The Miscellany News, Volume CXLVI, Issue 22 (May 2, 2013)

The Miscellany News College Democrats visit Vassar

VC hosts Body Positive

Tennis claims title

Ben Hoffman

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ast weekend, April 27-28, student Democrats from across the state descended on Poughkeepsie for the College Democrats of New York (CDNY) Annual Conference. The event was hosted jointly by Marist College and Vassar College. Marist’s portion of the event took place on Saturday, while Vassar’s section was on Sunday in Taylor Hall.

The CDNY Annual Conference allows member organizations to meet and make changes to the CDNY’s constitution. It also serves as the venue for elections in which members of individual Democratic groups can be appointed to positions of leadership in the larger organization.

Head of Vassar College Democrats David Lopez ’13 attended the conference and explained that while each campus Democratic organization has its own executive board, the umbrella organization CDNY also has an executive board providing coordination. Additionally, the state is broken down into various regions, each of which has a position of leadership to which student Democrats may be elected. Lopez stated that as a senior, he was especially encouraged by the participation of freshman members. One Vassar student, Marty Ascher ‘16, was elected Hudson Valley Regional Chair of the College Democrats of New York.

“I have always been interested in progressive politics and hope to run for office one day. I saw the Vassar Democrats as a way to become involved in local politics, and discuss

Noble Ingram

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Volume CXLVII | Issue 22

May 2, 2013

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.com

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Chris Brown

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courtesy of College Democrats of New York

ver the weekend, Vassar hosted a series of workshops and discussions organized by the non-profit group, the Body Positive. The events focused on body issues and self-destructive eating behaviors. The goal of the discussions was to offer students resources with which to deal with these issues and achieve a more complete bodily health.

Specifically, the events included an informational meeting and workshop Friday night and two longer workshops during the day Saturday and Sunday.

According to attendee Benedict Nguyen ’15, the workshops and discussions were primarily focused on developing leadership.

Executive Director of the Body Positive Connie Sobczak facilitated the workshops and discussions. She was pleased with the events, noting the small sizes of the groups as a benefit.

“The workshops and discussions went very well. The small groups allowed for increased intimacy and a deeper discussion of the issues, especially in each of the day-long workshops on Saturday and Sunday. The students were excited to carry the work forward on their own, which is the purpose of The Body Positive’s leadership work.”

Nguyen agreed. According to him, “The smaller group made things really See BODY on page 4

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

On April 27 and 28, college Democrats from across New York state visited Poughkeepsie to attend the College Democrats of New York Annual Conference. national politics with people who share my interest,” said Ascher.

He described how the duties of his position included dialogue with other regional chairs and with the CDNY executive board. Ascher

will be responsible first to convey the interests and concerns of Democratic organizations in the Hudson Valley, and second to keep the local groups updated on the activities of See DEMOCRATS on page 4

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his past weekend, the Vassar men’s tennis team capped off a historic season by winning the regional Liberty League Championships, reclaiming the title for the Brewers for the first time since 2010.

After two long days of competition, the team defeated Union College in the quarter finals, beat Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the semis, and edged out No. 1 Liberty League ranked team Skidmore College in the finals to secure the title.

The men’s tennis program is the only Vassar team to win a Liberty League championship so far this year. For senior co-captain Dan Freeman, winning this title capped off his time at Vassar College. “As a senior, winning this title couldn’t have been more special to me. It was pretty much the only thing missing from my Vassar experience,” described Freeman. “It was a huge goal for me to help Vassar earn a LL title during my 3 years here.

Achieving that with my final chance made it incredible.”

After defeating Union in the quarterfinals, the team almost lost to RPI in the semis, winning 5-4.

Senior co-captain and number one singles player Andrew Guzick won the final match against RPI’s numSee TENNIS on page 18

Legally Blonde a light, fun musical Posse veterans join new freshman class A John Plotz rEpOrtEr

t Vassar, where people compete over who has slept the least and daily schedules are filled past capacity, students often forget how important it can be to have pure, unadulterated fun. In turn, the theater

climate often reflects students’ serious attitudes towards their studies.

When Director Doug Greer ’14 proposed a production of Legally Blonde to Future Waitstaff of America (FWA) last December, he decided he wanted to change the tone. “At Vassar, we do a lot of drama with

funny moments rather than comedy with dramatic moments, so I wanted to do a musical that was solely about fun,” he said.

He continued, “I wanted to bring something different to Vassar theater, and it’s my favorite musical.”

See MUSICAL on page 16

Administration believes these incoming freshmen will add unique perspective to Class of 2017 Eloy Bleifuss Prados

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Spencer Davis/The Miscellany News

Jessie Lanza ’14, above, plays Elle Woods in Future Waitstaff of America’s production of Legally Blonde, which is directed by Doug Greer ’14. The musical will open in the Susan Stein Shiva on May 2 at 8 p.m. and have performances on Friday and Sunday.

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Inside this issue

An inside look at senior regrets from FEATURES Vassar careers

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OPINIONS

Arabic Studies: why VC needs to catch up to its peers

hen the Class of 2017 arrives on campus to begin orientation on August 27, they will be joined by 11 veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, the first in a brand new partnership with the Posse Foundation. It is the first program of its kind at Vassar and in the country.

The Posse Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in New York, is dedicated to recruiting students from populations under-represented in the country’s top schools. The Foundation selectively recruits and sends groups of 10 to 12 high school graduates to its 44 partnering colleges or universities.

This group goes together and functions as a support network in what can be an unfamiliar and alienating environment for working-class or first-generation college students.

Posse Founder and President Deborah Bial explained the effectiveness of the Posse model.

19 Sports

“It’s so simple this idea of a team of young people going together to the same college or university could not only back each other up but really be a powerful positive influence on a community on campus,” said Bial.

The issue of veteran outreach has been an important one for the school’s administration. On April 11, President Catherine Hill wrote an opinions piece in the Wall Street Journal encouraging elite private colleges and universities to actively recruit more veterans.

Hill wrote, “These young men and women have already made a difference to their country and have demonstrated their willingness to serve others. For that, they deserve a chance at all of America’s institutions of higher education” (“Top Colleges, Please Recruit More Veterans”).

However, according to Dean of Freshmen Benjamin Lotto, Vassar found little luck with veterans.

Said Lotto, “Other schools like us See VETERANS on page 14

Collins’ decision a reflection of his personality

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April 25, 2013

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CORRECTION: In the 2.14.13 issue of The Miscellany News, Campus Patrol was inaccurately described as no longer being an entirely student-run organization. While Campus Patrol has a post-baccalaureate advisor, it operates using a student supervisory staff. These errors have been corrected for the web.

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April 25, 2013

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SASA throws Holi festival, performs classical dances Emily Hoffman GuEst rEpOrtEr

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Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

ast Sunday, April 28, on the Residential Quad, the South Asian Students Alliance (SASA) put on their annual end of the year event: SASA Fest. The day long event serves as the culmination of the student organization’s year-long goals to celebrate the numerous South Asian cultures present on Vassar’s campus.

The South Asian Students Alliance is a group established to meet the needs and concerns of the South Asian community at Vassar.

The student organization seeks to unify the students of South Asian descent, but also provide the Vassar community with an insight into South Asian culture and politics.

According to the PR Rep for SASA Fest, Maya Khatri ‘15, one of the goals of the event was to raise awareness of SASA and build excitement for the organization. Khatri said, “We aim to give the entire campus community a sample of what our organization does throughout the year.”

She continued, “It’s a more public forum and lower-pressure than a book reading or film screening. We hope that at the end of the semester we can get people interested in joining SASA for the following year so that they will attend our other events.”

SASA hosts events throughout the year in an effort to bring South Asian food and culture to campus. They have weekly general body meetings and organize many other events throughout the year including an annual Eid/Diwali dinner, which is held to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid and the Hindu holiday of Diwali and a Diaspora dinner, which features delicious foods from all over South Asia.

This year’s SASA Fest has been the largest, all day-event in the organization’s history, with local food vendors, performances and other activities. This year, the event also featured the Holi festival and the Akanksha Sponsor-AChild fundraiser.

Throughout the day the Residential Quad was filled with spectators singing, dancing, and eating while they enjoyed the spring weather and the performances. Most of the performers were members of the Poughkeepsie community. The Hindu temple in the Hudson Valley organized the performances put on by children

SASA Fest, the South Asian Students Alliance’s year-end event, took place on Sunday April 28. The event, which took place in the residential quad, included classical dance performances, Holi, and henna. from the region.

Performances later in the afternoon featured individual members of the SASA general body who did stand-up comedy, classical Indian dance, and a classical vocal performance.

The final performance was a Bollywood dance choreographed by Freshmen Representative Sino Esthappan ’16, and performed by many members of the SASA general body. The choreographed dance was designed with separate girls and boys parts and was rehearsed for about a month.

However, since it was a group dance, interested members who did not have the time to commit to the numerous rehearsals were able to learn the dance within a week and participate in the performance.

The SASA Fest also offered henna art, eyebrow threading and the Holi festival. The Holi festival, otherwise known as the festival of colors, is a Hindu festival in which celebrators throw colored and scented powders at each other. Students wore white clothes to offset the vibrant powders and had paint thrown on them to celebrate.

It is a festival that marks the end of winter and the upcoming spring season. It has become very popular on a lot of colleges campuses in the United States.

According to SASA Co-President Saumya Bhutani ’14, “Holi is one of the biggest Hindu festivals and so to include it is really a great way to showcase a part of South Asian culture, but more than just showcase, to have Vassar students actually interact with and get involved with South Asian culture.”

This year’s SASA Fest was the first with approval to have Holi as the finale to SASA Fest, as members of the administration previously blocked the event because of the mess throwing powder would cause. Bhutani spoke to the difficulties SASA has had in the past with throwing the Holi festival as part of SASA Fest.

“In the past SASA had trouble getting the event approved because of concern regarding the colors getting too messy, which was frustrating since Serenading is much messier and happens every year,” Bhutani noted.

She continued, “This year we finally at the very last minute got approved to have Holi as

our finale to SASA Fest, much due in part to Sam Speers from Religious and Spiritual Life, who was a big advocate for us.”

Bhutani also spoke of the significance of having a Holi festival as part of the SASA Fest programming. “Holi made a huge difference in the event because it’s just so fun and interactive. It was a great way for us to end SASA Fest,” she explained.

“It’s something SASA has wanted to do for a long time. I remember being a freshman in SASA and the seniors complaining how Holi just wasn’t going to happen at Vassar so to see it actually happen was very gratifying, especially after hearing from friends at other colleges what a big deal Holi is there.”

In addition to Holi, this year’s SASA Fest also incorporated donations for the Akanksha Sponsor-A-Child fundraiser, an Indian-based non-profit organization. This partnership was based on an effort to support Akanksha’s efforts to provide a quality education to thousands of under-privileged children in numerous villages across India.

White t-shirts were sold to participants in the Holi color celebration in case they did not want to get their own clothes colored and all the money from the T-shirts went toward the Sponsor-A-Child Project. SASA decided to introduce this fundraising project during SASA Fest in order to spread awareness of non-profit among the Vassar community, as well as the local community, so that others might get involved in the cause.

One student in attendance, Margaret Walter ’15 said that “SASA Fest was a great experience.

The performances were really cool and it was a good idea to have the event out on the quad because it drew in a lot of people.”

Khatri ‘15 thought that this year’s event was a huge success and accomplished many of SASA’s goals. She explained, “[SASA Fest is] also great to convene with members of the Poughkeepsie South Asian community, as they so rarely come to Vassar, and their participation in our events has made them invaluable throughout the year.”

She continued, “Most of all, it’s to enjoy the beginning of spring, show our general body how much we appreciate what they’ve done throughout the year, and bring SASA to the Vassar community as a whole.”

Hudson Valley corporations attend Green Symposium Anna Iovine rEpOrtEr

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n Tuesday, April 30, the third annual Green Symposium was held in the Aula.

The theme of the symposium, presented by the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce and hosted by Vassar, was “Living a Green and Healthy Lifestyle.”

This theme is particularly relevant to the Hudson Valley as the Hudson River suffered deeply from pollution in the form of industrial waste until the 1970s. As recently as 2010, General Electric has funded a dredging campaign on the Upper Hudson River between the towns of Fort Edward and Troy.

One of the goals of the symposium was to provide local businesses with tangible ways to reduce their environmental impact in an effort to improve the environmental state of the Hudson Valley.

The symposium also aimed to bring together businesses from around the Hudson Valley to promote clean and energy-efficient technology and practices and to inform the Vassar community about these innovations.

Those local businesses in attendance included the paper-shredding and recycling company HV Shred and Recycle and the Orthopedic Associates of Dutchess County.

Additionally, the event was sponsored by Hudson Valley energy companies including Covanta Hudson Valley Renewable Energy, and the Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation.

According to Assistant for Sustainability Activities for Vassar’s College Committee on Sustainability Alistair Hall ’11, the Chamber of Commerce chose to have the symposium at Vassar because of the College’s continued involvement in environmental matters.

“The Chamber holds this symposium an-

nually, and thought that with Vassar’s recent strides on these issues they should invite Vassar to play host this year,” Hall said.

Hall further explained that the Chamber of Commerce had been planning this year’s symposium for months. He noted, “They had reached out to Vassar in the fall about presenting and after some communications back and forth they asked us if we would like to play host as well.”

The Aula featured vendors on the sides of the room from organizations such as Strength for Life, which specializes in rehabilitative exercise, and Foundation for Wellness Professionals, an association for healthcare keynote speakers. Presenters spoke in front of an audience about new eco-friendly products and practices, while information pamphlets and refreshments were available in the back.

The event was separated into morning and afternoon sessions. From 8:30 a.m. to lunchtime, attendants listened to presentations and forums about energy and waste efficiency.

After lunch until the end of the symposium at 4:00 p.m., the assemblies transitioned into discussion of healthy lifestyle practices for the people behind these businesses.

Hall himself has had a long-term commitment with environmental issues. After graduating Vassar in 2011, Hall moved on to the Green Corps, the Field School for Environmental Organizing. He graduated the Green Corps to work on campaigns for reformed food systems, clean energy, and park protections before coming back to Vassar.

Hall, along with the Director of the Purchasing Department Rosaleen Cardillo, and a Buyer for Purchasing Karen Gallagher, showed a report entitled “Supply Stream Sustainability: Greening Vassar’s Inputs and Outputs.”

“Supply Stream Sustainability” was held in the morning as one of the primary presentations on efficiency.

In their multi-media presentation, Hall, Cardillo and Gallagher detailed how Vassar has improved its sustainability programs.

“Alistair was approached by the Chamber, who also wanted Purchasing to speak,” Gallagher said about her participation. “Our presentation basically outlined the recent efforts to reduce our environmental impact through purchasing decisions and in making changes to our waste-stream,” she said.

“Alistair spoke using a zero-waste upstream -downstream exercise. The upstream: take an object and ask, ‘How was it made?’, ‘Where did you buy it?’ and downstream: ‘Where does it go?’”

Gallager then went on to describe some of the ways in which Vassar has tried to deal with the question of the final destination of what it consumes. She mentioned campus composting, bottled water being phased out of campus, and Students With A Purpose: Recycling (SWAPR).

Continuing, Gallagher said, “Purchasing spoke about the Big Belly Trash containers, surplus sale, Zip Cars, LaundryView, and toilet paper/paper towels.”

Gallagher also emphasized the dialogue that existed between the audience and the presenters, noting that interaction between the two groups was strong throughout the symposium.

Hall said that the center of “Supply Stream Sustainability” was around the efforts on waste and purchasing and that sustainability requires community participation and collaboration.

Those outside the Vassar community also spoke at the symposium. In addition to the

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

presentation on “Greening Vassar’s Inputs and Outputs,” the symposium held a talk, “Starting with Energy Efficiency: The Low Hanging Fruit” during the morning session.

“All in the room were very interested and interacted with all speakers,” said Gallagher about the morning session, mentioning the focus many at the symposium seemed to have for alternative energies, “There seemed to be a lot of questions regarding Hudson Solar.”

Project leader Dave Byrne represented Hudson Solar, a solar energy company based servicing upstate New York and parts of New England.

Like those who presented on Vassar’s sustainability and energy efficiency, Byrne spoke in the morning along with Mike Arnoff of Arnoff Moving and Storage.

In between lectures, Dan Danieluc of D&D Health and Fitness lead participants in stretching exercises during a ten-minute break, encouraging healthy practices in the workspace.

After a lunch break the symposium shifted from the topic of the earth’s sustainability to humans’ own sustainability. Doctors and healthcare professionals lead talks on preventing injuries and exercising one’s mind to increase work efficiency.

The ten-minute breaks continued in the afternoon, followed by a lecture about the cause of back and neck pain. The symposium concluded with “Healthy Lifestyle Options and Leaving Dangerous Pain Medications Behind” with President and CEO of Topical Biomedics Lou Paradise.

Hall was enthusiastic about the event, saying, “We think the event went really well!” He continued, “There was a great turn out and it was great to discuss our take on sustainability with the Poughkeepsie Community.”

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April 25, 2013

Body Positive workshops VC Dems. host convention train future Vassar leaders to discuss New York politics BODY continued from page 1 intimate.” One of the main reasons the Body Positive came to Vassar was the increased prevalence of self-destructive eating behaviors that exists on college campuses. According to Sobczak, college is a time when these sorts of behaviors become common.

Sobczak went on to mention specific reasons for this increased phenomenon. In an emailed statement, she wrote, “Restriction leads to bingeing, so once away from restrictive parental control, young people often struggle with knowing when, what, and how much to eat. There is also a tremendous amount of pressure on college students to be perfect in every way. Competition in the classroom extends into the social world where people who attain societal beauty ideals are rewarded with attention. This pressure leads to obsession with thinness and beauty, which quickly translates into disordered eating and exercise behaviors.”

Nguyen agreed with this idea, confirming that the issue of unhealthy body image is a real, if sometimes less visible problem discussed at Vassar. “I feel like Vassar students care a lot about their bodies but they don’t talk about caring,” he said.

In the discussions, Sobczak spoke of the origins of the problems people have with their bodies. She mentioned social media and the pressure it puts on people who are constantly on display. Though this can be powerful causation for body issues, Sobczak noted “… what we’ve found to be true at The Body Positive is that the most damaging messages come from the people who are close to us. A negative comment from a parent is never forgotten.”

Sobczak continued, challenging the way in which health advisors and the medical community have tried to solve problems of “overweightness and obesity” in America.

“Another primary influence on body hatred

today comes from the double-binding messages given to children (and adults) by the medical community and public health about ‘obesity’ and health. People today are hammered with messages about the evils of fat. The messages are often interpreted by children and teens to mean that every person should at all times be trying to lose weight. There is evidence that links the rise in eating disorders to the weight loss messages given to children,” wrote Sobczak.

Vassar Student and member of Body Positive Vassar Maranda Barry ’16 echoed this idea.

“The other, wrong message is so pervasive. Its sanctioned and backed up by doctors and scientists, our parents and professors. It is dangerous and all over the place,” she said.

Barry continued, “The point is that this kind of medical evaluation of bodies needs to be done on a case-by-case basis. You can’t start making generalizations.”

Barry spoke optimistically of the growth of Body Positive Vassar, a group she hopes will become a VSA organization next year. “It could really be a widespread group of people,” she noted.

Another theme in the events this weekend was the universal reach of body image problems and self-destructive behaviors. People struggling with these issues can be anyone. As Sobczak noted, “Eating disorders do not discriminate based on ethnicity, socioeconomic class, or age. Body hatred has become an equal opportunity problem.”

Sobczak concluded, “Because we know that people will be at their optimum health when they focus on balanced self-care behaviors rather than the number on the scale, we encourage people to give up their scales, trust that they have a genetically inherited “natural” weight range, and listen to their bodies deeply to know how to care for themselves in a beautiful, loving way.”

News Briefs 200 killed in military-extremist group battle in Nigerian village

A battle between Nigerian military forces and the Islamic extremist group killed more than 200 civilians in Baga, a city located at the northeast boundary of the country. (The New York Times, “Massacre in Nigeria Spurs Outcry Over Military Tactics,” 4.29.13) The spread of fire also burned more than 2000 homes, most of which were properties of low-income residents of the area. (The New York Times, “More Than 180 Dead After Nigerian Military and Insurgents Clash in Village,” 4.22.2013) According to an official statement by a representative of the Nigerian military, the massacre was allegedly prompted by the killing of a soldier

by Boko Haram, a Islamic insurgent force. The heavy use of weaponry in its retaliative action, however, was condemned by Nigerian Senator Maina Maaji. (Allafrica.com, “Nigeria: Baga Massacre - I Counted 228 Graves, 4,000 Destroyed Houses - Senator,” 4.28,13) Conflicts between military and regional accused terrorist Boko Haram are far from rare in Nigeria, and staunching casualties of women and children are routine in such confrontations. Until now, no group or individual has declared responsibility for the deaths and damages in Baga.

A closer look at the event yields graphic details. Soldiers reportedly doused thatched-roof homes with gasoline, setting them on fire and shooting residents when they attempted to flee.

As one anonymous local told reporters, as the village went up in smoke a soldier threw a child back into the flames. Isa Kukulala, 26, a lanky bus driver who had left Baga that morning, gave a similar account. “They poured petrol on the properties.

At the same time, they are shooting sporadically, inside the fire. They took a small child from his mother and threw him inside the fire. This is what I have witnessed.”(The New York Times) National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has announced that it will establish an independent investigation of the event. Chair of NHRC Dr. Chidi Odinkalu said, “In order to understand what happened, it is necessary to undertake an independent and credible assessment of the sit-

DEMOCRATS continued from page 1 their fellow college Democrats.

