Misc Commencement 2018

The Miscellany News

Since 1866 | miscellanynews.org

May 27, 2018

Volume CL | Issue 22

H. Chang says, ‘Get outside’

Seniors explore art via theses Courtesy of Vassar College/Karl Rabe

Izzy Braham ARTS EDITOR

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ne of the most wonderful qualities about art is its ability to express complexity. Whether we are using it to convey an unfamiliar idea, combine multiple concepts or deconstruct ways of thinking, art can highlight a world of emotions, tensions and intricacies unlike anything else.

Two seniors, Vasundhara Mathur and Sixing Xu, used art to explore the multidimensional ideas that comprised their senior thesis. Centering the discussion on art, both students talked about everything from how they envisioned their thesis, their creative processes and how others influenced their creativity.

“I started with this poem because I just wanted to let go of the idea of the thesis from the very beginning,” Mathur commented on the opening page of her work. “It just came out of me and it has bits and pieces of conversations I’ve had with my professors. Every little word comes from somewhere and from other poems See THESES on page 7

Mack Liederman

F

or student-athletes ranging from the 1,000-point scorer to the walk-on trying out a new sport, varsity athletics signifies a crucial aspect of the Vassar experience. Juggling problem sets and essays with 9 a.m. lifts and lengthy road trips, the Class of 2018 student-athletes continued to strive. During their all-too-

Engaged Pluralism World Café addresses VC community climate Talya Phelps

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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assar’s Engaged Pluralism Initiative (EPI) is incorporating as many voices as possible in the ongoing journey toward a stronger and more inclusive community. Creating substantive, enduring change in campus culture is undeniably a lofty goal, and

short time donning the burgundy and grey, there are no college scholarships or television appearances. Rather, they are motivated simply by a pure love of the game.

This Sunday, many student-athletes will walk across the stage in front of Sunset Lake and receive their diplomas.

In their honor, The Miscellany News would like to highlight just a few of

Courtesy of Carlisle Stockton

Seniors Kim Romanoff, Ariella Rosenthal and Samarah Cook celebrate four years at Vassar during Women’s Basketball Senior Day. Inside: Studentathletes’ stories on and off the court and a glimpse at where they’re headed next.

Inside this issue

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Duncan Aronson REPORTER

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his week, we had the pleasure of getting to know English Professor Heesok Chang over email. Aside from looking snazzy in his suit vest and glasses, he is part of the English, Media Studies and Urban Studies departments and loves British Literature.

The Miscellany News: How did you

On May 10, a semester’s worth of work by Vassar community members culminated in the Engaged Pluralism Initiative World Café, which showcased a range of ideas geared toward strengthening the inclusivity of the College.

one multifaceted enough to preclude viewing it from any singular angle or through any one lens, as was clear at a recent EPI World Café event. EPI, first announced in March 2017, is a $1.6 million, four-year initiative, supported in part by an $800,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (Vassar Info, “Vassar announces $1.6 million ini-

Brewer grads reflect, look to future OUTGOING SPORTS EDITOR

Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY

Senior gift provides aid; grads’ gratitude conveyed

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Brewers’ experiences and memories.

Jesse Schatz, of Mount Joy, PA, was a four-year member of both the men’s cross country and track teams. A twotime Liberty League All-Academic selection, the senior leader was a consistent and energetic presence for the team. Known for his humor and wit, Schatz believes his experience has meant more than just the milestones.

“I think athletically I will be proudest of the races where I ran a personal best time or beat people I was not expecting to, but there are other races that stand out more in my memory,” Schatz said.

“Such as the time I lost a shoe in the first 400 meters, or more recently my last 10k which was run into a 40 mph headwind.”

When Schatz wasn’t busy losing his shoes or bracing himself against strong gusts, he was in the classroom.

Schatz will graduate with an Africana Studies major, and next year will work in Washington, D.C., at the Gulf International Forum, a foreign policy think tank focused on the Arab Gulf region.

He emphasized that he owes a debt of gratitude to the team, which he believes has helped him reach this next chapter of his life.

“Being a student and [an] athlete worked in tandem to better my Vassar experience,” Schatz said. “The stress of See ATHLETES on page 8

Are you a language nerd? Try our Commencement Crossword!

tiative to advance the college’s mission as an inclusive and affirming learning community,” 03.27.2017).

Summing up the mission of the project, the EPI website states, “By ‘engaged pluralism,’ we mean viewing all manner of social differences as essential components of a strong community, rather See WORLD CAFE on page 13

first become interested in English Literature?

Heesok Chang: I’ll answer the “how” as a “when”—more specifically, with an anecdote about when I declared my major.

My favorite book about the profession is John Williams’s campus novel Stoner, set in early 20th-century rural Missouri. There is a scene early on in which the protagonist William Stoner must tell his parents, who have sent him to university to study Agriculture so he can rescue their livelihood from ever-worsening drought, that he won’t be returning to the farm with them. It’s graduation day. He must See PROF SPOTLIGHT on page 6

Meal plan triples summer housing cost Clark Xu

OUGOING ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

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his summer, students staying on campus will pay $25 per day for room and board, a 257 percent increase from last year’s cost of $7 per day for summer housing. While college administrators maintain that the decision to add a set meal plan addresses food insecurity at Vassar, some students and faculty members have disagreed with the mandatory nature of the meal plan. The Office of Residential Life first communicated the decision to students staying for the summer via email in early May, four weeks before students were expected to pay the new fee.

President Elizabeth Bradley explained, “We had become aware that there was food insecurity among some of our students on campus over the summer. This is a significant concern and so we worked on putting in place a meal plan to ensure all students have access to the nutrition they need. Our goal was to provide two meals a day.”

Bradley emphasized that the price increase for summer housing this year is entirely due to the introduction of a meal plan that did not exist last year.

Vice President for Finance Bryan

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Swarthout elaborated, “This decision was not a result of a financial consideration …We calculated the cost of the meal plan and that is the price that we are charging.”

The policy change affects students participating in the Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI), the Ford Scholars Program or summer break jobs, as well as others with a summer housing assignment. For 2018, URSI is comprised of 53 students, and Ford Scholars includes 19 students.

This represents a decrease from 63 students in URSI and 20 students in Ford Scholars in 2017. When URSI and Ford Scholars assignments were announced in March, the College had not yet informed students about the price increase.

URSI student researcher Jesse Lin ’20 stated, “I did not find out about the mandatory summer meal plan until sometime during the spring semester, when I overheard some faculty and students expressing their opinion in regards to this recent change. One faculty even advised students not to apply for URSI this year out of concern that students may not be able to fulfill their expected contribution after subtracting See SUMMER on page 4

From triumphs to tears, a glimpse at college careers

The Miscellany News

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VC admin depart, take on new roles

May 27, 2018

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Talya Phelps

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Editor-in-Chief

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pring is a time of change both within Vassar and beyond its walls, and this year, the College community not only bids farewell to another cohort of seniors, but also sees significant shifts in its administration.

On May 8, President Elizabeth Bradley announced the departure of Dean of the College Christopher Roellke from his administrative role, noting his decision not to pursue a third term. After a sabbatical, Roellke plans to return to his position as Professor of Education and his work with the Vassar College Urban Education Initiative (VCUEI), which he founded in 2003. Also on May 8, Dean of Students Adriana di Bartolo announced via email the departure of Director of Health Education Renee Pabst, who has accepted the position of Chair of Health Education at the Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY; and Director of Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention (SAVP) Charlotte Strauss Swanson, who will begin a doctoral program in counseling psychology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. While they are not departing the College, current Director of Transitions and House Advisor to Davison and Josselyn Capria Berry will fully take on the role of the inaugural Director of Transitions.

Reflecting on Roellke’s administrative tenure, Bradley said, “It has been a pleasure to work with Dean Roellke this year as he has welcomed me to the College. Dean of the College is one of the most stressful jobs you can have, and very few people want to do it for more than 10 years, and I think he had a very impressive run here[.]”

On February 12, 2017–2018 VSA President Anish Kanoria sent an email to the student body addressed from the Dean of the College Review Committee, comprised of six students and faculty members and tasked with conducting a reappointment review of Roellke. The message invited campus community members to anonymously share their thoughts, noting that they were most interested in hearing from those who had worked with Roellke on the various committees on which he had served or chaired.

Roellke emphasized how his tenure as Dean has been an honor and a privilege, adding, “I feel like it’s a job that I was very well suited for...as my background is as an educator, and I believe this role, while it’s fundamentally about leading, is also fundamentally about teaching and learning.” Corroborating Bradley’s sentiment and looking toward his renewed engagement with the Education Department, he noted, “I think particularly in higher education leadership, it’s almost unheard of these days to do more than two terms, and so the timing was right for me and my family, and I think also for Vassar, and I’m really eager to get back to my roots in K–12 education and also continuing to promote access to higher education.”

Looking back on his signature achievements and objectives, Roellke pointed to the establishment of the first-ever Mission and Vision statement for the Dean of the College division, the 2017 revised version of which states, “The Dean of the College division educates and supports students in their intellectual, social, ethical and emotional development. In facilitating the academic and personal achievement of our students, we advance their goals both as individuals and as members of a diverse and inclusive residential liberal arts learning community.” Roellke noted that shortly after he began as Dean, the College faced the Great Recession of the late 2000s: “[It] presented both a challenge and an opportunity, the challenge being trying to maintain a See ADMIN on page 3

Talya Phelps

Senior Editor Leah Cates

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Facing administrative turnover, Vassar looks toward future ADMIN continued from page 2 high level of student affairs service in a period of time when we were sort of tightening our belt.”

Despite financial difficulties, Roellke said, the College has been able to triple its commitment to financial aid over the past decade, while also diversifying the student body and making strategic investments in initiatives such as Campus Life and Diversity, Title IX and Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention. Referring to the latter two programs, Roellke recalled, “When I first came to Vassar, that whole domain was a fraction of one person’s job, and, given the national as well as the Vassar context on this, it’s very important that we make substantial investments in the area of sexual assault and violence prevention, and those investments are ongoing, but I think that’s an accomplishment.”

Roellke noted recent attention to the area of career development and life after Vassar, including the Internship Grant Fund and Sophomore Career Connections, and highlighted investments in mental health, including three new full-time staff in the counseling center. Roellke was also involved in creating crisis-planning mechanisms, including a response manual and technological tools for situations such as extreme weather or an active shooter on campus.

In addition, Roellke pointed to the transformation of dining services and of the All Campus Dining Center, which represents the culmination of a six-year project. Acknowledging mixed responses on the shift, he said, “Any change at Vassar comes with some trepidation, and there [were] a lot of folks that were worried about it, and I think that the 93 percent satisfaction rate in year one is a testament to the fact that it’s been a very successful transition, even though we still have more work to do.” Discussing the desire to ameliorate food insecurity among students through a non-transactional dining system, Roellke added, “We were learning from particularly our senior students that, maybe coming from lower income families, eating healthy and eating regularly was a challenge.”

Roellke emphasized the importance of learning both inside and outside the classroom, which he has championed through his work with the VCUEI. Such efforts necessarily require, as well as encourage, engagement with the wider Poughkeepsie community. Roellke said, “As we make explicit goals to diversify the student body, I also think we need to bring careful attention to our own local community, and I very much want that to be a two-way street. So not that we just use Poughkeepsie as a laboratory, but rather Poughkeepsie can also take advantage of the things that are on our campus that could be culturally and intellectually enriching.”

He identified one area in need of resources as maintenance of student housing: “We have some residential facilities that are the ‘haves’ and we have some residential facilities that are the ‘havenots,’ and although we’ve tackled about 70 percent of the rooms during my time as Dean, there’s still 30 percent that haven’t gotten the attention that they need[.]” He also pointed to the need for greater investment in training faculty and administrators: “[W]e have a different student population than we had just a decade ago, and sometimes that requires new skills, new understandings, new vocabularies, and so as I reflect back on the last 10

years, I wish that we had a few more resources to devote to professional development.”

Contemplating the characteristics and qualities he would like to see in his successor, Roellke maintained, “I think the nature of this role requires a student-centered leader, who can bolster faculty commitments to the lived experience, and who can foster even greater collaboration among faculty, staff, students and administration.”

In terms of the broader direction of the College, Roellke stated that an ideal successor would embrace strategic planning and the Engaged Pluralism Initiative (EPI), as well as evincing a dedication to the hidden aspects of the job—that is, the work with internal and external audiences that may go largely unacknowledged but remains crucial to success in the role. Considering both triumphs and areas to which he would have liked to be able to pay greater attention, Roellke acknowledged, “I think it’s impossible to take on a leadership role like this that’s as student-facing as it is and not be yourself, so I would like to say that I’m really grateful that over the last decade I’ve been permitted to be myself for whatever strengths and weaknesses that may bring[.]” He concluded, “I also hope my successor will have fun in the job. I know that may seem silly, but the work is challenging, serious and important, but if you can’t have any fun along the way, I think that the term is likely to be short in the role.”

As Vassar begins its national search for Roellke’s successor, the role of Interim Dean of the College will be filled by Associate Dean of the Faculty and Academic Resources and Associate Professor of Sociology Carlos Alamo-Pastrana, a selection announced by Bradley on May 9. Bradley discussed Alamo-Pastrana’s experience and perspective, noting, “I’m really eager for him to come in with new ideas that aren’t at all even on my radar, and have him challenge everything[.]”

According to official governance, the search committee consists of four members of the faculty elected at large by the faculty, three students and one administrator who is not among the President’s senior staff. Bradley stressed the key role of community involvement, noting that students, faculty, staff and administrators will have the opportunity to meet candidates during all-day visits.

While members of this search committee have not yet been elected, Bradley noted that she hopes the next Dean of the College will have strong experience with inclusion and diversity, a willingness to embrace initiatives such as EPI, an ability to build strong relationships with students and preferably a strong background in academic research and teaching. Pointing to health and wellness as a key area for continued investment, she described recent expansions in mental health care, increased support for transgender students, developments in religious programming—such as the establishment of a Muslim prayer space—and attention to safety for undocumented students. In terms of her own relationship with the new Dean, Bradley added, “I think we also want somebody who questions things, and is willing to challenge the status quo, someone who has initiative and new ideas to help us grow.”

