The Miscellany News | April 7, 2011

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The Miscellany News Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

April 7, 2011

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Volume CXLIV | Issue 19

Voting on Campaign revisions to reforms begin today proposed Aashim Usgaonkar

Caitlin Clevenger

he Vassar Student Association (VSA) Board of Elections (BOE) ruled on Monday, April 4 that the proposed amendment to the VSA Constitution shall be deemed to have passed in a referendum vote if it achieves a simple majority of those who cast ballots, excluding abstentions. The online voting will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The Judicial Board, represented by Chair Shouvik Bhattacharya ’11, offered its advice at last Sunday’s VSA Council meeting. The Judicial Board based its decision on Article VI, Section 8, part F of the VSA Bylaws, which states, “In a referendum vote, the article shall be deemed to have passed if a simple majority of the VSA has voted in favor of the article, not including abstentions.” Basing its suggestion on this language, the Board recommended that the See REFERENDUM on page 4

he Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council will vote in its next meeting, Sunday, April 10, on an amendment to the VSA Bylaws that would extend filing and campaigning periods during VSA elections. Under the proposed amendment, which applies to Article VI of the VSA Bylaws, the filing period, in which candidates officially announce their candidacy for positions, would be extended from five days to two weeks. The filing period would end seven days before voting began. The amendment also significantly proposes that campaigning begin at the same time that the filing period opens, so that a student could announce his or her candidacy even after others had begun campaigning. Under the current Bylaws, candidates are prohibited from campaigning until the end of See ELECTIONS on page 3

News Editor

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News Editor

The Miscellany News

Former Vassar Project Manager Arthur H. Fisher, pictured in front of the new Touwn Houses during their construction, was charged with felony grand larceny following allegations that the pair embezzled $1.98 million from College construction projects.

Students protest Cuomo Fisher accused of $1.98 million theft budget cuts in Albany Molly Turpin

Editor in Chief

Angela Aiuto Senior Editor

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group of about 30 Vassar students travelled to the State Capitol in Albany on Wednesday, March 30 to participate in a planned protest against Governor Andrew Cuomo’s state budget plan, which included deep cuts to education and health care. The protest took place as lawmakers scrambled to finalize the budget, which passed both houses by the following morning. The $132.5 billion spending plan is quite simi-

lar to that first proposed by Cuomo, closing a $10 billion deficit without introducing new taxes or increasing debt. Instead, total spending fell by two percent; a $1.2 billion reduction in state aid to local school districts and a $2.8 reduction in Medicaid spending were among the largest cuts. Cuomo has come under fire in recent weeks for pressing the necessity of such cuts while allowing taxes on the wealthy—a surcharge on singles earning more See ALBANY on page 4

Inside this issue

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NEWS

Billy Bob’s BBQ moves into Dutch Cabin restaurant

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ormer Vassar Project Manager Arthur H. Fisher and his wife Jennifer Fisher were charged with felony grand larceny following an accusation of embezzling $1.98 million from Vassar construction projects following their arrest on Friday, April 1. Fisher

Manager from 2005 until December 2010. The arrest led President Catharine Bond Hill to send an all-campus email on Monday afternoon. She wrote that the arrest of a former employee followed the discovery of “financial irregularities in a limited number of campus See THEFT on page 4

“The Cradle Will Rock” tonight Laci Dent

Guest Reporter

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amilies visiting for the annual Parents Weekend might save a spot for the Drama Department’s staging of “The Cradle Will Rock” in mind when filling their dance cards for the weekend’s activities. The production will take the stage on April 7, 8, 9, at 8 p.m., and April 9, 3 p.m. Directed by Drama Department Chair and Professor of Drama Chris Grabowski, “The Cradle Will Rock” is a 1937 musical originally written by Marc Blitzstein and directed by Orson Welles. When the play debuted under the Federal Theatre Project, it was greeted with issues of controversy and censorship, as it was such a radical response to an industrial landscape. Set in the 1930s, the narrative of the play follows the efforts of the character Larry Foreman to disrupt the status quo of “Steeltown, USA.” Foreman rallies together the town’s union workers in an attempt to challenge and eventually overturn the corrupt bigwig, Mr. Man, a greedy businessman in control of the town’s factory, press and social organization. Mr. Man and his entire family are symbolic of the downturn of society during the period of rapid in-

FEATURES

VC student participates in Bike and Build

Katie De Heras/The Miscellany News

Courtesy of Nicholas Korody

Vassar students travelled to Albany on Wednesday, March 30 to protest deep cuts to protest Governor Andrew Cuomo’s budget proposal.

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may also face charges for unregistered weapons and false law enforcement badges found in his Ossining home. Bail for Fisher was set at $100,000 cash or $200,000 bond. He remains in the Dutchess County Jail. As of Monday, April 3, Jennifer Fisher had posted a $50,000 cash bail. Fisher had worked as Project

The Drama Department’s production of “The Cradle Will Rock” will be performed in the Powerhouse Theater from today through Saturday, April 9. dustrialization. The liberty committee, made up of actors who have sold their souls to Mr. Man, are content upholding the status quo and exist in direct opposition to the union. They are the people that inhabit “the cradle,”

14 ARTS

and who would love to see society remain unchanged; however, like the title implies, things must change— the cradle will rock. According to Grabowski, his desire to direct “The Cradle Will Rock” See CRADLE on page 16

Georgian prints make way to Lehman Loeb


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