Asked for his feelings on the event, Ascher maintained, “I’m not sure if there was one big take home message for the conference. I did realize the potential that the College Democrats of New York have as an organization if the various colleges work together to achieve our common political goals.”

Commenting on the future plans of VC Democrats, Lopez believed the group needs to retain the momentum they gained during 2012, a national election year, and carry it forward. He noted that while the past year saw major national elections, there are a number of local races in which he would like to see Vassar students involved. Additionally, he highlighted specific issues he saw as important to the group including LGBTQ issues, reproductive rights issues, and immigration. He said, “I feel those are three big social issues we’ll see a lot of.” Next year, the group will be headed

by Evan Seltzer ‘14.

Lopez was also excited about the potential for VC Democrats to build connections with Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, the conference’s keynote speaker. Maloney’s district includes the Poughkeepsie area, so contact with him is a direct channel for students at Vassar to influence politics. Lopez hopes that the group can maintain relations with Maloney and potentially visit him in Washington.

According to Lopez, his biggest discovery at the conference was a renewed appreciation of diversity, both across the state and within individual groups, “There’s an assumption that we all think the same way. I think it’s really important that we’re able to have a very successful dialogue when we don’t agree.”

Lopez continued, “Even though everyone there may consider themselves a Democrat, it’s important to see that there’s strength in having a diversity within your own group.”

He emphasized that having a variety of opinions should be considered a strength and not a weak-

uation in the affected locations.” (Allafrica.com, “Nigeria: NHRC to Investigate Baga Fatalities,” 4.30.2013) Dr. Odinkalu continued, “As an independent and statutory national institution for the protection of human rights, the NHRC has a responsibility to undertake this assessment and is willing to do so.” (Allafrica.com) Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, following a recent trip to the country, said that the United States views Nigeria as one of the most vitally important strategic partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to build a fair and predictable environment for oil industry investment, Washington officials promised to offer Nigeria help with forensics supporting the fight with Boko Haram, which is considered to have undermined the security in northeast regions. (Reuters, “UPDATE 2-Clinton aide: Nigeria military alone can’t beat Islamists” 8.9.12) —Liz Zhou, Guest Reporter Ricin Letter suspect appeared in court

Suspected of sending poisonous ricin in a letter to President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials, Mississippi man James Everett Dutschke made first court appearance on Monday April 29th for a brief hearing. (Reuters, “Mississippi man makes court appearance in ricin letters case” 4.29.13) During the short hearing, Everett Dutschke responded to a judge’s questions but denied his involvement in mailing the ricin letters.

James Everett Dutscheke was arrested at his Tupelo home without incident. U.S. marshals also carried out a thorough search of his house but failed to find any evidence of his involvement in the ricin case. The new arrest came after the authority wrongly charged another Mississippi man, Kevin Curtis, who later proved innocent and was released from prison. Dutschke’s name surfaced at a court hearing when Curtis’ attorney suggested someone framed her client and mentioned a running feud between the two men. (Reuters, “Mississippi man makes court appearance in ricin letters case” 4.29.13) On April 16th, FBI intercepted the first ricin let-

ter intended to reach Senator Harry Reid of Nevada in Capitol Hills. (NY Times, “Letter Mailed to Senator Tests Positive for Ricin” 4.16.13) A similar letter containing ricin addressed to President Barack Obama was later confirmed. The letters shared identical typed notes “No one wanted to listen to me before. There are still ‘Missing Pieces’. Maybe I have your attention now. Even if that means someone must die. This must stop. To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance. I am KC and I approve this message”. (CNN.com “FBI confirms letters to Obama, others contained ricin.” 4.19.13) Capitol Hill evacuated staffs of related Senators, shouting to clear the hallway, and yellow tape had been stretched around White House to isolate pedestrians.

Ricin is a toxic substance that can be produced easily and cheaply from castor beans. As little as 500 micro-grams, an amount the size of the head of a pin, can kill an adult. A ricin scare hit the Capitol in 2004, it was identified in a letter in a mail room that served Senator Bill Frist. Sixteen staffs underwent decontamination but none were sickened.

James Everette Dutscheke will possibly face life sentence. He is also charged in a separate case related to sexual assault. (Reuters) A former martial art instructor, James Everett Dutscheke had run unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate against a Democratic representative Stephen Hollande, whose mother received a ricin-tainted letter from James Dutscheke this month. The motives behind the poisonous letter sending to Washington D.C. senators and officials still remains unclear.

—Liz Zhou, Guest Reporter President Obama recommits to closing Guantánamo Bay following hunger strike

On Tuesday April 30, at a White House new conference President Barak Obama promised to restart his efforts on closing the military-run detention center in Guantánamo Bay after years of legislative opposition. (The New York Times, “Obama to Seek Closing Amid Hunger Strike Guantánamo,” 4.30.2013) The speech came in response to a widespread hunger strike among

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ness for a political group. “At the end of the day, we were still in the room, still college Democrats, even if we didn’t agree on every single thing.”

Meanwhile, Vassar’s Moderate Independent Conservative Alliance (MICA) seeks to create a space for students who would like to express alternative viewpoints on a predominantly liberal campus, according to Julian Hassan, the group’s leader. Hassan also sees diversity in his organization as crucial, and focused on MICA’s individualistic bent; since the group includes a wide spectrum of political views, members must coexist while developing their own views. Hassan noted that the group’s composition has altered significantly over the years: “For a while, MICA became a blue-dog Democrat group.”

“MICA is being renamed Independent-Republican Alliance,” Hassan continued. He explained that this was to refine the group’s appeal towards their original constituency. He says the group wants to reduce the group’s pull towards moderate Democrats.

When asked about his own reasons for participating, Hassan replied, “I’m an activist.”

He added that many of the other campus organizations did not share his opinions, and that MICA provides a welcome outlet for his political passions.

While MICA’s relations with other college groups are not as formal as those of the VC Democrats, Hassan was quick to point out ways in which the organization coordinates with others with similar views. Currently, MICA is joining the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. It is also registered with Students for Liberty, one of the nation’s largest libertarian groups.

Hassan also spoke about MICA’s partnership with the New York Heroes Society, a group for conservative intellectuals. MICA often hikes with members of the Society in local areas such as Storm King Mountain. Partnership with others is high on the agenda for both ends of the political spectrum.

detainees that began on February 6. The strike is the longest one of its kind in the detention camp’s history.

According to the most recent report published by the medical personnel at the detention center, 100 of the 166 current prisoners have been classified as active participants in the hunger strike.

(The New York Times) 21 of these detainees are currently being force-fed nutrients through tubes inserted into their noses. (The New York Times) A number of lawyers representing Guantánamo detainees believe even more are participating. (bbc.co.uk, “Inside Guantánamo Bay’s ‘Longest Hunger Strike,’” 4.30.2013) The Pentagon has sent 40 Navy medical workers to address the hunger strike. (The New York Times) Although no information has been directly corroborated by detainees or military officials, lawyers speculate that detainees initiated the hunger strike in response to a February prison sweep.

Guard in Camp Six discovered contraband in their standard personal items search. One of the searched items were prisoners’ Korans; according to some of the detainees’ lawyers, the mishandling of the Korans prompted the hunger strike. (bbc.co.uk) This most recent event prompted the president to resurrect his desire to close the detention camp.

One of the president’s platforms during his 2008 campaign was to close the detention camp, committing to closing the facility within his first term. Obama previously proposed moving the prisoners to an Illinois prison styled after Super-max prisons. (The New York Times) Congress rejected this proposal and subsequent discussions had ceased until today. The president’s pledge to close the detention camp will face strong opposition, as Republicans, many of whom have supported maintaining the camp, currently hold the majority in the House of Representatives.

(The Washington Post, “Obama vows a new effort to close Guantanamo Bay prison,” 4.30.2013) Despite his domestic struggles, the president believes closing the camp is possible. “Rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point,” Obama promised. (The Washington Post) —-Bethan Johnson, Editor-in-Chief

April 25, 2013

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New thrift shop brings trendy shopping to Arlington Aja Saalfeld

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Emily Lavieri-Scull/The Miscellany News

onsignment shop chic—it’s trendy and with that certain touch of irony that many Vassar students crave.

The Bearded Lady, selling the sort consignment-shop chic clothing one might expect at Vassar, and touted by its owner as a store for “clothing and crap,” opened up on Raymond Avenue in a gradual move-in process several weeks ago. Its owner, Margot Madalengoitia, said she wanted to create a pre-owned store that specifically caters to college students.

In her shop where she only just finished moving in, Madalengoitia’s day starts with opening shop and setting up to prepare for her customers, which, according to her, includes many Vassar students. Tagging, repairing and cleaning are all a part of her opening routine.

At the moment, the business is still largely amorphous so soon after setting up. Since Madalengoitia is both the owner and the only employee, she has full control over the direction her business takes.

Despite her goal to bring previously-owned clothing that is fashionable and relatively inexpensive to college students, trying to put a name to what she does has been difficult for Madalengoitia.

“People ask me to describe what I am,” said Madalengoitia, explaining her role in both her shop and community. “I am trying to hit the middle ground with price and boutique. I’m not sure if there’s really a name for it.”

Madalengoitia said she intends to fill the gap between mall shopping and other thrift stores, such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army. These two options are on entirely different poles; shopping at the mall sends money directly to corporations while buying previously-owned clothing does not.

The Bearded Lady straddles the line of being a business that reduces waste, but is, at the

same time, a for-profit organization.

Much of her inventory comes from things she has accumulated doing her own thrift shopping over the years. However, not much of her stock comes from her own personal closet.

Some students, such as Sara Cooley ’15, take issue with the for-profit aspect of The Bearded Lady.

“The difference between Salvation Army and the Bearded Lady is that organizations like the Salvation Army were founded with the intent to give back to the community (despite this org’s notoriously anti-LGBTQ policies). I feel like thrift/consignment shops like Bearded Lady, which are predominantly for-profit, contribute to the glamorization of poverty without attempting to address it,” said Cooley in an emailed statement.

However, other students were more optimistic about Arlington’s newest clothing store.

Jordan Brooker ’15, who said she goes thrift shopping on a fairly regular basis, had hopes The Bearded Lady could do more than just be another overpriced boutique.

“I hope that the Bearded Lady is a cooler version of a normal consignment store and that the clothes are actually affordable,” said Brooker in an emailed statement. “If it turns out to be a pricey boutique or whatever, I will definitely be disappointed. I know it’s a business, I just wouldn’t be interested in spending $50 for a t-shirt.”

Students also emphasized the need for more inexpensive clothing and attempting to be more environmentally conscious in their clothing choices.

“The role thrift shopping is for people to reduce waste by giving their clothes away for someone else to use instead of throwing them away when they outgrow them or decide they don’t like them any more,” said Gabby Scher ’15 in an emailed statement.

Margot Madalengoitia, a twenty-year-old entrepreneur, recently opened her thrift shop, The Bearded Lady, on Raymond Avenue. She hopes to bring trendy yet inexpensive clothing to the community.

Madalengoitia also has her own ideas about buying previously-owned clothing as a method for being environmentally conscious. “I definitely feel like we live in a throw-away culture,” she said. “Styles change so fast that people aren’t wearing things for more than one season. I think this is a good way to recycle clothing. I think it’s an important thing to be able to be a sort of green business.”

In addition to striving to create its own unique identity to set it apart from other businesses of a similar type, one other thing that is different about The Bearded Lady is as simple as its owner. Madalengoitia, at only 20, is the age of many of the college students who comprise her target demographic.

Scher, for example, was impressed with Madalengoitia’s ambition.

“I think that’s awesome that a 20-year-old woman is starting her own business. I had no idea that was the case. It’s really impressive that someone so young is opening up her own business, I’m currently 20 and I don’t think I could handle the responsibility of owning my own business,” wrote Scher.

Cooley, who was critical of some aspects of Madalengoitia’s business, also had positive things to say about independent businesses.

Wrote Cooley, “One thing I like about places like the Bearded Lady is that it is independent, as opposed to being a large national chain like Salvation Army.”

She continued, “However, thrift store or not, the fact that it is a for-profit business means that it is not benefitting the community in ways it could be.”

Lueckheide displays big passion for the microscopic world Bethany Terry staFF dEsiGnEr

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Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

ichael Lueckheide ‘13 might just have King Midas’s touch. As part of his senior thesis, Lueckheide has been studying gold nanotubes, which have uses in imaging aids in observing cancer cells, catalysts in chemical reactions, and as components in electronics.

Working over the past year in Vassar’s Mudd Chemistry laboratory, Lueckheide has been doing research in this field of nanotechnology.

Lueckheide’s project, “Electrochemical Growth of Metal Nanoparticles on Carbon Nanotubes,” focuses on methods to control the production size of gold nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes, a section of material science that has already proven its worth in today’s society.

The application of his research could be promising; the growth of nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes has already been applicable in many different areas. His research, if it is published, would be the third publication he has been associated with during his time spent at Vassar.

“You can functionalize carbon nanotubes with these nanoparticles, and then use the particles as scaffolds for other molecules,” stated Lueckheide.

Taking nickel-plated wire, Lueckheide produced carbon nanotubes by thermal chemical vapor deposition of acetylene onto the nickel-plated wire. “Acetylene gas, like the kind you use in torches, is deposited on the wire at high temperatures, at about 750 degrees Celsius, and it is deposited as nanotubes. They are connected to the wire and they grow off the wire like a mess of bristles on a brush,” he explained. Once the nanotubes grew, a gold solution was electroplated onto the tubes, producing nanoparticles of varying sizes and shapes. Associate Professor of Chemistry Christopher Smart, Lueckheide’s thesis advisor, imaged these masses at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Laboratory in Poughkeepsie, in order to analyze the nanoparticles for size, shape and accumulation.

Of Lueckheide, Professor Smart wrote in an emailed statement, “[Lueckheide] was especially enthusiastic about coming in to the lab and working. He also did a good job in identify-

Michael Lueckheide ’13, pictured above, has been published twice in the past. Currently, his senior thesis focuses on methods to control the production size of gold nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes. ing relevant background reading in the primary research literature.” Having been Lueckheide’s professor in class, he said that Luckheide was one of the best students as well as a quick study in the lab, especially with the challenges he faced.

“The main challenge Michael faced was the simple fact that there is no precedent for the work he was doing (using carbon nanotubes as a scaffold for growth of metal nanoparticles)— we had to make up our own procedures and analytical methods as we went along,” he wrote.

Lueckheide, who will attend the University of Chicago this fall to continue doing research in the material sciences, began doing research relatively early in his career at Vassar. However, gaining a position to do so was not without effort on his part.

He said, “In my freshman year I went up and down the halls asking the professors what they did, and if they had a spot available. At the time, everyone said no because they already

had students.” However, his persistence won out and in the spring of his sophomore year, he began doing work with Smart. He did research that summer in the Physics Department on quantum dots, and then continued research with Smart the next year. After all of this summer research, Lueckheide asked the professor to be his advisor for his thesis.

After completing his research here at Vassar, Lueckheide then encouraged other students to get involved.

“Ask the professor ‘what is that you do,’ and if you like it, ‘do you have open spots?’” he said . He said he believed that this is one of the best aspects of being a student here. “You can start doing research early, and gain experience that students at larger universities won’t necessarily get because there are graduate students, and more students total,” he explained. Through his work with Smart, Lueckheide has developed a good relationship with him. “He has definitely taught me a lot, so he’s become a mentor in that

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

respect and he likes to be around,” Lueckheide said.

With Acting President John Chenette’s proposal last fall to create a mandatory senior project aspect to Vassar’s academic system, senior theses may become a more popular choice in the future . Lueckheide, a member of this year’s Academics Committee, thinks that doing a thesis or senior project can be a rewarding experience . He said, “[If] you find something you really really like, and you do a whole project on it, then you’ll learn about that more specifically, and you’ll go deeper into the field that you like. Granted it’s work, but most of things like that are.” While Lueckheide clearly found his thesis beneficial, his advisor also agreed, saying he believes that doing a senior project can also be a valuable experience, but spoke of only his department. “The chemistry senior thesis is an important exercise for our majors.

It synthesizes many of the lessons learned in their course work in the department, and is a good introduction to what work in the field of chemical research will entail,” he said.

While Lueckheide has not finished all of his analysis of his findings, so far he has found a loose correlation between current and size of the nanoparticles, according to Lueckheide.

The greater the current used, the greater diameter of the nanoparticles that are attached to the nanotubes. He also looked at time, but that seemed to have no effect on the nanoparticle diameter, which Lueckheide said was surprising .

“It also looks like the time we run samples does not have a big impact on the size, which is kind of counterintuitive, you would think the longer you let them grow, the bigger they would get,” he stated. And while most his research involved the growth of gold nanoparticles, he has also used nickel instead of gold to electroplate on the nanotubes.

As for his own research, there is the possibility of sharing his findings in a small publication, and he will also present his thesis here at Vassar on May 9. Lueckheide, along with the other three chemistry majors of the Class of 2013, will present his results at 9 a.m. in the SciVis Lab in Mudd Chemistry.

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April 25, 2013

Seniors reflect on their missed opportunities at VC Chris Gonzalez sEniOr EditOr

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hen you arrive on campus as a wideeyed freshman, you’re immediately greeted with numerous course options and opportunities to get involved on campus. But time isn’t infinite; at some point you must make a decision about what paths to take and make choices that will define your four years at Vassar. For some members of the graduating Class of 2013, though they do not regret the paths they have chosen, they wish there had been time to indulge in more experiences ranging from academic to extracurricular .

Member of Vassar Student Association Finance Committee and President of the Senior Class Vince Marchetta ’13 stated that it is nearly impossible to join everything one would like to in four short years.

“At a school with as many opportunities as Vassar, it’s difficult to not have regrets simply based on not being a part of clubs, seeing every show, going to every lecture, taking a class in every department, and basically just doing everything ever,” he wrote in an emailed statement.

Similarly, FlyPeople member Rachel Glorsky ’13 explained that she would have gotten more involved with certain activities and taken advantage of the resources available to her.

“If days had been infinitely long, I would have joined so many student organizations like UNICEF and Vassar Haiti Project, joined EMS, gone to all of the drama performances and a capella concerts, learned to play an instrument, been a lab intern, done research with a professor, done fieldwork, gone to more Latin Mug Nights and Jazz Nights, and laid in the sun a

little longer when when it was warm and everyone was out on the lawn being all liberal arts [college-like],” Glorsky wrote in an emailed statement.

Music major Michael Hofmann ’13, however, felt that his time at Vassar has taught him not to look back on the past with regret. “As a musician and performer, I’ve come to learn through the concerts, recitals and operas I’ve done that there’s no room to hold regrets for what you’ve done on stage. I believe that a big part of growing as an artist is learning to accept that what you do and how you do it will never be perfect,” he wrote in an emailed statement.

For example, Hofmann recalled his work with Do Something VC. Although he acknowledged issues with the organization, it is one experience from his four years he is most proud of. He does, however, wish he was more prepared for it.

He said, “I do not regret my involvement in the events our hastily-formed organization did.

I do wish that I had more experience with activism before jumping head-first into a leadership position of one of the most controversial groups formed during my time at Vassar. I had very little clue of what I was getting myself into, and I was so passionate about my own convictions about Do Something’s virtues that I failed to see its problems until after it was too late.”

While organizations and extracurriculars played a vital role in the past four years for these seniors, they also had aspects of academics that they wish they could have explored.

“There are some specific events that have happened this past year that have made me rethink what I would do four years ago know-

ing what I do now... [A] first-time for me was taking a sociological course--Professor Colette Cann’s ‘Race, Representation and Resistance in US Schools.’ As a white student with very little experience in discussing race (or really any aspect of identity as it relates to society as a whole), the course opened my eyes to an entirely new way of thinking critically about racial issues on personal, cultural, and institutional levels,” he wrote.

He continued, “In the course, Professor Cann really pushes us to reexamine our own racial experiences in order to create an individual framework for approaching the rest of our class’s discussion. This is something I’ve never done before, and while it was a bit rocky for me at the start, I am so incredibly grateful to have had the experience. I feel both more comfortable with my own identity and more equipped to be an active participant in the discussion of social issues in general.”

Glorsky wishes she would have gone to more lectures and taken advantage of the opportunity to hear the wide array of speakers Vassar brings to the campus. She said, “I guess if I had to pick one regret it would be that I didn’t take full advantage of all the opportunities to listen to some of the incredible lecturers that Vassar brings to campus. I realize now that those were rare and valuable opportunities that I probably won’t have again.”

Marchetta expressed a similar sentiment in regards to classes, specifically those from freshmen year While the choices ultimately had no impact on his entire academic career, he feels he missed an opportunity to explore some of his longtime interests.

He wrote, “I really regret missing out on the

class my freshman year that had a significant unit about dinosaurs (the footprints on the sidewalk near the Aula were part of a project for that class). For the first half of my life I was obsessed with dinosaurs and hoped to be a paleontologist, and since college is all about nostalgia, I’m sad to have missed the chance to live my old dream for a little and to reengage myself with a topic I love.”

But for Marchetta, who revealed that academics were not his number one priority, he regrets how some aspects of his interpersonal interactions, especially ones from his time on the rowing team, were handled, how friendships formed and drifted apart.

He said, “I regret not maintaining certain relationships with people and for letting some people slip out of my life unintentionally.

There have been a number of people who have gone from friends to acquaintances after they left the rowing team and I remained, and the difference in schedules kept us from maintaining steady friendships. While being on a team together does give you a lot of time to establish strong bonds, it silly to assume that once a mutual activity is lost a friendship can’t be maintained.”

Though Marchetta acknowledges that he does have regrets, he explained that what is important is that overall he enjoyed his four years at Vassar. “ There’s always a “what if” when you look back at all of the endless possibilities for how your time could have been spent, but while I acknowledge my regrets I recognize that I can never go back, and that’s not bad. I like to think that I got the most out of Vassar as I could, and I don’t really think I would change a thing.”