Considering the departures of Pabst and Strauss Swanson, Bradley said, “I am sad to see them go, but I think also, as always, it provides an opportunity to think through these positions, to strengthen them.” She noted the wealth of feed-

back from students on improving SAVP, and affirmed that Strauss Swanson’s successor should have a deep understanding of the history and accomplishments in that realm.

Strauss Swanson reflected via an emailed statement, “This work is not easy and I feel so fortunate to have collaborated with many wonderful colleagues and students to collectively address sexual violence in our community. I see my transition into a doctoral program as a natural next step and a great opportunity for me to continue my professional growth.” Noting that she was hired as a coordinator and later promoted to a directorial position, Strauss Swanson recalled her work advocating for increased resources in violence prevention, including the creation of a fulltime Violence Prevention Educator position and two additional student intern positions focused on prevention-based education, as well as her role in developing, implementing and analyzing Vassar’s campus climate surveys on sexual violence.

In terms of what she would like to see her successor accomplish, Strauss Swanson expressed, “I hope the campus community continues to promote policies that are survivor-centered and trauma-informed. I think there is also a need to expand educational programs during all four years and in course curriculums, engage student leaders in prevention work across campus and reach the entire student body with information about the support resources available.” Looking ahead to her personal objectives, she added, “My hope is to influence systemic change to improve [support] for survivors and to contribute to the growing field of violence prevention and response.”

Pabst, too, emphasized her enjoyment of her time at Vassar and the positive impact on the community that she believes she has left behind. In an email, she described some of her key achievements as creating a full-time SAVP position, introducing bystander intervention programs for sexual assault and alcohol, reducing the number of alcohol-related EMS calls by 40 percent while ensuring that 95 percent of students still reported feeling comfortable making the call for help and implementing the Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) program for students who are seen for alcohol and other drug referrals. As for her new role, she elaborated, “I took the position at Hackley because it was too good of an opportunity to turn down on both a professional and personal level. The position at Hackley is a new position that was created to work with the community to design a K-12 health education curriculum, work with other departments and the larger community to integrate a new wellness facility and make Hackley a leader in student and community wellness—as a health educator it is an amazing opportunity and so exciting.” Expressing her appreciation for her student coworkers, Pabst added, “I just want to say a special thank you to all my current and past Wellness Peer Educators (WPEs) who have worked in the office over the past ten years with me.” On the topic of Pabst’s successor, di Bartolo noted, “We’ve changed the name of the health education position to health promotion and education, because we really want to ensure that this person is really promoting global health and wellness among our entire community.”

Berry, who is departing the Office of Residen-

tial Life but remaining at Vassar in the new role of Director of Transitions, expressed their enduring commitment to Transitions in an emailed statement, noting that they worked their way up from Student Affairs to Coordinator of Transitions to Co-Director to their current position as Director.

They added, “Also important to note here-my personal story includes being a first generation college graduate, from a low income background.

I entered into campus activism in college in a movement supporting my peers involved in Undocumented and Unafraid. I am invested in this work within higher education because of that entire picture.” Considering past accomplishments and looking toward the future, Berry said, “As a House Advisor, I had the opportunity to make my houses my own. [O]ne of the luxuries of living on campus is to be able to easily support our students as people. It is important to see them on their best and worst day, certainly AND everything in between ... This same kind of everyday interaction exists as Director of Transitions also which is fantastic.” They continued, “In this new director role, I am excited to create change where it is needed. This may mean providing more structural support and interacting more with institutional policy and that is a shift for me.”

With an official start date of June 1, Berry hopes to devote their summer to building a strong foundation, noting, “Ultimately, I hope to continue to contribute to this culture shift, where it becomes automatic for different members of the campus community to think about low-income, first gen and/or undocumented students whenever they come up with a new idea.” In terms of their hopes for their successor, Berry maintained, “As House Advisors go through interviews soon, I do not want anyone to think of them as my specific successor. I want the incoming HAs to be their own professional. When people are looking to join the Vassar team, it is my hope that they are people who enjoy meeting new people, checking in with people, creative and ultimately will be the House Advisor their students need.”

Bradley expressed her enthusiasm for expanding the Transitions program, recalling, “I met with the Transitions students, I read the report that [Associate Professor of Sociology Eréndira Rueda] and her students did on focus groups over the summer...they identified all the things they need and what the issues were, and it was very clear to me they needed a director.” She affirmed, “Transitions, as far as I see it, is a flagship program. I actually think it’s one of the best you could find in a college like this, where students who are first-generation, low-income, come in and are really, I think, supported.”

Echoing Bradley’s sentiment, di Bartolo said, “Capria isn’t going too far away, but we’re definitely going to miss them in Dean of Students and Residential Life...I think becoming an inaugural director of an area that is so important to the heart of this college, we have the best person in place for that.”

Summing up the effect of the administrative departures, di Bartolo observed, “It’s a bittersweet and exciting time for the [C]ollege, and I think anytime we lose somebody it helps us think about what are the needs of our students, what are the needs of the College ... how are we looking at this as a really exciting opportunity to continue to meet the needs of our students?”

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May 27, 2018

Summer scholars, workers face increased cost of living SUMMER continued from page 1

the room and board cost from the stipend.”

Director of URSI and Associate Professor of Biology Jennifer Kennell reflected, “The faculty opposed this decision for a variety of reasons, but primarily because the cost of the meal plan goes well beyond what anyone would spend if they were cooking for themselves.” Taking into consideration the new meal plan, URSI plans to cut the number of summer barbeques but maintain weekly social programming for students. Kennell observed that students will have limited space to prepare their own food since summer housing this year has been moved from senior housing, which have private kitchens, to Main Building and Noyes House, which have communal kitchens.

Ford Scholar Josh Kim ’20 noted, “Kitchens at Noyes and Main are small, not spacious enough for everyone and have poor facilities and amenities for cooking.”

The decision also impacts students with summer break jobs, for which the Student Employment Office prioritizes international students and students with high financial need. As a result, the price increase in summer housing raises costs for students who do not have another place to stay for the summer or who finance their education partly through work-study. Raymond House Fellow Intern Ruth Demree said, “Many students will likely not have another choice, and [will] have to pay the amount. It really feels like Vassar is taking advantage of this fact to get more money.”

However, Bradley noted, “Recognizing [that] this would add to the cost for students, we also increased the wages for students.” Bradley reported that the URSI and Ford Scholars programs have raised the student research stipend from $380 per week to $420 per week. Similarly, the wage

for summer break jobs has increased from $9.70 per hour to $11.25 per hour. Nonetheless, even with higher stipends and wages, the overall cost of the summer program has greatly increased for students.

Kennell added, “Because the meal plan will cover most of the food needs for our students, they shouldn’t have to use much of their research stipends for food costs. But they may struggle to pay for other things, especially if they also have a summer earnings requirement for their financial aid package.”

In terms of communication with students about these decisions, Bradley noted, “My advice to students is that when they have questions or concerns, that they come to the appropriate office and ask directly rather than rely on word of mouth, which may not always be accurate.”

Kim emphasized, “The school never notified the students [in advance] that the price was going up this year. We were able to learn about the price increase only after we opened the summer residence application. I don’t know what the school’s intention was, but it should have at least announced it way beforehand so that students [could] adjust their plans accordingly or express opinions about the new change in policy.”

Since details about the summer meal plan have not been made available to students, Kim also expressed concerns that students did not know exactly what services they were paying for.

Over the summer, the Retreat and the All Campus Dining Center (ACDC) will alternate in providing the meal plan to students. The Retreat will remain open from May 29 to June 17 and from July 30 to August 10 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The ACDC will open from June 18 to July 29 and from August 14 to August 27 for breakfast 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., lunch 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

and dinner 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Express will open beginning August 13.

The number of students on the summer meal plan is a fraction of those on the meal plan during the academic year. Nevertheless, Director of Dining Programs Maureen King specified, “The food options will be very similar to the academic year … The stations that will be open are: Home, Root, Brick, Grill and Farmer’s [Table], which will have the salad bar, deli and sweets. [Allergen-free] meals will be available upon request.” In terms of new additions to the dining service on campus, King said that the ACDC will also be offering espresso drinks for sale.

The college administration and students remain at odds about the underlying cost of healthy eating. Lin commented, “While I do understand a meal plan can save students from the trouble of grocery shopping and cooking, at the cost of $9 per meal it is simply not worth it. Speaking from experience, if you’re willing to live a slightly frugal lifestyle, $18 can easily last three-plus days.”

Addressing the lack of choice offered to students by the administration, Lin concluded, “I believe students should have the freedom to choose whether or not they want to partake in a meal plan.”

Supporting student claims regarding the cost of meals, Kennell recalled, “As a graduate student, the pay was low and the area where I lived had a relatively high cost of living. But I made due by living frugally: having roommates and cooking meals together to share the cost of living.” About 10 URSI student researchers have opted out of the combined room and board meal plan to live off-campus this summer, compared to two URSI student researchers who chose to do so last summer.

Kennell continued, “Having about a fifth of our

URSI students living off campus may change the social aspect of URSI, as there won’t be a generally shared housing experience for all participants.

But the overall structure of URSI, which is primarily students working full-time with faculty and gathering together once per week for enrichment activities, is not changing.”

Bradley reflected, “The ability of our students to collaborate with our faculty on research is one of the opportunities that makes Vassar unique.

Our students are able to work directly with faculty in a way that would only be accessible to graduate students at most institutions. We are proud of this aspect of Vassar.”

While many students expressed excitement about their summer research, others still felt that the increased cost—and lack of advance notice about the changes—does not benefit students.

“I found out about this change earlier than most students, but that was still far after the deadline to apply for summer employment,” Demree commented. “The employment office reopened a limited application list in early May, but I was only staying on campus for part of the summer, which violates the contract and made me unable to apply. Some other low-income students found themselves in similar situations, unable to meet the requirement for student employment due to an off-campus internship or other obligation, and certainly not able to pay $25 a day out-of-pocket for even a month. This change was handled very poorly, and hurt a lot of students on this campus.

For students with concerns that the summer housing cost presents a serious hardship, Bradley added, “We understand that this change may have been an unexpected one. If any student feels this is a challenge I would ask them to speak with the Dean of the College immediately, so that we can work with them to come to a resolution.”

Giving back to Vassar: Alumnae/i, seniors express thanks Andrea Yang

FEATURES EDITOR

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but the most popular ones are Scholarships, Library Resources, Residential Life, Faculty Salaries & Research, Campus Preservation, Sustainability and Vassar’s Greatest Needs.”

He continued, “Because financial accessibility is so important to us, members of the Class of 2017 and the Class of 2018 made the commitment to establish scholarship funds for each of our respective Senior Gifts. These funds will continue to exist in perpetuity, ensuring that members of our classes know that we can always pay it forward and assist a future Vassar student in pursuing their education.”

The Class of 2018 Scholarship Fund launched on Nov. 7 in the Aula, where students performed music and poetry and joined forces in keeping a Vassar education affordable and accessible for every student. On April 3, the Fund organized a “Lend-A-Hand Day” event in the College Center, inviting the Vassar community to learn about how Vassar alumnae/i help to support student scholar-

Courtesy of Vassar College/Karl Rabe

hat completes the ultimate Vassar experience? Jokingly, Matt Stein ’18 [Full disclosure: Stein is Outgoing Assistant Arts Editor for The Miscellany News] replied, “Owning a jean jacket.” Pietro Geraci ’18, however, answered in all seriousness, “Promoting free speech on campus with the Jacobson lecture, which led to President Bradley asserting the right of students to freedom of expression.”

For current and past Vassar students, an essential lesson learned is the spirit to appreciate and contribute to the betterment of the College.

Senior Week, the post-final days leading up to Commencement, is filled with entertaining activities, from hiking to wine tasting, that aim to create the most memorable experiences for the graduating class. These events are planned thanks to the devotion of students in the Senior Class Council, who arranged ticket sales, booked venues and scheduled transportation.

Member of the Senior Class Council Hallie Ayres ’18 shared some of the fun in store for the seniors and their guests: “A lot of the events are things that happen every year, like formal and things like the bowling trip. This year we added a lot of on-campus events, like the TH cookout and the field day, and we also added the volunteering trips, the shuttles to Beacon and the night at Club Escape.”

Ayres enjoyed participating in the events; notably, the formal left a great impression on her. She commented, “It was very cool to see nearly the entire class together, especially since that doesn’t really happen except for at graduation.”

Ayres went on to congratulate her fellow students on completing their studies while encouraging the rest to make good use of their time at Vassar. She remarked, “I would tell the non-seniors to make sure they figure out how to work the

systems here. It’s possible to create opportunities to do really rewarding projects here, and there are a lot of ways to get money out of this institution.”

Vassar aims not only to equip its students with the necessary skills to pursue their goals but also to provide financial support for their endeavors.

Post-Baccalaureate Fellow at the Office of Alumnae/i Affairs & Development Joseph Szymanski ’17 managed this year’s Senior Gift Campaign, the Class of 2018 Scholarship Fund, which calls for endowments from students and alumnae/i. The Vassar Fund dates back to the founding of the College.

Last year, it helped to provide students with over $15.5 million in financial aid.

Szymanski introduced the Fund and the mission of the Senior Gift Campaign: “In any institution’s annual fund, every dollar raised during each fiscal year gets spent on whatever area of the college that the donor decides they would like their gift to benefit. There are tons of different designations that a donor can choose to make their gift toward,

Pictured here are Chair of the Senior Gift Jasmine Martinez ’18, Senior Class President Ellie Winter ’18 and 2017–2018 VSA President Anish Kanoria ’18 at the Senior Reception.

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

ships in the company of puppies and cookies.

