s tennis Christian La Du Guest reporter

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assar Women’s Golf heads into its final tournament of the year this weekend, visiting Massachusetts for the Williams Spring Invitational. The Brewers have had a successful spring so far, and hope to carry this momentum into the tournament, having recently placed 2nd out of 7 at the Liberty League Championships hosted in conjunction with the Vassar Invitational over April 13th – 14th. Vassar enjoyed its share of Liberty League accolades, with several representatives earning postseason recognition. Seniors Celynne Balatbat and Nicole Bronson, Junior Paloma Jimenez, and Freshman Angela Mentel all earned 2nd Team Liberty League status by virtue of placing in the top 10 individually at the Championships.

Head coach Rhett Myers has been with Vassar for 9 years, as Head Coach since 2007, and brings a wealth of experience in the golf world to the team, and, according to Jimenez, “Coach Myers is quite possibly the nicest man on the planet. He’s always got a positive attitude and a plentitude of anecdotes.”

Mentel, who had a standout first season, echoed Jimenez’s words about Myers. “Coach Myers has fostered an amazing women’s golf program here at Vassar,” Mentel wrote in an emailed statement. “His dedication to the team and to the game of golf is inspiring. I certainly appreciate his help not only in becoming a better golfer, but also in helping me to transition to Vassar as a freshman. Coach Myers has done a great job in working to make the Liberty League Championship an attainable goal for our program, and I think that in the years to come there will be great opportunities and tournament results from the Women’s Golf Team.”

The team competes in both fall and spring

seasons, bounded by the weather and course conditions. The spring season was initiated at the Myrtle Beach Shootout in South Carolina during the resent spring break, which Vassar won. In addition to the Vassar Invitational/ Liberty League Championships, Vassar also competed last weekend at Amherst in the Jack Leaman Invitational. Vassar’s 708 total placed it ahead of Wellesley College (731), Hamilton College (778), Mount Holyoke College (784) and St. Lawrence University (839).

(Cite Vassar athletics recap) Jimenez, who had a solid season this semester, shared how she got started playing golf, and why she continues to do so, saying “I’ve been playing since I was 9 years old, and I originally started because my Grandma Betty was amazed by my amateur Putt-Putt skills.

I play golf because Bill Murray plays golf.”

Despite the brief seasons, golf still looms as a large time commitment in season. “Consider it takes around 5 or 6 hours (or the infamous 7 hour NYU match) to complete one day of competition,” said Jimenez. “We practice for about 2 hours, four or five times a week.”

With the season nearing its end, many members of the team express their happiness with this season as a whole. During her first season as a Brewer, Mentel has developed a passion for the program. “Golf at Vassar has been really great. The team works incredibly hard to represent Vassar well in tournaments, and we compete against nationally ranked teams regularly. We’ve had an awesome year and I can’t wait to see what next year brings!

Personally, I love competing to represent our school as a part of the golf team. The support of Vassar, Coach Myers, and my teammates helped me earn Liberty League Honors, and I will continue to do my best to represent Vassar well in tournaments.”

Anna Kuo

L

Guest reporter

ast weekend on April 13 and 14th, Vassar’s Women’s Tennis Team took the Seven Sisters Championship by storm. On April 13, Vassar defeated Bryn Mawr College, 5-0 and Smith College, 5-0. The next day, Vassar defeated Mount Holyoke College, 5-0 and Wellesley College, 4-1.

Despite being short a player, VCWT expected to go out to Seven Sisters, play their hardest and win. They played one match at a time, and as a result, throughout the tournament, the team kept improving. Sophomore Samantha Schapiro commented on how the team approached their matches. “When it was time to take on Wellesley, we were all mentally and physically prepared and our hard work paid off,” she wrote in an emailed statement.

Highlights on April 13 included the tournament against Bryn Mawr, in which Schapiro and fellow sophmore Ava Sadeghi blanked their opponents in two quick sets, winning six games each set compared to Bryn Mawr’s zero in number two and number one singles, respectively.

Freshman Winnie Yeates defeated her opponent 6-1 and 6-0 in number three singles. As for doubles, freshman Lauren Stauffer and junior Lindsay Kantor teamed up to defeat their opponents 6-0, 6-0 and freshman Kelsey Van Noy and senior Natalie Santiago won their number two doubles match 6-0, 6-1.

Continuing the tournament on April 14 against Mount Holyoke, Van Noy and sophomore Hannah Van Demark at number two doubles defeated their opponents 6-1, 6-1, while all three singles matches were wins for the Brewers, thanks to the continued efforts of Sadeghi, Santiago and Yeates. Against the tough Wellesley team, the Brewers again swept the singles, with Sadeghi leading the team with a win against number one ranked singles.

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In terms of the dynamic of the women’s team, Santiago noted that they are very close.−”Despite having a few players out due to academic conflicts, the team has managed to become stronger and closer than ever, our commitment to the sport and the team have only grown despite the many challenges we have faced this semester,” she explained.

Schapiro agreed, describing the team dynamic.−”We go out on the court and play for each other. When someone is down everyone is cheering for them and stepping up their game.

We might be a small team, but we are all extremely close and we are a very hardworking group of girls.”

She expanded on her passion for tennis and for the program here at Vassar. “Every time I step on to the tennis court wearing burgundy and grey and VC on my uniform I feel focused and determined. I am so happy to get the opportunity to play for my school and play the game I learned to love. Although practices can be frustrating and physically demanding, when it is time to play in a match, these girls seize the opportunity to have fun and play from within.”

As for the rest of the season, VCWT hopes to use this momentum to carry them to victory and success during Liberty Leagues Championships. Members on the team have high hopes and expectations for their team and team members, specifically to continue on to Nationals in May. Other team goals of the season include beating Skidmore College by making it to Liberty League finals, and to qualify for the NCAAs. In regard to this goal, Schapiro acknowledged that it is not a guarantee.−”This is not something we have much control over. All we can do is continue playing great tennis, and winning matches.” In light of winning the Seven Sisters Championship, the team seeks to approach these goals just like how they did with Seven Sisters-one match at a time.