Breakfast helps students through stressful finals week Mary Talbot

GuEst COlumnist

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Ashley’s French Toast

I really wish I could tell you that I thought of this obvious but brilliant idea, but all the credit goes to the always adventuresome Ashley Pecorelli ’16 . The Deece may already offer French toast, but if you want it to be extra delicious, line-free and ready at any time of day , making it yourself is the way to go.

Use a fork to whisk together 2 eggs, a small amount of milk andcinnamon to taste, Take two pieces of bread and soak it in the egg mixture, making sure the whole piece is coated, although I know the little Deece bowls make this tricky.. If you prefer the thin, presliced bread, you don’t need to leave it in for more than 20 seconds on each side. For thicker pieces, 30-40 seconds on each side.

of butter and a little oil, otherwise get a fresh pan to fry your eggs. Once the butter and oil are hot and the bottom of the pan is coated, crack your eggs into the pan. I like mine over-easy, but flipping eggs at the stir fry station has represented a significant roadblock in the past due to the lack of any utensil other than spoons .

I’ve been noticing a few spatulas lately. I like to think it’s due to my friendly but persistent requests left on the suggestion board., so hopefully you’ll get lucky. Otherwise, make sure your egg is white and firm on the bottom and hope for the best by flipping and/or removing with a big spoon or by using two forks. Top your hash with fried eggs and cheddar cheese if it’s going to be a particularly long day and enjoy!

Sam’s Yogurt Combo

This recipe owes its name to Sam Rebelein ’16. Rebelein eats this mush any hour of the Deece day, but I find it especially delicious and super filling as a breakfast dish! Beauty is

not one of Gloop’s many outstanding qualities, but I finally tasted it and I haven’t looked back since. Mix together a few scoops of vanilla yogurt. If you prefer plain, try adding honey, a big dollop of peanut butter, and a bunch of granola.

Don’t look at it, just eat it.

Fancy Scrambled Eggs

A few weeks after I made this for the first time, an almost identical recipe appeared in Bon Appetit Magazine. Great minds think alike, but seriously, they could have at least mentioned my name.!

Beat three eggs together in a bowl with salt, pepper, and a little milk. Heat some oil and/or butter in a pan and then add eggs and start to scramble. Once eggs have begun to set, add a large helping of spinach and some parmesan.

Top with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.

Best enjoyed on a piece of whole wheat toast!

Heat up a pat or two of butter plus a little bit of vegetable oil in your pan—make sure it is bubbling hot, otherwise the toast won’t be crispy. Fry bread for about 2 minutes on each side, or until it looks done!

Breakfast Hash

I don’t want to be critical, but sometimes I find the Deece’s breakfast potatoes a little lackluster. I’m not sure what it is—perhaps they’re too dry, or just a little bland. In any case, giving them another fry with some extra onions and other veggies does the trick. This is definitely one of the best things I’ve ever made at the stir fry station!

Jacob Heydorn Gorski/The Miscellany News

s much as I try to to ignore such inconvenient truths, I guess it’s time to face facts: finals are approaching. My second round of being so burnt out that I can’t construct sentences, remember facts or tie my shoes is just around the corner. One of the things I hope to become exert more control over this finals season is my dietary routine.

This is the part where I turn into a walking corpse-waif-lady after four days of subsisting on minimal of floating into the Retreat, bugeyed and pale, for a brief 1 p.m. get-a-third-cupof-coffee break, I aim to wake up and head to the Deece for a more substantial breakfast. You were wondering when I’d get to the food part, huh?

I am not one of those people who can skip breakfast.

If you don’t believe me, just ask anyone who’s had a morning class with me on one of those rare days when I haven’t eaten anything—they’ll attest to my stomach grumbling and post-class speed-walking to the express line lunch, desperate for sustenance.

But enough about me—think of yourself.

Maintaining some kind of routine can make all the difference during busy weeks and especially the weeks of final exams.

I think the best place to start is eating three meals a day. Even if you’re normally not a breakfast person, do it for your poor, overworked brain. The extra energy from a filling and tasty breakfast will help you stay focused throughout the day, and allowing yourself a little extra time to find some Deece-cooking zen will also reduce your stress level.

I find it especially important to eat enough when I’ll be drinking lots of coffee—too much acidity and caffeine on an empty stomach leaves me feeling sick and jumpy.

I’m not a nutritionist, but I find that the key to a filling breakfast is protein: eggs, peanut butter, and so on, and I try to keep breakfast just as balanced as any other meal by including at least some fruit or vegetable element and staying away from excessive grease.

These are good guidelines to maintain even if you’re too pressed for time to make the recipes below.

Eat food, get sleep, take showers, do work, and remember, it’ll all be over soon.

Breakfast Recipes:

Heat up several tablespoons vegetable or olive oil in your pan. Add your desired amount of mushrooms and onions and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, for three or four minutes. Make sure the onions are translucent and that any liquid the mushrooms have released has evaporated before you move on.

Add some potatoes and eggs from the breakfast bar and stir until heated through. Add salt and pepper. Put all of this onto a plate, scraping the pan as clean as possible.

If your pan is relatively clean, add some a pat

Breakfast is not limited to the options presented by the All Campus Dining Center. One can use the stir-fry station to breathe new life into these dishes and create a unique, delicious meal.

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April 25, 2013

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Students find culture in the bottom of a wine glass Marie Solis

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Jacob Heydorn Gorski/The Miscellany News

illing 144 glasses of wine is not a typical duty for professors; however, for Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies Thomas Parker it is essential. The students in his course “A Taste of Terroir: French Methodologies for Experiencing the Earth,” French culture isn’t just something one reads about, or is lectured on—it is something one tastes. Or, in this case, drinks.

Though this unique aspect of the class drew in many students, it is not to be taken lightly.

Parker described the course as multidisciplinary and challenging and many students dropped it for these reasons. The class always begins with a guest lecturer who speaks for half of the time about the theme of the week, some of which include chemistry, biology and geography. Parker then steps in and leads the tasting part of the course where theory and experience intersect.

“The wine tastings give us a chance to really apply what we’ve been studying about the complexities of wine and the various factors that can influence its terroir,” said Amy Schindelman ’13.

“Terroir” is a term which ties the savor of food or drink to its geographical origin, a connection which is the focus of the course. “The course demonstrates that the flavors of terroir are as much culinary mythology as science.

It is about rocks, dirts, water and exposure to the sun. But it is also about stories and beliefs from cultures and regions, and flavors that are shaped by economic decisions,” said Parker.

Schindelman admitted that her understanding of wine was limited before taking the course. She said, “Well, my feelings on wine before this course was that it tasted like grapes and that the best kind is free. Now I have an understanding about the different factors that affect the experience of tasting a wine and also have gained knowledge about proper wine eti-

The course “A Taste of Terroir: French Methodologies for Experiencing the Earth” refines students’ palates for wine. The class allows students to explore geographical, economic and ethical influences. quette and distinguishing good wines.”

While Schindelman identified herself as an amateur wine-taster, Parker maintained that the semester has left his students among those with the most refined understanding of wine.

Their knowledge, he said, surpasses even that of self-acclaimed connoisseurs. “Vassar students come out of the course with knowledge that 95 percent of people working in wine stores don’t possess. They are able to speak in a highly sophisticated way about wine...[it] is a conveyance that allows students to find new ways of understanding the disciplines covered, from French culture, to antiquity, chemistry, economics, biodynamic agriculture [and more],” said Parker.

For Will Lefferts ’13, learning about these

topics has contextualized his time in Paris.

In an emailed statement he wrote, “I went to a few wine/cheese tastings in France and the producers were always incredibly enthusiastic...about where their products were coming from—after taking this class, I’m realizing that that was my first introduction to terroir, just without the terminology.”

The wine culture in Paris, Parker affirmed, is a prime example of the new ways in which wine has become closely associated with issues which transcend those simply of taste: It is not just an expression of personal preference, but of one’s personal values.

“The bars are filled with people who are ‘rebelling’ against globalized, mass market foods and international trade practices that affect

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

wines...” said Parker.

He continued, “They are making a statement about the kind of world they want to live in by the wines they drink. I want Vassar students to have the tools to make the same sort of statement if they want; about how their aesthetic preferences can mirror wider choices in ethics, economics, and the sort of world they want to live in. It’s a tall order, but it’s pretty neat to think that the flavors you learn to like in wine having a broader meaning.”

Schindelman noted that through her experience in the course, she has learned to consider these implications when tasting wine—whether it be from France or the United States.

“Tasting French wine as well as American wine has broadened my understanding of the different philosophies surrounding wine production, marketing, and drinking and the impact of globalization on every aspect of the wine industry,” she said.

Parker likened wine-tasting to a kind of art that engages more than just the palate. He said, “We learn to read and listen to wine. Think about your favorite piece of music you like to listen to where you can hear every and isolate every note, music, vocals, everything—your senses are completely alive. You’re not missing a beat. Compare that to music that you hear without listening to as some sort of innocuous background noise. That is the difference between connoisseurship and consumption. It’s not about sustenance, but living and learning through the senses.”

As for Schindelman, she foresees more practical applications of the skills she learned in Parker’s course.

She said, “I will take away the ability to walk into Arlington Wine and Liquor and be really pretentious. But for real, I’ll take away a huge appreciation for wine and a significant understanding of relevant economic forces, biological factors, geographic differences and cultural presence.”

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Selling back textbooks a market in flux Marie Solis and Eloy Bleifuss Prados

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Age gap a possible divide for veterans VETERANS continued from page 1 were having immense trouble communicating with and attracting veterans, explaining why a liberal arts education is an attractive thing for some of the veterans out there. We just weren’t able to connect.”

The partnership with the Posse Foundation seeks to fix this issue. Posse provides outreach, gathering a group of applicants, while Vassar covers the remaining cost of tuition left after federal government education subsidies for veterans. The veterans’ scholarship will carry on throughout their education here. The College has agreed to a minimum trial period, where each year for five years Vassar will welcome a new group of 10 or so veterans.

Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus has met with the veterans and said that they share in the school’s excitement to begin this the fall.

“These are folks who are seeing this as a golden opportunity for them. Something that can literally change their lives in a positive fashion,” said Borus.

Army Staff Sgt. David Carrell, from Copperas, Texas and who has been in the military for 11 1/2 years and served in four tours of duty—a total of 49 months—in Iraq, is a 2017 Vassar Posse Veteran Scholar.

Once Carrell had planned on spending 20 years in the Army, retiring and transitioning into becoming a contractor for private security. When a Humvee wreck injured to his back, requiring surgery and forcing him into medical retirement from the Army, Carrell had to reassess which direction he wanted take with his life.

The Wounded Warriors Project nominated Carrell, who is 32 and has two children, for Vassar’s Veterans Posse Program. Figuring he had nothing to lose, Carrell decided to take the next step and apply. In December 2012 he met with President Hill, Dean Borus and other members of the college’s administration for a group interview. He was accept-

Spencer Davis/The Miscellany News

ne of the greatest strains on students’ wallets occurs at the beginning of every semester when they have to buy books. More devastating, perhaps, is the moment when students attempt to sell them back, only to find that they receive a mere small fraction of the original price.

Between the Vassar bookstore, Belltower and Amazon, it can be difficult to decide which option will reap the most rewards and there are a number of factors that determine where a student can get the most money back for their books.

According to Manager Paul Maggio, the bookstore’s ability to buy books is centrally dependent on whether the course will be offered the following semester, how many sections there will be and if professors will assign the same texts.

“If the book which is being used now is being used in the fall we will pay you 50 percent of what you paid for the book,” he explained.

He continued, “Say there’s five sections this semester, but there are only two sections in the fall—I would only buy enough [books] for the two sections. I can’t buy them.” Conversely, he said, if there were only two sections offered this semester, but five to open up next semester, the bookstore would be able to buy back everyone’s books.

In order to be able to accurately gauge the need for these books, of course, it is necessary for professors to communicate to the bookstore what texts they will require for their students.

“When I last checked in on Friday we had about 14 percent of the book orders in from all of the faculty. I’m hoping that by the time we get to May, before students leave, I’ll have at least 25 to 30 percent of the book lists,” said Maggio. An awareness of professors’ plans for their curriculum allows the bookstore to buy back books in an informed way.

Moreover, however, the prices at which the bookstore can buy back books fluctuate based on demand beyond the scope of Vassar’s campus.

“You’re getting what they call national demand. And that is anywhere from 0 to 20 percent of what the value of the book is. So you buy a $100 book you might get 10 bucks, three bucks, or nothing,” said Maggio, highlighting the hit-or-miss aspect of selling back books.

Though Belltower boasts the convenience of students never having to leave their dorms in order to make these transactions, they too are subject to basic principles of supply and demand.

“The most important factor is the scale to which the book is used. Science, math, and psychology textbooks normally make a hefty amount because they are used nationwide and do not change too frequently. However, students can make up for this with the quantity of books they are willing to sell back,” said Byron Todman Jr. ’15, a Bell Tower employee.

Maggio agreed that students with textbooks can certainly receive more money than those who are trying to return novels or other paperback texts—a common grievance for students in the humanities rather than in math and science courses.

He said, “Bio, chem, economics—they use core-required books. [Chemistry] books are $300 and boom!

You sold that back and it’s a 150 bucks. So, generally kids are getting between 75 and 150 dollars.”

Todman maintained Belltower might still offer more cash back and eliminate some of the more tedious troubles which often arise when selling back to the bookstore or the hassles of shipping prices and listing fees of Amazon.

He said, “First of all, we do not discriminate against where your book is from. Second, because the transaction is on the spot and in cash, you do not have to wait for a sale or give a chunk of your profit to a middle-man for listing fees.”

Ultimately, a student’s best bet is to explore all of the possibilities and be strategic in the way they sell different texts.

“With novels, it may be more profitable to sell directly to a friend who has the same class later,” said Todman.

Maggio encouraged students to do price comparisons if they are not fully convinced the bookstore is giving them the best offer. Though it requires more effort, it has the potential to be fruitful.

He concluded, “I always tell them and some kids do this come to us—there’s no price—write all of the [costs] down and go to Amazon or Belltower and compare what you’re going to get for them.”

April 25, 2013

This fall, 11 veterans will matriculate with the Class of 2017. The initiative, a new Posse Program, recruits highly-qualified former service members and gives them educational opportunities. ed that same night.

Carrell said, “[It was important for me to go] someplace that gives you the flexibility to take all different kinds of classes and meet all kinds of different kinds of people.”

Lotto will be working with Carrell and the ten other veterans as their faculty mentor during their freshmen and sophomore years. In these first two pivotal years Lotto plans on being attentive to the feelings and needs of the Scholars as they are adapting into Vassar life given their uncommon circumstances.

Lotto expects one difficulty could be the age difference between the scholars, who range from ages 26 to 35, and the typical Vassar student. Said Lotto, “They’re not 18 to 22 year-olds. Negotiating the age difference can be something that I can anticipate could be

one thing that none, one, some, all of them could be concerned with.” Lotto is currently helping to find housing for veterans. Though they will still be part of a student fellow group, some veterans, including Carrell will be living off campus.

Borus, meanwhile, believes that these differences could actually serve to enhance learning at Vassar.

“It will add one more perspective in the classroom,” Borus said.

In fact, Carrell also expressed how he too hopes to gain a new perspective from Vassar and his fellow students after having spent so much of his life in the Army.

Carrell noted, “You do the same thing for so long and you live in the same place for so long you get a distorted perception on everything. In the military that’s the same way.”

Incoming freshmen speculate on VC life Marie Solis and Aja Saalfeld FEaturEs EditOrs

Eloy Bleifuss Prados and Bethany Terry contributed reporting very year, hundreds of incoming freshmen arrive with boxes full of belongings and heads full of ideas about Vassar and what their futures here will entail. Though some of these expectations are colored by representations of college in the media, each college carries its own unique peculiarities that need to be experienced firsthand.

While the Class of 2017 might still seem like a far-off abstraction to current students, for them, Vassar is a constant source of excitement and preoccupation.

“As I learned more about this school, I found myself every more amazed at the freedom one could deal with their classes, as in, it was basically a free for all, nothing holding you back from what you wanted to take. Add in a great academic reputation, and it’s a golden place for any student who really wants to learn,” wrote Amanda Ma, an early decision applicant from Saco, Maine, in an emailed statement.

Max Moran ‘16 had similar sentiments as Ma concerning the flexibility of a Vassar curriculum. Said Moran, “I was most excited for the classes. I read the entire course catalog twice—something I definitely recommend doing—because you finally have the opportunity to choose course in whatever subject you’re interested in, and you’re not bound by high-school requirements.”

The College’s reputation for top-notch academics, as well as the flexibility of course selection, also appealed to incoming freshman Samantha Hoher.

Wrote Hoher in an emailed statement, “I choose Vassar because of the amazing academics—no core curriculum—and community. I read amazing things about the professors and courses.”

However, college life is about far more than just academics and for incoming fresh-

E

men, parties, new roommates and other social activities can be a greater source of concern.

“My view of Vassar changed a great deal [since my overnight],” said Hoher. “I had been reading a lot about partying at Vassar and I was a little nervous because that is really not my scene. However, after spending a night on a wellness floor, I feel like I will be able to find people who aren’t into partying.”

For most students, Vassar is most fulfilling when they can find their own niche on campus. Getting involved in extracurriculars, most agreed, is central to the college experience.

“I was hoping for a community of students who had kind of diverse interests, not only academically were interested in things outside their major, but also having a thriving theater community and sports, I guess, although I am not really an athlete,” said Julianne Johnson ’16.

Coming into college, many incoming freshmen need time to find what really suits them, both in the way of academics and extracurricular activities.

Ma, who had an open mind about the activities she would participate in once at Vassar, said, “For extracurriculars, I think that I’ll end up where I want to be. Whatever sounds interesting. I’ll try, though I definitely want to perhaps join an intramural sport, considering I want to play even though I probably suck at sports.”

Even though extracurricular activities and academics are integral parts of the college experience, peer-to-peer interactions also play an important role in students’ ideas about college in general and Vassar in particular.

What many rising sophomores stressed about their change in perceptions about Vassar from when they first arrived were their personal feelings of belonging and hominess.

“I think I see Vassar now as a more wel-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

coming place. When I first got here I was overwhelmed and it was hard to adjust but now like now I see it as a very homey… place. Once you get to know everyone it is a lot easier to find your place here at Vassar,” said Hannah Harp ’16.

Johnson said that though leaving home can feel like an unsettling change, once she adapted to her new life it felt completely normal. In fact, for her, Vassar became something like a new home.

“I definitely feel like this has become a real home for me—at the beginning, as I’m sure was true for all freshmen it was a big shift. Now it feels so natural to be here than like being at home almost feels weirder at this point,” she said.

While a large part of this home-like feeling can come from establishing a network of ever-present friends, this too can be an aspect which requires getting used to.

Said Moran, “It was hard of me to get used to constantly being around other people. Since you eat, sleep, work, and do basically everything in between with your friends and classmates, it was a little difficult for me to transition into having a lot less down time. You get used to it really quickly, however, and once you find your group of friends it’s really great always being around people.”

Ultimately, Moran said his freshman year encompassed more than he could ever anticipate.

“Vassar absolutely exceeded my expectations. The classes I’ve taken and activities I’ve participated in and the people I’ve met have all been amazing and made my experience so far at Vassar phenomenal.”

He advised incoming freshman: “Participate in everything. It may seem overwhelming at first, but try a little bit of everything before you decide what you want to spend your time on. You may come into college thinking you’re interested in only a couple of specific things, but I promise you that if you try some new ones, you’ll fall in love.”

April 25, 2013

OPINIONS

Page 9

THE MISCELLANY NEWS STAFF EDITORIAL

VC must increase resources for those with eating disorders

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ast weekend Vassar hosted a workshop entitled “Body Positive,” part a series of events centered around building a more supportive, body inclusive community on our campus. The three-day workshop included various activities and talks to help foster a more body positive atmosphere on the campus. Special guest Connie Sobczak, the Executive Director of The Body Positive—a group focused on creating more optimistic, healthy body image views— was on campus to help lead the workshop. Sobczak began the workshop by speaking frankly about her own eating disorders struggles—a change from the current campus climate regarding this issue.

We at The Miscellany News commend the students involved in planning and hosting the weekend workshop that tackled body image issues, including eating disorders. It is a courageous and helpful. However, the College has not provided the appropriate care and resources necessary for members of the Vassar community with past or present eating disorders.

Currently, Vassar lacks an on-campus eating disorder counselor, as well as any type of College-sponsored eating disorder group therapy for those who need this support system. While the College does offer group and individual therapy for many of the other mental health issues students may face, the College has failed to address eating disorders on campus. This is unacceptable and can only worsen the stigma that often surrounds eat-

ing disorders. Vassar’s choice to gloss over body image issues shows how far we still have to go.

Issues of mental health already carry a stigma. Unlike other stigmatized conditions, we at The Miscellany News feel Vassar has not extended the support necessary to combat eating disorders. The fact that Vassar fails to program around this type of illness does not help foster a safe environment on campus.

And the lack of an on-campus eating disorder counselor and a College-sponsored support group only further brings this inadequacy of health resources into relief.

Perhaps it is the stigma surrounding body-image issues that explains why Vassar has not met its obligation to sustain a safe, healthy environment for its students. But this is not an excuse. The College already provides support for other types of trauma and mental illness. That the College does not offer the same support for body-image issues reveals an unacceptable deficiency in resources. The College needs to re-evaluate its stance on eating disorders.