Szymanski stated that he decided to work for the Fund because he had benefited immensely from it: “My approach to working as a Post-Bacc on the whole this year has been to do whatever I can to help improve the lives of current and future Vassar students. My five years of experiences at Vassar as a first-generation/low-income queer student and alum have informed my every decision and through even the stormiest of seas have helped me remain resolute in my efforts to help students realize that you truly do have the power to impact Vassar’s future, as well as your own.”

He added, “My main responsibility within The Vassar Fund has been managing The Class of 2018 Scholarship Fund, this year’s Senior Gift Campaign. It’s work that hits really close to home for me as a Transitions alum who would never have been able to attend Vassar if not for the generosity of alumni, families, friends and even administrators who contribute to students’ financial aid packages. The most rewarding part of being a Post-Bacc has been getting to transition from working as a student to working for students, because Vassar is my home and my fellow Vassar students will always have a special place in my heart.”

The Vassar Fund is able to consistently provide financial support for all students in need due to the continuous effort and contributions of alumnae/i. Szymanski proudly concludes, “With more than double the number of seniors giving this year compared to last year, it’s safe to say that this year’s Senior Gift Campaign has been an outstanding success! This is due to all of the incredible work that the Class of 2018 has put into raising awareness [of] financial access at Vassar.

Please keep your ears tuned to Jasmine Martinez ’18’s speech during Commencement this Sunday, as she’ll be announcing the final totals as Chair of the Senior Gift!”

May 27, 2018

COMMENCEMENT

‘Atlanta’ offers fresh social commentary Jimmy Christon COLUMNIST

Atlanta Season Two

Donald Glover FX

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tlanta”’s second season is proof that Donald Glover and company not only have what it takes to elevate this show above the bar set by the first season, but also that this is a show aiming to cut into conceptions of what television can do as an art form. I don’t mean this in the way that a show like “The Sopranos” or “Westworld” pushes the boundary; the only show I can think of that does anything similar to what “Atlanta” does is “The Wire.” “Atlanta” is the best program on television, full stop.

I think it is funny when it needs to be, poignant when called for and crafted with an eye for detail so precise and imaginative that I am at a loss for words. Simply stated, it’s “The Wire” for a TV generation centered around Twitter and Netflix. Both “The Wire” and “Atlanta” are not only shows with a diverse cast of characters and plots, but are also programs that attempt to be nothing more than mirrors for contemporary times.

If I am just laying on the praise here, it’s because this show deserves every single piece of good press that comes its way. I try to stay away from just lathering on the praise in these reviews, but with a show like “Atlanta,” I think it’s important to recognize how special this show is. This excellence is due in no small part to how this program demands engagement from the audience.

Do I have to look further than the finale to this season, “Crabs in a Barrel”? I think not.

I’m having a hard time thinking of an episode that exudes more of a harshly gray tone than this finale, or an episode that presents such a thorough portrait of a character for audiences to critique. Last season’s finale, “The Jacket,”

was an excellent, quiet send-off for a show that might not have had another go-around, and it was a fantastic exercise in tone meshing seamlessly with thematic messages. “Robbin Season’s” finale “Crabs in a Barrel” surpassed “The Jacket” by leaps and bounds.

This is polemical, sure, but it isn’t far from the truth. This season we saw something the last season never really had time to do: develop its characters through narratives we could follow throughout the season. In the first season, we saw characters gain and lose jobs, find and lose money, and lose and create friendships–– but it was purposefully cyclical. Last season quite literally ended where it began.

With “Crabs in a Barrel,” we can see just how much more this season was able to do with character development than the first season.

Earn’s progression this season has been one of strife so subtle that most of us missed it until we saw the scars on his face in this last episode. We didn’t learn just how much of a schmuck Earn was until we saw this last interaction between Van (another character we saw progress far past their starting position) and him. And, most importantly, we didn’t know what Earn’s place was in this cast of characters until his final acts before boarding that airplane. Now we know definitively where he resides in his outlook on the world.

It goes without saying, then, that this show is a complete manifestation of excellence. Watching Earn move through society was funny, sad and frustrating, and I never found myself able to look away. Even better, Earn’s progression is tied to everything else in this show. Even standalone episodes like “Woods,” “Champagne Papi” and “Teddy Perkins” help set the stakes for Earn’s actions. “Atlanta” isn’t just a show about one person, it’s a show about our society, and it never loses sight of personal relatability despite its ambition as an artistic piece.

This level of creative prowess stems, in my opinion, from the show’s fantastic sense of mise en scène. At the risk of cementing myself as a pretentious English major writing for a school

paper, I’m going to say that “Atlanta” absolutely nails its mise en scène (or arrangement of scenery) because its social commentary is utterly and completely linked with its artistic form.

The way this show moves through its locations, plots, characters and feelings is nothing short of magical, and the way we can see this movement as viewers leaves me speechless.

From a surprise Katt Williams appearance in a deadbeat house to an even more surprising use of white face in a decrepit mansion, this show oozes artistic creativity.

We saw this last season in the tasteful feature of Outkast in the season finale, or in the style shake-up with the “B.A.N.” episode. Now, it is employed even more plainly with a second season that has its fingers on a cultural pulse (Tay K’s robbery in the first episode, the call-out of Post Malone in a frat house, the entire “Fubu” episode). “Atlanta: Robbin Season” cemented for me that “Atlanta” is a show that isn’t just excellent for art’s sake; rather, its excellence stems from its critiques of society.

This is one reason why I’ve been asking so many questions of whoever is reading this. I can stand up here and talk about how great this show is, but that all gets pretty meaningless if I don’t bring up anything with which this show wants the audience to engage.

The first season of “Atlanta” was great because it introduced us to a world, tone and characters that exuded the charisma of its creators.

The second season of the show is great because of how much it presents for the audience to sink their teeth into.

The showrunners didn’t include a Michael Jackson––sorry, Teddy Perkins––episode just for shock value, and they didn’t include so many Confederate flags for the same reason: The tone of this show, its thematic depth and its sense of artistic creation all stem from a reflection of society. I love this show not only because it is entertaining and satisfying to watch, but also because it’s a show that filters so many of the disparate elements of American society into an appealing portrait.

Local juice bar shakes up healthy concepts Aidan Zola REPORTER

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ituated at the corner of Lagrange and Raymond, All Shook Up! Cafe & Juice Bar is changing how we think about healthy eating.

With its candy pink walls, checkered floors and neon lights, the cafe isn’t exactly comparable to a Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. Instead, it is an oldwave malt shop, new-wave juice bar mash-up—a distinct college town gem.

This week, I sat down with owner Michelle Morrill to talk more about the restaurant’s inspiration and origins. Shortly after I settled into one of the neon blue chairs, Morrill emerged from the kitchen and welcomed me with a bright smile. In contrast to the throwback-themed flair of our surroundings, Morrill sported an all-black outfit and spoke in a quiet yet kind voice.

I asked her if she had been open long and if All Shook Up! had grown out of any particular inspiration. She nodded, “Actually, Aug. 3 will be nine years. So, we opened Aug. 3, 2009.” She continued, “I’ve always had a passion for eating healthy, but it still being tasty. It kind of escalated when my mom was diabetic, so I had to figure out ways to make things so that she could eat them and like them.”

Morrill discussed her history in the restaurant business and her belief that if she were going to share her love of healthy eating with the public, it would have to be in a place that would attract folks. Besides the range of fresh smoothies and juices, All Shook Up! offers clean, locally sourced lunch options. From classic hamburgers to glu-

ten-free, vegan sandwiches, Morrill and her team try to find all of their ingredients in the surrounding Hudson Valley—not exactly a small feat.

She explained the reason for the ’50s theme: “I just like the era. And I figured that if I have to listen to music all day, I want it to be music that I like!” She laughed, “I didn’t realize it would be so confusing because there are still a lot of people that think I’m just an ice cream shop or greasy spoon diner … When people actually come in, they go, ‘Wow, what a neat idea!’”

Morrill was right about the novelty of the cafe’s retro decor paired with the modernity of a juice bar. Intermingled with “I Love Lucy” posters and vintage records were advertisements for organic wheatgrass juice.

Morrill felt positive toward the cafe’s relationship to the Poughkeepsie community: “I think I have a good local clientele because of what I do.

There are very few places where you can get clean meat and cheeses, and there are no real juice bars around.” Just as she said this, an older man rambled into the shop and the two greeted each other enthusiastically. Once he had settled in, Morrill turned to me and explained that she had recently put on her annual party for the nonprofit park, Peach Hill, and that the man happened to have been one of the guests. The timing was serendipitous, to say the least.

Morrill also talked about the business’s relationship to Vassar: “When the kids find me, they’re very committed … I’ve considered doing a Vassar night once or twice a month because I’m not open for dinner.” She joked about the restau-

rant’s location: “If there’s anything we can do to inspire students to walk two blocks instead of one, I’d like to know!”

Like any business owner, Morrill faces challenges. She specified some of hers: “Well, marketing—because everything is done so much with social [online] networks now … I’m a little older, so it’s not like I grew up with it.” She continued, “One of my biggest challenges is because I’m always working in the business, it’s hard to find the time to work on the business.”

Morrill also discussed her favorite part of owning and managing the business. “Obviously, I love people. But I also like sharing the whole aspect of tasty but healthy food. Nothing makes me happier when people are sitting here eating and they go, ‘Wow, this is so good! This is the best sandwich I’ve ever had!’ ” I then asked Morrill if she considered herself a chef. She shook her head, “I love to eat…I don’t consider myself a chef. I just really like good, tasty food! I think I have a flair for putting combinations together.” After hearing her describe some of her creations—a chocolate peanut butter protein shake, or a roasted chicken and red pepper sandwich—I wholeheartedly agreed.

Once we wrapped up our interview and chatted for a bit, Morrill sent me off with a smile and one of her homemade almond-coconut bars (which I promptly devoured on my way back to campus).

So, if you’re looking for a place near Vassar that offers healthy food and a unique, inviting atmosphere, look no further than this throwback juice heaven!

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 5

Wannabe grad shares future plans Hannah Gaven HUMOR EDITOR

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ven though I still have three years left in college, I have a bunch of plans after graduation.

First, I’m going to drop acid, snort heroin and drink crack because I won’t have any studying left to do.

Next, I will sleep on my friends’ couches (without paying rent) for about 10 years to save up money while I work as an oracle. I was born with the rare gift of psychic abilities, so I am one of the lucky ones who will be able to find employment.

In my spare time I plan to break world records, such as longest eyelashes and most underwear worn at once. After I break these records, I will mark my territory in every state by peeing on the state flower. I must admit, though, I’m slightly worried about peeing in Arizona because their state flower is a cactus. How long do you think it’ll take to heal if I get stabbed down there?

My friends will inevitably get fed up with my horrible cooking and sign me up for “Worst Cooks in America,” which I will win because I can’t even make myself grilled cheese at the Deece. Once I am rich with all of my winnings and fame, my friends will kick me off of their couches and force me to pay rent. At this point in my life I will return to school with the ultimate goal of joining the CIA (the Culinary Institute of America).

After graduating from the CIA, I will become a world-renowned chef. Ideally, my rags to riches story will be picked up by Netflix, and I’ll help produce a movie based on my life.

Once I turn 35, my only option left will be to run for President of the United States. I will easily win in a landslide victory because by this time in history, women will rule the world.

Drunk with power and control, I will transform the United States government into a dictatorship.

Unfortunately, the world will heat up to a point where all land masses are deep under the sea, and I will be forced to rebuild America underwater. All of the Jonas Brothers’ predictions from their song “Year 3000” will come true and yes, your great-great-great-granddaughter is doing fine.

As I reign over Wet America, I will thank Vassar for my liberal arts education. Not only will I understand the economic side of running Wet America, but I will also be able to write detailed reports, discuss medieval manuscripts in dead languages and work out the physics to catapult people out of Wet America.

When I am able to throw down some sick dance moves at a formal Gala, I will be incredibly thankful for my time dancing to “Fergalicious” with Vass Shakers. One of my greatest accomplishments will be outdoing beloved Meryl Streep as the college’s favorite alumna.

Despite the fact that Vassar will be permanently destroyed due to the high water levels, we will always remember Vassar as a highly selective, coeducational liberal arts college nestled in the heart of the scenic Hudson Valley.

Thnks fr th mmrs!

While your life after graduation might be full of real jobs, financial security, family and hopefully fun, you may never get a Wikipedia page like I will, and that’s fine. It’s okay to be a small person. Maybe you’ll only become the CEO of your own startup or a doctor in a Manhattan hospital. Don’t feel bad about your small life achievements, like graduating college, getting a job and becoming a real adult.

COMMENCEMENT

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May 27, 2018

Prof Spotlight: Chang discusses literature, love, sacrifice to go this way rather than that way that does not involve, at least for some, the bewilderment, love and sacrifice of others. And this other, larger story interests me more than the story about self-discovery.

The Misc: What kind of classes do you teach?

Do you have a favorite one?

Chang: I’ve very much enjoyed teaching a section of ENGL 170 called “Tools for Reading.”

In a seminar in Toronto years ago, Jacques Derrida began a class by saying “What is reading?

Less than ever do I know what reading is.” I had no idea what he meant at the time. And I’m still not sure I’m understanding the enigma of reading in the way he understood it. But certainly I find the operation of reading to be more mysterious than ever. One way I’d describe that mystery is in terms of a wideawake disavowal along the lines of: “I know perfectly well these are just words on paper and yet, somehow, as my eyes pass over them, I am transported.” No one has ever, to my knowledge, fully explained this act of transference; no one has sufficiently accounted for the virtual as something other than the fictional, the false, the simulacrum, and so forth, that is, as a kind of reality in its own right.

Sorry, this is a long-winded way of telling you that my favorite class—recently—has been the class on the techniques of storytelling. I plan to develop its themes in a course I’m teaching next year called “Storyworlds.” It will be a kind of primer on narrative theory and practice and of interest to anyone who wants to tell their story (or others’) in various media forms.

The Misc: Are you currently working on any research projects?

Chang: Yes, I have several pots on the stove.

