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Guest Reporter
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ll Families Weekend is quickly approaching. Wondering where to go with your relatives and friends? Looking for new spots near campus? This guide offers something for everyone. For the Art Enthusiast
Dia:Beacon
Volume CLI | Issue 4
September 27, 2018
VC initiates forced migration study
Follow me around Dutchess County! Ariana Gravinese
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY
Sarah Kopp and Laila Volpe
Guest Reporter and Contributing Editor
3 Beekman Street, Beacon, NY Dia:Beacon is an art gallery nestled on the banks of the Hudson River in Beacon, NY. Only a 30-minute drive from Vassar, Dia:Beacon is an inspiring place to spend an afternoon. The gallery features art from the 1960s to the present, including works by Andy Warhol, Dan Flavin and Richard SerSee HUDSON VALLEY on page 10
Courtesy of Sébastien Barré via Flickr
Minnewaska State Park Preserve (mentioned later on in the article) makes for a rejuvenating hike if you follow this scenic waterfall trail. You can also find a moment of tranquility amid an extensive chestnut forest.
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t the end of 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees counted a total of approximately 70 million forcibly displaced people all around the world, a combination of internally displaced people, refugees and asylum seekers. Refugees alone comprise 28 percent of that figure, over half of whom are under the age of 18 (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR Statistics,” 2018). Though such a global crisis demands global solutions, members of our own campus community have taken an active role in aiding those included in such overwhelming statistics. Vassar Refugee
Solidarity (VRS), a campus organization that works to innovate solutions to alleviate some aspects of the global refugee crisis, aims to incorporate student, faculty and administrative voices in addressing these circumstances. Professor of History on the Marion Musser Lloyd ’32 Chair and Co-Founder of VRS Maria Höhn, along with VRS student leaders, founded the Consortium on Forced Migration, Displacement and Education after reaching out to other colleges to explore how liberal arts schools could educate their students on the challenges of forced migration. The Consortium is comprised of professors from Vassar, Bard College Annandale, Bard College Berlin, Bennington and Sarah Lawrence Colleges. On Sept. 6,
the Consortium received an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Implementation Grant of $2.5 million to be shared among the four schools over four years. The Consortium has also partnered with the Council for European Studies, whose digital platform EuropeNow will disseminate the Consortium’s research and pedagogical innovations. The Consortium will use the grant to create a shared curriculum between the affiliated schools and to develop a correlate sequence in Forced Migration. The grant will allow students to create their own initiatives to participate in community-engaged learning. This new method of hands-on education about forced migration will greatly See CONSORTIUM on page 4
Tatlock talk explores tech, design Chris Dillon
Guest Reporter
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ver the course of its six-decadelong history, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has come up with hundreds of acronyms to make rocket science less of a mouthful. NASA engineers were saying “LOL” long before the advent of the internet. During the Apollo program of the 1960s, “LOL” meant “little
old lady.” Last Wednesday, Sept. 19, Professor of Human Centered Design and Engineering at Washington University Daniela Rosner delivered the Tatlock Lecture in Taylor Hall, sponsored by the Tatlock Multidisciplinary Studies Initiative. She shared the story of the LOL Weavers, a group of women who contributed to the Apollo program by weaving the core rope memory
systems used in early missions. The story is one of the many lost histories retold in Rosner’s new book, “Critical Fabulations: Remaking the Margins of Design,” that she uses to consider how today’s culture interacts with technology and design. Rosner said that her fascination with the story began when she saw two seconds of footage in “Moon Machines,” a See TATLOCK on page 4
Paul Simon performs Field hockey topples Montclair nostalgic farewell tour Daniel Bonfiglio Guest Reporter
Dean Kopitsky
Guest Columnist
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Inside this issue
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ARTS
Royal Academy exhibition combats misogynist tradition
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T