Students should not be obligated to initiate and maintain eating disorder therapy groups and the like. The College itself must provide for its students. Student efforts can and should continue to offer peer-to-peer help, but the College must develop and implement programming to fight for a body-positive campus. Maintaining an on-campus eating disorder specialist is one clear and concrete

way the College can demonstrate its support for students with eating disorders. Without access to on-campus resources, students are invariably forced to seek help off-campus.

This forces students to pay for transportation, therapy and other off-campus contingencies. These only add further roadblocks to recovery. And they especially hurt students who cannot pay the money or the time necessary to find help.

We are also concerned that Eating Disorder Awareness week passed this year with minimal publicity. The fact that many students spent the week unaware of its national title just shows how far under the radar this campus climate issue flies. Vassar handled the week with only one talk: “Everyone Knows Someone”. The talk received little advertising on campus. The entire week simply went by without most of campus knowing or remembering Eating Disorder Awareness week.

We urge Vassar College to make crucial changes to its resources on campus. Eating disorders are serious illnesses. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, “25% of college-aged women engage in bingeing and purging as a weight-management technique” and “In a survey of 185 female students on a college campus, 58% felt pressure to be a certain weight, and of the 83% that dieted for weight loss, 44% were of normal weight.” The site further notes that “An estimated 10-15% of people with anorexia or bulimia are male.”

Eating disorders happen to students, and happen to student on this very campus. The need for a “Body Positive” workshop only further confirms these statistics.

It is a grave detriment to the health of students, faculty and staff on this campus to lack direct access to a counselor specialized in eating disorders or a College-affiliated support group. Vassar often claims itself to be a safe place for students and faculty alike. It is the duty of the College to cultivate this type of environment. It is in the best interest of those on campus to have a space where eating disorders can be discussed freely.

Vassar needs to provide medical and psychological attention on campus to help students deal with their illnesses—and that includes body-image issues. Instead of perpetuating the stigma around eating disorders, Vassar should instead fight it by facing the issue head-on and having open discussions about the nature of eating disorders. For students currently struggling with We encourage any students struggling with eating disorders to phone The Listening Center, our own 24/7 confidential, peer-run, 24-hour hotline at (845) 235-2062. The National Eating Disorders Association also runs a toll-free hotline Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, at 1-800-931-2237.

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

Nearing end of semester, Arabic Studies are in need we must say our farewells of more resources, classes Harrison Remler

I

GuEst COlumnist

t’s very easy to find oneself grasping for footing in the midst of the final two weeks of the spring semester. For freshmen the daunting sights and sounds of their first springtime on the Vassar quad are paralleled by the mountain of final papers and exminations that appears to be endless. Deadlines seem to jump off from the calendars and agendas into the unoccupied wooden chairs of the library’s tables. For sophomores and juniors it’s about rhythm and focus, getting into that steady grind we call “finals.” As a junior, I can’t speak to the feelings of being a graduating senior. For those in their final days at Vassar, the usual feeling of accomplishment that follows the stapling of one’s last paper is matched by trepidation and anxiety toward the next chapter of their lives.

In the midst of this regimented chaos we call “final exams,” how do we say goodbye?

Goodbye to the year, our courses, the dormitory communities we call home, our teammates, cast members and friends. It’s easy to recognize the people in our academic lives that need to be recognized, but what about those we unfortunately ignore. The dining staff at the ACDC, support staff within the College Center, the locals of Poughkeepsie who offer their food on Tasty Tuesday, the student you happen to always run into on your way to class each week? There are dozens of people and moments that need goodbyes at the end of a college semester as it coincides with the arrival of spring.

It’s during this time that we put endless hours into final papers and projects. Whether we are preparing from the midway mark of the course like our professors would recommend or begin research right before Study Week begins most of us still end up staying up until the sunrise in the depths of the library piecing together citations, VPrint money and punctuations to meet our deadlines.

It all comes together when we click “submit” or “send” and according to the academic culture, that chapter of our studies are done and thankfully finished.

Sometimes I get attached to final papers.

While there are plenty of moments throughout the courses where I’m seeming extremely

detached from the subject at hand, writing a successful final paper forces oneself to incorporate emotions, passion and pride. For many students we are at the cusp, either about to fall off the edge toward a lower grade or ascend to that great grade we’ve been hoping for all semester.

The papers are scribbled in colored ink with only notes in look like hieroglyphics that only the writer can understand. We trek from printer to printer until we find the sufficient ink to finish the job. At last, we click submit and as students we in a way submit ourselves to our fate, unsure of what grade we get until sometime in the summer.

I’ve reached a point in my academic career where I’ve noticed that accomplishment is more important than the letter grade. I could receive top marks and feel that sense of pride and gratitude, but what am I taking with me?

As I wrote in my last piece regarding the concept of challenging learning, I want to ask how we can rightfully say goodbye to a semester?

How can we do justice to the endless hours behind the computers, courageous comments made in class discussions and new friendships we have?

If certain friendships are meant to stay within the Vassar gates, let them be. But how do we truly say goodbye to a semester? How do we greet summer as Vassar students and spend these months away from campus? Before I embark on the final stretch of exams and papers, I’m trying to figure out how to say goodbye to my courses. Instead of just dropping the paper in the submission folder outside the Political Science department office and being free I’d love to continue the discussion and the teaching experience, as that final paper is just a step to something bigger.

We find ourselves once again in the midst of the academic hurricane we call finals. The papers will find themselves to the professors who will electronically submit one of six letter grades to the registrar. With no looking back, grades will be registered and as we sip on the tastes of summer one afternoon, we will receive our GPAs via email. Let’s just hope we’ve said our proper goodbyes beforehand.

—Harrison Remler ’14 is a Political Science major.

Saul Ulloa

GuEst COlumnist

V

assar has offered classes in the Arabic language since 2003, when Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Mootacem Mhiri was asked to begin teaching the language to students here. During the tenures of Professor Mhiri and Africana Studies Adjunct Instructor Tagreed Al-Haddad, an intermediate, upper-intermediate, and additional beginner class have been added to our repertoire of Arabic language classes. While these efforts are certainly applaudable, Vassar must continue to add an advanced-level Arabic class to its catalogue in order for students to remain competitive with the countless other students in America studying a language deemed by the United States Department of State as a “critical language.” It would support the college’s mission of providing a broad and deep curriculum to students, and maintain its commitment to ensure that students can take the classes required to finish the correlate in Arabic Language and Culture.

Many of the institutions with which Vassar often compares itself to, such as Williams College, Amherst College, and Oberlin College, have Arabic programs which far exceed the depth of Vassar’s classes, with twenty-two, eight, and six classes respectively. Vassar only offers four Arabic classes, and has been unwilling to add an advanced class due to the budgetary constraints that are affecting the entire school. Instead, it’s been mentioned that Vassar pays for Arabic-language students to take advanced Arabic at Bard College, without including transportation costs. Rather than helping with the development of an Arabic program at another school, it seems wiser to support the department at our own school instead. The professors here are dedicated to expanding the program and the students—thirty-nine and growing—are interested in taking classes.

Part of Vassar’s mission is to make accessible “the means of a thorough, well-proportioned and liberal education” to all students. The college recognizes the importance of language study; it requires all students to take one full year of a language in order to graduate. If Vassar truly wants to live up to its mission, the college must invest time and resources in fully developing our Arabic program, including media and literary Arabic, both of which could count

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

as an advanced-level Arabic class. My classes at Vassar have allowed me to gain insight into different parts of the world, expanding my understanding of the relationships I have with other people and offering alternative views of long-held beliefs. Thousands of Arabic-speakers arrive to the United States every year, and it is important that our citizenry are culturally fluent and competent in the languages spoken in and customs of the Middle East and North Africa. Our “well-proportioned and liberal education” should prepare us to communicate with as many diverse peoples as possible.

The requirements for completing a correlate in Arabic Language and Culture include “five units of Arabic at the introductory, intermediate, and upper levels and one Arabic literature course or another approved appropriate alternative course.” However, an increasing number of students are studying Arabic in high school, due to its status as a “critical language,” and are only able to complete four credits of Arabic language study before graduating due to the dearth of appropriate classes. In establishing a correlate in Arabic Language and Culture, I believe Vassar made a commitment to ensure the ability and opportunity of its students to finish it. There are currently at least eight students in the upper-intermediate class who fit within these bounds, and the number increases every year. With this in mind, it would be wise for Vassar to further enshrine its promise to these students and expand the program further.

The Arabic program at Vassar is still developing and finding its niche within the college’s curriculum. The professors are extremely dedicated to our acquisition of the language and the students are devoted to gaining fluency in it, many of whom end up studying Arabic abroad.

Additionally, the administrators with whom we’ve spoken have been receptive to our struggle to add an advanced Arabic course, but without the will to push our goals further. However, it is my belief that we must go beyond talking and actively push for this course and demonstrate that proficiency in Arabic is good for the health of Vassar, the intellectual and social diversity of the United States, and the continuation of a healthy democracy.

—Saul Ulloa ’15 is an International Studies major.

OPINIONS

Page 10

April 25, 2013

Existential crisis underway in debate over austerity Lane Kisonak

Opinions Editor

O

n Twitter there is a novelty account that goes by the handle @ECONOMISTHULK. Economist Hulk is a potent symbol of our era, when political leaders forsake empirical evidence for ideology, flout the will of their constituents, and self-generate crises without offering even minimally satisfying solutions. Two weeks ago Economist Hulk tweeted: “HULK NOT GOING TO SMASH ROGOFF-REINHART. HULK SMASH ANYONE WHO INFERRED NEED FOR AUSTERITY BASED ON CASUAL FAMILIARITY WITH ORIGINAL RESULT.” Faced with this belligerent screed against proponents of reducing public debt, you may wonder: who is Rogoff-Reinhart, and why was Hulk, as is often his wont, considering smash?

Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff are a pair of world-renowned economists who, in 2010, published a study on the effects of high levels of national external debt on economic growth. This study, which found that countries experienced slower growth when their debtto-GDP ratios exceeded 90 percent, has been key in the creation of a platform for austerity during the last three years, particularly in the United States and European Union.

Two weeks ago, however, a trio of graduate students, Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash, and Robert Pollin, blew a hole in all of it with a paper showing that Reinhart and Rogoff (hereafter, RR) had made crucial mistakes in their use of data in Microsoft Excel, eliminating advanced economies with high debt and high growth from their analysis. Commentators who have reviewed the paper anew also assert that RR formed their 90 percent benchmark as an arbitrary cut-off that means little for individual countries. The austerity duo admitted their Excel error, but have defended their central findings.

But the consequences of austerity have

been disastrous. Unemployment in Greece has continued to rise as governments have slashed social spending programs in order to meet requirements for billions in bailout funds from the troika of the EU, European Central Bank (ECB), and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Meanwhile, conditions worsen without relent in Spain, France, and Italy. And here in the U.S., things aren’t going so well either.

Growth in the first quarter of 2013 came in at 2.5 percent, which is faster than was the case during much of 2012, but is still quite a bit slower than the 3 percent commonly cited as necessary for our economy to support a labor force that expands as quickly as the population. Though much of the federal government’s cutbacks have so far been confined to the military sector, state and local governments have already spent the recession cutting over half a million jobs and trimming programs; this makes the $85 billion in sequestration cuts taking effect just this year all the more pervasive, particularly as the vacuum left by the expiration of the Social Security payroll tax dampens hiring.

Put simply, austerity does not work. We learned this was true in 1937 and 1938, when cuts in federal spending contributed to a recession during the recovery from th e Great Depression. But the Keynesian lesson that huge recessionary gaps in demand must be filled by temporary deficit spending has been lost on modern policymakers.

The Obama Administration’s 2009 stimulus was a valiant attempt to fill the chasm opened up in 2007 and 2008, but insider accounts have told us that White House leaders knew their bill provided for too little spending (perhaps too little by half), and nonetheless limited their expectations because they could not rely on Congress to pass what was necessary. As Hulk might say, “CASUAL FAMILIARITY WITH ORIGINAL RESULT” was just not convincing enough.

Herndon, in an interview he gave to New

York Magazine, stated that he got the RR data directly from Reinhart herself: “I clicked on cell L51, and saw that they had only averaged rows 30 through 44, instead of rows 30 through 49.”

This is certainly an egregious error, and it is incredible that this was not discovered sometime in the past three years. Some of the charges against RR are compelling, though perhaps not entirely warranted. Herndon and his partners have also accused RR of “selective exclusion of available data” and “unconventional weighting of summary statistics.”

Having written only a couple of undergrad economics research papers, my authority here is almost non-existent, but I can concur with RR in their defense (“Reinhart and Rogoff: Responding to Our Critics” The New York Times 04.25.13) that outlier data must sometimes be eliminated in order to prevent trends from being skewed.

“Put simply, austerity does not work.”

Lane Kisonak ’13 Moreover, in the past two weeks, RR have been civil and given appropriate weight to the conversation that has erupted around this issue. “Doing archival research involves making constant judgments and yes, on occasion, mistakes,” they wrote on April 25, “Learning from them is how science advances. We hope that we and others can learn from ours.” They also take care to show that the differences between their newest, more thorough analysis and Herndon’s new work are not vast—a 2.3 percent average growth rate for 90 percent-plus countries in RR’s 2012 paper, versus a 2.2 percent growth rate in Herndon’s.

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MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

But RR have definitely shown that they give insufficient weight to their impact on economic discourse when they pass the buck to others for “trumpet[ing our] paper as a fundamental reassessment of the literature on debt and growth.”

Sure, it was not a reassessment, but it was a valuable piece of ammunition. Several U.S. congressmen, including Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), America’s foremost champion for austerity, cited it in the run-up to the 2011 U.S. debt ceiling crisis, whose adverse effects we continue to feel. Like it or not, Reinhart and Rogoff have helped to shift the global economic dialogue further to the right, at a time when doing so is most harmful.

Herndon, Ash & Pollin have given us a fantastic example of what it means, as professors here at Vassar exhort us all to do, to “go to the source.” This is especially valuable in such an uncertain field as economics, where the only real experiments must be done in real time, at the potential expense of countless livelihoods.

According to Scientific American, physicists at CERN only confirm their results to the public (see: the revelation of the Higgs boson) when they attain five-sigma certainty—which means there’s a 1 in 3.5 million chance that their data is not a statistical fluke.

Of course, economics will never be able to enjoy that sort of precision. The work of comparing countries to each other and across eras is fraught with pitfalls. Sometimes the task seems tantamount to determining New England’s rainfall in July by looking at Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. By its nature, economics will always be a blunt instrument. Therefore we must make sure that it is used carefully and skeptically, so that it is kept from smashing our world to pieces.

—Lane Kisonak ’13 is a Political Science major. He is the outgoing Opinions Editor of The Miscellany News.

April 25, 2013

OPINIONS

Vassar athletes take part in collective collegiate life, do not desire separation Malena Harrang

L

GuEst COlumnist

ast week, an article appeared in the Misc advocating for an all-athlete dorm. The author implied that many athletes would support this hypothetical proposal, but their “voices have not been heard” (“Athletic housing would unite, not divide” Miscellany News 04.25.13.) As an athlete, and speaking on behalf of many others, I think it is important to be clear that this is neither what I want out of Vassar nor how I see athletics within the community.

Just like any other serious commitment, athletes have to dedicate a lot of time playing their sport. This means spending hours a day with our teammates. The truth is that people bond with those they spend the most time with.

Everyone comes to college and finds a niche where they feel comfortable. This doesn’t mean that there is an unbridgeable division between athletes and non-athletes, but rather that we’re more likely to be seen together in a large groups and wearing similar clothing.

Like many other athletes, although playing my sport takes up a significant amount of time, it is not the only thing I participate in at Vassar.

Being on a team has largely defined my time here because of the function it serves me within this larger community. I know many athletes with passionate academic and extracurricular interests who greatly value their place in the Vassar community outside of sports. They participate in multiple other associations and of course have non-athlete friends. My connection with other athletes has introduced me to new people and further involved me in the many things going on at Vassar.

I see athletics as a way to enhance the entire Vassar experience in the same way drama pro-

ductions, comedy shows, and writing articles for The Misc do. Playing sports is my way to represent the school and make it a more wellknown place. The college mission statement says that Vassar supports “a community diverse in background and experience; and a residential campus that fosters a learning community.”

Only through sharing what we love to do and appreciating what others have to offer can we build a safe and creative learning environment.

I would never want the athletic community to be exclusive from the rest of Vassar. Any type of social division would compromise Vassar’s integrity as an inclusive and diverse institution.

Mixed gender and class-year housing is one of Vassar’s greatest characteristics, especially for incoming freshmen. Vassar fosters an integrated community in countless ways. The fact that we have a small campus, no Greek life, only two dining halls, a general lack of local bars and few class requirements for freshmen allow us to interact with a large portion of the student body on a daily basis. It is essential that Vassar continues to make it easy for students to expand their social circles, regardless of whether people take advantage of this or not.

As I know many others agree, I want more out of Vassar than a strong athletics program.

I accepted my offer of admission here at Vassar without intending to play a sport. Every athlete came here to be a student first, and an athlete second. Not only is that how it should be at a Division III school, but it is what Vassar requires of us. I appreciate that I have the time and encouragement from the athletics program to define myself as more than an athlete. We have the choice to make our sports identity as large or small as we want.

I recognize that many people came here to

play on a varsity team in addition to receiving a great education. The athletic facilities here are above par for a Division III school. Vassar should be given credit for providing amazing resources to its athletes, especially in recent years. Although varsity players receive greater access to these resources, the athletes I know are on a team so they can play their sport.

Many of us understand that the privileges allotted to athletes come with the responsibility to represent the values of the college both on and off campus. Asking for any preferential treatment in other aspects of Vassar life would be undeserved and against Vassar’s values.

The goal of the VC athletics program is not to become a sports powerhouse at the cost of core Vassar values. Nor is it the goal to rally Vassar school spirit exclusively through sports.

Earlier this year, we saw what really rallies this community when Westboro Baptist Church came to challenge our values. In my opinion, a robust and involved athletics community reinforces the values we so strongly defend.

Separating ourselves from the rest of the community would only threaten what we work so hard to uphold. Our differences are what bring us together at Vassar, so we should continue to foster a community that unites people with different interests and goals.

My team doesn’t need an athlete-only space to take our sport to the next level. We’re currently having the highest winning season in VC Women’s Lacrosse history. Besides, my team just wants what everyone else on campus wants from Vassar: a TA bridge and chocolate milk at the DC.

Alison Ehrlich

T

his has been a challenging year for the Vassar Student Association. It began with a contentious fund application that brought up difficult but important conversations about power and privilege. Subsequent challenges that arose included multiple instances of hate speech in the houses, a protest by the Westboro Baptist Church, the resignation of two VSA executive board members, and the passing of a smoking ban. As the VSA struggled to respond to these complicated issues students reasonably began to question the VSA’s ability to represent the student body. A number of students, notably the Campus Climate Group, have responded with calls for a review of VSA structure and reconsideration of past proposals to restructure the VSA. The Campus Climate Group website states, “an outside audit needs to be conducted to review how accurately, effectively, and successfully the VSA is representing the Vassar student body, and particularly whether there is equitable representation for students from marginalized groups.” Others have brought up concerns over the relative lack of student involvement on open VSA committees and at VSA Council meetings, the disconcertingly high number of uncontested VSA elected positions, the lack of value-based representation in the VSA Council, and dozens of other sources of apprehension with VSA structure and functioning.

These calls for a revision of VSA structure are not new. As recently as the spring of 2011, a plan to drastically restructure the VSA was presented to the VSA Council and then to the entire student body in the form of a referendum. The proposed changes included the formation of a “Residential Council,” a senatorial representative body with class senators and residential council senators among other new positions, and a council of organization leadership.

This upcoming year, as VSA VP for Operations, I would like to reignite conversations about how to improve students’ satisfaction

with the VSA by carrying out a thorough audit of VSA structure with a committee and implementing suggestions that come from that audit committee. I would, however, like to avoid the outcomes of the 2011 restructuring attempt that resulted in a failed vote on the VSA Council floor and a failed campus wide referendum.

Though the referendum for restructuring initially passed, the Judicial Board ruled it out after it was reviewed to have been out of line with constitutionally prescribed referendum procedure.

In order to accomplish these many tasks I propose taking a highly community-based and research-based approach. Despite the apparent simplicity of these goals, achieving these values will likely represent a significant commitment on the part of the auditing committee. In order to ensure a community-based approach, it is important that every step of the process be open to all interested students.

This, of course, means that once the auditing committee is formed it must have open membership. However, I believe that if we are looking for true community involvement, the auditing process must not only be open to all students but also must be intentional about and dedicated to bring in students and groups who have historically not been engaged with the VSA. The issue of what ideal representation would look like is complicated and student complaints about the current structural failures of the VSA are diverse and difficult to properly address. To capture and organize the diversity of opinion it is important that the committee implement a research plan that will provide usable data that can inform future conversations about restructuring.

The VSA has had moderate success with these research-based projects in the past including the Campus Dining Review Committee, the Alcohol Task Force, the Student Space Committee, and Smoking and Tobacco Action Research Team. The VSA audit team can use many of the same research techniques of these committees including focus groups, small surveys, all-campus surveys, and town-hall meet-

Word

on the street

Who would you invite to your Alice in Wonderland tea party?

“Wu-Tang Clan.”

—Josh Solomon ’13

“Judith Butler, Luce Irigaray, and Missy Eliot” —Zoey Peresman ’13

—Malena Harrang ’14 is an International Studies major.

VSA to create committee reviewing configuration of student government GuEst COlumnist

Page 11

ings. When the audit is complete, it will be the results, the quantitative and qualitative data gathered, that will essentially determine the scale, scope, and form of any subsequent restructuring.