I’ll mention the one that’s closest to boil: a

book chapter on how the New York world fairs prepared the way for Montreal’s magnificent Expo 67. It comes out of a seminar I periodically co-teach with Lisa Brawley called “The City in Fragments” (another favorite class!). I argue that every world’s fair promises the future, not only the advent of new technologies, gadgets and commodities, but the transformation of daily life in the form of remade cities.

Revisiting Walter Benjamin’s claim that the intoxicating utopian energies of yesterday’s modernity may be retrieved from its melancholic ruins, I probe the grounds of Flushing Meadows to question the legacy of New York’s world fairs, with a particular focus on how Expo ’67 responded to those legacies. Did they announce the home invasion of fantastic technologies or simply the coming of more world fairs? Did they help us imagine a repaired world or did they mortify the city in the image of the exhibition itself? The answers were the promise of how Expo planners considered daily life might be remade in the reimagined city of Montreal.

not at home where they happen to live. I don’t mean do this as an experiment in empathy, but as a prescription, a lens, for critique and empowerment. Edward Said was fond of citing St Jerome who says the strong person is at home one place in the world, the stronger person at home everywhere and the strongest at home nowhere. Last but not least of all, I mean get outside yourself. I fear we are failing those students who want pursue a course of study in which they encounter only themselves. James Wood says that reading makes us better noticers. Whatever reading is, I think that’s true. Get outside, then, in the sense of look outwards (not only and always inwards), cultivate an eye for the bristly particularity of the external and of the external as it greets us as text, be this on our screens or lovingly retrieved from the stacks.

For there is nothing outside of that outside that is the world.

The Misc: If you could give students one piece of advice, what would it be?

Chang: I’d say: “Get outside!” In multiple senses. Most obviously, in the sense of get outside the gates. I like very much the recasting of “field work” as “community-engaged learning.”

Getting outside the Vassar bubble also entails breaking the habit of administrative consolation. Don’t look—or don’t only look—to the college to assuage your grievances and make you feel at home. On that point I would say get outside also means inhabit the stance of the exile and the emigré, the drifter and the dropout all—those who, whatever their material conditions (which are of course paramount), are

Courtesy of Heesok Chang

PROF SPOTLIGHT continued from page 1 also confess that he abandoned his applied science courses sophomore year to take, of all things, literature classes and, moreover, that he intends to pursue a Masters in English. The reaction of his mother and father—their stoic disappointment, emotional restraint, and, after several awkward moments of silence, taciturn approval (the father says something like, okay, I don’t know anything about any of this, but if you want to stay here and study books, that’s what you should do)—is heartbreaking.

This scene resonated with me. My parents are academics, so the circumstances are very different. There was never any question I would be going to college. But as the eldest child of first-generation Korean immigrants, my eventual decision to major in English unnerved them. My father, who is a mathematician, knew I had no facility for his gift, nor for any of the other STEM disciplines—but English Literature? Stoner is not surprised by his parents’ surprise. But I was taken aback by my own parents’ reaction. I pressed them on it. My father eventually said what Stoner’s father said (okay, go ahead), but before that he confessed their concern. I told them I thought I was pretty good at English Lit. No, it’s not that they doubted my ability; rather they were skeptical about how I’d be received. Stoner’s parents must be thinking along the same lines: how will this farm boy make out on this obscure path he’s chosen for himself. My parents were thinking about race, not class, but the perception of disadvantage is parallel.

I’m not sure why I felt compelled to answer your question in this way. Perhaps to suggest that there is no avowal of interest, no decision

Contrast’s new issue explores expression of love on campus Sasha Gopalakrishnan OUTGOING ARTS EDITOR

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ith Karina Norton ’20 and Jenna LlorensBlas ’19 looking over their shoulders and smoldering at readers as they sport a floral aesthetic, the cover of Contrast’s Spring 2018 issue redefines the spring season altogether. Titled the “Love Edition,” this issue falls in a long line of innovative themes explored by Vassar’s arts and lifestyle magazine. Exploring themes of contrast, boundaries and time in its past three editions respectively, the bi-annual magazine is defined by the varying concepts it uses to highlight campus art and fashion. The launch of this particular issue took place on May 17, in the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center during the weekly Late Night at the Loeb event—with cheese and fruit platters avail-

able to nibble on as visitors pick up and browse a copy of the magazine.

The work within the pages of this issue ranges from interviews and op-ed articles on unconventional new dating trends in today’s world—including dating apps and sugar daddies—to traditional and modern love poetry, to art and fashion photography. The issue also plays with content by including a professor spotlight on Music Professor Justin Patch, as well as by looking at love in the context of health and wellness in one case and through the metaphor of a love game in another; by highlighting mystery and distortion in one piece while emphasizing the motif of spring in another.

Delving into the overarching theme of love, Editor-in-Chief Ellie Winter ’18 elucidated, “We

Courtesy of Vassar Contrast

Contrast launched its Spring 2018 issue, titled the “Love Edition,” on May 17. This issue aims to explore how love is expressed and understood on Vassar’s campus through fashion and writing.

wanted to explore the ways that the campus feels, expresses and understands love through fashion and writing.” In trying to examine the nuances of love as it can be conceptualized on Vassar’s campus, this particular issue stays faithful to the Contrast style by pushing the boundaries of Vassar’s artistic expression. As Winter further illuminated in the “Letter from the Editor” section of the magazine, “In this issue’s articles, we’re challenged to find love in new places and understand it through new lenses.”

While the high standard exhibited by this magazine remains consistent, this issue does boast the addition of more and varied editorial content.

Winter enumerated some of the changes they made during the process of producing the magazine: “This time we have student and faculty interviews, think pieces and poetry that consider the theme from different angles. The photoshoots were gorgeous this time around too. Our photographers and models just get better every time.”

Contrast Creative Director Hannah Nice ’18, whose role involves keeping the group moving and making major decisions after consulting the rest of the Executive Board—particularly the photo and style teams—further elaborated on the selection process of materials that would go on to be published: “I think that the collection of images chosen for this issue, and the manner in which they’ve been laid out, is unusually stunning.

I edited down which images were used, which was a real challenge, since per spread, there was anywhere from 10 to 80 shots to choose from.”

Nice expressed remorse for the pieces that weren’t featured in the final product: “The fact that not all of the images could be used is a shame, because of all of the hard work that went into the issue by photographers, models, stylists and writers. Due to the limit in the page count, the Board is trying to add more life into our recently created blog (contrastmagazine.org). This site will become a hub for the material that did not make it

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

into the issue.”

With an elaborate Mood Board, an Artist Spotlight section sometimes featuring students and other times professionals, a Street Style section boasting a collection of urban looks by amateur photographers and a blog with a multitude of featured articles, Contrast’s website is as multidimensional as the published volumes of its magazine. In addition to this online platform, digital copies of all of Contrast’s issues—dating back to 2010—are available at issuu.com/vassarcontrast.

Given their selection process, during which, as Winter elucidated, “[they] leave thousands of photos and words on the cutting room floor every cycle,” their online presence becomes a necessity in showcasing the effort invested in the magazine by all of their contributors and artists.

While the production process involved some difficult decisions, Nice looked at the more exciting aspects of how she personally related to the magazine’s creative journey: “The process was really fun! I’ve been obsessed with magazines since I was in middle school, as evident in my bedroom’s decoration—I collaged the largest wall in my room with images from ‘Vogue,’ ‘Glamour,’ ‘Marie Claire,’ etc. So a lot of the things I came up with were things that had been brewing in my mind for a while.”

Nice further delved into how she felt about what they had to show for the semester’s work: “I’m super proud of it! I hope more people get involved with the org, as I think it’s unusually special, especially today, to have something you’ve put a ton of work into not only be published digitally, but also printed. But moreover, I hope everyone finds something that they can connect to in the issue.” Winter explicated in her “Letter from the Editor” regarding the team effort it took to bring the theme of love to their readers, “Befitting of the theme, this mag is the work of singularly talented people from across the campus, and I hope it’s half as fun to read as it has been to make.”

May 27, 2018

COMMENCEMENT

Theses embrace complexity through art THESES continued from page 1 and texts we’ve read…It some ways this is a combination of the language I’ve learned in all my classes.”

Mathur’s thesis is an ethereal compilation of ideas she’s gleaned from her classes, conversations she’s had with artists and her professors, and art itself in many forms. From poems she has written, to journal entries, to photos of people and art, Mathur uses her graceful words and imagery to combine philosophical and political ideas about everything from time, to artistic spaces, to empathy and telepathy. On paper, her thesis is vibrant. Colors pop from virtually each page and words are formatted in unconventional ways. Unique and eccentric, her project uses art just as much as it discusses the ideas that art conveys.

Explaining the basis for her work, Mathur said, “I feel like a lot of my education has been about thinking about what words mean instead of putting meaning to words. And then it’s about forming relationships with [these words] and then they percolate and circulate constantly.” She elaborated on her senior thesis, “This is [a culmination of] all these concepts I came up with more than anything else. [They] have to do with what specific terms and words allow for my imagination.”

Last year, Mathur attended a lecture by Chilean muralists Francisco Letelier, who talk-

ed about how he used murals to express the experience of living in exile. This particularly caught Mathur’s attention, as she has been painting murals since she was a young girl. She commented, “Murals always seem like borderless ideas that don’t separate art from where it is and who’s around it…and [Letelier] really emphasized this and then he read a poem that really stuck with me.”

At the end of the talk, she reached out to Letelier who suggested she apply for the Burnam fellowship, which would allow her to get to know the international artists at the 18th Street Arts Center in Los Angeles. There, Mathur studied the ways artists think as well as what it means to inhabit a space of art. In doing her research, Mathur fostered deep connections with two artists who changed her life, Mithu Sen and Sherin Guirguis. She also read the book “Philippines” by Hélène Cixous, which highly influenced her thinking on her thesis.

Mathur continued to explain her work and how it was influenced by the people she met at her fellowship, “Cixous…talks about the idea of coming back to things that constitute us or that have changed us. So she talks about always coming back to this person, always thinking about love, always coming back to the other.

And so my thesis in some ways thinks about art in this way through my interaction with these

Izzy Braham/The Miscellany News Izzy Braham/The Miscellany News

Students Vasundhara Mathur ’18 and Sixing Xu ’18 explored complex ideas in their theses through creative writing, poetry, photography and video art, among other forms.

two particular artists, Mithu Sen and Sherin Guirguis, who I had very intense relationships with at 18th Street. And [my thesis] basically talks about their work and their imagination and what they allowed me to do.”

In addition to her written collection of interviews, poems, and short essays, Mathur’s project included an artistic event called “Skylights: A Collaborative Art Event” that took place on May 11 on the Orchard at Sunset Lake. To create the atmosphere of a creative, welcoming and introspective celebration, Mathur crafted an open space on the grass and lined trees with poems, drawings and paintings she or her friends had made. The event featured music, poetry and dance performances by Mathur and her friends. The space even included a mural that was made by multiple people. One of Mathur’s friends, Ellis Thompson ’20, played her saxophone at the gathering. Thompson commented on the space Mathur created and her experience performing: “Playing in the orchard felt idyllic. Even with sheet music flying around in the wind, the beautiful scenery made the music sound even better.” The inclusive and collaborative aspect of Mathur’s project was an essential idea in her work and crucial in the artistic space she created. Mathur commented, “My thesis is so much about being able to share [art] with other people and care for other people … I just wanted to see all my friends in one space not worrying about what has been asked of them.”

Another person who influenced Mathur’s thinking on her thesis was Xu. In fact, Xu’s own work was uniquely about art. Combining both a written essay and a video installation in her thesis, she investigated how we think about digital images and conceptualize art museums.

Describing how she began her thesis, Xu commented, “When I started this project, I was thinking of writing about art museums and technology and how they interact and influence each other.”

She explained that her project took on a more detailed angle after much reflection: “After researching and thinking, I arrived at this point where I am writing not broadly about technology, but about this one product of technology which is the digital image. [The digital image] is not limited. It can be a jpeg file, a video file, a text file, or audio file—anything that has an appearance or a likeness that can be consumed by you, either by vision or hearing or things like that. And [in my thesis] I talk a lot about the potential I see with the digital image.”

Xu linked this idea of the multidimensionality of the digital image with the complex dimensions of the museum. She explained, “When we think about art museums, we see it as a place with a certain type of ideology and a certain type of history because through its historical construction only certain works are shown. So I’m thinking about this idea of visibility and invisibility within the museum which coincides with this idea of the image which has two sides.

One side is more visible to us and the other side is information and data and is more readable to computers, but is still important. This potential of having this invisibility rendered visible was what interested me [about the two spaces].”

Ultimately, both students featured art in different ways to convey important social and artistic complexities embedded in our world— Mathur experimenting with a culmination of writing, photography, painting and performance to consider concepts such as time, space and empathy and Xu employing both an analytical component and video art to explore how we envision the art museum. Xu ended her interview on a broader note, commenting about artistic thinking, “It is a way of artists to deconstruct or think about things that we are familiar with in less familiar or entirely unfamiliar ways. It’s a way of making the invisible normalized or...beautiful...if that is what art is.”

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 7

Word on the street

What’s your favorite Vassar memory?

“This is so cheesy, but waterfalling with my fellow group.”

— Lily Kitfield ’18

“The radio station. I’m a WVKR DJ, and I have a country music show.”

— Henry Krusoe ’18

“My favorite memory of Vassar is ‘Did not see that coming.’”

— Lily Horner ’18

“Falling in love.”

— Diego Encarnacion ’18

“Anything ski team–related.”

— Theresa Law ’18

“Burning bridges.”

— Emily Sayer ’18

Talya Phelps, Editor-in-Chief Mack Liederman, Outgoing Sports

COMMENCEMENT

Page 8

May 27, 2018

As moments turn to memories, student-athletes reflect ATHLETES continued from page 1 school could be alleviated at practice and with the team, while at the same time academics could distract from the anxieties that come with competing in a sport you really care about.”