he Vassar field hockey team has enjoyed an impressive start to its 2018 campaign, strong enough to see the Brewers rise to a #16 national ranking. However, a matchup against ninth-ranked Montclair State on Sept. 19 loomed large for the Brewers, and the team knew it was in for its biggest challenge yet. The squad prepared and practiced for the big game under Head Coach Michael Warari the same way that they would for any other opponent, according to senior Alyssa More. “We break down [our opponent’s] strengths, weaknesses and tendencies based on a scouting report,” said More, “and then execute those strategies in the practices leading up to the game.” The team, More added, limits time spent fretting about statistics or rankings, instead opting to focus on their own game. The players took to the Weinberg turf field for what was to be an intense, dramatic and hard-fought contest under the lights on a cool but pleasant Wednesday evening, in front of one of the biggest crowds of the year. Vassar showed right out of the gate that they were not fazed by the Red Hawks’ reputation; the action took place primarily on the Red Hawks’ side of the field early on, with Vassar’s strong attack applying constant
Prof talks cultural implications OPINIONS of manga creations
the game’s first—and ultimately only— goal. The crowd cheered at the thud of the ball hitting the back of the net, and the team erupted with energy. “We were so excited when Emily scored,” said senior midfielder Monica Feeley. “It was an awesome goal!” Poehlein’s strike left the Brewers feeling confident, recounted senior defender Molly Youse. “After the first goal was scored, I expected us to score at least one more time, Youse elaborated. “Usually after our first goal, See FIELD HOCKEY on page 18
Courtesy of Nick Jallat
hatever may happen to this world—political calamity, natural disaster, the sun swallowing the Earth itself—there will still be a place for Paul Simon’s fingerpicking guitar and Art Garfunkel’s lullaby voice. Simon and Garfunkel are widely considered to be the greatest recording duo in rock and roll history. But they aren’t. Like all the best music groups, they made their own type of sub-genre. No critic and no recording company could keep tabs on their sound. It just worked. Their partnership grew out of New York stages and echoed from the vinyl records of teenagers and from the protests of the Vietnam War era. As undefinable as it was and still may be, the music of Simon and Garfunkel became the soundtrack for the 1960s, a decade of so much change that it is best appreciated and not understood. I can’t describe Simon and Garfunkel’s music. Try describing the taste of a banana. You can’t. Beyond the obvious, its color and sweetness, you fall into a paradox of describing your own experiences with bananas. It never comes out the right way
because it’s in your soul. That’d be bananas. Instead, I’ll just describe an experience. Last Saturday, a friend and I took the train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central and then took New Jersey Transit to Newark. We were going to see Paul Simon on his farewell tour, “Homeward Bound.” We were too giddy to talk. It was a short sprint from Newark Penn Station to the Prudential Center. We arrived just in time for the end of “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.” Simon and Garfunkel are two very special people to me. I recognize how weird that sounds given that they’re transcendent musicians and the closest I’ll come to meeting either of them is a poster of “Bookends” on my dorm wall. Yet many people feel the same way. In 1981, they played to a crowd of half a million people in Central Park. In a city of neuroticism and impatience, New Yorkers sat together in silent admiration of their homegrown rock stars. Simon and Garfunkel are adored by everyone except for themselves, it seems. They haven’t performed together in over a decade. The old friends occasionally trade See PAUL SIMON on page 7
pressure to the Montclair defense. VC fans sat uneasily, even as it became clear the Brewers would not be outplayed by their higher-seeded opponent. Eventually, in the 17th minute of play, Vassar’s pressure earned a deciding corner. Corners had already been a major story (Vassar forced six in the first half) when senior Mikayla Young stepped up in the 17th minute. Young crossed it to senior Megan Caveny at the top of the circle; Caveny passed it in front of the net, where senior Emily Poehlein scored
Senior Emily Poehlein scored the lone goal in Vassar’s 1-0 victory against ninthranked Montclair State. The red-hot Brewers have won five straight, moving to 7-1 with the upset win. Poehlein leads the team with eight goals this season.
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Vassar’s first quintuple-major student: Are his HUMOR choices prudent?