One concern that I have heard frequently about a potential VSA audit is about whether that VSA is most appropriate source to offer it’s own critique. In fact, the Campus Climate Group demands do not merely call for an audit but “an outside audit.” I think this is a completely reasonable concern. I feel this will in part be rectified by efforts to make the audit team community-based and by the fact that once the committee is chartered it will almost definitely be co-chaired by someone who does not sit on the VSA. However, this may not solve the entire problem of impartiality in the audit. One proposal I have heard that may cut at some of these concerns is to hire an outside consultant. An outside consultant could provide an impartial and unbiased assessment of where improvements could best be made and hopefully an abundance of professional knowledge and experience.

Hopefully this can address some concerns about impartiality, though certainly these concerns will need to be revisited consistently throughout the auditing process. The ideas and concerns I have brought up here are far from an exhaustive list and none of them are set in stone.

It is certain every one of these ideas can and probably should change as we get more input from students. I encourage anyone who is interested in the auditing process to get involved.

You can email the Operations email address listed on the VSA website at any time, including over the summer with ideas, criticism, cheerful greetings, etc. I truly hope that we can develop some substantive changes that can make the VSA into the student government that the incredible Vassar student body deserves.

—Alison Ehrlich ’15 is the incoming Vice President of Operations for the VSA. She is a Science, Technology, and Society major.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“I would invite the Teletubbies.

They would bring the waffles, right?”

—Michael Hofmann ’13

“Mike Bodnarik” —Axel Yung ’13

“Alice, because otherwise it’d be rude.”

-Hannah VanDemark ’15

“Michelle Obama.”

—Chelsea PetersonSalahuddin ’13

Jean-Luc Bouchard, Humor & Satire Editor Cassady Bergevin, Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Page 12

April 25, 2013

Ag-gag laws restrict visibility, skew view on food Alessandra Seiter Guest Columnist

I

f your Poli Sci professor asked you to guess who the FBI has deemed as the nation’s top domestic terrorism threat, would you perhaps answer the Ku Klux Klan? Perhaps the perpetrators of various recent bombings and/or shootings? Or maybe even the wide array of active hate groups in America?

While all three of the aforementioned guesses seem quite logical considering the large amount of physical harm they cause to American citizens, none of them provide the correct answer to your professor’s question. No, the answer you sought is actually “the Eco-terrorism, animal-rights movement,” as quoted from top FBI official John Lewis in a 2005 article on CNN.com by Henry Schuster.

Ironically, animal rights and environmental activists have never physically injured anyone.

Corporate provocateurs rather than actual activists coordinated the only act of attempted murder in the history of the U.S. animal rights movement. Removing caged animals from vivisection laboratories and fur farms, sabotaging animal testing facilities, launching undercover investigations of factory farms to document egregiously cruel practices, staging public protests, and engaging in non-violent civil disobedience comprise the bulk of the activities in which animal rights activists such as the Animal and Earth Liberation Fronts partake.

Despite the animal rights movement’s zero-percent rate of injury, the Department of Homeland Security lists the cause on its roster of national security threats “while ignoring right-wing extremists who have bombed the Oklahoma City federal building, murdered doctors, and admittedly created weapons of mass destruction,” according to journalist Will Potter, author of Green is the New Red. Often known as the Green Scare, this ill-prioritized governmental crackdown on the animal rights and environmental movements parallels the communist Red Scare of the 1940s

and 1950s in that it aims not to protect the American public from harm, but to push a political agenda and chill dissent. The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), passed by the Senate in 2006, functions as one of the major legislative strategies employed by proponents of the Green Scare to silence nonviolent animal rights and environmental organizations.

Prohibiting individuals from engaging in any activity “for the purpose of damaging or interfering with the operations of the animal enterprise,” the law expands the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act (AEPA) by broadening the definition of “animal enterprise” to include academic or commercial enterprises that use or sell animal products. Thus, the new terrorism law not only protects, say, a factory farm, but also any business or corporation that fraternizes with said factory farm. The AETA also mandates the punishment of actions that instill a “reasonable fear” in employees of an animal enterprise or their families. First employed to convict SHAC-7 animal rights activists for publishing an anti-animal agriculture website and vocally supporting direct action, the AETA also instills fear in individuals engaging in other rather harmless forms of activism such as leafleting or protesting.

While the AETA does not seek to label such non-threatening individuals as terrorists, the fact that these activists now question whether or not actions protected by the First Amendment could cause their imprisonment demonstrates the law’s chilling effect. Clearly, the law’s savings clause that it does not intend “to prohibit any expressive conduct ... protected from legal prohibition by the First Amendment to the Constitution” does not carry much meaning. Reflecting the activist-silencing intentions of the AETA, proverbial “ag-gag” bills comprise the latest Green Scare legislation. Currently pending in Arkansas, California, Indiana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Vermont, the bills would criminalize whistle-blowers,

undercover investigators, and journalists who seek to expose instances of animal cruelty on factory farms and at slaughterhouses. Against the multi-billion dollar advertising budgets of major agribusiness corporations, undercover investigations by animal rights organizations such as Mercy for Animals and Compassion Over Killing serve as the only means of public opposition to the animal agriculture industry.

“The new terrorism law not only protects, say, a factory farm, but also any business or corporation that fraternizes with said factory farm.”

Alessandra Seiter ’16 Within the past two years, undercover investigators have documented countless instances of egregiously inhumane factory farming practices, leading to subsequent legal prosecution.

For example, the Humane Society filmed the slaughter of cows too sick to walk at Hallmark/ Westland, formerly the second-largest supplier of beef to the National School Lunch Program, which provoked the largest meat recall in U.S. history and protected schoolchildren against serious health risks. An investigation of Krieder Farms, provides video evidence of hens caged near rotting bird corpses, supervised by workers who burn and sever the beaks off of young chicks. In response, one of the company’s biggest customers, McDonald’s, ceased to purchase eggs from the farm. Ag-gag laws would prevent consumers from making informed food choices, opting not to support

cruel practices, and avoiding the risk of foodborne illnesses by rendering it illegal to record video clips of factory farms, as well as to apply for a job at such a facility without disclosing ties to animal rights groups. Some of the drafted bills also mandate that documenters of animal abuse report their findings within 24 hours, hindering investigators from recording patterns of abuse or gathering enough evidence to produce an entire video.

While true that a series of 24-hour abuse reports could collectively display inhumane treatment, obtaining many shorter videos would require different undercover investigators to apply for positions at the same facility multiple times. This process would significantly prolong the gathering of information and dissemination of it in the form of a video, not to mention that it would place many more volunteer undercover investigators in precarious positions as unwelcome infiltrators of the farms they seek to expose.

Ag-gag laws provide yet another example of the dishonest practices of major industries and corporations that seek to infringe upon consumers’ right to know. To again quote author Will Potter, “ag-gag bills aren’t about silencing journalists and whistle-blowers. They’re about curbing consumer access to information at a time when more and more Americans want to know where our food comes from and how it’s produced.”By educating ourselves about unjust legislation such as the AETA and ag-gag bills, we can advocate to protect our First Amendment rights and our right to know the origins of what we eat. Indeed, an ag-gag bill in Wyoming failed earlier this year, in part because of negative publicity. To students with ag-gag bills pending in their home states, I would urge you to write to your local legislatures. By making our voices heard we can combat the practices of corrupt industries.

—Alessandra Seiter ’16 is the incoming President of Vassar Animal Rights Coalition.

The Miscellany Crossword

“XChange”

by Jack Mullan, Crossword Editor

ACROSS 1 Prayer’s end 5 Authentic 9 Chute opening?

13 Spanish “but” 14 Roof ’s edge 15 Bach’s instrument 16 Jack who preceded Johnny 17 Uno y dos 18 Country formerly called Zaire 19 Cat call 21 *2001 film about an FBI superdog 23 “If I ruled the world” rapper 26 ___-la-la 27 Founder’s Day month, sometimes 28 *Caught in a jam 30 Gluttony, e.g.

31 Unclear 32 Commonly torn knee

piece 33 Massage sounds 36 Treasure map phrase...or a hint to the answers of the starred clues 40 Orange potato 41 Unit of resistance 42 Reproductive body 44 Ab ___ (from the beginning) 45 *”That’s exactly what I needed!”

47 Bee: prefix 48 Other Gov’t Agency: Abbr.

49 Part of a G.I.’s address 50 *Snigger-inducing English pudding dish 54 Territory 56 Calendar that ends in 2012 57 “The Thin Man” pooch 59 Site of Vassar meals

Answers to last week’s puzzle

63 “___ anything!”

64 It’s sometimes proper 65 Archaeological site 66 Fr. holy women 67 Big brass 68 Tina Fey’s “___ Girls”

of July” hero Ron 38 “Dexter” and Weeds” channel: Abbr.

39 Astronomical red giant 43 Outer: Prefix 44 Offer one’s two cents

45 Jacuzzi 46 Creature with a dewlap 47 John or John Quincy 50 12/25 51 Sports division 52 “Chitty Bang Bang”

DOWN 1 Smart phone download 2 ___ culpa 3 Period of time 4 Standard 5 Sharp comeback 6 Q-Tip target 7 “___ Maria” 8 More’s opposite 9 Stand-in 10 Agriculture & Nat. Res: Abbr.

11 Prego’s competition 12 SayAnything commenter title, perhaps 15 Atlantic or Pacific 20 Defunct anesthetic 22 French sociologist Durkheim 23 Maritime org.

24 Coordination loss: Var. 25 Standard deviation symbol 29 Acquisition of the U.S. in the Spanish-American War 30 Univ., e.g.

32 HSBC has one in Main 33 Date with a Dr. 34 Kerfuffle 35 Throat malady 37 “Born on the Fourth

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

actor Dick Van ___ 53 “Perpetual Peace” thinker 55 Agricultural locale 58 Bygone French coin 60 Pool tool 61 Calendario unit

62 Anderson Cooper’s home

April 25, 2013

HUMOR & SATIRE

Page 13

OPINIONS

Breaking News From the desk of Jean-Luc Bouchard, Humor & Satire Editor History student suddenly remembers that he has a senior thesis due Monday, starts frantically stapling Wikipedia articles together Jill’s Founder’s Day ‘Choose- Messing with the new freshmen: Your-Own-Adventure’ story the plottings of a mad JYA-er Jill Levine Columnist

I

n elementary school, when the other noobz were reading books about kittens and vaguely historical revisionistic American Girl stories and Goosebumps books (full disclosure: I was too scared by the covers to even think about reading those things), I was a big fan of those Choose Your Own Adventure books. I liked them because they were badass and are til this day the only form of slightly highbrow literature that ONLY uses the second person. You don’t have to worry about useless stuff like character development because YOU are the only character and who freakin’ cares about your own development—let’s fight some snakes. Well, the biggest adventure at Vassar besides the school stuff is definitely Founder’s Day. There is drama and action! There are spinning tea cups of danger!

There are HOSTILE INVADING PIRATES for God’s sake! Of course, all adventures need a spiritual guide. Don’t worry, I got this one. So, basically, welcome to Choose Your Own Adventure: Founder’s Day Edition in which I will tell you which choices to make (in Misc Humor Section, adventures choose you!) in order to have the most magical and least humiliating Founder’s Day ever. And it’s all going be in the second person, so hang on to your beer stein and crop top, it’s going to be a wild ride.

Of course in any adventure, you will need to know how to pack. It is a few days before Founder’s Day and you approach the merchandise table near the Retreat, bagel in hand, and leisurely peruse the table. You want to buy something because memories and stuff. What do you end up choosing? Do you choose the beer stein and tank top OR do you choose the beer stein and the shot glass? (Answer: This was an easy one so I hope you didn’t mess up. You obviously choose the beer stein and tank top and here’s why. This tank top is genius and hilarious. A Vassar shirt that says, “We’re All Mad Here,” can be worn on SO MANY DIFFERENT OCCASIONS. Fossil fuel dude comes back? Everyone break out the tank tops and show your hostility. Angry at your roommate?

Tank top and silent treatment, she’ll get it. When something really bad happens the entire campus can wear the tank top and show ALL OF THE ANGER at the guilty party. The tank top is clearly the best investment. If you choose the beer stein and shot glass combo, I am so sorry why would you do that to yourself? It’s all about pacing. You don’t

win a 10K by sprinting the first mile. ) You and your friends have made it to the field, sipping your craft beers and dancing to whatever hippie thing is playing on the speakers. You are suddenly attacked by a gang of pirates all the way from the distant land of Bard. They decide that it will be hilarious to tie you up with a rope and make you walk around with them. You find that it’s really not that hilarious. How do you escape?

Do you use the copy of the Vassar Student Handbook that you, of course, always have on your person, to school them in rules involving hostile invading forces OR do you resign to be their captive forever, transfer to Bard and live out your days as a pirate wench/Bard sophomore? (Answer: I hope you brought your Student Handbook because it is the only way that you can get out of this sneaky pirate trap. In the case of a hostile invasion, you are able to reference the lesser-known section of the Student Handbook found on page 78 that teaches Vassar students how to negotiate with pirate kidnappers. The administration really does think of everything, don’t they!)

You have used your wits to escape the pirates. Well done. The next challenge you will face, however, is much more dangerous. You make your way across the field and bump into your seminar professor who is queuing up for a couple of tofu tacos. You have a few options at this point. Do you turn your back immediately and sprint directly into the woods OR do you start an extremely one-sided conversation about every feeling you have and will ever have about democratic peace theory? (Answer: I fooled you, it’s neither. You must at least smile and wave and make small talk with everyone. I believe in you. Do not be that weirdo douche and run into the woods.

There are raccoons there and you will most likely get attacked. However, Founder’s Day is a vacation for everyone. Don’t worry, you have still TR 1:30-2:45 to get all academic-y.)

You’ve had quite an eventful day. You went on some rides. You hung out on the hill and had some adventures. You got some sunburn and you look a little ridiculous. It is now that awkward part of the day around 3 p.m.. You want to go to the fireworks later that night but aren’t sure what to do in the meantime. Do you take a nice nap OR do you anything but that, including but not limited to taking a walk, eating ten empanadas, going to the gym (LOL), and building a new TA bridge (also LOL). (Answer: NAPS ARE FOR THE WEAK. Go finish off those pirates instead.)

Lily Doyle

Humor & Satire Editor

I

’ve come to the realization that it’s possible no one at Vassar knows I’m gone. I don’t mean this in a self-pitying Charlie Brown kind of way—I mean it more in the same way that Miley Cyrus lives a double life as Hannah Montana. Here’s the situation: you go abroad, Vassar marks you as “away”. But really, except for a few friends and the already kind-of-dead flowers I left to fend for themselves in my old room, I could have gone anywhere! I could be “away” because I recently befriended Lindsay Lohan and am nursing a burgeoning addiction to unfortunate bathroom selfies. Vassar’s incredibly vague organizing system for students is perfect; there is a whole class of people (hey, 2016, how ya doin?) who probably barely know I exist. After Founder’s Day they DEFINITELY won’t remember, because their brains will be filled with glitter and beer. This includes administrators. (You know D.B. Brown gets down.) The point is, I’m taking advantage of my questionable existence next fall, and this is how.

Totes getting the best of both worlds, amiright Miley?

1. I am going to pretend to be a freshman on move-in day.

The class of 2016 (hey again, guys) are destined for greatness, and by greatness I mean some of them will have to be on House Team. Because they have to be on House Team, they will have to stand outside in mid-August and move heavy boxes upstairs while simultaneously convincing parents that this is not a breeding ground for immorality and their child will not come home a Satan-worshiper (it is and we make no promises). I only spent a semester with the current freshmen, and they probably have no idea who I am because for the last semester they have been too worried about the state of North Korea and whether or not UpC is going to have any yogurt for their smoothies to think about absentee juniors. This is where my many years of playing logic games (losing to my brother at chess) comes in. I’m unknown, the new freshman are unknown, and if I show up at Main Building with a car full of stuff insisting that I am a new freshman living in the THs because not living in a house makes me break out in a funny rash, they will have to move me in. Thanks, everyone, I really didn’t want to carry my collection of life-sized hippo figurines up the stairs of my TH all by myself.

2. I am going to foster mass confusion by

joining random fellow groups.

This doesn’t actually get me anything fun or assist me in any way, except for the fact that I’ll enjoy messing with the minds of incoming freshmen.

I’m really not anti-freshman (mostly), but how fun would it be to convince a group of people that you are a nervous, narcoleptic glue-sniffer who thinks they are a teen wolf and howls to the moon for the death of the patriarchy? Answer: it would be really, really fun. Bonus points if you carry Crystal Palace around in a plastic water bottle on hot days, and lecture the surprised people on the negative environmental impact of disposable water bottles as they spit out the “water” they just sipped.

3. I am going to hang out in the basement of Rocky at night and convince as many students as possible that I’m just a homeless woman who takes shelter there.

My freshman year, wandering into the basement Rocky at night for what are now unknown reasons, I ran into a man sitting on the ground by the water fountain and muttering to himself (or possibly really rocking out to Baba O’Riley by The Who, I still can’t decide if I imagined that). His clothes were pretty shabby, his only jacket was a flannel that had definitely seen better days, and he hadn’t shaved or showered for at least a month (granted, it was towards the end of No-Shave November). I am, to this day, not positive whether he was homeless, or a senior having a minor mental breakdown over his thesis. Rocky is never locked, so it’s totally possible that he was just taking shelter for the night. It’s also possible I was a little drunk and I saw a weird piece of modern art and thought it was a homeless man. Regardless, it seems important that I provide this same surreal moment for some unsuspecting Vassar student next year. Preferably by dressing solely in Vassar College Bookstore plastic bags and strategically placed solo cups, à la the Anything But Clothes Villard Room night, while playing Ashlee Simpson’s “Invisible” loudly over the speakers on my Blackberry (because I think the Blackberry is homeless chic and also my parents won’t let me own an iPhone, which seems weird to me because, as proved by this article, I am totally responsible!?!?!).

Given the unlikely chance that people from Vassar actually remember me upon my return to Poughkeepsie, city of dreams, I’m completely willing to just go back to Italy and wait around casually in various European cities until people forget about me. Seriously, I’ll make that sacrifice.

The Misc’s Bedside Astrologer: Founder’s Day Edition!

by Jean-Luc Bouchard, Humor & Satire Editor Taurus (April 20-May 20): An upcoming social event will help bring you closer to your community, Taurus. It’s called Founder’s Day and you’re going to get your crunk on. The stars got together early this morning (the Big Dipper brought coffee and donuts!) and decided to devote this week’s horoscopes to advice about Founder’s Day. Let’s be honest, you’ll need it.

Gemini (May 21-June 20): Don’t be swayed by peer pressure today, Gemini.

You’re the master of your own fate. Who are your friends to tell you that your fate isn’t eating nine bowls of rum-soaked gummy bears and attempting to nude crowdsurf through every group of people you find?

Cancer (June 21-July 22): No, Cancer, the food vendors WON’T accept payment in “love-and-hugz.”

Leo (July 23-August 22): Today you may feel especially passionate and flirty, Leo. It’s the Molly. Trust the stars, it’s the Molly. Try to stop humping that tree stump and go drink some water, dude.

Virgo (August 23-September 22): Where did everyone get those shirts? I want one of those shirts. Is there someone just handing out these shirts or did they actually buy them? Why didn’t I get an email about this?

I definitely never got an email about this.

FOUNDER’S DAY IS RUINED. Libra (September 23-October 22): Yo, where’s Katie? Have you seen Katie? Oh man, you guys, we lost Katie! We were supposed to watch Katie and now she’s gone! Call campus security! Call the ROC! Call—wait, what?

Katie’s JYA? Oh thank God, we were never going to find her...

Scorpio (October 23-November 21): Wait, where the hell is Ballantine Field? Is that like Joss Beach?

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21): Don’t forget the true purpose of Founder’s Day, Sagittarius. It’s meant to celebrate Vassar’s founder, the brewer Marist McWesleyan-Bard.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19): Let’s play “Spot the Freshmen.” Hint: Find a group of girls with flowers in their hair, arms linked, skipping across the field saying they love Vassar. THERE RIGHT THERE! Aquarius (January 20-February 18): Founder’s Day is a great opportunity to tell that special someone how you feel, Aquarius, primarily because he/she probably won’t even remember your pathetic, heartbreaking plea

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

for their love and tender embrace as the only bright, hopeful spot in your tragic, dark future of microwave chicken pot pies for one and Bravo reality television and angry, Eastern European landlords. So there’s nothing to lose!

Pisces (February 19-March 20): Remember, Pisces, even if you won’t be on campus on Saturday, you can still have a nice Founder’s Day. Just take the party with you wherever you go. Family reunion? Funeral?

Urologist appointment? Every location is a fun location if you listen to sing indie rock loud/off-key enough and wear enough neon yellow leggings.

Aries (March 21-April 19): Founder’s Day always has a rain location, Aries. This year, it’s Jewett 323. Go nuts. Break shit. Lose your mind and go where your body takes you.

ARTS

Page 14

April 25, 2013

HYPE showcase to feature array of guests, alumnae/i Margaret Yap rEpOrtEr

F

pening,” she said. “But we make our decisions for the sake of the group, and I do think everything works out in the end.” Ultimately, Kpulun maintained, sticking with it is really the best way to conquer the intricacies of dance. “‘Practice makes perfect’ is pretty much it,” she said.

Her additional advice for prospective dancers is to try new things. “You don’t know what your set style is,” she said. “For hip hop, there are so many different variations. Nowadays there’s contemporary hip hop, people dancing to slower songs, and it’s all over YouTube. You’ve just got to explore your options. You have to keep doing it and doing it, and eventually you’ll get it.”