Schatz’s passion for running and love for his team was evident earlier this year, when he and three teammates decided to drive 36 hours to Elsah, IL, to watch Michael Scarlett ‘18 run in the National Championship—for 25 minutes.

“It was idiotic but I will always remember it as one of the best weekends of the past four years,” Schatz said. “It’s almost impossible not to grow close with one another after running together nearly every day for four school years. I think I’ll always be an avid runner, but most of all what I will miss are the people.”

Senior captain of this year’s men’s basketball team, Tony Caletti, will also leave Vassar with a deep connection to athletics and fond memories of the people he has meet through it.

“I always enjoyed the sport and made many great friends through my team and the athletic community,” Caletti said. “It pushed me to grow as a person and mature off the court by putting

things in perspective as well as learning valuable leadership and cooperative skills.”

Caletti will graduate with a double major in mathematics and statistics, as well as correlates in computer science and economics. Next year, he will continue to contemplate numbers as a business data analyst for sports company DraftKings.

Said the Mill Valley, CA, native: “I chose DraftKings because it seems like an interesting company with good benefits and I wanted to connect with sports after my career came to a close.”

While Caletti will head up north to Boston, senior volleyball player Zechariah Lee will return home to California to work at a private equity firm in Irvine. Reflecting on his time at Vassar, Lee is proud of how he was able to remain well-rounded.

“I think the biggest takeaway would be to never shy away from opportunities life hands at you,” Lee said. “During my time here, I’ve been able to join a band, play a varsity sport, start my own business and get a high-caliber education. Through all of these experiences, I’ve seen myself mature and grow and I’m very grateful for all the amazing memories I’ve made while being here.”

The highlight of Lee’s athletic career may very

“Fruits of Our Labors”

well be his senior campaign, in which he helped lead the Brewers to the DIII Final Four, a first for Vassar in the NCAA era.

“Being able to be a part of such a hard-working team and seeing where this program has gone since I’ve been here has been extremely rewarding,” Lee said on his team’s fairytale final run. “I hope athletics at Vassar can keep growing in a positive manner. I see it getting larger and larger but I also see athletes becoming more open to the other things Vassar has to offer besides athletics.”

Senior Ariella Rosenthal’s Vassar experience also transcends athletics. Outside of the wins and losses, the women’s basketball captain remembers the feeling of completing her thesis, her father traveling cross-country to witness her 1,000 point and spending time with her teammates as they braced for this year’s Liberty League semifinal.

“My experience as a Vassar student-athlete has been extremely beneficial to my growth, not only on the court but within the classroom and as a person as a whole,” Rosenthal said. “Having to balance the commitment to my team, my coach, my school and myself has been a challenge and has tested me more times than not. But through those

challenges, I have learned a lot about myself and the way I work with others, and when I work best.”

Rosenthal will complete her degree with a major in psychology and a minor in biology. She is considering playing professional basketball in Israel or working for a tech company in San Francisco.

Wherever she goes, Rosenthal will miss the little things that make Vassar unique. “When the snow begins to melt, you can finally wear shorts again, and everyone is hanging out in the sun,” she recalled fondly. “I feel like those moments are the epitome of a college experience and are for sure some of my greatest memories here.”

As these moments turn to memories, Rosenthal and her fellow senior athletes are more than ready to move outside of Vassar’s home turf, and more than capable of doing so successfully.

“I think we’re a group of really hard-working individuals who have proved to be successful on and off our respective playing fields, courts, pools, and tracks,” Rosenthal concluded. “I think we have shown to ourselves and others that we are a group of individuals prepared to continue to try and pave way for necessary change in our world.”

The Commencement Crossword

by Ben and Sam Costa

ACROSS

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Fruits Of Your Labors

Congratulations Misha and Yibo!!

We are so very61.proud of you!!!

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Love, All of your Family!

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May 27, 2018

SENIOR ADS

Page 9

To our graduating senior ANNA EMY:

Congratulations Anna! You give us Emy girls big shoes to fill and I couldn’t be prouder! Thanks for being the best big sister a girl could ask for! Love Cecilia I’m so proud of you and love you so much!! Congrats! Love Sophia There is a universe somewhere in time and space where everything is the opposite. There you would be uneducated, without family and friends who loved you and with no passion. In this universe you have it all! I love you so much. Congratulations on graduating Anna! Love, Mia

Best wishes and all my love to my graduating granddaughter! Love Grandma Muriel A toast to a wonderful future for our beautiful, talented and deserving granddaughter! Love, Gigi and Grandpa Complimenti da Mamma Your years of college are an important way station in a long journey.

Congratulations on your graduation and loving wishes as you continue your lifelong education! Love, Daddy Talented, hard-working, passionate, beautiful on the inside and out..we couldn’t be prouder of the young adult you’ve become. May the rest of your life be full of many more success like this one. Love, Kristin

Claire, You have had 4 amazing years at Vassar, studying Neuroscience, being on the Rowing team, and serving as Assistant Copy Editor for The Miscellany News.

Congratulations Matthew. We are so proud of you.

To infinity and beyond!

Love, Your Family

Continue to be the kind and beautiful person who wants to enjoy your life while respecting the lives of others as well.

Love, Dad, Mom, Jack and Olaf (in spirit).

Page 10

SENIOR ADS

May 27, 2018

Raph, you were born a fighter, who always finds reasons to be happy. You enlighten our lives with so much wisdom and we are very proud of you.

Continue chasing your dreams. Congratulations!

May 27, 2018

COMMENCEMENT

Page 11

Letter from an Alum: Finding Vassar Wherever Summer Takes You If someone asks Vassar’s size, students will reflexively reply “2,400.” That number is more than an admissions statistic. The Vassar experience is defined by purposeful intimacy.

But the truth is, Vassar is far larger than 2,400. Over 40,000 alumni live in all 50 states and scores of countries around the world. They’re leaders in every industry and community you can imagine.

Leaving Poughkeepsie this summer feels like jumping into a great unknown. You may be moving to an unfamiliar city, nervous that you’ll have no friends, or uncertain about your first professional step.

Fear not. Your Vassar family is waiting wherever you land. Since the 1870s, Vassar alumni have formed clubs around the world. These clubs exist nearly everywhere – New York, Boston, DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago, to name just a handful. You can find all the locations (and names of the leaders) at https://alums.vassar.edu/community/club/.

What do these clubs do? Clubs host a wide range of innovative programs throughout the year. For example, alumni in New York recently organized an enormous masquerade ball. Alumni in San Francisco recently organized wine tastings in a beautiful Sonoma vineyard. Alumni in DC recently organized a visit to a performance at the Washington National Opera. Beyond these social activities, clubs also host career discussions with alumni leaders in various industries, providing valuable professional development opportunities.

In short, clubs are like regional VSAs, helping you find community, meet new friends, and grow your career.

This summer, contact the leaders of the club wherever you are. Send them an e-mail. Follow the club’s Facebook page. Ask the club’s president what events they have scheduled, and if they have time for coffee.

If you’re 2021, 2020 or 2019, you might be interning in a new city. This is a perfect opportunity to begin making connections. Virtually all club events are open to current students, and alumni are beyond thrilled when you attend.

If you’re 2018… I feel for you. You’ve been riding an emotional roller coaster these past few months. You’ve felt just about every feeling a human can feel, from a deep sense of belonging to an unmitigated sense of loss. This summer, if your class is anything like mine, you’ll experience another emotion: a nagging, quiet sense of loneliness. Clubs will provide you with an automatic Vassar family – bar nights, lectures, and networking opportunities – all designed to help you make new friends and launch impactful careers.

Here’s the magic of Vassar. As you read these words, there are 40,000 people around the world who love you without ever having met you. They love you regardless of major and regardless of GPA. They love you regardless of whether your dream job is known or unknown. They love you regardless of who you were before Vassar. They love you unconditionally.

Right now, there are 40,000 people anxiously waiting for you to e-mail them with the subject line “Vassar – Time for Coffee?” We’re thrilled to welcome you into the longest chapter of your Vassar life.

Brian Farkas ’10 sits on the Board of Directors of the Alumnae/i Association and is Chair of the Clubs Committee. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the 142nd Volume of The Miscellany News.

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Congratulations Ernie!!!

You did it!

We are so very proud of you.

Love you!

Congratulations Ashley Carey!

I am so excited about your future!

Love, your biggest fan, Mom

Dad, Mom & Bethany ADVERTISEMENT

Congratulations Pietro on graduating from Vassar! We are so proud of you!

From your loving family MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

Page 12

SENIOR ADS

May 27, 2018

Yesenia R. Perez

The Leslie A. Koempel Outstanding Thesis Award 2018 Bachelor of Arts in Educational Studies and Sociology

You have made us extremely proud Keep following your passion WE LOVE YOU!

“Dreams and reality are opposites. Action synthesizes them.”

—Assata Shakur

May 27, 2018

COMMENCEMENT

Page 13

World Café exemplifies spirit of Engaged Pluralism WORLD CAFE continued from page 1 than as challenges to be overcome. This means reconsidering how we listen, learn, and provide proactive support for our community—especially for those members who are most vulnerable or who come from historically underserved groups.”

One concrete manifestation of these intentions could be seen in the form of the EPI World Café on Thursday, May 10, in the Villard Room, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

The World Café consisted of presentations from students and employees alike, each speaking to improvements and enrichments to be made on Vassar’s campus. Considering the broader goals of EPI and the World Café, President Elizabeth Bradley explained, “The larger mission of EPI is really to bring about culture change in which people at Vassar feel like they belong no matter what their views are, no matter what identity they have, no matter what their course of study is, that they feel as if this is a place for them.”

The event was carefully tailored to encourage engagement across all facets of the community.

As Bradley remarked, “The rooms, all three times, have been set up in a purposeful way...round tables that really are meant to be faculty, staff, administrators, students, together at a table, meeting new people, pitching a new idea, thinking about a topic and learning each other’s perspectives, so it’s almost like those cafes allow engaged pluralism to grow just by that event.”

Speaking to the place of the recent World Café in the context of EPI as a whole, Dean of the Faculty Jonathan Chenette noted, “There was a sense that at the end of the year we really needed to show what the working groups have been working on to the campus, but perhaps more important, set the stage for the next phase of the Engaged Pluralism Initiative, inviting in new people, but also moving from working groups to projects generated by the working groups[.]”

The World Café—the third of its kind—was conceived by Engaged Pluralism Initiative CoChair and Associate Professor of Anthropology Candice Lowe Swift. Fellow Co-Chair and Director of the ALANA Center Wendy Maragh Taylor explained via email, “We had both decided that it was important to have ‘community shares,’ whereby other members of the Vassar community would get information at key points in the semester about what was happening in the seven EPI working groups and also have a chance to give input. This was based on our mutual agreement that the work of engaged pluralism - the concept and the initiative - must be an inclusive process with as many Vassar community members as possible contributing to it.” Maragh Taylor added that she and Lowe Swift worked with Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and American Studies Lisa Brawley prior to the first Café in order to refine the idea and best include students, staff, administrators and faculty across the college.

Speaking to the diversity that the World Cafés work to represent, Lowe Swift noted via email, “The vision for Engaged Pluralism was grassroots, in the sense that it was developed from many conversations with students, faculty, and administrators, but especially grounded in the perspectives of, and needs articulated by, students. We never want to lose that spirit. At the same time, after the initiative launched, we, as participants and leadership, realized that one of the best parts of EPI is its inclusiveness not solely of students, but also of administrators, faculty, and staff.”

During the spring 2018 semester, Lowe Swift and Maragh Taylor team-taught Anthropology 260: Community Engaged Research, which culminated in students presenting at the World Café.

Maragh Taylor enthused, “Those students did a lot of work researching, interviewing and coming up with recommendations in four areas, as devised by them in teams: Play, Leisure & Spaces of Release: Night Life; Campus Life & Diversity; Sexual Violence Resources; Ceremonies & Rituals in the President’s House. I thought those presentations were phenomenal.”

One such project to emerge from the class, created by Darci Siegel ’20, Misha Awad ’18 and Noah Pliss ’20, focused on Campus Life and Diversity at Vassar. Siegel, who works with Campus Life and Diversity as a Women’s Center Intern, explained that she and her fellow group members combed through annual reports by Associate Dean of the College Ed Pittman and observed developments and changes in Campus Life and Diversity over the years, focusing on which methods have produced the most successful programming in the past. One aspect that the group considered was the spaces in which offices have existed and where they might be best located in future. Siegel reflected, “I’m a woman, but I’m also a person of color, so do I hang out in the ALANA Center, or in the Women’s Center, which are two different places on campus … So really thinking about locations, and creating spaces where people feel most included, supported and most comfortable.” The project included three proposals, the first being a Campus Life and Diversity intern consortium, which would meet monthly and discuss programming and relevant topics. Siegel elaborated, “Ideally, every month, a different office would orchestrate the meeting and bring forward a topic that was important to their community. Then, over the span of a month, all the interns would work together to create a conversation dinner. At the end of the semester, the conversation dinners that were most successful would carry forward into the spring in other types of programming.”

The group also proposed the creation of two new centers that would fall under the Campus Life and Diversity umbrella. First, Ability Resources and Cultures (ARC) would serve as a center for students with disabilities or non-neurotypical students. Pliss noted, “We are hoping that, if it gets passed, it will help destigmatize ideas around disability, because it is not framing disability as something that needs resources, but something that has its own cultures and needs to be heard.”

On the topic of the second center, the Community of Regionalized Margins (CRM), Pliss explained: “[I]t would be a center for students who aren’t from coastal areas or big urban places, to come together and share space, and do their own type of programming that is accessible to them.”

In addition to their proposals, the group administered a survey to the campus community, intending both to gather data on how students who identify with different groups interact with Campus Life and Diversity and to inform participants about the project. Siegel commented, “We were pleasantly surprised by the mix of people that took the time to respond. We recognize that we need community collaboration to make CLD the best it can be, so seeing various campus members take the time to complete the survey and give us their point of view was a great feeling.”