For all its challenges, HYPE strives to remain

an inclusive group that encourages freedom of expression. “Everyone gets to show the things they want to focus on. One of the things I love about dancing, especially in HYPE, is the ability to express yourself,” said Brown. “In other spaces on campus you might feel like you have to conform to a certain way, and then through that way you’ll be able to express yourself the way other people want you to. But with HYPE it’s very much like you take the feelings you have in the studio, throw them out there, and they’ll be accepted.”

Tickets can be purchased for $3 in the College Center and The Retreat and $5 at the door.

Pre-order a HYPE tank top and you will get a discount on the tickets.

courtesy of HYPE

or those looking for a way to unwind before Founder’s Day, May 3 will see HYPE’s biggest showcase yet. HYPE, Vassar’s first non-exclusive dance group, will be performing above the student center (UpC) in an event starting at 9 p.m. and ending at midnight.

The event will also showcase other performers including the Banjee Boiz, Shiva Ware, RepStyles, ATS, McGrizzz, SikNik, AdeRa, the alumnae/i who formed HYPE, and Ariel Bridges ’15. Shiva Ware, the Banjee Boiz, and Apollo Sa’Deek, in collaboration with the LGBT activism group Act Out! will also be teaching their own dance combinations in a workshop on May 2. Those who are interested are invited to join HYPE to learn the dances in Kenyon Hall at 6 p.m. on that day. The workshop will run until 9:30pm.

HYPE, which was formed during the 20092010 academic year and became an official Vassar Student Association organization the following year, currently has a performance team of about twenty-five students. Its members dance mainly to hip hop music but also to styles such as R&B and techno. The group welcomes all students, and those who are interested can join fellow dancers each Wednesday at 6 p.m. in Kenyon Dance Hall for a general body meeting of approximately twenty to thirty dancers. After attending three of these sessions, students are welcome to dance in performances for events such as Gays of Our Lives, the Faculty Student Basketball Game, Vassar’s Best Dance Crew, QCVC’s Flawless, and Hip Hop 101’s Four Pillars.

Communications Captain of HYPE Sienna Brown ‘13, a Psychology and Hispanic Studies double major, joined the group at the beginning of her sophomore year. For Brown, one of the best aspects of HYPE is the support its members give each other. “We’re very much about

pushing people to believe they can dance even if they don’t believe they can,” she said. “Everyone there was really willing to help me and support me and let me know, ‘You look great doing whatever you do, because everyone dances in their own way.’” Executive Board member and Asian Studies major Nicole Alter ’13, who has been involved with HYPE for three years, also appreciates the organization’s inclusion. “We really do feel like a family,” she said. “We help each other and push each other to grow. The other thing I really enjoy,” she continued, “is seeing how people who haven’t danced before—or people who have recently started dancing with us—grow in one or two semesters.”

For Physics major and Executive Board member Tewa Kpulun ’15, who joined HYPE her freshman year, the group’s diversity is one of its best qualities. “We’re not like other hip hop groups around the area that have one set choreographer,” she said. “We’re a bunch of college students saying, ‘This is how I move, and I’m going to teach it to you guys.’ And just the diversity of that—I think it helped me find my kind of hip hop and explore different areas.”

On the flip side, dancing in HYPE has its challenges. “On Vassar’s campus the most difficult thing—because we are the only solely hip hop dance group—is being able to grow more by learning from people who are at a higher level,” said Brown. “I feel like one of the best ways to learn is to go to classes by other people and to learn from professionals and be under their wings. We always try to push ourselves to find new ways to choreograph and perform, but there’s always the struggle of forcing ourselves to make that extra jump to push more.”

Alter maintained that making decisions is the trickiest part of her job as a board member. “We have a lot of personalities and we’re growing and growing, so we’ve had to make a lot of decisions based on how fast that’s hap-

HYPE, a non-exclusive dance group, will be hosting an event on May 3 in UpC. They will also have a workshop on May 2 to teach dance combinations to those interested in performing with the group.

Professor Mann an expert in music history, theory Jack Owen arts EditOr

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thought,” he said.

“I am going to be turning to my colleagues and looking at their material. I take suggestions and get ideas and then end up doing my own thing.” Mann usually performs in a recital at the Skinner Hall of Music over the summer, inviting musicians from New York City to accompany him.

Though his research centers on 16th century music, Mann has also been drawn to jazz from a young age. As a child, he taught himself how to play jazz piano, and wrote his dissertation at the University of Nebraska on jazz music, a topic which very few wrote dissertations about thirty or forty years ago.

But as Mann asserted, academic interest in jazz has grown and grown over the years.

“When I came to Vassar there were no courses in the music of jazz or music in film, but we

Spencer Davis/The Miscellany News

ssociate Professor of Music Brian Mann has been continuously teaching in the Music Department at Vassar since 1987, when he replaced a professor who was on sabbatical leave. And in his twenty-five some years at Vassar, Mann has seen the College’s music program grow and change greatly. In many ways, he has been an instrumental part of these various changes.

“Because the music department is fairly small and because there has been a great deal of change in the nature of the discipline, so to speak, of music history, I teach a lot of courses,” Mann explained. “I’m a music historian or musicologist, so in principle the courses I most often teach are courses in history.”

Mann teaches courses in the history of jazz, as well as the first semester of the three-semester music-history survey course for majors, the music in film course— which is cross listed with the film department— and opera. But with cutbacks to the music department as a result of the recession, Mann has been required to teach an even greater variety of material, now lecturing for music theory as well as music history classes.

“In the last several years, because of staffing issues brought on by the recession, I’ve been teaching other courses that I have not done so before,” he explained.

“Normally courses in music theory are taught by our composers. We now are being called upon to teach these courses in music theory, which we are perfectly able to do in our training, but they are just courses we haven’t done before. Next fall I will be teaching, for the first time ever, Harmony 105, a year long course in harmony which you need to take to be a music major.”

Though he is able to teach courses in music theory effectively, he is more drawn to musicology. “I’m much more interested in the broad range of music history, going all the way back to the middle ages. I love studying different bodies of music and stylistic changes,” Mann said.

“Music theory, in my view, has always been a little dry. In other words a musicologist can

go to European archives and look at the original manuscripts or look at the biography of a composer. There’s a huge range of activities for musicologists, whereas theorists just analyze a piece of music closely and write an extremely elaborate analysis of a piece of music without much historical or cultural context,” he explained.

Previously, he has taught the advanced harmony class, and is currently teaching the fundamentals of music class, which covers basic music literacy. Mann, as a jazz pianist himself, finds that teaching these courses, though outside of his usual discipline, is rewarding though a little challenging.

“I’m a piano player, so harmony is just something that I live and breathe, but teaching it and making it clear and coming up with useful exercises is another matter. That takes a lot of

Professor Brian Mann, pictured above, primarily teaches music history courses but will be venturing into theory. In the past, the musicologist has taught courses jazz, film scores, and opera.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

started them because they’re growing fields of interest for students and in scholarship,” Mann explained. “The availability of recordings makes it possible to teach these at a fairly high level.”

Like jazz, music in film was not taught at the College, but Mann has helped to spearhead the study of this increasingly popular subject in academics. And through the course, he has been inspired to expand his areas of research outside of the classroom to film music, particularly music in French films.

“I love film music. I’m teaching it this semester for about the third time in the last 6 years,” he said. “That’s been a lot of fun for me, and because of teaching that class and doing research and looking very closely at certain films, I got to the point that there were films I wanted to give scholarly presentations on.” A self-proclaimed Francophile, Mann has lectured twice at an annual conference at New York University on film music.

Last fall, Mann also provided a novel course for the music department: a freshman writing seminar. The music department had not offered a freshman writing seminar in over thirty years. The course was comprised of two major units, the first covering music in the classical period, such as Mozart, Heiden, and Beethoven, and the second covering operas based on literary models, such as Richard Strauss’ Salome, inspired by Oscar Wilde’s work of the same name.

“We would read the plays or novel in verse, and [the students] had a kind of comfort zone in dealing with literary texts, and then we moved to the operas and tried to see how these literary works were transformed into musical works. It’s a very interesting process to see how a literary text is transformed into an opera,” he explained.

In his many years at Vassar, Mann has found the music department to be a strong and innovative department whose strength is also built on the closeness and collaboration among its professors.

“I think this is a great institution and a very strong music department,” Mann reflected.

“It’s small and tight-knit, and we all get along very well.”

April 25, 2013

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Page 15

ViCE Jazz Combo I to perform with Vishnu Basement Matthew Vassar

BEst FOundEr EVEr

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Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

f music lovers didn’t get their fix at this years spring concert featuring Titus Andronicus and Greedhead, Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) brings yet another musical event sure to end the semester on a jazzy note. In a culminating show, ViCE will put on their last jazz night of the year with musical groups Combo I and Vishnu Basement on May 2 at 9 p.m. in the Mug. The Music Department programs housed in Skinner Hall of Music feature many of the College’s most talented performers, but many feel that it is beneficial for the Vassar community to experience even more acts outside of the department’s annual and semester concerts and recitals.

ViCE, to cater to this desire, decided to switch up some of its tactics with its final show, bringing a talented jazz combo from the department to the Mug. Hopefully, this change will spark the continued interest in showcasing the talents that the College helps to produce. It will be the first time a department group will perform at the Mug this year.

“Every two weeks or so we put on a jazz night and we bring a bunch of bands from outside and they play for an hour or an hour and a half. This is our very last show of the year and we decided we wanted to bring some of Vassar’s own musicians to the stage for a chance,” explained Vice Jazz Chair Sean Eads ‘15.

“We brought Combo I which is our best jazz combo at Vassar. It has six instrumentalists along with a vocalist,” he added.

Lead vocalist Alix Masters ’15 of Combo I described her experience with ViCE and the music department as both exciting and challenging in a way that has made her a more per-

Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) will host its last musical event, a jazz night, of the year on May 2 at 9 p.m. in the Mug. The featured student groups are Vishnu Basement and Combo I. “It was a crazy experience for me because ceptive and talented artist.

I auditioned this year not knowing what was “The way that Combo I formed is that we going to happen and then I ended up making auditioned for the jazz department and they the number 1 combo,” she said. broke people up according to ability and who “Everyone in my group really knows their they felt would work best together,” Masters stuff and have been really supportive throughexplained. out our time working together,” Masters also “Right now, we’re the number one combo noted. and we rehearse once a week for about two In response to why there is such a need to hours. I heard about the combos last year and promote jazz at Vassar and make it integral to didn’t get to audition, I had a hard time coorthe community with weekly Jazz nights, Eads dinating the audition schedule,” said Masters.

Nicholson a bold dancer, choreographer Emma Daniels rEpOrtEr

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dancer since age three, Niya Nicholson ’14 is undeniably passionate about kinesthetically expressing herself. At Vassar, she is a part of numerous dance groups, and also brings her perspective as a dancer to academic, religious, and humanitarian pursuits.

Nicholson is a Psychology major with a double correlate in Africana Studies and Education. She is also pursuing certification in primary education. Heavy academic requirements do not stop her from being a fixture in Vassar’s dance scene: she choreographs for FlyPeople; is Hype’s choreography captain; was a dancer and choreographer in Vassar’s Repertory Dance Theater (VRDT) her freshman and sophomore year; is in Future Waitstaff of America’s upcoming production of Legally Blonde; and is participating in Chelsea Peterson Salhuddin’s independent dance study.

Choreography is an area where Nicholson particularly excels. For FlyPeople’s recent final showings, Nicholson choreographed a piece with Charmaine Branch ’14 titled “LoveCharm”.

It incorporated hip-hop, lyrical contemporary, and some jazz elements. And for VRDT’s final

show last spring, Nicholson authored a piece called “Jigsaw” to Mozart that represented some of her academic research through dance.

“It was an emulsion of psychology, emotion, and drama, specifically the psychological aspect of schizophrenia. I asked myself ‘how can I infuse this disorder through movement, through the body?’” she said. She also emphasized how dance can be used as a means to communicate ideas—like, but not limited to, the nature of mental illness. “As Martha Graham said, ‘dance is the language of the soul,’” Nicholson noted. Dance is notably not the only language in which Nicholson is fluent—she is trilingual, capable in English, Spanish, and Swahili. This and other elements of her background contribute to her aptitude in dance.

Nicholson is a New York City native, who dances in the footsteps of her mother.

“My mom danced in middle school and high school, and continues to bless my family with her dance styles during family celebrations,” Nicholson noted. And at age three, her mother enrolled Nicholson in dance courses. From then on, she actively honed her skills in ballet, modern, jazz, and African dancing. “I have loved it ever since,” she said.

Cassady Bergevin/The Miscellany News

Niya Nicholson ’14 has been involved in a bevy of dance organizations on Vassar’s campus including FlyPeople, Hype and VRDT. She is a Psychology major with correlates in Africana Studies and Education.

Praise dancing also is a fundamental part of Nicholson’s dance identity. At her church in New York City, Nicholson is a praise dancer and choreographer. Praise dance is a form of worship that seeks to elucidate the word and spirit of God through the body, and incorporates elements of contemporary dance, modern dance, and ballet. At Laguardia High School, Nicholson was a dance major, studying ballet, jazz, and the Martha Graham technique.

A highlight of her high school career was performing at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Six students out of sixty-six dance majors were selectively chosen to perform a ten-minute jazz piece for an international business meeting.

In college, Nicholson has clearly continued to pursue dance with the vigor. Notably, though, she has additionally used dance as a means of activism. She was recently elected as Secretary of the Council of Black Seniors at Vassar, and she is currently the Sociocultural Chair of the Black Student Union.

“One of my roles as chair is to brainstorm arts initiatives for the group,” she said. And related to her education correlate, Nicholson has volunteered at Wimpheimer Nursery School, teaching Kindergarteners and first graders dance lessons.

When she went abroad to Australia last semester, Nicholson studied forensic psychology and criminology. There she helped recent Australian immigrants with English language skills, took courses in Egyptian dance, and also taught two dance classes in an elementary school comprised primarily of indigenous Australians. “Turns out, I had a great deal to learn from the students,” she said. “They taught me invaluable cultural dance styles.”

Although Nicholson will always dance, in the future she hopes to pursue a PhD in Forensic Psychology. She is well on her way to big next steps—she recently acquired a summer internship at the Bluhm Legal Aid Clinic in the Criminal Defense sector at Northwestern Law School, a position usually reserved for law students, not undergraduates.

Nicholson credits dance as a partial reason for her many successes. “As a child I was really shy. I was not able to express myself through words but I was capable of using physicality as a means of expression. Mastering that form of expression made me more confident and sociable,” she said.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

expressed how often times many genres are under-appreciated, for which jazz provides the perfect cure.

“Jazz is metonymy for funk band and basically all the rest of the genres that are underrepresented,” Eads said.

“With Jazz nights, its a chance to have more shows than just the spring concert where you only have one band,” he explained. It is also a genre of music that many people can identify with. “I love jazz, my dad listened to it and I grew up with it,” Masters said.

For the event on Friday, there is a lot lined up that will make for an eclectic and unique experience. “We’re going to do some jazz standards as well as some bluesy Ray Charles type songs,” Masters said. “We have some pop influences that we’ll also do, for those who aren’t particularly jazz people,” Masters further explained.

“We’re performing an Amy Winehouse song and some songs that are more modern takes on jazz. They’ll also be some slower tunes and some tunes that you can just dance to,” Masters shared.

The indie funk group, Vishnu Basement, a four piece band comprised of some members from the combo, as well as other Vassar students, will be the opening act for the combo itself.

“They’re a group of four guys who get together, play and jam together. They’ll be performing all original songs,” explained Eads.

“They are very loud and exciting compared to the jazz combo which is a little more reserved but still exciting,” he added.

The group is also expected to perform some vocal tunes and instrumentals pieces The multi-faceted show is open to all of campus to attend.

Hudson Valley

Arts

Tilly Foster Farm

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.

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

w 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

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April 25, 2013

FWA to bring ‘Oblivion’ generic sci-fi but hints at depth big dance numbers Max Rook Columnist

Oblivion Joseph Kosinski Universal Pictures

MUSICAL continued from page 1

Legally Blonde, a musical with the book written by Heather Hach and music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, is based on the 2001 film directed by Robert Luketic.

It opened on Broadway in 2007 to good reviews and seven Tony nominations. It moved to the West End in 2009 and has since been performed across the world, in locations including Australia, The Netherlands, France, and South Korea among many others.

It opens at Vassar on May 2 at 8 p.m. in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater, and runs through the weekend, on Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The show stars Jessie Lanza ’15 as Elle Woods, a sorority girl-turned-law student, who attends Harvard Law School for the sole purpose of winning back her ex-boyfriend, Warner, played by Jordan Burns ’16, who breaks up with her to pursue his former girlfriend, someone he considers more serious than Elle.

Though she initially does not have ambitions to be more than Warner’s wife, Elle soon discovers that life holds more in store for her and begins to thrive in her new surroundings. As an intern for her professor, Elle ends up being instrumental in a case and eventually outshines Warner in the eyes of the jury and her fellow students.

Greer has infused fun into every aspect of this show, from the rehearsal process to the final product. “His main vision and goal for this show is to have fun,” said Lanza. She continued, “I can’t even begin to count how many times he has said that.”

The show itself is heavy on big dance numbers, having a large ensemble, and high-energy movement, which Greer notes is one of the largest draws of the production. “All the choreography is meant to be the really fun part, and [choreographer] Meghann King ’13 does wonders,” he said.

Despite his insistence that the show is just about fun, Legally Blonde offers plenty of serious themes. “One of the recurring motifs in the show is about the assumptions and mistakes that occur when judging a book by its cover,” said Jeremy Busch ’14, who plays Emmett, an attorney at Harvard who believes in Elle from the beginning.

As the play progresses, Elle begins to realize that she does not have to limit herself to the standards projected by her outside environment; she finds a sense of agency and motivation that ultimately leads her to success in various areas.

Greer argues that this show contributes a positive feminist message that will resonate with Vassar students. Despite initially presenting a character who fits a mold contrary to what might be considered an empowered female, Elle’s growth and self-discovery ultimately provide this show with socially conscious overtones.

“It is a girl power show about her discovering herself and reaching into herself, and that’s why it’s feminist,” said Greer.

For Lanza, playing Elle has given her an opportunity to examine the progress and discovery one can make when put in unfamiliar surroundings.

“The show isn’t an arch of Elle going from dumb to smart, it’s about her realizing that she can be herself, that she doesn’t need a man to make her complete, that she can be taken seriously, and can achieve so much more than she ever thought she wanted in the first scene,” said Lanza.

Still, no matter what one can learn from Legally Blonde, it is not a show that is meant to be very heavy. It will be performed on the weekend surrounding Founder’s Day, a day where Vassar students run amok before the stress of finals takes over, and it should be watched in the same spirit.

As Busch explains, “Vassar students are stressed and anxious around this time of year.

This show is the perfect study break. The audience and Vassar community is in serious need of something enjoyable, and that’s what we intend on delivering.”

O

blivion is something of a strange way to kick off the summer movie season. I’ve been seeing ads for it for a few months, but none of them made any lasting impressions beyond Tom Cruise in a futuristic outfit and Morgan Freeman lighting a cigar. That title is just as forgettable, telling you nothing about the movie. So suffice to say I didn’t have the highest expectations. And when the movie opens up with Cruise delivering a clumsy, exposition-laden voiceover explaining the state of the world, my expectations sank even lower. Cruise plays Jack Harper, a drone repair technician who remains on Earth after most of humanity is forced to move off-planet due to the aftermath of nuclear war. His job is to maintain the technology that siphons water off the planet to power space-flight, and the film begins with him explaining that he only has two weeks left on the job until he can join the rest of humanity. As you can imagine, things don’t quite play out like that.

After that little introduction to the world, however, the film takes a surprising shift. The first third of the movie is devoted to following Jack in his day-to-day life, and it does so in a remarkably effective way. Whatever expectations I had for Oblivion, I certainly didn’t expect a quiet, almost contemplative tone. Jack’s only other human contact is with his partner Victoria, played by Andrea Riseborough, and their rapport in the early scenes does more to convince you of how alone they are on Earth than any voiceover could. It is truly impressive that a big-budget movie would be willing to devote so much of its running time to a lonely, sparse sequence. It’s basically a series of character moments, and Cruise plays them remarkably well. And sure, there are hints that everything is not what it seems, but they aren’t

so urgent as to intrude on the meandering narrative of Jack’s routine. He mentions that his memory was wiped prior to starting the job, which is the sort of clue that will obviously eventually become important, but it doesn’t transform the viewing experience into a hunt for more clues.

Then, as more characters are introduced, the movie gradually loses that tone, becoming more and more like the generic sci-fi action piece it initially appeared to be. Olga Kurylenko plays Julia, a woman Jack rescues from a crashed ship, an action that is the catalyst for the movie’s main plot, and Morgan Freeman pops up in a largely insubstantial role soon afterward. The action scenes that begin at this point are competent enough, but they seem to exist more out of obligation than any narrative reason. And about halfway through the film, the twist occurs. It isn’t a terrible twist by any means. Although it is a little silly, it is in no way original. I know I’ve seen numerous variations on the same type of story in sci-fi before.

From there, the rest of the film plays out just as you would expect, building towards a standard action climax. It also gets increasingly melodramatic as it goes on, and Cruise’s performance just keeps getting bigger to match that tone. By the end of the film, I barely had any sense of Jack as a character, since it felt like all I was seeing on the screen was Tom Cruise’s standard action hero.

In a way, the entire movie feels like it was hobbled together from different elements of popular sci-fi. When the first trailer was released, people joked that it was basically a human version of Wall-E, but that is only one of many touch-points. One action sequence is strikingly similar to a scene from one of the Star Wars prequels, while another is reminiscent of Independence Day. Admittedly, the film’s reference points do have some variety to them. Early on, Kosinski uses flashes of memory to hint at Jack’s life before the memory wipe, and he does so in a manner that reminded me of Chris Marker’s avant-garde short film La Jetée, which I was certainly surprised to see referenced in a movie released today. To be clear, I’m not trying to argue that Kosinski

is stealing these ideas. Science fiction stories have always built on what came before them.