Tackling an issue relevant to colleges and universities nationwide, Bryan Fotino ’20, Joshua Austin ’19 and Rachel Cheng ’21 completed their project on sexual violence resources. Austin said, “EPI is focusing on all of these different aspects of living or experiencing college, and there is an important part here, and that is sex—sex culture, and how people respond to sexual violence, the things that they can do to protect themselves, the things that the College can do to protect them, and also the resources available to them once sexual assault has been committed.” The group discussed Title IX, Sexual Assault and Violence Prevention (SAVP) and ancillary resources such as Baldwin and Metcalf, and posited changes with regard to students, faculty and the institution. Austin noted that that one key initiative involved including restorative justice as a practice at the College.

Fotino added, “[W]e also did some research... online looking at scholarly journals, and we also used the survey results that were recently released,” referring to the 2017 Survey of Social Behaviors and Student Experiences, the results of which were shared on March 1 (The Miscellany News, “Survey: Sexual assault rate down, but distrust in Title IX remains high,” 05.02.2018).

Along with classmates Frank Najarro ’18 and Gabriel Burns ’21, Thao Williams ’20 explored ceremony and ritual through a comprehensive study of the President’s House. Williams recalled in an emailed statement, “President Bradley had recently started holding more events at her home so we decided to look into the events there. Frank, Gabi, and I had all recognized some sort of hesitancy in ourselves in regards to attending events so we were inclined to see why people felt that way and how the house itself perpetuates those feelings.”

Speaking to the results of her group’s research, she explained, “Students were really unsure about what the President’s House did for them and often conflated the idea of President Bradley with the house itself. The large majority of students we interviewed said they did not feel comfortable at the house because it represented wealth and opulence which they could not identify with.”

Chenette pointed to the presentation as an example of students’ desire to build a stronger and more affirming campus and noted how it aligned with Bradley’s intentions, stating, “The current president desires to make her house a resource for the entire campus community, not just her home.”

The World Café also welcomed presentations from students who were not enrolled in Community Engaged Research, plus employees. Lowe Swift noted, “These presentations were exciting because they gave EPI an opportunity to expand the universe of ideas and practices around how inclusion and community-building efforts might be extended and given greater depth on our campus, and they were pitched mostly by people who had not been actively involved in EPI.” One such idea was “MATTChat” from Antonella DeCicci ’20, who expressed in an emailed statement, “This project is loosely based on the TEDTalk model (hence the name) in that it would be a series of presentations by Vassar students, faculty, and administration to share aspects of their academic and personal work that is relevant to a key topic or question relating to belonging and inclusion.” She expects that the short-term impact of the project would be creating a space for open dialogue for disparate groups on community, inclusion and belonging. She added, “The expected long-term impact of this work is to normalize new modes of communication about inclusion and exclusion, to establish a space for sharing of ideas which may not fit into conventional boxes for talks or performances, to strengthen connection and understanding between admin/faculty/ employees/students, and to stimulate more reflection on how Vassar functions socially.”

While projects enjoyed warm receptions at the World Café itself, student perceptions of the effects of their work going forward ranged from positive to cautious. Speaking on difficulties inherent in his group’s proposal, Austin noted, “I did have quite a few administrators and students asking questions, coming by to further elaborate on how we can work to integrate more of these ideas...the College also admitted that many of these are liability issues, or many of the problems with implementation would come from liability issues, so I spent a lot of time discussing the legality of things and ways to work around those.”

Fotino pointed to the turnout at the World Café as a barrier to producing institutional change: “I haven’t seen any signs that there are going to be any actual changes in college policies, or even in the way the culture surrounding these things at Vassar college functions...there are over 2,000 students and 4,000 staff on this campus, and are the ideas we are presenting really reaching everyone?” Speaking on how to increase engagement in the future, Fotino added, “I think it would great if people could get involved with EPI from all sectors of campus life...because a lot of times Vassar students tend to talk very politically, but they don’t actually take the next step and get involved.”

Indeed, while the World Café was attended by community members from senior administration to students to staff, participants noted their hopes for larger attendance going forward. DeCicci re-

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

marked, “I enjoyed the [World Café] as a space for sharing ideas across groups on campus who wouldn’t otherwise interact, but would have liked to see more people (specifically students) in attendance.”

Reflecting on EPI’s progress and looking toward the future, Maragh Taylor said, “It has been critical to have people give input, generate possibilities and ask how they can get involved - people asking about and/or signing up to be involved ... I see that as some success. Yet, I’m very aware that there are still some who are not involved. And so, I am interested in future events that can draw in those members of the community. We need those experiences and perspectives too.”

Pliss noted that while, for some students, their engagement with EPI was a for-credit endeavor, other community members take on the project for its own sake despite their other manifold responsibilities. Pliss commented, “I hope it can be something fluid that people can move in and out of, and don’t feel like they have to be a part of every year.”

Lowe Swift pointed to EPI’s local to global focus—suggested by the name of the World Café events—as a core tenet. Referring to a group that presented on May 10, she said that the global campus held its first workshop on May 18. The event was organized by 2017–2018 VSA President Anish Kanoria ’18, Chair of Political Science Himadeep Muppidi and herself, conducted by Brawley and attended by about 40 students, faculty and administrators. Lowe Swift described, “The collective brilliance that was expressed in the room around the topic of globality was awe-inspiring.”

Moreover, EPI’s participants espouse depth and breadth not only in the geographical sense but also in the historical. Bradley recalled, “[E]very presentation had history. So it wasn’t just as if people said, ‘Oh, here’s a problem and here’s the solution,’ but actually, ‘What were the root causes that brought us to the place we are and therefore, what could we think about going forward.’”

Speaking to EPI’s focus on positive evolution, Chenette noted, “It’s not about transforming people to conform to the Vassar that’s been here for 150 years; it’s the opposite. It’s how can we make Vassar the right institution for the members of our community today.” For Chenette, this effort must include active community engagement not only within the confines of Vassar but also with the greater Poughkeepsie community. He clarified, “[T]hat doesn’t mean imposing our will, but rather thinking carefully and working closely, collaborating and ultimately building our capacity to be better citizens wherever we end up living.”

While EPI is a new project and substantive results are yet to come, administrators and students are optimistic about the future. Austin affirmed, “I think that doing a lot of long-term digging into various aspects of a college, or just any institution, will provide significant benefits for learning about how to solve its problems ... I was really happy to see that this is a project that will build upon my research from this semester, and will be given to somebody else to continue for the next...I hope that this will result in some major change.”

Lowe Swift emphasized her intention to continue organizing World Café events in the future, pointing out that each event attracts more community members to join the initiative.

Summing up the core of EPI’s mission, Maragh Taylor said, “Ultimately, this is about thoughtfully engaging with others to foster an environment where all members of the Vassar community, especially those who have been historically underrepresented...will know they are valued members of the institution.” Speaking to EPI’s unique possibilities, she added, “What a great opportunity we have to experiment in this Vassar lab of ours - to do something that changes this campus and the individuals who live, learn and work here.”

More information on the Engaged Pluralism Initiative, including a full list of working groups, details on chairs and coordinators and instructions on how to get involved can be found at https://engagedpluralism.vassar.edu.

Page 14

SENIOR RETROSPECTIVES Hannah Nice

“H

ey, don’t I follow you on Instagram?” In 2014, on a crisp fall day, I stopped a girl in my ART 105 section outside of the library. For a few months now—since finding each other on the early admitted students Facebook page—we had been sending likes each other’s way, despite never having exchanged a word.

She enthusiastically responded: “Yes! Your name is Hannah, right?”

I followed up in a similar manner, reluctant to display my cyber-stalking tendencies. “Yeah, you’re Kelly, no?” From there, we exchanged numbers and made plans to study the ART 105 monuments list. What started as meeting up to decipher a Van Dyck from a Raphael advanced to sitting in the Retreat and splitting a peanut-butter-chip Nilda cookie together. Quickly, I realized that the people I had met—and was going to meet—at Vassar were special.

“Classes can be tough and everyone here is incredibly talented— which fosters a richer, yet simultaneously a more challenging-tonavigate environment.”

And that’s what has made my time here so remarkable: the relationships I’ve formed with professors, friends, coaches, and additional mentors on this campus. The Vassar community has both nurtured and pushed me to do better—to be a better friend, an increasingly engaged student, and a stronger athlete on and off the court. While those who know me would say

Josh Schwartz

that I am an incredibly hard worker, I wouldn’t be half the person I am today—four years after matriculating—if it weren’t for the amazing support systems I’ve found at the College.

“Sometimes I wonder how my experience here would have been shaped differently, if I had carried the courage I held my freshman fall into my later years.”

From the moment I stepped foot on this campus, I felt the warmth of this community. As a prospective student, my host placed a blanket on me after watching me shiver in my sleep, the night that I stayed on a yoga mat in her closet-sized double in Jewett. But, at the same time, my experience here has not been all bright. Vassar is hard, no matter where you’re from. Classes can be tough and everyone here is incredibly talented—which fosters a richer, yet simultaneously a more challenging-to-navigate environment.

Sometimes I wonder how my experience here would have been shaped differently, if I had carried the courage I held my freshman fall into my later years. What if I had approached more people in the Deece, after class, or in Main and asked them if they wanted to meet up?

Though, at the same time, I am incredibly proud to be walking out of Vassar with the friends and mentors I know. And while I may be leaving Vassar now, I’m without a doubt carrying many of the meaningful parts of my college experience onwards.

I

didn’t realize how much of my identity was tethered to studenthood until I was forced to face a future without school. Throughout my (nearly) twenty-two years, the thing that I spent the most time doing, on which I expended the most energy, and on which I lost the most sleep, was being a student. My intellectual, social, and extracurricular lives have almost exclusively been tied to my academic life, and as I look towards the future, I think less about where I’ll eventually end up and instead wonder what my day-to-day will look like without school. I loved being a student.

I think like most people at Vassar, I am here because I love to learn. But Vassar isn’t the only place that has fostered my learning, and so, as an ode to the end of my life as a student and in thanks to all of the institutions that have helped me along the way, I’d like to recount some of the oddities of my education and to try and capture some of the reasons that I’ll miss it so damn much.

My education has been unusual for a couple of reasons. From kindergarten through eighth grade, I attended a very small, very bizarre Jewish day school called Krieger Schechter Day School. I am not exaggerating when I say that a solid 40% of the curriculum involved making skits. Another 20% was writing and performing songs in front of class, and the last 40% was devoted to Judaics. Those skits and songs helped mold my sense of humor, but also Schechter was the first place where I learned that by and large, teachers are knowledgeable and caring but also always utterly absurd. Schechter taught me how ridiculous adults are and that silliness is not exclusive to childhood.

I attended the Park School of Baltimore for high school, an independent, non-sectarian, private school that followed John Dewey’s model

Zander Bashaw S

itting down to write this Senior Retrospective pressed for time and without a concrete idea of where the piece is going, I find myself viscerally reminded of my time working for The Miscellany News. I can practically smell “the pee couch” in the production office. I remember the nerves of waiting my turn during Paper Critique to say my name and editorial position. I can pinpoint the sensation of leaving the Misc office at 4 in the morning on production night in an exhilarated, exhausted blur of caffeination and circadian dysregulation. These initial memories seem to reference abject degeneracy, and if you pair that with the fact that I did not finish out my collegiate career as a member of editorial board or even a regular writer, one might think that I had a poor experience working for this newspaper.

Why would I want to take on a 600-word piece due during Senior Week if I only could recall the turmoil and toil of my role with this newspaper?

The answer is that I feel a great fondness for the Misc and the editors and writers I worked with my sophomore and junior year.

Like almost everything I did at Vassar, I decided to start writing for the humor section my on a whim. Over winter break my first year, I had typed up a listicle discussing my top ten least favorite songs and exactly why tunes like Hey Soul Sister were so horrible. The intended audience or value of this piece was unclear, but the patient Humor Editor at the time was willing to calmly reject the piece while still suggesting that I could submit more articles in the future.

Though my inherent comedic talent remained low, my desire to write articles of this type increased, and I was able to secure the Humor Editor position for sophomore year despite the many qualifications of the other zero applicants.

During my year-long tenure running the section, my greatest accomplishments were finding and

May 27, 2018

recruiting other contributors. I left the position having trained a far funnier successor and having edited, and more rarely, written amusing page fillers. Having proven myself willing to sacrifice any semblance of a sleep schedule, I joined Executive Board as a Senior Editor my junior fall. To put it bluntly, this position was a tad above my capacity and effort level. Still, I had fun seeing an the production cycle from a leadership position.

My contributions to the paper dropped off precipitously when I went abroad. I did blog, partially out of guilt and also partially to keep at bay relentless relatives daring enough to show an interest in my life. However, I knew then that I had no intention of returning to the paper my senior year. There was no spite in my decision, I just was certain that my editing career was over. After all, it doesn’t exactly match my actual career path: I still get a kick of seeing “Humor Editor” on a CV dedicated to selling myself as a neuroscientist.

Even though I haven’t picked up a copy of the newspaper as often as I should have this year, even if my stint on editorial board seems like a misguided attempt to seek validation or find a community here, I am satisfied with the way this newspaper fit into my college experience.

Through the mistakes I made, grammatically and interpersonally, I was able to come to terms with how my skills and limitations fit in with a production team who toil behind the scenes to make stacks of papers that fill various receptacles on this campus. I had the great fortune of seeing the production side of the paper you are holding right now, and I can’t relay enough the level dedication and competence of the students who have edited and formatted my prose into a senior retrospective of what The Misc meant to me.

of progressive education. At Park I learned the importance of pursuing my own academic interests and that they are always worth my time and energy. Park was the first place where I felt like teachers were passionate about the work that I was producing, not because they were required to give me a grade, but because they found it interesting and engaging. They continued to pursue conversations about my work outside of the classroom. At Park, I could text my teachers late at night and know they’d happily reply.

And then I came to Vassar. I’ve typed this retrospective in my TH, the Bayit, and the art library, three places that are symbolic of the three lives that I lived at Vassar: The THs, where my social life was centered, where I lived with my friends, read in the mornings, and hung out at night. The Bayit, where my extracurricular and religious lives have been, where I’ve prayed weekly and helped build a Jewish community for myself and others. And the art library, where I’ve lived my academic life, where I’ve spent hours studying paintings in classrooms and hours at work walking through the Loeb.

I guess that what Vassar has given me can’t be pared down to a pithy sentiment because it’s much more complicated than that. These three lives were not disparate, but they were multifaceted, connected like an intricately woven web.

They each taught me cumulative and overlapping lessons, lessons that I can’t fully wrap my head around just yet. Although I know that for the first time next year I will not be a student, I also know that I am not leaving Vassar behind; these lessons will carry me forward. So as we go into the great unknown, I hope that you will also carry something from Vassar with you, some lesson that you can take onward so that Vassar will always be with you no matter how far away from Vassar you may be.

Clark Xu V

assar is a happy place for squirrels. The campus is designed for pedestrians, not cars. There are a lot of trees. And free trash. But not everybody would say that Vassar is a happy place for students.

If I took a New England squirrel and parachuted it into the Gobi Desert from a passing freight plane, the squirrel would not find the Gobi a happy place either. There were eight of us in my first-year fellow group. I came from Maryland. My roommate was from Arizona.

Two of the others were international students from China. One of them transferred to college in Germany because financial aid was not as good for international students and she had to go to a less expensive school. Some people don’t make it. On graduation day, she will be one of the forgotten members of the Class of 2018.

The fellow group meeting was difficult. We had an identity wheel that asked us to reflect as a group on our ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class and several other categories. My student fellow was a relaxed sophomore from Brooklyn who was known by his friends for breezing past in sports shorts and basketball pumps. But even he found it awkward.

He started by saying that he was a black male from a not-so-wealthy family. Somebody in my fellow group raised her hand and asked if we had to share. He said the identity wheel was voluntary and we lapsed into silence. Then I put down my identity wheel and said that my primary identity is to be an older brother. My student fellow said that he hadn’t thought that could be an identity, and a few of us laughed.

Those of us who had siblings started talking about our brothers and sisters. The single children described their best friends.

When I became a student fellow, I knew that I was committing to the care of eight first-year

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

students with very little institutional support.

For me, privilege meant that I could spend the student fellow stipend, the student fellow activities allowance, and part of my work-study earnings on buying birthday cakes for my fellowees without worrying about the price of my textbooks.

But who questions the privilege of institutions? Institutions care first about the survival of institutions. Vassar will survive on the interest income of its endowment. The individual is secondary. A food service worker in on-campus dining will be carried away in an ambulance from overwork before Vassar takes on a remote risk of financial insolvency. We assume this is how things should be.

I am enough of a Platonist to believe that Vassar’s mission would still exist without Vassar. I do not choose to ignore that attending Vassar calls on the individual to give more to the institution than the institution can ever give to the individual. This is just as true for the faculty who dedicate all of themselves to teaching, for the administrators who work continuously to make the campus function, as it is for the student who attends Vassar. Effective change comes with seeing that Vassar is not only bigger than any one individual or group that is easy to villainize, but also the malleable shadow of the liberal arts ideal that it represents.

It has been many decades since one could say without irony that college is this side of paradise. Vassar has been a place where I have met close friends, fallen in love, and developed my intellectual curiosity. If I am honest with myself, these things did not happen because of Vassar, but from paying attention to life for four years.

The things that happen at Vassar are the outgrowth of the people who live here. And it is the people who give a place its life, a life its place.

May 27, 2018

SENIOR RETROSPECTIVES

Page 15

Matt Stein S

ince this is my senior retrospective and will be handed out during commencement, I should make a few things clear to my family first.

1. I’m bi. It’s not technically gay, so whenever you asked, I could categorically deny it. Sorry.

2. I was a member of Vassar’s Burlesque group this year and performed ‘Wonderwall’ on ukulele naked to 1/8 of the campus. No, I don’t plan on becoming a stripper.

Please don’t ask any follow-up questions after the ceremony. They don’t define me but I thought you should know. Thank you.

Now back to the retrospective. Other editors always appreciated my ledes to my articles so hopefully this will take a similar format.

My time with the Misc has been very representative of my time at Vassar: taking risks, learning from failures, dealing with stress late into the night and relating an experience with the waffle machine to “Moby Dick.”

I joined the paper on a whim my sophomore year after a difficult and particularly isolating first year that mainly consisted of me reading books in the library and disliking myself. Things hopefully have changed. I won’t forget how late

production nights could go or (for the most part) completing all of the crosswords. The Misc and I have had our issues in the past. Since sophomore year, I’ve had my resignation letter drafted in an email just in case. There have been high moments too, like the time I was cross-faded and hid from Security behind a door at one of the parties or when Features almost didn’t make it through another week and I had to write three articles so we’d have a full section. As for now, it feels like we’re ending on good terms.

Over the last three years, I’ve had the pleasure of taking on several roles within the Misc’s editorial board and, just like my experience at Vassar, it makes sense to end now. For every rose-colored memory nostalgia heightens as I look back at these last four years, there are also moments of pain and loneliness, when this was the last place I wanted to be or that I didn’t matter.

I’ve been writing this retrospective in between wishing all of my non-senior friends off.

It’s painful. It hurts to say goodbye to friends who I trust and have made me become a better person. They’ve helped define this place for me and now I say goodbye without knowing the next

time we’ll meet. We will and I look forward to it.

I am grateful for my time at the Misc and my time at Vassar. Roughly 85 articles later, I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to interview so many people and serve the paper and the student theater community. It’s such a rewarding feeling to preview a show and promote the great art that exists on this campus and meet the great artists that make it.

The road ahead is scary. Where I’ll be in a week is as uncertain as where I’ll be in a year.

But there’s something about taking chances and throwing oneself into this dark scary void we call the real world that makes me feel ready. You can’t achieve greatness if you’re not willing to fail. Don’t worry though. There’s a million things I haven’t done, but just you wait.

Knowing that I’m graduating and that my time at Vassar is slim, it makes sense that there are regrets. There are people I wish I had become friends with. There are so many chances I failed to take. Even though I regret them, I hope I learn.

As much as the focus of college is around academia, there’s so much outside of the textbook that I’ve learned. It’s okay to ask for help and feel

Frank Najarro Izquierdo I

t’s raining outside. I’m sitting in the new Deece watching people go by, getting eggs, bowls of fruit, and giving each other goodbye hugs; the summer looms, hidden behind the rain.

Vassar is a paradox. It’s made me feel bigger than ever before, but smaller. Smarter than I ever thought possible, but also made me realize how little I actually know. It’s made me feel full, full of so many things, but I also feel empty. Hungry. Like all I got was a taste. Time carries on at the rate molasses flows when you’re in the thick of it. And those sunny days in the quad, in the lawn outside SoCo 8, in the bench facing the lake, looking up at a full moon, go by like blinks of my memory. Now I feel I’ve blinked and Vassar has passed me by.

“The ALANA Center finally gave me the space to express my frustrations but also to heal and to do good work for myself and for the community of POCs here at Vassar.”

Have I done everything I wanted to do? I don’t know. Have I done everything I knew I would do.

Yes. I went to Australia to study abroad for a year.

I got honors from the Anthropology Department.

I successfully passed my classes and I’m leaving here with more knowledge than I ever thought possible. I made lifelong friends and was guided by passionate, wise, and intelligent people who care for me. But I also cried. My heart was broken, my muscles ache from sitting down at my laptop for too long, my eyes burned, my knees scraped a few times, I almost died in a waterfall, and I became leech food for a good 25 minutes. But even if I didn’t see it coming, even these parts were fun.

How do I know I was going to cry? Well, I wrote myself a little note at the beginning of my time here, when I took part in what became one of the most critical parts of my time at Vassar, Transitions. It’s where I met some of my lifelongs friends and mentors, and I wouldn’t be on this side of my Vassar experience if it wasn’t for the help and guidance that Transitions offered me. It was Transitions who led me to the other major part of my non-academic life here at Vassar- the ALANA Center.

I was lucky enough to be an ALANA Center Intern for the three years which I was physical-

ly at Vassar, and it made my life here at Vassar so much better and richer. Conversations such as the one I had in the center never happened back home. Race wasn’t something that was ever really engaged with in South Dakota since when I was going to school there, it was a very large majority of the students who were white and middle to high income. The ALANA Center finally gave me the space to express my frustrations but also to heal and to do good work for myself and for the community of POCs here at Vassar. Although it was the hardest thing I ever did for the center, to this day, making ALANA Fest Spring 2016 was my favorite thing I did for the center, and I will remember the stress and anxiety which I had during the planning process, but also the smile of the people who came and had a great time, enjoying themselves, the food, and being so happy to have a place to celebrate. Eventually, the ALANA Center led me to the second thing which made my non-academic life here so meaningful, being a part of EPI..

“I’m very nervous to receive my diploma, as I will be the first in my family ever to do so.

A culmination of the sacrifice which multiple generations of my family have made.”

EPI was difficult. It was the most time I’ve ever dedicated to doing good work for this school.

And though I leave the school after only its first year, I know there are so many more great things coming. Sitting in 3-hour-long meetings, and even our marathon meeting where we reviewed every question that went into the survey was fun, once it was over. But that’s what it takes to do this work, and I’m glad I gave my time to EPI during my senior year.

And that brings this to an end, and Vassar to and end for me. I’m very nervous to receive my diploma, as I will be the first in my family ever to do so. A culmination of the sacrifice which multiple generations of my family have made. A combination of the guidance and support of my friends, professors, and mentors throughout my time here.

And I am so thankful.

It’s still raining outside, and though some would find it sad, I know that god is in the rain.

vulnerable. Don’t bring the drama just because there isn’t any. Listen, really listen, if someone’s willing to trust you. Nobody makes great art on their own. Good friendships are mutual. Some of the best opportunities are unplanned, so be open. Know when to say ‘sorry’ less and ‘thank you’ more.

On that note, I will conclude my rambling retrospective with a thank you to all I’ve met and had the pleasure of encountering. Thank you to the professors that encouraged me to pursue my goals instead of passively allowing them to pass by. Thank you to everyone who has willingly put up with me. This last year has been difficult to write for the Misc and I know it. Sorry for the trouble I’ve caused and I hope you will forgive me.

And to others on campus, whether you are reading this online afterwards or after graduation, I’m sorry if I hurt you. I don’t know why I have this profound sense of guilt, but I do.

And this seems like the best space to say it. And thank you to those that listen. It’s a good quality to have and something I wish I did more. Hopefully I will.

Kïarã Bhagwanjee M

ichelle Obama made a timely appearance on my Instagram feed today announcing the release of her biography, Becoming. In her caption she wrote, “…think about your own story and trust that it will help you become whoever you aspire to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Past

My story begins in my first home, South Africa—between Durban (hot and humid, home to my grandparents, my cousins, wicked humor, and quippy retorts), Johannesburg (where highveld stereo woke me up on the way to school) and Cape Town (home to more cousins, my older brother, Sajeel, and soon enough my niece, Sofia). My parents are doctors, and Sajeel still moonwalks to Billie Jean. I’m a talkaholic, I believe I am a lion, and I am eagerly awaiting the future’s arrival—the future where I am older, wiser, and legally allowed to drive.

We moved to Seattle in 2009 where I lived out my formative years. Sajeel is studying law now, which upholds the trend of professional pursuits in our family. Mom’s getting her Master’s in Public Health, I’ve got my driver’s license and a few bones to pick with the U.S. government.

Soon I’ll be in college, and I’ll be studying political science in Washington, D.C. I’ll discover that turning away from what you love to do, doesn’t serve you well, and I’ll arrive here, Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. I transferred to Vassar in my junior year, eager to study and master the craft I’ve loved for as long as I can remember: film. I have been fortunate to have an immense network of friends, family, faculty and staff to embark on this journey with me.

yet another place to call home.

To my peers, my professors, and the staff in the Film Department, who empowered me, and equipped me with the capacity to articulate a vision and actualize it, who gave me the opportunity to collaborate creatively and crystalize my voice as a storyteller; for sharing your infectious passion.

To my peers and my professors in the Economics department, thank you for your patience, your understanding, for enabling me to reckon with my own irrationality, and for illuminating a subject matter that lies so critically at the heart of the social issues we may endeavor to resolve.

To the staff whom I’ve had the privilege of meeting every day at the Deece, in the Retreat, and in the hallways of Cushing, for greeting me and grounding me in a reality beyond the everyday stresses of a student, for reminding me what all of this is really about. This education endows us not with entitlement, rather a profound responsibility.

To my fellow transfer, visiting and exchange students, my day ones, who traversed the mechanisms of this institution with me, who encouraged me through my first year here, who set the vivacious tone for the year that followed.

To my parents, for instilling in me your curiosity, for imploring me to think bigger, dream bigger, for always believing in me, for teaching me to feel at home in the world, and to stay grounded in the face of uncertainty, for being exemplary figures, poised, and compassionate.

To Vassar, for keeping my mind open, for providing me with the latitude to explore my passion, the resources to satiate my intellectual curiosities, the fortitude to conquer self-doubt and a degree in economics.

Present

Thank you

To each of the people who have accompanied me along my way, I am grateful for your time and your energy.

To the Vassar Business Club, for energizing my senior year with spirit and determination, for showing me how to harness ambition and for illuminating my strengths and helping me refine them.

To my co-captains of Vassar Khalj, my fellow captain of the mixed team, Sofía, thank you for your resilience, for your eagerness to enact change against the indelible fixtures of establishments and tradition, for welcoming me to this team with open arms, and for making Vassar

MISCELLANY NEWS | VASSAR COLLEGE

I’ve had the privilege of calling one more place home. I’m graduating with a degree in Economics and Film. More importantly, I’m graduating with the capacity to lead effectively, as a friend to tomorrow’s changemakers, entrepreneurs and visionaries. I’m graduating with critical, independent thought at my side, into a world of possibility.