It’s just that Oblivion is so overt about it that it ends up being fairly boring.

“In a way, the entire movie feels like it was hobbled together from different elements of popular sci-fi. ” Max Rook ’14 Oblivion ultimately subverted my expectations, but in doing so it splits the difference between an action blockbuster and more cerebral sci-fi, which results in a film that lacks a satisfying narrative of either style. Combine that with some of its other problems, such as its lack of original ideas and its horrendous treatment of its female characters, and you get a movie that is difficult to recommend to anyone.

Despite all of that, the film’s opening act is worth seeing. The concept of a man alone in a post-apocalyptic world has certainly been done before, but the way Jack has become comfortable with his loneliness is a new spin on that idea. That sense of isolation is enhanced by the strong score, by electronic band M83. In fact, the music is probably the only aspect of the movie that doesn’t suffer a noticeable drop in quality. There is something heartening about the fact that Oblivion has higher ambitions than it initially appeared to, even if it fails to fully commit to those goals.

It’s easy to be cynical about the state of summer blockbusters, but here is a movie that deserves some credit for trying to be something more than generic, although it ends up falling back on those generic ideas.

‘The Purge’ a lackluster take on America Lily Sloss Columnist

The Purge James DeMonaco Blumhouse Productions

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t may be impossible for me to write a hard-hitting review about The Purge (2013), but as always, I will do my best. ViCE Film League and Vassar alum Jason Blum ’91, producer of the film, generously allowed the Vassar College student body a sneak preview of The Purge, a semi-Sci-Fi flick about a utopic world a mere nine years in the future.

The central premise is fairly simple: in the year 2022, America will have one night every year where all of its citizens can commit any and all kinds of crime, even murder. Call me wacky, but that sounds just crazy enough to work.

I kid, I kid. It’s an interesting idea, however, considering the American characters are made blissfully happy by the one ruckus-raising night a year, the night of the “purge.” Also, maybe it’s due to my affinity for health classes, but the image of a person puking up their lunch kept coming to mind... Things to think about when you use the word “purge” in your film title.

The film opens with video footage from various purge evenings, an array of group beatings, buildings lit on fire, and people smashing in store windows. It doesn’t take long for the footage to grow boring, and violence made dull by repetition is an unfortunately common trope in The Purge. The film moves from old footage to the contemporary narrative, a depiction of a white upper-class family settling into their house for the night of the annual purge.

The Sandin family consists of an eleven year

old son and a teenage daughter (both mildly irritating), a hapless wife (Lena Headey) and a domineering father, James (Ethan Hawke).

James works at a security company and has installed new security systems in all the homes in their well-to-do neighborhood. Although the majority of the families feel fairly confident that their houses won’t be broken into anyway, since they “don’t deserve death by purge” because they are wealthy, each home is still equipped with a top-rate security system.

It turns out the joke is on them. As luck would have it, the security system is embarrassingly easy to break through, as the terrifying masked collegiate-students prove when they turn up unannounced at the Sandin’s home. They are after the African-American male that James’ son, Charlie, lets past their Security system.

It turns out that there are groups of people in 2022 America who feel the need to “cleanse” themselves by killing a target, specifically one who is poor and preferably black. This group in particular, made of various white students dressed in sweater vests and preppy blazers, will not be turned down in their attempts to kill the stranger. Either the Sandin’s give him up, or the prepsters will kill the entire Sandin family.

Ethan Hawke would rather throw the stranger out to the proverbial wolves for a lynching than have his family killed, so he doesn’t hesitate to beat up and duct tape the stranger to a chair. He is unable to entirely hold the man down, so his wife has to help him, leading to a truly revolting scene in which his wife stabs the stranger (never provided a name) repeatedly with a letter opener while her children watch and beg her to stop. She ignores them, and nearly kills the stranger.

Everyone in the family apparently has very serious “listening” issues. The daughter dates a wild eighteen-year-old boy even though her

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

parents explicitly forbid it, the son welcomes in a stranger on the worst night of the year, and the father violates all possible present day moral codes by demonstrating a willingness to bludgeon strangers to death. A classic American family, indeed. The Sandins present the ultimate “us or them” American mentality, a frame of mind which has never done us particularly well in the past. And, of course, it serves them poorly as well.

The Sandins never truly get it together. Although there are a few twists throughout the film, it’s still a fairly straightforward ride. Everyone’s trapped in the house, people will die (all of the “bad guys”), and there will be a lot of close calls.

Ultimately, everything will be fine for those who are entitled, and the movie will continuously push the idea that killing someone provides catharsis for the aggressor. Sure, the purge supposedly serves as “a way to get rid of all the hatred and anger” people feel throughout the rest of the year.

Sorry Purge creators, but I cannot imagine that a 12 hour gun-toting bender would make me any less stressed about the 23 page paper due for English in 2 weeks or the host of parties I need to attend on Founder’s Day. It’s simply to be expected. People are sometimes unhappy, sometimes angry, and crime happens. Let’s call a spade a spade, and not call the Cavalry in quite yet, okay?

Ultimately, The Purge was a weak film because it failed to deliver any new ideas. A clever concept, yes, but what do audience members have to show for their experience?

Things we now know for sure: college students are psychotic, sadistic, and dress poorly.

Parents will sacrifice strangers for the sake of their children. All security systems are fallible. Also, every family has a “unique” son with long hair who builds robots and invites strangers home. It’s just the way America works.

Thanks for the refresher, Purge.

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April 25, 2013

Page 17

Studying Art History a challenging Excuse me, but rewarding college experience Zoe Dostal

D

COlumnist

iligently working on my Art History thesis (or “Senior Essay”, as the department would like us to say), I am forced to confront the thought over and over, “Am I prepared for this?” With just four years (almost) of college under my belt, am I really in a position to be able to write an academic article of publishable quality? I’m hardly capable of feeding, clothing and bathing myself, let alone performing such high functions of thought as directing and producing my own research project.”

In fact, coming to Vassar just a mere four years ago, I didn’t even know that art history was a thing—as in, I literally did not know that the field of studying art objects exists.

Sure, I knew about historians, and art—more than the average person, most likely—but I didn’t realize that there is an entire world, the “art world”, dedicated to the study, promotion, production, and every other aspect of the arts. Imagine my surprise when I saw Art 105-106 in the Course Catalogue the summer before freshmen year.

So this whole thesis thing has forced me to really reflect on my arts education at a liberal arts college. Most extraordinarily, I happened to have chosen a school with a particularly fabulous Art History Department, renowned throughout the art world. At every arts internship I’ve held over the past four years and every arts-related event I’ve attended, there have been Vassar Art History graduates or at the very least someone who says, “Oh, Vassar, it’s weird I know a lot of museum people who went there.” I guess the fates had me on this one—they knew this would be my calling before I even knew what it was.

Okay, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to that first week of freshmen year, after I had already pre-registered for Art 105. I knew I wanted to be a French major, which was the department I was assigned my pre-major advisor. (Shout out to Prof. Parker—four years and still going strong!) All I thought about Art History was that it sounded kind of neat—and let’s be real, how hard could it be to just look at beautiful pictures for an hour a day? Oh, how little I knew.

Campus Canvas

If you have been reading my column, (and at this point I think I know all three of you), you know that I am a big advocate of Art 105.

It’s a mind-blowing experience that everyone should have, and we are just lucky to be at the place where it’s offered.

But as awesome as my experience was in the “darkness at noon,” I didn’t exactly have the aha! moment where I realized that art history was the passion to which I would devote countless hours and brain cells. I simply knew that I liked it more than any other class, and therefore decided to take a few more in the department.

The Art History Department is actually very crafty in this way—they have a whole bait-and-switch routine going on right under our noses. They tempt you with this fancy-schmancy, high-tech, utterly unique experience that promises to only take a year and then, bam! you will know everything there is to know about art. But the truth is, it just wets the palate—anyone who’s anyone immediately wants to know more and swims deeper into the abyss of paint drips, pencil shavings and marble dust. Before you know it, you have taken so many classes that you’re a minor and it’s only sophomore year—so why not make it a major?

The 200-level courses really aren’t that different from Art 105—you look at the images, you listen to the professor and take notes to regurgitate for the final. Rinse, spit, repeat.

There is a more focused topic—say, only two centuries of art over a five hundred mile geographical range—but the biggest change is the expectations of the writing assignments.

In the blink of an eye, the 1-2 page formal analysis from Art 105 becomes 10-15 pages of research—without forewarning; it is expected that you push yourself to succeed at a much higher level that involves course reserves, Connect New York and yes, a thesis.

Of course, seminars are the real deal.

Another quantum leap and suddenly, there are only six students and a professor who is nursing laryngitis from all that talking in other classes. Students are expected to do all of the work in weekly presentations (that if you are lucky enough include the object itself ) and multiple, high quality written as-

signments. There is a sort of role-reversal that happens—you are given the framework and resources, but the learning is up to you.

And if you didn’t do the reading, then woe is you—that’s $10,000 wasted.

Outside of the classroom there are extra lectures, conferences and round-tables (whatever those are) that you can use to beef up your growing encyclopedic knowledge.

There are Late Nights at the Loeb, art shows in the Palmer Gallery, and I’ll remind you that we sit in the cornucopia of American art (I’ve been telling you about it all year long).

Not to mention New York City: just a hop, skip and a jump down the bunny trail and you are surrounded by some of the most famous art institutions in the world.

All of this supplements what you are learning in the classroom, and gives you the opportunity to apply your knowledge to the real world. That sharpie drawing on the subway wall that everyone finds kind of offensive and pretends to ignore? Yeah, you can explain exactly how that cartoon sits in the context of Western Art starting with the caves of Lascaux and the lost Greek paintings described

by Pliny the Elder.

Some may describe college as a ladder— climb steadily up each rung and you are sure to succeed—but I prefer the analogy of a high jump. The bar is high above our heads, we are given the fancy shoes and running head start, but it is up to us to make the effort and get over the bar. Once we have achieved one height, the bar is simply set higher—and I am pretty sure this happens at striking rates.

You have written a fifteen-page paper? Good, then you are clearly capable of writing anywhere from forty to one hundred pages.

The only real comfort we have is the knowledge that history repeats itself, and since we have succeeded before when it seemed impossible, logically we will succeed again.

So the answer I’ve come to is this: I’m not fully prepared for this thesis, not at all, but it has to be done and so it will be done like all the past obstacles. The bar is set impossibly high, but I have the wind at my back and a spring in my step, and in the end the only way is up and over.

A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

What’s on your summer reading list?

“Game of Thrones.”

—Maisha Haq ’14

“The LSAT prep book.”

—Dan Kessler ’14

“House of the Scorpian and other books for Fall classes.”

—Elijah Mondesir ’16

submit to misc@vassar.edu

“Goodnight Moon” —Kevin Vehar ’14

“Magic Tree House” —Jack O’Brien ’15

W

hat has interested me most in photography over the last year or so has been the human face, and the different characters derived from its distortion. To me, when faces are instantly recognizable, they lose meaning.

This act of defacement is an abstraction of features, and allows me to examine elements I would normally overlook.

The incomplete features, assembled within the wavering spherical confines are like embryos. They float in a black void, without setting or contextualization. Although they might seem like preserved

specimens, the two subjects are very much alive. I didn’t mean to convey what has been described when I first started the project, but instead was looking for ‘meaning’ to grow out of the process.

The distortions make the faces difficult to recognize, the subjects then could represent anyone. A mouth gasps for air, the nostrils flare in anticipation of smell and eyelids strain to open. The watery microcosm inhibits perception: the senses have been crippled.

—Harrison Pickering ’16

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

“Not my biochem textbook...”

—Shivani Dave ’15

Jack Owen, Arts Editor Spencer Davis, Photo Editor

SPORTS

Page 18

April 25, 2013

Brewers end difficult schedule as League champions TENNIS continued from page 1

coutesy of Vassar College Athletics

ber one Jarrett Regier, pushing Vassar into the finals, where they would soon face long time rival Skidmore College. Guzick again clinched the match for Vassar, beating Skidmore’s Jimmy Sherpa and bringing the final score to 5-2. Guzick described the winning moment and the atmosphere among the team. “It felt too good,” he explained. “We haven’t beaten Skidmore since my freshman year three years ago, and we’ve been working all year with the singular goal of beating them in the finals of Liberty Leagues in mind. We all came out as fired up as we have been all year, and when we finally got the W, it was ecstatic.”

The team arguably had one of the toughest schedules for the season, as Head Coach John Cox explained. “Our schedule included 9 teams that were nationally ranked... and of that three each were teams in the Top 10, Top 20, and Top 30. We also played Division 1 Patriot League powerhouse Army,” Cox wrote.

After his second year as the head coach of the program, Cox expressed his pride for the boys.

“They played like champions against a very tough nationally ranked opponent in the finals.

They were tested in the semifinals by a very strong up and coming team. I am very pleased for them to achieve this championship and especially the seniors. This was their last opportunity to be Liberty League Champions. They worked all year for it. They achieved it.”

For members of the team, this win was a well-deserved ending to a hard fought battle. Senior co-captain Nick Jasso described how much this championship meant to him. “I cannot even describe how happy I feel at this moment,” Jas-

Vassar Men’s Tennis won the Liberty League Championship on April 29. They defeated the number one ranked team in the league, Skidmore College, to gain the title for the first time since 2010. so expressed in an emailed statement. “This was the team’s goal from the onset of the season. We played an incredibly tough schedule. We played so many of the top-ranked teams in the nation this year. Our record wasn’t that strong. But now look-we’re Liberty League champions and it’s literally a dream come true. I could not imagine a better way to end my career at Vassar, and I’m so happy to have accomplished this with some of the best friends I’ve ever made.”

Freshman Christian Phelps, who pulled out crucial wins during the Championship weekend, described the impact that this win will have for Vassar men’s tennis. “This win is a big deal for our program,” Phelps wrote. “Our seniors deserved this win more than anyone, and as underclassmen, we’re excited for the confidence and drive this win gives us going into upcoming years.” Fellow freshman Evan Udine echoed his teammate. “This gives us a good chance of going

on to nationals. This shows that Vassar athletics is moving in the right direction,” explained Udine.

The Brewers did not get to this point without a lot of hard work during the season, as elaborated on by freshman Daniel Cooper. “We did a lot of preparation day in and day out to get this win,” Cooper wrote. “We faxed pressure situations all year long, so we were ready for the semis against RPI and the finals against Skidmore. We showed both teams how much we wanted it and how clutch we were. All season long we played a tough schedule, but we were always conscious that the ultimate goal was to beat Skidmore in the LL finals. And that mindset payed off.”

However, this win does not mark the end for Vassar men’s tennis this year. “We still have more season ahead of us,” explained Guzick. “We expect to make NCAAs and hope to make an impact there. We won our first ever first-round at nationals last year, and we’re hoping to get that kind of result again.” Yet for now, the team will savor the well deserved win. “It’s pretty unreal to get paid off for working all year with the goal in mind that we wanted to take out Skidmore in the finals of Liberty Leagues. We executed when we needed to and we’re pretty pumped about it,” Guzick wrote.

During his last year on the team, Jasso sees this win as a testament to the Vassar community as a whole. “On paper, we should have lost,” explained Jasso. “But a lot of what is so appealing about Vassar is that, as a student body, we tend not to conform to the opinions or predispositions of others just because they’re popular--we form our opinions and act based on what we think should happen.”

At Beast of the East, women’s rugby advances to finals Meaghan Hughes spOrts EditOr

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Senior flyhalf Hannah Bober noted that the game was demonstrative of her team’s talent.

“I’d say we played pretty well, especially to beat Rutgers who we’ve played some close matches with in recent past,” she wrote. “Overall we had a lot of injuries we had to play against, and people were great about switching positions and playing in areas that weren’t all that comfortable in.”

On Sunday, the Brewers faced tough competition in the final games. Their first opponent for the day was Kutztown University, a team that hadn’t lost all spring. Kutztown took the initial lead, but senior center Laura Howard’s try put Vassar ahead, and they remained so for the rest of the game.

Bober was proud of her team’s performance in this match and their ability to outplay such a tough opponent. “[A]s always our forwards were a force to be reckoned with. Watching them dominate the scrums in the game against Kutztown University was impressive, as they had been undefeated before us and known for their size up front.”

Vassar then went on to the Championship game against University at Albany, a team who had qualified for Nationals in previous years. It may have been the injuries or the sheer exhaustion from competing in four straight games, but the Brewers fell to University of Albany 22-5

and were the Runner-ups in Beast of the East.

This game ended up being the last of the season for the rugby women, whose April 27 game against Marist College was unexpectedly canceled. This was a disappointment for Bober, who lamented the end of her time with the sport. “Had I known the game versus U Albany would be the final game of my Vassar rugby career, I’m sure there would have been many more tears,” she commented. “As it stands, I’m proud of everything our team accomplished, and I look forward to reading the write ups for some future Beast of the East championship games.”

The men’s team had one last game for the season against University at Albany on April 27. Albany started scoring early in the game and never lost their lead, winning the game 58-24.

However, Kent explained why the experiences of the Beast of the East were indicative of the team’s strengths, both present and future.

“We’re getting better as a team, learning more about the game, and getting ready for the Fall,” he noted. “Even for us seniors who won’t be back next year, we all feel very strongly about helping the underclassmen get ready for next year, and making sure that this incredible legacy of VC rugby, with Tony Brown’s invaluable coaching, keeps moving strongly into the future.”

Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

he last major tournament of Vassar’s rugby season is a muddy and grueling twoday event known as Beast of the East. Vassar’s men’s and women’s teams traveled to Rhode Island from April 20 to 21 to compete against other rugby programs in the Northeast. In this high-energy tournament, both teams faced quite a few surprises.

With hopes for repeating past wins, the men’s team had high expectations for the tournament. Senior center Zach Kent commented on the optimism of his team. “Going into the tournament, we believed that we could win it all,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “I think we were all eager to come out of the tournament with a first place win...We were confident that we could play with anyone so long as we stayed committed to the physicality of the game, and focused on playing our style of rugby,” he wrote.

The first game was an automatic win for the Brewers, as the late arrival of their opponent, Wheaton College, forced them to forfeit. Regardless, Vassar still played an unofficial game against Wheaton and narrowly lost 12-7, which Kent noted was uncharacteristic of the team.

“Maybe we weren’t awake for the 8:50 [a.m.] kickoff, or maybe we were a bit jittery for the start of the tourney, but in any case we didn’t front up physically, and we didn’t support each other in the contact area,” he explained. “[W]e really need to be clinical and committed in everything that we do. And we weren’t that first game.”

Later that day the team went on to play Wentworth College, which proved to be a tough fight. After the 50 minutes of allotted time for the tournament match, neither team had scored, forcing the game into penalty kicks.

Wentworth barely edged out Vassar 9-6, but according to Hebrew Language Fellow and lock Roman Kopit, this score was not the full story.

“This game showed a lot of character of what VC rugby can do with our pattern going and defensive structure in action,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “You knew that everyone [is] giving their best when everyone [is] on the try line pushing back heavy duty guys and preventing them from scoring. This is the heart of a defensive and physical endeavor.”

Kent agreed, and cited the second game of the tournament as the highlight of the weekend. “It’s not always easy to rebound from a loss like that,” he admitted, “especially when

you’re feeling frustrated and...pressured by the tournament bracket, but we came back with a new mindset and new commitment to the contact area and played so much better.”

Sunday was the Brewers’ consolation game in which they faced Central Connecticut State University. Still sore from the two previous games, the team prepared to go up against a physically bigger team without some of their key players, who were injured in the prior game. Central Connecticut came out strong initially and continued to put points on the board throughout the game. The final score of 19-5 may have been disappointing for the men’s team, but Kopit acknowledged that the game, as well as the tournament as a whole, was a chance for younger players to get some play time. “[Beast of the East] provided...rookies with crucial game time and learning experience in order..to shape the years to come of the players playing under the burgundy and grey for Vassar College,” he explained.

Kent too found a more positive side to the tournament and appreciated how it brought his teammates together. “While it was definitely disappointing to leave the Beast without getting the wins that we had hoped we would, I think that everyone came back with a greater appreciation for both the game and for each other,” he commented. “It’s really tough playing three games of rugby in two days, but there is something valuable about the physical and mental toll that brings you closer as a team, and makes you eager to get back out on the field together and improve on what you’ve already done.”

The women’s team also hoped to continue their own previous successes, having made it to the Championship round of the tournament for the past nine years. After the first game, in which they blanked Southern Connecticut State University 22-0, they certainly looked as though they might be in a position to do so.

Four different players were able to score, and as was the case with the men’s team, several rookies had more playing time.

After this game, Vassar faced Rutgers University—a team they had narrowly beat in the fall. Though the Brewers dominated in the first half, they could not immediately pull off the win, and the game ended in a tie. The rules of the tournament dictated that rather than go into overtime, whichever team had scored first would be the winner, and Vassar did just that, thus they advanced to the Championship round.

Men’s Rugby competed in the Beast of the East Tournament held in Rhode Island. They ended their season with difficult losses against Wentworth College and Central Connecticut State University.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

SPORTS

April 25, 2013

Celtics approach end of a generation Luka Laden

Assistant Sports Editor

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s I excitedly stepped foot in the TD Garden on Sunday afternoon to watch my beloved Boston Celtics take on the New York Knicks, I fully understood the magnitude of the moment. Amidst the overwhelming waves of green and white—dwarfing those tiny, scattered pockets of blue and orange—I comprehended that early afternoon game’s significance in the grand scheme of things.