Future

I’ll move on to the next thing. I’ll be in touch with all of you. I’ll remember what you’ve taught me about myself and about living, and I’ll continue to learn more. I’ll continue to create, I’ll innovate, I’ll fail, and I’ll try again.

Page 16

COMMENCEMENT

May 27, 2018

Rhys Johnson U

nlike some of my more gifted friends, I have never been blessed with a particularly vivid memory. During conversations with fellow seniors about our time here, I have found myself painting my recollections of Vassar in broad, impressionistic strokes while they do so with photographic ease. Friends and peers of mine, with several of whom I will forever share these pages, seem ever equipped with an arsenal of memories and anecdotes that define the lives they made here, and I have no doubt that it will serve them well in the future. If my experience as a History major has taught me anything, it is that there is no substitute for direct example.

Unfortunately, while I shall do my best to color inside the lines, I can make no such promises; the old adage about people eventually forgetting the particulars but remembering their feelings is my only defense. On the other hand, I feel that in this regard I have, for once, showed up early to the party. A broader sense of my life at Vassar—indeed, an impression—seems all but formed for myself now, here at its end. It is by no means an impartial account, but it is mine.

Though I’ve never been particularly welcoming to change, I find that my undergraduate career has been one largely defined by it. Perhaps most noticeably, I came to Vassar from a fairly privileged background, and my past ignorance of the many of the social and political ills I hope to spend my career fighting to remedy becomes clearer every day. Who I was as a student of the Hun School of Princeton feels all the more known to me now, having been a student of Vassar College and, more importantly, having been a member of its intellectual community. Vassar is a place that, for better or worse, has challenged my latent assumptions of the world, and I know that I will leave a far more conscious, empathetic and principled person than I came.

To this end, I think it worth iterating the political beliefs I carry with me beyond Vassar—to

stand in solidarity with those who share my opinions but also to set in stone those which have come to define how I interact with the world around me: I stand for equality of opportunity and the need for the expansion of the social safety net, not its dismantlement; I stand for a universal Medicarefor-All system, for health care is and must be recognized as a right, not a commodity; I stand for a federal minimum wage that is a living wage tied to inflation; I believe in the fight against racism and stand against all forms of bigotry and identity-based violence; I stand firmly against the evil of money in politics, that corrupting issue which plagues all other issues; I condemn the imperialist actions of both parties in power, and urge our representatives in government to cease engaging in unnecessary and unethical military aggression around the world. I believe in social democratic ideals, and my arrival at this stage in my political life is part of a larger process of personal growth that I know will take up roots elsewhere once I have graduated.

In my personality, in how I conduct myself and in how I approach the social relationships that have also come to define my identity here at Vassar, I owe most everything to a select few individuals, whose importance in these formative years of mine I shall here attempt to sketch. I owe Talya Phelps more than I can hope to express within a word limit, and her boundless strength, intelligence and sympathy have enriched my life in so many more ways than not. Much of the person I am now was formed with her counsel, and were it not for her enduring sense of empathetic concern and admirable ability to sniff out my true feelings on the challenges and opportunities I have faced in the last two years, the person in whose shoes I graduate today would be far different. Together, we have overcome every obstacle thrown at us.

The challenges we both will face next year and beyond will be manifold—I admit, I tremble slightly at the thought of a couple simultaneously enduring

1L AND a senior year that includes serving as Editor-in-Chief of the Misc and writing a thesis—but I know we will tackle them as we always have: both individually and as a truly redoubtable pair. Talya, just as an old Editor-in-Chief could ask for no better Design Editor than you, I can ask for no better partner now and in the times ahead than you—nor shall I. Another whom I met through the Misc deserves particular mention in my personal development at Vassar: Christopher Brown. Chris, as you and I recently discussed during one of our infrequent yet inevitable reunions, we spent hours together every night for the better part of a year. I could walk the path to your TH doorstep blindfolded—and, yes, on many occasions I might as well have done so— and in retracing this path for old times’ sake, I realized how much growing I did during and, more importantly, between those walks to and from your house. You have been the closest thing to a brother I have had, and we will always be family.

More broadly, to the multiple generations of Misc-ers with whom I have served from my time as a rather underwhelming but dedicated first-year Reporter to my tenure as Editor-in-Chief: I am forever indebted to you for the countless lessons our work together has taught me. From Marie, Chris, Palak, Noble, Josh, Zach, and, of course, my dear sister Bethan, I was given the chance to learn from the best; without them, nothing I did for this paper would have been possible. Likewise, the complete turnover I have witnessed in my four years at the Misc has brought into my life such incredible and talented individuals as Talya, Charlotte, Noah, Eilís, and Mack, among many others. As I prepare to leave this place, the spirits of our shared journalistic past and future crowd around me, and I feel at peace with them. Indeed, no matter what the gadflies say, the paper could not be in better hands.

Joshua Austin, my eternal roommate and fellow lover of long walks and longer talks: Your companionship through times thick and thin has been one

of the great and unusual joys of my college experience. You too, I am sure, could never be a stranger to me.

To the professorial mentors who have imparted wisdom and friendship upon me that no classroom can adequately teach—James Merrell, Eugenio Giusti, Michael Pisani, Kathryn Libin, Brian Mann and Nancy Bisaha—I can only hope that my career ahead produces such fruitful labors as those with which you have challenged me to grow as a student and as a person. Thank you all for these most crucial roles you have played in my development, and I intend not to disappoint.

And lastly, to my family near and far, whose passionate and critical engagement with the world around them is a continual source of inspiration and a force to be reckoned with: You have all supported me unwaveringly throughout this formative time—most particularly Bethan, whose love and guidance made the teething process of my first year at Vassar far more manageable—and I am endlessly grateful to each of you for it. While this moment in time signals the end of many things, it is also the beginning of many beautiful things that we will soon share. I look forward to seeing where life takes us during my legal studies, which I am sure will be its own process of transfiguration.

As promised, the landscape of my feelings toward Vassar is a rocky, terraneous one. It is a collection of friendships and stages of personal development, one with which I hope not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. As time goes on, the particulars of this terrain will shift; some memories will stay, others will go and more still may emerge. Like a palimpsest, and one whose early underwritings remain to be uncovered, I am yet early in my understanding of what I have done and been a part of here. As I pass through life, new journeys will color my perceptions, but I welcome these continued efforts to understand myself and the past. After all, while I will soon begin to learn the law, I will always be a student of history.

Nicholas Crooks I

t’s absolutely terrifying how quickly time flies.

It feels like just yesterday that I had arrived in my dad’s truck, lanyard around my neck, excited for my orientation and beginning of my college experience. I always thought that I would play collegiate basketball, but I decided to go to one rugby practice to see how I liked it. Before I knew it, I was traveling to Budapest and Barcelona to play against national teams. I remember going on the slip ’n slide at one of my first college barbecues; fast forward and I found myself preparing the burgers for the grill, while new recruits were slip ’n sliding outside. I’m getting old!

The other day, I was going through some photos and stumbled upon some pictures of myself from freshman year. The difference in appearance alone was earth-shattering; I was trying to rock a buzz cut, chubby red cheeks, and a feeble attempt at a goatee. However, appearance only scratches the surface of how much I have changed. The remarkable trait about pictures is that they remind you how you had felt when they were taken, memory stamps. Scrolling through these photos, I reminisced on what I was going through, what my goals were, and how my relationships have developed at several different points in time. Even just a year ago, I had the mentality of almost a completely different person.

It goes without saying that this contrast is highly attributed to the experiences and people that have defined by Vassar career. Plenty will be mentioned, but my time on the rugby team was by far the most influential, guided by the head coach Tony Brown and the assistant coach Mark Griffiths. Vassar isn’t exactly a school that attracts many athletes, and easily half of the recruits haven’t played a sport before in their lives. But with their enthusiasm, rigor, and creed humor, they

were happy to whip us into shape, bringing out the best of our abilities. Last fall season, our men’s team was afraid that we couldn’t field a team with our limited numbers; this fall we won the conference championship. Over the last three years, our women’s team has repeatedly taken first place in Beast of the East, the biggest rugby tournament in New England. They have competed nationally multiple times, earning 2 nd in the nation two years in a row.

Athletic achievements aside, our coaches and other staff are truly remarkable because they care deeply about each of us as individuals. When I tore my ACL and meniscus freshman year, Tony arrived at Main at 4:00 in the morning to drive me to the hospital for surgery. I also can’t express in words how grateful I am for Vassar’s athletic trainers, namely Susan Higgins, Ian Shultis, and Tabatha Santiago. Sports Medicine was like a second home, and with their help I managed to remain (mostly) in one piece. It’s also worth mentioning that my time spent with my teammates, on and off the field, have truly made my Vassar career worthwhile. I can’t tell you how many grass stains I have removed from being tackled at rugby parties. Although the physical manifestations on my clothes were mostly removed, the memories will stick around forever, and will be deeply cherished.

Another influential staple of the Vassar community is the Outing Club, an organization which I sincerely wish I had spent more time with, because my few experiences with them were incredible. I will never forget floating in a kayak down the Delaware River, singing alongside other rafters that I had met only a couple hours before. I will never forget cliff jumping at Fawn’s Leap in the Catskills, after struggling to find the trip organizer with limited cell service. Thinking of flying

through the air, my heart still races to this day.

Even outside of campus organizations, the enthusiasm and chance-taking ability of Vassar’s community is incredibly contagious. If there is a vision, Vassar students and staff would stop at nothing to achieve it. I remember the extensive late-night sessions working at Sanders Physics, working alongside other students to tackle problems that initially seemed impossible. Every time I went to Sports Medicine to regain strength and stability, I grinded alongside several athletes who were excited to heal from their various injuries.

I also spent a lot of time at the Vassar Bike and DIY Repair Shop, working to restore an abandoned bike. The guidance and enthusiasm of the students in that shop helped replace every part on that bike, and continues to propel me forward for many miles, on two working wheels. I also remember volunteering to plant trees and shrubs at Sunset Lake, and also volunteering at Habitat for Humanity with some teammates to restore a damaged household. Through both projects, all students involved were excited to make an impact on the community.

No matter where I ended up, I was amazed by the community fostered by working together to achieve a common goal. Many colleges are known to be competitive, as if every person for themselves; Vassar was completely the opposite.

Well, almost completely. If you don’t get a good draw number, you can only dream of getting into certain classes (unless you’re an upperclassman or you need the class for your major). Open positions for work-study jobs are taken the same day that they are posted. Also, space-limited campus events are filled almost instantly. Like seriously, all spots for dinner at the president’s house were taken within 15 minutes of that e-mail being sent!

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Give the rest of us a chance!

The competition for spots only speaks to the incredible enthusiasm that Vassar students share.

If there is one thing that I have learned here, it is to jump on any opportunity you can, as soon as you hear about it. If you snooze, you lose. The opportunities that I have stalled on and missed have made me infinitely more eager to jump on the next one. The opportunities that I have pursued, only some of which are mentioned above, have created the memories that have defined my Vassar experience, and I will cherish them as long as I live.

That being said, not all of my Vassar experiences were positive. No matter which path you take, there will be bumps along the road, and that’s OK. Negative experiences are just as, if not more valuable than positive ones, because there is much to gained from struggling through it. I am endlessly grateful for each of these memories because they have transformed me into the person that I am today. I am thankful to have torn my ACL freshman year, because it has given me a whole new appreciation for having two working legs. I am thankful for getting poured on and almost freezing in the White Mountains, because it has taught me to always bring waterproof gear, even when the forecast doesn’t predict it.

A thought that never fails to take me aback is the concept that I will continue to have more experiences that will continue to mold my perspective on life. Vassar has been quite a ride, but it is only a prequel for what lies ahead. And I am excited for it. A Vassar degree is no guarantee of fair weather, but my legs will continue to bring me forward, at least until one of them gets injured again.

Whatever the future brings, I will embrace it with open arms, ready for what the world has in store.

May 27, 2018

Campus Canvas

COMMENCEMENT A weekly space highlighting the creative pursuits of student-artists

Page 17

submit to misc@vassar.edu

Excuse me, What is one thing that you’ll miss about college life?

“The Mug.” — Spencer Einhorn ’18

“I plead the fifth.”

— Matt Marcelino ’18

“I think I’m going to miss the Deece.”

— Seth Prisament ’18

“You caught me in the Deece, and that’s probably the thing I’ll miss the most.”

— Jeremy Middleman ’18

Emma Brodsky ’20 Sociology major and Hispanic Studies correlate “The end of the academic year always stirs feelings of nostalgia. As such, I wanted to compile a collection of photos that for me evoke similar sentiments. These images, familiar and comforting, remind me of home.”

“Not doing the reading.”

— Justin Green ’18

“My friends.”

— Shigeru Kaneki ’18

Talya Phelps, Editor-in-Chief Mack Liederman, Outgoing Sports

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SENIOR ADS

Congratulations Fiona Hart, we are very proud of all you have accomplished!

May 27, 2018

Congratulations Savannah We are so proud of you and the remarkable person you have become and hope the memories of your Vassar adventures will last a lifetime. You have met challenges with courage and determination and have shined through them all. Your future awaits and our support remains. Our love for you is never-ending.

Mom, Dad and Emma.

Love Mom, Dad and Chris

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SENIOR ADS

May 27, 2018

Page 19

We Are Very Proud of You Alex!

Mom & Patrick Mama & Papa Cousin Shawn & Alyse Uncle Robbie Aunt Olive & Uncle Jim

& D.

Eilís Donohue Vassar ’18 Writer, environmentalist, honorary Berliner, who from the beginning cared for the whole world.

Congratulations to the extraordinary woman you’ve become.

Love from your family.

Congratulations on your launch into a bright future of adventures, sweet beats, no slipped discs, and lots of growth stages!

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May 27, 2018

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Layla, the light of our lives, We are so very proud of you.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

Can’t wait to witness your journey/your future to infinity and beyond!

Love you so much, Mom, Dad and Rafael

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