That wasn’t just any other elimination game, featuring an inferior team fighting to survive and a dominant team looking to maintain momentum. Sure, the Celtics are inferior at this point. They can’t score consistently, they can’t protect the rim like they used to, and they can’t put together four decent quarters in a row anymore. Doc Rivers’ experienced squad still rolls out a stingy brand of defense predicated upon timely defensive rotations and overloading the strong side, but too much of a burden is placed on the shoulders of an aging, beaten-down Kevin Garnett. Likewise, his proud teammate, Paul Pierce, shoulders too great a load on the offensive end in the twilight of an impressive career. There’s no depth in a frontcourt lacking the injured Jared Sullinger and featuring the clueless Chris Wilcox. And, of course, Rajon Rondo won’t be in uniform until next season. His magnificent displays of versatility on national television will have to be put on hold for another few months.

By all means, this Celtics team is inferior. It isn’t in the same league as the championship winning unit from half a decade back, or even as mentally tough as the ragtag bunch that pushed the vaunted Miami Heat to the brink less than a year ago. The New York Knicks are more explosive, more physical, and just about more everything—they will close out the series very soon, as they very well should.

But this wasn’t like any other elimination game in late April. It could have spelled the

end of an era—and a glorious one at that, worth placing alongside the 1960s and 1980s in Boston Celtics lore. Garnett will celebrate his 37th birthday next month, while Pierce will celebrate his 36th right around the start of next season. (The same goes for the entertaining Jason Terry, who provided an unexpected outlier performance on Sunday.) Both Garnett and Pierce contemplated retirement last summer. They almost called it quits then, and that was almost twelve months ago.

This is the end of the road. Over the past two or three regular seasons, Bostonians have wondered aloud about the future of their historic franchise once the Garnett-Pierce imprint faded from relevance and the city was left with a bare cupboard of dispensable pieces. In recent years, only one question has mattered: what will Danny Ainge do when the time is finally right?

Well, the time is now. The Celtics face an all-too-likely, thoroughly unceremonious elimination at the hands of a traditional rival, and a crippling combination of age and injuries and more age has caught up to the franchise after a successful string of seasons from 2007 to 2012. Kevin Garnett’s pride and competitiveness run as deep as ever, but his joints and muscles are beginning to fail him. Paul Pierce—still arguably the craftiest scorer in the league, given his physical limitations—can’t possibly survive the rigors of extended minutes, advanced age, and a high usage rate for much longer. And Jason Terry definitely didn’t make people forget about Ray Allen this year, instead continuing his sharp regression since the 2011 NBA Finals.

Even with the much-needed emergence of Jeff Green—a frustratingly inconsistent (and overpaid) forward with considerable vertical bounce—there isn’t much left there. Outside of the Garnett-Pierce core, these Celtics resemble a hodgepodge of movable parts and lowly castoffs. Jordan Crawford and Terrence Williams both played significant minutes on Sunday.

Even the crowd in attendance wasn’t up

to par. A myriad number of empty seats combined with a timid, disinterested audience at the start of the game, resulting in a less-than-impressive show of support. The building just didn’t have that usual zest, and a feeling of passivity spread through the ranks of spectators wearing green and white.

It just didn’t feel like April 2008 anymore, when the Celtics steamrolled opponents in front of their home crowd.

As I checked out the action on Sunday afternoon, my heart was feeling considerably weighed down by the urgency of the moment. This could be Garnett’s very last game as a Boston Celtic. This might be the very last time that Pierce plays basketball professionally in downtown Boston.

These two icons of the sports world have both provided me with boatloads of terrific memories, and they both might be gone by the end of the summer. No more of the patented tendencies that made them both so great for so long. Those midrange jumpers, trailing three-pointers, fading buzzer-beaters, vicious slam dunks, and reliable clutch performances. Those immaculate displays of mental fortitude and physical toughness that instilled tremendous pride in the green and white once again.

All gone.

Sunday afternoon had a surreal feel to it.

After about a half-decade’s worth of seasons watching the same old guys doing the same old things, I finally felt that their time was up. Something just didn’t feel right anymore.

This was officially a crossroads following five years of dominance, a time span that impacted me tremendously as a teenager growing up in the tidy suburbs of Boston.

I’ve finally come to grips with reality, following the Celtics victory. That warm and sunny Sunday afternoon at the end of April meant that the turning of the tide was near, postponed only by a relatively irrelevant win in the long run. Very soon, it will be time to turn the page, venturing into a new era from the ashes of the old.

Collins’ coming out big step in athletics Zach Rippe Columnist

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hough my first memories of Jason Collins were not the most pleasant, my perceptions about him as player and as a person have developed over the years. Growing up a New Jersey Nets fan, I got to experience the play of Collins on this team from an early age. I mostly disliked him when I was younger because, well, to be quite honest, he didn’t really score too often. Collins was not athletic, he was never flashy, and he often made bumbling offensive mistakes when he had the ball. Highlighting all of these facts in boisterous was a large gentleman who sat a row below me when I had half-season tickets a while back. “You suck Collins! Get a rebound someday! Stop flopping!” He would groan and moan and often became my comic relief at games.

In the same year I attended a Nets playoff game. The Nets were playing the Heat and Collins was assigned to Shaquille O’Neal, by far the NBA’s most dominant center at the time. I then learned of the true role of Jason Collins. Collins played good, strong defense; something that I had never noticed in the past. That night, his “biggest fan” was there.

He was wearing a custom-made Jason Collins jersey and cheered for him every play of the game.

It was then that I began to not only notice, but also appreciate the little things that he did. Collins, or “Set Shot Willie” as former Nets announcer Mark Jackson affectionately referred to him, was a stand up guy. He was never overly vocal, never in-your-face, and never tried to start anything. Everyone knew and respected him for who he was as both a person and a player. As Collins left the Nets, I too strayed away from the team. Yet, much like his flashier and more dynamic counterparts Jason Kidd and Vince Carter, he will forever hold a special place in my heart.

When Jason came out several days ago, the entire sports world buzzed. I could attempt

to summarize or restate how he felt. However, I feel that those words are best left to Collins himself. The article he did for Sports Illustrated really was fantastic. It will be released on May 6th and everyone, regardless of their interest or opinion in sports, should check it out. This moment that Jason has created is much larger than perhaps it theoretically should be; yet for what the world is like today, it truly is monumental. Collins is now the first active athlete in the four major US professional sports (MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL) to publicly be out as homosexual.

And in a fashion so characteristic of himself, he executed it perfectly.

“He, in true Jason Collins fashion, has made his statement at the most opportune time.”

Zach Rippe ‘16 Here now is the force that has broken the barrier of perceived “masculinity” and heteronormativity in the world of sports.

For the first time in his NBA career, Collins is truly the center of attention. When John Amaechi came out several years ago, it was also momentous. Yet Amaechi was done.

He was no longer competing. He no longer would have to endure taunts from fans, from players even. Collins stands as a lone warrior of sorts. There may be chants from fans, second glances in the locker rooms.

But for every ounce of negative awareness that this garners from people, there will be just as much positivity. There will be support, there will be progress, there will be an eventual build to “who cares, let’s just play

basketball.” And isn’t that what it should be really? Kids growing up seeing these players and these ideals reflected in and around their lives. This is true progress.

So what now? Jason Collins will keep playing. He is a true NBA journeyman, trudging along while entering his 13th season with career averages of 3.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. He, in true Jason Collins fashion, has made his statement at the most opportune time. A few months ago, in Boston, Collins did not want to interrupt the flow of the season and create a distraction around his team. He kept quiet for years, only to calmly state his case to the world when he needed to do so. Perhaps maybe others will too. There have been thousands upon thousands of athletes who felt the same as Jason throughout their entire lives. As he described it, “It’s like waking up and seeing a blue sky every day, but telling yourself it’s red.” Now anyone, regardless of what sport, what profession, or what path they choose for their lives can be free to live their lives and open up. Is this transformation in our society today not incredible? That is what Jason describes the support he has garnered as, “just incredible”. Perhaps this signals the coming of a future generation. Collins’ coming out has indeed helped to transform sexuality in the realm of sports. Yet, it is the reaction to this coming out that helps solidify true progress. Now when future generations grow, they can watch their favorite players and listen to what they have to say.

If their favorite players support gay rights or are openly gay themselves, children can re-evaluate or reaffirm their beliefs. Sports themselves can progress. And after all of this, was there really anyone better to create this moment than Jason Collins? He’s no star, no character. To many, he’s just another nameless player, a backup Center with bad knees on a mediocre team. To me, he’ll still be “Twin” or “Set Shot Willie”. But to himself, he can finally be Jason Collins.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 19

Iditarod a challenge for all contenders Eli J Vargas I Columnist

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lthough the weather is heating up, my focus now is on an event that requires a very frigid climate.

It is one of my favorite in that it involves my love of dogs and appreciation for unique sporting events. It involves dog teams, sub-zero temperatures, frostbite and a 1,000 mile race. In case it’s not clear, I’m talking about the Alaskan Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

If you’ve ever seen the movie Snow Dogs, which may be one of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s best roles ever, then you know this is a dog sled race. The Iditarod is a 1,000 mile-long trail covering the frozen and brutal tundra of Alaska from Anchorage to Nome. Contrary to what the movie might lead one to believe, the difficult race requires years of experience with and close trust of one’s dog sled team to compete in this 9-15 day race through the Alaskan wilderness. It is not uncommon for seasoned veterans, even past race winners, to drop out of the race altogether because the conditions are too harsh.

The Iditarod is the most famous sporting event in Alaska, attracting participants from all over the United States and the world, including those from warm climates like Jamaica and Brazil. It might draw interest due to the fascinating landscape and culture of Alaska. Who wouldn’t want to see sled dog teams racing around battling the elements and showing their enduring spirits? The towns which make up the checkpoints along the 1,000 mile trek provide lodgings for competitors and relish in the experience of talking with participants and exchanging stories with one another. So to Alaska it is much more than just a dog sled race.

Alaska is the only state to have such a large dog sled spectacle, and it makes sense that no other state does. Not only is it the coldest state in the country, but much of the land is sparsely populated with humans, while large animals unique to the Alaskan fields and forests are abound. To endure such a climate, the participants of the Iditarod must be hardened individuals. In fact, they are the hardest of the hard, the craziest of the crazy, if they choose to willingly go through with all of this year after year, for sport! No matter how tough you may think you are, if you were to go out there and try to mush a pack of dogs in sub-freezing temperatures, I guarantee you the initial novelty of the whole spectacle would wear off quickly.

The thought of spending copious amounts of time sledding with dogs seems fantastic. Yet taking all this into consideration, when it comes to a 1,000 mile race in barren wilderness, I know I would not be able to handle it. So I salute these participants of such a nerve-rattling and will-bending race. What makes it all better is that age and gender have a less important role in how the results turn out. Last year, the winner of the Iditarod was the youngest to do so at the age of 24, and his father was this year’s winner and the oldest at age 53. The runner up to him was a 27 year-old woman. This appears to distinguish this race from many sports in which can athletes retire in their thirties, and women’s professional sports receive far less attention in the media due to assumptions about the “innate biology” of women. The Iditarod stands as a sheer, brute test of one’s will power and ability to survive, along with a bit of luck.

If you haven’t fully realized how tough these participants are, think about this: they carry axes, and one of its many uses is fending off attacking moose when they are sledding. Sometimes the moose are imaginary from the hallucinations caused by sleep deprivation. To the mushers, it must feel as though even the moose don’t want them to finish the race.

Participants have even been known to come back with a frostbitten ear without even realizing it. That they don’t even notice that their ear is frozen is indicative of the highest pain tolerance imaginable. I play rugby and I’m used to taking and delivering some pain, but the thought of all of this being a normal occurrence in this tough-as-nails spectacle of sport makes me grateful that all I have to do is tackle people that have six inches and fifty pounds on me.

I am simply fascinated by this whole idea of yelling mush at a pack of dogs and taking off trying to outrun your limits. Additionally, if you consider dog sledding a sport—which it should be because NASCAR is considered a sport—then it is one of the best. If I had to pick anyone to be on my team during the zombie apocalypse, it would be an Iditarod musher.

SPORTS

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April 25, 2013

As school year ends, teams compete in closing matches Amreen Bhasin rEpOrtEr

Men’s Lacrosse

Men’s Baseball

The Men’s Baseball team is currently 14-161 in regular play and 10-12-0 in Liberty League play. The Brewers are still in the running for a chance at Liberty Leagues. This weekend they picked up some crucial wins. First, on Saturday they swept Liberty League foe Rochester Institute of Technology. The Brewers defeated RIT 9-0 and then 5- 4 during Saturday’s double header. Senior pitcher Joe Lovizio and freshman Connor Cucalon picked up their third wins of the season. Cucalon paired with sophomore Johnny Mrlik in the second game.

Freshman Nick Johnson batted .500 for the day and allowed senior Mike Peronne to score the game-winning run in extra innings during the second game. On Sunday the team split against RIT. Senior Captain Zander Mrlik pitched an outstanding game where he threw 76 pitches.

He is now 5-0 on the season. The Brewers will be back in action on Wednesday May 1 against

Men’s Women’s Track

The Mens and Womens Track teams traveled to Yale University on Sunday afternoon for the 2013 Yale Springtime Invitational to compete against some strong Division I competition.

Freshman Jonah Williams secured 2nd place overall in the 5000m and qualified under the ECAC qualifying standard at 15:11—the second fastest in school history. This was Williams’ first 5k and the fastest by a Vassar freshman.

Williams is only the second freshman male to qualify individually for the ECAC Championships. The men’s 4x800 Relay team of freshman Dylan Manning, freshman Andres Orr, sophomore Andrew Terenzi, and senior Samuel Ballard also qualified for ECAC’s. Freshman Taylor Vann ’16 competed in 4 events setting a personal best for the 400m hurdles. Junior Lisle Schaeffer ran a personal best in the 1500m as did Orr and fellow freshman Kyle Dannenberg.

The women did just as well. Highlights included sophomore Nicole Woodworth setting her personal best in the 1500m. Senior Kate Warrick set a new school record in the 400 meter hurdles. Seniors Stephanie Malek ’13 and Stacy Mowry ’13 also ran personal bests in the 1500.

Freshman Ava Farrell placed 11 th in the 3k while senior Emily Crnic missed ECAC qualification by two seconds.

Women’s Tennis

The women’s tennis team finished out their regular season this weekend with a resounding 7-2 win over Liberty League rivals William Smith College. No. 2 singles sophomore Sam Schapiro and No. 3 singles freshman Winnie Yeates secured the victory with wins against William Smith’s Leighton and Nicoletti. The Brewers finish this season with an 11-3 overall record and a 3-1 Liberty League Record.

They’re looking forward to Liberty League Championships beginning May 3 at the Roch-

courtesy of Vassar College Athletics

First up, men’s lacrosse just finished their regular season with a disappointing loss to Clarkson University. Clarkson came out quick in the first quarter and despite a strong rally from the Brewers, they were unable to match the Golden Knights’ fast start. Highlights of the game included four goals in the fourth quarter and two in the final minute. Sophomore midfielder Sean Brazier as well as freshman attack Noah Parson finished with two goals and an assist. Parson in particular was a star this season. In his freshman campaign he has already set the Brewers all- time single-season scoring record with 44 points including 31 goals and 13 assists overall. The team is looking forward to building on this year’s momentum next year with a strong overall recruiting class as well as returning all of their team except for senior Ryan McCarthy.

Manhattanville College.

Men’s Baseball is one of several teams whose advancement to Liberty League playoffs is dependent upon the outcomes of their upcoming games. They will face Union College in a double-header on May 4, 5. ers will visit 16th nationally ranked Rensellaer Polytechnic Institute, who are the Liberty League regular season champions, on Friday May 3 for the semifinals.

ester Institute of Technology.

Women’s Lacrosse

After an incredibly successful weekend, the Brewer women will be heading to the conference post season for the first time in six years.

The Brewers defeated Bard College 15-6 on Senior day at Weinberg Field. The team also tied the program record with its 12th victory of the season. Five different Brewers scored including three goals by senior defender Elizabeth Annis.

Senior Captain Marissa Reilly and sophomore Dara Davis both scored two goals and an assist each. Freshman defender Paige Abramowitz scored her first career goal. The team ends the season 12-3 overall and 6-3 in Liberty League play. The six Liberty League wins is a new program record for women’s lacrosse. The Brew-

Women’s Golf

The team ended their season with a Fourth place finish at the Williams College Spring Invitational. Junior Paloma Jimenez tied for 12th while freshman Aimee Dubois came in 14th place overall. Freshman Angela Mentel finished in the top 20 as well coming in at 19th place. Senior Nicole Bronson placed 22nd and fellow senior Celynne Balatbat was 25th overall. Five of the eight rostered golfers will be returning next Fall. This includes Second Team All-Liberty League Honorees Jimenez and Mentel as well as Dubois.

Goldstein makes meaningful impact on women’s lax Chris Brown spOrts EditOr

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achieve any of my goals without the help of my teammates. They want me to succeed and challenge me and support me everyday.” However, Goldstein came to the program with a clear path for herself. “One of my goals from early on was to not play like a freshman, but play like me. I have put so much into this sport and I don’t want to settle for being the kid with potential that didn’t give it her all.”

Goldstein has been a standout to coaches and teammates alike. Head coach Judy Finerghty expressed her praise for Goldstein and how she has impacted the program. “Izzy is a terrific talent. She is a creative player with great field vision and knack for setting her teammates up to score,” Finerghty wrote. “Her dedication to the team’s strength training program also shows in her play, as she has explosive speed and the ability to fight for ground balls. Izzy is mentally determined and she has

Katie de Heras/The Miscellany News

t a school with many talented athletes, coming into a program as a freshman can be difficult when trying to put your name on the map. However, certain standouts in each sport prove that they can stay toe-to-toe with seniors who have been with the program for four years. Freshman Isabelle “Izzy” Goldstein is one of those players. A midfielder on women’s lacrosse here at Vassar College, Goldstein has had standout games and career highs that have helped her team pull out crucial wins against tough opponents.

Goldstein has been playing lacrosse for many years. “I joined my town’s youth lacrosse team when I was in sixth grade,” explained Goldstein in an emailed statement. “My grade created a community and culture based around lacrosse that didn’t exist in my town before us. That commitment and shared enthusiasm fueled my love of lacrosse.” Goldstein was also heavily influenced by her high school team. “My club lacrosse team in high school, Revolution Lacrosse, really shaped who I am as a player in that it emphasized working the hardest you can all the time. I come prepared, control the things I can control, and don’t bother myself with the rest.”

In choosing Vassar as her path for the next four years, Goldstein expressed how the decision was not that hard to make. “I decided very early on that I wanted a small, liberal arts school where I could get the best education possible and have the opportunity to play lacrosse,” she wrote. “Vassar stood out from these schools because of the sense of community that I saw on my visit.” Goldstein also felt a deep connection with the lacrosse program at Vassar College. “[Coach Finerghty] put a lot of effort into making the recruiting process more personal by constantly reaching out to me. Also, Phoebe, a current junior on the team, emailed me multiple times answering my questions about Vassar and what it means to her, which helped a lot in making me feel like they were invested in me,” explained Goldstein.

Only in her first year as a part of the team, Goldstein has made her presence known on the field. One of her most astounding feats came against Western Connecticut College, where she scored a career-high seven goals to lift the Vassar College women’s lacrosse team to an 1814 win on April 16. However, she did not stop her streak there. Goldstein soon made another huge statement against William Smith College on April 19 where she scored four goals, including the game-winner with 21.5 seconds left, to give Vassar another Liberty League win, which brought their total to 10-9 at that point in the season. Her scoring total nears the top of the leader board on her team for the 2013 season.

Goldstein feels that her success could not have come without people constantly pushing her to do her best. “I have an amazing opportunity to be able to make an impact on the field as a freshman,” described Goldstein. “I couldn’t

Isabelle Goldstein ’16, pictured above, holds one of the top scoring averages on Women’s Lacrosse.

Her team will be competing in the Liberty League Finals on May 3 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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become an impact player for our team this year, scoring three game winning goals so far. I cannot say enough about the energy she brings to the team, her work ethic and team-oriented attitude!”

Senior co-captain Lindsay Haggerty echoed her coach’s words. “Izzy has seamlessly integrated herself into the team and has proved that she is a force to be reckoned with,” Haggerty noted. “As a freshman, she was able to quickly adjust to the high level of play that we face during the season and has contributed to the team in very important ways both on and off the field.”

Fellow freshman Mallory Tyler stated how Goldstein is not only a great player, but a wonderful person in general. “Izzy is a huge asset to our team-her game stats speak for themselves.

Beyond that though, Izzy is a wonderful teammate. She always has a kind word to say and she’s a super fun person on and off the field.

Being on the team with her has been awesome and I’m very excited to keep playing alongside her in seasons to come,” wrote Tyler.

Although a strong individual player, Goldstein emphasized how her Vassar experience would not be the same without her teammates.

Goldstein explained how her spring break was enhanced by being surrounded by other players. “We had the chance to bond as a team,” described Goldstein. “There isn’t any way I’d rather spend my break than with these ladies.

My relationships with all 23 of my teammates are really the most amazing thing I get out of being a part of this team.”

Izzy added to the importance of having a strong unit. “I couldn’t be in a better place than here on the Vassar Women’s Lacrosse team,” she wrote. “I am surrounded by intelligent, talented, and motivated individuals that have made my experience here at school an amazing one. The relationships I’ve made with my teammates are the most meaningful and important ones I could have. I feel comfortable with each and every person on this team. The chance to become close with not just other freshmen, but upperclassmen as well is one I really value.”